Music News Digest, April 24, 2020

By FYI Staff

Shocked by the mass shootings in Nova Scotia last weekend, Johnny Reid took to his Facebook page to offer both condolences to the families of the victims and a newly crafted song entitled People Like You that he was stirred to write by the tragedy. He told CBC News that the shootings “make you think of your own mortality and it strikes home how fragile life is. The song is written for the people left behind.” He then added that those lost “will have gone to a place where the streets are paved with gold.”

– Blue Rodeo's Lost Together has been selected as the song for CBC Music’s new edition of the Great Canadian Singalong. The pubcaster is now collecting performances of individuals singing band member Greg Keelor's "campfire song" and will assemble the performances into one huge singalong. The deadline to submit a video is 5 pm ET, Mon. April 27, with the compilation video to be released on May 12. Submission details are here

– One week after the release of We Are One, the lead track from Jason McCoy’s collaborative initiative We Are 1 World, the official video has spread internationally, while the single hit Canadian country radio as the #1 Canadian download upon release. Musicians and singers around the world are encouraged to visit the official We Are 1 World website to watch the video, learn the song, then download the lyrics and one of three versions of the backing tracks for free. Once they have recorded and performed their own version, they're invited to share across their own social platforms, using the hashtag #weare1worldsong. Read more on the project here.

– Ryan Langdon's Buck Wild song video released Thursday gives us reason to laugh lots as it tracks the life of a punter living out his fantasies stoked on FedEx delivered Cheesies and nitrite-rich weenies. Buck Wild's theme is of payday partying, and we love the lines "someone call NASA, cos this night is going off like a rocket." Langdon's beefy voice fits perfectly, and some searing guitar kicks it into overdrive. Ideal for playing loud at your solo patio party in these socially isolated times.

– A major cross-country tour by Corb Lund has been announced for next winter (presuming, of course, that concerts are allowed then). The trek begins in Cranbrook, BC, at the Key City Theatre on Nov. 11, closing out at Le Belmont in Montreal, Dec. 10. Special guest will be Whitney Rose, the East Coast country siren now based in Austin. Rose releases her new album, We Still Go To Rodeos today (April 24). Lund's next album, Agricultural Tragic, comes out June 26.

– The Hills is the latest song-video released from Leonard Cohen’s posthumous 2019 album, Thanks For the Dance, written and scored by Leonard and co-produced by Adam Cohen and Patrick Watson.

– The 2020-2021 winners for the 2nd edition of the $50K Mécénat Musica Prix 3 Femmes will create three new original Canadian operas to be premiered 2021, in a staged co-production with Toronto’s Opera 5, Montreal’s Opera McGill, Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ), and Kingston’s Queen’s U Dan School of Music.

– Nashville-based A3 Merch is collaborating with the Recording Academy to support live event production and gig workers furloughed by the pandemic. The initiative is selling Ramble On t-shirts at ramblenow.com., with the proceeds from its newly created brand going to the MusiCares’ covid-19 relief fund. 

– Creative Manitoba hosts a timely Live Streaming Panel (part of its New Normal webinar) series) on May 6, 3-4 pm. Moderated by Jen Doerksen, it features local artists and organizers who have been experimenting with live streaming during the pandemic. Register here

– Still giving motivation to another generation of those who dream about having Fun, Fun, Fun with one eye out for the next good wave and the other on bikinied California Girls, The Beach Boys’ Mike Love, is still touring and belting out the Good Vibrations songs at age 79.  Love, co-writer of many of the songs that were the California Sound and lead vocalist, is selling his Rancho Santa Fe, California estate now that he spends his off-the-road time at his home at Lake Tahoe. It is priced at $8.65M.

– This summer’s TD Toronto Jazz Festival has been cancelled, but the fest is rescheduling concerts from some of the headliners. Smokey Robinson is now booked for Nov. 17 at Meridian Hall, with Herbie Hancock at the same venue on Sept. 3, in celebration of the jazz legend’s 80th birthday.

– Politician Man, the debut single from Adrian Sutherland (Midnight Shine), has been nominated for a Golden Sheaf Award at this year’s Yorkton Film Festival, which will take place ‘virtually’ at the end of May. The protest song was co-written with musical brothers Chris Gormley (The Trews, Daylight for Deadeyes) and Matt Gormley (Daylight for Deadeyes), and released in October alongside an accompanying video by director Justin Stephenson (The Secret Path).