Music News Digest, July 26, 2019

By Kerry Doole

Toronto-based management and consulting company Northstarr Entertainment will bring the 4th annual Northern Power Summit to the Artscape Sandbox and Supermarket in Toronto, ON from Aug. 16-17. The urban music conference strives to provide education, tools and networking opportunities to the music community through interactive conference discussions with industry professionals and showcases. The keynote sessions will feature Grammy-winning rapper Michael "Mike" Wansley (better known as Wanz) and entertainment lawyer Sander Shalinsky, with many other industry experts also participating.

Showcase artists include Ammoye, DijahSB, ethemadassasin, M.O. Littles, Lola, Marlon "Arlo Maverick" Wilson, John Muirhead, JENNA Nation, NightStillYoung, OXALA, Mighty Rhino and Taigenz. Early bird registration ($30) is available now. Details here 

– Hit pop duo Tegan and Sara has announced a 23-date North American tour that includes seven Canadian shows. $1 from each ticket sold will go towards the Tegan and Sara Foundation. The concerts are expected to feature the reading of excerpts from their upcoming memoir, High School, which will be published worldwide in September. A new album, Hey, I’m Just Like You, comes out Sept. 27 through Sire Records, while the first single, I’ll Be Back Someday, came out this week.

– The latest outrages from Donald Trump in advance of the fast-approaching 2020 US election is showing signs of galvanizing the music community there. A pair of music industry veterans-turned-activists, Kyle Frenette and Christopher Moon, have announced a new initiative entitled 46 for 46, described as a "strategically planned series of 46 unique concerts in 46 different cities in the states that matter most during the lead up to the 2020 election." The goal: to help launch the Democratic presidential nominee into the White House using the inspirational power of music. The campaign has already attracted the likes of Bon Iver, Sylvan Esso, Dashboard Confessional, Lissie, Patty Griffin, and Nathaniel Rateliff.

– Robbie Robertson's sixth studio album, Sinematic, is being released on Sept. 20 via UMe/Universal Music Canada  According to a press release, the collection was inspired by the music he composed for director Martin Scorsese's Netflix film, The Irishman.  I Hear You Paint Houses, the first single, features Robertson's friend Van Morrison. As reported here earlier, the film documentary Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band opens the 44th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on Sept. 5 at Roy Thomson Hall.

– SOCAN recently presented a No. 1 Song Award to Nick Henriques and Ultra Music Publishing for co-writing and co-publishing, respectively, the Loud Luxury song Body (featuring Brando). The track reached No. 1 on the Nielsen BDS CHR Airplay Chart on June 18, 2018, holding the top position for six weeks straight. Co-writers Joe Depace and  Andrew Fedyk, original co-publisher Marty Simon of MRD-Music Revenue Data, and Matthew Smeaton of North Side Artists, which manages Loud Luxury,  were previously awarded for the song during Juno Awards week in London, Ontario, in March of this year. Source: Words & Music

 Musician and theatre performer Raha Javanfar of Bad Luck Woman & Her Misfortunes has been announced as host of the 23rd Maple Blues Awards, the biggest night on the Canadian blues calendar. The show, at Koerner Hall in Toronto, is set for Feb. 3, 2020. Tix here 

– Four Yukon youth will be receiving $675 each from the Inspire Song – North for 90 Award to help them write original music. Lukas Wright, Jack Walcher-Wegmann, Taryn Morrison, and Phoebe Qui are the first-ever recipients of the award, established by local musician and songwriter Gordie Tentrees to honour the memory of Yukon musician Aylie Sparkes who passed away from cancer in 2005.

Tentrees established the Award to help youth, aged 12 to 18, who are inspired to write original songs or music in any lyrical/musical format in any genre. The awarded funds must be used as tuition or fees for lessons or mentorship with a Yukon songwriter or musician of their choosing. The recipients will be presented with their cheques at Tentrees's Arts in the Park performance in LePage Park on July 30 in Whitehorse.

Music BC is looking for 12 BC artists to play the Music BC stage at the Westward Street Party - a free outdoor concert series in Yaletown, Vancouver, on Sept. 13 and 14. Apply here by July 30.

– As recently reported in FYI, cowboy troubadour Corb Lund releases a new EP, Cover Your Tracks, on Sept. 13. Here's a video trailer to heighten the anticipation.

– The Elton John biopic Rocketman releases on Digital Aug. 6 and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD Aug. 27 from Paramount Home Entertainment. The releases feature over 75 minutes of bonus content, including four extended musical sequences introduced by director Dexter Fletcher that showcase the singing and dancing by Taron Egerton and the cast. Also included are ten deleted and extended scenes with an introduction by Fletcher; sing-along tracks of 13 select songs; behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with Elton John, the cast, and filmmakers; intimate footage from recording studio sessions; plus, a Rocketman jukebox that allows viewers to skip straight to the music. Source: The Music Universe

– Halifax-based singer-songwriter Dave Sampson will release a new album later this year, preceded by the single, Trouble. Sampson was chosen as one of Canada’s Top 5 emerging artists by Canada’s Walk of Fame and is one of the wild cards for this year’s Boots & Hearts Festival / Chevy Music Emerging Artist showcase. You can vote for this here

– Lillo's Music, a much-loved music store on Whyte Avenue in Edmonton, is set to close its doors by the end of the year. The business, which sells sheet music and instruments, opened in 1963. Celebrity customers have included Joe Perry and Steve Wonder. Family reasons are cited for the closure, but Corinne Lillo plans to continue to teach music lessons in the building after the business closes. Source: CBC

– The application process for Mississauga Music Awards 2019 is now open, with a July 28 deadline. Submit here.  Nominees will be announced live at Mississauga Music Week 2019's kick-off party on Aug. 6.

– Young Canadian singer/songwriter Lennon Stella is getting another career boost as the featured vocalist on Takeaway, a new single from The Chainsmokers and DJ/producer ILLENIUM. Early signs indicate this will be a hit. Since grabbing attention with her sister Maisy Stella on the hit TV series Nashville, Lennon Stella has made major moves as a solo artist. Fresh off the heels of her first-ever sold-out North American headline tour and successful debut EP Love, Stella will join as the opener on all dates of The Chainsmokers' WORLD WAR JOY North American arena tour.