Music News Digest, March 15, 2021

By Kerry Doole

City and Colour (aka Dallas Green) has announced a special collaboration with the Nick Nurse Foundation to celebrate the org's 1-year anniversary. A limited edition, commemorative merchandise item is now available to pre-order here. Founded and headed by the Toronto Raptors head coach, The Foundation supports a series of programs that aid in the academic development of children and young adults while exposing students to music, sports and literacy. All profits from the merch will be donated to the Indspire City and Colour Indigenous Student Bursary which assists First Nations, Inuit and Métis students as they work towards accomplishing their post secondary education goals.

– A new partnership between Samsung and Universal Music’s UMG For Brands division, Music Galaxy Thursday is an initiative to group together content from a variety of new and emerging artists. It will see those artists and Samsung itself sharing things such as live performances, Q&As, digital stickers and more on the #SamsungMGT hashtag. The initiative was launched last week by Yungblud, during his own YouTube show. Introducing fans to the full MGT experience, he brought on emerging Canadian artist Renforshort to perform her 2020 single I Drive Me Mad. Source: CompleteMusicUpdate

– Fast-rising Canadian powerhouse rock duo Crown Lands recently premiered two new songs, Context: Fearless Pt. 1 and Right Way Back, both clearly showing the group’s love of Rush. That’s accentuated by work on the tracks with three top producer/engineers who worked with that legendary band, Terry Brown, Nick Raskulinecz, and David Bottrill. On one session, singer and drummer Cody Bowles even played a set of Neil Peart’s drums. Context caught the attention of Rolling Stone, which wrote "the multi-part, three-years-in-the-making suite Context: Fearless Pt. 1 may well be one of the most overt Rush tributes ever attempted, with a direct musical nod to Red Barchetta and modal riffing straight out of the Alex Lifeson handbook." Of note: Last week, Crown Lands received their first Juno Award nominations, for Rock Album of the Year and Breakthrough Group.

Noted songwriter and guitarist Ariel Posen has released a new album, Headway, and it will be launched with an online World Tour concert to be live-streamed on March 25. The performance is from Winnipeg’s West End Cultural Centre and tix are available here. 

– Barenaked Ladies has announced an upcoming weekend concert streaming event, grandiosely entitled Flip n’ Hits with BNL: A Night of Monster Jams of Pandemic Proportions. It is set for  April 17 at 9 pm EDT/6 pm PDT with an encore performance on April 18 at 8 pm GMT. The hour-long show will be streamed from the Danforth Music Hall in the band's Toronto hometown. BNL frontman Ed Robertson explains “We chose a very special venue in the history of BNL. The Danforth Music Hall was where we played one of our first really big hometown shows over 30 years ago."  Hosted by Sessions, tickets and info are available here.

– Quebec rock duo Les Deuxluxes began a 12-date tour of the province on the weekend (tour dates here), and has released a new video, for Vacances Everest. This is a cut from the well-received 2020 album Lighter Fluid.

– MusiCounts, Canada’s leading music education charity, has announced Kanata: Contemporary Indigenous Artists and Their Music, a learning resource that will support teachers in bringing Indigenous voices, perspectives and music into classrooms. This new resource is a product of collaboration between several Indigenous educators, advisors, and artists. It will empower any grade 7 to 12 music or social studies educator to explore and celebrate contemporary Indigenous music in the classroom in a way that is authentic, respectful, and culturally appropriate.

Educator and musician Sherryl Sewepagaham led the development of the resource guide, which explores the music of Jeremy Dutcher, Silla and Rise, and the Snotty Nose Rez Kids. Kanata is the latest resource to be produced under MusiCounts Learn, a new program supporting music education in Canada.  The Kanata resource is free to use for all educators across Canada and can be accessed here. Schools and students who use this resource are invited to submit a capstone project by May 24 for a chance to receive one of ten $1K grants to support music education at their school.

– With travel and gathering restrictions still in place, FACTOR will be assessing eligible virtual Showcase and Tour Support applications based on the parameters outlined in the Virtual Performance document.  When applying for a virtual performance within any of our program, an Application Budget must be uploaded upon submission. Detailed info here.

– The next Indie Weekly online session, set for March 16, at 4 pm EST, is entitled What's Next for Live Music?: New Initiatives & Support for the Live Industry, with featured speakers Cory Crossman (City of London Music Office), Tyson Boyd (ConcertWorks/Starlite Room), and Erin Benjamin (CLMA). Darryl Hurs (Indie Week/CD Baby) hosts. Free registration here.                         

– BreakOut West, Western Canada's largest music industry event, and Byta, the platform for securely sending digital audio files and streams, have partnered to present a five part series titled #HowWeListen. These are conversations focused on music discovery with representatives from within the music industry. The five events and five panel discussions each focus on a different area of music: Folk, Country, Hip-Hop, Francophone and Rock/Indie. Speakers include Jocelyn Baribeau, Louis Bellavance, and Kyria Kilakos. The remaining sessions are Francophone (March 24) and Folk (April 7).  More info here.

– Last week, Scott Helman earned a Juno nomination in the Music Video of the Year category for Wait No More, directed by Ben Knechtel. The pair have just teamed up for a new clip, for the track Good Problems (remix), one also featuring Helman's real-life girlfriend, Katya Cybulsky. Check it out here.

– Now based in Nashville, acclaimed Canadian roots artist Linda McRae has kept busy with  Come On Up To The House, a series of well-received live-streamed performances. On March 21 (4 pm CST), Howlin' At The Moon pays homage to Hank Williams, and features noted guests Peter Case, Del Barber, Mary Battiata, Greg Klyma, Kevin and Joe Russell, and more. Watch on McRae's Facebook or YouTube. Recommended.

RIP

Ray (Raymond Charles) Campi, an American rockabilly singer, passed away on March 11, age 86.

Campi's trademark was his white double bass, which he often jumped on top of and "rode" while playing.

He was born in New York City, and after his family moved in 1944 to Austin, Campi began a lifetime of performing and recording music in numerous genres, including folk, country, and rock and roll as well as rockabilly.

 In the 1950s, Campi recorded for several labels, including Dot Records and Domino Records, and released the first tribute record to the 1959 Buddy Holly plane crash, The Ballad of Donna and Peggy Sue, backed by the Big Bopper's band. He also worked with a diverse range of singers, including Mae West and Ian Whitcomb.

His musical career took off in the early 1970s when he was rediscovered by Ronnie Weiser, the owner of Rollin' Rock Records. Campi began touring Great Britain and Europe and regularly played at festivals there. He also recorded with German, Finnish, British and Dutch rockabilly bands over two decades, and produced his own albums with artists such as Rosie Flores, Bobby 'Fats' Mizell and Ian Whitcomb.

Campi also performed on several solo albums by Kevin Fennell, his lead guitarist from 1977 to 2015, and with his longtime musical associate Rip Masters. Source: Wikipedia