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FYI

Ryan Langdon - 'Leave Me Right'

This is a taut, action-packed story-telling song debut that opens with blazing certainty and carries through to the last lick.

Ryan Langdon - 'Leave Me Right'

By David Farrell

Ryan Langdon – ‘Leave Me Right’ (Slaight Music). The Niagara Falls hat singer’s father played college football for the U of Tennessee and it left him exposed him to a lot of southern rock and country music that explains the blazing guitar riffs and Nashville-influenced vocal twang on this debut single.


It’s a story-telling song about a busted relationship with an unmistakable hook that hits at the 38-second mark, and a run time of 3:45 that doesn’t spare a second canoodling or dillydallying in its wake. In short, this is a taut, action-packed debut that opens with blazing certainty and carries through to the last lick.

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We’ve seen Langdon perform and he’s the real deal in a genre all too often typified by bursting bustiers, soft-pawed Bel Air cowboys and songbooks coyly tailored to capture achy-breaky hearts. Give him a barstool and an acoustic guitar and he can capture and hold a room with his commanding voice, natural charisma, brimming confidence and a presence that tells you he is anything but a product spun from some AI algorithm.

No word yet on when an EP is to be expected. “Parkside” Mike Renaud is stick-handling.

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Touring

'COVID Ripped Up the Playbook': These Canadian Music Festivals Have Called For Support or Closed Since 2023

Festivals are facing tough post-lockdown circumstances, from rising production costs to fewer corporate sponsorships to hesitant audiences.

It's no secret that Canadian festivals have been facing hard times.

The post-lockdown years have seen high profile festivals filing for creditor protection, like Montreal's comedy behemoth Just for Laughs; scrambling to reorganize or downsize programming, like Toronto Jazz Festival and Calgary's JazzYYC, after TD withdrew sponsorship; or cancelling editions altogether, like Toronto food and culture festival Taste of the Danforth.

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