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William Prince
FYIAwards News
Music News Digest: William Prince Announces National Tour, Abigail Lapell & Julian Taylor Amongst Folk Music Ontario Award Winners
Also this week: 11 music industry associations from across the country converge for Come Together in Toronto , The Trews launch a new album with an intimate event and more.
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Juno-winning Indigenous roots singer/songwriter William Prince has just released a new album, Further From the Country, and announced a cross-Canada tour for early 2026. That trek begins in Saskatoon on Feb. 28, closing out at Toronto's Massey Hall (his third headlining appearance there) on March 21, then followed by an April 25 homecoming show at Winnipeg's Centennial Concert Hall. Support act on the tour is Boy Golden, who produced Prince's new record. Tickets go on sale Friday (Oct. 24) here. On Nov. 18, Prince, Boy Golden and Whitehorse play Canadian label Six Shooter’s Cosmic Country Night at Brooklyn's Union Pool.
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Awards News
Last weekend, at a gala event at the National Arts Centre’s Fourth Stage in Ottawa, the Folk Music Ontario Awards were handed out. Here is the full list of winners:
Artist of the Year – Jessica Pearson and the East Wind
Recording Artist of the Year – Julian Taylor
Music Video of the Year – Kazdoura for “Khayal”
Estelle Klein Community Builder Award – John and Michelle Law
Estelle Klein Lifetime Achievement Award – Al Rankin
The Taylor Mitchell Bursary – All of the developing artist program participants
Album of the Year – Abigail Lapell for Anniversary
Culture and Climate Award – Steven Dagenais
Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award – Evan Rotella for “MaryAnne”
Song of the Year – “Best Remembered” by Savannah Shea
– Monday Oct. 20 was a very good day for legendary concert promoter turned author Gary Topp. Just a few hours before his beloved Toronto Blue Jays became American League champions, Topp's compelling memoir HE HIJACKED MY BRAIN (published by UXB Press) was awarded the Heritage Toronto 2025 Book of the Year.
Industry News
Artists and industry professionals from across Canada are converging in Toronto this November for the fifth annual celebration of live music at the Come Together showcases and industry meetings. The genre-spanning showcases will run on Nov. 25 at The Horseshoe Tavern and on Nov. 26 at The Drake Underground, featuring performances from 14 artists making a buzz on the national scene. Sharing the Horseshoe bill are Diyet & The Love Soldiers, Greenwing, Maggie Andrew, Michaela Slinger, Rachel Cousins, sundayclub and The Pairs, while The Drake lineup comprises Big Tones, Dee Hernandez, Dempsey Bolton, Diogo Ramos, Hologramme, TOMMYPHYLL and Zada.
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Eleven music industry associations -- Alberta Music, Music BC, SaskMusic, Manitoba Music, Music/Musique NB, Music NL, Music Nova Scotia, Music Yukon, Music Ontario, SODEC, Quebec and CIMA -- have joined forces to spotlight Canada’s independent live music scene. The event also gives artists opportunities to build business relationships with key music industry professionals from Toronto and surrounding areas, including labels, agents, managers, publishers, music supervisors, publicists and more.
– CIMA has announced another Make It Music Session Spotlight: Reinventing the Label — The Indie Music Company of Today. Held on Nov. 4 (12:15 pm - 1:15 pm), it is described as "an inside look at how leading independent labels are expanding their business models and redefining what it means to be 'indie.' From management and publishing to creative services and production, this conversation gets into what’s next for the modern label." The list of speakers includes Tony Kiewel (Sub Pop), Zena White (Partisan Records) , Kesi Smyth (604 Records), Mark Kitcatt (Spanish label Everlasting Records) and Audrey Sylvestre, (Cult Nation) with CIMA President/CEO Andrew Cash moderating. The Make It Music industry conference is held at Parkdale Hall, Toronto, Nov. 4-5. Full programming and Make It Music registration info here.
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– Presented by Music Ontario, Music Monday returns to Toronto's El Mocambo, in the ground floor Starlight Room, on Oct. 27, 4-9 pm. A release strategy workshop presented by Sophie Mckinnon and Jesse Northey of Small Fry Music is followed by sets from Guelph’s Bonnie Trash, Niagara's Foolproof and Sudbury’s Thea May.
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Artists News
Hamilton-based rockers The Trews are set to release a new album, The Bloody Light, and they're launching it with an intimate live event at the Winchester Theatre in Toronto on Thursday, October 23. Band principals Colin and JA MacDonald and Jack Syperek will be joined by the album’s co-producers — Brett and Jay Emmons of The Glorious Sons — for an in-depth conversation about the making of the record, the stories behind the songs and live acoustic performances. Tara Slone hosts. Following four dates in Nov. and Dec., The Trews have a Western Canada tour in Feb. Info and tix here.
– London, Ontario-based folk trio The Pairs released their fourth album, Together on a Rock, on Oct. 22. It is described as an acoustic-based, live-off -the-floor, record produced by Tracy Walton at On Deck Sound Studio in Northfield, Connecticut. The group launch the record with a show at Hugh's Room Live in Toronto on Oct. 29. That is part of a nine-date tour of Ontario and Western Canada, running Oct. 23-Dec. 14. Itinerary here.
– Toronto-based rock singer- guitarist C.ROSS (Chad Ross) releases a new solo record Future Site of C.ROSS on October 22 on Atlanta’s Echodelick Records. He has previously made a mark in heavy psych rockers Quest for Fire, space rock explorers Comet Control and much-loved garage rock band The Deadly Snakes, and has also toured internationally with Vancouver’s Pink Mountaintops and released acoustic-driven solo work as Nordic Nomadic. The new 7-song release reportedly blends fuzzy psych-folk and cosmic rock and was recorded, produced, and mixed by Joshua Wells (Destroyer, Lightning Dust, Black Mountain) at The Mango Pit in Chicago.
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