BLACKIE AND THE RODEO KINGS SHARE NEW VIDEO FOR “LIVE BY THE SONG”

CANADIAN TOUR DATES BEGIN FEBRUARY 25 WITH SPECIAL GUESTS IN SELECT CITIES

CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED NEW ALBUM, KINGS AND KINGS, OUT NOW VIA FILE UNDER: MUSIC

WATCH AND SHARE “LIVE BY THE SONG” FEATURING RODNEY CROWELL HERE

KINGS AND KINGS FEATURES ALL-STAR CAST INCLUDING ERIC CHURCH, BRUCE COCKBURN, RODNEY CROWELL, CITY AND COLOUR, VINCE GILL, JASON ISBELL, NICK LOWE, RAUL MALO, BUDDY MILLER, KEB MO, FANTASTIC NEGRITO, AND THE MEN OF NASHVILLE

“It’s a perfect complement to Kings and Queens and will hopefully gain the act some long deserved traction in the States.”  - American Songwriter

“well-crafted compositions … flawless”- Exclaim!

“Anyone seeking a dose of dazzle with their roots-rock need look no further than Kings and Kings” – HMV.com

PHOTO CREDIT : Mark Maryanovich // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

The venerable Blackie & The Rodeo Kings are set to kick off their Canadian tour on February 25. Colin Linden, Tom Wilson, and Stephen Fearing will be joined on stage in select cities by special guests Ian Tyson, Lindi Ortega, Murray McLauchlan and stars of the Nashville TV series Sam Palladio, Charles Esten, and Jonathan Jackson. Full tour dates can be found below, tickets can be purchased at www.blackieandtherodeokings.com

Today, the trio are sharing the new video for “Live By The Song” featuring Rodney Crowell, from their latest album, Kings And Kings. “The first line of the song is a quote from Roger Miller,” says Fearing on writing the track. “I collect quotes and this one had been talking to me for a long time. I got the first two verses roughed out and then the song ground to a halt. Tom and Colin came in and finished the song in a Halifax hotel room in about half an hour. The bridge is pure Colin Linden and the last verse is very much Tom Wilson.”

WATCH AND SHARE “LIVE BY THE SONG” FEATURING RODNEY CROWELL HERE

Out now via File Under: Music, Kings And Kings, is the companion piece to their 2011 collaboration album King And Queens. Where that album featured guest appearances from some of the band’s favourite female singers, this one features some of the band’s best ‘guy’ friends from the world of roots, blues, and country. Each one of them an accomplished ‘king’ in their realm of creative endeavours and in many cases absolute ‘king’ legends in the entertainment industry.

Dallas Green, Eric Church, Raul Malo, Bruce Cockburn, Fantastic Negrito, Nick Lowe, Jason Isbell, Vince Gill, Buddy Miller, Keb Mo, Rodney Crowell, and the men of the TV show Nashville have all lent their voices to the album. Exclaim! says Kings And Kings is so full of great songs that “it's difficult to single out highlights on an album devoid of lowlights.”

Blackie And The Rodeo Kings originally formed in 1996, when Colin Linden, Stephen Fearing, and Tom Wilson came together to record what was suppose to be a one-off tribute album to the great Canadian songwriter Willie P. Bennett. At the time, all three members were deeply committed to burgeoning solo careers that they had no intentions of putting on hold, and had no plans to turn Blackie into an ongoing concern.

Now 20 years later, eight albums, one JUNO Award, and several JUNO Award nominations under their belts, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings have organically evolved into one of the finest roots-oriented band in North America. Blackie and the Rodeo Kings remains one of Canada’s greatest musical treasures.
 

TOUR DATES
Feb 25 - Toronto, ON - Massey Hall w/ Sam Palladio, Charles Esten
Feb 26 - Collingwood, ON - Gayety Theatre
Feb 27 - Sault Ste Marie, ON - Mill Square - The Machine Shop
Feb 28 - Sudbury, ON - Towne House Tavern
Mar 2 - Thunder Bay, ON - Crocks
Mar 3 - Kenora, ON - Clarion Lakeside Inn
Mar 4 - Winnipeg, MB - Burton Cummings Theatre w/ Sam Palladio, Jonathan Jackson
Mar 5 - Swift Current, SK - The Lyric Theatre
Mar 6 - Saskatoon, SK - Broadway Theatre
Mar 7 - Calgary, AB - Jack Singer Concert Hall w/ Ian Tyson, Lindi Ortega, Murray McLauchlan
Mar 8 - Regina, SK - Casino Regina
Mar 9 - Edmonton, AB - The Winspear Theatre w/ Ian Tyson, Lindi Ortega, Murray McLauchlan
Mar 10 - Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom
Mar 11 - Kelowna, BC - Kelowna Community Theatre

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STEPH CAMERON ANNOUNCES SOPHOMORE ALBUM

POLARIS MUSIC PRIZE LONGLISTED SONGWRITER ANNOUNCES DAYBREAK OVER JACKSON STREET, OUT APRIL 14 VIA PHEROMONE RECORDINGS

LISTEN TO AND SHARE “YOUNG AND LIVING FREE” HERE

PHOTO CREDIT : Mark Maryanovich // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

The Saskatoon-based roots singer / songwriter Steph Cameron arrived on the scene like a bracing gust of fresh musical air with her 2014 debut record Sad-Eyed Lonesome Lady, receiving unanimously enthusiastic reviews. “This is a monumental, brilliant album… heralds the crowning of a bright new talent,” declared PopMatters in calling it the #1 Canadian album of 2014. No Depression termed it “a stunning debut,” while Exclaim! noted that “Sad-Eyed Lonesome Lady delights from start to finish. Steph Cameron is the real deal.” The record also made the coveted longlist for the prestigious Polaris Music Prize in 2015.

Now, Cameron is set to follow up with her sophomore record, Daybreak Over Jackson Street, due out April 14 via Pheromone Recordings. Look for music scribes to again reach for superlatives to describe Daybreak Over Jackson Street as Steph’s new album navigates subtle changes in stylistic terrain. If the debut felt as if it emerged fully-formed from the bohemian streets of Greenwich Village circa 1963, then the extra maturity of this album gives it more of an early ‘70s Laurel or Topanga Canyon atmosphere.

Of the album’s first single “Young And Living Free” Cameron says, “Time has shown me that our generations circle around like a spinning wheel – connecting me to my mother, to her mother and so on. The song is a reflection on time as a dream without ending, where our stories are spun and gathered around us, and where the nature of our spirits, across our generations, are cut from the same cloth.”

LISTEN TO AND SHARE “YOUNG AND LIVING FREE” HERE

Like her debut, Daybreak Over Jackson Street was recorded at elite Toronto studio Revolution Recording with producer Joe Dunphy. It retains the sparse template of her first record – one voice, one guitar, both recorded in intimate fashion and to tape. Cameron explains there was one change in the recording process this time around. “I asked that we move into a smaller room at Revolution. Sad-Eyed Lonesome Lady was recorded in a very large room, where the sound could develop for miles. In the smaller room I had a stronger presence. The idea was to create a record that sounds as though the songwriter is in the room with the listener. We created a very warm, intimate record that does justice to the truly personal stories captured by these songs.”

For Daybreak Over Jackson Street, Cameron had the luxury of being able to choose from a far larger collection of songs than with the debut. “The songs on this record were selected for their depth and maturity. As I develop my craft, storytelling increasingly becomes an opportunity for me to empathize with and express love for struggling people.”

The result is a collection of songs that showcase Cameron’s storytelling songwriting style, one that works in perfect tandem with the sparse production style chosen. The themes they explore of love, loss and finding joy when times are rough are universal. What truly rings clear is the authenticity of the human experience that the characters she sings about have been through.

Many of these new songs feature a more mature Cameron looking back upon earlier turbulent times. “As I get a bit older I’m able to recall my youth from a different perspective. Many of these songs draw their content from the life and relationships I had in my youth; to people and places, particularly East Vancouver.” She describes “Daybreak Over Jackson Street” as a song “about living in an impoverished neighbourhood in an urban setting. That song acknowledges some of the elements of life in a slum.” A similar locale, East Vancouver, permeates “Richard,” a haunting ode to a troubled comrade left behind – ‘a hotel is a real sad place for living’.

Having spent some time living in The Kootenays, the great outdoors appears in Cameron’s “That’s What Love Is,” a lovely and gentle tune featuring a circular guitar pattern and such atmospheric imagery as ‘late at night when the coyotes call, the dogs whimper and the leaves fall’. Then there is the fast and breezy “Little Blue Bird,” one ‘sitting in the snow, staring at the stars dreaming of the railroad cars’.

The enthusiastic response to Sad-Eyed Lonesome Lady led Cameron into extensive touring, playing the folk festival circuit and, memorably, opening up for Buffy Sainte-Marie. Look for Cameron to hit the road again supporting Daybreak Over Jackson Street in the near future.

LISTEN TO AND SHARE “CALIFORNIA” HERE

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DAYBREAK OVER JACKSON STREET TRACKLIST
01 Daybreak Over Jackson Street
02 Young And Living Free
03 That’s What Love Is
04 On My Mind
05 Richard
06 Winterwood
07 Little Blue Bird
08 You Oughta Know By Now
09 California
10 Sing For Me
11 Peace Is Hard To Find

STEPH CAMERON ONLINE
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LYDIA AINSWORTH SHARES NEW VIDEO FOR “AFTERGLOW”

WATCH AND SHARE THE VIDEO FOR “AFTERGLOW” HERE

JUNO NOMINATED ARTIST, COMPOSER, AND PRODUCER LYDIA AINSWORTH’S UPCOMING ALBUM, DARLING OF THE AFTERGLOW, DUE OUT MARCH 31 VIA ARBUTUS RECORDS

HEADLINING NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES BEGIN APRIL 19

PRE-ORDER DARLING OF THE AFTERGLOW HERE
 

“...This is Ainsworth's creative sweet spot...an eerie, exquisite lullaby that drifts between delicate verses and mighty choruses driven by rich piano chords and electronic drums.” -NPR Music

“Among pop music’s experimental architects, Lydia Ainsworth has a unique knack for making grand sweeping gestures feel human.” - Pitchfork

“Now here’s a winter pop jam.” - New York Magazine’s Vulture

“...easily her biggest and most dynamic release so far.” - FACT Mag

PHOTO CREDIT John Michael Fulton // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

Toronto-based artist, composer, and producer Lydia Ainsworth will release her sublime sophomore album, Darling Of The Afterglow, on March 31 via Arbutus Records. Today, she’s sharing a new video for album cut “Afterglow”, which The Fader claims “appropriately relishes the creepy aura and slinky dance moves of the blank face masks of the back up dancers and Ainsworth herself.” A lush, haunting, and utterly mesmerizing song, the video was directed by Lydia’s sister Abby Ainsworth, who also directed the album’s first single, “The Road”.

Ainsworth tells The Fader, "I was living in LA at the time I wrote the song. After spending a day producing the instrumental in Burbank with Jim-E Stack and a French bulldog named Peaches I brought the track home for a walk around Echo Park Lake. By the lake lives a beautiful Art Deco statue named ‘Nuestra Señora Reina de Los Angeles’ (Queen of the Angels). Walking around just after sunset, drenched in a feeling of disconnect and isolation I found comfort in the Queen of the Angels. She gave me the inspiration for the lyrics and melody of the song. It was as if she was singing them to me."

WATCH AND SHARE THE VIDEO FOR “AFTERGLOW” HERE

To celebrate the release of her new album, Lydia Ainsworth will embark on her first-ever headlining tour throughout North America beginning April 19. She will also make a stop at SXSW in Austin this March. Full tour dates are list below and tickets are available at lydiaainsworth.com

Darling Of The Afterglow is Lydia Ainsworth’s second record and follows up the JUNO Award nominated, and critically acclaimed, Right From Real (2014). The album features a team of local Toronto musicians, woven into Ainsworth’s programming, samples and string arrangements. “I usually have to be out of my element to get that spark of inspiration,” she says of songwriting. The songs on Darling Of The Afterglow were all begun away from home, before being brought to fruition in her hometown.

PRE-ORDER DARLING OF THE AFTERGLOW HERE

Mixing yearning pop with other-worldly synthetic sounds, plush classical settings, and weird-gothic R&B influences, Lydia Ainsworth’s new album is a richly imagined, richly felt work of future-pop classicism: an album of intimate emotions projected in heightened widescreen. The stunning, 11-track Darling Of The Afterglow showcases a great leap forward from Right From Real’s already prodigious experi-pop riches.

WATCH AND SHARE “THE ROAD” HERE

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DARLING OF THE AFTERGLOW TRACKLIST
1. The Road
2. What Is It?
3. Ricochet
4. Afterglow
5. Open Doors
6. Spinning
7. Into The Blue
8. Wicked Game
9. I Can Feel It All
10. WLCM
11. Nighttime Watching

TOUR DATES
4/19/17 - Washington, DC @ DC 9
4/20/17 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
4/22/17 - Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right
4/24/17 - Allston, MA @ Great Scott
4/25/17 - Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz PBD
4/26/17 - Toronto, ON @ The Garrison
4/28/17 - Chicago, IL @ Schubas
4/29/17 - Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St. Entry
5/2/17 - Seattle, WA @ Barboza
5/3/17 - Portland, OR @ Holocene
5/4/17 - Vancouver, BC @ Fox Cabaret
5/6/17 - San Francisco, CA @ Swedish American Hall
5/8/17 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo

TICKETS HERE

LYDIA AINSWORTH ONLINE
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ARBUTUS RECORDS
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