Veteran troubadour Steve Poltz has released his new album, Stardust & Satellites — available now via Red House Records.

Check out on Can O' Pop (Official Animated Video) YouTube here:

Produced by Oliver Wood and Jano Rix of The Wood Brothers, Stardust & Satellites is Poltz’s 14th solo album, and comprises another exuberant, thoughtful batch of songs that celebrate life in all of its stages — including his effervescent new single, “Can O’ Pop.” The high-spirited, syncopated track is joined by an official animated video directed by Boston-based artist/animator Duncan Hatch (Galactic, American Authors). In its premiere of the video, Rolling Stone Country called the song “a delicious delivery reminiscent of ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues.”

Like ebbing waves ready to get lost in, Indie pop-rockers SuperTonic roll out their latest single in “Wide Awake,” the latest to arrive from their recent LP, Time to Repair

Check out “Wide Awake” on YouTube here:

Featuring Big Sugar’s Gordie Johnson, “Wide Awake” is an ethereal, indie-rock uprising that mellows out the listener while enticing them to stay and enjoy.

The complementing video for the song features SuperTonic co-fronts Jay Stiles and David Pulkingham in a room of candles as their combined vox soothes and calms over the melodies; the listener is dared to identify with the lyrics, the opening nearly melancholic, as it fades into beautiful optimism.

First forming SuperTonic during the preliminary onset of the pandemic in March of 2020, Stiles and Pulkingham wrote and recorded the 10-song-strong LP Time to Repair in the Spring of that year.

Although the Dakota Access Pipeline protests at Standing Rock may have receded from the press and faded from public memory, they continue to have an enormous impact on how many of us now think about the environment and our natural resources. With that, Thompson, Manitoba-based folk duo Spirit Trail pays tribute to that Sioux legacy via their rocking-and-soaring new single, “Water Protectors” – Check it out on YouTube here:

“Water Protectors” begins with a rhythmic, full-bodied acoustic guitar that soon surrenders the spotlight to the seamless interplay of Destiny Fiddler and Chas Piper’s voices. Their harmonies are like an elegant, deftly choreographed dance — with Fiddler’s vibrato soprano blending and dissolving into Piper’s earnest alto, and vice versa, so that at many points it’s impossible to determine where one ends and the other begins.

Being young often means dealing with emotions you don’t fully understand; it’s only with age that real perspective and true maturity can be gained. Ottawa-based HemlockHotel captures that conundrum with their melodic, smooth-rockin’ Americana anthem “Angry Young Man” – check out the YouTube here:

A warm blend of rich, full-bodied acoustic guitar, wailing electric guitar, and easy beats, “Angry Young Man” tells the first-person narrative about a confused young man in conflict with the people he loves, even though he knows it isn’t deserved.

Well, I am a soldier
Without a cause
Well, I keep on fightin’
The people I love
Come on dear Jesus
I’m not a saint

Laced with delicately placed melodies shrouded in what appears to be chaos, Canadian experimental pop artist Celogen creates an entirely unique listening experience with his new single, “The Red Lips Called Snowfinch” – check it out YouTube here:

The brainchild of Calgary-based musician Dominic Demierre, the song is the latest to land from Celogen’s most recent LP, Wastebasin Lake — an unleashing of industrial electronics combined with guitars, keyboards, strings, and horns… All of which make their heady debut in “The Red Lips Called Snowfinch.”

Certain melodic elements tempt to lure the listener into a final resting place while counter melodies and dissonance remind you that this is a journey that is just beginning — for both the main character of the story and the listener.

The search for contentment and personal freedom is often a lifelong journey that can take us to many different places along the way. Blues/Rock “Woman of the World” Caroline Cotto has lived that journey and shows us the map with her smoldering new single “A Momma To Cry To” – check it out on YouTube here:

The drive to find herself and develop her artistry led the New Orleans-based guitarist/vocalist and songwriter from New York to Paris to London and finally, to NOLA to signal her arrival as an artist and woman who has discovered through all her travels that she’s always carried everything she needs within herself.

“‘A Momma To Cry To’ describes a young woman on the journey to her spiritual awakening,” says Cotto. “The song’s message is about forging your own path and moving forward despite one’s past.”

Canada’s reigning queens of grunge-pop punk are back with an aggressive and immersive new anthem in “Clowns For President” — check it out on YouTube here:

The sonic middle finger, per se, unabashedly denounces control and constraint, and lands straight from their recent EP offering, Live Fast Die Punk.

The glorious 4-piece from Quebec swing truth bombs like axes in this pulsating follow-up drop. Refusing to back down, to be censored, or controlled, Bad Skin slices through the narrative and beguiles the listener in a race against conformity; a punk quid pro quo in sending the message that Gen Z is awake, and paying attention to the global society around them. And punk is here to save the day.

Possessing a unique talent for approaching sensitive and relevant issues within the Black community, multi-GRAMMY Award-winning hip hop, rap and soul group Arrested Development channel their trailblazing and history-making talents into the poignant hymn for Black girl magic that is “Never Had Your Back” – check it out on YouTube here:

Fresh from their newest album, For The FKN Love, and featuring lyrics from Speech and background vocals from Ke’Andra, legendary British Boom-Bap producer Configa wraps everything up in a well-executed production.

“Never Had Your Back” features a compelling overall concern for the way that Black women are portrayed in modern media and music. Noticing how depictions were demeaning, the group says they went to work crafting a production that would empower “Melanated Black Queens” and raise social awareness.

Life can be punishing, and the world can be a cruel place, and sometimes we just want someone to lay it all out how it really is, without varnish or artifice. Canadian indie folk-rocker Edison Rupert does just that in his rollicking ballad of hard luck, “Ticket To A Place” – check it out on YouTube here:

“Ticket To A Place” starts out with marching, percussive electric guitar as Rupert tells the sad tale with plain-voiced candor in the vein of Johnny Cash. The story begins in the first person, as Rupert narrates the empty, anonymous existence of a cipher:
I’ve got a ticket to a place that nobody knows
I’ve got some years on my back with nothing to show
If you come looking for me, I’m hiding in the shadows
I’ve got my own dirt pile pillow, It feels like home

Alt-pop new wave rockers Evil Tongues are delivering a synth-infused message in a banger bottle with the release of their new single, “Fine”.  Check it out on YouTube here:

The debut drop from the Canadian duo was born of the global pandemic that pushed the pair to the top of their songwriting prowess. “Fine”’s lyrics evoke a somber, devastated Jennifer Di coping with isolation, depression, anxiety; and the cinematic inspired soundscape is delivered by engineer Mike Allain. “Mike wrote the foundation for the song,” explains Di, “I asked him to make something that sounded like it would be in the movie Tron.”

Canadian alt-folk rockers Village Manor are encouraging the act of “Gunsaway” with the release of their new single — check it out on YouTube here:

The imploring plea arrives as their debut release, and was inspired by how “tired everyone is waking up every morning to the news of gun violence on a consistent basis,” co-front John Weinberg says.

“It’s every single day!”

“How many times can we wake up, how many times can we hear,” asks the lyrics. “It’s only time - and a time for winning, time for losing, time for loving, and a time to stop saying goodbye.”

The new single  from Hamilton band Long Black Cadillacs is “True Love,”  sung by Chris Jackson, and led by Earl Johnson, former lead guitarist for hard-rock band Moxy.

Check out “True Love” on YouTube here:

In its heyday Moxy toured North America, sharing the stage with such iconic Rock acts as AC/DC, Black Sabbath and Styx. Most recently, however, Johnson, with his new band, have written and recorded songs more in an R&B style, and “True Love” is a terrific “rock ballad,” written for his common-law wife Debbie Sutton, who sadly passed away in 2019. There's still plenty of Johnson's trademark guitar, but the new song and the new band have a more sophisticated sound than Moxy, more like Carlos Santana.

Raised in a small city in Northern Ontario, Chris Corey now splits his time between Ontario and Western Canada where he’s currently working on releasing his debut album. “This record is really a mixed bag of everything.” He said when asked about the direction of the material. “I really tried to pull from a variety of influences on the newer tunes, I didn’t want to hold back thinking something wasn’t possible.” Drawing influences from a variety of genres including rock, pop, blues, country, folk and new wave, his new album promises to be a treat for listeners with wide musical palettes.

Check out “Storms We Face” YouTube here: https://bit.ly/3GGai0r

Toronto’s Chris Caulfield is a multi-talented singer/songwriter with eccentric harmonies and punchy composition and continues to defy genre conventions with a cerebral trip to the hottest neon nightclub of your dreams in his latest single, “Stockholm Syndrome” – check it out here:

He’s also an artist who has come a long way to get where he is.

The profoundly personal lyrics and concept come from an artist who has grappled with their own demons in life. Having spent most of his life dealing with chronic pain, and the cumulative toll it can have on one’s mental health, the COVID pandemic challenged both the world, as well as Caulfield as he dealt with his own personal anguish.

Los Angeles-based producer, vocalist, and songwriter Natalie Nicole Gilbert puts a magnetically modern spin on Anggun’s 90s classic hit “Snow on the Sahara” with the release of her new single

The song lands on the heels of her recently released full-length album, Recovery 2021 — a 12-track full-throated tome to the winding experience of healing.

Check out “Snow on the Sahara” on YouTube here:
music.youtube.com/watch?v=o56sFfQQp7Y&list=RDAMVMo56sFfQQp7Y

Produced in collaboration with GRAMMY Award- and Latin GRAMMY Award-nominee Robert Eibach, the two started reimagining “Snow on the Sahara” with speeding it up by six beats per minute. “It’s wild how that small pace change shifts the feel of the song, despite us keeping the key, and a lot of other main elements intact,” Gilbert shares. “Harmonies were a big part of what always stood out to me when I first fell in love with this song, so we made sure to really keep those front and center in this version, as well.”

When it comes to feel good pop-music lighting up the Canadian music scene, there are few who hold a candle to the production value and energy that multi-talented artist Bryan Bravo brings to his new single, “Feel Lucky” and album, Be Mine.

Check out “Feel Lucky” on YouTube here:

“‘Be Mine’ captivates and embraces a euphoric state of mind,” the Toronto-based artist shares. “Infatuated with the idea of love, and how deep it will go… Finding oneself at a standstill, unable to lose themselves completely, evoking the thought ‘why you gotta be inside my mind?’”

Finding a personal stake in the lyrics and their coupling with the production led the songwriter to a sentimental place during the creative process.

Robb Nash is declaring war on mental illness.

Named an ‘Extraordinary Canadian,’ the award-winning Canadian rocker and Governor General of Canada Meritorious Service Medal recipient’s story is one for the ages. But one peek up the sleeve at the hundreds of names tattooed on his arm — plus his newly released single, “This Is War” — reveals so much more.

“The names are from over 900 suicide notes I’ve received from kids,” Nash explains. “Some of them have my lyrics as tattoos, too; it’s a mutual relationship of ‘go forth and conquer.’”

Alongside The Robb Nash Project’s new song, “This Is War,” and the forthcoming album of the same name, the skin-inked gesture is part of Nash’s long-held commitment to combat mental illness — a high-stakes conflict he personally endured.

Watch and experience the moving “This Is War” on YouTube here:

Toronto band Isabel & The Uncommons are releasing a new single “DISTANCE,” written and sung by bandleader Isabel Fryszberg, who also provided the artwork for the accompanying video. The song, a languid tango about yearning for connection in a time of separation, was produced by Mitch Giěrio and features guitarist Steve Briggs, Rebecca Hennessy on trumpet, Gary Craig on drums and percussion, and Rebecca Campbell on background.

Check out “Distance” here:

Horns up for the six-piece Mad Symphony, raucously rumbling from the coast of British Columbia, armed with their eponymous debut EP and earth-shaking lead anthem, “Do It All Over Again”. Check it out on YouTube here:

Orchestrated from a variety of professional rock artists from all walks of life and career, Mad Symphony plucks together Kevin Wright (lead vox, percussion), Dave Groves (lead guitar, background vox), Ted Tosoff (rhythm guitar, background vox), Mike Russell (keys, background vox), Amrit Prasad (bass), and Wes Hallam (drums). Together, this band of rock and roll brothers have created a modern soundscape born out of the metric set by the classic rockers who influenced them all to become musicians.

HOROJO Trio (pronunciation: HO-RO-JO, as in HO - Think Santa Claus; RO - "Row Your Boat"; and JO - "Joe") - already an award-winning soul-rocking rhythm and blues group before releasing any music, are now ready to Set The Record with the release of their debut album — available April 1st, 2022 via Stony Plain Records.

The 11-track release also includes the new single & video, “Hard As I Can”.

With each member individually accomplished musicians, HOROJO Trio are drummer Jamie Holmes, singer/keyboardist Jeff Rogers, and guitarist JW Jones who has as a solo artist reached Top 10 on the Billboard Blues Charts, received multiple JUNO and Maple Blues Award nominations.