Maple Blues Archive

February 2025 – Top Blues

This month’s recommended listening by Brad Wheeler, music writer for the Globe and Mail Twitter: @bwheelerglobe

February 2025 – Loose Blues News

TBS Celebrates the 10th Anniversary of the excellent documentary, ‘Healey’s Hideaway’ and we celebrate Jeff’s incredible legacy with a screening of the film at the historic Redwood Theatre on Thursday March 6 at 6:30pm.

January 2025 – Jesse Greene

January 2025 – Loose Blues News

Former TBS boarder Julian Taylor shared on his Instagram page that he is this year’s recipient of the Toronto Musician’s Association (Local 149) Community Builder of the Year award which was presented to him by TMA President Les Altt. from TMA. Julian writes, “This means the world to me and I was totally taken by surprise at receiving this prestigious award from Toronto Musicians’ Association – Local 149 AFM. Thank you to all our members for the recognition as Community Builder of the Year. What an honour! “Community = COMMON-UNITY”

January 2025 – Blue Moon Marquee

I enjoyed airing the previous BMM release, and this one will be fun too.  The obvious chemistry between A.W. and Jasmine propels this set, one in which the recording itself stands nearly as tall as the performances captured.  Listening in headphones and noting what I think of as ‘wide mono’ instead of a stereo field, the meld of instrumental sounds with vocals being sung as if to be heard over the instruments (not monitored in headphones and perfected in mix adjustments) is a refreshing escape from contemporary styles that contain each track input in its own compression, reverb and eq, resulting in fine isolation but sacrificing what the instruments themselves have to say to each other about getting to play together.

January 2025 – Jake Shimabukuro & Mick Fleetwood

The adjective “eclectic” gets tossed around liberally when describing those who dip their musical toes into a variety of genres. But it’s perfect for Jake Shimabukuro.

January 2025 – Top Blues

This month’s recommended listening by Brant Zwicker, host/executive producer of At the Crossroads syndicated blues radio. Website: atcblues.ca

December 2024 – Layla Zoe

This CD/Blu-ray combination is a lovely portrait of an artist – largely because, if you only hear the gale force power of Layla Zoe’s singing voice, you may not be getting the full impression.

December 2024 – Endrick & The Sandwiches

Given the state of the music recording industry, it’s a treat to discover a release which seems to celebrate the sheer joy of making music. At first blush (and 4 releases in), you might not know what to make of Endrick Tremblay and his loyal, long-time Sandwiches

December 2024 – Loose Blues News

Jay Douglas Documentary: Play It Loud! — How Toronto Got Soul is set for Official Premiere on Dec. 4 and 7 at Hot Docs Cinema: Jay Douglas has been a popular figure on the blues scene but he came up in Toronto’s vibrant reggae and Caribbean music scene