News

A gifted singer, guitarist and songwriter in his early twenties, A.J. Fullerton possesses a talent that belies his age. The Colorado native grew up steeped in blues, and since 2016 has won a remarkable sixteen awards from the Colorado Blues Society. In The Forgiver and the Runaway — his third album — he teams up with Canadian producer Steve Marriner —also a singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist and frontman for the band MonkeyJunk — and some stellar supporting musicians that include harmonica players Paul Reddick and Jake Friel.

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

Juno Awards: Nominees for the 2021 JUNO Awards will be announced at 11 AM on Tuesday March 9. Winners will be revealed on the 50th Annual JUNO Awards Broadcast (CBC) on Sunday, May 16.

The genesis of the New Moon Jelly Roll Freedom Riders recordings was on a Charlie Musselwhite / Mavis Staples tour bus. The North Mississippi All-Stars were the backing band on the tour; and, while on route, Luther Dickinson of The All-Stars and Musselwhite hatched a plan to record together along with a few friends.

This Toronto trio features singer/songwriter/guitarist Matt Allen, ace bassist/backing vocalist Gary Kendall (Downchild), and drummer Adam David. Their new EP comes as a result of winning the Amy Louie Grossman Music Scholarship in 2018, whose funding facilitated this release. Money well spent, as Four Hot Tracks lives up to its title.

This month’s recommended listening by Greg Torrington, programmer of Stingray’s blues channels.

Winter Blues: Toronto roots music fans have enjoyed the annual appearance of Winterfolk and last year, a new February festival appeared on the scene, the “Be Kind” festival. Both were based out of the Tranzac last year but this time they’ll be online, like everybody else. Winterfolk is happening February 19 & 20 and has plenty of blues content: Donne Roberts, Ken Whiteley, Jack de Keyzer, Suzie Vinnick, Diana Braithwaite & Chris Whiteley and Julian Taylor among other blues-friendly roots artists.

Angelique Francis along with Matt Sobb co-host the Ottawa edition of the (virtual) Maple Blues Awards on February 8 on the TBS Facebook & YouTube channel.

Nowhere Left To Go is the latest offering of ten new original songs from Layla Zoe. Now residing in the Netherlands, this album shows a much deeper, more reflective side, of this fiercely independent artist.

At 35, Selwyn Birchwood is hardly the ‘typical’ blues artist. Yet, being pegged a maverick has little to do with his age. His musical epiphany came at age 13 upon first hearing Hendrix and, tracing the artist’s love for the blues, a chance to see Buddy Guy live sealed the deal for this young guitarist. He not only realized what he wanted to do but was also fortunate to study under Sonny Rhodes’ tutelage – on the road of hard knocks.