Winterfolk & Blues: More than 100 artists will be performing on 5 stages at Winterfolk, now relocated from the Danforth to the Spadina/Bloor area including the Tranzac. It takes place February 21-24. Buy early and the wristband price is a mere $15 for the entire weekend. Blues highlights include: Ken Whiteley, Heather Luckhart, Jack de Keyzer, Chris Whiteley & Diana Braithwaite, Jerome Tucker, Brian Blain, Donne Roberts, and more. Tickets for the Winterfolk Preview show on January 18th in Scarborough include a wristband for the February event. More info at www.winterfolk.com.

Bev Kreller of Speak Music has been a big part of Winterfolk in recent years and has gone her own way this year with the inaugural Speak Music Be Kind Festival which will also be held at the Tranzac Club January 17-19, 2020 with early-bird wristbands starting at $15 for a line-up that includes Samantha Martin and Delta Sugar, Chloe Watkinson, Lydia Persaud, Johnson Crook, Julian Taylor, Rob Szabo, Ginger St. James, and more. Musical workshops include Bluesrockin’ Roots w/ Julian Taylor, Kim Doolittle, and Ken Yoshioka. Take note that Friday Jan 17th will be blues infused with Chloe Watkinson on at 10pm and Samantha Martin following at midnight in The Tranzac’s Main Hall. Full schedule to be posted at www.speakmusicbekindfest.com

RIP Nick Blagona: Popular recording/mastering engineer Nick Blagona passed away on January 4th after a series of health setbacks that did not prevent him from working on recording projects right up to the time he was hospitalized.  In his last days he sent a touching note of thanks and farewell via Facebook. Many blues artists show up in his lengthy discography including Coote’s Paradise, Rita diGhent, Johnny Max, Lance Anderson, Blackburn, even your (barely)managing editor Brian Blain, but he is probably better known for the “big names” he worked with over the years, Chicago, The BeeGees, The Police, Cat Stevens and Nazareth, King Crimson and Deep Purple.

– Janet Alilovic, Brian Blain