RGM presents The Maple Leaf Roundup #27
Hello, dearest readers, and welcome one and all to the first Maple Leaf roundup of 2022, where we bring you a smorgasbord of new music from Canada. It’s a big old place, you know, and it’s bursting with musical brilliance. Here are eight of our favourite finds. We hope you find something to enjoy in amongst the pile.
Cassidy Mann photo credit: Mary Rose
We begin in Winnipeg, where singer-songwriter Cassidy Mann is preparing to release her debut EP, If It’s Not Forever, on April 1st, 2022. Most recent single ‘Fine’ deals with the complexities of letting go; its carefree, charging guitars and beats contrasting the weight of emotion in the lyric. It follows the deceptively simple ‘Stop A Heart’, released late last year, which blends loops and acoustic guitar more gently than most, resulting in a softly-sung pop masterpiece.
It’s over to Vancouver next where the British Columbia-based quartet Colour Tongues reflect on all the scrapes and japes of adolescence, in their latest single ‘Ashgrove’. The infectious track fizzes with guitars and the sort of boundless youthful energy that is a merely a misty memory for yours truly. The band, who we last heard from back in Maple Leaf #22, are still keeping us in suspense about their upcoming full-length release, Midnight Island, but hopefully we won’t have to wait too much longer. The chaps are even threatening to visit us for some shows here in the UK in 2022, which we think is rather exciting.
Image Credit: Janielle Ogilvie
For a rather different portrait of a teenage life, look no further than Saskatchewanian Ben Sefton, whose latest single ‘Harrison’ is five and a half minutes of music you won’t forget in a hurry. Musically and lyrically, the eccentric and bombastic ‘Harrison’ has just about everything - and several kitchen sinks thrown in besides. Packed with flourishes from the ELO-Queen-Jellyfish playbook, the song presents a ball of John Hughesian neuroses and all the emotional drama that goes with them. We recommend you’re sitting down before you hit play.
It’s over to Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario next where we meet singer-songwriter Matthew Ryan Jacobs, who may be better known to you as a member of the band CityWide Panic. Forging ahead now as a soloist, Jacobs has parked the big indie guitars of CWP to show us another, more reflective side. Despite being driven by one acoustic guitar, his recent solo single ‘The River’ is one of those songs that still feels a hundred miles wide and this is due in part to Jacobs’ intimate yet expansive vocal, which put us in mind of the legendary Jude Cole. A layered slide guitar and gentle rhythmic touches add texture but the crisp guitar and vocal remain upfront, inviting us into their sparkling waters. Dip your toes in.
Photo credit Philippe Maurice
Speaking of rivers, this next track ought to come with a flood warning to any listener prone to some mid-song weepiness. The heartbreaking piano-led single ‘Go’ from Torontonian Ava Kay, and its equally heartbreaking music video both have a gutpunching yet completely absorbing simplicity. The track was released in response to fans in their thousands discovering it via TV sync placements; a serendipitous turn of events for the multi-talented film composer and producer. And no doubt a boost to Kleenex’s share price.
We head across to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia where singer-songwriter Carleton Stone has just released ‘Ice Age’, a delightful song inspired by the true story of a couple, preserved in the cold stuff for over a century. Gentle and romantic, the track is draped in strings, piano and a generous dusting of pedal steel. As well as being a member of Port Cities, Stone has put out four solo records, so there’s plenty to take your ice-pick to while we wait for album number five.
In Edmonton, Alberta, straight-talking folkster Ben Sures has recently released his fantastic LP The Story That Lives Here. Lyrically razor sharp, the whole record is a lesson in laughing in the face of whatever life (and death) throws at you. The backdrop to Sures’ deft way with words is a charmingly ragged skiffle, replete with thunking upright bass, fiddle, frantically strummed guitars and unfussy harmonies. Try single ‘End Of The World’ for starters; we think you’ll want more.
Coming full circle back to Winnipeg we end with The Bros. Landreth, one half of whom (Joey) featured in the last Maple Leaf. He’s back, now with brother Dave and their super-soulful new single ‘Stay’, which is the first song on their third album, Come Morning, due for release on May 13th. Absolutely everything about the track exudes class, so it comes as no surprise that the chaps already have a Juno award under their belts. Before making the album, both brothers became fathers and ‘Stay’ is a tongue-in-cheek look at life on the road as compared to the cosiness of the domestic nest. Did we mention the video? Watch the video!
We hope you’ll join us next time for the RGM Maple Leaf. Until then, take it easy and be good. And, if you can’t be good, be careful.
The Maple Leaf Roundup is a Rich Barnard production for Red Guitar Music.
And we’re back! “From whence?” I hear you cry, in your florid way. Back from Canada, of course. We swam all the way, on our backs, our music-loving arms filled with a freshly picked bunch of hot new songs, gifted to us from our creative compadres ‘cross the waves. Imagine that. And we did it all for you.