The United Kingdom’s national postal service, Royal Mail, will be releasing a series of 18 collectible Star Wars stamps that feature both the classic characters as well as newer ones you’ll be seeing in the theatres shortly. The stamps are currently available to pre-order online from the Royal Mail website and will be released on October 20th, 2015.
An important message from your parents, siblings, and ex-boyfriends’ cousins.
Montréal’s famed Métropolis for the first time will set the stage for the annual SOCAN Awards Gala, one of Québec’s most important music industry events, on Monday, October 5, 2015, at 5:30 pm, where, among many other awards, the legendary Gilles Vigneault and his immortal anthem “Gens du pays” will be honoured with SOCAN’s newly created Cultural Impact Award.
The Cultural Impact Award salutes the deep cultural impact of a song or composition by a SOCAN member, and is one of many special achievement awards to be presented on the evening. Hosted by the prolific singer-songwriter Dumas, the evening is a celebration of the songwriters, composers and music publishers whose words and music are the source of emotions and help define a whole culture.
“Québec’s Francophone music scene is of the utmost importance to SOCAN,” said SOCAN CEO Eric Baptiste. “This year we wanted to turn our gala into an even more prestigious event, notably by moving it to one of Montréal’s most celebrated venues, making the event even more dynamic and inviting, with even more stars walking the red carpet.”
The SOCAN Montreal Gala salutes the accomplishments of the more than 25,000 SOCAN members from Quebec, and nearly 50 prizes in 21 categories are awarded throughout the evening.
Each of the five achievement award winners at the event will receive The SOCAN, the world’s only major music industry trophy that is itself a musical instrument. The five bronze SABIAN crotales that adorn The SOCAN have been specially tuned to the first five notes of “Gens du pays.”
In addition, a new Electronic Music award will be presented and five songs will be presented a prize in the Anglo Pop Song category, a tribute to Québec’s thriving Anglophone music scene.
“It’s an honour to host the SOCAN Awards Gala,” said Dumas about his first emcee role with SOCAN. “I’m passionate about music and songs and the people who make them are fascinating. Each year, I rejoice at the wonderful place we give to our immortal songs, talented people and accomplishments. This celebration is inspiring and I am privileged to be a part of it.”
The other achievement awards to be presented on the night are Lifetime Achievement, awarded to a true pioneer of the Quebec music scene; International Achievement, awarded to a visionary band that has become a mainstay; Songwriter of the Year, awarded to a young songwriter who made the most significant mark; and Special Achievement, awarded to a singer-songwriter and lyricist, who captivated a whole generation in the 1960s.
More than 20,000 recorded tracks by the likes of Irakere, Los Van Van, Bola de Nieve, Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo, among many others, will get new life thanks to a global licensing agreement struck Tuesday (Sept. 15) between Sony Music Entertainment and the Havana-based Egrem (Empresa de Grabaciones y Ediciones Musicales, or Enterprise of Recordings and Musical Editions in English).
Egrem’s catalog, the most extensive catalog of Cuban music in the world, encompasses audio and audiovisual recordings produced since the 1960s.
Cuban “son” star Ruben Gonzalez, waves to the crowd as he performs traditional Cuban ballads at Salon 21 Sunday, March 7, 1999, in Mexico City. Gonzalez and Ibrahim Ferrer (not seen) leaped to international attention last year with release of the “Buena Vista Social Club” album that rescued from obscurity a whole generation of elderly Cuban “son” musicians.
Although portions of the catalog have been licensed before by various labels in different parts of the world, this marks the first time a multinational has access to the entire stable of recordings for the whole world as part of a multi-year agreement.
Via Billboard
I just finished assisting the 15th Annual Hear Here funfest for kids in Whitby, ON, raising funds to purchase hearing aids in families who might not be able to afford the high cost. I’m glad I found these two videos, as they remind me (as if I needed it, I wear hearing aids in both ears), what daily life is like for a deaf person. Rachel Soudakoff produced and edited this compelling video one, highlighting Ren who is deaf.
Here’s Ren reciting her poem “Eleven Things You Should Know About Deaf People” at the Summer Slam Poetry Camp at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN.
There was food left on the table. Dishes filled the kitchen sink.
It looked like 25-year-old Wellington resident Brittany Nunn, her husband Peter Barr, and her two young girls had gone out for ice cream, said Drew Weber, an investigator with the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office.
Instead, the woman — about to lose primary custody of her young daughters — fled to Mexico with Barr. That spurred a seven-month local, state and federal search for the abductors and 6-year-old Eden Marie Nunn and 4-year-old Gemalynne Nunn-Mcmorrine.
Early indications suggested the family may have been in Minnesota where Nunn had family. But those tips never panned out, leaving Weber and other investigators with a search unlike thousands of other custody disputes.
The case inched forward as days turned to weeks. Then, a break.
Drawing on new investigative tactics, Weber executed a search warrant and pulled records from Nunn’s Spotify account. He found it was being used from an IP address in Mexico. He later pulled search records from Netflix and Nunn’s other accounts and eventually tracked a package that Nunn had ordered to be shipped to Cabo San Lucas.
A private investigator soon joined Weber and helped monitor the family for months while agents with FBI, customs officials and the U.S. State Department worked with the consulate in Mexico on a plan to bring the children and alleged abductors home.
FBI agents met Barr and Nunn at the gate at DIA on Wednesday, and arrested them on suspicion of fleeing the country to avoid prosecution and felony custody violation counts.
Canadian Music Week is pleased to welcome Cameron Wright as Vice President of Operations and Live Programming. In this role Cameron will oversee all aspects of the festival and additionally assist with programming in the Live Touring Music Summit. This position marks Wright’s return to Canadian Music Week having previously held the role of Festival Director for five years before moving to Live Nation in 2014.
“We are thrilled Cameron is returning to Canadian Music Week in a new expanded leadership role. He is joining CMW at a crucial juncture where live music has emerged as the fastest growing sector of the music industry. Cameron¹s tenure at Live Nation adds to his already extensive experience with live music bookings. He will oversee both CMW¹s live music festival as well as touring & live music content for the CMW Conference”, says CMW President Neill Dixon.
As a promoter for Live Nation Cameron focused on club development and the theatre touring business. He has worked with artists such as Hozier, Faith No More, Stromae, Tove Lo, Milky Chance, Nick Jonas, Meghan Trainor, Catfish and the Bottlemen, as well as prominent local acts Alvvays, Dear Rouge, K.I.D., and Coleman Hell. In addition, Cameron brings a wealth of experience to the festival having worked as a production manager for companies such as AEG, Embrace, Union Events and more.
“I’m very excited to return back to my roots at CMW, this time in a larger role, and to be working alongside our great international partners as we continue to make the event a world-class destination for emerging talent”, states Wright.
“My life is a country song.” When Theo Fleury says that, it’s hard to argue. From his small-town upbringing to the heights of hockey glory, from the depths of sexual abuse and alcoholism to his current health and happiness, the Canadian icon’s 47 years come packed with enough triumph and tragedy to inspire not just a single song but an entire album.
And now, Theo is launching his country music career with his debut album, I Am Who I Am (out October 23) and lead single My Life’s Been A Country Song.
I Am Who I Am, out October 23 on Entertainment One, finds the NHL superstar, Olympic gold medal winner, best-selling author, motivational speaker and entrepreneur tackling a new game: Country singer-songwriter. And it’s a more natural fit than you might expect.
“I know that when people hear that Theo Fleury made a country album, they’ll go, ‘Well … OK,’ ” he laughs. “And I wouldn’t say I’m the greatest singer in the world, but I’m a real singer. But I have a decent voice. I grew up around music. I’m a Metis person and music is really part of our DNA. Some of my fondest memories as a kid were listening to my grandfather play the fiddle. My dad sang and played guitar, my uncle sang and played the guitar. Music was always a huge part of any gathering we had as a family. And it was all country stuff, you know — Charley Pride, Buck Owens, Hank Snow, all those old guys. So that became my favourite genre of music. And making music was always in the back of my mind.”
But it wasn’t until 2009 — the same year he published his unflinching memoir Playing With Fire — that Fleury moved music to the forefront. Wanting to cross an item off his bucket list, he teamed with Winnipeg musician Phil Deschambault to write a song about his life. Once they heard the results, they decided to keep going. Over the next few years, the duo — who discovered their fathers had made music together in Russell, Man., before either of them were born — penned more than a dozen songs, each stronger and more personal than the last. Fleury also began collaborating with fellow Calgarian Paddy McCallion, a longtime drinking buddy who turned out to be a talented musician and composer. He assembled Fleury’s backing band The Death Valley Rebels for his future live shows, and produced the autobiographical I Am Who I Am, which merges the hockey star’s Cash-deep vocals with the classic country twang he grew up hearing in his father’s car.
“We wanted this to be a real grassroots album — ‘Let’s get back to fiddles and steel guitars and accordions and honky-tonk pianos, but put our own stamp on it,’ ” he says. “We’re a bunch of guys who love that old-school country sound.”
It’s about more than just entertainment or nostalgia, however. For Fleury, it’s also about helping others by sharing his story.
“The album is definitely dark,” he admits. “The songs are all about my life, my experience, my struggle. But they’re also about coming through that struggle. At the end of every song, there’s hope. That’s what the lyrics and music reflect: Hope and healing. If people listen to this and there’s a line or a word or a phrase that helps them get out of the situation they’re in or how they’re feeling, that’s really why we’re doing this. The message is that no matter how far we may fall, we can make it back.”
And turn it into a great country song.
