All posts by Bryan Williston
ROBERT LAWSON – WHEATFIELD EMPIRE: THE LISTENER’S GUIDE TO THE GUESS WHO FRIESEN PRESS BOOK REVIEW BY BRYAN WILLISTON “If you love The Guess Who, as I do, you will love this book.” So writes author and Rheostatics member Dave Bidini, in [...]
Marshall Holland Paper Airplane Mystery Lawn This fall saw the release of an excellent collection of songs by the San Francisco Bay Area artist, Marshall Holland. Paper Airplane is Holland’s first album of singer-songwriter baroque power pop [...]
Editor Pick
The Manvils Reaction Arrow Manvils Music Toronto-based indie power trio The Manvils have gifted us with their exciting new album, Reaction Arrow, and it is nothing short of great. Recorded over a three-year period in California and Toronto, [...]
APPALACHIAN FOLK FESTIVAL PREVIEW A CONVERSATION WITH FILTHYBIRD The Appalachian Folk Festival Livestream has been a brilliantly programmed and curated live online music series. In addition to the already excellent array of performers, the [...]
APPALACHIAN FOLK FESTIVAL PREVIEW: PART 2 A CONVERSATION WITH JO JO STEPHENS & LEAH HATMAKER-STEPHENS OF KITES Facebook’s Appalachian Folk Festival Livestream has been a great platform for exposing artists to a wider audience. After a [...]
SONGS FROM THE APARTMENT A CONVERSATION WITH JERRY LEGER “I can’t say for sure what I’ll write about when I pick up a pen again, or pick up a guitar, or sit at the piano. I know right now that the pandemic is all we can think about. If we [...]
APPALACHIAN FOLK FESTIVAL PREVIEW: PART 2 A CONVERSATION WITH SARAH RUDY OF HELLO JUNE Labels can sometimes be misleading, especially when applied to music. So often we compare new music to that which has come before. “If you liked band X you’ll [...]
“CEOL KIDS” LAUNCHES DONATION DRIVE The Toronto-based music collective Ceol Kids is excited to announce the start of their 2020 donation drive. The group kicked things off with a launch party at Junction City Music Hall on February 29th, the [...]
Marshall Holland Nice To Meet You (始めまして) Ricky Ninja Records It may seem an odd turn for a singer/songwriter/pop/rock performer to create an album of instrumental electronica, but that is exactly what the San Francisco Bay Area [...]
CONNECTIONS COMING TOGETHER – THE OSHAWA MUSIC AWARDS @ THE ROBERT McLAUGHLIN GALLERY, OSHAWA FEBRUARY 7, 2020 It is encouraging when a community’s artists, business people and government representatives come together for a common goal. [...]
Bobby Patterson It’s Just A Matter Of Time Real Gone Music There’s plenty to celebrate with It’s Just a Matter of Time, the 1972 collection by Texas soul man Bobby Patterson. Despite its vintage, there is a freshness in the throwback sound [...]
Graven Years Independent Some records are a perfect reflection of their times, and Years by Graven, also known as Matty McKechnie is one such collection. In this, his 11th release, he solidifies his reputation as one of the most direct and [...]
Alice Boman Dream On [PIAS] Recordings “Sad songs say so much”, or so we’ve heard. Nowhere is that sentiment more present than with Dream On, the latest offering from the Swedish artist Alice Boman. After a steady stream of EPs and singles over [...]
HE SEES YOU WHEN YOU’RE SLEEPING, HE KNOWS WHEN YOU ROCK! A SPILL MAGAZINE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE TOP 2019 CHRISTMAS RELEASES Christmas music is very subjective as there is usually a great deal of emotion tied to the songs. I remember my [...]
JERRY LEGER & THE SITUATION w/ LINDY VOPNFJÖRÐ & MATTHEW BARBER @ LEE’S PALACE, TORONTO NOVEMBER 28, 2019 There was plenty of love in the room at Toronto’s hallowed rock dive Lee’s Palace, as Jerry Leger celebrated the release of [...]
THERE’S ALWAYS ANOTHER RECORD TO MAKE A CONVERSATION WITH JERRY LEGER “Some of the best songs are the ones that get left off the record. They just don’t fit with the story of the album. I’ll think, ‘Well, I’ll have them in my back pocket, or use [...]
MYLES GOODWYN @ HUGH’S ROOM LIVE, TORONTO NOVEMBER 4, 2019 Never mind the age-old question of whether or not white men can sing the blues. More importantly — can mature rock stars pull it off? Fans and friends of Myles Goodwyn, [...]
JOSEPH w/ DEEP SEA DIVER @ THE MOD CLUB THEATRE, TORONTO SEPTEMBER 24, 2019 Weeknights in the big city can be a bit on the quiet side, but a couple hundred fans found the fun at The Mod Club on a Tuesday night. Less than two weeks after [...]
NICK LOWE & LOS STRAITJACKETS w/ ESTHER ROSE @ THE HORSESHOE TAVERN, TORONTO SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 It was wall-to-wall humanity at Toronto’s venerable Horseshoe Tavern, as fans crowded in to welcome pub-rocker-turned-gentleman-songsmith Nick [...]
THE RACONTEURS w/ OLIVIA JEAN @ THE SONY CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, TORONTO SEPTEMBER 12, 2019 Is everybody in? Security was tight and mobile phones were locked as The Raconteurs made everyone look up and pay attention. The Nashville-based [...]
BEN FOLDS – A DREAM ABOUT LIGHTNING BUGS: A LIFE OF MUSIC AND CHEAP LESSONS BALLANTINE BOOKS BOOK REVIEW BY BRYAN WILLISTON Many music fans love to dig deep into the work of their favourite artists. “What does that lyric mean?”“What [...]
Christina Holmes The Beautiful Struggle Cove House Records No lie: it’s hard out there for independent acoustic guitar-playing singer-songwriters. What with the constant touring to grow their audience, attempting to rise above the hard sell and [...]
A TRUE MYSTERY MAN: CELEBRATING NASH THE SLASH A CONVERSATION WITH AND YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE NORMAL CO-DIRECTOR TIM KOWALSKI “Nash had a folklore to him. He was fine with it and he played it up, too. He was kind of like, ‘What you want to believe [...]
PARLEZ-ING ABOUT ‘NO PARLEZ’ A CONVERSATION ABOUT PAUL YOUNG’S BRILLIANT CAREER For music fans in the early 1980s, Paul Young was just about everywhere. He was topping music charts, headlining concert tours, and he was all over the [...]
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