Category Archives: Editorial

‘Tis the season once again where artists, musicians and industry folk alike start taking to social media to drum up support for the award du jour. Over the last few weeks I’ve seen posts from members of Country Music Alberta as well as from the Country Music Association of Ontario membership all asking for support for each of the respective 2024 awards. In the very near future we’ll start seeing the same but on a national scale as the Canadian Country Music Association will start balloting for their own 2024 Awards taking place this fall in Edmonton.

I’ll say it again, what’s wrong with Canadian Country Music? I mean there must be a problem if we need to turn to big American acts at events that are intended to celebrate our home grown talent…right? Can most Canadians even name a Canadian country artist without having to Google them first? Anyone wonder why that is?

Thank god for sunscreen and beer… I mean, water.

Saturday was a scorcher, but that didn’t slow anyone down! The fields were full and I was excited for a day full of music including two of my favourites, FGL and Russell Dickerson.

In May when Brett Kissel announced the first country music drive-in concert in Edmonton, two Ottawa area fans knew they had to be there, no matter the cost.

And just like that 2020 is in the past and a new year is upon us. As every spends the day struggling with the resolutions they made last night let’s take a look back at the year that was. 2020 was a year that the entertainment industry went dark. Theatres, stadiums all sat empty and the super successful artists, who make millions of dollars in royalties in their sleep, were on every TV telling us that we’re in this together while yet to be established artists lost sleep over where they’d find money for rent or food now that they’re primary income source, gigs, had dried up.

As the news continues to breaks with Covid 19, so many things are coming to an immediate stop, including our music industry.

Let’s talk about the last 24 hours for a minute. Yesterday morning I came to work, as I do every day. For the most part I was expecting a relatively normal day knowing that by the late afternoon our coverage of events at the JUNO Awards in Saskatoon would be needing my attention.  But at 9:30am something happened that would lead to the largest cascading cancellation event I have ever experienced in all my years in this industry.

“The world’s leading forces in live entertainment have come together to form a global task force to drive strategic support and unified direction ensuring precautionary efforts and ongoing protocol are in the best interest of artists, fans, staff, and the global community.”

Here at Sound Check Entertainment we have always been huge supporters of Women In Music. It’s no secret that women struggle in this business, regardless of their talent or popularity. A year ago we joined forces with our friends at Country 101.1 and GallantMEDIA to launch the FavFive t-shirt campaign, a campaign that has since raised thousands of dollars for Women In Music Canada. With so much amazing new music coming out each week from so many incredible female artists, both known and unknown to the world, we thought it would be fun to showcase new music every Friday. The only catch? The artist / song has to have a female connection (female artist, female singer etc..).

Cardi B has been accused of tricking men into thinking they’d sleep with her, and then robbing them. Indeed, she’s admitted it.