Category Archives: Entertainment

Ottawa promoter The Diamond Mine Agency will be bringing some hip hop this month to both Ottawa and Toronto, and the prince of hair metal to Kingston and Peterborough and finishes the month with pop punk with Story Untold.

The long awaited return of the Toronto turned Aussie rockers The Lazys finally came to life on Saturday night at The 27 Club, when Ottawa’s rock radio station Rebel 101.7 and Spectrasonic threw a Halloween party with openers The Standstills and Eagleson.

High-energy, chart topping, live-rock’n’roll authorities Arkells are back! With the release of their highly-anticipated new album, Rally Cry, the Hamilton five-piece have announced a 2019 national tour kicking off in Vancouver on Saturday, Feb. 2 with very special guests, Lord Huron, which will feature a stop at Richcraft Live at Canadian Tire Centre on Friday, Feb. 15. “We’ve built up real relationships with all of these towns over the years,” reflects front man Max Kerman. “Each time we go back, the show means a little bit more. It’s our most ambitious tour yet, and we can’t wait to make some new memories.”

12 East Coast Music Award nominations with wins for Solo Recording of the Year, R&B Recording of the Year and the first woman to receive Producer of the Year. With such acclaim showered on Maritime singer-songwriter Erin Costelo’s 4th album Down Below, the Status Quo, nobody would question her if she opted to keep on walking down a well blazed path when it came time to record again. Halifax’s queen of salt water soul had other things in mind.

Pushing the envelope, raising the bar, whatever you want to call it, Costelo was up for a fresh challenge and Sweet Marie would place her squarely inside exceptionally unique territory for any musician. As the waves washed outside her timber-frame home and studio in Little Harbour, Nova Scotia, the goal was to self-produce 10 songs in 10 days.

The result is Sweet Marie, a genre-defying gut kick from an artist that had been pushed so close to the edge that thoughts of abandoning her own music career seemed like a very viable option when she looked over it. There was not going to be any tumbling over into an abyss here, however. Instead Erin Costelo decided to push back.

“I think being a musician today is becoming more and more difficult to get by. Financially and emotionally it is very challenging,” explains Costelo.“I thought I might continue to produce records for people but cut back on touring and that Sweet Marie might be my last album. In the middle of recording a signed a record deal with Compass Records in the US and had one of the most inspiring musician experiences making the record. I think it breathed new life into me to keep going.”

A day ahead of the album’s release –celebrated with a show at the National Arts Centre Fourth Stage on Saturday night–, I talk with Costelo about this inspiring recording and how she turned to friend and fellow musician Amelia Curran to document the entire process.

Andre Gagne: Your last album Down Below, the Status Quo received some amazing accolades. Did you find there was much pressure on you going into the studio to record Sweet Marie to replicate that success somewhat?

Erin Costelo: I always feel pressure making a new album. This one is my 5th. I think the pressure is a result of wanting to grow as an artist and not really because of award nominations or wins. Although that is also a nice bonus!

Of course, this album is pretty unique with you wanting to record 10 songs in 10 days. What had you wanting to challenge yourself in this way?

As I started to produce more records for others, they didn’t have years to make a record! I was learning that extending the project didn’t always make a better record so I wanted to challenge myself to capture a moment in time and strive for a creative energy and not perfection.

Tell me a bit about why you turned to fellow musician (and friend) Amelia Curran to help document the recording?

Amelia stayed very much in the periphery during the filming process and I think that is why I wanted her instead of another film director to make the documentary about the album. Because she is a musician she knows the moments in a studio recording that are worth capturing and also knows how to stay out of the way and not disrupt the creative flow. She was a wonderful fly on the wall, as was her excellent and sensitive film crew. I chose Amelia because she is great at what she does and I loved her documentary film work. It was a coincidence that she was a woman. A very happy one as I love supporting female artists especially an artist like Amelia who is growing a career in a new art form for her.

What with a documentary crew filming and the want to get those ten songs out in the short deadline, what are your personal thoughts on the final album?

I love it! It feels like a group of musicians playing together and is a real snapshot of a moment in time.

Though hurried to record, do you feel that the process still evolved organically or were you constantly trying to beat the clock, so to speak, making things more regimented?

Quite the opposite. Once we were all at the home and recording, it ended up being the most relaxed studio experience I have ever had. We all lived at the house together and would record for a few hours, take a break, go for a walk, make a great meal, record again, and repeat. It was lovely and easy.

When you look back at this project what do you feel will stand out as most memorable to you?

I think the time I got to spend with such wonderful musicians will be a cherished memory.

What do you feel you most learned about yourself recording Sweet Marie?

The Diamond Mine Agency has a full roster of shows for the month of October in Ottawa, Kinston, Montreal and Quebec City!

Ottawa’s biggest concert promoters, Spectrasonic, had a big month in September, and brings in a super busy month of shows in October leading up to Halloween.

The show went on Monday night at the Bronson Centre despite recent tornadoes and mass power outages across the National Capital Region. Each of the three performing bands, Bad Cop Bad Cop, Sam Coffey & The Iron Lungs, and Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls, expressed sympathy and solidarity towards Ottawa. There was even a tornado relief fund set up that the bands repped throughout the night. As much as the bands’ punk rock anthems struck a chord with the crowd, so too did the community spirit felt at this show.

Hannah Ellis, a small-town girl from Campbellsville, Kentucky, has been making a name for herself since she first released a track in 2015 titled “Officer Down”. The story behind the song was about the passing of her cousin killed in the line of duty. Ellis released a song last year to iTunes and Spotify titled “Temporary Feeling,” which began to garner the singer more attention due to her honey voice and charismatic personality.

In 2017, she released her first EP. The five-song record included “Temporary Feeling” and another popular single of Ellis’, “ILY So What”. Other tracks included a beautifully breathtaking track of heartbreak titled “Never In Love”. “Ghosted”, a fun country/pop-rock track, tells the story of a guy who stopped talking to the girl he was dating, thus “ghosting” her. The final track on the record is titled “Break from the Weather”. The song is a fun country-pop track that is sure to have you singing along in the car or shower.

In 2018 Hannah released her latest single “Home and a Hometown”. The song talks about her love for her hometown in Kentucky and all the things that make it special for her, and then about her home in Nashville and what makes it feel like home for her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lgGk2qKZyQ