Vancouver Vintage Soul Quartet HONEYBEAR, THE BAND Announces New Album 'The Cure' With Two Album Release Shows

 

Vancouver based vintage soul, blues and roots quartet Honeybear will release its new album, 'The Cure,' on September 4, marking the follow up to a debut that turned four longtime friends into one of Canada's fastest rising roots acts. The band celebrates with two album release shows, first at Upstairs in Victoria on September 9 alongside Emmett Jerome, then home in Vancouver on September 10 at the Hollywood Theatre.

Honeybear formed in 2023, though the members had already spent decades crossing paths on tours across Canada and down the West Coast. The band's origin traces back to the pandemic, when the group found itself jamming outdoors in parks, running amps and PA systems off jerry rigged motorcycle batteries just to keep playing live music together. That same instinct, chasing the sound over everything else, still defines the band, described by music blog B-Side Guys as sounding "like The Teskey Brothers collaborated with the ghost of Muddy Waters."

'The Cure' expands that sound well beyond the original quartet. Across 11 tracks, Beaty and Brumelle's songwriting is joined by rotating keys from Mike Kenney and Cindy Fairbank, drums from Geoff Hicks and Tim Watson, pedal steel from Scott Smith, horns from Jerry Cook, Jocelyn Waugh, Adam Kyle and Gregory Dent, and background vocals from Dawn Pemberton and Colleen Rennison. The album was recorded across two studios, with Jeff Zipp behind the board at Light Machine and John Raham recording at Afterlife Studios, before Zipp mixed the record and Doug Krebs handled mastering, the same team responsible for the warm, horn laced sound the band has built its reputation on.

The album's early single, "Just Your Fool," offers a preview of what's ahead, a classic blues ballad built around devotion that may not be entirely returned. Written by Beaty and Brumelle and produced by Zipp, the song is a riff on the Slim Harpo classic "Raining in My Heart" and has already passed 100,000 streams, proof that there is still a real appetite for horn driven, human sounding music made the old way.

That appetite has followed the band since its 2025 debut, 'I Was Wrong,' which has surpassed nine million streams on Spotify with 200,000 monthly listeners, landing placement on official Spotify Editorial playlists including Retro Soul, The New Retro and Best Blues of 2025, along with airplay from CBC, NPR, CKUA and indie and co-op stations around the world. The band has become a festival favourite at Rifflandia, Barnside Harvest Fest, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Calgary Blues Fest, Kitchener Blues Fest, Wapiti and Starbelly, and has sold out club dates across Canada from The Horseshoe in Toronto, Upstairs in Victoria, Rainbow in Ottawa to the Ironwood in Calgary.

The industry has taken notice as well, with Honeybear recently nominated for a Blues Music Award from the Memphis based Blues Foundation, a Blues Artist of the Year nomination from the WCMA, a spot on the Vancouver Sun's "10 Artists to Watch in 2026," and Roots Music Canada's New Discovery of the Year.

With 'The Cure' arriving September 4, Honeybear, the Band brings its road-tested chemistry and growing cast of collaborators into its most fully realized record yet and invites fans out to hear it live at both release shows.

1974 JUNO Award Winner Cathy Young Was Here All Along, and Now She's Back With the Most Personal Song of Her Life

Long before playlists and streaming numbers, before most of today's music industry existed at all, Cathy Young was already a fixture of Toronto's legendary Yorkville scene, standing shoulder to shoulder with the artists who built Canadian music history. She's been credited as a Juno winner, immortalized on one of the tallest music murals in the world, and quietly worked alongside icons for decades. And now, with her deeply personal new single "I Don't Want to Lose You," Cathy Young proves she was never gone. She was simply waiting for the right story to tell.

Young first burst onto the scene when her debut album, 'A Spoonful of Cathy Young,' was named a Billboard Pick of the Week, an early signal of a talent that would soon become impossible to ignore. She won the Juno Award for Best New Artist in 1974 and returned the following year as a nominee for Best Female Vocalist, cementing her place among Canada's brightest new stars at a moment when the Canadian music industry itself was still finding its footing. She performed as Mary Magdalene in Robert Stigwood's production of Jesus Christ Superstar, lent her voice to award winning video games including entries in The Black Mirror series, and toured the world across the United States, Mexico, Hong Kong, Cyprus, Thailand, Australia, the Caribbean, and Hawaii. In 2017, she was honoured with a place on Toronto's towering 22 storey mural of music icons along historic Yonge Street, a permanent tribute to the scene she helped define. Her story has since been documented in Music from Far and Wide: Celebrating 40 Years of the Juno Awards and in Bill King's Talk: Conversations in All Keys, and she was inducted into the Friar's Music Museum in Toronto.

For all of that history, Young has never been the kind of artist who simply rests on accolades. She has spent decades quietly recording, mentoring emerging talent, and staying connected to the music community that shaped her, even as the industry's spotlight moved elsewhere. That makes her return now, with a song this personal, feel less like a comeback and more like an overdue arrival, a legend who never actually left, finally ready to share a story only she could tell.

"I Don't Want to Lose You" was written by Young in 1974, though she says at the time it was written to no one in particular. "Songs just come to me when they come," she explains. "They come in a rush, and if I don't stop whatever I'm doing, even sleep, and write, I will lose it forever." It would take 50 years for the song to find the person it was truly meant for.
That person was a fellow musician Young first met briefly at the Juno Awards decades earlier. Their paths crossed again years later when she recorded backing vocals for his band, then drifted apart until an unplanned social media post changed everything. "One day, almost on a whim, I posted a photo of a horse drawn Cinderella carriage on Facebook and wrote, ‘Now all I need is a groom’," Young recalls. "It wasn't something I would normally post. In fact, I nearly deleted it, but something told me to leave it." He saw it. His reply was simple: "I'm here! I'm here!" What followed, Young says, was the beginning of a beautiful love story.

Not long after reconnecting, Young sang him the song she had written half a century earlier. "When I finished, he looked into my eyes and quietly said, ‘How could I not love you,’" she says. "From that moment on, the song belonged to us." The lyrics themselves carry that same plainspoken devotion: "So come and put your arms around me, tell me you love me, tell me you need me, and no one else will ever do. I've given you my everything, and even more, I've opened up my heart and let you in."

Young went on to join him on what would become his final tour before he passed away suddenly from a heart attack. "In an instant, my world changed forever," she says. "I truly believe he was my soulmate. This song is my tribute to him, to the extraordinary love we were blessed to share. I know that one day we will meet again. Until then, I will carry him in my heart and celebrate a once in a lifetime love that not even time can erase."

Written by Young and produced by John Zych, Ann Hunter, and Dennis Nieves, "I Don't Want to Lose You" is released through Bronte Road Music, with a new EP on the horizon. It arrives as both a deeply intimate tribute and a reminder that one of Canadian music's true trailblazers, a woman who shared stages and studios with legends and helped shape an entire era of Yorkville's music history, is still very much writing her story, one unforgettable chapter at a time.

https://www.facebook.com/Cathyyoungtoronto

https://open.spotify.com/intl-es/track/6Socr1AG0kEFGs7CnibABW?si=b9b3c3591b4242c6&utm_source=mistmail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1974-juno-award-winner-cathy-young-was-here-all-along-and-now-she-s-back-with-th&nd=1&dlsi=b77021864bbe4f09

Tony Rust and The Mudhorse

 

It`s been quite a wait since Tony Rust and The Mudhorse`s released their last single "Can`t Believe My Eyes", which was released at the very start year, 1<sup>st</sup> January 2026! So it`s a bit of a welcome back for the band, with a new track "Nevada Dust", a track the band have been play in their live set for sometime. A new album is still forthcoming, as there`s no release date, but the band has signed to a label, with an album planned for end of 2026/beginning of 2027, ear marked for release.

Nevada Dust

A psychedelic rock track inspired by the sound and atmosphere of 1960s Spaghetti Westerns.

The idea for Nevada Dust came to life during a trip through the Nevada desert a few years ago. We’ve been playing this song live since 2023, and after all these years, we’re finally excited to share the studio version with you.

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/Tonyrustandthemudhorses

https://www.instagram.com/tonyrust/?hl=fr

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR9iS_5A_MIn5-yyCOiKVWQ

 https://tonyrustandthemudhorses.bandcamp.com/

Advent Horizon

This week see`s the release of the 3<sup>rd</sup> single "Gravity" from US based progressive rock group Advent Horizon`s new studio album "Falling Together" which was released on 15th May 2026. The response to the album has been fantastic within progressive rock/metal circles, in the few months of release. The first single`s "Past Life Parable" released back in March and Faith`s Window in April, the band have really been on a roll of releases. There`s been lots of shows for the band in-between and even a live stream concert back in May. I hope you enjoy the sounds that this band create and feel your listeners might enjoy this very talented band.           

     

Gravity is a gripping two-part Prog Metal mini-epic which features a dreamlike intro, leading into a hard-hitting, riff-filled banger led by Grant Matheson on lead vocals. Conceptually, Gravity talks about how positions of power in so many areas of our lives are so often used to manipulate the people through fear. This is true of Religious and Political leadership, but also in the context of relationships, careers, and more. The phrase "Gravity is what holds us together, we are one when we are all afraid" sums this up nicely. 

https://www.adventhorizonmusic.com/the-band-v2

AMARAX

 

We are AMARAX! Birthed in Perth Western Australia and bringing back the true spirit of the 80's heavy metal packed with shredding guitars, killer riffs and soaring vocals. if Dio and Doro had a kid, this would be it! we're not here for f#@k spiders or chase modern trends. we're about staying true to the sound that defined a generation. Loud, bitchin and unapologetically metal.

 

https://www.facebook.com/amaraxofficial/

https://www.instagram.com/amaraxofficial/

https://www.youtube.com/@amaraxofficial

https://open.spotify.com/track/2Pme2F6tVxw08FtDNhdvX5?autoplay_ok=1

Ethan Askey & The Elevators Have Plenty to Say in New Single "Big Bad Bossman" and Soulful Roots and Blues Album 'Outside the Lines'

Ethan Askey & The Elevators release "Big Bad Bossman", the spirited third single from their forthcoming album 'Outside the Lines', out now. The upbeat blues shuffle takes aim at every petty tyrant who ever mistook control for strength. Askey wrote the lyric about a universal figure, any bully or leader whose insecurity and self-regard gets in the way of good living. Anyone can relate to the song about power dynamics and reclaiming your footing, set to a rhythm that refuses to sit still.

While it is the second track in the album sequence, the single is a good entry point for the album as it wears its blues lineage proudly. "Big Bad Bossman" stands squarely in the footprint of blues pioneer Jimmy Reed. Driven by frontman Askey's baritone vocals and tasty harmonica blowing, the song also features Keith Larsen's explosive guitar playing over a locomotive rhythm section of drummer Ben Dunn and bassist Mike Honeyman, who keep the groove rolling.

The songwriting is clean and clever. "You may act the big dog, you may call the shots," Askey sings, before adding with a wink, "but how you do that is the rub, and friction’s all you got". The previous single release (in March 2026), “Zamboni Girl”, is another song written with a sense of humour and fun, and which also manages to pay respect to the blues masters by invoking several by name even though the subject matter of the song relates to ice hockey.

The singles land in good company on 'Outside the Lines', with its eleven original tracks that reach into folk, funk, swing and varying shades of blues. While the song compositions by Askey and Larsen are diverse in texture and delivery, Askey’s thoughtful lyrics have threads running between them all: there are consistent themes of community, honouring others, finding inspiration in people and places, and squeezing life a little for the sweetest juice. His is a voice of someone who’s lived more than a little, reflected a lot, and who cares for others. At his most somber, Askey offers us “Freakshow” (closing Side A of the vinyl release) which he describes as “a meditation on mindfulness in a dark time of doublethink”. Most joyfully, he describes the vibes of an annual roots and blues music gathering on Canada’s west coast in “My Heart Explodes”, with that song dedicated to the late, great Tim Williams.

The album's roots run all the way to the source. A catalyst for the record was a January 2023 Road trip Askey and Larsen made through Mississippi and Tennessee, timed to the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, where the two northern souls soaked up dozens of bands, played some music, and reconnected with the spiritual birthplace of rhythm and blues. That journey sparked their songwriting partnership and is captured in the album's earlier single "Clarksdale”.

To finish the album, Askey and Larsen travelled east from the Rockies to Ganaraska Recording Co., the Ontario farmhouse studio owned by Blue Rodeo guitarist Jimmy Bowskill, where multiple JUNO Award winner Steve Marriner came aboard to mix the album and do some of the recording there. In that farmhouse setting, Askey recalls magic happening: “The last time Suzie and Jared and I were together we shared the Baltic Blues festival stage in northern Germany, then at Ganaraska we picked up right where we’d left off”. Venerated root and blues artist Suzie Vinnick and rising talent Jared Sowan contributed powerful vocals to the almost gospel-tinged “Purpose”, a prayer for a life on this Earth. The album title track and closer, “Outside the Lines”, has an entirely different feel from the rest of the album as it was captured at Ganaraska using just two vintage microphones on the stripped-down acoustic trio of Askey, Larsen and Marriner.

This album displays an evolution in songwriting and thematic intent since Askey's 2022 solo debut 'Walk When You Wanna Run', an independent release he created with studio musicians that earned steady radio play and the distinction of spending 150 weeks on the roots and blues charts worldwide. This new album reflects the chemistry of band members who collaborate with the ease of old friends. Ethan Askey & The Elevators may be just out of the gate together, but they carry decades of shared history: Askey, Larsen, Dunn and Honeyman had performed together more than twenty years ago in other bands and on local festival stages before life sent them their separate ways. Now living near one another again, voilà! the band.

https://www.ethanaskey.com/

https://www.facebook.com/p/Ethan-Askey-the-Elevators-100090840564193/

https://www.instagram.com/ethanaskeymusic/

New song by Will Ludford

 

We are pleased to announce the new song by Will Ludford KEEPING MY EYES ON YOU. 

 

More info on his sites:

https://www.facebook.com/bigbuzzardrecords

https://www.facebook.com/willludford/

https://open.spotify.com/artist/38Cggr0Z1Nq1vzeUunVC31

 

LISTEN TO HIM HERE

LIVE STREAM >> HERE