Canadian Blues-Rock Legends TRIBZ Look Back On First Love With Nostalgic New Single "Young Love"

Hamilton and Toronto's TRIBZ release "Young Love" out now, a pop-rock ballad that trades the band's usual social urgency for something quieter and deeply personal, a trip back to first love, sweet sixteen and the memories time can never fully take away. For a band built on more than a century of combined musical history, it is a fitting turn inward, tracing the story all the way back to where guitarist Earl Johnson's own journey in music truly started.

The song comes directly from Johnson's own life. The melody had been living in his head for years, its chords deliberately written to capture the excitement and simplicity of being young, and the lyrics draw from his real first love, a girlfriend named Linda he dated for about three years through high school. Introduced by his best friend Mike, who was dating Linda's friend Wendy, Johnson and Linda were in the same grades, walked to and from school together every day and spent Friday nights dancing to Motown on the radio, the kind of romance that feels, at sixteen, like it could never end. "We were high school sweethearts, from the day we met, walking hand in hand, everywhere we went," the song begins, building to the hook at its centre: "Young love, thought it would last forever, forever would you be mine."

The relationship eventually gave way to the pull of music, and at 18 Johnson left high school to go on tour with the legendary King Biscuit Boy, the first step on a path that would carry him through the founding of the cult rock band Moxy and, decades later, into TRIBZ itself. He still has Linda's picture. Decades on, that memory became the seed for "Young Love," proof that even a life spent on the road never fully lets go of where it began.

That sense of history runs through everything TRIBZ does. Frontman Errol Starr Francis won a JUNO for his 1989 hit "Angel" before stepping away from his A&M Records career at its peak, a story now told in the acclaimed documentary 'Temple of Love: The Erroll Starr Story.' Johnson's own résumé includes founding Moxy, whose 1976 debut featured Tommy Bolin on lead guitar and whose touring days included AC/DC opening for them in Texas in 1977, alongside dates with Black Sabbath and Santana. Bassist Donny Hill has recorded and toured with fellow JUNO winner Murray Porter and shared stages with Blue Rodeo, while drummer Dave Davidson brings more than four decades behind the kit, including a long run with The American Rogues. Together they represent one of the more quietly influential lineups working in Canadian music today.

TRIBZ was born from that shared history colliding in a pandemic era garage jam, and the band has carried its founding spirit, different backgrounds coming together as one unit, into every release since. Earl Johnson and Donny Hill are proud members of the Six Nations Tuscarora and Mohawk communities respectively, and Errol Starr Francis is an adopted member of the ASMINTI Anishinabek Metis Nation, a mix the band has always described as different tribes uniting under a single message of love, hope and empowerment.

Since their self titled 2024 album, TRIBZ has moved fluidly across styles, from the blues rooted reflection of "True Love" to the grief and healing of "Memories," the reggae inflected call to action of "Save the World" and the southern swagger of "Long Black Cadillac." "Young Love" marks a different kind of turn for the band, less a statement to the world than a memory shared, the sound of musicians with decades behind them still finding new ways to be honest.
With "Young Love," TRIBZ offers a reminder that behind every legendary career is a much simpler story, the one about the first person who made you believe forever was possible.

Fort Erie Roots Rocker René Huard Unveils New Single "Tail Waggin'" Ahead Of Album 'Gently Used'

  

 

Fort Erie, Ontario blues and roots rocker René Huard has released his new single "Tail Waggin'," out now and giving fans their first taste of his forthcoming album 'Gently Used', arriving November 5, 2026.

 The song traces back to an old bit of guitar-world folklore. René Huard explains: "Based on an anecdotal urban legend, jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery replied to a journalist's question, 'Do you find time to practice guitar while you're touring?' Wes quipped, 'I just open the guitar case every once and a while, and toss a chunk steak in.' Ding-a-ling-a-ling, went the Pavlovian songwriter bell in my brain. Life on the road, wearisome, tedious, sometimes perilous! Didn't B.B. King run into a burning building to save Lucille? Guitar man's best friend, sharp teeth and strings that bend."

The accompanying video, produced by Jim Casson, brings that story to life, threading a wry sense of humour through the very real grind of life on the road, and the bond between a travelling musician and the instrument that keeps him company through it.

 "Tail Waggin'" leads into 'Gently Used', an eleven-track collection written and performed by René Huard on vocals, guitar and harmonica, produced by longtime collaborator Rick Taylor, who also contributes guitar and vocals. The record follows with two additional singles, with video: "Brand New Low," out October 5, and the title track, "Gently Used," out November 5.

 On the road, and recording studio, Huard is backed by the Project band, featuring Rick Taylor on guitar and vocals, Jeff Muir on bass and Peter Griffin on drums, with special guest contributions to the record from: Chris Airyes and Thomas Nelson on vocals, Alistair Robertson on saxophone and Ed Roth on keys. The band has built solid grassroots following across the Niagara Region, playing summer festivals including the Canal Bank Blues Shuffle in Thorold and Donnelly's.

 Huard's musical roots run four decades deep from his early days fronting the Meteors, who opened for blues heavyweights James Cotton, Long John Baldry and the Downchild Blues Band, and appeared at the first-ever Ottawa Blues Festival. He's also known to Canadian audiences as the former host of the television series Antique Hunter and Antique Style.

 His previous album, 'Blues Calling', produced by Jack de Keyzer, climbed into the Top 20 on the Roots Music Report and held the number eleven spot for several months. Its lead single, "Hard Times," found its way to Holger Petersen's CBC Blues Radio Show, along with U.S. and international podcasts and campus radio playlists.

 With 'Gently Used', René Huard adds another chapter to a career built on the road, in the clubs, and among the musicians who shaped him, proof that four decades in, the songs are still coming, and the guitar case is staying open for more than just steak.

The Kashbuk

 

 

 

The Kashbuk are a Manchester, UK-based band featuring Rob, Es and Bobby.

August saw the most recent live performance at AATMA Manchester.

Built around guitars and melody, their 4th September release, “Wandering Heart”, has a heartland rock feel, mixing loose, Stonesy interlocking guitars with an indie edge.

 

 https://www.instagram.com/thekashbuk/

 https://open.spotify.com/artist/2Kwi3CDleoX5bfliAjRUB7

Winecraft - Wild Wine Quest

 

The guys from French band Winecraft are back with a new single "Wild Wine Quest" this week, their first release since the release of " (We`re Not) Out Of The Woods" back in April this year. Keeping with their love of all things wine, the band have decided to call their new album also "Wild Wine Quest" which will be out in November.

Winecraft and their retro rock sounds, with influences from the likes Deep Purple, Motorhead and modern retro rockers like Sweden`s Graveyard. In fact David Bour on vocals and bass was previously in the band Iron Bastards, who were a very Motorhead influenced band. The band have released one studio album Winecraft `N Excess Wine in 2024 and recently released an live album "Turning Water Into Wine", which also includes a live version of "Mother Green and her Killing Machine".

With WINECRAFT, Rock is not to be consumed lightly: it has been aged in 70's oak barrel then unleashed on stage at full flavour. 

Bursting onto the rock scene two years ago, the band has already played around fifty shows across France, Germany, Belgium and soon in Switzerland.

Following a first studio record in 2024 and a Live in 2025, WINECRAFT is currently working on “Wild Wine Quest”, its first full album due in late 2026.

https://www.facebook.com/Winecraft.RockBand

 https://www.instagram.com/winecraft_rockband/

https://winecraft.bandcamp.com/

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

Teenage Blues Phenom Jake Soberlak Announces Debut Album 'I'm In Trouble' + B.C. Tour

 

At 17-years-old, Jake Soberlak of Kamloops, British Columbia plays the blues with the authority of someone who has lived inside the music for half a century. Today, the young guitarist, singer and harmonica player shares his debut single "You Gotta Leave," the first taste of his forthcoming album 'I'm In Trouble', arriving September 11, 2026. The song announces the arrival of one of the most compelling young voices working in Canadian blues today.

Soberlak's path into the blues began with a discovery that reached across generations. Digging through a collection of his grandfather's old records brought over from England, he found something scratchy, raw and utterly alive that grabbed hold and never let go. He followed the threads the way devoted blues listeners always have, one name leading to another, one record to the next, building a deep self-education in a tradition more than a century old. B.B. King, Peter Green and Eric Clapton became his teachers. He picked up guitar at thirteen and harmonica at fourteen, and word soon spread through Kamloops that something special was happening.

"You Gotta Leave" is an original Soberlak composition, and its origin offers a window into how completely he has absorbed the form. He wrote the song after hearing "Wine, Whiskey and Women" by Papa Lightfoot, a recording where the vocal sounds as though it is being sung straight through the harmonica microphone. Soberlak set out to write something where he could capture that very effect, channeling a vintage technique into a fresh new song. The result swaggers with confidence, anchored by a piano solo that he counts among his favourite moments on the entire record.

The lyrics carry the plainspoken directness that defines the best of the genre. "You gotta leave now babe go away from my door," Soberlak sings, "it's over now baby I don't want you around no more." There is a knowing assurance in lines like "won't you tell me where you learned to be so cold," delivered by a young artist who understands that the blues was always about connecting to something real and giving it your own honest take.

The single arrives from sessions that honour the way the great records were made. Soberlak cut his debut album at Afterlife Studios in Vancouver with producer and drummer Leon Power, known for his work with City and Colour and Frazey Ford. Power assembled a seasoned band for the dates, with Darren Parris on bass, the acclaimed Darryl Havers on piano and John Raham engineering. Every track went down live off the floor across two days, four musicians playing together in a room, capturing the spontaneity and feeling that the form demands.

For a teenager recording his first album alongside players of that caliber, the experience proved joyful and affirming. "They're all great people and great musicians, and it was so much fun," Soberlak says. He approaches the music with a humility that runs deeper than his years. "Not all blues songs are sad," he explains. "It's really a reflection of life. I like finding songs from the 30s, 40s or 50s, these gems that I really connect with, and I enjoy giving them my own take once I've learned them."

Soberlak has been building his live reputation across Kamloops and the surrounding region one room at a time, and his goals remain refreshingly uncomplicated. "I just want to be playing music and gigging," he says. "That's all I want to do." That clarity of purpose runs through every note of "You Gotta Leave" and points toward a debut album that introduces a genuine old soul finding his voice.

Jake Soberlak performs live this fall:

 
October 8, 2026: Salt Spring Island, BC, Salt Spring Legion

October 9, 2026: Cowichan Bay, BC, Private House Show

October 10, 2026: Port Alberni, BC, The Rainbow Room

October 11, 2026: Nanaimo, BC, Hosting the Nanaimo Blues Jam at The Queens

October 13, 2026: Victoria, BC, The Coda Club

October 15, 2026: Vancouver, BC, The Heatley

October 16, 2026: Langley, BC, Bez Arts Centre

October 18, 2026: Dewdney, BC, The Dewdney Church of the Blues

Danny Marks And BLUZ FM Mark 25 Historic Years As One Of Canada's Most Influential Blues Radio Programs

 

This month, Danny Marks and BLUZ FM celebrate 25 years on the air, a milestone that lands in the middle of what Marks calls a triple play of a year: hosting the inaugural Canadian Blues Music Awards in January, watching his new album 'Back to the Blues' climb to Top 5 on Canada's Big Blues Chart, and now marking a quarter century of the program that made him one of the most recognizable voices in Canadian blues broadcasting. "It's a positive affirmation that creativity is born out of adversity, turning coal into diamonds," Marks says of the convergence. "In this moment, that's the icing on the cake."

The story of BLUZ FM begins in the summer of 2001, when Marks got a call from CJRT general manager Chuck Camroux about bringing the blues back to 91.1 FM as the station rebranded into JAZZ FM91. Marks walked from his home in Cabbagetown to meet Camroux, who asked what he'd call the show. "Saturday Night Blues is taken," Marks told him. "The station is JAZZ FM, I'll be BLUZ FM."Camroux had his assistant register the domain on the spot and hired Marks before the meeting was even over. That September, BLUZ FM took to the air, and Marks still has the script from his first broadcast as a keepsake, though he abandoned scripts entirely not long after, choosing instead to riff on the music in a stream of consciousness that has defined the program ever since.

That first episode opened with "Let's Have a Party" by Amos Milburn, a tribute to Toronto blues champion Dave "Daddy Kool" Booth, and closed with "Lights Out," a track from Marks' own 1996 album 'Guitarchaeology.' That closing song, along with his signature sign off, "Good Night and May the Good Blues Be Yours," has ended every broadcast since - one of several old-fashioned touches Marks has kept deliberately intact through 25 years of change in how people find and listen to music.

BLUZ FM launched into a Toronto blues scene that was thriving seven days a week, from Albert's Hall, where Marks' own band produced the Stormy Monday television show for Rogers Cable 10, to Grossman's, the Elmo, the Silver Dollar and the wider Wing Circuit of clubs across the city. International legends including BB King, Albert King, Freddie King, Etta James and Hound Dog Taylor were still touring, and the Toronto Blues Society was actively building the local scene that would eventually give rise to the Maple Blues Awards.

Over 25 years and thousands of hours behind the microphone, Marks has met and hosted a remarkable list of guests. BB King, he says, may have been the most impactful of them all, an artist he places in the same company as Louis Armstrong for the reach of his influence. Buddy and Phil Guy, Robbie Robertson, Ronnie Hawkins, Eric Burdon, Bettye Lavette and Texas soul man Roy Head all passed through the studio, alongside Canadian greats like Harry Manx, Donnie Walsh, David Wilcox and Rita Chiarelli, each leaving Marks with stories he still tells today.

Canadian talent has always been at the centre of the show, with BLUZ FM carrying a self-imposed Canadian content commitment well beyond industry standard. Marks was the first to play Crystal Shawanda in a blues context, gave Jim Bowskill, now of Blue Rodeo, an early platform, and continues to break new Canadian artists like Dee Long of Klaatu. Heather Morgan's "Johnny Edwards" remains the single most requested song in the program's history, and Marks has made it part of his mission to keep the memory of artists no longer with us, from David Clayton Thomas era contemporaries to lesser-known local legends, alive on the airwaves.

None of it came without challenges. Marks points to management turnovers at the station as some of the toughest stretches BLUZ FM has weathered, moments when knowing when to stay quiet mattered as much as knowing what to play. "The soul of CJRT has prevailed through tough times thanks to the listener," he says, and today he counts the station's current leadership among the strongest it has ever had.

Marks arrives at 25 years with plans already taking shape for what comes next, including a home broadcast and recording studio currently under construction that will let him bring live music and rare vinyl deeper into the program. Between the anniversary, the CBMAs and 'Back to the Blues,' Marks calls this moment exactly what it looks like: a lifelong student and champion of the blues still finding new ways to share it. "The future looks bright," he says, "all the colours of the blues, one beautiful, blessed day at a time."

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.