Jonathan Williams

 

Jonathan Williams tells powerful stories of faith, love, and family, using his evocative voice and intimate lyricism to build meaningful connections with his listeners. Not confined to a single genre, he combines elements of pop, rock, and folk to create his emotionally stirring sound. He is an artist of rare candor and authenticity, one who puts his entire heart into every song he writes.

Jonathan was born in Canada. He started his life as a musician being taught the songs of Gordon Lightfoot by his mother, on a guitar purchased by his father. As he grew up, his tastes began to expand dramatically. Discovering Joe Satriani was a seminal event in Jonathan’s life, and he quickly became obsessed with the guitar. He became a mainstay on the Victoria rock scene, both as a solo artist and a founding member of iRiS, opening for big name acts and establishing himself as a dynamic performer.

Eventually, Jonathan’s dream led him to Vancouver. That dream, however, would have to be deferred, as he fell in love, started a family, and began a new career as a police officer. For twelve years, Jonathan devoted himself to his work and his children, allowing music to become a thing of the past. However, when his life fell apart a few years later, music was there to save him.

In 2017, Jonathan’s marriage collapsed. He was suffering from severe depression and found himself unable to continue working. With nowhere else to turn too, Jonathan surrendered himself to God. He spent countless hours in prayer, finding hope in the teachings of the Bible. As his broken heart began to heal, Jonathan felt newly inspired, and with guidance from above, he decided to return to his first love - music.

The songs that Jonathan writes are a testament to the power of the human spirit. He explores the depths of his soul, turning his own loss into universally resonant messages of faith. Jonathan’s songs are performed with the conviction of a man who has hit rock bottom and still found the strength to carry on. With new music expected in 2022 and beyond, Jonathan is devoted to using his voice and music to inspire listeners around the world. 

 https://jonathanofficialmusic.com/

The Lost & Found

 

A south wales originals band with alternative guitar sounds and with added welsh swagger.

We're over the moon to be sharing with you the new album from, Cardiff-based rockers, The Lost & Found. 

Plastic World is packed with rifftastic tunes, great harmonies and is one of our favourite releases of 2022 so far.

 

https://music.apple.com/gb/album/plastic-world/1641323688

https://www.facebook.com/LostandfoundCardiff

Takin'off

 

"Takin'off" is a new Alternative Rock band.

Their first single "Come Together" is a tribute of respect and love to the great Liverpool Four. The band's unique style and musical approach to the original song make it sound even more lyrical and dramatic.

"Come Together" was released in early summer 2022 and immediately got into rotation in Greece, Aruba, Kirghizia.

The song "Come Together" has hundreds of cover versions, but this one, with its interesting arrangement and altered harmony, really catches, rocks and makes the audience fall in love with it again.

Takin'off did a great job!' - Edward Semenov, PD "Start FM" 104.5 Mordovia.

At the moment the band has locked themselves in the studio, working hard on an album that will include cover tracks of Nirvana, U2, Depeche Mode, and of course, several own tracks.  

 https://music.apple.com/ru/album/come-together/1631162764?i=1631162946

BLUE MOON MARQUEE Releases Fiery Track “Hound Dog On A Chain”

 

The electrifying sound of blues-folk duo Blue Moon Marquee out of Cowichan Valley, British Columbia, is sure to make audiences jump out of their seats and dance with the latest upbeat single, “Hound Dog on a Chain” — available now!

 

A harmonic synthesis of blues, jazz, rock n’ roll, and swing, the latest single comes from Blue Moon Marquee’s highly anticipated fifth studio album “Scream, Holler & Howl.” The album is a sophisticated collection of music that instantly transports listeners to places of sonic wonder.

 

“Hound Dog on a Chain” is a pulsating track dripping with equal parts style and substance. The song features emotive vocals by Badlands Jazz, a.k.a Jasmine Colette, and a Hammond solo from the supremely talented Darcy Phillips (Jann Arden). As approachable as the new single is, “Hound Dog on a Chain” is about the systems of oppression that continue to drive society further from happiness.

 

As the duo says, “Wake up to the realization that people have the power. We need to believe in that power and to believe in the people. The chain is taut. This hound dog is about to bust loose.”

 

 

https://bluemoonmarquee.com/

Groovy licks and up-tempo percussion punctuate “Hound Dog on a Chain” and the urgency of the message about social patriarchy and the prioritization of profit and corporate greed over life.

“Go hoist a rag

Can’t stop what’s coming

Hey, can you believe it?

They trying for your head

Watch out they don’t snare ya

Rock the feint instead.”

The sensational new album “Scream, Holler & Howl” showcases the exceptional talent of some of Canada’s finest musicians. Co-produced by the legendary Duke Robillard (The Fabulous Thunderbirds / Roomful of Blues), the album also features the musical stylings of Darcy Phillips (Jann Arden) on piano and Jerry Cook (Colin James) on tenor and baritone saxophone.

The latest single is accompanied by a provocative black and white music video that visualizes the detached world we’re reeling through. Utilizing dazzling choreography and interpretive dance, the official music video for “Hound Dog on a Chain” was produced by Studio 549 and filmed on the unceded territory of the Lekwungen-speaking peoples.

Blue Moon Marquee is comprised of creative duo A.W. Cardinal (vocals/guitar) and Jasmine Colette, a.k.a. Badlands Jass (vocals/bass/drums). American Roots UK calls Blue Moon Marquee a band with “their own completely original style,” and “modern blues doesn't really get any better than this. This is a tremendous sound by a hugely talented duo.” Over nine years since its inception, Blue Moon Marquee has enjoyed success entertaining audiences across Europe and North America with their dynamic sound with no intention of stopping any time soon.

Tim Wolf

 

Aspiring rock stars dream of becoming household names in their 20s, but when Nashville-based Americana artist, Tim Wolf, was that age, he fantasized about creating a household consumer brand. The lifelong musician and entrepreneur did taste business-world stardom, earning prestigious Marketing Excellence awards; inventing and earning multiple US Patents; and living in chic and exotic locales like New York and Japan. Yet, the grind got him down, and, by 2014, Wolf found himself at his wit’s end.

One fateful day, a buddy intervened. He marched into Wolf’s office and demanded he shut down his enervating business ventures and pursue his dreams. “My friend metaphorically hit me on the head with a two by four. Things were so gray and dreary, and music just felt like sunshine and beautiful flowers. As soon as he left the office, I vowed to do music full time,” Wolf recalls. Within 24 hours Wolf listed real estate for sale which would allow him to restructure. He adds: “After it was sold, I was completely free to pursue my musical dreams full time.”

To date, Wolf has released a brace of singles, the Castle Built of Cards EP, and next he will issue his full-length debut, Everything I Learned In Grade School. In addition, since he’s fired up his artist career, Wolf has toured regionally and internationally. So far a career milestone has been touring Ukraine and Poland which climaxed with Wolf headlining the Stara Fortetsya Festival in Trostyanets, Ukraine.

His songs are those of the lone wolf—masculine but sensitive, romantic but ill-fated. Wolf a storyteller of hard luck and heartbreak. Wolf’s music is informed by the blues—he’s a lyrical and economic lead guitar player—but contextualized by Americana, that sweet spot where country, folk, and blues overlap, and songs come first. His vocals have a patina that’s both paternal and mythical—as if he’s singing from years of hard road living. Wolf’s song’s invite comparisons to Johnny Cash, Mark Knopfler, Rhett Miller, and Jason Isbell.

Wolf’s earthy musicality no doubt is tied to his rural upbringing in South Dakota where he grew up on a large but lonely farm. Despite being a natural at living off the land, Wolf had big city aspirations and earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering, an MBA, and set off for the wilds of the business world where he tasted success and excess. Eventually, he tired of the glitz, and brought his enterprising spirit back home.

Back in South Dakota, he pursued various entrepreneurial endeavors while overseeing the family farm. Away from the din and excitement of a life in business, his love of music began to surface. He had been playing guitar since grade school, and continued to practice, perform, and evolve as a musician throughout his adult life. He even picked up the saxophone later in life and began gigging semi-professionally with a cover band.

A series of events recalibrated Wolf’s journey from being landlocked by his family’s farm in South Dakota. His cover band dissolved, and a bubbling-under urge to be a front man, and his friend’s urgent request that he pursue music galvanized him into making some profound changes. He sold the farm, and decided to go all-in with music and move to Nashville in 2017.

It wasn’t an easy transition. The reality of a career in music hasn’t necessarily been the sunshine and beautiful flowers Wolf envisioned. In the wilds of Music City, Wolf rubbed shoulders with powerful producers interested in his talents, but hypercritical of his abilities. “I’ve been broken down so many times,” he admits. “My first reaction was to quit because I felt like I would never amount to anything. I remember thinking what would be the fastest route to sell my gear, but there’s nothing I would rather do than play music.”

However, he’s emerged from it all with dignity, grace, and an impressive back catalog of songs. He’s earned the stamp of approval of working with in-demand Nashville producer and singer-songwriter, Kenny Schick. Schick and Wolf worked together on his upcoming debut album, Everything I Learned in Grade School. That title is pinched from a quip a producer made while listening to one of Wolf’s tracks, remarking that his tasty blues licks were somehow pedestrian—“I learned those in grade school,” the producer exclaimed. To his credit, Wolf did take the hard scrapes in stride, feeling the pain, but also growing from the advice. He fine-tuned his vocals, easing them back into the pocket, but he stayed true to his gutsy and achingly beautiful lead guitar playing.

A sneak peek at his upcoming album produced by Schick includes the smoldering pop-rock track “Earthquake In A Bottle,” the gut-wrenching “A Million Little Hearts,” and the boldly vulnerable piano ballad, “Frequency.” The stunning “Earthquake In A Bottle” conjures the sleek groove-pop of prime 1970s Fleetwood Mac with a captivating romantic narrative. Here, Wolf’s writing is sexy and clever, one choice passage is A palindrome in human form/Like poetry upside down/She looks as good from any direction you can see.

Wolf’s EP Castle Built of Cards EP is available now on all digital sales and streaming platforms. Two highlights on this six-song EP include “Born In South Dakota” and “Castle Built of Cards,” both are co-written by guitarist Jimmy Davis. The swampy “Born In South Dakota” is both a storyteller and a scene-setting song, conveying a mythically grand perspective of Wolf’s home state through the Deadwood series saga of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. The lyrics are ominously evocative and feature such imaginative lines as: As the cold blows thru your bones/A man knows he’s alone/When he understands the wind can smell your fear I was born in South Dakota/Born in South Dakota. The EP title track features some of Wolf’s finest lead guitar playing, and his tasty melodic-blues playing evokes Eric Clapton and Mark Knoplfer. His vocals are low-register and understated and tell the story of a temptress woman who hoodwinks the male protagonist, using her charms and deceptive ideals to lure him into a trap.

The Nashville chapter in Wolf’s life has been both hard fought and triumphant. Up next, Wolf will be finishing up his debut album, and embarking on a 5 month, 85-date tour starting in January. The road has been reaffirming and grounding for Wolf, especially the festival in Ukraine. “When I went on, the audience was clapping and singing along from the first song,” he remembers. “It felt amazing, otherworldly, and I’m excited to hit the road in January!”

 https://thetimwolf.com/

Blaze Project

 

It’s a simple, universal fact that without our health we don’t have anything. The desire and drive to be alive and thrive is at the center of the powerful and purposeful new single by Canadian blues-rock band Blaze Project. “Still Fine” is available now!

A guitar-driven, super funky ride from start to finish, “Still Fine” is a revved-up testament to the indomitable will to live in the face of tough personal challenges. The song takes a triumphant approach in response to a health crisis too many people will face in their lifetimes.

 Try every day to do my best for me

Try every day to do much more for me

Still fine as you see

“‘Still Fine’ deals with cancer, a disease that affects thousands of families,” says the Baie-Comeau, Québec-based group. “Having lived it within the entourage of the band, the song is therapy in itself.”

Rather than focus on the grief and devastation a cancer diagnosis can cause, “Still Fine” underlines the determination, fight and forward thinking of a person who’s ready to tackle this formidable health challenge head on.

“It tells the story of a person affected, who decides to fight and whose great desire to stay alive will lead him back to health and eventually, healing.”

 “Still Fine” is one of several tracks on Blaze Project’s second full length release that embrace the positive aspects of life, even through the lens of hardship. The band took the two years of the deepest part of our global pandemic to consciously ‘enjoy this moment’ as they gathered in their practice space and composed the ten songs that make up the new album released last May. “Enjoy This Moment” follows up Blaze Project’s 2018 debut album “Universe”.

“We took two years to compose and refine ‘Enjoy This Moment’ in a positive and playful climate,” notes the band. “The album conveys positive messages and a beautiful energy.”

Recorded mostly live off the floor on analog equipment at Wild Studio in Saint-Zénon, Québec, “Enjoy This Moment” mixes the band’s diverse influences of blues, rock, funk, and indie rock into a warm, rich and delicious sound concoction. The kinetic energy of the band ripping through their songs in a single take is what fuels this project.

“Music is visceral to us,” they explain. “It’s the need to create and share, touch people and make a difference in their day in order to change the negative into positive!”

Blaze Project is composed of vocalist and acoustic guitarist Pat Trudel, guitarist and vocalist Serge Blais, drummer Danny St-Gelais and bassist Jacques Roy. In recent years, the foursome has seen more than their fair share of bad luck including illnesses, deaths in the family and a serious road accident that almost claimed Trudel’s life. All of that galvanized the band into action with passionate, positive momentum to create “Enjoy This Moment”, which has resulted in airplay on 350 international radio stations and a spate of great reviews.

“Our music has become much more emotional, and our vision has become very clear: to pursue our dream, to touch people and to write the best music possible!”

“Still Fine” and the new album “Enjoy This Moment” are both available now.

 https://blazeproject.ca/

Jon Sudbury

 

After  getting  hooked  on  the  music  of  AC/DC,  Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, The Faces and The
Rolling Stones, Jon Sudbury got  his first guitar aged 13, immediately formed his first  band and  was gigging within 6 months. Having been in many bands over the years and playing all over the world, in 2013 he started as guitarist with Nashville roots rocker Stacie Collins, touring Europe extensively and writing and recording with her. In March 2020, covid struck and stopped all touring so he got stuck into writing more for his own release which has now taken a more prominent role after the sudden tragic death of Al Collins, band leader and husband of Stacie Collins. 

This upcoming album for SWND Records draws heavily on Jon’s early influences of 70’s rock
and also features leanings.

 https://www.facebook.com/JonSudbury/

Alli Bean

 

A lover who withholds is often frustrating, at best. With that, multi-award-winning Victoria, BC-based jazz songstress Alli Bean captures the dynamic’s push-pull perfectly in her new single “Twenty Questions,” from her recently released album, Outside Voice — available now!

 

Framed as a series of increasingly probing questions for her lover, “Twenty Questions” features a funky, head-bopping groove, saucy and soulful vocals, and a chill “Doo doo doo” chorus over rollicking piano. Basically, it asks –  in a detached and curious way – why the guy is such a damn narcissist:

 

What do you dream about while I awake from dreaming of you?

While I try to turn my light out, what is it you do? 

Where do you go when you don't have a plan? 

Who are you when you're not the front man? 

 

The narrator inquires, somewhat sadly, why such a lover won’t let anyone in, but her smarts and self-respect get the better of her over and over again, as she challenges: “Why am I freezing in the heat while you're struttin' around so cold?” The overall message is a tried-and-true “you’re so vain,” so that the woman doing the calling out emerges as the song’s embattled hero.

 

It’s a theme that’s overarching on the album, recorded in its entirety in Bean’s tiny home studio during the pandemic. “Outside Voice is a culmination of works created along a personal growth journey,” Bean divulges. “We go through life making moves, and choices aren't always conscious. By chasing people and seeking external validation, we find ourselves in dicey situations, leading us astray from what matters.

 

“When I realized I had this issue,” she continues, “I turned inward and began really asking myself what I was relentlessly pursuing – what did I need to let go of in order to find it? In that process, I said goodbye to a lot of habits and ideas that got in the way.”

 

Alli Bean is a multi-award-winning Canadian powerhouse blues/jazz/pop-influenced songwriter and vocalist. Drawing influence from a multitude of artists including Wynton Kelly, Horace Silver, Fiona Apple, and Amy Winehouse, her compositional style leans toward the bluesy, funky side of the street, with a twist of jazz and a dash of sass for good measure. 

http://www.allibean.ca/