Dallas Green, aka City and Colour, has announced a 25-show Canadian theatre that opens in Courtenay, BC on April 1 and wraps up in Corner Brook, NL on May 16. Green will perform songs from his catalogue, accompanied by instrumentalist Matt Kelly from City and Colour’s touring band.  A buck from each ticket goes to MusiCounts, the charitable org that provides musical instruments in secondary schools.

City and Colour returns with a full band line-up to perform at an all-Canadian line-up in celebration of Canada’s 150th Birthday on Sunday, July 2, along with Blue Rodeo, The Strumbellas, Stars and Dear Rouge at the Commons at Butler’s Barracks National Historic Site in Niagara-On-The-Lake. The event will be hosted by Wayne & Daryl from Canadian sitcom Letterkenny and marks a “Coming Home” for Dallas Green, a native of St. Catharines who last performed at the national historic site in 2013.

-- Celebrated BC country music singer-songwriter Tommy West has won a lot of friends, earned a loyal following and contributed his share of time to local charities in and around Vancouver. Recently the BC country singer-songwriter teamed up with Tom McKillip, one of the hottest producers in the country right now. The result is "Test of Time," an unapologetically sentimental look at his parents lasting love. Vancouver Province scribbler Tom Harrison is a fan of the song and West, noting recently that "All of Tommy's songs are uncontrived; their sincerity believable. They're what sets him apart.”

 

-- Sheri Jones' hot new Maritime act Port Cities celebrates the release of its debut full-length album with a performance at the Music Nova Scotia Offices on Feb. 10. Band members Dylan Guthro, Breagh Mackinnon, and Carleton Stone will be in attendance, as perhaps too producer Gordie Sampson.

In 2016, Port Cities won Casino Nova Scotia's 3rd annual Artist in Residence competition, which awarded them $20K, and the band released its first two songs, "Astronaut" and "Back to the Bottom."

 

-- Angelo Moore (Fishbone), Keith Morris (Circle Jerks, Black Flag), Nick Zedd (The Wild World of Lydia Lunch), and D.H. Peligro (Dead Kennedys, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers) have teamed up with Toronto-born, LA-based director Mars Roberge in Scumbag--his B-movie comedy flick that starts the screener festival rounds next month.

 

Aussie hip-pop superstar Illy returns to Canada for a 10-city March tour to pump Two Degrees, his fifth studio album.  "Catch 22" featuring Brit duet song-star Anne- Marie is the second single from this already enormously popular LP.

 

-- Edmonton rock crew Royal Tusk has put the winters tires on the van and are ready to take their live show across western Canada. The band will head out on the road alongside The Pistolwhips, opening the shenanigans at The Exchange in Regina on February 23, followed by dates in Saskatoon, Calgary, and Vancouver.

Royal Tusk's debut full-length Dealbreaker album, released through Cadence Music in 2016, has earned rave reviews and has seen over 3M+ streams on Spotify since its release. The band recently caught the attention of Buzzfeed Canada, who listed them as one of the their "17 Artists to Watch in 2017".

Following the western dates, Royal Tusk will head south to play SXSW in Austin, then overseas to play The Great Escape in the UK.

"Fever" is taken from the Groundbreaker album

 

-- Renowned roots group Whiskey Jack presents the fourth annual Stompin' Tom Birthday Celebration on Sunday afternoon, Feb. 12, at the Cadillac Lounge in Toronto. Special guests TBA, though The Hon. Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, has confirmed her attendance, and award-winning author, David MacFarlane and musical cohort Douglas Cameron will perform. Whiskey-member Duncan Fremlin will also discuss Tom in a noon-hour "Stompin' Tom special on CIUT-FM on Feb. 7.

-- Billboard has announced an exclusive agreement that will add Pandora streaming data to the Billboard Hot 100. The Hot 100 ranks the week's most popular songs across all genres, determined by a formula blending track sales, radio airplay and streaming.

-- The Sakamoto Agency yesterday announced the addition of Calgary-based artists Nice Horse to its domestic agency roster. The fast-rising all-female country quartet has a management and label deal with Coalition Music, the same company that manages Our Lady Peace and Tom Cochrane. A debut EP, co-produced by Jeff Dalziel (Washboard Union, Brett Kissel) and Bob Rock (Bryan Adams, Aerosmith), is set to be released in Feb. when Nice Horse hits the road with Tom Cochrane.

A press release stated that “Sakamoto Agency will look after all of Nice Horse’s live performance engagements, and look forward to collaborating with the management team at Coalition Music on exciting future developments.”

-- The deadline for nominations for the 2nd annual CMW Live Music Awards has been extended through to Feb. 10. Click here to submit your nomination(s)