1:00 pm – 1:25 pm

….the little redhead from Whistler
Ali Milner is a seasoned professional with a sweet, pure sound and amazing vocal depth. Ali accompanies herself on piano through a repertoire of her own compositions, rhythm and blues, and favourite jazz standards.

In 2006, she performed at the Toronto International Film Festival for a movie premier after-party at the Drake Hotel. In 2007, she did two repeat performances at the Drake and has a standing invitation to return. In Toronto she has also gigged at the Cobourg Bar, and the Cameron House.

Some highlights:

• Ali accompanied Premier Gordon Campbell to China and performed at a cultural festival before 60,000 people, televised to 90,000,000
• She has performed at several Olympic and Paralympic Games countdown events.
• She has even sung for Royalty.

When she was fourteen she wrote and recorded her first CD. Several tracks can be reviewed on www.myspace.com/AliMilner. She is currently “in writing mode” working on a second CD.

This blog is the inside story of where she is performing, what’s new in her repertoire and personal feedback from the artist herself.

For more info on Ali Milner visit:
www.alimilner.com

1:45pm – 2:10 pm

“Kristmanson’s direct yet otherworldly style [makes her songs] seem like folk music from some isolated mountain or urban canyon” Robert Everett Green, The Globe and Mail

Kyrie Kristmanson is a fresh voice on Canada’s independent music scene. Her unique musical style evokes the various Canadian maritime, prairie and urban landscapes she has grown up in. At nineteen, she has already captivated audiences in various parts of the country and abroad with her fusion of folk, jazz and alternative rock influences. She writes powerful, exciting and thoughtful songs in English and French. She incorporates her third language, Spanish, from time to time.

Kyrie plays a nylon-string guitar that her father gave her for her ninth birthday, the beginning of her musical life. As she grew up in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and London, England, she studied voice, guitar and trumpet with a series of wonderful teachers and mentors.

For more info on Kyrie Kristmanson visit:
www.myspace.com/kyriekristmanson

2:30pm – 2:55 pm

Singer-songwriters are meant to trade in whimsical pleasures, in the soft strums of a guitar, in worlds so delicate and small they could shatter at a single touch. Martha Wainwright doesn’t trade alongside them. Back with a second record that’s both tender and tough, beautiful and brutal, and simmering with invention and confidence, Martha forgot to read the rulebook. Either that, or she set all its pages aflame, strutted through the smoke, and emerged burnt and brave. And this time around, she’s happy about it.

“I’m as happy as hell. Because I’ve learned what I’m good at; I’ve learned what I’m not good at. I’ve learned to look back at the people I’ve loved and I’ve lost, but also to look at the world outside myself. And I’ve got the confidence to stand up there and do that at last.”

It’s been three busy years since Martha released her eponymous debut album of confessional, fearless songs. And in that time, she’s had a lot to be happy about. She’s toured her songs internationally many times, watching them sweep up acclaim and awards with every flight ticket. She’s made music with The Who’s Pete Townshend, Damon Albarn’s Africa Express, Antony Hegarty and Snow Patrol, with whom she scored a top 20 hit.

For more info on Martha Wainwright visit:
www.marthawainwright.com

3:15pm – 3:40 pm

Royal Wood has always impressed with his poised and polished performances. Royal has performed across the country with Sarah Slean, gaining fans in Paul Anka, Pierre Marchand, and an ever-growing number of those who have had the chance to hear his signature silken style.

This summer (2008), Royal appeared in festivals across Canada, and he will soon be back in studio to follow up on 2007’s stellar release, A Good Enough Day.

For more info on Royal Wood visit:
www.royalwood.ca

4:00pm – 4:25 pm

Stealing thunder so you move that ass, the duo dubbed Thunderheist unleash serious electro-pop boom bap party funk. Isis runs the mic, Grahm Zilla runs the rhythms, and together they have incited dancefloor mayhem around the world with their incredible live shows and much-coveted tunes. ‘Jerk It’ has rocked the blogosphere and countless dancefloors with its synth-heavy swagger coaching how one needs to get down with fierceness.

For more info on Thunderheist visit:
www.thunderheist.com

1:00pm – 1:25pm

Gentleman Reg has been performing in Canada since the turn of the millennium, garnering attention for his two acclaimed full-lengths, 2002’s Make Me Pretty and 2004’s Darby & Joan.  Reg has recently wrapped recording on the much-anticipated follow up and signed to Arts & Crafts who will release Jet Black in early 2009.  In advance, Gentleman Reg will release his first 7” single, “You Can’t Get It Back” / “City of Eros” and in the U.S., Little Buildings ep, both on November 11.  Reg appeared in the 2006 John Cameron Mitchell movie, “Short Bus”, has toured and performed with Tegan and Sara, Stars, The Hidden Cameras, Broken Social Scene, amongst others.

For more info on Gentleman Reg visit:
www.myspace.com/gentlemanreg

1:45pm – 2:10pm

Solo projects are inherently a risk.  Traditionally, few members of prominent bands have seen success in their undertaking.  Add to this the notion of creating stripped-down music that doesn’t reference the original band’s genre, and you certainly have less examples of success to point to.

Dallas Green, who until a couple of years ago was better know as the dulcet voice of Alexisonfire, released his debut album ‘Sometimes’ in 2005. The album achieved
Platinum certification in 2006. Green performed at the 2006 MuchMusic Video Awards, where City and Colour won the People’s Choice Favourite Canadian Artist award.  In 2007, Green performed live on the JUNOS, taking home the award for Alternative Album of The Year.

With the recent release of ‘Bring Me Your Love’, Green continues to demonstrate his talents. The latest album also features appearances by Gordon Downie of The Tragically Hip, and friends/label mates, Attack in Black.

For more info on City and Colour visit:
www.cityandcolour.ca

2:30pm – 2:55pm

Newcomers, Montreal-based Final Flash, are rapidly making waves with their unique  brand of psychedelic indie rock. After only 2 shows, Final Flash caught the attention of  fans, local media and programmers, landing shows at CMW, M for Montreal and Canadian Music Café as well as interest for touring in the UK. Drawing from influences as varied as Neil Young, The Beatles and The Velvet Underground, this  exciting quintet will head to the studio to record their first album in December 2008.

Signed to Indica Records, Jace Lasek (Besnard Lakes) will produce their debut CD, scheduled for release early in 2009.

For more info on Final Flash visit:
www.myspace.com/finalflash

3:15pm – 3:40pm

JTwo Hours Traffic’s second album Little Jabs (Bumstead Records), produced by Joel Plaskett, is a 2008 Polaris Music Prize Finalist. Reaching #1 in Canada on the influential CBC Radio 3 Album Chart and remained on CMJ US College Radio Top 200 for 7 weeks. Little Jabs also received a 2008 ECMA Award for Pop Recording of the Year.

Two Hours Traffic have toured across Canada twice and have also performed in New York and London in support of the album.

For more info on Two Hours Traffic visit:
www.twohourstraffic.com

Since her 2004 debut release Oh Heart, Jill Barber’s warm songwriting and charming stage presence have won her the hearts of fans, peers and critics, amassing over 25 award nominations to date.  Her first full-length (2006’s For All Time) received two Juno nominations including Best New Artist. Due this fall, her third album features co-writes with Ron Sexsmith and promises a lovely collection of timeless tunes delivered in Jill’s unique, glimmering voice.

For more info on Jll Barber visit:
www.jillbarber.com

1:30pm – 1:55pm

If, in the past 8 months you’ve kept up to date on album reviews, music blogs, top-ten best lists, college/independent radio top-ten charts, and the general buzz of the elite on the Canadian touring circuit, you will have undoubtedly seen or heard this man’s name. Shuyler Jansen is a one-man force to be reckoned with, with moody hair raising songs intertwined with some of the coolest soundscapes you’ve heard coaxed out of any foot pedal.

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For more about Shuyler Jansen visit www.blackhenmusic.com

Grand Analog is unbalanced and dirty; never clean. Grand Analog is fuzzy with three coats of dust and reads like an old manual no longer in use. The music is a beautiful mess of rap’n'roll, dub and soul; a hip hop slop shop of times good and bad.
Calligraffiti: For the tired heavy heart, ridden with struggle and happiness.

“Grand Analog’s debut record is a smart, tart melange of beats and flavours from all over, with mid-tempo rhymes rich in word play and low on the boosterism that dulls so many rap albums. The sense of movement in these tracks is terrific, and often leads to unexpected destinations, such as the bluesy, jazz trumpet solo that closes Touch Your Toes.” The Globe and Mail

For more info on Grand Analog visit:
www.myspace.com/grandanalog

3:00pm – 3:25pm

“Before you go, just one last taste, one for the road and our mistakes…”
Lindi Ortega tells it like it is: her songs are filled with all the excruciating details of  troubled love, things that are not often spoken but are instantly recognized by
those who have passed the same way. And it’s this heart-stopping realism,
combined with an effortless flair for melody – and the voice of an angel –
that’s currently turning heads.

Lindi’s music is best classified as singer/songwriter, whose sound draws from influences that mixes in a healthy appreciation of classic old-school pop and rock, and arrives vividly in the present via the dusty back-roads of alternative country, complete with surprising twists and turns.

Her striking and distinctive voice, is one that can soar with beautiful clarity above driving drum beats and blaring horns or assume an intimate vulnerability within the stripped-down acoustic guitar. Whatever kind of song she’s singing, Lindi’s extraordinary vibrato is immediately identifiable. And so is that bottle of Jack, over there in the corner.

For more info on Linda Ortega visit:
www.myspace.com/lindimusic

The oldest of three children born to a Canadian father and Jamaican mother, Kreesha was raised in Edmonton, a city of about 1 million in the province of Alberta. She can’t remember a time when music wasn’t part of her life. As young as six, Kreesha would dance in her bedroom to instrumentals by jazz icon Oscar Peterson. “I always had an inclination for jazz,” she recalls. “As long as I can remember.”

Kreesha Turner is Canada’s next star on the rise.  With two Top 5 hits already under her belt (’Bounce With Me’, & ‘Don’t Call Me Baby’), and a tonne of TV exposure thanks to syncs with Entourage, The Hills, So You Think You Can Dance, Gossip Girls, and Desperate Housewives to name a few.  Kreesha Turner is an artist you will be hearing and hearing about for a long time…

For more info on Kreesha Turner visit:
www.kreeshaturner.com

4:30pm – 4:55pm

The Midway State’s musical influences are hard to pinpoint. Their sound is a unique concoction of assured song writing built on lead singer Nathan Ferraro’s admiration of classic, gimmick-free artists. The band’s nakedly emotional piano-driven rock songs bear no clear connection to any current sound or scene though the band has drawn comparisons to Coldplay and Snow Patrol. Their debut album, Holes, glistens with refined melodies, raw emotion and massive sing-a-long hooks. As NME magazine put it: “You don’t know where the emotional undertow is going to pull you next, just that eventually the combination of youthful drama and mature melodies of these songs will tug you under”.

For more about The Midway State visit:
www.themidwaystate.com