Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Jill Barber, Doug Paisley, The Revivalists, Dan Mangan, Bailen, Busty and the Bass, Aether, Mint Simon,

By Will McGuirk

“I do believe certain songs can only be found in certain instruments,” - Doug Paisley

"We all go through ups and downs. Sometimes, we don't believe in ourselves. We've got skeletons in the closet trying to drag us down. But you've got to believe in yourself.” - Dave Shaw, The Revivalists

"I love the idea that songs can live many lives,” - Dan Mangan

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

Slowcity.ca Open Mic: The Gertrudes, Sarah Hiltz, Busty and the Bass + Cadence Weapon, Scott Hardware, Skeggs, The Night Owls, Harrow Fair, and Wet Leg

By Will McGuirk

"... The Gertrudes' "Boys' Town" music video reflects on the 1969 documentary "Dear Landlord", Directed by Dennis Crossfield and featuring nationally renowned activist Joan Kuyek, who analyse Kingston's housing crisis at that time. Unfortunately, not much has changed. Kingston's housing continues to be in short supply — historically, the city has had some of the lowest vacancy rates in the province." - Greg Tilson

“We are all human beings meant to experience the breadth of human emotion, including anger. That doesn’t have to be negative or even divisive. It’s true it might be uncomfortable, but discomfort and danger are not the same thing."  - Sarah Hiltz

"finding a way to allow yourself to truly relax and disconnect in the age of the notification." - Cadence Weapon

“The night I wrote it, I was in a mad rush against my own urge to self-censor, the lyrics bare no mystery or even much poetry. More than that, they're honest in a way that STILL makes me uncomfortable. Being able to get them out before I could stifle this loud and proclamation of love was a big deal for me as a songwriter and as a person." - Scott Hardware

"I think I wrote it a while ago, being in a mood where it's epic to try and ride out your ambitions and try and always look back when you kook it at life, and say I will try to be better, be a better friend, better partner, get better at getting better,” - Ben Reed, Skeggs

“We like to play music at night. The only thing that matters is each other, because in those times we feel like there’s only the two of us in the universe.” - the Night Owls

---

---

---

---

---

---

Slowcity.ca with Elizabeth Leslie, Once A Tree, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Mattie Leon, Peter Katz, Grace Gillespie, Ghost Love, Busty and the Bass, Gillian Stone, and Black Collar Union

By Will McGuirk

“Now is the time to look up from your phone and look around you. What can you do to effect change? I'd like for listeners to come away with a feeling of power, that we, as a collective society, are powerful, but only when we are not divided.” ~ Elizabeth Leslie

---

---

“To our knowledge there hasn’t been an Indian and ‘Indian’ (Indigenous) mash-up in Hip-Hop. It seems like an obvious choice that Indigenous people and Indian people would collaborate, as their histories are intertwined in one colonial historical moment where, thinking he’d reached India, Columbus dubbed the people he sought to conquer and eradicate, ‘Indian’.” ~ SNRK

---

---

"Part of what I wanted to do with this new music is to not have it be just about my story. It’s in there – it’s all in there – but I think that my older approach to writing was about holding on rather than letting go; This music feels like letting go to me. And I hope that when people hear it, they can hear their own story in it and that maybe it can help them feel like letting go too." ~ Peter Katz

---

Grace Gillespie · For Nick Drake

---

---

---

---

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Dawes, Shirley Collins, Busty and the Bass, Mike Block, Jenny Banai, Le Couleur, Lou Canon, Aiza, Scenic Route to Alaska, and Krosst

By Will McGuirk

Reach out but don’t touch yet, stretch out to feel but don’t feel anything yet. . . do you feel comfortable in your skin, out in your skin among other skins. . . didn’t you feel more comfortable inside when you interacted with the world online. . . where, when skin didn’t matter. . . ready for that space again, ready to retreat further inside and leave the outside out there. What has changed? You have changed.

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

Scenic Route to Alaska · Closer

---

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Jyoti, Lou Canon, Jonsi, Mike Edel, Luka Kuplowsky, Busty and the Bass with Macy Gray, The Lagoons, Shred Kelly, Seether,

By Will McGuirk

Happy to spend time in the presence of Jyoti, the name given to Georgia Ann Muldrow by Alice Coltrane. The presence of the track in my feed reminds me of parallel worlds, cultures, lives which continue on, evolve, live, express and rarely cross my path. It is into these worlds we must challenge ourselves to step, I must challenge my self to step, to go beyond and understand the language of other cultures, other lives. And when its this good, this evocative, this clear, this expressive, this welcoming, this comprehensive well, who wouldn’t want to visit longer, and visit deeper. Its new tunes from an upcoming album Mama, You Can Bet!. Go forward with this and then go retrieve.

---

“This song is about pushing higher, going further, moving deeper. And engaging with the world in a sensual way. There is a passage by James Baldwin that encapsulates this sentiment, ‘To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the making of bread.’”  - Lou Canon

---

---

“I don’t really feel the doubt, I just wanna sing it loud” - Mike Edel

---

“Written in an empty apartment shortly after moving in with my partner. A sincere expression of love. A sacred love song attuned to the natural world - thunder, wind, moonlight and a dolphin.” - Luka Kuplowsky

---

---

The Lagoons · Midnight Afternoon

---

---