Tami Neilson, photo by Mary Ellen Matthews
alt image - Killer Mike

Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Killer Mike, Pierre Kwenders, Tami Neilson, Grace Potter, summersets, The Matinee, Victoria Monét, and Big Little Lions

Will McGuirk May 11, 2023

By Will McGuirk

This is a celebration of a BAD ASS BLACK GIRL from the westside of Atlanta. She’s been affectionately called OG Mama Niecy by the many people she helped stay on their path.” - Killer Mike

“Reminding us that curiosity killed the cat, everything requires moderation, and that, in love, no one wants to walk on eggshells.” - Pierre Kwenders

“I wanted ‘Kingmaker’ to feel like a movie theme that plays as the opening credits unfold so that the songs take the listener through the highs and lows of a story unfolding, more like a movie soundtrack than adhering to one genre or style.” - Tami Neilson

“In Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck called Route 66 the ‘The Mother of all roads...the road of flight.’ As I zeroed out my odometer and started west on my road trip across the US, I hoped that driving the road of flight would give me a bird’s eye view of my life. But it didn’t take long to realize that I was not flying; I was running away.” - Grace Potter

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Denise Chaila, Rachel Beck, , Lynn Jackson, Liza Anne, Grace Potter, and Jehnny Beth

Will McGuirk June 14, 2020

By Will McGuirk

Waves of karma lap the edges of the gilded palaces. Gate keepers shovel heaps of broken promises trying to stem the tide, trying to buy some time but the palaces crumble still from within.

“We are now living in a different world than we were when I wrote these songs and captured these sonic vibrations, these soul vibrations. It has been a challenging year, yet all around me I see people stepping into their power, finding their voices, and discovering their strength.” - Rachel Beck

“This song is about feeling the weight of someone else’s sadness and feeling it, inevitably, bring you down too because when you love someone, sometimes you wear their emotions like your own.” - Liza Anne

Slowcity.ca Open Mic wit the Jerry Cans, Rachel Beck, Grace Potter, Monica Lee, Carmanah, Jehnny Beth, Lost Frequencies and Joy Invincible

Will McGuirk April 22, 2020

By Will McGuirk

‘You are stronger than you know’ a new song by Rachel Beck but also a call to arms, stay home, stay still, you can do it , be it - we are learning that - for many of us we are not being asked to do much it seems but staying still is still not natural, mobility is at the essence of being - we are beings who move, who migrate, but meditate mmmmm. . . but you can do it, you can go in, deep, and listen to the stillness between the rushings, the sounds in the silences. Rachel Beck’s voice is thrilling as the transitions, her song thrives in the liminal, we are stronger than we think if we can think of the gaps as bonds.

“For me, music has been a safe haven in these strange times. As we learn to adapt to a new human condition, I wanted to share a couple of new recordings that feel timely. It’s so important that we not feel alone right now. More than anything else, I just wanted to send a little musical comfort out to the world.” - Grace Potter

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with nêhiyawa, Lucas Fogale, The High Loves, Golden Cinema, Pride & Glory, Grace Potter, Ariel Posen, Mondo Cozmo, Once A Tree, Bailen,

Will McGuirk October 26, 2019

By Will McGuirk

The wave is the wind’s masterpiece. The artist is as a wave swelling on the tide, the artist can break and wash and dissolve, leave a wake, be seen, be heard, move the environment, be moved by the environment. The artist is aware of the tide, sees context, place, history, the continuum, and rises.

“I felt like there is an incredible love story to be examined between Michaelangelo and Tommaso, As well to point out to some of the realities of having the master’s work commissioned required the spoils of colonial exploits. For me the idea of having another indigenous artist (Maria Buffalo) visualize concepts knowing some of the back story of the lyrics in the music, but relating that to images of Maskwacis First Nation, the body, hands, and indigenous people; I could imagine an incredible juxtaposition. The story of the song deepens with additional perspectives working their own ideas into this piece.”
- nêhiyawa

"that the fate of the water resolves in the sand, that maybe all we’re doing's for nothing.”
- Lucas Fogale

“The song's about how I feel trapped sometimes because of the overwhelming media that's all around us these days. It's discouraging because it often makes you forget what’s important to yourself. If you don't slow down and take the time to question your beliefs and the beliefs of those around you you're gonna get drained by the Vampire's Jaws.”
- The High Loves

“I was watching an old film noir when I stumbled upon the main bassline that would form our new single,”
- Golden Cinema

"So often we can find ourselves feeling trapped in the mundane cycles of life. This song is a reminder to take a step back and shake things up,” - Once A Tree.

Slowcity.ca Open Mic - turning inwards with Grace Potter, Jordan Klassen, Laurent Bourque, Yoke Lore, The New Pornographers, Close Talkers, Geneviève Racette and Reuben and the Dark

Will McGuirk September 29, 2019

By Will McGuirk

Change is constant but there is reoccurrence, there is pattern, season, cycles and revolutions. It is time again to settle inside, to pull closer the elements of warmth, all that which brings comfort and look forward to the curve which brings it all back round again.

“It's so easy to just assume that the narratives we're telling ourselves about ourselves are true and that can be pretty debilitating. The song is about those moments when you're quiet and present and suddenly you realize that the story you've been telling is false, and there's this tremendous relief that maybe you'll be ok, that everything will be ok.” - Jordan Klassen

"but when you move quickly, you miss certain aspects of the journey. I could be missing out on some really wonderful information that I would get if I stopped to smell the roses once in a while. I worry that when something or someone really important comes around, I will be moving too quickly to catch it or them." - Adrian Glavin, Yoke Lore.

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Rose Cousins, Dave Sampson, Grace Potter, Tedeschi Trucks Band, The Wild! and Logan Ledger,

Will McGuirk September 16, 2019

This eve, post-Full Moon, Fall beckons, and a wistful night ahead so some songs with the lonesome pining at the core of this country, perhaps this is all the cri de coeur of a nation of comefromaways, and the soulful leanings of nostalgia, but not just for a past recently closed but a deeper past, one generations old and the impulse of a people, strangers still in this strange land of long winters and the prying eyes of peering wendigos.

Slowcity.ca Open Mic - Start me up with Les Stroud, Raphael Saadiq, Mondo Cozmo, Saffron A, Common, Grace Potter, Juke Ross, Christian French and The New Pornographers

Will McGuirk August 26, 2019

By Will McGuirk

I took a stroll to the lake today, the water is high, the waves were loud, the lake seemed more like an ocean but I thought Yr Not The Ocean, the sun was low and there was the feeling of summer’s end. But it is not an end, it is a beginning, it is always a beginning.