Who can forget the 2009 festival performances of the group Umalali, the women who brought us the mesmerizing music and dance of the Garifuna people of Belize? They were the talk of the weekend, and one of the most compelling groups from that memorable festival. Now, one of Canada's very own brings us another chance to dive into the warm Belizean cultural waters...
Rapping in English, French, Creole, Spanish and Arabic, Montreal’s best-kept Hip-hop secret, Nomadic Massive, makes itself heard across borders and among cultures. These messengers of universal understanding, and whistle-blowers against social injustice, this collective of independent hip-hop artists first recorded in 2006 with “Nomad’s Land”. Enthusiastic audiences and critics were all ears. Evolving from its early days of two turntables and a microphone...
While Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton may have grown up in Los Angeles, his deep southern Creole roots shape his music. Paxton was immersed in Cajun and country blues sounds at a young age through the songs his grandma used to sing, along with a raft of 78 records. He fell in love with early 1930s music, and made that music and era his own...
Phildel is a compound name - made up of her two parents’ names: Philip and Della. Her father is Chinese and her mother, Irish. Despite being off to a good start, at the age of 8, Phildel’s life spiraled into what can only be described as a Dickensian-style story. Her mother married a harsh fundamentalist, and music became a forbidden evil...
Martha Redbone’s music flows equally from her own unique, award-winning blend of Native American elements with funk, and her deep roots in Appalachian folk and Piedmont blues, and flavoured by the matriarchy that raised her in Virginia, Harlan County, Kentucky and on Brooklyn’s mean streets. Having established a solid reputation as a sought-after collaborator in London and New York...
Coming from a thousand miles and a border apart, Pharis and Jason Romero met in 2007 at an old-time fiddle jam. Both had been playing music for decades, and both were drawn to early country, old-time, blues and bluegrass. In 2010 they moved their home and the J. Romero Banjo Company north to the small BC town of Horsefly...
He’s been described as poetic, literate and “spacious”. Toronto’s NOW Magazine says, "For anyone following the folk/roots scene in Toronto, the serene work of Justin Rutledge is no secret, but it's easy to forget just how engaging and talented this gentle singer-songwriter is
Stefano Saletti and Piccola Banda Ikona brings together some of the most important musicians of Italian world music to play the music of the Mediterranean. The band features original compositions sung in Sabir, a lingua franca which sailors and other sea-going folk on the Mediterranean used in the ports to communicate with each other until the early decades of the 20th Century...
The Shirleys are six unique women with signature solo voices, who have come together to create a jewel-toned sextet. They will delight you with their humour, passion and enthusiasm, singing everything from Cuban Carnival music and tragic Russian love songs to sweet Mandarin flirtations and wrenching Appalachian protest songs. Their diverse repertoire includes original material and innovative arrangements of songs in seven different languages...
Formed in West African refugee camps, the Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars have risen like a phoenix out of the ashes of war and enflamed the passions of fans across the globe with their uplifting songs of hope, faith and joy . . .