Best of 2016: The Garage received a lot of blues CDs this year and all of them were above standard, but ultimately had to be judged for other reasons of personality, believability, skill and versatility, etc. Take a bow Michael Kaeshammer a...
Camille Miller
Somewhere Near the Truth
Independent
Camille Miller’s voice is the centerpiece of this recording. A finely honed instrument that's passionate, soulful, and downright riveting, without being overbearing. Camille's song...
When The Wilderness took the stage at Skeleton Park Arts Festival in the summer of 2019, they were met with uproarious applause. People got up from their lawn chairs and their picnic blankets to dance and sing along in the late afternoon su...
Lay it On Me
Self-distributed
Waa-BOOM! With an album title ripped from frontman Ryan Hoben’s muscleman tattoos, indiefolkrocksters Minto punch it open with sludgy dirge, “New Bones” – formerly a chooglin’ alt-country number i...
Produced by Hawksley Workman, Wind Up/Let Go is a tasty, ten-track synth-pop treat.
Metal Blade Records
Bison is the most hyped band in Vancouver right now. Sometimes hype can be a tough thing to deal with, but these fuckers keep coming through every time. Every show is better than the next, so every album is obviously ...
ENGLISH MOTETS
The Gesualdo Six / Owain Park · Hyperion CDA68256
The Gesualdo Six hardly need a review of this their debut CD: within days of its release around Easter it was top of the iTunes classical chart. The CD is a collection of E...
Redcat Records
Some say country-rock died with Gram Parsons premature passing in 1973, casual fans say it’s when the Eagles sold-out and recorded Hotel California, but almost everyone can agree that just as quickly as it came – it w...
Crop Circle may have taken their name from the controversial 70’s phenomenon, but they have also managed to contribute to a more recent enigma: the earworm. Traditionally, this little beastie takes the form of a trite pop song (think Ms. ...
BLACK MOUNTAIN
In The Future
Jagjaguwar
When I hear Stephen McBean’s slowly-picked A-minor guitar intro for “Stormy High,” I’m almost tricked into thinking it’s a cover of “Hell’s Bells,” but then the swing-time Black...
Fans of guitar tone have a lot to learn about Bill Johnson. His fourth album, Cold Outside should be the one that has this Vancouver Island native flying high above the radar, finally. Ripe with an abundance of select tracks, Johnson proves...