Amanda Rheaume Uses Music To Help Others

 Amanda Rheaume has been crafting music for some time but it wasn't until recently that she felt comfortable with herself. With her hard work starting to pay off, Rheaume wanted to reflect on this time with the album The Skin I'm In. Rheaume also spent time with Darkspark, using music

Album Reviews: September 17, 2018

 Paul McCartney - Egypt Station (England) With decades of music behind him it's cool to see Paul McCartney trying to reinvent himself and modern pop on his new record. Though he's not always pushing himself far enough, there's still a hunger in McCartney's music that makes it exciting. "I Don't

Jim Bryson No Longer Waiting

 Photo credit: Remi Theriault It’s here! Ottawa’s Jim Bryson is releasing an EP on September 14 via Rae Spoon’s Coax Records / Headless Owl Records. Entitled Tired Of Waiting, it features 6 new songs, all written on the same $100 guitar as he was whiling away time between projects.  If you

BEST OF OTTAWA: Musicians

 With 20-years writing about Ottawa life we think we have a pretty good idea of the best of what this city has to offer. In this new weekly summer series we’ll share it with you. From our top picks of hotels, live music venues, local brews, bands and more, check,

Split Shift Becomes Split Personality for Area Resident

 What do you do you do when you have a long break between your split shift? Well, if you’re Doug Hempstead, you develop a split personality! CBC traffic reporter by day, musician by whenever he has the time for it, Hempstead isn’t at a loss for ways to occupy his

A Big Show with Hat Fitz and Cara for Small Halls

 Images by Roseanne Lake. The Festival of Small Halls is exactly as it sounds, a bunch of bands going to historic and beautiful places around Ottawa playing big shows in small places. The festival is meant to bring life and vitality back to small venues outside of the city landscape. It

Festival City Contest: Win Tickets to the TD Ottawa Jazz Festival’s After Dark Series

 Soil & "Pimp" Sessions will show you why they are masters of Japanese "death jazz" on July 2. Photos provided by TD Ottawa Jazz Festival.  The 24th Street Wailers take to the After Dark stage on June 26. UPDATE: Huge congrats to the winners of our first Festival City contest. Ben Sandy Bolduc,

Amanda Rheaume’s Holding Patterns

 Photos by Jen Squires, supplied by NAC. One woman, one venue, both of them in a period of transition and ready for change. For Métis singer-songwriter Amanda Rheaume, it was a few steps back in order to move forward through some pain and sad realities on a rocky road to find

Jim Bryson Returns Home

 “If it looks like I’ve seen a ghost I just want to go home” -Jim Bryson (Cigarette Thin) It’s 4 a.m. I am awoken by Jim Bryson’s voice singing about ghosts. Below me the snowploughs clatter in the street. Bryson’s new album, Somewhere We Will Find Our Place, has seemingly

Speaking the Language with Julie Corrigan

 Photo courtesy of Jen Squires Born and raised in Shawville, Quebec, to a family of musicians, it’s no surprise that Julie Corrigan took easily to strumming the guitar. With a fiddle-playing grandfather, a guitarist for a father and a mother who’s a natural on the piano and mandolin, music is in Julie’s

Jim Bryson -Making Merry and Keeping Spirits Bright

 Jim Bryson: Making Merry and Keeping Spirits Bright 12th Annual Christmas show at the Black Sheep Inn Album review for the Instant Holiday Album Album review for The Falcon Lake Incident   Luigi Saracino Jim Bryson will be back at the Black Sheep Inn for his 12th annual Christmas show!