[singlepic id=1599 w=320 h=240 float=left\As in previous years, the festival will be accepting submissions both online or via post. Online submissions info is here.

Or, mail press kits with 15.00 to the Association of Artists for a Better World, 182-4936 Yonge St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M2N-6S4. Visit this site again in the near future for more details.

Where Have All the Protest Songs Gone

Back   Interview Portion with Brian Gladstone below.

One after another, the simple yet profoundly affecting songs that moved a generation — a couple of generations, actually — poured forth like some kind of healing sacrament.

“Where Have All The Flowers Gone?” “Turn, Turn, Turn.” “We Shall Not Be Moved.” “Amazing Grace.” “We Shall Overcome.” “Little Boxes.” “Guantanamera.” “If I Had a Hammer.” “Joe Hill.” “Waist Deep In The Big Muddy.” “Bring ‘Em Home.” “Irene Goodnight.” The hymns filled the 3,000-seat auditorium.

Audience voices raised in unison, in harmony, in joyful dissonance, accompanied every one, with Seeger’s energetic encouragement. This was the soundtrack of an era, accompanied with his musical contemporaries Joan Baez, Bob Dylan.

Two hours later, the exhausted but jubilant folk singer made his final exit, waving his instruments above his head. The crowd dispersed into the warm night, still roaring out the songs we were convinced could and would make the world a better place. Maybe they did. For a while.

The protests accompanying this weekend’s G20 summit in Toronto might be remembered for their noise and fury, but probably not for songs.

Protest songs — at least the kind that galvanized thousands at a time during the labour struggles of the 1920s and ’30s, anti-nuclear and civil rights marches in the 1950s, the anti-Vietnam war rallies in the 1960s and the economic upheavals in Britain during the Thatcher years — seem to have disappeared from the landscape.

At least they have from the commercial airwaves. But their spirit drives much of the best contemporary music, Bruce Cockburn says.

“They haven’t disappeared, we just have to hunt them down,” argues Cockburn, who has never wavered in a 40-year career from an almost obsessive devotion to taking on war-mongers, empire builders and environment polluters with narrative-based songs of often brutal outspokenness.

Protest songs are alive and well, he says. They are just hiding in plain sight. “We just don’t hear them. We don’t hear anything worthwhile these days unless we go looking for it.”

The erosion in the Internet age of conventional mass media may have given everyone and everything a chance to shine, adds Cockburn. “But there are so many kinds of exposure, so many formats, and so many different ways to find an audience, so many places you have to look.”

He isn’t keen on reviving protest songs as a niche genre.

“The words ‘protest songs’ give me the willies,” Cockburn says. “They conjure up the worst music of the 1960s – songs like ‘Eve of Destruction,’ which I hated when I first heard it. It’s pretentious posturing, manufactured nonsense, bad songwriting and just plain ignorant, compared to Dylan’s work in the same period. ‘A Hard Rain’ and ‘Masters of War’ are beautifully constructed and artfully created. They hit the right emotional buttons and they nail their targets.

“To have value, a song has to impact its topic. It can’t be propaganda or exploitative pop music.”

Cockburn singles out American songwriter and activist Ani DiFranco for special praise.

“She’s a beautiful singer, a great guitarist and a brilliant lyricist. She doesn’t close her eyes to what’s going on around her, and she’s not afraid to speak up. And I don’t discount punk and reggae as breeding grounds for some of the best politically intense songs ever recorded — from the Clash and Bob Marley right up to the present.

“Some people say songs and politics don’t mix. I don’t agree. It’s an artist’s job to talk about his or her life, unless you live in a place where your neck is on the line. War and politics are part of life. Nothing is taboo.”

Even so, the absence in the public arena of songs of conscience may well be an effect of the wired age, along with so many previously cherished forms of social interaction, suggests guitarist Brian Gladstone, the proudly unreconstructed hippie founder and artistic director of Toronto’s annual Winterfolk Festival and its non-profit offshoot, the Association of Artists for a Better World. The association encourages, compiles and distributes collections of contemporary protest songs to radio stations and activist organizations around the world.

“People concerned about the issues that have always troubled us are more likely to turn to Facebook to find a like-minded community than to sing songs in the streets, the way we did in the 1960s,” he says.

“There are plenty of protest songs out there, but they just aren’t part of the cultural mainstream any more. Radio doesn’t play them, and people don’t seem to do things together, as a community. We’re all connected individually to some kind of device, working alone, amusing ourselves alone, enlightening ourselves alone.”

Gladstone started the association 10 years ago — the effort has since been replicated in half a dozen North American cities — because “not enough young songwriters were using their voices for the common good.

“We’ve issued eight or nine compilations since we began, and the response has been intense and gratifying.”

Neil Young came to the same conclusion after the release of his 2006 album, Living with War, a toxic indictment of George W. Bush’s foreign policy, when he complained publicly about the lack of contemporary songwriters willing to step up to the protest plate. At 64 then, he felt forced to do their work for them.

He was subsequently inundated with recorded proof to the contrary and now runs a page on his web site, Living with War Today, that has links to some 3,280 songs and 630 videos answering his original challenge.

It has been said that Bruce Springsteen’s 2007 album Magic, with its hallucinatory vision of an America gone mad with war lust, consumerism and revenge, was the New Jersey rocker’s response to Young’s challenge.

Three years earlier, American punk rocker’s Green Day’s American Idiot album, now also a hit Broadway musical, was praised by many for its brave, satirical take on modern America and its powerful endorsement of love and humanist ethics.

Long before that, roots rocker Steve Earle forsook his chance at country music’s brass ring by writing songs that skewered America’s version of history, many of its icons and values.

“It’s not that the issues needing attention are more numerous or complex than they were a couple of generations ago,” says Canadian folk music veteran Ken Whiteley. He cut his teeth on the anti-war and union songs of Seeger and Woody Guthrie, and on the plaintive blues of American field workers and gospel singers.

“You can look at 150 different issues and reduce them to just two things: greed and the abuse of power.”

Protest songs still have meaning and cachet, Whiteley adds. Many contemporary songwriters — among his favourites are Welsh composer/activist Martyn Joseph, Kingston’s Sarah Harmer and Vancouver-based James Keelaghan — have the ability to create provocative social commentary from simple narratives “and solid, memorable melodies, the key to the survival of any great song.”

The worst protest songs are “simplistic reductions” of complex ideas,” Whiteley believes.

“The best are personalized stories in which you can see the larger picture unfold. Or sometimes they can be nothing more than a simple, resonant phrase. My friend Pat Humphries (an Ohio social activist, singer and songwriter) composed a classic rally song from three words and an elegant little tune – ‘Peace, Salaam, Shalom’.”

Some rap music contains elements of social consciousness, he points out, part of a continuum of commentary and protest that goes back to the earliest blues forms, “but there’s a disconnect between rap and what went on before.

“If you’re my age, you can probably trace a line between (1950s folk group) the Freedom Singers, (American gospel group) Sweet Honey in the Rock, (American R&B/gospel band) the Blind Boys of Alabama and (Canadian rapper) K’Naan. But I don’t think the young people who are rallying around his song ‘Waving Flag’ are conscious of these connections.”

Toronto songwriter Jon Brooks, a winner in this year’s New Folk competition at the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas, has earned a devoted following among his peers for soulful, topical narrative songs that invoke powerful feelings about the horrors of war, human greed and the absence of the guiding principles — what we called, in another age, peace, love and understanding.

“The closest thing I heard to protest songs in my adolescence were Roger Waters and Pink Floyd,” says Brooks, who gave up his budding musical career in the 1990s after visiting Bosnia, Poland, Ukraine and Russia.

“I saw real politics in action after the wall came down and I felt ashamed to be seeking people’s attention behind a microphone in the middle of all that suffering. So I quit for eight years.”

In those days, folk and protest music of the 1960s “seemed laughable, a cliché, something in the back of the record store to be avoided,” Brooks says. “After I came back from Europe, I was convinced songs would work no better now to benefit humanity than they did back then.

“Now I’ve come full circle. In complicated, distracted times, I’ve learned that timely songs performed in the right manner, accompanied by humour and common language, can really get inside people.”

Brooks has studied the work of his predecessors — Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, and Canada’s Buffy Sainte-Marie, whose bitter indictment of the patriot warrior, “Universal Soldier,” is a standout feature of his performances — and found many of them wanting.

“I think Ochs represented the best and the worst of that era, and Dylan was just too young to have a fully formed world view, but they were capable of writing powerful social and political commentary,” he says, citing Dylan’s “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” and “A Hard Rain” and Ochs’ “Days of Decision” as favourites.

“The purpose of songwriting, for me, anyway, is to unite people through stories, through empathy. Direct, shouted protest has never worked for me as well as indirect story telling.”

Now, that would put a smile on Pete Seeger’s face.

Ten great protest songs

• “Universal Soldier,” Buffy Sainte Marie: For its bravery in laying the blame for the pain of war at the feet of those who make themselves available as weapons and cannon fodder.

• “Fortunate Son,” Creedence Clearwater Revival: For smacking privileged Americans in the face for avoiding the draft and forcing those less fortunate to be conscripted during the Vietnam war.

• “Blowin’ In The Wind,” Bob Dylan: The mother of 1960s peace anthems.

• “Shipbuilding,” Elvis Costello: For drawing a line between the economic benefits of war and the end result.

• “Beds Are Burning,” Midnight Oil: For pricking the conscience of imperialist interlopers, not just in Australia, over their abuse of the rights of indigenous people.

• “Brothers In Arms,” Dire Straits: For illuminating the folly of the Faulklands war and inflated patriotic urges.

• “Clampdown,” The Clash: For its empathetic portrayal of the poor as a criminal class on Thatcher’s watch.

• “If A Tree Falls,” Bruce Cockburn: For its powerful indictment of the logging industry’s stripping of virgin rainforests.

• “Lives In The Balance,” Jackson Browne: An acidic account of American meddling in the politics of Central America.

• “If I Had A Hammer,” Pete Seeger: For its inclusive, joyful humanity.

— Greg Quill

They are looking for songs on any topic with themes of 'change for improvement', and will consider all topics including (but not limited to) war, violence, peace, hunger, abuse, violation of rights, injustice, minorities, poverty, prejudice, freedom, homeless, children …. and more – this is the time to get your voice heard by the world. Funds generated from CD sales will be donated to The Earth Day Foundation. The Association of Artists for a Better World, a non-profit organization devoted to improving our planet through artistic expression, is now accepting submissions for the third compilation CD called ‘Protest Songs for A Better World Volume IV’. They will put artists in touch with issues, and put media and press in touch with the artists. The single most significant factor to the success of an emerging artist is industry exposure. Association of Artists for a Better World has the ears of the world. EIGHT Sonicbids winners will receive world-wide exposure including distribution, publicity, promotion, and recognition. At least 2 artists will be selected from submissions made prior to September 30, 2010. EIGHT selected artists will be featured on the CD, given full liner credits including contact and website information, plus the following: 'Protest Songs for A Better World Volume IV' will be distributed for airplay to over 200 radio stations in their global pipeline located throughout North America, Europe, and Australia, including Internet stations; and review copies distributed to selected major publications and music journalists for review in their publications. – by request only. Although there are no guarantees, it is reasonable to expect the CD to get airplay around the world, and reviewed in music publications and e-zines. It is also reasonable to expect you will get requests for your CDs from interested DJ’s and journalists who like your tune. It is customary for DJs / stations to send playlists directly to artists.  Submit via Sonicbids, or send track, contact info, and check for $20.00 to  to The Association of Artists for A Better World, 4936-182 Yonge St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M2N-6S3

Presenting a very special night of music on April 24, 2010 at the Moonshine Cafe in Oakville, ten artists will take the stage and sing their tunes to raise funds in support our mother Earth. All proceeds generated will be donated to Earthday Canada.  

 Bob Snider's last performance before permanently relocating to the east coast.

Other performing artists include Marianne Girard, Jory Nash, Lynn Harrison, D’Arcy Wickham, Ewan Dobson, Choirgirlz, Max Woolaver, Brian Gladstone, and a surprise artists or two.  

Click on poster to enlarge >>>  

Lineup:

Bob Snider – Singer-songwriter Bob Snider has played on the street and in the concert hall. He has been called a “national treasure”, a “living legend” and “author of some of the best Canadian songs of the decade”. Marianne Girard – Marianne Girard ‘grabs you by the soul and won’t let go’. Canadian Folk Music Awards nominee for 2009, Marianne simply captivates. “Wow!” Not likely to forget about this one. She DOES stand out. Lynn Harrison – A compelling performer who connects powerfully with audiences of all ages, Lynn Harrison is known for “charming, positive, uplifting and life-affirming songs” (Penguin Eggs magazine). Lynn has earned songwriting honours from the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals’ Songs from the Heart and was a Top 10 Finalist Toronto’s Song Contest.  D’Arcy Wickham – An exceptional artist with all styles of guitar picking has highlighted decades of performing experience, and was recognized by an OCFF “Songs From the Heart” award in 2007 for his song “Feather Fingers”.  ChoirGirlz – This highly entertaining, enlightening, and engaging female trio sings original songs about real issues with tight harmonies in many styles including cabaret, comedy, jazz, R & B, and more. Ewan Dobson – Ewan Dobson has established himself as one of Canada’s most brilliant and exhilarating young guitarists, having won first prize in nearly every single Classical Guitar competition across the country. His impressive list of credentials includes winning the Canadian Fingerstyle Guitar Competition, as well other major awards. Jory Nash – Jory Nash has a commanding stage presence; his strong, warm voice urges people to listen. Jory Nash has crisscrossed North America several times, playing folk festivals, folk clubs, concert series and house concerts. He has built a large, loyal fan-base and he has been fortunate enough to see most of North America in the process. Unusual things tend to happen to Jory on the road, and when not legally bound to silence he will incorporate these events into his onstage storytelling. Max Woolaver – Reverend Max Woolaver is one of the most compelling Canadian singer/songwriters working in Canada today.  Max Woolaver takes the listener across the psychic terrain of our current times through the medium of powerfully crafted and lyrically charged songs – from ripping bluegrass and poignant ballads to dark rocking songs.  Brian Gladstone – An imaginative songwriter unrestrained by conventional limitations, Gladstone’s four albums have been highly acclaimed in dozens of rave reviews worldwide. Gaining quick international recognition, his music is played on radio stations all over the world; and he has successfully made the jump from college and underground stations to mainstream rotation and play chart listings. Presented By: The Association of Artists for a Better World is a nonprofit organization, registered in the province of Ontario, Canada. More information is here www.abetterworld.ca  

Record crowds attended the eight annual Winterfolk Roots and Blues festival held in downtown Toronto, over the weekend of February 12-15, 2010. Most of the venues were at, or over capacity. Similar to a summer park festival, schedule-toting attendee’s strolled from stage to stage to see their favorite artists. When Winterfolk joined the OCFF in 2003, folk festivals were customarily rural events, staged in parks scattered throughout Southern Ontario. When campgrounds fell silent, so too did much of Ontario’s folk music.

 Brian Gladstone founded Winterfolk determined not to let Canada’s climate restrict the artform. Winterfolk was conceived to break the mold of a traditional folk festival and bring the music to the people in the city, in the depth of winter. In recent years, Winterfolk has been able to waive admission fees, and provide paid work for its artists. While the task sounds daunting, even more remarkable is that Winterfolk has now delivered its eighth successful run, fueled by a small army of 75 volunteers, all without salaried employees, with fundraising activities year round. “Our ability to survive and grow”, mentions Gladstone “is because we provided a win – win – win – win scenario.” The four wins that continue to bring Winterfolk   perennial success are wins for the artists, commerce, community and the artform.

Of  the over 100 artists at Winterfolk this year, about 80 were selected by an Artistic Director Committee. As with most festivals, once the AD committee determines the programming themes, it has a good idea which artists to hire. Winterfolk’s focus is on Southern Ontario talent, especially artists creating a ‘buzz’ and getting their name out there, but artists from across Canada are included.Seeking out emerging talent ‘under the radar’ of the AD committee, Winterfolk held six satellite pre-festival open auditions in several Ontario cities, for which twelve artists were selected. Some of the artists selected though the audition process were Swamp Ward Orchestra, Marc Charron, Rick Taylor, Reverend Max Woolaver, Rosemary Phelan with Jason Laprade, Amy Campbell, Phillip Brown, and more. An additional ten artists were selected from EPK and press kit submissions. “In order for any festival to be successful, money must change hands.” Gladstone accepts this reality while managing to keep the grass roots feel essential to its success. “Parking meters, bank machines, restaurants, and the venues all benefit from the thousands of people we bring into the neighbourhood.” The commerce win is significant at a typically slow time of year for the local merchants, in that it satisfies the bottom line that is required to keep festivals going without giving the festival a corporate 'odour' that clashes with Roots and Blues music. “A strong sense of community involvement is vital to the success, growth, and longevity of an urban festival. Winterfolk reaches out and engages the community,” says Gladstone. Winterfolk works with various music organizations to offer them stages at Winterfolk to increase their public visibility and membership, and overall build a stronger roots community. In exchange, Winterfolk gets top notch showcasing stages. 

Of special note, are the workshops conceived and delivered by the artists themselves. The workshops included The Harmony Workshop, The Davids' (Leask, Gillis and Newland)   Determine Music Commonalities, Acoustic Guitar Aces, Wendell Ferguson’s Guitar Jam, Brian Blain's Colorblind Blues Campfire, Songs of Change, Audience Participation Songwriting, Music and Movement for Kids, The Lighter Side of Life, and Songs of Canada. The artists' workshops were the finest example of music by the people for the people. Roots and Blues music is a dynamic artform that is best viewed live. Before Winterfolk, folk music was presented at a few scattered clubs or remote campgrounds, rarely in the city in concentration, and rarely in the winter.  Winterfolk brings the music within reach of the people and brings home audiences to the artists. Paid work in the neighbourhood is always good for the artists. Accomplishing what once seemed impossible, Winterfolk VIII entertained and excited audiences with acoustic soulful music warming all in attendance spiritually and physically in the otherwise 'blah' and frigid month of February. Winterfolk has truly conceived a fresh template to carry on the roots tradition in harmony with the climate and culture of Canada. 

This is your invitation to join  Winterfolk Fans on Facebook – share your comments,  post a picture, and pleasesend invitations to your fan list.  Winterfolk On Facebook has just been updated with this years information. Thanks to Fran McCann for doing a great job on both these sites.  Please help to get the word out. We would love to hear from you on both sites.  See you at Winterfolk.

By Norm Nelson The eighth annual Winterfolk festival is coming back to the Danforth, running all four days over the Family Day holiday weekend, Feb. 12 to 15. More than 100 musicians will perform in four Danforth venues on six stages. The venues are the Willow Restaurant and the Black Swan Tavern, each with two stages, as well as Dora Keogh and the Mambo Lounge.

The Family Day Monday has some specific family-themed entertainment. The festival kicks off Friday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m., and then resumes at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. It runs until after midnight the first three nights before closing down on Monday after the 5 p.m. shows. Mostly it's free. There is only a nominal charge for one Sunday night feature called 'Love at Winterfolk'. The venues are all easy walking distance of both Broadview and Chester subway stations. Winterfolk is a non-profit event with no full time staff and run mostly by a group of dedicated volunteers.

One of the biggest expenses is to ensure the musicians are fairly paid for their performances. Brian Gladstone is the founder of the event and still runs it. A noted roots musician, he also performs in it. An easy way to support the event – and to help pay for musicians and sound equipment rental, etc., is to purchase the 'I support roots music in Toronto' buttons.

Besides supporting local artists, the festival also supports and gives a platform to local music organizations. For instance, the City Roots Festival run by Howard Gladstone is showcased as are groups as diverse as California Open Stage, the Songwriters Association of Canada; Speak Music; and the Nashville Songwriters Association of Canada. There are vocal and songwriting forums. As well, Winterfolk ran its own talent competition, awarding two spots (to Ian Reid and Graydon James).

While Winterfolk prides itself on showcasing and providing a venue for up-and-coming artists, it also has a treasure trove of veteran musicians well known in the local music scene. A few of the multi-award winners include: * Digging Roots, picked up best group/duo in November at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards. They've been nominated for a Juno, and they'll be playing at the 2010 Olympics; * Julian Fauth won a 2009 Juno Award for Best Blues Album (Ramblin' Son); * Danny Marks won the Toronto Blues Society 'Blues With a Feeling Award' for lifetime achievement in 2007; * Al Lerman is considered one of the top harmonica players in the country and is a two-time Juno award winner with his band Fathead; * Jon Brooks earned a 2009 Canadian Folk Music Award (CFMA) nominee for best songwriter in 2009 (and 2006); Marianne Girard earned a 2009 CFMA nomination for best contemporary vocalist; and Kim Wempe was nominated for female solo artist and Rising Star Recording of the Year at the East Coast Music Awards (ECMA); * Ariana Gillis won a 2009 CFMA award for Young Performer of the Year; and the Sultans of String won for Instrumental Group of the Year; * Wendell Ferguson is a seven-time Canadian Country Music Award recipient for guitar player of the year as well as nominee for 2006 CCMA album of the year; * Ewan Dobson is the 2009 Canadian Fingerstyle Guitar Champion. Check out the Winterfolk website for full line-up, schedule and artist profiles. Volunteers and sponsors are always most welcome. Visit http://www.abetterworld.ca/ For more coverage, visit the Music Notes blog at www.insidetoronto.com

Pictures by Terry Hart

The events will showcase some of the finest musicians performing at the festival this year, including veteran “wows a crowd” Danny Marks. He’s JAZZ.FM91's weekly Bluz.fm radio show host and has also played with just about every VIP in the blues business, such as, internationally known Juno award-winning Edward Bear early in his career, Rick James' band and as a session sideman for Ronnie Hawkins, Rita Coolidge, Bo Diddley, Stephen Stills and others. He was also the winner of the Toronto Blues Society's Blues With A Feeling Award for lifetime achievement in 2007. With two albums to date, True and Guitarchaeology, Marks is set to release a third album in the spring called Friend in the Blues, a personal take on blues music. The young but fast-rising star Ariana Gillis, who recently won the Canadian Folk Music Award for Young Performer of the Year, and “Best Songwriter” at the 2009 Niagara Music Awards is also nominated for three Hamilton Music Awards. Her “beyond her years” musical talent and skillful songwriting have gained her praise and captivated audiences across the country. 2009 Juno Award winner, accomplished piano player and a fine guitarist too, Julian Fauth has won more than awards. His music, in the style of and influenced by, the likes of Big Bill Broonzy, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin' Hopkins, Bumble Bee Slim, Leroy Carr and Big Maceo, has caught the attention and praise of artists such as Fauth’s mentor, the late great bluesman Mel Brown. Fauth does barrelhouse blues at its best, and you can hear it on his latest album Ramblin Son. Other notable performers include bluesman and member of the award-winning group Fathead, Al Lerman, sultry Latin singer Laura Fernandez, country crooner Michael Brennan with guitar great Steve Briggs and even a set from The Guitar Boys of Alderon, which includes Noah Zacharin, Mr. Rick and guitar pickin’ Brian Gladstone himself and many more! Thursday, Jan 14 9:00 Al Lerman 9:20 Ewan Dobson 9:40 David Newland 10:00 David Gillis and Ariana Gillis 10:20 Nonie Crete and Eugene Rae 10:40 Laura Fernandez with Noah Zacharin 11:00 Danny Marks 11:20 Michael Brennan and Steve Briggs 11:40 The Guitar Boys of Alderon (Noah Zacharin, Mr. Rick, Brian Gladstone) 12:00 Open Jam Session Friday, Jan 15 9:00 Amy Campbell 9:15 Sue and Dwight 9:30 Marianne Girard 9:45 DArcy Wickham 10:00 Peter Verity and Seb Agnello 10:20 Tony Quarrington 10:40 Lynn Harrison 11:00 Brian Gladstone and Tony Quarrington 11:20 Choir Girlz 11:40 Julian Fauth 12:00 Open Jam Session WINTERFOLK VIII – TWO SNEAK PREVIEW SHOWS – FUNDRAISER @ THE MOONSHINE CAFÉ IN OAKVILLE, JAN 14 & 15 WHO: Danny Marks, Julian Fauth, Ariana Gillis and more! WHAT: Winterfolk VIII Preview Shows WHERE: Moonshine Café, 137 Kerr St, Oakville / 905-844-2655 WHEN: Thursday, Jan.14 & Friday, January 15 – Doors @ 8pm, music @ 9:00 pm TICKETS: $10 per night, or PWYC (all funds go towards support of artists of Winterfolk VIII) WEBSITES: www.winterfolk.com / www.moonshinecafe.com TORONTO – THURSDAY, JANUARY 7TH, 2010 – Don’t miss the chance to get a sneak preview of what’s in store at this year’s EIGHTH ANNUAL WINTERFOLK FESTIVAL. Catch some of your favourite folk, roots and blues musicians whooping it up with a special jam session at the end of each night. The two shows take place at the Moonshine Café, Oakville’s most happening musical venue, Jan 14 and 15. For more information and updates please visit www.winterfolk.com

February 12 – 15, 2010 Toronto Canada

100 Artists on 6 Stages Presenting 4 Days of Roots and Blues Music

Winterfolk is a Free Family Festival – All Ages Are Welcomed

I Support Roots Music In Toronto

Buttons are available for a voluntary donation at all Winterfolk Venues.

Join Winterfolk on Facebook

Winterfolk Listing on Face Book. This is your invitation to join Winterfolk Fans on Facebook – share your comments, post a picture. to your fan list. Winterfolk On Facebook has just been updated with this years information. Please help to get the word out. We would love to hear from you on both sites.

Community Music Programs at Winterfolk -

Winterfolk works within our community with various music organizations to offer them stages at our festival to increase their public visibility and membership, offer exposure for their events, and in general assist them to meet the goals of their mission statement. Winterfolk lists community organizations in our printed program and various forms of promotion.

Did You Know?

Winterfolk VIII is a non-profit organization registered in the Province of Ontario. We have no full time employees, and are fueled by a team of volunteers. Winterfolk hires and pays over 100 artists. Winterfolk brings communities together, and brings much needed revenues to the area merchants. Please be generous with your donations. Thank you.

Winterfolk Special Room Rate at Clarion Hotel

Clarion Hotel & Suites Selby 592 Sherbourne Street, Toronto, ON – (416) 921-3142 , Toll Free 1-800-387-4788 , Email reservations@clarionhotelselby.com Ask for the Winterfolk rate of $74.99 plus tax

Artist Gallery 1 Pictures by Morris

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Winterfolk VIII LineUp

 Click here for Volunteer Sign Up

For a minimum of 8 hours of service over the Winterfolk weekend, volunteers receive

• All Access to all shows and artist hospitality lounge
• An invitation to private party with the artists and media
• Daily Expense allowance to cover gas, parking, food, etc.
• Great Experience of Working within the Roots Community
• Qualifies for Community Service Work – Certificates available

Click here for Volunteer Sign Up

Following is a short description of some of the volunteer opportunities.

• Audio Mixing / Lighting Technician – Mixing sound and lighting during performances.
• Stage Managers – Ensure artists check in pre-show, signage and decoration are in place, check tickets, usher and assist patrons.
• Production Crew – Set up and tear down stages quickly between sets.
• Stage Announcers / Emcees – Introduce artists onstage – great opportunity for radio personalities to plug their show, but all are welcome to apply.
• Hospitality / Sales – Work in festival merchandise sales, or food and waters sales.

RADIO PERSONALITIES WANTED FOR WINTERFOLK STAGE ANNOUNCERS

Once again this year, we invite you to participate in Winterfolk as a stage announcer to introduce artists. We will list your name and program on our website. Simply visit the RadioWebpage and submit your information – we will respond quickly and arrange the details with you. ( http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GWQ3GXN )

   Submit

"We can use our voice to change the world, There is magic in our words …"  We are looking for songs to make you smile and laugh .. It can be quirky lyrics, funny sounds, sarcasm, unusual rhythms, and all of those things that cause people to stop what they are doing in their day and be happy! The ‘Association of Artists for a Better World’, a non-profit organization devoted to improving our planet through artistic expression, is now accepting submissions for its first compilation CD called ‘Songs to Laugh Your Ass Off'.

Submit 

TEN selected artists will be featured on the CD, publication date summer of 2010, given full liner credits including contact and Website information, plus the following:

• ‘Songs To Laugh Your Ass Off’ will be distributed for airplay to over 200 Radio Stations – by request only –  in our 'global radio pipeline' located throughout North America, Europe, and Australia, including Internet Stations.
• Review Copies distributed to Selected Music Publications and Music Journalists for review in their publications.
• Artists will be listed on our Website, Press Releases, and all related CD Publicity and Promotion as applicable.
• Artists will be supplied with 10 CDs for their own sale and promotion
• E-Distribution and International Sales will be through CDBaby, and catalogued in their international album database.
• Artists are eligible to Receive Royalties for airplay. (if their songs are registered with SOCAN or appropriate agency in your area.)
• Although there are no guarantees, it is reasonable to expect the CD to get Airplay around the world, and reviewed in music publications and Ezines.
• It is also reasonable to expect you will get requests for your CDs from interested DJ’s, Music Directors, and Music Journalists who like your tune. It is customary for DJs / stations to send Playlists directly to artists. (See **About the Producer Below**)
• We are looking for songs to make you smile and laugh .. It can be quirky lyrics, funny sounds, sarcasm, unusual rhythms, and all of those things that cause people to stop what they are doing in their day and be happy!

About the Producer’s Established Track Record for Global Musical Accomplishment ** ‘Peace Songs for a Better World’ will be produced and marketed by Canadian singer/songwriter recording artist Brian Gladstone, who has a proven track record for successful musical promotions. Brian has become well-recognized and established throughout the global music community. Gladstone’s three albums have all received critical acclaim and extensive global airplay on five continents; including top 50 charts in many countries; have been reviewed and interviewed in over 90 publications in the last four years, (including the cover story of Folkwax Magazine ‘Create Your Own Scene – From Basement Demo to World Wide Airplay and Recording Deal in Three Years; signed with Silverwolf Records; and much more. In addition to artistic achievements and endeavors, Brian Gladstone is highly involved with innovative activities to improve the quality of world including Founder and Director of the Winterfolk Festival in Toronto www.winterfolk.com; Founder of ‘Folksingers for Peace'; Organizer and Director of the ‘Concert for Earthday Canada’ series; and Innovator and Founder of ‘A Better World.’ For more information on the music accomplishments of Brian Gladstone, visit the Website at www.backtothedirt.com. 

The Winterfolk team would like to congratulate the winners of the first ever Winterfolk Festiavl auditions held at the Black Swan on Tuesday night.

WINNERS:

AMY CAMPBELL

THE HUMAN STATUES

Both artists won a spot in the upcoming Winterfolk Festival which runs Feb 12-15 2010, so if you haven’t seen them perform yet, please come to the festival and check them out!

FOr more info www.abetterworld.ca

A huge thank you to all of the amazingly talented artists who auditioned and thoroughly entertained!

Thanks also to the audience for participating in the voting process and for helping to make it an exciting and successful event.

Because of an overwhelming response from Toronto area artists, we will be holding a second audition at the Black Swan in the near future.

Audition submissions are now closed but please do come and join us for the next one and help to cheer on your favourite artists.

Please stay tuned for more updates.

There are still openings in the Guelph and Peterborough auditions.

If you are interested please email publicity@winterfolk.com with your epk or myspace etc and let us know which venue you’d like to audition at.

For more info go to www.abetterworld.ca

News Briefs

Peterborough will host auditions next month for a chance to perform in a Toronto roots and blues festival. The Winterfolk VIII Roots and Blues Festival is set to run Feb. 12 to 15 in Toronto and organizers are holding auditions across Ontario this winter. Interested Peterborough musicians get a chance to audition at The Spill Café on Nov. 11 from 9 p. m. to midnight, a press release states. There is no cost to audition and two artists will be hired at each venue — based on audience voting and a festival jury, the release states. Artists who want to audition should send an email to publicity@winterfolk.com and advise preferred venue, include an EPK, or send a link to website or myspace, etc. Artists will then be updated with the details, and confirmed prior to the audition, the release states. Roughly 80 artists who have submitted will prepare two songs each, to present on the night. Winners of the festival spots will be announced at the end of each event, the release states. Visit www.abetterworld.cafor more information.

Winterfolk auditions at The Black Swan

This year's festival expands to four days

Photo -

Winterfolk annually attracts more than 100 artists to the Danforth in February, and local music fans can get a chance to help pick two of them Tuesday, Oct. 20, from 9 p.m. to midnight, at The Black Swan Tavern, 154 Danforth Ave. And for that matter, aspiring musicians can audition for one of the two spots, but please note it is not an open audition and hopefuls must pre-apply. As an added perk, organizers promise fans will have input into the selection along with a guest panel of judges. The artists will perform two songs each and the panel is promising to make their decision at the end of the show. The Danforth audition is one of five being held. The other auditions, under the exact same format (for a total of 10 spots at Winterfolk), are set for Oakville Nov. 3, Peterborough Nov. 11 and Guelph Nov. 15. Another 10 artists are being selected through an on-line process. It's a novel way for Winterfolk to fulfill one of its mandates, which is to provide an opportunity for new, undiscovered talent. The 20 lucky audition winners will be joined at the half dozen Danforth venues by some of the Toronto area's top roots musicians, along with some guest musicians, to be named at a later date, from outside the area. This year the festival, in its eighth year, is expanding to four days in February (Feb. 12 to 15), incorporating the new Family Day holiday on the Monday, said festival founder and director Brian Gladstone, who added that he's also hoping the number of venues on the Danforth will be expanded. The festival is mostly free, although traditionally there are a couple of paid events with token admission. In the meantime, music fans wanting to enjoy some new roots talent can head to The Black Swan on Tuesday, Oct. 20. Artists wishing to audition should send an email to publicity@winterfolk.com and advise preferred venue, include an EPK, or send a link to website or myspace, etc. Winterfolk is online at www.abetterworld.ca/winterfolk

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE /

 WINTERFOLK VIII AUDITIONS COMING TO A TOWN NEAR YOU!

– ROOTS AND BLUES FESTIVAL RUNS FEB 12 –15, 2010

 VISIT THIS PAGE FOR UP TO DATE INFO http://www.abetterworld.ca/winterfolk/artisticselectio/

WHAT: LIVE AUDITIONS FOR WINTERFOLK VIII ROOTS AND BLUES FESTIVAL

WHEN & WHERE: All auditions @ 9pm-12am

October 20 – The Black Swan – 154 Danforth Ave – Toronto (416) 469-0537 << FILLED – NO SPOTS AVAILABLE

November 5 – Moonshine Café –137 Kerr St. – Oakville – (905) 844-2655 << FILLED – NO SPOTS AVAILABLE

November 11 – The Spill – 414 George St. N. – Peterborough – (705) 748-6167

November 15 – Carden St. Café – 40 Garden St. – Guelph – (519) 837-2830 << FILLED – NO SPOTS AVAILABLE

Nov 24 – The Black Swan – 154 Danforth Ave – Toronto (416) 469-0537 << NEW JUST ADDED << FILLED – NO SPOTS AVAILABLE

NEW JUST ADDED >> Early December 1 – The Black Swan – 154 Danforth Ave – Toronto (416) 469-0537 

TICKETS: IT’S FREE – There is no cost to audition. Donations accepted on entry.

WEBSITES: www.winterfolk.com

 TORONTO – TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2009 – WINTERFOLK VIII ROOTS AND BLUES FESTIVAL continues to build bridges in the community and outside of Toronto by holding LIVE AUDITIONS at venues throughout Southern Ontario. For more information please visit www.abetterworld.ca

Toronto’s free, all-ages, mid-winter, weatherproof urban roots and blues festival, now in its eighth year, will present 100 artists for four days of music in six downtown venues on

February 12 -15, 2010.

New to this year’s selection process, artists will audition live at select venues in four different cities. There is no cost to audition to Winterfolk and two artists will be hired at each of the venues listed. Artist selection will be based on a combination of voting by the audience and the Winterfolk jury/representatives at each event. Artists will be encouraged to bring their fans & friends to cheer them on.

ARTISTS WISHING TO AUDITION FOR WINTERFOLK should send an email to publicity@winterfolk.com  and advise preferred venue, include an EPK, or send a link to website or myspace, etc. Artists will then be updated with the details, and confirmed prior to the audition. Approximately 80 artists who have submitted will prepare 2 songs each, to present on the night. Winners of the festival spots will be announced at the end of each event.

Please visit the website for more details.

Winterfolk will continue to accept mailed packages and sonicbids submissions as well, but we are hoping this audition process will give some musicians who may not be able to afford submission fees, a chance to be heard. Please visit the website for more details.

MORE ABOUT WINTERFOLK

Winterfolk was formed to entertain, educate, enlighten, engage and encourage the community about various folk music styles including roots, blues, folk and more. Founded by Festival Director Brian Gladstone, it is run as a division of The Association of Artists for a Better World, a registered non-profit organization in the Province of Ontario, Canada. www.abetterworld.ca

The festival also works within the community with various music organizations to offer them stages at the festival to increase their public visibility and membership, offer exposure for their events, and in general assist them to meet the goals of their mission statement.

                                                                                    -30-

For more information, photos, interviews, please contact:

 
Beverly Kreller

SPEAK Music
www.speak-music.com

bev@speak-music.com

416.922.3620

Briar Gillis

OCFF Conference

October 16-18 , 2009

Ontario Council of Folk Festivals 

A Better World is Proud to Sponsor Upcoming Artist Briar Gillis

Youth Showcase, Ottawa Ontario Canada, Sponsored Youth Performer

 

]]> http://www.abetterworld.ca/?feed=rss2&p=1601 0 http://www.abetterworld.ca/?p=546 http://www.abetterworld.ca/?p=546#comments Tue, 28 Jul 2009 01:55:58 +0000 OverWorkedWebGuy http://gladstonemedia.ca/a-better-world/?p=546 Reprinted from the Toronto Star

GREG QUILL - ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST

Brian Gladstone started Winterfolk to help his music career. Now he keeps in the background

In its sixth year, Toronto's annual Winterfolk roots music festival might – just might – make a profit. That's not festival founder and artistic director Brian Gladstone's biggest concern, but a profitable event means the former research engineer and inventor of power transformers might be able to relax a little, get in a little guitar-picking time. "For the first four years we lost money, I lost money," Gladstone says of his creation, the three-day downtown festival that opens again tomorrow night at six venues in the Danforth-Broadview pub strip. More than 100 performers, including a featured Quebec contingent with Michael Jerome Browne, Notre Dame de Grass Bluegrass Band, Neema, Mike Goudreau & the Boppin' Blues Band and Les Tireux d'Roches, constitutes a remarkably liberal roster of traditional folk, blues, country and contemporary roots music that has become Winterfolk's trademark. In Toronto's snow-blasted February landscape, the festival is an oasis of conviviality, musical diversity and invigorating warmth. And for the most part, it's free. That's because last year, when government agencies came to the party with a substantial amount of funding, Winterfolk actually broke even on the strength of a couple of ticketed concerts.   "I had to be willing to lose my own money for a few years before the various government agencies considered us worthy of funding," says Gladstone with a shrug. "Canada Council requires some inter-provincial artistic activity, and then covers the cost of bringing artists to Toronto, paying their fees and accommodation expenses. "The idea is that the out-of-province acts will be able to book other gigs or build a tour around Winterfolk. Last year we featured artists from New Brunswick. This year it's Quebec." With a subsequent increase in attendance and the chance to produce three ticketed concerts (priced from $5 to $12) this weekend at the Eastminster United Church (310 Danforth Ave.), Gladstone predicts his first small fiscal return in six years. Winterfolk kicks off tonight with a ticketed concert at the Eastminster venue titled the "The Blues of Winterfolk Unplugged," featuring Browne in a solo spot, followed by six blues all-stars (Jack de Keyzer, Al Lerman, Tony Quarrington, Maureen Brown, Mr. Rick Z and Suzie Vinnick) performing together as Winterfolk Jug Band. After subtracting his fee as chief organizer, the festival profits, such as they are, will help fund the Association of Artists for a Better World, a not-for-profit organization Gladstone established five years ago promoting environmental awareness, global peace and the spirit of protest through music. The CDs produced by the organization are handed out free to interested activist groups, corporations and sympathetic radio programmers. If all that sounds a bit hippy-dippy, Gladstone isn't fazed. He and his elder brother Howard – who happens to be the producer and artistic director of the annual midsummer Toronto City Roots Festival in the Distillery District – are unashamed folk-era recidivists. "Howard taught me my first guitar chord … we were at Woodstock together in '69, the Woodstock," enthuses Gladstone, 58. "We grew up in the 1960s. The music of that time shaped my mentality. I really do believe songs can generate funds, ideas, consciousness and hope for a better world. The (Better World) motto is, `We can use our voice to change the world and there's magic in our words.'" The brothers have a lot more in common than songwriting, guitar picking and a passion for 1960s folk music. Until Brian quit his job two years ago, he was Howard's partner in Toronto-based Plitron Manufacturing, building unspeakably complicated transformers that are key components in equipment used in scientific, medical, computer, sound recording and military electronics. "I was a tech nerd from the age of 12, and worked in cutting-edge research for 25 years," Gladstone says, flashing a cover-page article in a recent issue of a high-tech electronics magazine extolling the virtues of his latest – and perhaps last – invention, a device that filters a formerly unknown form of electromagnetic pollution from the 150-year-old grids of big-city electrical infrastructures. "We identified it as a health problem and made the filter … the rest is up to legislators." He gave up his not-too-shabby salary and tech-nerd fame – but not the royalties on his and Howard's patents – to live a dream he has nurtured for most of his life: to become another impoverished, underappreciated folk troubadour in an already overcrowded arena of younger, tougher contenders. "I was a late starter," he explains. "I didn't get into playing music till my late 40s. I was the single parent of three kids, and I had a lot of time on my hands at night to write and practice. I didn't want to be 80, wondering why I didn't do this." Dismissed at first by official Canadian folkdom as a pop-up festival run by a self-serving wannabe, Winterfolk has earned its scars and survives largely because Gladstone has kept the faith with the artists he has booked over the years, paying them promptly, delivering well-equipped stages and enthusiastic audiences, and running a virtually wrinkle-free event, even when it hurt. "I got into (Winterfolk) because it was too hard to get booked at other festivals," says Gladstone, whom some former associates describe as a heavy-handed manipulator and calculating self-promoter. Gladstone doesn't disagree. "After 200 rejections, I decided to make my own festival and book myself. It was perhaps not the best reason." His lesson learned, Gladstone stays well behind Winterfolk's curtain these days, watching from the back of rooms, listening to the buzz, wheeling and dealing with venue owners who also contribute a cut of their takings to the festival's coffers. If he performs, it's rarely, and usually in the company of other pickers. "There was a festival void in the city in winter," he says, "nothing from the end of August until May, and so many performers in town were looking for work. There's a craving for roots music in Toronto … and Winterfolk seems to be filling the gap. "It's good for the economy, good for the musicians, good for the venues, good for the community. It's a no-brainer." For all the details on Winterfolk, go to abetterworld.ca

Photo Gallery

12►

Photos by Dougal Bichan

By: Chris Category:. The 2009th Winterfolk Festival is a roots/folk/blues festival that is held in the East end of Toronto known as The Danforth, in selected Pubs. This years event will be held from Feb. 13th – 15th. The shows venues are located in one of the greatest neighbourhoods in the city! This congregation of musically like minded individuals, will be gathering at local Pubs located in between Broadview and Chester subway stations. The roots/folk/blues winter festival will provide listeners the opportunity to listen to warm summer music, during the cold blistering time of the calendar. This year’s price of admission is designed to reflect the economics of our times. If your smart, you’ll get tickets in advance at $5.00, it’s cheaper then a pint, $10.00 at the door! The line up is both familiar and new. You have the ones I have heard like Brain Gladstone, Bob Snider and Danny Marks. Now thrown into this years set are some that I’m not all that accustomed to. Like Ariana Gillis, David Leask or Evaristo Machado. The latter one may ring a bell or two with a buddy of mine a Peter Schmidt, I gotta get a hold of him come to think about it! So check out the list of performers at the annual Winterfolk and come on in from out of the cold for some warm cider and blistering music.

Born and bred in North York, now part of Toronto, Brian has been a research engineer and designer for Plitron Manufacturing of North York. But his real passion has been as a guitar player, composer and fan immersed in the folk revival of the 1960s. Once his children grew up – Brian is now in his 40s – he bought a studio and recorded an album of his original folk-oriented songs, which sold well. After finding out that “it is difficult to get into the existing festivals,” Gladstone decided to start his own festival. “After getting rejected by hundreds of the existing festivals, I decided to raise money on my own to have my own festival,” he told the Jewish Tribune. “I formed the non-profit Better World organization.” Its slogan is: “We can use our voices to create a better world.” Yet, to his credit, in contrast to the subtle but present leftist political agendas of many alternative cultural events in both Toronto and Montreal, Winterfolk is non-political, a fact that he hopes will ultimately enhance its success. The roster of performers include some of Toronto’s best such as Juno winners Jack deKeyzer and Al Lerman, who will present their acoustic guitar techniques at the world debut of the Winterfolk Jugband. Alex Lukashevsky – a cutting-edge artist whose style defies a category but beholds an incomparably soulful, smokey voice, an amorphous approach to guitar-playing and profound lyrical witticisms – will head the Zigzag and Quack group. Gladstone will join the Guitar Boys of Alderon on Saturday night Feb. 9, which will also include Mt. Rick, Noah Zacharin, Tony Quarrington, and Danny Marks, whose Saturday night fourhour program Blues-FM on Jazz FM radio (91.1 FM) is arguably one of North America’s most comprehensively best blues radio shows. The Women of Words section, hosted by Nancy Dutra, will feature songwriters Looweeze de’Ath, Laura Fernandez and Neema. For the first time, new Quebecois artists will be featured in The Voice of Quebec, featuring the Mike Goudreau Blues Band and Notre Dame de Grass (a play-phrase on the predominantly Anglophone Montreal west-end suburban area Notre Dame de Grace, otherwise known as NDG). The Nashville Songwriters Association International will be featured, together with the British Invasion hosted by Dora Keogh, starring Brit rockers Steve Payne, Max Cann and Tanja Rice. And, to provide a bit of Jewish flavour, the all-girl klezmer band The Sisters of Sheynville will perform Feb. 9 at the Black Swan Tavern on Danforth Avenue at 8 p.m. Gladstone insures that all of the performers will be paid on time, in contrast to other ‘alternative’ festivals, where this was not always the case. He emphasizes that this will be a family-oriented event for everybody. For a complete schedule of the Winterfolk Festival’s all-ages free events, please go to:

Buy Now 

Brian Gladstone, Producer, © Copyright-A Better World

Proceeds from CD sales donated to ‘Earth Day Canada’

Protest Songs for A Better World, Volume II, is an anthology of original songs with themes for an Improved Earth. All tracks have been selected for their excellence, among the hundreds of submissions we received from all over the globe. We express our sincere thanks and recognition to every submitting artist for making a difference in the world. Other tracks were by invitation of the producer.

Protest Songs for a Better World is a collection of songs and stories contributed by artists who want to change our world with their words. The history of the world has always been shaped by differences among men. Although everyone wants the same things from life – freedom, compassion, understanding, dignity and some love – too often the path to our fulfillment crosses goals and visions and leads to conflict and tension. No more shall we inflict destruction in the name of holiness. For thousands of years the voices of change have been immortalized in song and verse, and passed down through countless generations. Peaceful protest is the essence of modern change, and we offer Protests Songs For a Better World to the world as and expression of changes for the better from dedicated artists who want to make a difference.

FOUR ARTISTS WILL BE SELECTED

Album Title

Songs of Canada – 2008 Anthology of Canadian Song Writers

Submission Dates

What We Are Looking For

In Short – any song with Canadian

references will be consieer4ed.

Submissions

Genres Accepted

All, Any, No Restrictions – We welcome and encourage all styles of music in all languages.

Geographical

Submissions accepted from anywhere on Planet Earth. However the songs must be written by a Canadian citizen or one with landed immigrant status.

Four Selected Artists Get

-  Distribution, Publicity and Promotion

- 10 CDs to each winning Artist

- 200 CDs will be distributed to * Radio Station Program / Music Directors * DJs * Senior Music Journalists and Reviewers of Major Publications and Websites

-   International Sales Distribution and Global CD database through CD Baby

- Although there are no guarantees, it is reasonable to expect the CD to get airplay around the world and reviewed in music publications and Ezines.

Producer

Fine Print:

Submit Online

Frequently Asked Questions

Please read all the questions and answers below.

If you still can’t find the answer, then write to us with the heading of ‘NEED MORE INFO’

Q – HOW CAN I SUBMIT A TUNE?

A – Details are on our website www.ABetterWorld.ca

Q – THE SONG I WANT TO SUBMIT IS NOT IN MY EPK. HOW CAN I SUBMIT IT?

A – You CAN send a song which is NOT in your EPK.  After hitting the ‘SUBMIT’ button, simple instructions are supplied to upload a new tune directly to us.

Q – I AM NOT A MEMBER OF SONICBIDS. HOW CAN I APPLY?

A – Submissions are accepted online ONLY though Sonicbids.  You can apply for a 30 day free trial for Sonicbids, to evaluate the benefits, and then decide to submit. For a 30 Free Trial, go to Sonicbids. Note membership must be valid till submission date is closed. (Date listed on website) (As a startup non profit-organization we don’t maintain resources to receive packages, catalogue, track, acknowledge, maintain status of, forward to judges, follow-up, and more – all of these services are supplied by Sonicbids)

Q – WHAT IS THE MAILING ADDRESS FOR SUBMISSIONS?

A – Submissions ARE NOT accepted via mail.  Submissions are accepted online only though Sonicbids.

Q – CAN I SEND AN MP3? OR OTHER FORMAT? WHAT FORMAT IS REQUIRED FOR AN EPK? HOW CAN I MAKE AN MP3?

A – Don’t Know. Address technical questions directly to Sonicbids at support@sonicbids.com , or visit their website at www.sonicbids.com for more info.

Q – CAN YOU LISTEN TO A TUNE ON MY WEBSITE? OR LISTEN TO THE TUNE ATTACHED TO AN EMAIL?  AND LET ME KNOW IF I SHOULD SUBMIT IT? or LET ME KNOW IF IT’S WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR?

A – We can only listen to submitted music. (it’s not appropriate for us to offer coaching or feedback prior to a submission)

Q – IS IT OK IF THE TUNE IS NOT RECORDED YET?

A – Then how can you submit it?

Q – CAN I SUBMIT A TUNE WRITTEN BY SOMEONE ELSE?

A – Anyone can submit a tune. However, only the author can offer written permission to use the tune.

Q – I HAVE A DEMO OF THE TUNE, WHICH IS VERY ROUGH, NOT MASTERED, OR NOT THE FINAL MIX. CAN I SEND YOU THE FINAL VERSION LATER?

A – Please send in the best product available, as each tune will only be evaluated once.

Q – ‘I’M LISTED ON THE TOP 30 CHARTS’ or ‘MY BAND WON A JUNO’ – HOW CAN I SUBMIT WITHOUT THE SUBMISSION FEE?

A – No can do.

Q – HOW CAN I SEND A MESSAGE TO THE JUDGES TO EXPLAIN SOMETHING ABOUT MY SONG?

A – The song is the message, and will be the sole means of evaluation.

Thanks again by your great interest in our quest to make the world a better place through artistic expression. www.abetterworld.ca

12►

PERFORMERS SCHEDULE:

2:00 – Sue & Dwight

2:45 – Linda Saslove

3:15 – Peter Verity and Uncle Herb Dale

4:45 – Sheena Grobb

5:30 – Laura Fernandez

6:15 – Danny Marks

7:00 – Brian Gladstone

7:45 – Margaret Stowe’s Women’s Blues Review

8:45 – Michael White & Friends

WHAT: Concert for Peace VI is a FREE family day of Blues and Roots Music with underlying themes of peace. It is a festival for the entertainment of our audience, not a peace rally, so there are no marches, no signs, no politicians, and no speeches. The music is the message! Enjoy a great day of blues and roots in the square!

WHEN: August 18, 2007, 2:00 – 10:00 PM, Rain or Shine!

WHERE: Mel Lastman Square is located at 5100 Yonge Street two blocks north of Sheppard Avenue. By TTC, take the Yonge line subway (exit North York Centre). Getting there couldn’t be easier when you ride the rocket!

WHO: Concert for Peace VI is presented for the first time in Canada by The Association of Artists for A Better World, a registered non profit organization to inform, encourage, and stimulate artist awareness of social, cultural and ecological issues; create an information avenue to communicate their words through their art form; organize, promote, and present events which allow artists to express their thoughts on important issues and let their words be known. Visit the website for more information. www.abetterworld.ca

MUSICIANS CAN APPLY TO PLAY AT CONCERT FOR PEACE VI: We are accepting submissions from artists or bands to fill TWO stage spots. All bands will be paid. Submissions are accepted online only through Sonicbids, and will be evaluated by selected judges. Two selected artists / bands will be notified by email before August 1, 2007 (Ensure your Sonicbids contact info is accurate), and will need to confirm their attendance in Toronto, Canada before August 7, 2007. Submission fee is $20.00 which increases to $30.00 on July 17.

WHAT MAKES IT TICK: The concert venue ‘Mel Lastman Square’ is a facility of the City of Toronto, thus admission must be FREE. Funding for this event is raised through donations, sponsors (pending) and artist submissions. ‘Concert for Peace’ is a not for profit event, presented by ‘A Better World’. Funds raised will be used pay ALL artists, advertising and promotion, posters, and other event related expenses. ALL of the preparation and organization on this event has been provided entirely by volunteers who have generously donated their time. There are no paid employees for this event.

 

This continuum of services includes immediate support for women who come to Street Haven at the Crossroads off the street, the provision of meals and a place to sleep, a place to heal, a place to grow and a place to live independently, in accordance with what each individual woman is ready to handle and in recognition of the varied potential of each woman

Benefit Concert for Street Haven ..

123►

Winterfolk V Times

• Friday February 9 7:00 – 1:00
• Saturday February 10 2:00 – 1:00
• Sunday February 11 2:00 – 7:00

Winterfolk V Venues

• The Willow Restaurant 193 Danforth Ave, 416 469 5315
• The Black Swan Tavern, 154 Danforth Ave, 416 469-0537
• Dora Keogh, 141 Danforth Ave., 416 778 1804
• Prince of Egypt, 135 Danforth Ave, 416-463-2228
• Terri O’s Sports Bar, 185 Danforth Ave, 416-462-0038

Congratulations to this year’s showcase winners

• looweeze de’Ath, Perth, AustraliaMichelle Carter-Leis, Vancouver, Canada
• Aurora Jane, Byron Bay, Australia
• Sarah Noni Metzner, British Colombia, Canada
• David Ross Macdonald, Adelaide, Australia
• Michael Fracasso , Texas, USA
• Sonia Lee, USA
• Todd Hannigan, USA
• Alastair Artingstall, London, England

February 9 – 11, 2007 • Broadview and Danforth • Toronto

Winterfolk V – Report and photos by Dougal Bichan

Ah, folk festivals. I love them. Summer, sunshine, trees, birds, sunscreen, hormones. Sitting in the outdoors, listening to handpicked guitar tunes waft across the grass on a warm breeze. Then the frigid air slaps me back to reality. Why am I standing at the corner of Danforth and Broadview in February, minus 10-degree weather, while the chilling winter wind howling across the Bloor Viaduct blows up my kilt?

This is the Winterfolk Roots and Blues Festival, a different kind of music event. It happens in the winter, for one thing, but you might already have guessed that. The brainchild of local guitarist and songwriter Brian Gladstone, it was created in 2003 to fill that mid-February void for both audience and performers. Featuring a festival mixture of concerts in the evening and afternoon workshops, Winterfolk brought more than 80 performers to six venues at Broadview and Danforth — two stages at the Black Swan, The Willow, Dora Keogh, Terry O’s and the Prince of Egypt Restaurant this year on February 9, 10 and 11. For the first time, the festival was free. No admission charge. Consider that!   Musically it was a very mixed bag, all in the roots and blues style. Veteran artistic director Randi Fratkin assembled a diverse line-up, including programming themes such as “The spirit of New Brunswick”, which featured Hot Toddy, Brent Mason, Vishten, and Shanklin Road. Performers were young and old, mixing the up-and-coming, Justin Nozuka, Pat Robitaille and Ariana Gillis and the more experienced, Greg Quill, Danny Marks, Steve Payne and Brian Blain. The women Looweeze de’ath, Sarah Moni Mezrin, Julie Long and Laura Fernandez, to name a few, were particularly strong, reaching deep into the wells of emotion for their soulfulness.

Wendell Ferguson   ChoirGirlz

Winterfolk drew artists from all over the globe, some from as far away as Australia, the US, England and Vancouver to share their music and bring warmth to the frozen Toronto night. There were lots of local treats as well, some coming from the open stages around the GTA, John Marlett’s Moonshine Cafe, Dr B’s Acoustic Medicine Show, the Toronto Fingerstyle Guitar Association, and the Nashville Songwriters Association International.

Wandering from one club to the next, schedule firmly in hand, the vast smorgasbord of musical delights invited grazing and sampling for the full effect, and all within an easy walk. With all the pedestrians crossing the Danforth, they will need a traffic light there next year.

Although impossible to pick a favourite, some fragments of the programming highlights included Greg Quill rousing a tough Terry O’s crowd with Australian folk songs, Justin Nozuka’s youthful, idealism and exuberance, Looweeze de’Ath singing and playing keyboard as if she would squirm right out of her skin with the intensity of it, the 30, count ‘em, flying fingers of the Guitar Boys of Alderon, Steve Payne in Dora Keogh backlit haloed like an angel and sliiiiiiding Alastiar Artingstall’s delicate British sensibilities and tunings with capoes and half capoes, Wendell Ferguson throwing another fiddle on the file, Sarah Moni Metzer’s sometimes guttural throutings, David Ross Macdonald’s serious demeanour, Shawn Brush, the crooked cowboy and his circle of fans in the back room of the Willow, father and daughter intermingling of David Gillis and Ariana, playing amidst the exotic spicy aromas of the Prince of Egypt cuisine, David Hobbs carefully crafted observations. Too many impressions to write them all down. You will have to come out to see and hear for yourself.   Crowds, crowds, crowds! On Saturday night the Swan and the Willow were turning people away in fear of the liquor police. From out on the windy streets, ChoirGirlz, The Bebop Cowboys and Shanklin Road had the crowd lined all the way up the dingy old stairs of the Swan to the dumpy second floor bar. Amazing!

Looweeze de’Ath

Back again next year. What could be improved? Well, maybe the weather? Sunshine, warm breezes, hormones? ]]> http://www.abetterworld.ca/?feed=rss2&p=601 0 http://www.abetterworld.ca/?p=650 http://www.abetterworld.ca/?p=650#comments Thu, 28 Sep 2006 16:41:00 +0000 OverWorkedWebGuy http://gladstonemedia.ca/a-better-world/?p=650 SONGS FOR A BETTER PLANET – VARIOUS ARTISTS

 ©2005 by Dianne Wells, an independent music journalist living in Newfoundland. Copy of original text
 
 This subtly engaging collection of songs gives new meaning to the term, “global warming”.  Mainstream music listeners won’t find anything musically or politically offensive here and may even be encouraged to join the movement.  That being said, it won’t appeal to listeners who prefer edgier instrumentation or to cynics who have developed a “full speed ahead for destruction” attitude towards the world in general.
 
 Environmentally-friendly producer Brian Gladstone, Director of The Association for a Better World, a non-profit organization, has consistently taken time out from his own musical career as a singer-songwriter-guitarist to expose and promote the music of other people who are similarly-minded.  He has a knack for selecting the cream of the crop, too, adding to the group of accomplished female recording artists that appeared on his Songs for Peace compilation CD.  All proceeds from CD sales are donated to Earth Day Canada.
 
 Songs for a Better Planet is not entirely comprised of offerings from the fairer sex, either, but there is a better-than-average representation, both Canadian and American.  Their voices are diverse in their songwriting and instrumental expression, but they are united in their dedication to resolving their environmental and humanitarian concerns.
 
 There is a good variety of genres, too, ranging from acoustic blues and roots to bluegrass as well as more high-end productions such as “Rescue” by Liquid Blue.  While the lyrics fit the topic, it’s a bit too jarring compared to the rest of the low-key numbers.
 
 The numerous achievements to date by this musical collective can be readily obtained by visiting each performer’s website.  These are obviously all serious musicians who have learned to market their product accordingly and appropriately.  This knowledge makes their potential for even greater success limitless.
 
 There were a number of songs here that I was particularly pleased with – the opening track, “Our World”, performed by Kate MacDonald, of Miramichi, New Brunswick, “Global Warming Blues” by Lenny Solomon, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, “Earth Mother” by Beliss (a.k.a. Melissa Underwood), of Portland, Oregon, “Pesticide” by (Ms.) Terry Winchell, of Water Mill, New York, and the funky-reggae “Reverence and Ridicule” by Layah Jane of Toronto, Ontario.  The latter’s vocals wonderfully recall Molly Johnson, Nelly Furtado and Ricky Lee Jones all at once.
 
 “Moving Mountains”, by Amilia K. Spicer, originally a Pennsylvania country girl and now resident in L.A., was my overall favourite, both vocally and instrumentally, on this dreamy lullaby-like track.  She’s a singer I could easily imagine doing a complementary duet with Daniel Lanois.  First Nations Vancouverite singer Sandy Scofield is a stark contrast to Amilia, taking a much more forthright approach in her vocal expression, but she’s got the lung-power to make it effective.
 
 Toronto-based music fans who have followed Brian Gladstone’s own recording career will recognize the final track, “Save the Wolverine”, and might think its inclusion here to be a bit self-serving.  Still, it’s an excellent musical performance and a composition that fits the overall theme of respecting nature, including those from the animal kingdom.
 
 The artists appearing here were selected from hundreds of submissions received from around the world.  This had me wondering why only North American ones were selected for the final compilation, but perhaps it just wasn’t a cost-effective venture, distribution-wise.  Perhaps a more international compilation is in the works.  With Brian, there’s no telling what his next brilliant strategy will be in his quest for world peace!  Oh, but wait – he’s now taking submissions for Protest Songs for a Better World.CD-Beschreibung: Peace Songs For A Better World

Sept 26, 2006 

This 15-track collection of songs from both female and male North American artists (with Australian and Norwegian representation) is a life-affirming musical project humbly shadowing its more famous and forceful predecessor, “Woodstock”. Check out the Bob Dylan-inspired ‘Gift (One Iraqi Child)’ and ‘No One Can Stop Me When I’m Out to be Good’, from Josh White Jr., a latter-day Richie Havens.

One of the many things I like about this CD is that it offers a wide exposure to lesser-known female musicians, who, unless they are willing to expose more than their musical talent, are very often overlooked in the higher echelons of the industry. West Coast ladies Christa Couture, Quincy, Elaine Dempsey, Blair Hansen, Adrienne Jones, Margo Hennebach and Toronto’s Laura Fernandez all deserve recognition for their demurely sweet, lilting vocals as well as their thought-provoking lyrics on a peaceful world.

Among the renowned Ontario male performers appearing here are Guelph’s James Gordon, Whitby’s Roger Ellis, and the winner of the 2004 Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award, David Gillis, of Vineland – all wonderful musical ambassadors for Canada!

The most memorable “hit” track, among these otherwise beautiful ballads, would certainly be the riotously poetic ’60s-pop-rocker ‘Change My World’ (by NY’s Sean Altman and Billy Straus). My other favourite was Norway’s Finn Coren, who offers ‘Riverboatman’, a well-enunciated, musically dramatic piano-and-strings opus that speaks to homesick refugees. It would have been great if Belgium’s Yanah had been included here, particularly for her ‘Girl in the Picture’ tribute to Kim Phuc, a Vietnamese victim of a napalm attack, but there are only so many songs that can fit on one CD.

This is a very admirable initiative by humanitarian Brian Gladstone, who also organizes several other socially conscious music endeavours such as Earthday, Winterfolk Festival and the Outrageous Summer Open

 .

Various Artists

Available from IndiePool.com

A review written for the Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange
by Mike Jurkovic (rnrcurmudgeon@yahoo.com)

Well you won’t find anything close to Blowin’ In The Wind or The Times They Are a-Changin’ here, but you will find plenty of awareness and the need for vigilance in these unstable times.

Produced by Brian Gladstone, Protest Songs For A Better World is a thirteen-track rally cry anthology of original protest songs selected from submissions from around our troubled globe. All the tracks are wake up calls, but my personal highlights include: Southpaw Jones humorously ominous Protest Song, Lenny Solomon’s evocative Gettysurg, Maria Dunn’s rousing Troublemaker’, Joe Dolce’s Did You Get Stupid from Being Ugly (Or Ugly from Being Stupid?) and Williams & Williams’ Between Iraq & A Hard Place.

All proceeds from the sale of this forward looking collection are donated to United Nations Foundation.

CD Baby Price: $12.97

ALL PROCEEDS (100% !) from album sales are donated to United Nations Foundation. Their mission is to promote a more peaceful, prosperous, and just world for all.

TRACK NOTES
Protest Songs For a Better World is an anthology of original songs with themes for an Improved Earth. Tracks 1 – 12 on this CD have been selected for their excellence, among the hundreds of submissions we received from all over the globe. We express our sincere thanks and recognition to every submitting artist for making a difference in the world. Other tracks were by invitation of the producer.

Protest Songs for a Better World is a collection of songs and stories contributed by artists who want to change our world with their words. The history of the world has always been shaped by differences among men. Although everyone wants the same things from life – freedom, compassion, understanding, dignity and some love – too often the path to our fulfillment crosses goals and visions and leads to conflict and tension. No more shall we inflict destruction in the name of holiness. For thousands of years the voices of change have been immortalized in song and verse, and passed down through countless generations. Peaceful protest is the essence of modern change, and we offer Protests Songs For a Better World to the world as and expression of changes for the better from dedicated artists who want to make a difference.

PICNIC FOR PEACE:

The Association of Artists for a Better World presents the 5th Annual Concert For Peace at Mel Lastman Square, on July 29, 2006, featuring 13 dynamic and exciting blues and roots artists running continuously from Noon till 10:00 PM. The all-day concert relies upon the universal power and language of music to bring artists and members of our diverse community together to share a day of tranquility and good vibes in the square. This event is part of a world wide series to raise our combined voices to the world to encourage people to think, talk, and promote themes of peace peace; create an environment of cultural acceptance and understanding for all people to live together in harmony. The journey to peace starts inside.

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WHAT: Picnic For Peace is a FREE family day of Blues and Roots Music with underlying themes of peace. It is a festival for the entertainment of our audience, not a peace rally, so there are no marches, no signs, no politicians, and no speeches. The music is the message! Enjoy a great day of blues and roots in the square!

WHEN: July 29,2006, Noon – 10:00 PM, Rain or Shine!

WHERE: Mel Lastman Square is located at 5100 Yonge Street two blocks north of Sheppard Avenue. By TTC, take the Yonge line subway (exit North York Centre). Getting there couldn’t be easier when you ride the rocket!

WHO: Picnic For Peace is presented for the first time in Canada by The Association of Artists for A Better World, a registered non profit organization to inform, encourage, and stimulate artist awareness of social, cultural and ecological issues; create an information avenue to communicate their words through their art form; organize, promote, and present events which allow artists to express their thoughts on important issues and let their words be known. Visit the website for more information. www.abetterworld.ca
MUSICIANS CAN APPLY TO PLAY AT Picnic For Peace: We are accepting submissions (starting April 15, 2006) from artists or bands to fill FOUR stage spots. All bands will be paid. Submissions are accepted online only through Sonicbids, and will be evaluated by selected judges. Entry fee is $20.00 for submissions received June15 or before, then $30.00 from June 16 till the deadline of June 23. Four selected artists / bands will be notified by email before June 30, 2006, and will need to confirm their attendance in Toronto, Canada before June 30, 2006.

WHAT MAKES IT TICK: The concert venue ‘Mel Lastman Square’ is a facility of the City of Toronto, thus admission must be FREE. Funding for this event is raised through donations, sponsors (pending) and artist submissions. ‘Picnic For Peace’ is a not for profit event, presented by ‘A Better World’. Funds raised will be used pay ALL artists, advertising and promotion, posters, and other event related expenses. ALL of the preparation and organization on this event has been provided entirely by volunteers who have generously donated their time.

Copyright 2006). All rights reserved. )

Music lovers can enjoy a little free entertainment and goodwill at the fifth annual Brian Gladstone’s Picnic for Peace at Mel Lastman Square.

The event, presented by the Association of Artists for a Better World, will feature 13 blues and roots artists continuously from noon to 10 p.m. on July 29.

The Toronto performance is part of a series of peace-themed concerts held in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Bands interested in participating can apply through www.Sonicbids.com until June 30 for a fee of $30.

The first-place submission will be given the opportunity to open for the Jack deKeyzer Band at the event.

Other performers include children’s entertainment Sho Mo and The Monkey Bunch, Brent Mason, Rik Leaf, Danny Marks, Brian Gladstone and Michael White.

Mel Lastman Square is at 5100 Yonge St.

Visit www.abetterworld.ca for details.

Credit: North York

Music lovers and Gaia worshippers alike should find this album not only a satisfying listen worthy of countless revisits but also inspiring —it’d certainly make a superb holiday season gift for anyone who supports environmental advocacy as well as for fans of music of substance.

Starting on a high note with the countrified campfire singalong smile-maker Shine by one of Canada’s premier Folk icons, Norm Hacking, the album continues to enchant with a gallery of delightful works of musical art. The forthrightly polemical 60’s styled rally anthem Clayoquot Sound from The Acoustics of Canada, features Martin Gladstone on lead vocals accompanied by Juno winner Melanie Doane on fiddle. The soulful Music Town by Ontario’s Lynn Harrison and superb Country/Folk pickin’ and croonin’ of Larry Zarella of USA on Quiet Life are two other standout Rootsy entries.

 

Buy Now

Brian Gladstone, Producer, © Copyright-A Better World

Proceeds from CD sales donated to Peace Related Charaities.

‘The Association of Artists for A Better World’ is a registered non-profit organization founded by Brian Gladstone in 2004. Our mission is to inform, encourage, and stimulate artist awareness of social and ecological issues; then take their words all over the world, so their voices can be heard.

ABOUT THE ALBUM:
Peace can mean many different things to different people —a fact vividly demonstrated by the 11-song compilation Peace Songs For A Better World, Volume Two. Who knew Peace could be so exciting!

The tunes —by artists from Canada, the U.S. and Australia, selected from hundreds of submissions sent to to the non-profit ‘The Association of Artists For A Better World— vary markedly in genre, character, tone and the kind of peace they focus on. But despite the diversity this collection has a coherent feel and the quality of production, like the level of the art, is outstanding.

The songs encompass anthemic and hymnal styles along with new-Country, alt-Rock, Folk, Celtic and Pop, and deal in turns with Peace derived from simple everyday things, Peace nurtured through introspective worship, Peace as reconciliation to the unfairness of life, Peace as result of or alternative to war and Peace as the joyous by-product of love and understanding.

There are pleasant ditties such as “The Little Things” and “Why Am I Amazed”; there are stirring hymnal anthems such as “Prayer” and “Everyone Sing”; there are tunes of a heavier, even alarming cast such as “War” and “A Time For New Beginnings”. All of the songs are uplifting and edifying in one way or another and listening to the entire album is an inspiring event that will assure you you’re not alone in your hopes for a better life.

While different listeners will naturally have their particular favourites, most will discover several tunes that will stay with them long after the disc is done and which can be expected to find their own niches of popularity once they get broader exposure.

Peace Songs for a Better World Volume II is an anthology of original songs with themes of peace. Tracks 1 – 10 on this CD have been selected for their excellence, among the hundreds of submissions we received from all over the globe. We express our sincere thanks and recognition to every submitting artist for making a difference in the world.
—————–
Peace Songs For A Better World – Volume II

Artist Title Time Location
1 Fruit Peace 4:46 Adelaide, Australia
2 Vivek Shraya War 4:29 Ontario, Canada
3 Claudia DiNatale The Little Things 4:07 Ontario, Canada
4 The Warrior Poetes Why Am I Amazed? 3:08 Connecticut, U.S.A
5 Giasone Italiano Home (A Soldier’s Song) 4:58 Ontario, Canada
6 Lourdes Pita Now is the Time 3:48 Massachusetts, U.S.A.
7 Codie Prevost Life Without Love . 3:18 Saskatchewan , Canada
8 Trina Willard Prayer 3:18 Washington, U.S.A.
9 Melineh Kurdian World 3:31 California, U.S.A.
10 The Splitters Everyone Sing 4:00 Melbourne, Australia
11 Brian Gladstone A Time For New Beginnings 4:42 Ontario, Canada
.

Protest Songs For A Better World 2006 Submissions are open: Learn More Years with Sonicbids: 2 # of Artists Selected in 2006: 12

1) How many Sonicbids artists did you select?

We selected twelve Sonicbids artists for the compilation CD ‘Protest Songs for a Better World – Volume 1’. Due to the large numbers of high caliber submissions received, we found the evaluation and selection process to be tremendously difficult. However, after much deliberation, our team of judges was able to narrow it down to required twelve tracks

2) What are you looking for in an artist submission?

The motto of A Better World is, ‘We can Use Voice to Change the World, There is magic in our words’. We fulfill our mission by encouraging change in the world through artistic expression. On this project, we are accepting songs on any topic based around a central theme of ‘change for improvement’. The tracks we consider cover many related subjects including war, violence, peace, hunger, abuse, violation of rights, injustice, minorities, poverty, prejudice, freedom, homeless, children and more. A portion of our target market is radio and media coverage, so we try to listen through the ears of a program director.

3) What is your review and selection process like?

We have a team of judges who are personally selected by me. The only upfront information they get is to ensure they understand the nature of the project, and have a good awareness of the theme. Then they are free to make their own selections.

All of our compilation CD’s get good global airplay, so we need to deliver a professional quality album to the media to maintain the high standards of musicality and sonic quality they expect from us. (This is a different criterion than is used to evaluate a festival or performance submission)

There are several key stages to our review and selection process. Every song is listened to several times. The first listen through is a cursory sorting process, and unfortunately most of the submissions don’t make it past this stage. Songs that pass to the next level exhibit common characteristics such as high production value; studio quality mixing and engineering; strong vocals and instrumentation; and overall inspiring musical experience in their presentation. We look for songs that are well written, and prefer an original approach to the theme. Regrettably, most of the submissions are rejected at this stage for reasons of weak or off-pitch vocals, poor musicianship or poor writing, sonically inferior recordings, or just the overall low standards used throughout. Songs without recording or musical flaws are elevated to the next level.

At this point, all remaining songs are deemed to be of ‘radio play’ quality. The next stages of evaluation become more subjective, and the judges listen with no pre-conceived ideas other than waiting to be ‘moved’ by the song. (Like the first time you hear the Beatles). When they are ‘touched’ by the song, it is put into the ‘favorite’ category. The attraction may be a musical hook, a haunting lyric, an upbeat or unusual tempo, an emotional magnetism, the spontaneous energy of a live recording, some tight harmonies, a bit of studio polish and more – it’s not always easy to define this step in the evaluation process as it relies on artistic selection and personal preference, rather than a predefined rule set.

There are about 25 songs left at this stage – all of which are high quality recordings and worthy candidates – and we have to further narrow the selection down to only twelve. This is the most difficult part of the process.

Final selection from this stage is based on criteria such as the overall ability of the song to comply with our theme, as well as many other factors. This is the point in time when we closely scrutinize the lyrics for interpretation of the messages and symbolism, and especially to ensure there is nothing objectionable or offensive. We look for a mix and balance at this point, and some selections are made for reasons of cohesion and coherence to the overall album.

We like to put an upbeat catchy song as the first track, and a reflective large lasting production as the last track. We try to ensure no two successive tracks are recorded in the same key, nor are in the same style. For example, if there are some acoustic tracks, we will try to spread out and transition them with other styles. We are conscious to continually introduce new sounds as the album progresses, to maintain high listener interest level so they are more likely hear the album in it’s entirety. There is a large challenge to combine rock, blues, roots, pop, and more on the same record, and present a strong coherent album – and not just a collection of assorted songs. So, the last stage of the selection process may be more related to how each track fits into the big picture, rather than the track on its own merits.

We have to look at the goals and the mission at all times when assembling a compilation CD, and always upholds a high quality standard and does our best to keep the vision alive. It’s not an easy undertaking.

4) What can artists do to be better prepared to submit to your opportunity?

Simple – Submit a well-written, well-recorded song with good musicianship and high production value. Then you will get our attention.

Many of the reasons songs are rejected are totally correctable by the artist prior to submission. We have received many excellent songs, which we regrettably could not consider for very simple flaws, which should have been edited out at the time of recording. Many times artists send us excellent songs bursting with passion and commitment – you can hear the emotion embedded in the recording. Often, very moving lyrics and beautiful melodies are trapped within an amateur musical production. We can’t consider the song for simple reasons such as the vocal is weak, strained or off key; the guitar is out of tune or guitar playing (or instrumentation) is weak; production value is poor, and more. Often it is apparent the artist hasn’t mastered the song yet, and should spend more time practicing prior to recording. Sometimes we get great songs which have obviously recorded with mundane studio musicians playing routine patterns, rendering the product unexciting and lacking inspiration.

Basement recording studios are fine when used properly – we are not suggesting that an artist make a large investment in studio time. You are competing with every musician in the world. If your tune stands out it will be noticed – often the production value make the difference. Great musical artists are not necessarily great studio engineers. To create a track of the required sonic quality, an inexperienced artist should solicit assistance from an audio engineer and producer with a proven record of accomplishment. A poor quality recording masks a good song.

There is no substitute for practice – artists must practice their songs until they are fluid and smooth. Prior to recording, a few weeks of rehearsing the vocals and mastering all the guitar licks can make a world of difference. Sometimes artists submit material above their ability to play. We don’t look for intricacy, speed, or complexity. A simple well-played clean accompaniment is always preferable to a sloppily played complex arrangement.

5) What sets this opportunity apart from other events like it?

We are a not for profit organization registered in the province of Ontario, Canada. All of the funds raised through our work go directly into the community, and we partner with such agencies as Earthday, and New Songs for peace. We have recognized the power of artistic expression, and encourage artists to make a difference in the world through their artform. We offer our artists worldwide exposure and open new markets. This is accomplished through global contacts in radio and media established by Brian Gladstone through his own albums releases.

6) What is the importance of this opportunity to an artist’s career?

We like to feel that we have made a positive impact to the artist’s career.
Following are a few quotes from artists who have appeared on our compilation CDS. The artists’ own words speak for them selves.

“Being on this CD reminded me of my original mission.”

“Not only did I receive a great deal of positive feedback as a result of my submission, I also felt I was contributing a positive message to the world”.

“You’ve got me the first airplay in twenty years”

“I’ve received emails from people around the globe who are enjoying my song “Change My World” and thanking me for participating in the project. It feels good to contribute to a worthwhile effort like this. Thanks for the opportunity.”

7) Little Known Fact About the Promoter or Opportunity:

After twenty five years working as a self-educated engineering director and mad scientist, Brian Gladstone walked away from a six-figure salary to intentionally become a starving artist, and then founded ‘The Association of Artists for A Better World’.

He is a child of the 1960’s, an attendee of Woodstock, an aging hippie, and a perpetual quixotic dreamer, whose lifestyle and belief system was shaped by a mindset and mentality that is somewhat foreign today. He grew up during the roots revolution, and witnessed first-hand how the power of music can alter the course of history, and turn underground ideas into the policy of a nation. There are so many vital causes and injustices in the world today, and we want to create an avenue for the artists of today to be heard and make a difference.
 

JOE DOLCE   Member Since: 2003 Hometown: Carlton, Victoria, Australia   Complete Story Featured on the “Protest Songs For a Better World” 2006 CD. What’s the coolest show you’ve ever played? Here are a couple of memorable ones that come to mind – with a thirty-year span between: When I was in my twenties in the 70s, i was invited to back up Muddy Waters on blues harp in a little club in Boston.

LENNY SOLOMON & THE SOLOMON BAND Member Since: 2004 Hometown: Cambridge, MA, USA   Complete Story Featured on the “Protest Songs For a Better World” 2006 CD. What’s the coolest show you’ve ever played? I think most of the places I’ve perfomed in have been cool in their own way… a few weeks ago we played as the open mic feature at a gathering where all of the other performers were spoken word folks, (i.e., writers and poets). That was very cool.

  ]]> http://www.abetterworld.ca/?feed=rss2&p=653 0 http://www.abetterworld.ca/?p=1586 http://www.abetterworld.ca/?p=1586#comments Sat, 11 Feb 2006 00:01:04 +0000 OverWorkedWebGuy http://www.abetterworld.ca/?p=1586

Dates

February 3-4-5 2006

Artists :

Bebop Cowboys • Bob Bennett • Brian Gladstone • Brian MacMillan • Brock Zeman & Keith Glass • Cindy Church • Conrad Kipping & Tom Leighton • Chris McKhool • DALA • Dan McVeigh • David Celia • David Gillis • David Gunning • David Newland • DiggingRoots • Gordie Tentrees • Greg Hobbs • Greg Wyard • Gregg Lawless • Heather Dale • Ian North • Jason Fowler • Jenny Whiteley • Jory Nash • Julie Ann Bertram • Keith Thompson • Laura Fernendez • Layah Jane • Linda McLean • Linda Saslove • Lynn Harrison • Marigolds • MartyAllen • Matt Andersen • Michael Brennan • Mr. Rick & The Biscuits • Nancy Dutra • Russell deCarle • Russell Leon • Sarah Siddiqui • Sho, Mo & the Monkey Bunch • Sisters of Sheynville • Steve Payne • StoneFox • TrioBravo • Wendell Fergusson •

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Showcase Winners

Tamara Podemski, Layah Jane, Julie Ann Bertram, Sisters of Sheynville, Greg Wyard, Bliggins and Goines, Gordie Tentrees

Venues

Bad Dog Theatre Company.

Dora Keogh

Danforth Cafe

The Black Swan Tavern

The Willow Restaurant

North York roots musician Brian Gladstone is bringing a huge roots festival, called Winterfolk, with more than 80 artists to the Danforth area of Toronto this weekend.

But for his next major endeavour, the former student at William L. Mackenzie Collegiate Institute is promising to stay right at home in North York where he was born, raised and still lives.

He said the first annual Brian Gladstone picnic for peace will be held July 19 in Mel Lastman Square.

“I’m having a good old-fashioned peace rally,” he said in a recent interview.

This weekend, however, all his energies will be on his huge Winterfolk festival, which is now in its fourth year, having started at College and Spadina but is now in its second year at the Danforth location.

Winterfolk is billed as a blues and roots festival, “which basically leaves it wide open”, said Gladstone.

“Roots music, to me, what that means is music that evolved or is indigenous to Canada or North America, which is all the folk styles, country music, bluegrass – those things evolved here. And that’s mainly what we’re focusing on.”

Perhaps the most recognizable name to mainstream audiences is Russell DeCarle, founding member and stalwart of Prairie Oyster. He’s on tap tonight.

Gladstone, this year, has brought in Randi Fratkin as artistic director.

“She’s also the artistic director for the Mariposa Festival so she’s very well connected. She brings a great amount of expertise to us.”

Besides the performances, workshops are also scheduled. Any guitar picker or roots music fan will want to check their web site out at www.winterfolk.com.

Gladstone, a singer-songwriter with a unique finger picking style, will also perform at Winterfolk.

He has four CDs to his credit, including his latest, A Time For New Beginnings.

For anyone who enjoyed ’60s folk, this CD could catch you by surprise. But it’s no throwback. It’s completely relevant to today, commenting on a variety of issues, ranging from the Iraq invasion (Flags of Freedom) and the nine-to-five rut (Office Tower Blues) and is presented in a variety of moods.

Also of note is a compilation CD he has produced called Protest Songs For a Better World. Any fan of ’60s folk would no doubt be ecstatic to see the protest-song tradition very much alive and relevant.

The joke for many aspiring musicians is … don’t give up your day job.

With Gladstone, the local music scene has obviously benefited from his doing exactly that. He spent the last 25 years as a director of engineering and as a research engineer and has two patents to his name, but since he put out his first CD in 1999, his obvious love and talent for music has taken over.

“Just in the last year, I’ve basically retired from the corporate world, and 100 per cent of my time is devoted towards my creative interests,” he said.

One of those interests is the registered non-profit Association of Artists for a Better World. It is under that umbrella that he puts on Winterfolk and issues the compilation CDs.

Check out that web site at www.abetterworld.ca.

For more on his own CDs and performance schedule, check out his web site at www.backtothedirt.com

Credit: North York

By MARY DICKIE Chill at Winterfolk – Thu, February 2, 2006 Popular weekend music festival will help you get out of the doldrums Local singer-songwriter Brian Gladstone started Winterfolk in 2003 to bring together people who love acoustic folk, country and blues music at a bleak time of the year. Obviously, he was onto something because this weekend the festival’s fourth edition will fill five venues in the Broadview/Danforth area — the Black Swan, Dora Keogh, The Willow, the Bad Dog Theatre and the Danforth Cafe — with music and talk from 100 rootsy artists. You can buy a pass for $55 and wander around, or pick and choose from the impressive lineup. Perhaps you will discover Linda McLean, a singer-songwriter based in Huntsville, Ont., who kicks things off Friday at The Willow. McLean’s second album, No Language, has been attracting attention for its forthright lyrics and likable, countryish tunes, as well as her lovely Harmer-esque vocals. Also playing Friday are higher-profile country singers Cindy Church and Russell De Carle, whose gorgeous voice put the sparkle in Prairie Oyster, as well as Gladstone himself, Jory Nash, Greg Hobbs and Digging Roots, the duo of Raven Kanatakta and ShoShona Kish who draw from aboriginal music traditions as well as blues and jazz. On Saturday and Sunday afternoon, the festival offers workshops and discussions on subjects like road stories, songwriting, influences and six-string mastery, as well as a children’s show. Saturday evening’s highlights include the beautiful, sharply observed country songs of two-time Juno winner Jenny Whiteley, Cape Breton-bred roots-rock singer Michael Brennan, country swing band the Bebop Cowboys and up-and-coming vocal duo DALA. On Sunday, check out the Sisters Of Sheynville, an all-female band led by Lenka Lichetenberg and Isabel Fryszberg, who came together two years ago to play music influenced by Eastern European Yiddish traditions, Czech musical theatre and American country blues. Greg Wyard, Maury Lafoy and Jason Fowler are also on Sunday’s lineup. For details, go to winterfolk.com.

  ]]> http://www.abetterworld.ca/?feed=rss2&p=561 0 http://www.abetterworld.ca/?p=677 http://www.abetterworld.ca/?p=677#comments Sat, 28 Jan 2006 17:32:27 +0000 OverWorkedWebGuy http://gladstonemedia.ca/a-better-world/?p=677  

Reprinted from the North York Mirror Newspaper by NORM nelson

More from this author  Jan. 26, 2006

Winterfolk Brings Roots Music To Danforth

Big city residents who are fans of guitar pickin’ and roots music usually have to pencil in a summer folk festival in a rural area to get their fill.

Next weekend, however, a festival is coming to you.

In its fourth year, Winterfolk will run all next weekend (Feb. 3-5) from Friday night to Sunday. And for the second straight year, it’s being held right in our neck of the woods, in a cluster of a half a dozen venues on the Danforth, near Broadview.

The festival is the brainchild of Brian Gladstone, born and raised in North York and a noted roots musician himself with four CDs to his credit. He is also one of the more than 80 performers lined up.

With Randi Fratkin on board this year as artistic director, Gladstone, the founder and festival director, said it should appeal to an even broader audience.

“She’s also the artistic director for the Mariposa Festival so she’s very well connected. She brings a great amount of expertise to us.”

The festival started out originally at Spadina and College for the first two years but moved to the Danforth last year to allow the festival room to grow.

“There’s a lot of good venues, all of them walking distance from the subway. Also the Danforth BIA (Business Improvement Association), they’ve welcomed us, and they’re working with us very closely,” said Gladstone.

Winterfolk is billed as a blues and roots festival “which basically leaves it wide open,” said Gladstone. “Roots music, to me, what that means, is music that evolved or is indigenous to Canada or North America, which is all the folk styles, country music, bluegrass – those things evolved here. And that’s mainly what we’re focusing on.”

Toronto Community News, which publishes The Mirror, is also one of the sponsors

There are literally too many artists to mention. Many of the national and internationally renowned artists live in the area, particularly in Riverdale which has a noted arts community, including the Bebop Cowboys.

But certainly, the rest of the province and the country will be well represented along with a some key international acts, including Russell deCarle, the lead singer, bass player and a founding member of Prairie Oyster.

DeCarle has been awarded Canadian Country Music Association, Juno and SOCAN awards, has been a guest on the CBC Songwriters’ Circle Series, toured with the Bluebird North Series and opened for Merle Haggard.

The festival also reserves a handful of coveted spots for new or emerging artists, some of whom have used it as springboard to a performing career.

The locations, all within easy walking distance of the Broadview subway stop, include three bars – the Willow, Dora Keogh and the Black Swan (two stages, main floor and upstairs) – as well as the Bad Dog Theatre and the Danforth Cafe in the Danforth Baptist Church.

There are plenty of ticket options. You can buy a three-day festival pass, single day pass or single venue admission.

The best way to check it out further is to log onto their website located at www.winterfolk.com.

Benefit Concert – Proceeds donated to the Green Party of Canada

 WHERE: Renaissance Cafe, 1938 Danforth Ave, Toronto. Canada (416 ) 422-1441

Charter of the Global Greens.

Featuring 10 Bands Including

& More

FREE ADMISSION! A DAY OF BLUES AND ROOTS

A FAMILY EVENT – MUSIC AND TRANQUILITY

MEL LASTMAN SQUARE

SATURDAY JUNE 25 – 2005 – 2:00 – 10:00 PM TORONTO, CANADA

BLUES FOR PEACE: The Association of Artists for a Better World presents the 3rd Annual Concert For Peace at Mel Lastman Square, on June 25, 2005, featuring ten dynamic and exciting blues and roots bands, running continuously from 2:00 till 10:00 PM. The all-day concert relies upon the universal power and language of music to bring artists and members of our diverse community together to share a day of tranquility and good vibes in the square. This year we are networking with Blues for Peace to raise our combined voices to the world to encourage people to think, talk, and promote themes of peace peace; create an environment of cultural acceptance and understanding for all people to live together in harmony. The journey to peace starts inside.

PERFORMERS SCHEDULE:

2:00 – Michael Pickett

2:45 – Laura Fernandez

3:30 – Whiteboy Slim

4:15 – Gary Kendall Band

5:00 – Brian Gladstone Band

5:45 – The Tulips

6:30 – Danny Marks

7:15 – Roses In The Snow

8:00 – Wild T & the Spirits (Tony Springer Band)

9:00 – Jack de Keyzer Band

WHAT: Blues For Peace is a FREE family day of Blues and Roots Music with underlying themes of peace. It is a festival for the entertainment of our audience, not a peace rally, so there are no marches, no signs, no politicians, and no speeches. The music is the message! Enjoy a great day of blues and roots in the square!

WHEN: June 25, 2005, 2:00 – 10:00 PM, Rain or Shine!

WHERE: Mel Lastman Square is located at 5100 Yonge Street two blocks north of Sheppard Avenue. By TTC, take the Yonge line subway (exit North York Centre). Getting there couldn’t be easier when you ride the rocket!

WHO: Blues for Peace is presented for the first time in Canada by The Association of Artists for A Better World, a registered non profit organization to inform, encourage, and stimulate artist awareness of social, cultural and ecological issues; create an information avenue to communicate their words through their art form; organize, promote, and present events which allow artists to express their thoughts on important issues and let their words be known. Visit the website for more information. www.abetterworld.ca

MUSICIANS CAN APPLY TO PLAY AT BLUES FOR PEACE: We are accepting submissions (starting April 15, 2005) from blues and roots artists or bands to fill FOUR stage spots. All bands will be paid. Submissions are accepted online only through Sonicbids, and will be evaluated by selected judges. Four selected artists / bands will be notified by email before May 24, 2005 (Ensure your Sonicbids contact info is accurate), and will need to confirm their attendance in Toronto, Canada before June 1, 2005. Submission fee is $10.00 from April 15 to May 5, and $15.00 from May 3 to May 17.

WHAT MAKES IT TICK: The concert venue ‘Mel Lastman Square’ is a facility of the City of Toronto, thus admission must be FREE. Funding for this event is raised through donations, sponsors (pending) and artist submissions. ‘Blues for Peace’ is a not for profit event, presented by ‘A Better World’. Funds raised will be used pay ALL artists, advertising and promotion, posters, and other event related expenses. ALL of the preparation and organization on this event has been provided entirely by volunteers who have generously donated their time.

June 25, 2005 – Blues for Peace Line Up

2:45

Laura Fernandez – Singer songwriter pianist Laura Fernandez was born in Madrid, Spain and lived in Switzerland before immigrating to Canada as a young child. Her song writing is reflective of these cultural influences as she writes and performs in both English and Spanish. She is a well known painter and illustrator and often compares her song writing to Vermeer’s paintings and the quiet capture of moments in time. Fascinated by portraits she describes her songs as self portraits and her most intimate reflections on relationships and situations. Her songs are open and revealing laying bare the nature of complex emotion. Laura Fernandez was the winner of the best soft rock band at the New York International Independent Music Festival.

3:30

WHITEBOY SLIM – Maurice Richard Libby, [aka] WHITEBOY SLIM creates a gutsy, throwback version of the blues by incorporating pieces of jazz, hip-hop and DIY recording techniques that feel wholly original. His unique take on the American institution of the blues is memorable. The true greats of blues generated enormous excitement and awe in their audiences with flamboyant showmanship; with aloof, tough delivery; with elegance and charisma; with passionate virtuosity; with all sorts of styles, but always with original talent and awesome presence. Meet Whiteboy Slim

4:15

GARY KENDALL is one of the best known bassists on Canada`s blues scene adding a rock solid bottom end to Downchild’s distinctive sound. GARY KENDALL has also toured and recorded with blues greats Morgan Davis, Snooky Pryor, Chris Murphy, Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson, Big Jay McNeely, to name only a few and he`s the Musical Director of the Maple Blues Awards. He was honoured with the “Blues With A Feeling” Award in 1993 and has won the Maple Blues Award as Bassist of TheYear in 1997, 1999, 2000 and 2002. Originally from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Gary has also been honoured by his hometown, receiving the Thunder Blues Award from the City Of Thunder Bay and the Keeping The Blues Alive Award from The Thunder Bay Blues Society in 2002. When not touring and recording with Downchild he performs with The Gary Kendall Band and released his first solo recording “Dusty & Pearl” on his own 47 Records label in late 2004.

5:00

Brian Gladstone Band – Toronto singer / guitarist Brian Gladstone is a finger-picking guitar master, a prophetic lyricist, a philosophical story-teller and a dynamic performer. (Canada Music Week Magazine, March 2001) Brian’s particular way of seeing things through irony and old time approach reminds me of great artists as John Prine, Dave Van Ronk, and Mississippi John Hurt. He is their own true son and he continues their great sounds. (Susa Onda Radio Network, Italy).

5:45

The Tulips – 4 Rocking High Energy Blues Chicks – Four talented, dedicated & beautiful ladies have come together to form The Tulips, an all female band which is exciting, sensual and a whole lot of fun. The Tulips bring a delightful estrogen-edge to their music, while demonstrating strength, confidence and power to their respective instruments. Blues and beyond…describes their repertoire. Each women brings with her an extraordinary and unique voice, that blends together to create what can only be called…The Tulips and they are: Gayle Ackroyd; guitar, vocals, Christine Bird; bass, vocals, Silvia Wright; keys, accordion, vocals and lead by Maureen Brown; drums, vocals

6:30

DANNY MARKS – Many Canadians know Danny Marks as the man of a million songs from CBC radio’s the Humline, others go all the way back to the 60′s when Danny was one third of the original blues/pop supergroup Edward Bear. Most prefer to remain in the present, as Danny Marks hosts the popular bluz.fm radio programm on jazz.fm91 Toronto, every Saturday night at 8. Danny’s recent albums include Guitarchaeology, the all instrumental, and TRUE, the story of love lost, both original works. In 2004, Danny has just released Big Town Boy, a tribute to Toronto’s Rock and Roll past.

7:15

Roses in The Snow – Canada’s Newest All Women Kick-Ass Bluegrass Band Roses in the Snow is a fusion of four unique women performing bluegrass, country and folk music with soaring harmonies and great musicianship. After only one year together, the Roses are making waves in bluegrass circles and are building a strong grassroots following. Each Rose adds a different dimension to the band: Marnie Niemi (bass and vocals) ; Kathy Montgomery (banjo and vocals); Leslie Knowles (violin, viola, mandolin) Dottie Cormier (guitar and vocals). The Roses deliver fresh and creative arrangements of traditional tunes and they also love to crossover and mix things up — drawing from their appreciation and love for classical, country, jazz, pop, rock and folk music.

8:00

Wild T and the Spirits – Tony “Wild T” Springer has hung with the best of them. David Bowie, Jeff Healey, Bon Jovi, Deep Purple, Jay Leno, David Letterman and Arsenio Hall are just some of the musical acts and personalities that have been blown away by Wild T’s guitar. Moving to Toronto from Trinidad, T quickly gained a reputation on the local club circuit. Since then he has recorded two albums (Love Crazy 1991 and Givin’ Blood 1995) with his own group, Wild T and the Spirit for Warner Brothers. He has also recorded an album (Black Tie, White Noise) with David Bowie and has appeared with Bowie on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with David Letterman and the Arsenio Hall Show. He has toured with Bon Jovi and Deep Purple throughout North America and has performed thousands of club shows. Recently he was asked to portray Jimi Hendrix in the Monkee Movie for TMN.

9:00

Jack de Keyzer Band – 2003 JUNO Winner! – Best Blues Album – Jack de Keyzer is an award winning blues guitarist, singer and song writer. Jack de Keyzer has four CD’s under his own name and has appeared on dozens of CD’s for other artists. An exciting entertainer, electrifying guitarist and soulful singer, Jack de Keyzer delights a vast spectrum of music lovers wherever he performs. His latest CD, 6 String Lover, is a milestone in the lifelong musical travels of a contemporary rhythm & blues journeyman.

 

Brian Gladstone, Producer, © Copyright-A Better World  

Proceeds from CD sales are donated to ‘Earth Day Canada’

‘The Association of Artists for A Better World’ is a registered non-profit organization founded by Brian Gladstone in 2004. Our mission is to inform, encourage, and stimulate artist awareness of social and ecological issues; then take their words all over the world, so their voices can be heard.

 
<< Jed Goldberg (left), President of Earthday Canada, Brian Gladstone (right) Celebrate the Launch of ‘Songs for A Better Planet’ CD.

Songs for a Better Planet is an anthology of original songs with themes for an Improved Earth. Tracks 1 – 10 on this CD have been selected for their excellence, among the hundreds of submissions we received from all over the globe. We express our sincere thanks and recognition to every submitting artist for making a difference in the world. Tracks 11 and12were by invitation of the producer. The fragile beauty of the natural world has always been a source of musical inspiration. Today, the urgent need to protect the environment is prompting a wealth of passionate new songs. “Songs for a Better Planet” is a new international compilation album that directs all sales proceeds to Earth Day Canada, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the state of the environment by empowering and helping Canadians to take positive environmental action.

 “Songs for a Better Planet” consists of twelve new songs, selected from hundreds submitted for the project, written by independent music artists who make compelling personal statements in support of the earth. Blues, folk, jazz, country, roots and rock influences can be heard throughout this contemporary acoustic-focused record. A wide range of artists are represented from three Canadian provinces and five U.S. states. Although the musicians all present highly individual songs, “Songs for a Better Planet” is a unified project that reflects the diversity of voices in today’s earth-conscious community

Sorry, All Sold Out. Thanks for your Support.