Modern Love was released on Friday, March 19. Assembled at Taurus Recordings, a professional facility in Toronto, ON, Modern Love is the first album co-produced by Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland, with additional contributions by Thom D’Arcy (string arrangements), Fred Eltringham (drums), Gus Van Go (bass on “Promises”), Robin Hatch (wurlitzer, mellotron) and Drew Jurecka (string performances). It was mastered by me (a little side hustle I have between writing these newsletters), so I’m giving myself a pat on the back right now. pat pat pat.

To celebrate Modern Love, Whitehorse performed a full band show live from Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern. The show, part of the Horseshoe Hootenanny live stream series, is available on demand until April 12. Pick up your ticket HERE and watch it any day of the week.

What do Metallica, Yngwie Malmsteen, The Scorpions, and Aerosmith all have in common with Whitehorse? If you said “epic guitar shredding”, you would only be partially right! All of these shredders have also performed with symphony orchestras, which Whitehorse are about to do! Whitehorse are tuning up for a performance with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony (cue symphonytuningsounds.mp3), where they’ll perform all the hits from the past decade with a full orchestra. Ok, maybe not every single hit from the past decade, but at least all of THEIR hits from the past decade. The show airs live on TONIGHT at 8pm ET, and is available on demand until midnight on April 11. You can buy tickets HERE.

THE DEEP DARK WOODS SHARE “EVERYTHING REMINDS ME,” FROM NEW ALBUM CHANGING FACES, OUT MAY 14, 2021.

In the video for “Everything Reminds Me,” a new song from The Deep Dark Woods, all of life’s small daily rituals add up to something much bigger and very beautiful. Kind of like how every morning I make the exact same bagel with dairy free cream cheese, sprinkle each half of the bagel with a different type of hot sauce (cayenne on one side, mango habanero on the other), smash one regular espresso followed by one decaf espresso, and it all adds up to a big and beautiful cream cheese stain on my pants when I try to eat in my car on the way to work. “Everything Reminds Me,” which also features Kacy & Clayton and, for the first time, strings (arranged and performed by Russian composer and violinist Maria Grigoryeva), is the first song out from the band’s long- awaited new album, Changing Faces. Watch “Everything Reminds Me,” directed by Craig Range, HERE.

Changing Faces, The Deep Dark Woods’ sixth album, arrives May 14, 2021, and we are very excited about it. Enter to win one of 3 signed test pressings HERE.

Stream “Everything Reminds Me” and pre-order Changing Faces HERE.

INTRODUCING BOY GOLDEN, OUR NEWEST SIGNING.

Six Shooter Records was thrilled to welcome Boy Golden, a new artist from Winnipeg, MB, to the label earlier this week. Boy Golden has a purpose: enjoy each day and make good music. What a winning combo! Founder and minister of The Church of Better Daze, he wants to help people seeking to improve on yesterday’s themes (if you missed it, yesterday’s themes were not enjoying each day, and making decent-at-best music, so this is a real improvement for sure). His songs, like hymns (and like him), are hopeful, fresh and upbeat. Redefining jam band and stoner cultures by turning dead heads into lively brains, Boy Golden wants to unite us all in a hazy dream under one roof. If you’re open to learn, and can speak your truth, you can blaze and still get paid in Boy Golden’s Church of Better Daze. Prepare to turn your harshed mellow into a golden yellow mellow.

With a 1995 Toyota Previa-sized personality, Boy Golden will release new music in the coming months, starting with the title track from his forthcoming debut album, The Church of Better Daze, arriving - naturally - on 4/20. Celebrate and educate alike on this day by joining Boy Golden for a live virtual rolling workshop in partnership with Tokyo Smoke. Weeeed duuude. Sign up HERE.

Prepare for your membership in The Church of Better Daze with Boy Golden’s inaugural artist-curated collection of songs which together form a 4/20 vibe readiness playlist. Everyone is welcome, and you can listen HERE.

2021 JUNO NOMINATIONS: WILLIAM PRINCE + JULY TALK.

JUNO nomo! Even if this is the second year in a row where this pandemic bummer has gotten firmly in the way of JUNO revelry, we still can’t contain our excitement when our artists snag some nominations.

We were thrilled and unsurprised to see William Prince’s excellent first new record of 2020, Reliever, nominated for JUNO Award Contemporary Roots Album of the Year. What a relief!

Six Shooter management artists July Talk also scooped up two (2) nominations this year. Pray For It, released in the summer of July Talk Live At A Drive-In (easily the most exciting thing to happen last summer), is up for the JUNO Award Alternative Album of the Year. Aaaand, the incredible team behind the album art, including Peter and Leah from July Talk (what a coincidence!), and, as mentioned above, Six Shooter’s Lyle Bell, are also in the running for Album Artwork of the Year. You should really cop a physical copy of this record to own this incredible artwork for yourself. It’s like an NFT you can actually hold in your hand! Totally fungible, dude! I barely know what that means!

THE DEAD SOUTH’S NEW DOUBLE ALBUM, SERVED LIVE, IS OUT NOW!

Served Live was released January 29, 2021 via Six Shooter Records, and is The Dead South’s first double live album. Awww, baby’s first double live. After they have released 5 or 6 more double live albums this might not seem so special, but you never forget your first! Served Live is a full concert setlist recorded during their 2019-2020 Served Cold World Tour at iconic and beloved venues across USA, UK, and Ireland. Served Live features new material from the JUNO Award winning album Sugar & Joy, as well as the band’s top charting, global viral mega hits from previous records. It also has some crowd cheering and clapping noises, so if you were at one of these performances maybe you are famous now! Listen very closely to see if you can pick out your own distinctive “WOOOOOOO”.

To make the new video for “The Recap,” The Dead South asked fans to share their own favourite captured show moments, recorded over years of touring. The result celebrates the people and places that are part of The Dead South’s story, from Murphy’s Pub, a tiny bar in Leduc, AB to Red Rocks Amphitheatre and many stops in between. Watch “The Recap (Served Live Fans Edition)" HERE and count how many clubs, festivals and cities you’ve experienced, on stage or in the crowd.

In March, Houston Ballet unveiled a series of dance films set to the rugged folk tunes of The Dead South’s beloved In Good Company. The series was choreographed and filmed by Artistic Director Stanton Welch, and interprets the story of a selection of songs in dance form while adding their own distinct hellfire flavour. I can’t say that I would have ever predicted this music being paired with ballet, but hey, it’s 2021 and why not? You can check them out HERE. The Dead South will be going live on YouTube in an interview with Stanton Welch and two members of the dance company to discuss the making of the film series on April 27. I’m hoping that on their upcoming multi-year monster tour (see dates at the end of this newsletter), The Dead South will bust out some of these ballet moves themselves as they perform the tunes.

On February 20, 2021 The Dead South hosted Served Live Venue Bingo, which was available online worldwide. The creative fundraiser highlighted venues around the world in an effort to promote and support the work being done to stabilize the incredibly hard hit live music industry during the pandemic – and beyond – by three organizations: NIVA (#SaveOurStages, USA), Music Venue Trust (#SaveOurVenues, UK) and CIVC (#SupportCanadianVenues, Canada). Thanks to everyone who played; over 10,000 bingo cards were sold in support of these three initiatives!

SIX SHOOTER MINI BULLETS.

We always have some extra goodies available for your listening and learning pleasures. Need an aural snack for your ear holes? We got you.

Listen to Tanya Tagaq read excerpts from Split Tooth and an interview for a recent BBC radio documentary that explores the North Pole as a mythologized space. Nice work Myth Tagaq! That was supposed to be Ms. Tagaq spoken with a lisp from having a split tooth. The joke didn’t really work as well when I wrote it out, oh well. Listen to Tanya HERE!

Jenn Grant’s beauty cover of “Eye of the Tiger” keeps popping up in film and television. The song was recently featured in the Tiger Woods documentary (about his eye, I presume... I haven’t seen it yet), and will now soundtrack an upcoming Renault campaign. I moved recently, and while packing up for the move I found a (very) old cassette tape that had me as a little kid singing the chorus of "Eye of the Tiger" over a casio keyboard drum beat for like half an hour straight. Not quite as beauty as Jenn Grant’s cover, but close! Listen to her cover HERE.

Elliott BROOD continue their playlist journey across Canada. In the newest episode of A.C.R.O.N.Y.M., the band’s virtual music appreciation society, the band travels to Lethbridge, AB. I have family in Lethbridge, and they run a family hockey pool. I don’t care about hockey at all, so my dad (who cares a lot about hockey) entered my dog into the pool instead, and yesterday my dog won 5 bucks! Good boy! I don’t think this gets discussed at all in the latest episode of A.C.R.O.N.Y.M., probably an unintentional oversight by the BROOD, so I thought I better let you know this important tidbit about Lethbridge here.

Check out the official A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. playlists and past episodes on Spotify / YouTube.