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Ralph Murphy: “Every Day I Want To Write The Ultimate Song”

Story by Nick Krewen | September 19, 2017 FOR SOCAN Words and Music Ralph Murphy has been writing songs, as he likes to describe it, “since God wore short pants.” And he’s had a lot of success over the decades. The iconic, Nashville-based SOCAN member, a 2012 Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, penned the No. 2 Jeannie C. Riley hit “Good Enough to Be Your Wife” in 1971;…


Future of pop music is in great hands with Bruno Mars: review

Mars’s 90-minute set Saturday night at the ACC demonstrated the pop star’s gifted intuition for pop music. Nick Krewen Music, Sun., Aug. 27, 2017 Bruno Mars at the Air Canada Centre, Aug. 26, 2017 He had razzle. He had dazzle. And on Saturday night, for the first of two hotly anticipated Air Canada Centre sell-out concerts, Bruno Mars had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand with…


Ten acts to check out at WayHome festival — beyond the headliners

Before the sun goes down and the headliners come out, here are some less-famous worthies to check out at the WayHome Festival this weekend. Nick Krewen Music, Thu., July 27, 2017 Music festivals have been trimming their sails and spending carefully on performers lately, but the third edition of WayHome — the Burl’s Creek-based, three-day music fest that drew 35,000 people last year — has hung on to headliners that…


Allie X Has Earned More Than 12 Million Streams on Spotify Alone

Story by Nick Krewen | July 19, 2017 For SOCAN Words and Music   Oakville’s Allie Hughes built considerable buzz during her formative years in Toronto, as a must-see act who balanced performance art and theatrical sensibilities with a knack for infectious, melodic pop. But it wasn’t until Hughes left for Los Angeles and transformed herself into Allie X that her career truly took off. Since 2014, she’s issued the…


David Lowery, the singer who made Spotify pay, calls settlement a ‘good first step’

Lowery’s band Cracker is hitting Danforth Music Hall on Tuesday in wake of conclusion of vocalist’s class action. Nick Krewen Music, Tues., July 18, 2017   Meet the man who made Spotify blink and scored a major victory for songwriters in the process. On May 26, David Lowery, the chief singer and songwriter of California rockers Cracker, appearing at the Danforth Music Hall on Tuesday with Soul Asylum, claimed victory…