According to People magazine, Celine Dion will return to Ceasar's Palace in Las Vegas this August with a revamped show.

An August return will make it almost one year exactly since Dion announced her hiatus, stating "I want to devote every ounce of my strength and energy to my husband's healing." 

René Angélil was coping with health struggles related to cancer at the time, and Dion herself was also experiencing complications resulting from inflamed throat muscles. 

But Dion promises she's back in fine form.

"Every night is a new show… I promise there will be high, happy notes." 

Dion's interviews with People and Good Morning America will run next week.

Related

Céline Dion: 'I want to devote every ounce of my strength and energy to my husband's healing'





This is the finger tracing across a dusty photo album, the candlelight flickering against the dark, the hunter drawing arrows from a quiver. What you are about to hear above is a quiet reckoning.  

With Carrie & Lowell (you can pre-order the album here), Michigan-raised, Brooklyn-based Sufjan Stevens reflects on his absent mother — the titular Carrie, who died in 2012 — and his stepfather, Lowell Brams. The details of why and how his mother became absent can be found with a simple search, but the album doesn't necessarily require them. This is a journey: the path from confusion to acceptance. 

And it's one Stevens doesn't walk alone. There is Daniel the prophet, and Jesus, and the God of Elijah. Stevens liberally references Greek mythology throughout: Poseidon, Perseus, Icarus, Dido and Erebus appear along the way like guests in some Homeric epic.  And like the Greek poet, Sufjan guides us through a series of battles, a war now past, but one which should not be forgotten. There are unclear lines, regret and hope, fatal blows and tragedy. This is the songwriter as calm, devastating chronicler. Like Leonard Cohen, like the greatest hymns, this is poetry.

Sometimes, the lines lament: "When I was three, three maybe four/ She left us at that video store." Other times they dig in: "Spirit of my silence I can hear you/ But I’m afraid to be near you." And sometimes they are delivered with heart-smashing simplicity: "Friend, why don't you love me?" Still, as easily as it could descend into a complete absence of light, the songs are carried through with a quiet grace, a tone of forgiveness. 

(Illustration by Ahmed Khalil/CBC Music)

An intimate listen, the instrumentation on Carrie & Lowell is sparse (some of the songs were recorded with an iPhone). There are swells, and disarmingly abrupt endings. Shelved is the glitchy experimentation and chaotic orchestration of his last album, 2010'sThe Age of Adz. And while this is clearly a journey into the past, Stevens also logged long physical distances in putting it together, with recording locations stretching across the U.S.: from his office in Brooklyn, to Oklahoma to Eau Claire, Wis., and across Oregon (a place he spent a few summers with Carrie and Lowell as a child). Some of the stops saw Stevens meet up with some guest players, including Sean Carey (Bon Iver) and Laura Veirs.
 
Carrie & Lowell is a meditation on a life. Mythic biography. An Ovidian elegy. It is a quiet record, meant to be heard. 

Tracklisting:

1. "Death With Dignity" 
2. "Should Have Known Better" 
3. "All of Me Wants All of You" 
4. "Drawn to the Blood" 
5. "Eugene" 
6. "Fourth of July" 
7. "The Only Thing" 
8. "Carrie & Lowell" 
9. "John My Beloved" 
10. "No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross" 
11. "Blue Bucket of Gold"

"You sent a photo out of your window of Paris of what you wished that I could see. But someone’s gotta be the lighthouse and that someone’s gotta be me," Ben Gibbard sings on "Little Wanderer," off Death Cab for Cutie’s upcoming eighth album, Kintsugi.

It’s one of the most transparently autobiographical songs on an album that is highly autobiographical, dealing with Gibbard’s relationship with actress/singer Zooey Deschanel, which ended in divorce in 2012. But that’s the most the songwriter is going to spell out for listeners, which, in the end, is a service to an album that ultimately deals with the theme of things breaking apart and being mended back together.

Knowing about Gibbard’s divorce, or the fact that this is founding guitarist Chris Walla’s last album with Death Cab (he announced his amicable departure last summer and was fully present on this album), gives fans greater context, but even without that information, Kintsugi is still relatable. It’s one of Gibbard’s greatest strengths as a songwriter: taking the personal and making it universal.

"I know that people will assume these songs are about certain things, and in some instances they are going to be correct," he said in press release. "But I’m not going to give people a road map."

"If there’s a reason people can relate to my songwriting, maybe it’s they feel like they’re getting an honest, fearless approach to writing about affairs of the heart," he says. "I’m certainly not going to censor that just because people think they know something about my personal life. I would be cowardly as a songwriter and not be true to what I’ve always done if I shy away from these events in my life because I was in a relationship with a public figure."

Whether it’s "Black Sun," which deals with the extreme emotions that accompany divorce ("anger, sadness, finger-pointing, acceptance, forgiveness, understanding," as Gibbard puts it), embracing our flaws, as on "The Ghosts of Beverly Drive," or the inevitability of change that runs through the heartbreaking acoustic ballad "Hold No Guns" ("numbers change and people fall, and friends they always splinter"). 

It’s where the album title Kintsugi comes from, which is the name given to the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with gold. In other words, things fall apart; it's only in fixing the cracks and embracing flaws that we're made stronger in the end.

Kintsugi is available March 31. Stream it above in advance, and pre-order it on iTunes.

Kintsugi tracklist:

1. "No Room in Frame"
2. "Black Sun"
3. "The Ghosts of Beverly Drive"
4. "Little Wanderer"
5. "You've Haunted Me All My Life"
6. "Hold No Guns"
7. "Everything's a Ceiling"
8. "Good Help (Is So Hard to Find)"
9. "El Dorado"
10. "Ingénue"
11. "Binary Sea"

Named as one of Radio 3's 15 most anticipated albums of 2015, the time for Dear Rouge is finally here. Black to Gold marks the married Vancouver duo's major label debut, and it's a huge leap forward for the electro-pop act. You can listen to the record one week before its release in the player above, and pre-order Black to Gold here.

Danielle and Drew McTaggart have been making music as Dear Rouge since 2012. They won the Peak Performance Project that year (with a prize of $102,700), and it's been nothing but up, up, up ever since.

That momentum is evident on the first four tracks, all pounding heartbeats and propulsive dance parties. But there's something wonderfully hypnotic about the excitement and it's not until the fifth track, "Wanna, Wanna," that you find the space to slow down and realize you actually need to catch your breath.

This segues nicely into the gentle beauty of the next song, "October Second," which finds the duo experimenting with call-and-answer vocals. It's an intimate give-and-take that's particularly effective since Drew's voice typically takes a backseat to Danielle's lead vocals.

Black to Gold benefits from Dear Rouge's decision to take their time. Every song is fully realized, confident, polished. It's the sound, also, of two people who know each other: the clarity of Dear Rouge's voice, the threads that connect all of the songs together; that's the real magic of genuine partnership.

Find me on Twitter: @_AndreaWarner

As musical icons go - you just don’t get much bigger than Sting. He’s had an extraordinary career, sold millions of albums and has faithful fans from all over the world. But Sting hasn’t followed any single career path. His musical journey has been more about following his muse.

Since he left The Police 30 years ago, Sting has constantly moved in new directions, endlessly searching for and finding new ways to explore music and define himself. It’s almost as if, after each new project, he looks around and thinks,” Okay, what’s next?"

This week on Inside the Music, you’ll hear something about the “why”.

Sting: the Solo Years was produced by Joyride Media and hosted by Anthony DeCurtis

Over Juno weekend, CBC Music hit the streets of Hamilton, Ont., to play Jam or Not a Jam, but with one little twist — it was in a van. We invited music fans and musicians into the Jam van to play them songs and ask one thing: jam or not a jam?

Check out the results of our streeters edition below, and if you see yourself in the video, let me know on Twitter (@JesseKG). Stay tuned for more takes from the van, including Lights, Arkells, USS, Dallas Smith, PS I Love You and more.  

Part 1

Part 2

We're adding a new stream to the CBC Music lineup today. Beginning March 23, the Yahama Key Players stream will bring you some of the best music from a wide range of contemporary artists who are at the top of their game.

You'll hear tracks from a variety of artists with one thing in common: they know how to tickle the ivories. Elton John, Alicia Keys, Sarah McLachlan, Chantal Kreviazuk, Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel and Bruce Hornsby are just a few of the master musicians you'll find on the stream.

The best pop-piano hits are just a click away on the Yamaha Key Players stream.  

Related:

John Lennon to Coldplay: the best pop piano songs

This weekend, Jack White headlined Lollapalooza Argentina, and his set reached epic proportions when he was joined on-stage by Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant. The pair, along with White's band, played the Led Zeppelin II classic "The Lemon Song."

Previously, Plant has said he'd like to record a single with White, stating he admires White's "buccaneer spirit, and the way he dodges through the musical horizons."

This is a pretty good start.

As everyone with Twitter is probably aware, South by Southwest wrapped up this weekend. There was, as always, a pretty hefty Canadian contingent that went down, many of whom we profiled earlier in the month.

Among the bands who made the trip was Torontonian dance floor-friendly, party punk act the OBGMs. Here they are at Austin venue Hotel Vegas, being typically hilarious and odd. They start the song by quoting seemingly random Wire snippets at each other, and end by sending their keyboard player into the crowd with a cowbell and mock-firing him.

We love these guys.

Every week, Rich Terfry looks back in our Rear-view Mirror at a great song from the good ol’ days. This week, M.I.A. and "Paper Planes." 

In the mid-2000s, the U.S. government was making M.I.A.'s life very difficult. What she didn't know at the time was that they were actually doing her career a big favor.

English recording artist M.I.A. is the daughter of a man who was a known political dissident in India. She was raised knowing poverty, conflict, racism, violence and displacement. The hard lessons of her early life forged in her a political and out-spoken nature. So when she began making music, it was natural that her politics were expressed in her lyrics.

After the release of her debut album in 2005, she was refused a work visa to record her second album in the U.S. She also appeared on the U.S. Homeland Security Risk List in 2006. This gave M.I.A. a lot to think about and she wrote a song about it. She poured her anger and frustration into a song called "Paper Planes," which was released in 2007.

The song became an instant smash hit and received universal critical acclaim. M.I.A. and her hit song also became the subject of controversy and her story took the media by storm. This only helped record sales and the song's message of the perceived threat of an immigrant getting rich became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Here's the song that became the story in pop culture and beyond in 2007 - this is "Paper Planes" by M.I.A.

Here are some other great editions of Rear-view Mirror:

The Animals "We Gotta Get Out of this Place"

Dusty Springfield "Son of a Preacher Man"

Screamin' Jay Hawkins "I Put A Spell On You"

Cheap Trick "Surrender"

Mott The Hoople "All the Young Dudes"

Beach Boys "Sloop John B"

Amy Winehouse "Rehab"

New York Dolls "Personality Crisis"

Modern Lovers "Roadrunner"

George Jones "He Stopped Loving Her Today"

Bruce Springsteen "Born in the USA"

The Beatles "With A Little Help From My Friends"

Rolling Stones 'Miss You'

The Coasters 'Run Red Run'

Elvis Costello, 'Alison'

James Brown, 'Hot (I Need to be loved loved loved)'

Inner Circle, 'Tenement Yard'

Ray Charles, 'I Don't Need No Doctor'

Curtis Mayfield, 'Freddy's Dead'

Gang Starr, 'Beyond Comprehension'

Bo Diddley, 'Bo Diddley'

Aretha Franklin, 'Rocksteady'

CCR, 'Have You Ever Seen the Rain'

Howlin' Wolf, 'Smokestack Lightning'

Bobby Womack, 'Across 110th Street'

Roy Orbison, 'In Dreams'

Foggy Hogtown Boys, 'Man of Constant Sorrow'

Pink Floyd, 'Wish You Were Here'

Neil Young, 'Cortez The Killer'

Bob Dylan, 'Subterranean Homesick Blues'

Little Eva, 'Loco-Motion'

Elvis Costello, 'Watching the Detectives'

Jimmy Cliff, 'The Harder They Come'

The Verve, 'Bittersweet Symphony'

Roberta Flack, 'Killing Me Softly with his Song'

R.E.M., 'Radio Free Europe'

Radiohead, 'No Surprises'

Led Zeppelin, 'Ramble On'

Glen Campbell, 'Wichita Lineman'

Rolling Stones, 'Beast of Burden'

John Cougar Mellencamp, 'Pink Houses'

Each day, Rich Terfry and Radio 2 Drive wraps up your day with music and stories about the interesting things going on in the world.

Rich's Pick: "River" by Ibeyi

JUNK IN THE TRUNK: 

23 historical bad business blunders 

A cat with eyebrows 

Little dog tucks in human baby

Rear View Mirror: 

Every week, Rich Terfry looks back in our Rear-view Mirror at a great song from the good ol’ days. This week, M.I.A. and "Paper Planes." 

In the mid-2000s, the U.S. government was making M.I.A.'s life very difficult. What she didn't know at the time was that they were actually doing her career a big favor.

English recording artist M.I.A. is the daughter of a man who was a known political dissident in India. She was raised knowing poverty, conflict, racism, violence and displacement. The hard lessons of her early life forged in her a political and out-spoken nature. So when she began making music, it was natural that her politics were expressed in her lyrics.

After the release of her debut album in 2005, she was refused a work visa to record her second album in the U.S. She also appeared on the U.S. Homeland Security Risk List in 2006. This gave M.I.A. a lot to think about and she wrote a song about it. She poured her anger and frustration into a song called "Paper Planes," which was released in 2007.

The song became an instant smash hit and received universal critical acclaim. M.I.A. and her hit song also became the subject of controversy and her story took the media by storm. This only helped record sales and the song's message of the perceived threat of an immigrant getting rich became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Here's the song that became the story in pop culture and beyond in 2007 - this is "Paper Planes" by M.I.A.

Here are some other great editions of Rear-view Mirror:

The Animals "We Gotta Get Out of this Place"

Dusty Springfield "Son of a Preacher Man"

Screamin' Jay Hawkins "I Put A Spell On You"

Cheap Trick "Surrender"

Mott The Hoople "All the Young Dudes"

Beach Boys "Sloop John B"

Amy Winehouse "Rehab"

New York Dolls "Personality Crisis"

Modern Lovers "Roadrunner"

George Jones "He Stopped Loving Her Today"

Bruce Springsteen "Born in the USA"

The Beatles "With A Little Help From My Friends"

Rolling Stones 'Miss You'

The Coasters 'Run Red Run'

Elvis Costello, 'Alison'

James Brown, 'Hot (I Need to be loved loved loved)'

Inner Circle, 'Tenement Yard'

Ray Charles, 'I Don't Need No Doctor'

Curtis Mayfield, 'Freddy's Dead'

Gang Starr, 'Beyond Comprehension'

Bo Diddley, 'Bo Diddley'

Aretha Franklin, 'Rocksteady'

CCR, 'Have You Ever Seen the Rain'

Howlin' Wolf, 'Smokestack Lightning'

Bobby Womack, 'Across 110th Street'

Roy Orbison, 'In Dreams'

Foggy Hogtown Boys, 'Man of Constant Sorrow'

Pink Floyd, 'Wish You Were Here'

Neil Young, 'Cortez The Killer'

Bob Dylan, 'Subterranean Homesick Blues'

Little Eva, 'Loco-Motion'

Elvis Costello, 'Watching the Detectives'

Jimmy Cliff, 'The Harder They Come'

The Verve, 'Bittersweet Symphony'

Roberta Flack, 'Killing Me Softly with his Song'

R.E.M., 'Radio Free Europe'

Radiohead, 'No Surprises'

Led Zeppelin, 'Ramble On'

Glen Campbell, 'Wichita Lineman'

Rolling Stones, 'Beast of Burden'

"You f--k the world damn straight malaise. It may be just us who feel this way."

The Strombo Show ran the gamut this Sunday night, keeping the spirit of radio alive by delivering the best records in the best order. It's a show for music lovers by music lovers, ranging over three hours of commercial-free music to honour both old and new.

George Stroumboulopoulos was also joined by celebrated singer-songwriter Joshua Tillman (Father John Misty) for an acoustic performance and intimate interview in the House of Strombo.

Celebrating his sophomore album, I Love You, Honeybear— which balances narcissistic head-banging with honest revelations of deep love — Tillman sits down to explore his manic madman approach.

He explores the album concept, his evangelical upbringing, protosexual relationships with cartoons and acoustically covers Leonard Cohen's "Bird on the Wire."

Also, we debuted a song from our good friend Hayden Desser's upcoming eighth studio album, Hey Love and spun some submissions from CBC Music's Searchlight competition. And if that weren't enough, we were joined by Ice Cube for a very special request.

As always, we tip our hats to those groundbreakers and game-changers with a Nod to the Gods, spinning the best new tracks, paying tribute to Tom Waits on Ten with Tom and send you into the horizontal with the Big Lie Down.

Lock it. Crank it. Join the collective!

MAGNIFICENT 7

PLAYLIST

Here they are, your top 30 Canadian indie tracks this week!

The R3-30 for March 23, 2015
30. Weed “Thousand Pounds”
29. Taylor Knox “Fire”
28. Savvie “It’s OK”
27. Programm “Like The Sun”
26. Humans “Tell Me”
25. The Elwins “Is There Something”
24. Dagan Harding “Naked Eye”
23. Seoul “The Line”
22. Coyote “Proof Of Life”
21. Lids “Sarsfest”
20. Nick Diamonds “The Sting”
19. Mardeen “Silver Fang”
18. Calvin Love “Daydream”
17. Astral Swans “September”
16. Alvvays “Party Police”
15. Del Bel “The Stallion”
14. Dan Mangan + Blacksmith “Mouthpiece”
13. Braids “Miniskirt”
12. Masia One “88 Vibes”
11. Operators “Ecstasy In My House“
10. Daniel Isaiah “Heaven Is On Fire”
9. The Acorn “ Influence”
8. Milk & Bone “Coconut Water”
7. Metz “Acetate”
6. Twin River “Laugh It Off “
5. Kathryn Calder “Take A Little Time”
4. Hollerado “Firefly”
3. Whitehorse “Sweet Disaster “
2. Viet Cong “Silhouettes”
1. Faith Healer “Again”

Today for the final listener list you’ll be hearing tracks that remind you of Radio 3! Thank you for contributing to the Listener List sets, you are great curators, indeed!

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis's aptly named third album, Kitty, Daisy & Lewis the Third, has been out in their native U.K. for a few months now. Ahead of its upcoming North American tour, the trio is now releasing the album in Canada and the U.S. It doesn't drop until March 31, but you can stream it above until then.

If you aren't familiar with the band, the three British siblings — Kitty, Daisy and Lewis Durham — combine their passions for jump blues, swing, country, R&B and early rock 'n' roll through a thoroughly millennial lens.

The album, featuring the Durhams' strong musicianship and playful musicality, was produced by a noted early fan of the band: Mick Jones of the Clash. 

Tracklisting:

1. "Whenever You See Me"
2. "Baby Bye Bye"
3. "Feeling of Wonder"
4. "No Action"
5. "Good Looking Woman"
6. "Turkish Delight"
7. "It Ain't Your Business"
8. "Ain't Always Better Your Way"
9. "Never Get Back"
10. "Bitchin' in the Kitchen"
11. "Whiskey"
12. "Developer's Disease"

Ron Sexsmith is smiling on the cover of his new album, Carousel One.

This is kind of a big deal. Sexsmith has always erred on the side of "Little Boy Blue," his countenance seemingly in direct contrast to the heart and humour regularly revealed in his music and on his social media.

"I didn’t realize until we were putting the songs together for Carousel One that this would be more outgoing, there's a lot more humour," Sexsmith says in his press release. "I mean, there’s even a smiling picture on the cover, which I’ve never had before. I just hope it doesn’t scare the children."

That flash of teeth on the cover is an invitation that's a privilege to accept. There's something hugely vulnerable about communicating joy. Articulating pleasure in a meaningful, playful and creative way, transcending the unhinged giddiness of a heart aloft, sharing something hopeful but not hokey — this is the landscape of Carousel One.

It's lighthearted, funny and almost uniformly upbeat, like throwing back the blackout curtains, sunlight flooding the room, all warmth and possibility and cat-stretching contentment. It's the sound of spring beckoning summer, of saying farewell to winter. It's the sound of Ron Sexsmith smiling.

Pre-order Carousel One.

Find me on Twitter: @_AndreaWarner

Related

Feist, k.d. lang, Kevin Drew, more: the 11 best Ron Sexsmith covers

Each week, staff from CBC Music, Radio 2, 3, Sonica, CBC Hamilton and Whitehorse collect songs they just can't get out of their heads, and make a case for why you should listen, too. Press play below and discover new songs for your listening list.

Let us know in the comments what catches your ear, or if you have new song suggestions.

Lauv, 'The Other'

There are those moments in life when a song stops you in your tracks. Sometimes it's the melody or the beat that grabs your attention, and the next thing you know, you've been sitting there for the entire song, completely in the moment. That's what happened to me with Lauv's track "The Other." Incredible vocals, catchy piano melody and a solid drum beat — everything you want in a track. This is the first song from New Yorkers Ari Leff and Michael Matosic, two solo musicians in their own rights, but I hope there's a lot more to come from the duo soon.
— Matthew Fisher

Chersea, 'The Wolf' (Searchlight contestant)

There's a fantastic push and pull between Chersea's layered, lush vocals and the textured, electronic flourishes that anchor her music. The fact that she does everything alone — apparently she's a looping wizard — makes "The Wolf" all the more remarkable. — Andrea Warner

Enter Searchlight now!

Lord Huron, 'Fool for Love'

"I’m dangerous 'cause I’m a fool for love." Lord Huron’s latest track is from the band's upcoming album, Strange Trails, which will be released in April. It is a tale of adventure, determination and brazen romanticism. The instrumental arrangements — featuring chimes, the twang of a guitar and a steady, percussive gallop — pair with the narrative, which tells of heading off into the wilderness with the antiquated notion of fighting hand-to-hand for a woman’s heart, making the track reminiscent of the American Old West. In the end, Lord Huron’s hero is left bleeding out in the snow, reflecting on his uninhibited heart — a tragic end to the hopeful romantic. — Joan Chung

Raz Fresco, 'Warning Shots/Murda'

It’s sometimes hard to remember that Raz Fresco a) is only 20 years old and b) still hasn’t released an official full-length, label-backed album, because it feels like this guy has been around forever. After a slew of successful mixtapes, Fresco’s full-length debut, Pablo/Frescobar, is set to drop on Duck Down this year. The two-in-one video "Warning Shots/Murda" is the first release from the album and features all the lyrical dexterity and heavy, head-nodding beats you’ve come to expect from Raz. — Chris Dart

Editor's note: strong language warning, NSFW.



Pharis and Jason Romero, 'A Wanderer I’ll Stay'

Pharis and Jason Romero's old-time sounds have become a favourite of folk festivals across western Canada, and they're sure to make more fans with the duo's new album. Recorded in their home in Horsefly, B.C., this is the title track from A Wanderer I'll Stay.
— Dave White, CBC Whitehorse

Of Monsters and Men, 'Crystals'

There are always rumblings of that sophomore slump in the music industry, where, based on the success of their first record, artists don't live up to those second-album expectations. If you think that's stressful enough, try going four times platinum in the U.S., five times platinum in Australia and three times platinum in Canada, which is what Of Monsters and Men did with their first album. They really need to bring it this second time around.

The just-released first single, "Crystals," is reminiscent of what made us fall in love with the Icelandic band to begin with, but here's hoping the rest of the record lets them stretch their musical arms a little more. Beneath the Skin drops June 9 on Universal Music, and Of Monsters and Men kick off their North American tour in Toronto on May 4.— MF

Khatalia, 'Show Me Love' (Searchlight contestant)

Khatalia's basically grown up on YouTube, and there's a reason her songs and covers have earned millions of views so far. "Show Me Love" is a tightly crafted bit of pop/R&B that's ready for the radio, and I think it's only a hint at what Khatalia is truly capable of accomplishing. — AW

Enter Searchlight now!


Angélique Kidjo, 'Malaika'

As a musician, you have to reach a certain level to find yourself onstage performing with a symphony orchestra. For one, orchestras aren't cheap: we're talking 100 musicians who each spent decades honing their craft. Second, not everything sounds better, or even that good, with an orchestral arrangement. It's why you won't see a lot of DJs and orchestras performing together — although some will try. But when it works, oh man, it really works. Angélique Kidjo plus Orchestre philharmonique du Luxembourg equals Angélique Kidjo Sings. It works. Brilliantly. — Judith Lynch

Angelique Kidjo Sings is available March 31.

The Weepies, 'No Trouble'

The Weepies are the musical duo of husband and wife Steve Tannen and Deb Talan. Their new track, "No Trouble," was actually written in 2013, and in a weird bit of foreshadowing, a few weeks after the track was completed, Talan was diagnosed with breast cancer. Suddenly the refrain, "Don't need no trouble/ but sometimes trouble needs me," was incredibly relevant to their lives. The song highlights their signature harmonies over a driving piano rhythm and subtle strings. Everything builds to create layers and urgency, resulting in a smart, sing-along pop song. Talan has since gone through a successful round of treatment, and is ready for the release of the duo's fifth record, Sirens, out on April 28. You can hear "No Trouble" spinning now on Radio 2, and you can vote for it (or any of your favourites) for the Radio 2 Top 20.
— Jeanette Cabral

Der Faden, 'Best Guess' (Searchlight contestant)

There are lots of great things that only people in Sudbury, Ont., know about: the chicken on a bun at Deluxe; the thrill of porchetta bingo; local new wave/pop-punk act the Statues. The Statues are no more, but frontman Rob Seaton is back with a terrific new act, der Faden. Throw on their Searchlight entry and bop your head along to the best thing to come out of Northern Ontario since blueberry pie. — Mike Miner

Enter Searchlight now!

Killer Be Killed, 'Curb Crusher'

Metalheads don't squeal with glee. But if they did, a band with members of Soulfly, Dillinger Escape Plan and Mastodon would be just what gets them shrieking with Homer Simpson-levels of excitement. This new tune from Killer Be Killed channels the sludgy grind of Pantera alongside fierce growls and some surprisingly melodic moments. Watch out for the heavy guy in the pit. — Adam Carter, CBC Hamilton

Mumford & Sons, 'Believe'

The banjo was so 2013, or at least that's what Mumford & Sons want you to believe. The announcement of their new record, Wilder Mind, also came with the development that they had decided to go in a new direction, stepping away from the sound that built Mumford & Sons a solid fanbase around the world. Instead, we find a guitar-centric sound along with lyrics and vocal melody that we've come to expect from lead singer Marcus Mumford. I don't usually like doing predictions before hearing complete records, but I can tell you now, this new record is going to be one of the biggest of 2015. Look for it coming May 4 on Glassnote Records. — MF

Meezy Musik, '2 Late' (Searchlight contestant)

It's a hell of a thing to compare one's self to Jesus in a bio, but gospel rapper Meezy Musik delivers. "2 Late" is clever, well-produced and a little bit of fresh hip-hop heaven. — AW

Enter Searchlight now!

Florence and the Machine, 'St. Jude'

"St. Jude" is Chapter 2 in Florence and the Machine’s short film series for their upcoming album, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, and in it Florence Welch is still searching — for life, for hope, for herself. The video begins similarly to Chapter 1's "How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful," with us staring up at that gorgeous sky, birds soundtracking our descent to earth. But there’s a desperate thread running through "St. Jude" that didn’t feel as immediate with the previous track. A chorus of voices sings, "St. Jude," as Welch responds, "The patron saint of the lost causes." It’s all so intimate, it’s impossible not to feel like you’re journeying alongside her. — Holly Gordon



Written by Curtis Perry

New York City is supposed to be North America's cultural mecca, but now Ottawa has something distinctly cosmopolitan that the Big Apple doesn’t: a classical sheet music store.

On March 6 of this year, New York City's Frank Music company — the city's last surviving sheet music store — closed its doors. Canada's capital, on the other hand, has Elgin Street's The Leading Note, which isn't simply surviving, but thriving.

So how does The Leading Note's business model succeed when Frank Music Company couldn’t make it work in a place like New York City?

Husband-and-wife team Gary McMillen and Tina Fedeski started The Leading Note in 1999, with the goal of cultivating a reputation for being Canada’s classical sheet music specialist. The location they chose, and continue to occupy, is quaint by design: the Elgin Street store’s space is small, residing on the main floor of an old apartment complex. The Manx Pub (their motto: "Wherever we land, we stand"), Ottawa’s defacto watering hole for artists and their ilk, is nestled just underneath. And proximity to the U.S. border means the ability to reliably pick up international orders from Ogdensburg (New York state, in a small twist of irony), which is just an hour’s drive away.

Shoppers have been able to browse the store’s inventory both in person since first opening, and online as of a few years ago. Publications by local composers share shelf space beside the three Bs. Surprisingly, these are innovative and modern amenities in the rarefied world of classical sheet music shops.

"In European sheet music stores, you'd go up to the counter and say, 'I’d like to look at the Beethoven string quartets,'" McMillen explains. "They’d go back to their stack of stuff, and you could take a look at them. But you can’t really browse the shop, and that’s what the setup was like [at Frank's]. It was just a counter, and then racks and racks of music.”

McMillen and Fedeski visited Frank’s last November, and say it reminded them of Joseph Patelson Music House, another NYC-based shop that had closed its doors in 2009. Even though Patelson’s had referred its shoppers to Frank’s, it wasn’t enough. Frank's owner, Heidi Rogers, had a huge inventory and no computer system. There was no anticipation for the kind of operational flexibility on which The Leading Note relies.

"We actually asked Heidi, out of curiosity, how much her inventory might be worth, and she said she had no idea," McMillen noted.

Frank acted as a community hub for its patrons, and The Leading Note’s management has capitalized on this idea. They created the Leading Note Foundation in 2007, which invests in and engages with the community and school board. One of its programs, OrKidstra, has grown from an enrolment of 27 to more than 350 children and 42 languages. The program is inspired by the El Sistema movement in music education, which emphasizes and promotes the performance of ensembles rather than individuals. The foundation recently received a multi-year Ontario Trillium Foundation grant totalling $204,800, with the aim of providing after-school programs and teacher education to primary schools across Ottawa.

"It’s a matter of tending to one’s own back garden," Fedeski related, paraphrasing Voltaire. "It makes you want to believe in community again."

But there's a business angle as well, which is both innovative and clever, and proves why The Leading Note’s commitment to diversifying its business practices may ensure the sheet music store’s future: Fedeski and McMillen have plans to offer a platform for Sistema-inspired sheet music for other Sistema-inspired programs in the world. These pieces are designed to be multi-level, such that novice and experienced players alike can play in ensemble, and everyone should be sufficiently challenged by the material.

"That’s an entirely new repertoire," Fedeski explained. "We’re pretty excited about taking the initiative with that. We’re excited about being able to pull our two parallel lives [with the store and the foundation] together."

Repertoire for flexible instrumentation has existed for a while, but flexible levels of difficulty within the same piece presents a relatively new philosophy toward the design of educational sheet music.

"It’s good to be in the print music profession. It’s a scary time because changes are happening so rapidly, but if we stay ahead and be creative, I think — it’s not going to be an easy road, but it’s going to be an interesting road," Fedeski says, laughing.

Only time will tell if The Leading Note’s instincts pay off, but it’s clear that it has an ear on the future.

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What is the expected lifespan of a Canadian indie act? Not everyone makes it to a whopping 14 albums, like Ron Sexsmith, or a consistent 11 records, like Sloan. But Montreal stalwarts Stars could very well be the next to hit that kind of impressive milestone. They have seven full-length albums to their name, each of which have their own hordes of passionate fans: some most fondly remember the early Nightsongs days; others stick to the seminal Set Yourself on Fire as a favourite. Others feel The Five Ghosts never got the fanfare it deserved, while some have only heard the band for the very first time via their latest release, No One is Lost.

Unlike bands who have big hits and bigger misses, with long dry spells and short, buzzy highs, Stars have delivered albums (and EPs, and demo recordings) that are each timeless, respected works, deeply adored by their fans from that unforgettable moment of first listen. When we sat down to distill their discography into 15 top tracks, we knew we were going to get ourselves into some trouble: there is no way you can properly recognize all of the beauty and heartbreak this band has produced, in such a limited manner. We did our best to curate a collection of memorable tracks that represent the spectrum of their work and highlight the ones we all hold dear.

Behold, the 15 best songs by Stars, as carefully selected by staff at CBC Radio 3. Click through the gallery above to listen to and read more about each beloved track.

Honourable mentions we couldn't fit into the list: Theory of Relativity, We Don't Want Your Body, From the Night, 14 Forever, Heart, My Favourite Book, Personal, Death to Death (and so many more).

Each day, Rich Terfry and Radio 2 Drive wraps up your day with music and stories about the interesting things going on in the world.

Rich's pick: "Revenge of the Nerds" by the Rubinoos

Junk In The Trunk: 

Spring flowers! 

Flowers from Thomas Blanchard on Vimeo.

Where's the catnip?! 

Baby tortoise eats a bean sprout: 

When I think about composers, I typically envision long-dead classical master types, daunting, vaunted figures who crafted the canon on ink-blotted parchment and were all dead by 40.

But of course, composing itself didn't die out in the early 20th century. In fact, the modern architects of musical language are a unique type of daredevil if you think about it. Who decides to work as a composer in 2015?

Well, that's what we asked Aaron Gervais, the composer-in-residency for Sonic Boom Festival in Vancouver (March 25-29). Gervais, who lives in San Francisco but hails from Edmonton originally, is a freelance composer whose influences include humour, found materials, collage, opera, orchestral, jazz, chamber music and live electronics. He's an award-winning composer who makes wondrously weird and challenging material that is at turns haunting, hilarious and delightfully surprising.

He told CBC Music all about the highs and lows of the freelance composer lifestyle.

"Freelance composer" sounds even more challenging than freelance writer, so what possessed you to think you could make a living doing that?

[Laughs] I don’t think it was so much possessed to think I could make a living as possessed to think I could be a composer despite whether or not I could make a living. I’ve always played music since I was a kid and as I got older, I was more and more curious about how it worked as opposed to just how to make it with my instrument. That led me to writing for the ensemble I was playing with and, over time, I found myself composing more and playing less. At some point I realized, "I guess I’m a composer now," and it was about figuring out what the next steps were.

What instruments did you play as a kid?

Percussion, mostly drum set.

What was the first composition you ever wrote?

The first thing I can remember doing was, I was probably in elementary school, and there was a video game that I liked and my parents had bought a bunch of MIDI sequencing equipment, which was the hot new thing at the time. I don’t really know why they bought it, I think they thought it would be fun to play around with, but I used it more than they did and I did an arrangement of the theme from my video game [laughs].

When did you decide you could fold everything together to embrace the fun, weird, less classical elements?

I’ve always been involved with different kinds of music. Jazz was my first love and my percussion teacher was more focused on classical music, so I did a lot of that stuff just because that’s what he was teaching. I played the youth orchestra and percussion ensembles of classical music. Because percussion’s a relatively modern instrument in the classical world, most of what we were playing was modern music. So, I was exposed to a bunch of things early on and it didn’t strike me as not belonging together. It was just different aspects of what I did and what I knew and loved, and I just put it together in ways that made sense to me.

Did you ever meet any resistance from more traditional teachers as you figured out your voice?

Not really. I think my teachers have all been pretty much supportive. The closest thing I can think of is, my parents had a friend who was a film composer, not a close friend, more of an acquaintance, and I met with him once and played him one of my pieces in high school. He said, "Oh, you should use more modulations here," which is a very classical thing to do. I didn’t think that was the point of the piece, so I thought that was a little bit odd, but that was my one interaction with him. Most of the teachers I had — and perhaps these were more the kind of teachers I sought out — they were more interested in listening and try to figure out what I was doing and help me to realize the creative project in the best way that I could. This may be connected to this or not, but somehow I ended up with a lot of teachers who were Buddhist [laughs]. I’m not Buddhist myself, but Buddhist teachers appeal to me and they had a very live and let-live approach to composition. Not necessarily anything goes, but a willingness to accept multiple ways of approaching something.

That’s great. I’ve spoken with several other avant-garde composers and musicians who encountered many teachers along the way who tried to suppress their wilder or weirder inclinations.

I have had teachers that I started with that I studied with for a shortened time where we didn’t get along. Particularly, we didn’t really understand what each other was after. I didn’t continue with them very long. I studied a bunch with a French composer and it was a sort of pastiche piece, a collage of pop songs, and I was aiming to have it done in a sort of nightclub environment and he didn’t understand why I would want to do that. It wasn’t so much consternation on his part as genuine bewilderment. "What? That music is already in nightclubs, why do you want to rewrite it and put it back in nightclubs?" That wasn’t so much hostility as it was not seeing eye-to-eye.

Can you talk a bit about the mechanics of composing versus the art of composing? ... I know some young people get caught up with the precision and mechanics at the expense of the artistic value.

When I was younger, I was very obsessed with technical things. I spent a long time doing ear training because as a percussionist I always felt kind of insecure because my sense of pitch or harmony was not going to be as good as someone who grew up playing the piano. I mean, I know it isn’t. But I spent a lot of time trying to correct that, and working on technical exercises and things like that, and I did make a lot of progress, but certain things are fundamental strengths and weaknesses of my musical abilities. As I got a little bit older, I stopped caring about things like that and working with the tools I had and emphasizing my strengths and knowing my limitations. That would be my advice to young composers: yes, work on that stuff, but don’t let it take over everything.

What was the first inkling that you had that this could be a career for you financially as well as artistically feeding you?

Well, I don’t think I came at it from that perspective. I always assumed I would be an academic.... My plan was to get a PhD and end up teaching somewhere, because that’s what most composers end up doing, and something clicked and I decided I didn’t want to be a teacher and by that point I’d already invested close to 10 years of post-secondary education. It was more of a question of how can I earn a living teaching and composing. Most composers I know who have gone past the academic parts of their lives, they were students, and they have decided for one reason or another to not pursue an academic teaching job. They have a similar take on things. Most composers will have a grab bag of different things: some teaching part-time or privately, or doing other various non-music jobs that they’re good at that they can fit into their schedules, and a mix of grant writing and non-profit to present your music. A lot of networking and pitching ideas to people and looking for sympathetic collaborators to help each other out and do the projects you want to do in the process.

What works for you?

I’m not full-time composing and I know very few composers that compose full time. The ones that do tend to be very famous ones and there aren’t too many in Canada, though there are a few more in the United States. We’re talking about maybe a couple dozen people. I’m leaving out people who do the more supporting composing things, like film scores and arranging and stuff like that. I do some online marketing stuff part time, I have done some freelance writing, I write a whole lot of grants and I am constantly going to concerts and festivals to meet people. Keeping in touch with people, proposing projects, those are the main things that make up my time. Composing is about a 50-per-cent job for me, I spend about four hours a day on that. 

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