Arts & Culture

AMERICANAFEST AT SHOE — While America’s Cheeto-in-Chief is trying to stoke bad vibes between the U.S. and Canada, Toronto’s Horseshoe Tavern and a revered American music institution are teaming up to bring the sounds from the south to Canada — tariffs and tirades notwithstanding.

The Americana Music Association (AMA) a Nashville-based organization that produces a massive celebration of American roots music, AMERICANAFEST, is partnering with the Shoe to present a month-long series this March featuring the best up-and-coming and established roots acts. The series will feature a curated lineup of diverse Americana acts, blending folk, country, blues, and rock influences, including Charlie Parr (March 20), Bella White (March 28), Cousin Harley (March 21) and Mariel Buckley (March 1)

“The Horseshoe Tavern is a cultural landmark. We are excited to partner with one of the best venues in Canada for discovering Americana music. What the Troubadour is to L.A., the Shoe is to Toronto: a home away from home,” said Jed Hilly, executive director of the Americana Music Association.

“AMERICANAFEST has always been about celebrating and nurturing the spirit of Americana music. The fans have always been here, but it’s time to bring the acts,” said Charles Hacker, who helped create the series.

“We are so proud to partner with the Americana Music Association to showcase these incredible artists. From outlaw country to heartland blues, you can expect a month packed with top-tier Americana acts from across the continent!” stated Ben Mol, the booker at the Shoe. More information on the series here.

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RHEAUME DROPS KENNEDY CENTER — Talented Métis singer and record label exec Amanda Rheaume is playing the TD Music Centre May 21 in Toronto but isn’t playing New York City’s Kennedy Center on April 5 any longer.

The highly principled Rheaume is giving up her dream gig because of the Dictator-in-Waiting’s recent takeover of the Kennedy Center Board. After learning that D.T. had fired the board and put himself in charge, she decided she couldn’t play “his” stage.

“I had been in conversation with the Kennedy Center since June 2024 trying to sort out a show date,” says Rheaume on her Instagram account. “To be able to do this gig in the first place I had to reinstate myself and my bandmates in the musicians union and apply for P2’s for myself and two bandmates, which all cost $1,680.

“As an artist it is almost impossible to draw the through line back to one single opportunity, we work for years, decades in fact, and then finally certain opportunities come through. I was excited to be booked at the renowned Kennedy Center. The USA is a major music market, and bookings at these well-known places are advantageous to audience and career, but I cannot in my right heart bring myself, my songs, my stories to a place he is involved in. I do hope to get to play there another time.”

Rheaume says she will livestream a gig on April 5 and, meanwhile, we can see her in Toronto in May as she celebrates her new album, The Truth We Hold, without having to face any moral dilemmas. The album releases April 11.

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CIMA SKIPS SOUTHBY — More fallout from the mayhem down south as Billboard Canada reports the Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA), which reps this country’s indie labels and emerging acts here and around the world, has pulled out of its annual showcase, Canada House, at Austin’s South by Southwest (SXSW) next month.

CIMA president Andrew Cash tells Billboard’s Richard Trapunski, “The growing instability of everything in the United States right now, plus the high cost [of putting on events in the United States] and the low [Canadian] dollar — all of these things combined made it so we couldn’t feel confident or good about what we were getting ourselves into at this particular moment.”

“The timing is not great,” he continues. “We would be going down there just after the 30-day tariff pause has expired. We’re going to have a new prime minister [in Canada, following the resignation of Justin Trudeau]. I just didn’t feel comfortable putting CIMA out there in that context of instability.”

Four acts have lost their Canada House showcases: Moira and Claire (NS),  Meisha and the Spanks (AB), Bob Sumner (BC) and Kimmortal (BC). But they all have other showcases booked.

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TOPP BOOK TOPS — Bookstores and online outlets still have a few copies left of an amazing “coffee table” book, He Hijacked My Brain, celebrating the career of legendary Toronto music — and film — promoter Gary Topp. An oral history packed with interviews of bands, scoundrels and other amazing characters that inhabited Topp’s world as he brought some of the best, undiscovered acts to the city, starting in the mid-’70s. After a stint showing films at The Roxy on Danforth and then the New Yorker (now the CAA Theatre) on Yonge, Topp and his partner Gary Cormier booked The Edge, on Gerrard and later, The Horseshoe on Queen West. The Garys’ last night running the Shoe was a legendary show, The Last Pogo, which was captured in a film of the same name. It was eventually shut down by the police, a somehow fitting end to Topp’s time there.

He Hijacked My Brain isn’t just Topp’s story; it is an amazing time capsule of the indie Toronto music and cultural scene from the ’70s to the ’90s with additional updated current details. Worth picking up for the photos alone, the inside info about iconic people and events in the emerging arts scene makes this essential reading for both eyewitnesses and those who wish they were there.

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POWER PLAYERS TIME — Are you on The List? Billboard Canada Power Players is returning in 2025, and it’s moving to Toronto’s NXNE music festival. The authoritative ranking of the music business’s most powerful executives — an official extension of Billboard’s Power 100 list — expanded into Canada in 2024. It will be celebrated on Wed., June 11, kicking off NXNE’s 30^th year and reflecting the festival’s new partnership with Billboard.

Nominations now open and close March 7, 2025. NXNE runs from Wed., June 12, to Sat., June 14.

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BLUE RODEO STREAMS  — An excellent Rocumentary on one-time Queen W regulars gone Big Time is now available to stream after a run in theatres as, Blue Rodeo: Lost Together hits CBC Gem. Highly recommended, a great reflection not only of the band but the scene that grew up around them.

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