singer-songwriter

It was the cat-poles around the lake at his grandfather’s farm that inspired Ben Sollee’s debut album Learning To Bend. The frailty of those awkward looking plants standing stoutly against winds that challenged even the strongest of nearby trees is an affecting metaphor for human struggle and perseverance. This idea is central to Learning To Bend.
Key tracks on Learning To Bend include two reactions to the current political landscape, “A Few Honest Words,” and an adaptation of Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come,” in which Ben has written updated, politically relevant verses.

Nano Stern was born in Santiago de Chile, some 22 years ago. He started playing music before he can actually remember it. After studying the violin for many years, he went on to pick up the guitar, following the steps of his sister, Claudia. After that, things changed a lot, but the most important -love for music- stayed intact. He has since made his way across many instruments, styles and projects throughout the world. From Rock to Latin, from Classical to Funk, Contemporary to Gypsy, making it all his own.

The best songs don’t just tell a story set to music – they capture a moment, encapsulate a feeling and draw in the listener, in a way that’s at once singularly personal and completely universal. When Toronto singer-songwriter Jason Collett was mulling over titles for his new album, the by-turns effervescent and elegiac Here’s To Being Here, he stumbled across a line in an anthology of poetry by his friend Emily Haines’ (Metric) late father Paul, a well-known avant-garde jazz poet.