The Lightning Struck is an indie rock band from Toronto. To watch the Lightning Struck is to be transported to New York’s Lower East Side, sometime between ’69 and ’91. Listen carefully – you can hear the Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, the Ramones and Television. Of course, this careful curation of sound didn’t happen by accident. In 2000, Loren Davie moved to New York City after listening to the Velvet Underground and Nico one too many times. After 20 years of making music there, he returned to Toronto, bringing that New York sound with him. 

One night while he was walking home from an open mic, Davie became fascinated with the unknown stories of everyone passing around him, and he got to thinking how much of life is spent in transitional moments between events. In some way it’s the “real” life we fail to acknowledge.

Their song “Inbetweening” is about those moments that happen between what we think of as events – walking from one place to the next, waiting for something. Generally these happen when you’re alone, and it’s in these moments that self-reflection happens – when we give ourselves permission to think about what things actually mean.

Maya Blue have been together since 2019, playing festivals, bars, and venues across the Greater Toronto Area. Their debut, self-titled EP was released in 2021.Now, they’re sharing their first LP, Trouble in Mind—stream it here. Pulling from rock, blues, indie and Canadian music, Nick DePaul (guitar/vocals), Tyler Pasta (drums), and Derek Osborne (bass) tie these influences together with unique grooves and classic guitar tones.Produced by Aidan Robson at the legendary Catherine North Studios (City and Colour, Practically Hip), this rock ‘n roll record kicks off with “Hey,” a punchy track straight out of the late ‘60s/early ‘70s with a heavy blues rock riff. 

Sarah Segal-Lazar has been making music since before she could talk. Folks say she took her first steps in ¾ time. By the time she was nine, she was sending songs into the local radio station. These days, the Femme Fatale of Folk splits her time between the busy streets of Montreal and the red shores of PEI–sharing her own special blend of folk and country, wherever the wind may take her. 

Her latest album Valleys is produced by Canadian folk luminary Matthew Barber. After putting off making it for years, always waiting for the right time in her career, Sarah decided to finally let it out. “I’d say to myself, I’m not wasting these songs. I’m not going to record them until I move to Nashville and get signed, until I move to New York and get signed. And then one day I woke up and realized, I don’t want to get to be fifty and be resentful that I never recorded this album. So I reached out to Matt and just went for it.”

Valleys is inspired by a lyric from the track “Still Waters” that goes “On that uphill climb there are valleys on the way.”  The album is a collection of tracks about struggle. “Each of the songs tell a story and within each story is a struggle. And most of the time, we make it through to the other side,” says Sarah.

Highlight single “Earlier” is a bittersweet and wistful track on the perils of a relationship destined to not be, and the struggle within that realization.

Canadian singer-songwriter Hunter Sheridan unveils a new single titled “The Moment’s in a Hurry” (feat. Mattie Leon) about the moment you realize you are truly falling in love. Next, you’re trying to capture and preserve every detail so you can enjoy it as much as possible. 

Through self-recording and producing, the message of the song is highlighted by simple instrumentation and storytelling lyrics that are strengthened by catchy melodies and a nostalgic atmosphere.

Hunter adds, “Mattie started playing this awesome picking pattern on the acoustic guitar, and then we started building the song lyrically while not getting over complicated with the arrangement to highlight that daydreamy, romantic style.”

Folk singer-songwriter Dan Pallotta has a new release to share from his upcoming record, Winnebago Dreams (November 17th). “Couldn’t Make It Rhyme” took Pallotta 40 years to write and reflects on very personal themes. 

Narrative finger picked acoustic guitar is underscored by gentle accordion playing from Bryan Mitchell as Pallotta speaks of chasing an unavailable partner during his time spent in Los Angeles where he first pursued a career in music several decades ago.

The song further cements Pallotta’s collaboration with album contributors Soozie Tyrell of E Street Band fame on fiddle and bassist Tony Garnier, music director for Bob Dylan.

“Martin Luther King borrowed from a Unitarian minister when he said that, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.’ In the same way, the arc of recovery is long, but it bends toward fulfillment. Conversely, the arc of addiction can be short or long, but it bends toward tragedy,” the artist explains. 

“‘Couldn’t Make It Rhyme’ is about both arcs. It took me 40 years to write, and it could never have taken any less, because it took the story 40 years to play out. And much as we want our stories to play out more quickly—for the highway to wisdom to be short and fast—you cannot short cut it. It’s a song about someone with whom I was involved when I was very young. 

I used to be attracted to people who weren’t interested in me and would reject people who were. It wasn’t healthy and it took me a long time to learn another way of being in a relationship. It’s about what happened to me and what happened to him in my perspective on it all four decades later.“

Throughout the years, borza has collaborated on many records with emerging artists from the Quebec music scene, as well as with international established artists such as Emmylou Harris, the McGarrigle sisters, and Lauryn Hill. BORZA is a musical chameleon – his first release in 2016 was the alternative folk EP playing with time, his debut LP in 2019 was the indie rock/folk/reggae influenced Cocoon, and now he is offering something new – an urban/R&B/roots song, “Mundo de ilusión.” 

“Mundo de ilusión” is a track that has a mixture of cultures and styles – something grounded in roots, with electro beats, and a sprinkle of Latin flair. The song features lyrics in Spanish, French, and English. borza wanted to write a reminder to enjoy life. Don’t wait for that perfect moment to start living the life you want, get closer to it every day, one day at a time! 

The song was finished during a trip to Cuba where he met the Spanish singer, Yoandris Torres Fondin. As they were waiting for the studio to be ready, the two of them relaxed on the beach, playing around with song ideas. They recorded vocals for the track right there, and it ended up being the take used in the final version.