We have the new folk single and music video “Blindspot” from award-winning singer-songwriter Lynn Hollyfield. The poignant song, “Blindspot” was written after losing a family member and a friend to the fentanyl crisis. She shares, “Afterwards, I couldn’t help but wonder if I had been truly open and caring when I was with them. Was there anything I could have done to help them? I’ll never know and it’s one of those hard life lessons - too little too late." The single was produced by Grammy-nominated Seth Glier.
Blend a beautiful alto voice, crisp acoustic guitar, and a heartfelt perspective on the world, and you have Lynn Hollyfield. Known for her warm stage presence and emotionally rich songs, she connects effortlessly with audiences. Writing in a contemporary folk style, Lynn weaves in jazz-influenced chords and bluesy guitar alongside passionate vocals, think Mary Chapin Carpenter meets Bonnie Raitt with a touch of George Gershwin. The result is her own distinctive voice, witty, soulful, and reflective.
Lynn has been writing songs since her teenage years, growing up on Staten Island, NY, surrounded by a wide range of musical influences, from jazz greats like Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra to artists like The Beatles and Neil Young. She began performing locally at a young age and later gained recognition as part of the duo Hollyfield & Spruill, appearing at festivals such as the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival.
After launching her solo career, Lynn released several acclaimed albums, including LAYERS (2010), IN THE BALANCE (2014), and LOOK UP (2024), earning national and international airplay along with multiple songwriting awards including being listed in the Top Artists/ Top Albums for the International Folk Alliance. During the pandemic, she also published a children’s book, The Tree, The Ship and Me, with its accompanying song recognized as a finalist in the Mid-Atlantic Songwriting Contest.
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As multi award winning cross border duo, Big Little Lions are going to be releasing monthly singles this year Beehive Candy who are genuine fans of their sumptuous music will just rinse and repeat their background again this month. Big Little Lions are a duo who were born out of a collaboration that won them a JUNO Award in 2014. Since then they have been cranking out infectious folk pop songs that are jam-packed with emotion and tight harmonies that sound like the product of two people working side-by-side instead of living in different countries.
They have released 7 albums to date, which have garnered them awards and nominations including the CFMA Ensemble of the Year, Independent Music Awards Americana Sing of the Year and John Lennon Songwriting Competition Song of the Year. Their critically acclaimed music has appeared on the CBC’s Top 20 and featured on shows like q and Vinyl Cafe. The duo consists of Paul Otten and Helen Austin, both hugely prolific songwriters - their music has been placed in hundreds of movie trailers, ads, network TV shows.
Their live show is quite the spectacle with Paul playing drums, bass and keyboard all while singing lead vocals. Helen, who is no slacker either, sings, plays guitar and foot percussion. They use every limb, and then some, to make two people sound like a full band.
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What if The Beatles grew up in the 90s California punk scene? Meet the Penny Lane Pickets. Straight out of Santa Cruz, the Penny Lane Pickets are here to bridge the gap between a 184 BPM moshpit and a 60s pop melody. Led by the grit of Jax Miller and the driving, distorted walking bass of Sky Bennett, this four-piece is fulfilling their lifelong dream: crashing the legendary Epitaph/Hellcat Records sound head-first into the timeless songwriting of Lennon & McCartney.
Produced and mixed by Sam Dekker, their sound is a high-energy explosion. It’s got the frantic, distorted soul of Rancid and The Suicide Machines, the brass-heavy punch of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, melodic hooks of Goldfinger and the soaring infectious energy of The Interrupters.
But look closer, and you’ll hear the "secret sauce": psych-rock textures and 60s pop-inspired choruses that refuse to leave your head. With a powerhouse brass section (featuring the Rocksteady Crackers) providing the fire, the Pickets deliver a sound that is as much about the "Penny Lane" harmonies as it is about the "Ruby Soho" attitude. This debut single serves as a high-octane prelude to their upcoming full-length album, Copper & Chrome, set to drop on December 18th.
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Michael Kelly is a singer, songwriter, picker and performer. His new album, Anyway, encompasses a wide range of musical influences expressed from a well-honed folk, blues and bluegrass sensibility. He worked the D.C. club circuit early in his career and at one point, took a job at a celebrated Georgetown music venue where he would take money at the door, run inside to re-stock the bar, change clothes to perform a short opening set, then re-stock the bar and head back out to the door.
He recalls, “Oddly enough, the change of clothes threw people off and only rarely did anyone recognize me as the opening act, although the bands and the regulars were always super supportive.” On-line lessons with Nashville icon Russ Barenberg helped develop a more melodic guitar approach and led to a deeper dive into bluegrass, which included workshops, festivals and wide-ranging cadre of mentors.
Songs on Anyway include One Good Friend and Joseph, which placed first at the New Song Festival in Winfield, Kansas, in 2024 and 2025, respectively, and Chesapeake Waterman, which placed first at the Common Ground on the Hill Acoustic Roots 2024 songwriting competition.
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Mama’s Broke, the Nova Scotian duo of Amy Lou Keeler and Lisa Maria announce their new album, Reunion, out August 28 via Free Dirt Records and Forward Music Group and share the latest single, “The Nameless.” Building on their JUNO-nominated album Narrow Line (2022), which saw the pair invited to perform on the legendary NPR Tiny Desk, Reunion reflects a world coming apart in plain sight, tracing fractured communities, the erosion of shared ground, and the growing awareness that the systems we were taught to trust no longer hold or deliver the promises they were meant to keep. The songs don’t preach or prescribe; they reflect, holding up a mirror and leaving space for something else to take shape.
“The Nameless” are the women who are often reduced, in memory and history, to narrow, simplified roles,” explains the band, “their complexity stripped away in favour of labels they are expected to embody, whether flawlessly or tragically.”
“The Nameless” presents four archetypes: the “scorned lover”, defined only by the man who left her rather than her own life; the “callous mother” judged by her perceived failures without regard for her struggles; the victim of domestic violence, absorbed into statistics while attention and sympathy lingers on the perpetrator; and the missing daughter, whose story evokes a place like the Highway of Tears, where many women, disproportionately Indigenous, have vanished. The headlines, demographic headings and acronyms will never convey the full story of a life, or the true weight of the violence that women face every day.
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Continuing upon this year’s previous releases, “Lay Your Mind” and “Ground Falls Away,” Strange Plants share “Time Killing,” a contemplative and expansive psych-rock single that blends atmospheric textures with a sense of quiet, underlying tension. Wistful and immersive, the track leans into themes of existential reflection and the slow passage of time, capturing the feeling of moving through life’s routines while something deeper simmers beneath the surface.
The song’s origin traces back to a period of heavy literary influence. “At the risk of sounding absurdly pretentious, I was reading a lot of Charles Bukowski at the time,” explains songwriter Matt Brannon. “So it created a sort of temporary supercharged nihilism.” That perspective shaped the song’s core idea; a meditation on time, purpose, and the subtle weight of existence.
Built around a rich, retro-psychedelic sound palette, “Time Killing” unfolds with layered instrumentation and tonal contrast. Trippy string arrangements intertwine with shimmering lap steel, creating a unique sonic blend that sets the track apart within the band’s catalogue. The result is a sound that feels both expansive and grounded; classic in influence yet exploratory in execution.
The recording process brought together a striking group of collaborators. Loel Campbell (Wintersleep, Billy Talent) contributed drums, while Christine Bougie (Bahamas) added lap steel and Drew Jurecka (Dua Lipa) arranged the song’s sweeping strings. The track was mixed by Chris Shaw and co-produced alongside JUNO Award-winning producer Michael Phillip Wojewoda, further elevating its textured, cinematic feel.
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After decades out of print, 64 Funnycars’ cult college rock debut Happy Go Lucky finally returned May 27 through 604 Records. Originally released at the tail end of Canada’s late 80s campus radio boom, the record captured a band that never aimed for cool detachment or punk orthodoxy, instead leaning hard into melody, momentum and the simple thrill of making people move. Nearly four decades later, Happy Go Lucky still sounds remarkably alive in its looseness and charm.
The band formed in 1987 through UVic campus radio circles, bonded by a shared love of groups like Young Fresh Fellows, Hoodoo Gurus, Buzzcocks and The Replacements, bands where hooks and personality mattered just as much as volume. While much of Victoria’s reputation at the time centered around heavier and more abrasive acts, 64 Funnycars carved out their own space, blending power pop, melodic punk and jangly college rock into something energetic, playful and unpretentious. Songs moved fast, choruses arrived early and the energy always felt slightly on the verge of tipping over.
That unpredictability became central to the band’s identity at Harpo’s, the legendary Victoria venue that helped define the Pacific Northwest underground touring circuit through the 80s and early 90s. Long before they became festival headliners, bands like Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Blind Melon and No Doubt came through the room, and the Funnycars quickly became part of that same ecosystem. Their sets thrived on joyful chaos: no fixed setlists, rotating lead vocals and an anything-can-happen atmosphere that made even local shows feel electric. The band later joked that they were “the chess club on tour,” a line that captured both their self-awareness and total lack of rock-star pretension.
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