Mariposa Folk Festival July 5, 6, 7, 2013

     It's been a very cold last few weeks, and as I woke this morning and noticed it was -16 °C

(That's 3°F for my American friends) thoughts of summer started flowing, more precisely thoughts of this year's edition of the Mariposa Folk Festival.

    The last few years I've been writing about the festival, its performers, its history and most importantly its impact on the people that attend it. As the festival travels into its 53^rd year (14^th back in its home of Orillia) we already have a few performers announced with countless more to be revealed in the coming months. So far the list includes American folk singer Arlo Guthrie, Canadian singer, and songwriter Murray McLauchlan , singer, songwriter Lennie Gallant and The MacKenzie Blues Band (singer Tara MacKenzie just tears it up, so don't miss them).

  The heart of the Mariposa Folk Festival has always been its Volunteers, and so like every other year it's time to start thinking of helping out, you can go HERE and choose the appropriate option – Returning Volunteer or New Volunteer, I volunteered a few years ago and it's lots of fun.

    Tickets for this year's festival are now available; just click on this link Tickets for Mariposa 2013 to get all ready for a great weekend of music, dance, art and fun.

  Sonic More Music will be posting Mariposa Folk Festival updates as they are made available, we will also be at the festival this year to give everyone the inside scoop on North America's premiere Folk Festival, so bookmark the BLOG or LIKE us on Facebook.

    Now here is Billy Bragg from last year's Mariposa Folk Festival performing 'Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards'…enjoy

Joe Cornelisse-SMM

New Billy Bragg album 'Tooth & Nail' Due in March

   Billy Bragg will release his first new studio album in five years, Tooth & Nail, on March 19 2013. The 12 track album produced by Joe Henry (Bonnie Raitt, Aaron Neville, Aimee Mann) will be available as a CD Digipack, 180 gram vinyl LP, iTunes with booklet and extra bonus track and a Limited Special Edition Bookpack featuring CD & DVD.

 Below is a video Billy has released speaking about the album and giving you a chance to hear the new single "Handyman Blues" and under that is a link to download the "Handyman Blues" single.
                                                   

Joe Cornelisse-SMM

 Oh BTW here's a picture of me and Billy Bragg taken last summer…just had to throw it in.

Radio That Doesn't Suck.com - Music to My Ears

    With literally thousands of internet radio stations out there to choose from these days it can get kind of mind numbing trying to find one to suit your tastes, some people dig one specific type of music and that's it they don't & won't change but if you're like me and enjoy your variety those stations are few and far between, I think I've found one that's going to work for all of us. 

   RadioThatDoesntSuck.com, broadcasting to the Universe from Willowdale, Ontario, Canada runs the gamut as far as radio programming goes, the musical styles you'll find streaming are everything from Rock & Pop, Jazz and instrumental, some Soul/R'n'B, and great information programs…they've got everything. Just an example, in the last 30 minutes that I have been listening I've heard everyone from Rush to Moby, the great Ron Sexsmith to synthesizer musician Vangelis…now that's variety.

   Back in December RTDS announced that Thursdays’ programming would be devoted entirely to the promotion of Canada’s thriving Folk/Roots music scene with Roots Music Canada providing 3 original programs and with RTDS playing a diverse line up of Folk/Roots music leaning heavily on Canadian artists, as a fan of the Folk/Roots genre of music and one to always support our own Canadian musicians this was (and this is gonna sound kinda of corny but it works) Music to my Ears. 

   So do your ears a favor and head on over to RadioThatDoesntSuck.com and start listening, you will thank me.

RadioThatDoesntSuck.com can be found at  

http://www.rtds.ca/

RadioThatDoesntSuck.com can also be found on 

Facebook HERE

Joe Cornelisse-SMM