Hey Everyone,

I couldn’t put together a video blog for you today because I’m losing my voice! However, as promised I’ve put together my top venue picks for:

SATURDAY MARCH 12, 2011

VENUE 1 – Canadian Room, Royal York Hotel: The Indie Awards featuring: Desperate Union, Hannah Georgas, Bombay Bicycle Club, Hollerado, Shad, Janelle Monae. WHY?: The Indie Awards are pretty cool. You get to root for your favorite artists AND in the past, each band has performed 2 songs, that means you get a great preview of up-and-coming artists. If you didn’t get a chance to catch Bombay Bicycle Club last night they are a MUST! and if didn’t see Janelle Monae perform on the Grammys, now is your chance. Plus Shad, Hannah, Hollerado – badass.

VENUE 2 – Drake Underground: If you want to stay at one venue, the Paquin Agency has the most solid and cohesive line up tonight with Del Barber, excellent singer/songwriter, the legendary Fred Penner, remember The Cat Came Back?, Wool on Wolves – my favorite band on the bill, Carmen Townsend +MORE.

HOWEVER, honourable mentions to:
2+2 Management Showcase at El Mocambo, first up is Alcoholic Faith Mission from Denmark, if you didn’t get a chance to catch them earlier in the week, DOO IT! Trust us. Piper Davis is a serious stand-out and then the electro-dance party starts with MADRID and the Kidstreet.

Previous TIMA winners performing tonight:
Rehan Dalal, TIMA 09/10 winner of “Best Adult Contemporary” performing at Bread and Circus 9PM as part of the Factor Breakthrough Series.

Marshall Dane, TIMA 2008 winner of “BEST LIVE – Electric” performing at Cadillac Lounge 12AM as part of KX96 Country FM

The MacHams, TIMA 09/10 winners of “BEST LIVE – Electric” performing at The Piston 9PM, CMF Showcase

….don’t forget, Janet Jackson, Pap Roach, Buckcherry, Die Mannequin, Down with Webster all performing tonight!!

-Daniela Oliva

Written By: Scott Bremner

Edited by: Daniela Oliva

“It is the most natural place I’ve ever been to…you can feel it breathing…it is Eden,” says singer Marshall Dane,  not about his love for songwriting or music, but rather the Artic, where he has performed twice in the past two years. He plans to make a return trip this July.  The Toronto Independent Music Award winner explains that he truly can’t wait and will go through the North West Passage. Last year when we spoke, Dane talked about how he considered himself blessed to have performed in the region.

Dane has done a fair bit of traveling lately. On March 12, he performed his latest tunes at the Hard Rock Cafe during Canadian Music Week. As of March 14, he has ten remaining shows until the end of the month, starting with Oshawa at the On The Rocks restaurant and ending on March 31 with a gig at the ‘Rocndocs’ in Port Credit.  Dane will be playing approximately 15 more shows next month as well. Dane explains, “it’s a fast pace and constant required alertness, even when you’re tired.  It makes you feel alive”, says the St. Catherine’s native about touring.

Dane has six siblings and music seemed to be a family affair. “My three older sisters played piano, violin, and one is a ballerina,” he tells me. His parents are also musicians, his mom the piano, and his dad the guitar. Last year Dane, discussed a memory of being “probably three or four (and) listening to my mother play piano before I went to bed.” In the same article, he explained where he got his drive.  He said it is, “from investing so much of my life into this passion because I feel it so much inside of me.”

Recently Dane has been putting his time and effort into another record. He has been to the province of Alberta (Calgary) as well as down to Tennessee (Nashville) to work on his forthcoming CD due out either in the summer or the fall of this year. “This project is receiving green lights all the way. It’s a little trippy.” When asked how that came to be he responds, “from the opening of the doors that are being presented to me.  I knew which doors needed to open; I just hadn’t found the right key.  I found it,” admits Dane whose first disc,  ‘35 Dollars and Cheesecake’ came out six years ago.

So what does he think of the two records that came before his newest undertaking, his nominations as well as his win at The Toronto Independent Awards in 2008 for Best Live Electric Band? Did it make him grow as an artist?  The 2008 award meant “instant credit… locally, as well as internationally.   I had a new bar set for standards that I expect of myself and a strength and confidence to generate industry connections.  [It has] set me up for this new record.” Dane was also nominated in the TIMAs 2008 Best Adult Contemporary category. The 2007 nomination for Best Live Electric Band made him feel, “that peers and (the) public felt I was a factor in Canadian music.”

Want to find out more about Marshall Dane?  Go to http://www.marshalldane.com/ to download MP3’s of both his CD’s from CD Baby.  You can also sign up for his newsletter and get to his Myspace and Facebook pages as well as his Youtube channel from there!