NEWS

BY KAREN BLISS, www.samaritanmag.com

A coalition of late guitarist Jeff Healey's friends, family and fellow musicians is raising money to make The Jeff Healey Park in Toronto more accessible for disabled children by adding specially designed playground equipment.

The park, originally called Woodford Park, was renamed last June after the internationally acclaimed singer-guitarist who had been blind since age 1 from retinoblastoma, a form of eye cancer. He died of lung cancer in 2008 at 41.

"We can do something meaningful for as little as $20,000 to $25,000, like have a little area that's more accessible on the playground," says Rob Quail, who played in bands with Healey when they were teenagers and in their early 20s.

Shortly after, Healey - who played the guitar flat on his lap -- formed The Jeff Healey Band with bassist Joe Rockman and drummer Tom Stephen which signed to Arista in 1988 and released the Grammy-nominated See The Light. The band's last album was 2000's Get Me Some, then Healey released numerous solo albums.

Jeff Healey Park is located at 1 Delroy Drive in the Queensway and Royal York Road area of Etobicoke, where Healey was born and raised and was living at the time of his death.  Healey's family has lived across from the park for 47 years.

BY KAREN BLISS, www.samaritanmag.com

Soft-rock band Train launched its own wine in 2009, Drops of Jupiter Petite Syrah; followed by 2010's Calling All Angels Chardonnay, with a portion of the proceeds going to Family House, which provides free temporary housing to families of seriously ill children receiving treatment at the University of California, San Francisco Benioff Children's Hospital. 

This month, the group, which formed in San Francisco in 1994, will present the charity with a sizeable cheque.

"They have been getting money funneled from our wine for a long time, but this will be the biggest cheque - it's $50,000. And so they're gonna be real psyched," Train frontman Pat Monahan told www.samaritanmag, when he was in Toronto to promote the band's new album, California 37, out April 17.

Train will also release a new varietal, a cabernet sauvignon named after the album. Target in America will carry the wine, says Monahan.

"We've always believed in helping kids," says Monahan of how the band ended up selecting Family House to support. "We're also are very cynical about charity because there are a lot of people who take advantage of charity. You can go to web sites to find ratings and there were a couple of things that we were really interested in that were not rated very well.

"Of course we want to make wine because it's fun and we're a San Francisco band where wine is super big and also it's probably the best US wine, so if we're gonna do that, let's do something cool at the same time by doing something better for somebody.

BY KAREN BLISS, www.samaritanmag.com

Ace guitarist Slash rounded up Judd Nelson (The Breakfast Club, Suddenly Susan), Lovely Bones' AJ Michalka, True Blood's Kristin Bauer and more, to act in a music video to raise aware about homeless youth in Los Angeles.

"It's for the Los Angeles Youth Network. It's a shelter for homeless kids," Slash tells Samaritanmag during a visit to Toronto to promote his next album, Apocalypic Love (out May 22). "It's to raise money for them from that song 'Gotten,' the Adam Levine song from the last record. We did a really poignant video about that specific situation."

The original version of the song, featuring Maroon 5's Levine on vocals (he does not appear in the video) and appearing on Slash's 2010 self-titled album, was produced and mixed by Eric Valentine. The new version was remixed at Astound Studios using what's called GenAudio's unique 3D spatial audio technology, AstoundSound(R), which is based on over two decades of R&D into how the brain processes audio information.

The high quality MP3 of the song can be downloaded by making a donation -- minimum amount $1 (US) --to Los Angeles Youth Network

Slash - who recruited singers from various genres for his last album -- says, "That particular song is not like anything I've ever written before and I was so attached to it. I was sort of shy about playing it for anybody and the few people who I did play it for didn't seem particularly impressed with it for some reason. I was really attached to it so I thought Adam would be the voice for that [but] I don't know this guy; I don't even know if he would like it. I just always thought that he had an amazing control and power over his voice. And so I sent it to him and he really liked it and that was all I needed. We didn't do anything to it, except we sat down and there was one chord that we extended so that was the whole arrangement was already together."

By IAN WALKER, www.samaritanmag.com

A pair of Canadian music icons are putting their pride and wallets on the line all in support of an innovative charitable foundation called Music Heals. But this isn't just your average wager. Not even close.

At stake is as much as $15,000 each. And here's the kicker: There's a distinct possibility both men will lose. More about that later.

54-40 lead singer Neil Osborne and renowned music producer GGGarth Richardson (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against The Machine, Hedley) are currently in the process of making a record together. The two are also hockey nuts, with Osborne a longtime supporter of the Vancouver Canucks and Richardson a lifelong Toronto Maple Leafs fan.

Naturally, this led to a bet based on their love for their favourite teams, with both men making a YouTube video to help raise the hype. As you'll see in the funny clip, Osborne is risking his royalties that the Canucks will win the Stanley Cup while Richardson has gambled his producer's fees that the Maple Leafs will make the playoffs for the first time since the 2003-04 season.

"There's bragging rights at stake, but the main reason we decided to do it is to raise money for Music Heals," Richardson tells Samaritanmag.com. "It's something we both believe in so we thought what better way to bring awareness than a good-old hockey bet."

The BC-based Music Heals Foundation was founded by a group of music enthusiasts and provides funding to a wide range of music therapy services across Canada. For those unfamiliar with music therapy, it is used in many settings, including schools, rehabilitation centers, hospitals, hospices, nursing homes and community centers and is designed to help patients overcome physical, emotional, intellectual, and social challenges.

BY KAREN BLISS, www.samaritanmag.com

"If David Suzuki could hold a tune, I'm sure they would've asked him," Montreal rocker Sam Roberts quips in an interview with Samaritanmag about his recent appointment by the Canadian Academy of Recordings Arts & Sciences as the Juno Awards first-ever Sustainability Ambassador.

"I think that's gonna be my quote for the rest of this. If you hear it again, it's because that's gonna be my catch phrase," he laughs.

In all seriously, the Juno Award-winning singer-guitarist is a perfect candidate for the title and its obligations. He was first informed of environmentally-friendly practices by his roommate in university and found living that lifestyle was "very simple. It doesn't really take much." All these years later, he continues to implement them, and more.

"There are so many things - from the most small mundane details like the cleaning products and detergent that you use and washing your clothes with cold water and using phosphate-free hand soap and dishwasher detergent, to not flushing the toilet every time we go pee to composting to try to recycle as efficiently as we possibly can," says Roberts.

Canada's biggest music awards show -- which takes place in Ottawa this year over two nights, one a private untelevised gala dinner March 31 and one a more concert-like two-hour televised event April 1 -- will be using the Canadian Standards Association's event sustainability management standard, CSA Z2010, to guide the design and delivery of the awards and associated Juno events.

BY KAREN BLISS, www.samaritanmag.com

Some people are vehement about animal rights; others walk miles to raise money for breast cancer research or volunteer at their local homeless shelter. The causes people are passionate about are numerous and wide. This March 24, at the National Mall in Washington DC, legendary California punk band Bad Religion will add its voice to Reason Rally, touted as the largest gathering of the secular movement in world history.

Bad Religion frontman Greg Graffin  -- author of Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God and whose latest album is titled The Dissent Of Man -- will sing the national anthem and the entire band will perform a one-hour set.

As Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz explained in a press release put out by the band's record label Epitaph, "People often ask whether I think music makes a difference; whether it's a force for change.  Bad Religion's invitation to appear at the Reason Rally for me affirms the notion that art has the power to transform social norms, that over the past 30 years our band, through its music and message, has contributed to a real and very positive trend toward secularization." 

The eight-hour event (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.) includes more than three-dozen speakers, including comedian/political commentator Bill Maher; comedian Eddie Izzard; author Dr. Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion, The Greatest Show On Earth); Myth Busters co-host Adam Savage; gender equality and human rights activist and author Taslima Nasrin; Nate Phelps, the long estranged son of Westboro Baptist Church leader Fred Phelps; and James Randi, creator of The One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge...

BY JIM SLOTEK, www.samaritanmag.com

It's taken a while for Ed Helms' first love, music, to find its way onscreen.

As Andy Bernard on television series The Office, he's played his instrument-of-choice - the banjo. And he supplied a musical moment in The Hangover: Part 2 playing a spoof of Billy Joel's "Allentown" on the guitar.

So it is that Education Through Music L.A. (ETMLA) is one of two causes he supports through The L.A. Bluegrass Situation, a mini-festival he created with fellow banjo aficionado, actor/comedian Steve Martin, and Mark Flanagan, the manager of Los Angeles music and comedy landmark Largo.

Helms first learned bluegrass banjo in high school, years before comedy kicked in, for a performance in a high school musical. He'd go on to study at Ohio's Oberlin College of the Arts & Conservatory of Music.

"I'm a huge supporter of ETMLA, which works hard to keep music and arts programs in the schools as the funding disappears," Helms tells samaritanmag.com. "Music influenced me tremendously in school, and even now, I still consider myself a serious musician."

BY KAREN BLISS, www.samaritanmag.com

For Sarah McLachlan's symphony tour this summer, the multi-platinum-selling singer-songwriter has teamed with Tickets-for-Charity.com, which offers seats for various events "at the same or better price you'll find elsewhere -- and support great causes in the process." 

McLachlan's VIP packages include one front row seat and a pre-performance excusive meet & greet and monies raised go to her Sarah McLachlan School of Music, whose mission is to bring music education to vulnerable and at-risk youth through free music programs dedicated to inspiring confidence, creativity and a sense of community among students.

No price is listed in the press release or on the site, but one can click "notify me" next to the concert date of your choice (some are sold out already) and it will send an email with the subject line "Please contact me when Sarah McLachlan-Symphony Tour tickets in [city] are available and notify of TFC events."

All tickets will be available for pick up at will-call only with no name changes permitted. The name used to purchase the tickets will be the name provided to will-call and ID must be presented at the box office. There is also a two ticket limit per purchase. The tour runs from June 22 at Toronto's Molson Canadian Amphitheatre until July 8 at New Jersey's Borgata Event Center.