Friday, May 8, 2020

The Sky's The Limit's Return On Facebook, Plus Some New Acoustic Performances!!

Let's end another work week with our 54th straight daily post at the SMS, which is again devoted to videos, including a pair of acoustic renditions and the virtual return of a recent annual concert! Here's what you should know!

As you have probably gathered by now, the fifth annual Sky's The Limit fundraiser concert for Children's Mental Health Week did not take place yesterday as planned due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but Algoma Family Services made due with an online installment on their Facebook page! The Sky's The Limit V would have been held at Korah Collegiate last night, but it's a great idea to migrate the event to a Facebook video so that they can continue promoting mental health awareness with the help of talented young local musicians! The 1 hour+ video starts with an introduction by Algoma Family Services CEO Ali Juma where he talks about their mission, what they offer the community even with offices closed, and what music offers to people, and he even plays a bit of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven" to start! A.F.S. counsellor and Dell Bros. bassist Marc Williamson returns as the event's MC to introduce acts.

Musicians were not credited in the description, but who all performs in The Sky's The Limit V? The opening act is singer/guitarist Tianna Legacy, who nicely covers Alicia Keys' "Underdog" and Bill Withers' "Lean On Me". Next up is the surprise reunion of Electric Church frontman Spencer Pine & bassist Elijah Nelson, in the first time I've seen them perform together since this event in 2018! Beau has moved out of town, for what it's worth. The guys cover Thrice's "Hurricane" with a nice injection of soul and emotion, followed by the old Electric Church original "Take Me Away". Given how Marc introduced them, I will stop short of moving Electric Church back to our active band links for now, but it's great to see Spencer & Elijah still playing music! L!me frontwoman Madi Schomogyi follows with covers of Miley Cyrus' "The Climb" and Hedley's "Old School" on vocals & keyboard, and she has a good voice on these renditions too!

Next is former Din frontman Mike Haggith, returning to The Sky's The Limit for the first time in three years (recorded from Thompson, of course), and while not in the exact location of his #LockdownLive sets, the performance quality is as high as on those! Mike performs "MorningStar" from his new album "If Ever Comes The Day" (buy it next week!) and "Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost" from his next album after that, "Bridges". Rapper Tristan "Bold Noize" Goslow performs his original songs "Life I Live" and "Glow" from his new album "Noize.", and his rhymes are smooth and effective as usual! The final performer is singer/guitarist Joely Gough, who debuted in this event last year, and she covers Harry Styles' "Watermelon Sugar" and Lana Del Ray's "Happiness Is A Butterfly" with a nice authenticity! Ali returns with closing remarks at the end, and all of the musicians offer thoughts about mental health and their experiences during their segments.

While not ideal compared to the last four years, this Facebook concert helped make lemons out of lemonade, and it's great to see a who's who of top-line performers from past installments back virtually here! Of past Sky's The Limit headline acts, only The Pixo Control were not represented. There's a nice variety of music to check out from these six acts, and lots of honest remarks about mental health as well, so give The Sky's The Limit V a watch!



 We'll close today with a couple of new Facebook videos from Redundant frontman Justin Langlois, as posted to the local punk trio's Facebook page yesterday! These are acoustic renditions of their original songs "That December" and, as embedded below, "Miles Apart", and they sound good in this form factor! Both songs still retain that punk energy, and "Miles Apart" is particularly effective like this, so give both videos a watch above & below!



That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site tomorrow! Thanks everyone!

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