“The Sundown Sessions is a monthly music series in Toronto celebrating indie artists and their incredible talents! 

Created, run and hosted by artists Amy Craze & Tiffany Luvv, their mission is to create a community of music creators and music lovers. With a residency at the legendary Rivoli in Toronto, their sessions are the perfect place to discover emerging, established and upcoming indie artists from all over Canada. If you’re an artist, applying to play is a great opportunity if you’d like to strut your stuff on a legendary stage and make new fans and fellow artist friends.” 

Chase Stevens

Although this is primarily for female artists, it is OK to bend the rules. Chase Stevens was the man to open this series tonight. He is an Indie Country Singer. His music is easy and honest.

He decided to grab a roadside kiss and begin to sink his style of sound into our psyche. This was a fun and gentle way of starting his set.

Like every artist today, he had to talk about how crazy this world is becoming. Like Chase, I believe we will be hearing a lot more songs about kindness. This is the time to support each other and not get sucked into the negative vortex swirling about.

His song “Gypsy Wind”, really grabbed my imagination as I rode a chopper down a long, lonely highway and needed that moment of escape.

DANI

DANI is a young emerging artist, and she decided to open her set with the first song she had ever written. It was written during her high school days, and it is called, “Down to the river”. I just hope she is not living in a van down by that river.

She is an acoustic country artist, and she shares songs that seem introspective. It seems her music comes from the perspective of someone having new experiences and then questions her own values of what to do in certain situations.

The moment she shined was when she did the Johnny Cash cover, “Ring of Fire”. You can see her confidence rising as sang this song. It must be one of those songs she has played a thousand times and still loves playing it.

Alexy Artsy

Alexy Artsy walked on next with her band and popped with her style of bubble gum music. This is an artist whose audience could be a bunch of tweens. She let us know that she stays in on a Friday night to write her music. It certainly beats going out and paying those cover fees at a club. She is right; there are some clubs where the cover charge is getting a little out of hand.

She was excited to do a cover of one of her favourite artists, Paramore. And then went into her first song ever called, “Myself”. Being a young artist, she did release a song called, “I love you more”, about having insecurities about a terrible Ex. Isn’t that a rite of passage for nearly all of us.

She finished her set of with a tune called, “Catch 22”, which just so happens to be very catchy.

Melanie Cabral

Melanie Cabral and Brandon who was playing accompanying guitar played their version of original Country Folk music.

One of the original songs was called, “Crossroads”, with lyrics that stated, Should I stay or should I go. It was Robert Johnson meets The Clash.

“Two-faced” was a well written tune about someone who always seems good to everyone around him, but really has his dirty little agenda tucked inside his coat pocket. It was like looking behind the curtain of the Wizard and seeing who he truly is.

This pair finished off with a Sabrina Carpenter Song, “Coincidence”.

Katie Mal

After plenty of country folk pop songs, Katie came on to rock out the evening on a high note. The drummer was very enthusiastic as he really wanted to rock the place out as hard as he could. The bass player held down the fort. For me the guitar player was the one to watch out for. His excitement and his unabashed stage moves really made him stand out. He is very entertaining to watch, and that is what you want at a rock show.

Katie looked like she was having fun and really tried to get her songs across in a strong way. She has a good mix of Rock and Pop. With more time on stage, this will be a band ready to reach the next level. And after all that is what the Sundown sessions are all about.

As a side note, I would like to add, that when these artists are on stage and singing cover songs, I notice the level of confidence shoot up. I guess they have practiced these song a thousand times and mentally have a picture of how they should be performed. This is why the Sundown sessions are important. It gives these young artists a stage to practice their stage presence.

I will be adding these monthly sessions on my event calendar, and I hope you go out and support these people. This could be the next stars that will rise through the ranks and become excellent entertainers for our city.

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