PRESS
What a Year 'Cold November' has had! Thank you to everyone that has been a part of it! #FACTORfunded
2018- Amongst the Top Canadian Rockin' Blues Show Album of the Year
2018- Amongst the top Album of the Year on Blues and Roots Radio Worldwide
2018- #1 in Canada spot for 5 weeks on Blues and Roots Report - Radio Charting
- #1 in Ontario spot for 4 weeks on Blues and Roots Report - Radio Charting
2018- #22 Top Blues Rock Album on Roots Music Report for the Year
2018- #14 Stingray Music- Blues for the Year
2018- Top Pics for Blues Corner Radio(UK) for the Year
John Valentyne in Toronto Blues Society
23.7.2018
A sophomore album is always difficult but Spencer Mackenzie, now 18, has met that challenge and then some: his voice has matured and his songwriting has blossomed. Working with producer Dean Malton and on one track none other than Eddie Kramer, he has moved into the big leagues. He retains the quartet sound, augmented here with a horn section & a chorus and mentor Brant Parkerreturns on guitar, playing lead on three tracks. The best example of his songwriting and his performing is “Cold November”, the title song and its new single.
Rainey Wetnight in Blues Blast Magazine
14.8.2018
Traditional blues may be all about the “facts,” but Mackenzie is all about feelings.
On his new album, Cold November, he aims to warm people’s hearts instead of their libidos. He’d give crooner Sam Smith some stiff competition if the two ever performed together. His voice takes getting used to, being clear but also clearly accented. Once it seeps into your soul, however, it’ll envelop it like a warm pair of socks in the month he describes.
www.bluesblastmagazine.com/spencer-mackenzie-cold-november-album-review
Tom O'Connor in Rock and Blues Muse
11.6.2018
Young Canadian blues phenom and multiple blues award-winner, Spencer Mackenzie, released his new album, Cold November on June 1st, 2018, via Fontana North. If The Blues is going to survive (spoiler: it will) it doesn’t just need young players who can emulate the sounds, themes and structures, it needs those players to eventually take charge, make the music their own and help evolve the genre into whatever it will become next. It’ll be “kids” like Spencer who’ll be doing a lot the heavy lifting in the years & decades to come. Cold November is a crisp and professional document in the early stages of a sure-to-be important and influential Mackenzie career timeline.
www.rockandbluesmuse.com/2018/06/11/review-cold-november-by-spencer-mackenzie
Ian McKenzie ( no relation ) in Blues & Roots Radio
4.6.2018
An accomplished guitar player with an edgy style and a beautiful tone on the slow work. A little bit funky, a little bit rock ‘n’ roll, his debut album ‘Infected with the Blues’ which came out in 2016, earned him rave reviews and international airplay. This one too, is exemplary. Influenced, he says, by the likes of B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Jonny Lang, Joe Bonamassa, and Colin James, Spencer, nevertheless, has his own sound which, IMHO, is going to carry him to great heights.
Fred Delforge in ZicaZic
14.6.2018
Spencer Mackenzie sets the bar high with an album of great maturity. , one of those works that we would swear out of the discography of an old veteran who has spent many years on the chitlin 'circuit to get so much mastery. Well pleased the public who will be able to find it on the most beautiful Canadian festivals of the summer ... until it is exported to Europe.
http://www.zicazic.com/zicazine/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=14826&Itemid=62
Shane Pinnagar in 100 Percent Rock Magazine
18.8.2016
The proof, as someone once said, is in the pudding, and Mackenzie is not only a mean guitarist with a throaty and surprisingly mature voice, but he has an obvious innate feel for the blues that some players spend a lifetime not connecting to.
Spencer Mackenzie is a rare talent alright, and being so young he has all the potential in the world stretching out in front of him. A sensible head, some wise career choices and mature guidance here might just lead him away from the potholes on that highway, and this boy could well become a hugely influential man.
