Robin Benedict is a full-time musician based in Hamilton, Ontario. Robin openly shares her story about her battle with addiction and depression. She uses music and song writing as her outlet for healing and evolution. Robin is a strong believer that creativity is the best tool to release trauma and raise our vibration.

In the face of it all, she’s been playing solo to pay the bills, while gaining experience and exposure working for companies like Classic Albums Live, based out of Toronto. She is best known for her Janis Joplin covers and has performed as part of the Classic Albums Live series in California and Florida. Recently, Robin has developed a Janis Joplin Tribute Show stacked with some of Ontario's most renowned players.

Robin Benedict prides herself on her ability to share a positive attitude on life through her original songs, which speak of soul-searching and new beginnings. Music is the air Robin breathes. Her voice can both jolt, like a firecracker, and lull a baby to sleep. It’s that versatility that allows her to move listeners while singing any genre. When she opens her mouth to sing, she means it every time. Robin continues to write and is currently in the studio finishing up her upcoming singles, Freedom and Baby Bye Bye.

Songs by Robin on First Flight 101

Thank You: This song is about gratitude and for noticing the positive and beautiful world we live in. From Robin – “Even when everything is bleak I thank my higher power for all that is given to me and am forever grateful. Thank you is a song to express this feeling.”

Amanda: Robin has dedicated this song to Carol Todd and her family. Amanda’s suicide due to cyber bullying needs to be told to save lives. From Robin – “It is my hope that by continuing to tell Amanda’s tragic story, we will raise awareness and stop cyber bullying and inspire any children who are suffering in silence to think twice before making a decision they can never take back.” (amandatoddlegacy.org)

“Music to me is like a diary – it is my life,” says Jordan Gow. “I can look at the words to a song I wrote and know exactly what I was feeling at that time. It helps to ground me – give me purpose. It is the most integral thing in my life that allows me to escape and persevere through very difficult challenges.”

Born in Kanata, Ontario in the 80s, Jordan entered this world as an identical twin. The two brothers were so similar in many ways, both embracing music at a tender age.  For Jordan, that love of creating his own sound and writing lyrics would shadow him throughout his life. “My bro and I are close, but we are different. Diagnosed with severe ADHD and substance use disorder, my life became a journey in and out of psychiatric hospitals and treatment centres. I was broken and hopeless. The truth is that I wanted desperately to stop my behavior, but today I know it’s an illness and sometimes it comes back.

It’s been a long road, but today I have hope and I’m in a program that works for me with other people like me. I could never do this alone – and music is my chosen form of self-realizing what I was put on this earth to do; help others and create music and art.”

Jordan is completing his first album in 2023 and hopes to go on tour with Birdsong New Music Foundation by the end of the year. “They ignited in me a new sense of purpose,” he says. “I believe that David Martin and I would have been great friends. We were in the same psychiatric facility, we both played in the stairwell at the same facility, but he died a few weeks before I ended up on the same ward.  Things happen for a reason. I will sing one of his songs (Pray For Your Peace) on my premier album, dedicating it to those of us who deal with mental illness. It’s the doorway for change.”

Today, Jordan is one of the Birdsong ambassadors for substance use disorder and concurrent disorders, and is completing his third year in Therapeutic Recreation at Concordia University, focusing his studies on TR for youth/young adults at risk and people with cognitive disabilities/substance use and concurrent disorders.

Songs by Jordan on First Flight 101

Caged Bird's Song: This is about the struggle that becomes inherent when you love someone who does not know how to love themselves. Despite this challenge, the song is about acceptance and forgiveness within yourself despite this drama.

Hell or Highwater: What is holding you back? This song is about the spiritual empowerment of letting go of what is holding you back from who you really want to be and learning to move on as your true self.

Like many Canadians born in small towns like Pembroke, Ontario, Allan Kinney felt he didn’t really belong. Allan’s Dutch oldest two brothers and mother had immigrated to Canada from Belgium less than nine years before Allan was born, and some of Allan’s best early memories are of those brothers’ was listening to Paul McCartney, The Beatles, and Rolling Stones vinyl. At age three, his first home-away-from-home was in Mme. Sylvestre’s Franco-Ontarian garderie (nursery school), an experience that has made the French language dear to his heart.

The reception among Pembroke peers for Allan’s success in and preference for reading and music was mixed, and sadly included about six years of homophobic and biphobic taunting, although he was in other ways truly appreciated at the same time – nicknamed “Einstein” in Grade 7, and praised even by his most scathing classmates when he would play the piano, clarinet, or saxophone for them, as well as in later years when he would sing, dance, or act in dramatic and musical productions.

The experience of elementary and high school in Pembroke impressed upon Allan the importance of the environment, social justice, and international peace, and in line of seeking to further these aims someday.

But the much loved and respected Ottawa keyboardist/songwriter has had to overcome both the ravages of clinical schizophrenia and the innate discrimination of institutions and individuals who do not live with, nor understand mental health issues. It is not lost on Kinney that were it not for music and treatment and medication, he would not have persevered through three degrees, a 10 year career as a college professor, four albums two Ottawa Bluesfest gigs, an appearance with Pellegrini Opera on keyboards in their production of Tosca, 60 plus shows with Ras Lee and the Vibes Band – and started his own band, Bens Motel and the Guru Rebels, which plays all his original songs.

Songs by Allan on First Flight 101

Spiritual Drink Machines: This song was inspired by the sub-prime mortgage crisis of 2007 and the financial crisis of 2008 but continues to be relevant today. In the song “Heaven” and “the angels on High” are roughly a metaphor for political, economic and spiritual authority and the effort to make real a vision of something better in our lives together.

The focus is on the questionable political alliance since 1980 between economically neoliberal/neoconservative politicians, religious fundamentalists.

Little Boy: A song whose lyrics are narrated by the inner voice of a woman who either at the end of a nighttime party, finds herself alone in a room with a man in whom she is not interested but who is interested in her. She finds herself in the awkward position of having to give him a polite but firm brush off. It’s about pervasive sexism and patriarchy which forces many women to navigate all situations on a sort of constant alert in order to avoid danger from men. The song was written to create a respect for boundaries and to stop violence or harassment towards women.

Originally from Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Thomas Messenger was raised around music, and has been performing from an early age. He has appeared on stage as a solo artist as well as with band mates, performing for local communities (he now resides in Barrie, Ontario). Today, Thomas is a mental health activist who speaks openly about living with TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) from a work-related scaffolding collapse, PTSD, chronic depression and anxiety, and hopes to help others through his music.

“I could write a book about the challenges I experience every day, but I wrote a few songs instead,” he says. An almost fatal fall off scaffolding in Nova Scotia in 1997 exacerbated his already existing conditions, and he began to use medical marijuana (cannabis) to help with pain management. This transgression landed him, unfairly, at Penetanguishene Correctional Center. Thomas both experienced and witnessed how people with mental illness are incarcerated instead of “getting the help. They need.” His song, entitled Jeffrey's Truck, is poignant and heartbreaking lyrical tale dedicated to Jeffrey Thomas Elliot who died there, August 29, 2003, at age 19.

“He had the mental development of a child,” says Thomas. “I witnessed the drama personally as I shared a cell with him inside prison. An inquest was held after his death, and the results state that his death was caused by failure to get adequate medical attention after being attacked and beaten by another inmate. I want to help get stories like Jeffrey's out to educate the general public. Lyrics and music can paint the real story often far better than anything else. Jeffrey gave me a drawing in prison of a truck his father gave him.

It was his pride and joy and he was counting the days till he got out so he could start work on it. It was his big dream, and I am honoring his memory in this creative way. He deserved better – the times they need a’ changing.”

Songs by Thomas appearing on First Flight 101

Jeffrey’s Truck: Moving and poignant song about Jeffrey’s Truck his friend who died in prison. The song is out to educate the world and about this tragedy and to change the world for people who live with mental health issues.

Earl Johnson was born and raised in a rough, working-class, tough area of Hamilton, Ontario. Alchohol was prevalant amongst the men of that time - mostly working hard job at the steel mill of construction.  Only recently, Earl found out about his birth parents and realized that his father was full blooded-Mohawk.

Music was a career choice early in Earl’s life and his love of guitar playing was evident. In the 70s his career was booming as the lead guitarist in the popular rock/metal band Moxy (Toronto, 1974). Later, as a member of King Biscuit Boy, much of the song writing was done by Johnson.

Johnson's music style has evolved over the years and turned more to classic R&B with his new Hamilton-based band, Long Black Cadillacs. During many of these years, Earl's bass player, Deb Sutton played at his side and became the love of his life. The couple were together for 20 years, but Sutton died in 2019 from long term alcohol use which severely damaged her liver.

Earl talks about how “it was our mental illness and her passing that created an insurmountable hole in my heart and soul. I was also struggling with substance use and felt guilty that she was gone, not me. But, quite literally, music saved my life – because if it was not for music and some of my closest friends, I would not have made it. Today, I want to make a difference while touring and playing music, and spread the news that you are not alone out there. Bad things happen – we are in this together and we are resilient – and the stigma must stop. I connected with BIRDSONG New Music Foundation and wrote the song, Forever Mine, as a tribute to Deb. We need to take the stigma away from this illness, we need better treatment and more understanding. Let your love shine on me Deb – Forever Mine.”

Songs by Earl on First Flight 101

Forever Mine: Earl Johnson’s love song for Debbie his partner and bass player strikes a cord. “It keeps her memory alive in my heart” says the songwriter and guitarist. “It’s a tribute song and we need to take the stigma away from the illness of “substance use disorder.” This song will resonate with people who have lost someone they love so very very much. Let your love shine on me Deb – Forever Mine.”