Karlie Rogers
Karlie Rogers turns tour and event news into sharp, detail-heavy coverage that keeps the moving parts of live music clear and current. She is a staff writer at Exclaim!, where she writes about music, film and culture across news, reviews and features. Her work centres on North American tours, Canadian concerts, festivals and standout songs, with an unvarnished voice that carries through from quick hits to longer pieces.
North American Tours and Concert Announcements
Rogers spends much of her time on tour news, tracking new legs, added dates and venue details for artists across country, pop, rock and punk.
Recent pieces cover Riley Green’s 2027 North American tour plans, the Red Clay Strays extending their Grateful tour into 2027, Chelsea Cutler mapping out a 2027 North American run, and Bruce Cockburn’s 2027 Western Canadian tour. She does similar work for pop acts like Carly Rae Jepsen’s 2027 Canadian and US tour and indie projects such as Boyhood’s 2026 tour, consistently linking tours to new albums and release cycles.
Her coverage of Sleep’s North American tour, paired with news of a new single and comic book, and of Greta Van Fleet’s 2027 dates with specific Canadian arenas and amphitheatres, shows a focus on clear itineraries, multi-leg routing and how live plans fit into broader artist campaigns. Across these stories she prioritises concise copy, concrete dates and venues, and the tie-in between records and the road.
Canadian Scenes, Festivals and Special Events
Alongside major touring acts, Rogers covers Canadian artists and regional events, giving attention to local circuits and festival ecosystems. Her report on Zeus’s Ontario fall tour in support of Lost & Found (The Say Us Archives) highlights a six-date run in the province and positions the shows within the band’s ongoing catalogue and history. She has written about SuperFolk Morin-Heights, detailing a lineup that includes acts like Bahamas, Hanorah and Beatrice Deer, underscoring an interest in multi-artist bills and regional festivals. In the music news archive, her byline appears on items about Joe Hisaishi’s return to a symphony hall for multiple spring performances and a showcase presented by Dine Alone Records and Exclaim!, reflecting coverage of one-off concerts and label-linked events. This strand of her work leans on programming, lineups and partnerships, with particular attention to how festivals and special shows frame artists for local audiences.
Features, Lists and Critical Voice
Rogers also contributes to Exclaim!’s features and lists, where her perspective on songs, albums and visuals comes through more directly.
She has writing credits on roundups such as Exclaim!’s favourite songs of 2026 so far, where picks like “Hurts Like Hell” are described with attention to arrangement, hooks and emotional payoff. Her contributions to lists of favourite album covers in 2024 and 2025 show an eye for visual presentation, highlighting packaging and design choices as part of an album’s impact.
In a Song of the Summer feature, she breaks down how a track’s chorus, synths and guitar licks build “infectious playfulness,” tying musical detail to atmosphere and replay value. Her staff piece on Stella Lefty’s “Boston” is more pointed, using humour and a blunt tone to critique melodic similarity to Noah Kahan and the broader trend of indistinguishable country singer-songwriters. Beyond music, she co-writes festival coverage like the “Best and Worst Films We Saw at TIFF 2026,” weighing in on standout performances and satirical takes on public figures, which shows she carries her evaluative style into film as well.
Together, these feature and list pieces underline a voice that can be enthusiastic, sharp or cutting, while staying anchored in specific musical or cinematic details.
Reviews and Ongoing Beat Work
Rogers’ byline appears in the music reviews archive, including coverage of new material from artists like Car Seat Headrest, where she writes about the lead single “Gethsamane” from the rock opera The Scholars.
These reviews sit alongside her ongoing responsibilities as a staff writer, which include interview features, film and album reviews, newswriting, weekly concert listings and “just announced tours” roundups. The result is a beat that blends fast-turn news about tours and events with more considered criticism and commentary, often following artists from announcement to release to live performance.
Across genres - from country and pop to rock, punk and experimental acts - she keeps focus on how songs, records and visuals function in the current landscape, and how live schedules and festival slots support that story.
4 more music journalists.
Aisling Murphy
Aisling Murphy is the theatre reporter and critic at The Globe and Mail. She stands out for writing about theatre as both art and infrastructure, with coverage that links new Canadian stage work, awards culture, and pop-inflected criticism. She covers theatre, music, and pop culture in a detailed, conversational style, moving between reviews, reported features, and analysis of the systems that shape what gets produced. Her beat includes the Dora Awards, Toronto stages, new writing, intimate productions, and smaller venues, as well as controversy where artistic decisions meet politics and community response. Before The Globe, she was senior editor of Intermission Magazine, and her bylines include The New York Times, Toronto Star, CBC Arts, and the Baltimore Sun.
Alex Hudson
Alex Hudson is Editor-in-Chief of Exclaim! and leads coverage of music’s links to sports, literature, and technology, with a strong focus on Canadian artists. Hudson reports on how music intersects with other fields, not as a separate industry. Recent coverage has included Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer on how playing piano saved his career, Ottawa Bluesfest’s Canada-wide soccer watch party, Lakes of Canada’s Margaret Atwood-inspired album Transgressions, Hannah Mary McKinnon on The Beaches influencing her rock-themed novel, and Alexander Nilsson’s 1001 Albums Generator as a tool for broadening music discovery beyond algorithmic recommendations.
Alex Robert Ross
Alex Robert Ross is a journalist and editor who treats albums as narratives, linking sound, backstory, emotional stakes, and an artist’s wider catalogue. He currently writes long-form criticism for Pitchfork, covering heavy metal, hardcore, indie, and legacy rock. His recent reviews include Converge’s Hum of Hurt and Bon Iver’s SABLE, fABLE. His other Pitchfork work includes The Tragically Hip’s Fully Completely and William Ackerman’s In Search of the Turtle’s Navel. He has also written features for Slate, The Quietus, Huck, and The Portland Mercury. Ross reports closely on structure, urgency, vocal performance, arrangement, and the stories behind records. He uses detailed reporting and conceptual framing to place new releases within an artist’s past work and surrounding scenes. His work also includes editing, podcast hosting and production, newsletter writing, consulting, and copywriting.
Alexis Mikulski Ruiz
Alexis Mikulski Ruiz is a commerce writer whose distinct focus is the buying and streaming side of music, entertainment and lifestyle, helping readers decide how to watch major events and what to purchase around them. She is an e-commerce specialist at Rolling Stone, covering products, platforms and deals tied to award shows, festivals, sports and everyday culture. Her beat blends music streaming guides with shopping and product recommendations across fashion, beauty, tech, food, wellness and drinks. She reports through experience-focused service journalism, using lists, comparison roundups and step-by-step guides to answer concrete questions about how to stream major cultural moments, where to shop and which products to choose. Her background includes commerce and lifestyle writing for consumer publications such as Esquire, Men’s Health, Good Housekeeping, Oprah Daily, Women’s Wear Daily and Billboard.