Oh, you know the old joke: “How can you tell if there’s a banjo player at your door”? “They can’t find the key, the knocking speeds up, and they don’t know when to come in.” There’s a million jokes like that — as Chris Quinn admitted from the stage “it’s a tambourine on a stick” [...]
{ 1 comment }
This coming Thursday evening at Hugh’s Room in Toronto, I will have the honour of introducing my Roots Music Canada partner, singer-songwriter David Newland to hundreds of his fans. That will include those gathered at the famous venue, as well as folks watching live on-line at this very site. I hope you’ll join us. For [...]
{ 0 comments }
Fiddle people get it. Most of them know who she is because of the voice she’s attempting to establish. And, given the success of American counterparts like Alison Krauss, you’d think Ottawa native April Verch – some 8 years Krauss’ junior – would be perfectly poised for her share of all the attention. She certainly appears [...]
{ 2 comments }
The queen of gospel music, Mavis Staples, reigned majestically over a near full house at the Grand Theatre in Kingston last Tuesday evening. Given the history and experience Ms. Staples brings to the stage, one couldn’t help but feel privileged to be there. One just has to hear her enveloping, deep, powerful voice for a [...]
{ 1 comment }
Originally billed as “3 East Coast Ladies, 1 Night”, a cold, wet Tuesday night was soon transformed into a cross-Canada kitchen party at the Free Times Cafe, with the help of two added performers: Nicole Byblow (Toronto via Winnipeg) and Keith & Renée (Winnipeg). Opening the show, Nicole Byblow delivered songs all by her lonesome, [...]
{ 0 comments }
Click for complete list of CFMA 2011 award winners It was a dark and stormy night, with large drops of heavy blown glass falling steadily into the hands of worthy Canadians all night long. The Common Thread Community Chorus gusted out the songs of our multi-lingual communities in the lobby as Toronto’s Isabel Bader Theatre [...]
{ 17 comments }
The artful pairing of one of the world’s greatest musical performers with the superb acoustics of singer-songwriter-friendly Koerner Hall was a stroke of genius – it really doesn’t get any better than this. Likewise, the abilities of one man to still a crowd and mesmerize them with his 42-year’s worth of contributions to modern music, [...]
{ 3 comments }
For some time now, I have adored Joan Baez. It never mattered that she was my grandmother’s age. Joan Baez was ripe for idolatry: beautiful, passionate, intelligent and talented. I bought up all her albums. So many, in fact, that I ventured into that phase of collecting when you start to look at it in [...]
{ 7 comments }
Folk Songs of Canada Now is a free compilation album available exclusively for download online. The project’s creator, Henry Adam Svec, has created a compilation of 22 songs performed by some of the best young voices in the modern Canadian music scene. These aren’t new songs — all of them were previously collected by the [...]
{ 4 comments }
It’s happening, folks. The autumnal equinox has come and gone; October has arrived, and with it, grey days and a chill in the air. Summer, with its warm afternoons at folk festivals and starry nights around the campfire, is but a memory. Good news: David Myles’ sunshine-filled single “Simple Pleasures,” produced by East Coast hip [...]
{ 2 comments }
