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, [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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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 [...]
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At the heart of almost every folk festival I’ve attended is the idea that all are welcome. In practice, though, making everyone welcome can be a tough goal to attain, for various reasons. On the basis of programming alone, some folks will feel welcome and some less so. And actually making a festival fit for [...]
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A United Nations World Heritage site, Old Town Lunenburg is a grid of brightly painted clapboard on the edge of a huge hill overlooking working shipyards, and the famous harbour that launched the Bluenose. With all that tradition as its context, it’s little wonder Lunenburg’s Folk Harbour Festival lives up to its name. “Folk” is a [...]
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Dear Listener, I think you and Sarah MacDougall should have a talk. Soon! Sarah MacDougall has a lot on her mind, and confidentially, you should listen. Something is erupting. There is a hush to her voice that reassures you that she has control of her ideas — but there’s also a tremulous quality that makes [...]
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My first exposure to Leon Russell was hearing his 1970 self-titled debut, when he was but 28. Everything was just right – from the quality of his songwriting (beginning, as it did, with “A Song For You”) to his slurred Tulsa drawl and up-front, rollicking piano-playing. Country, blues and rock – it was all here, [...]
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Serena Ryder returned to a hometown stage for the first time in four years at Little Lake Music Fest in Peterborough last Saturday. It’s not that she’s been avoiding her hometown fans (a 2009 show on that same stage was cancelled at the last minute on account of stormy weather), it’s just that she’s been [...]
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Here’s a strange fact: John McDermott had never played a major* folk fest in Canada until Mariposa 2011. What’s with that? Maybe it’s a branding issue. Sure, McDermott made his name singing “Danny Boy”, a folk song in the truest sense of the term, but some may feel “folk” these days is a little less [...]
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