Folk Alliance: Elizabeth’s tour of the official showcases (Thursday)
The Roots Music Canada team is out in force in Montreal this weekend for the annual Folk Alliance International conference, the world’s largest gathering of folk artists and industry people. A key component of Folk Alliance is the showcases, series ...
Folk Alliance: Dispatches from the Wednesday night showcases
The Wednesday night showcases began spectacularly for us. The young American singer-songwriter Sawyer Fredericks blew us away first off with his first ever official showcase at a music conference. This is songwriting that makes your hair stand on end. Sawyer’s ...
Folk Alliance: The first hour (Wednesday)
The simply awful weather virtually all across Canada on the day the Folk Alliance International conference began in Montreal proved a challenge. Many of the delegates’ flights were delayed or cancelled entirely. A lot of conference delegates arrived way late ...
Favourite things Elizabeth Szekeres heard in 2018
The conclusion of the tumultuous year of 2018 approached fast, and this year was so incredibly stressful with the constant barrage of bad political and environmental news – first from south of the border and then within our own home ...
12 days of Christmas: Sultans of String – Christmas ...
Are you like us? Do you dread walking into a department store or a mall in the pre-Christmas weeks because of the ever-present and wholly annoying Muzak versions of Christmas carols? But do you love carefully selected, well-presented and beautifully ...
Ian Tamblyn with Anne Lindsay – Nov. 25 house concert ...
It was an evening of shatteringly poetic story songs from Ian Tamblyn with Anne Lindsay last Sunday night in Port Credit, Ont. The occasion was a house concert to introduce Adventure Canada‘s Ireland Circumnavigation and Scotland Slowly expedition cruises in ...
The Once – Nov. 21 at Mills Hardware, Hamilton (plus ...
You’d think a Wednesday night would be a hard sell for a folk music concert in Hamilton, Ont., but no. The Once was headlining the show. This trio from The Rock deservedly has a really strong following. For over ten ...
De Temps Antan – Consolez-Vous
They’re back! And, they’re better than ever. Quebec power trio De Temps Antan had a recent shakeup with fiddler André Brunet moving on, only to be very ably replaced by David Boulanger, another fantastic master of the Québecois “violon.” Yes, ...
Alan Doyle at the Brockville Arts Centre
It was a lovely old soft seat theatre in eastern Ontario with a history stretching back to 1858 that was the venue for this superb concert by Newfoundland’s Alan Doyle. For 20 years, Alan was at the heart of the ...
Cotillion: Tinker’s Wagon
Need a fun listen while you put off going outside to sweep the autumn leaves? Check out the new toe-tapping recording by three venerable Newfoundland musicians: Hugh Scott, Gerry Strong and Dave Panting, who together comprise Cotillion. A series of ...