The Maple Blues Awards, Feb. 4 at Koerner Hall, Toronto
The blues takes its time. It will tell you things twice to make sure you feel them. Then it will send a soul tremor straight to your heart. Blue hours spent are, for better or worse, true hours, even though, ...
Sympathetic Resonances: The Al Purdy Songbook and Doug Paisley’s Starter ...
From Dante Alighieri to William Carlos Williams, any time that the casual vernacular of a country’s people has invaded its national poetic tradition under the banner of a singular revolutionary and relevant artist, a liberation of language takes place, the ...
Paul Corby reports on the Folk Alliance conference orientation in ...
For 30 years, Folk Alliance International has provided a chain to connect the widespread practitioners of folk and roots music and dance. Every year, the community of performers, presenters, and exponents of traditionally-based songcraft recharges its solidarity with a meeting ...
Garry Lowe: Foundation bass player mourned at spectacular Toronto ...
The late Toronto bass player Garry Lowe, taken by cancer earlier in the year, was honoured with a concert at the Danforth Music Hall on the last Friday night of 2018, on what would have been his 65th birthday. The ...
Favourite things Paul Corby heard in 2018
You can find Paul Corby’s full list of his Top 50 albums of the year – in all genres – by clicking HERE. His favourite new songs of the year are HERE. Ever notice that after the morning coffee and ...
Dave McEathron: Counting for something that can’t be counted
Almost ten years ago, David McEathron was an alt-roots champ, fronting the acclaimed Toronto-based combo The Warped 45s. With their live and media presence on the rise, a sudden ending sent him into a lengthy personal re-assessment that gave him ...
12 days of Christmas: An homage to Rose Cousins’ ...
“Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his ...
Travelling by Ear: The Canadian Folk Music Awards’ World Group ...
While handling the enormous task of curating the musical treasures of the entire country, the annual Canadian Folk Music Awards, being held in Calgary on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 this year, also encourage submissions “separate and apart from the ...
Madeleine Roger – Cottonwood
Like shade at the end of a long summer day, Madeleine Roger’s new album, Cottonwood, released last month, spreads a balm across many of the hot anxieties of our temporal life. Glens of casual confidence and freshets of contentedness open ...
Happy Birthday, Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, born Roberta Anderson, Nov., 1943 in Fort Macleod Alta., has made songs, paintings and honest declarations of her demand for freedom (and struggles with bondage) all her life. She has suffered abuse by the media, partners and her ...