Pride Month: k.d. lang – Makeover
I got a package in the mail this week from an old colleague of mine, Michael Benton (nee Krahn). If you lived in Victoria in the early to mid-90s, you might remember Michael as the tall, lanky brunette who ...
The Tragically Hip – Saskadelphia; why roots fans make ...
The Tragically Hip have never fitted into a roots music genre. Their guitar-driven rock sound generally has always hugged the centre-line of the rock ‘n roll highway. The nightly cover of “Train Kept-a Rollin’” – frequently introduced as “a song ...
Pete’s Posse – Ya Know, Ya Never Know
It’s epic. Not only do we have a two disc set from the Posse here, but a newly minted Canadian too. Dyed in the wool Vermonter Tristan Henderson, married his Québecoise sweetheart and moved to Montreal last year (yes they ...
Grosse Isle – Le Bonhomme Sept Heures / The Bonesetter
Québec and Ireland have a long and intertwined cultural relationship that goes back centuries. In 1847, at the height of the great potato famine of 1845 to 1852, 441 ships sailed for Québec, and many on board were sick ...
Dub Debut: The Dub Chronicles’ record brings new riddims to ...
After years of making a name for themselves in clubs around the city, Toronto’s The Dub Chronicles released their long-awaited debut album, Simba (Return to the Throne), on April 23. As a live dub band, the group is somewhat of an ...
Nicolas Boulerice – Maison de Pierres
It is said that English is a very technical language, and that in contrast, French is much more poetic. You hear this nature of the language very clearly on this new recording in the perfect and atmospheric singing of Nicolas ...
Alexis Chartrand and Colin Savoie-Levac – Le Tranino
Two of the finest young players in Québec’s traditional music scene got together in a studio one weekend last September and jammed, improvising arrangements while their friend recorded them. The result is a simply superb collection of tunes from the ...
Nathan Smith – Let It Rest, Let It Rise
Lovely and listenable. That’s my first reaction to this fantastic new CD from Toronto fiddler Nathan Smith. It’s a first studio album from Nathan, who grew up in northern Ontario, in North Bay, where he had French Canadian, classical, bluegrass, ...
Braden Gates – Kitchen Days
Preamble The dignity of labour has been a theme central to the folk music tradition forever, but it became politicized over class lines in former times, by songs and artists that polarized worker versus administration conflicts. I can’t recall many ...
Gordon Belsher (Jar O’ Comfort, Richard Wood) – Aging Gratefully
In 1968, Gordon Belsher’s band, the Heat, supported the Who at the Edmonton Gardens. With too many guitar players in the band, and having purchased a “Beatles” Hofner bass two years earlier, Gordon was glad to take up the duties ...