Janet Bates – It is Here I Leave You, Dragon
Photo by Lisa Novak. This is a voice you feel like you’ve known forever. Like a clear mountain river running unto the sea, it surrounds and envelops you as you bathe in its warm sunshine. This is the voice of ...
Al Qahwa – Cairo Moon
Cairo Moon is the newest disc showcasing the many vivacious talents of Toronto’s modern Middle Eastern quartet Al Qahwa. With this sophomore record the four core members bring their multi-channelled talents and Greek/Iranian/Egyptian/Canadian heritages back together to envision an exotic ...
Ariana Gillis – The Maze
Several years ago I adopted the practice of waiting until after I’d seen an artist in concert for the first time before I listened to any of their music. My goal was to avoid going to a show with any ...
Sabin Jacques & Rachel Aucoin – Grandes Rencontres
Once in a while something unique and memorable comes your way. This superb CD is one of those things. Rachel Aucoin and Sabin Jacques from Québec are partners musically and in life. Rachel is a highly accomplished classical pianist from ...
Donovan Woods – The Other Way
When Heather Kitching of Roots Music Canada asked me if I wanted to review Donovan Woods’ new album, The Other Way (Meant Well Records), an acoustic rendering of his 2018 Both Ways, my first response was, “no.” What more could ...
Mélisande [Electrotrad] – Les Millésimes
Elizabeth Szekeres has been working her way through all of the albums she picked up at this year’s Folk Alliance International conference and introducing us to some of her favourite discoveries – some new; some old. This album was released ...
Arise & Go – Meeting Place
This lovely CD is yet another example of the cross-border pollination that happens among the fantastically good musicians from Canada and the United States. That arbitrary political line we call a border does not exist when musicians get together. Fiddler ...
Sophie and Fiachra and André Marchand – Portraits
Since the days of the Irish potato famine that began over 150 years ago and the resulting mass migration of people to North America, Québec has benefited in a myriad of ways. Irish musicians pollinated Québec folklore with their tunes, ...
Oh Susanna – Johnstown (limited-edition, vinyl-only anniversary edition)
Bing! “You got a package in the mail,” reads the text from my wife. I’m on the road for work and won’t be home for a few more days. “Can I open it?” she writes. “Sure,” I reply. Her next ...
Meg Tennant – Echoed Light
A mist rises over the lake at dawn and is vanquished, not by the dark, but by excesses of sunlight. The glorious harmonies that resonate to the inner ear disappear when sung. Within the folds of a new acoustic–based collection ...