Artist Spotlight

Alberta, Arranger, Art Rock, Canada, Canadian Music Hall Of Fame, Experimental, Folk, Fusion, Grammy, Guitar, Herbie Hancock, Jazz, Joni Mitchell, JUNO, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Pop, Producer, Rock, Rock 'N Roll Hall Of Fame, Songwriter, Taylor Swift, Voice October 18, 2020

Before she went to New York and became famous, Joni Mitchell played the Half Beat in Yorkville

     Nick Krewen Special to the Star John McHugh remembers the time he accidentally became Joni Mitchell’s matchmaker. McHugh, who owned the Yorkville-era clubs The Penny Farthing and The Half Beat back in the ‘60s, recalls meeting “Joanna Anderson” when she came around to one of his venues around 1963-64. “It was at the Penny Farthing that (singer) Cathy Young brought this young lady in with her,” McHugh recalled recently…

Alt. Rock, Americana, Americana, Business, Canada, Culinary, Flute, Folk, Guitar, JUNO, Kathleen Edwards, Pop, Rock, Songwriter, Toronto, Voice August 13, 2020

After a divorce and depression drove her away from the music business, Kathleen Edwards is back with an album of confessional songs

Nick Krewen  Special to the Star Sometimes to move forward, you have to take a few steps back. Or stop completely. For singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards, who releases Total Freedom her first album since 2012’s Voyageur, on Friday (August 14), the latter move was her answer to a decade of the non-stop rinse-recycle-repeat music industry treadmill that took its toll. In 2011, her marriage to local producer and Blue Rodeo guitarist…

Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye, Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, Los Angeles, Pop, Songwriter, Toronto, Voice May 29, 2020

‘I need to be myself if I want the world to love me’ – Mississauga artist Ali Gatie embraces vulnerability in his music

Nick Krewen Special to the Star Inside the chest of Ali Gatie beats the heart of a hopeless romantic. And the Yemen-born R&B singer and songwriter, who calls both Mississauga and Los Angeles home, is the last to disagree with that assessment. “I’m 100 per cent a hopeless romantic, the most hopeless,” concurs Gatie, who celebrates his 23rd birthday on May 31. The evidence is overwhelming, beginning with his worldwide…

Beach Boys, Canada, Hip-Hop, Rock, Songwriter, Therapeutic, Voice May 6, 2020

Stranded Toronto musicians share touring anthems

Nick Krewen Special to The Star As the shutdown of live music — now entering its eighth week — drags on, it’s no surprise that entertainers are getting antsy. So, we asked some locals to name the road song that they usually adopt for the touring mindset, and what they miss most about their livelihood. Ewan Currie, The SheepdogsCurrent album: Changing Colours, 2018Road song: “Ramblin’ Man,” The Allman Brothers Band “It’s such…

Business, Canada, Events, Perspective, Robbie Robertson, Rolling Stones, Toronto, Tourism April 15, 2020

All fixed up with no place to go: Toronto venues like the El Mocambo and Wheat Sheaf postpone grand reopenings

Nick Krewen Special to the Star April Fool’s Day may have played its cruelest joke on the El Mocambo’s Michael Wekerle. After spending five years investing a reported $30 million (in a follow-up e-mail, he’d only say it’s “extensive”) in renovating the legendary Spadina Avenue music club that has played host to everyone from The Rolling Stones to U2, the merchant banker and Dragon’s Den TV personality was finally set…