Artist Spotlight

Toronto’s transit of venues (or, weep not for the bop)

Veteran rock writer Nick Krewen takes a tour through defunct Toronto concert venue history – from the ’60s in Yorkville, to the subsequent decades when the action was mostly around Yonge St., to the rise and apparent decline of Queen St. W.  Nick Krewen and Garnet Fraser Published on Sun Jan 03 2010 On Queen St. W., the concert scene is changing, and it’s leaving some fretful. Hard-rock hangout the Big…


John Mayer wages a shock and awe battle

John Mayer stepped on the Sound Academy stage last night secure in the knowledge that Battle Studies , his first full-fledged studio album since 2006’s Continuum , will be the No.1 when the Billboard charts are updated on Thursday on the strength of over 300,000 copies sold in the U.S. Nick Krewen  Special To The Star, Wed Nov 25 2009 John Mayer stepped on the Sound Academy stage last night…


Jay-Z: King of the No. 1 album

Judged solely on his string of No. 1 albums, Jay-Z has accomplished the unexpected: he’s become bigger than Elvis.        Nick Krewen Special to the Star, Published on Fri Oct 30 2009 Judged solely on his string of No. 1 albums, Jay-Z has accomplished the unexpected: he’s become bigger than Elvis. With the Sept. 11 arrival of The Blueprint 3, Brooklyn-born rapper Shawn Carter scored his 11th straight chart-topper…


The Sweet Smell of Success

The Sweet Smell Of Success October 22, 2009 Recording artists bottle their success GRAMMY.com Nick Krewen Tim McGraw and Faith Hill have not only experienced the sweet smell of success, they’ve bottled it. Country music’s first couple has a couple of new scents on the market — Faith Hill Parfums is her first and Southern Blend is his second — and they are just two of the music celebrities that…


Pearl Jam’s gem

Entertainment / Music Backspacer, the new album out today from Seattle rock icons Pearl Jam, finds the band in a dramatically different headspace.      Nick Krewen Special to the Star, Published on Sun Sep 20 2009  Backspacer, the new album out today from Seattle rock icons Pearl Jam, finds the band in a dramatically different headspace. Oh, the aggressive energy crackling of the speakers from such fist-pumping sonic blasters as “The…