Business

Banjo, Bob Dylan, Canada, Events, Experimental, Festivals, Jazz, Metallica, Music Industry (Trade), Prince, Punk, Rock 'N Roll, Rolling Stones, Toronto November 30, 2024

He helped bring the Ramones, the Police and the B-52’s to Toronto for the first time. Nearly 50 years later, he’s being celebrated in a new book

Nearly 100 key players, including performers, scenesters and other promoters, were interviewed for “He Hijacked My Brain: Gary Topp’s Toronto.”  By Nick Krewen Special to the Star In a career that has lasted nearly five decades and involved thousands of concerts, eminent Toronto promoter Gary Topp has but a few regrets. One of his biggest involved an act he and partner Gary Cormier (known collectively as the Garys) tried to book…

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Business, CMA, Country, Grammy, Music Publishing, Nashville, Pop, Songwriter, Taylor Swift, Texas, United States November 12, 2024

She was Taylor Swift’s early secret weapon, who helped write some of the star’s biggest songs. Meet Liz Rose.

Liz Rose played a formative role for the then-teenage Nashville high school student, collaborating with her on 17 songs. By Nick Krewen Special to the Star Taylor Swift might not have become the most popular singer-songwriter on the planet today if it weren’t for Liz Rose. This isn’t to say that Swift wouldn’t have sold more than 200 million records, garnered untold billions of streams, had 92 million monthly listeners on…

Beatles, Business, Canada, Collectibles, Education, Events, Music Industry (Trade), Toronto, United Kingdom September 22, 2024

He unearthed a recording of a legendary 1965 Beatles concert from Maple Leaf Gardens. Here’s why it might be worth a fortune

Toronto Beatles expert and author Piers Hemmingsen recently determined the reel-to-reel tape was higher quality than he initially believed. By Nick Krewen Special to the Star There may be no happier man on the planet right now than Piers Hemmingsen. In a story that broke a few weeks ago in Billboard magazine, the Toronto-based Beatles expert announced that he had a reel-to-reel recording of the Fab Four’s entire afternoon Maple…

Business, Canada, Music Publishing, Record Labels, Songwriter, Technology August 17, 2024

Can Canadian songwriters survive? As their income plummets to poverty levels, many find themselves making tough choices

Can Canadian songwriters survive? As their income plummets to poverty levels, many find themselves making tough choices By Nick Krewen Special to the Star What do the Beluga whale, the wolverine and the full-time Canadian songwriter have in common? They’re all on the endangered species list. While humans may be contributing to the extinction of the first two, it appears that for the third, digital streaming is hastening the demise…

Bob Dylan, Business, Canada, Country, Country Music Hall Of Fame, Emmylou Harris, Gordon Lightfoot, In Memoriam, JUNO, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Leonard Cohen, Los Angeles, Music Industry (Trade), Music Publishing, Nashville, New York, Producer, Record Labels, Robbie Robertson, The Band, Toronto, United States July 10, 2024

Remembering the Toronto music exec who helped shape the careers of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen

Artists as diverse as Van Morrison, Thin Lizzy and the Marshall Tucker Band were touched by Mary Martin’s expertise. By Nick Krewen Special to the Star If the only thing Toronto’s Mary Martin had achieved during her extraordinary career was introducing Bob Dylan to the Hawks, it would have been enough to enshrine her place in music history. But Martin, who died July 4 in Nashville at the age of…