Adult Contemporary

k.d. lang: Waiting to Exhale

PUBLISHED IN CANADIAN MUSICIAN IN OCTOBER ’97   k.d. lang: waiting to exhale     By Nick Krewen   On her latest album, k.d. lang is smoking. Literally. Drag, the eighth album to be exhaled from the talented larynx of the Ninth Wonder Of The World, is a collection of songs that share the common theme of smoking, a topic sure to raise the hackles of the politically virtuous and…


Simply Red’s Mick Hucknall On…

As appeared in the late, lamented on-line magazine Magnet, 1996   Stardust, Baked Beans, Orgasms and The Meaning Of Life   NICK KREWEN   The Bowery Boy of blue-eyed soul is back, and man is he stylin’. Although the only reason Mick Hucknall, singer and architect of Simply Red, Britain’s most astoundingly successful R&B export at 26 million records sold and counting, is in Toronto in the first place is…


Joe Jackson – The Glare accompanying Night Music

PUBLISHED IN THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1995   NICK KREWEN Hamilton Spectator November 10, 1995   The Glare. It’s the first thing you notice about Joe Jackson when you enter the room: his face is expressionless, and his eyes practically protrude from their sockets as they settle on you for the first time. Unsettling? Yes — especially in light of Jackson’s reported wariness of journalists, a career-long…


Moving into Shadowland

  Nick Krewen Hamilton Spectator June 25, 1988   NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE: She once raised a ruckus at the Juno Awards by donning a wedding dress and reciting vows, formerly dressed like a cowpunk rodeo spinster and at one time claimed to be the spiritual reincarnation of country legend Patsy Cline. That was three years ago. Nowadays, k.d. lang, the 26-year old pride of Consort, Alberta (population 650) – is treated with…