Adult Contemporary

Shania Tours!

AS PUBLISHED IN KNIX MAGAZINE, PHOENIX, ARIZONA,  MARCH 1998   By Nick Krewen   The lights dim. The crowd erupts in screams and whistles. And from somewhere within the bowels of a small, sweltering hockey arena in Northern Ontario, concealed by the twilight of promise, hope and anticipation, a sweetly familiar voice asks a big sultry question: “Are you ready for me, Sudbury?” The crowd is confused at first, as…


The Versatile Vanessa Williams

PUBLISHED IN THE TORONTO STAR MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1997 Beauty Queen recovers from Penthouse debacle to star on stage, screen Nick Krewen Today, some people might call her a multi-media performer, but the old-fashioned word entertainer fits Vanessa Williams just fine. Film? She held her own with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the action-packed thriller Eraser, received critical acclaim for her acting in Soul Food and just completed Shut Up And Dance, the…


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…