Canada

Canada, CD reviews, Guitar, JUNO, Pop, Shawn Mendes, Songwriter, Toronto December 4, 2020

Shawn Mendes swings for the fences with Wonder

Nick Krewen Special To The Star SHAWN MENDES  Wonder  Island Records Wonder, the fourth studio album from Pickering pop sensation Shawn Mendes, is a game changer for the lad.  In a process that began with his self-titled album from 2018, Mendes has largely left the folkish, boyish strains of acoustic guitar behind and settled more for a piano- and-electronic-keyboard sound that sonically bounces between intimate tenderness and epic explosiveness. Mendes…

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…

Alberta, Canada, Hip-Hop, JUNO, Piano, Polaris, Pop, Producer, Songwriter, Soul, Toronto, Voice July 1, 2020

Black Canadian musicians discuss their songs linked to the death of George Floyd – one of them a ‘three-minute history lesson’

Nick Krewen Special to the Star It’s an ugly truth, but racism is more prevalent in Canada than we’d like to admit, say two Black Canadian artists who are illuminating the issue in their current and powerfully candid works. “There’s definitely a problem in Canada,” says Ruth Berhe –   better known as Ruth B. – who recently wrote and recorded the moving ballad “If I Have A Son” in the wake…

Business, Canada, Toronto June 5, 2020

City extends ‘lifeline’ to Toronto music venue owners

Nick Krewen Special to the Star The cavalry has arrived in the nick of time for Toronto music venue owners. On May 28, Toronto City Council passed a proposal that enables property owners to claim a 50 per cent property tax break on sites that primarily operate as a live music venue, with the assumption that they’ll pass that savings on to their tenants. With COVID-19 protective measures bringing live…