March 22, 2021 By Nick Krewen Special To The Star A year and a bit after the Canadian live music industry suddenly ground to a halt with the advent of COVID-19, Toronto venue owners are ranging between guarded optimism and gnawing uncertainty as to whether their businesses are going to reopen before the end of the year. “It’s a tricky one,” says Shaun Bowring, proprietor of Toronto clubs The Garrison and…
By Nick Krewen Special to the Star For his new, brilliant gospel-flavoured soul album Heavy Sun, seven-time Grammy winner Daniel Lanois had to convince a Shepherd to leave his flock. Describing himself as a “now-and-again” guitarist for the Hallelujah Train band at the Shreveport, Louisiana-based Zion Baptist Church run by Brady Blade Sr., the Hull, Québec-born artist and award-winning producer of blockbuster albums by Peter Gabriel, U2 and Robbie Robertson says…
By Nick Krewen Special To The Star Serena Ryder knows all too well about the art of falling apart. As a recording artist who used to tour relentlessly, the six-time Juno Award winner found the incessant grind of the road personally damaging, as she relied on a steady diet of drink, drugs and cigarettes to cope and carry on. “Being a touring musician can be one of the most draining…
Nick Krewen Special to the Star After two years of building its production library, Toronto-based Nagamo Publishing is ready to take on the world. As the first exclusively Indigenous-created music production library and composer agency on the planet to serve media needs, Nigel Irwin, Nagamo Co-Creative Director and Composer says the shingle offers a lot of variety. “Our bread and butter is contemporary music fused with traditional sounds, as well…
Nick Krewen Special to the Star Drake not only dropped a new three-song EP called Scary Hours II at midnight: he also dropped a new video and – to top it all off – a new 24-hour fully curated radio channel. With short notice on Thursday night, the man who has been setting hip-hop trends for the past 11 years shared on his Twitter and Instagram feeds that he’d appearing on…
