Nick Krewen Special to the Star While Hugh’s Room Live is being forced to shutter its doors at the end of the month, the venue’s Board of Directors has vowed to find it a new home and continue operations. Considered by many to be Toronto’s premier music listening room, the club that has hosted such folk legends as Gordon Lightfoot, Pete Seeger, Tom Rush and Odetta will vacate its present…
Nick Krewen Special to the Star There aren’t many concept albums about working in the sex industry, but Storry is no ordinary singer and songwriter. So, when the Juno Award-nominated, Toronto-born, Mississauga-based artist debuts the performance of her new 11-song, R&B-flavoured album CH III: The Come Up at the Lula Lounge on February 20, it will come from a position of triumph. However, the adversity that Storry surmounted has…
Nick Krewen Special to the Star January 11, 2020 He was closer to our hearts than we even realized. Make no mistake, the depth of anguish with which the music world – especially Canadians – regards the unexpected passing of Neil Peart, 67, on January 7 from glioblastoma, is immeasurable. Arguably the greatest and most influential drummer of his generation, the Hamilton-born Peart – one third of progressive power trio…
Nick Krewen Special to the Star Nov 02, 2019 Like Hilario Duran, Gonzalo Rubalcaba and countless other Cuban musicians, pianist and composer Dánae Olano owes Toronto’s Jane Bunnett and Larry Cramer a debt of gratitude. With the continuing Cold War between Cuba and the U.S. unlikely to thaw under their present regimes, musicians occupying the island have found it nearly impossible to find career traction when restricted to staying within…
Nick Krewen Special to the Star Oct 07, 2019 In the visually compelling video for her latest song “Far Away,” Toronto’s Jessie Reyez pulls no punches when depicting immigrant persecution in Trump’s America. During the two-minute-and-50-second scenario directed by Peter Huang, Reyez’s character and her male love interest are dancing at a party that is suddenly stormed and tear-gassed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, who end up…
