Nashville

Steven Lee Olsen’s Miraculous Trek To the Grand Ole Opry

The songwriter behind Keith Urban’s hit ‘Blue Ain’t Your Color’ was working at an Audi dealership in Newmarket when he got his first big break. By Nick Krewen Special to the Star This Sunday night, Scarborough-born country singer and songwriter Steven Lee Olsen will realize another lifelong dream. Olsen, 37 — and currently on Canadian country radio airwaves with his Top 10 hit “Outta Yours,” — will be making his…

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Regent Park School of Music is glad to have a friend in Taylor Swift

By Nick Krewen Special to the Star August 26, 2019 The Regent Park School of Music has discovered that it’s nice to have a friend in high places – especially if that friend is named Taylor Swift. It turns out that several Regent Park School of Music students between the ages of nine and 18 appear on the Nashville-based Swift’s latest album Lover, released last Friday: specifically on the sample…


Ariana Gillis: Hamilton singer-songwriter spent years overcoming a concussion and her new album is a triumphant comeback

On the Buddy Miller-produced The Maze, her first album in six years, Ariana Gillis has finally found her sound. This may not seem like such a big deal, but for a time, there was a question whether the 28-year-old singer-songwriter from Hamilton, Ontario, would ever play any of her riveting, self-described “Canadiana Americana; edgy pop with steel guitars” again due to a debilitating accident she suffered four years ago. “We…


Robert Ott: Music Publisher Turned IP Visionary

By Nick Krewen Reprinted/Re-posted with permission from FYIMusicNews.ca In 12 short years, ole has evolved from two desks and a dream to a worldwide reality worth an estimated US $650M – US $800M as reported by Billboard, and counting; from a music publishing start-up to an organization specializing in rights management that has expanded on many fronts and directly employs over 100 people with offices in Los Angeles, Nashville, New…


Lee Ann Womack wants to remind us what country music is about

51-year-old Grammy winner and 2001 Country Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year is at the Horseshoe Jan. 24. Nick Krewen Special to the Star Jan 20, 2018 After spending the better part of a few decades building her country music career as part of Nashville’s Music Row label machinery, Texas traditionalist Lee Ann Womack is calling her own shots these days. It’s the reason why her latest project,  the exceptional…