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Slippin’ in and out with blues guitarist Buddy Guy

NICK KREWEN Eric Clapton calls him “by far and without a doubt the best guitar player alive.” Late virtuosos Jimi  Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan idolized him, and he used to trade licks with Chicago blues legends Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Willie Dixon. Yet it’s the fans that dictate Buddy Guy‘s agenda — even if it means entertaining them in sub-zero degree weather. “I played for people outside last…


Tori in the Pink

Published in the Hamilton Spectator on Thursday, November 3 1994 in advance of a November 5 concert at Hamilton Place   TORI IN THE PINK   NICK KREWEN   Tori Amos has a hard time keeping a secret from anyone these days. “They know everything, these kids,” she is saying from New Jersey, another stop in a grueling 10-month world tour that brings the London-based singer and songwriter to Hamilton…


Summers at Six Nations

  Where Robbie Robertson Learned To Play At The Feet Of His Mohawk Cousin   NICK KREWEN Hamilton Spectator October 6, 1994   TORONTO:  As a kid growing up in Toronto, Jamie Robbie Robertson had little interest and awareness in music. That all changed at the age of 11, when Robertson, who would later co-found The Band, started spending his summer vacations visiting relatives at the Six Nations Reserve just…


Keeping Owen Bradley in the Barn

    Nick Krewen The Spectator June 28, 1988     MOUNT JULIET, TENNESSEE:  In one corner of his luxurious recording studio, Bradley’s Barn – located approximately 35 miles outside of Nashville – there are five mounted posters representing record producer Owen Bradley‘s angels. They are the late Patsy Cline, Kitty Wells, Loretta Lynn, Brenda Lee – and Consort, Alberta’s k.d. lang. The 73-year old Bradley – who produced lang’s…


Robbie Robertson’s Music For Native Americans

 NICK KREWEN Special To The Hamilton Spectator Thursday, March 12, 1998     TORONTO:  In 1994, Robbie Robertson embraced his Native heritage with the documentary soundtrack album Music For The Native Americans. He continues the exploration of his roots with his latest album, Contact From The Underworld Of Red Boy — released this past Tuesday — but says that this album is much more personal. “It isn’t a sequel to…