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…
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Nick Krewen Special to The Star Not only has he seen fire and rain: legendary singer and songwriter James Taylor has also seen more than his fair share of pain. Despite selling more than 100 million albums in a 54-year career that has earned him worldwide adulation, five Grammy Awards, inductions into the Rock and Roll and Songwriters Halls of Fame, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and Kennedy Center Honors…
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…
Unison Benevolent Fund has helped more than 800 music professionals in Canada. The charity itself now needs help. By Nick Krewen Special to the Star October 23, 2019 Two-and-a-half years ago, Bill Bell, long-time guitarist for Tom Cochrane, was lying on the floor of his Toronto home in the midst of a nervous breakdown when he received the call that changed his life. Bell’s friend, music executive Allan Reid, had…
Originally published Jan 26, 2018 Nick Krewen Milck, the 30-year-old Los Angeles-based Atlantic Records signing born Connie Lim, calls the #MeToo movement that’s gone global — and called out many high profile men for their inappropriate and often criminal conduct — “a very carnal way of us manifesting our resistance,” she tells Samaritanmag. She bravely sang about her own experience of sexual abuse and harassment in the ballad “Quiet,” which…
