Live! MUSICA Events

CategoriesRhythm & Blues

The Jared Daniel Experience: Neo-soul with a hint of more

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When MUSICAlive! reconnects with Jared Daniel, after a 6 year interval since our first interview about his Fireside Music events, we ask if he’s gotten married and divorced and had kids and now is starting up a rock band to express all that?

“Yeah,” he laughs. Like, how did you know?” HE DOES now have a 2 year old daughter! “And she’s the inspiration for a lot of my new music.” (we both laugh)

“Performance was always the intention (when he was running Fireside). I grew up the son of a musician, so music was … Continue Reading >The Jared Daniel Experience: Neo-soul with a hint of more

Categorieschoral

Cool Choir conversation: Don’t just sing in your car!

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“I’m Jamie Serafi. I am the Founder and Creative Director of Cool Choir.”

MUSICAlive! notes the growth of “non-audition choirs” in the last couple of decades, and asks Jamie why did he choose this place (Calgary) and this genre (pop and rock music) to start this very successful local endeavour?

“Cool Choir is a British concept, reinventing the format of what a choir looks like in this day and age. When most people hear about a choir, their immediate idea is a load of people stuck in a church in robes, singing classical music. Or hymns, basically. And with all due respect to Canada, and everyone knows how much I love this country, … Continue Reading >Cool Choir conversation: Don’t just sing in your car!

Categoriespop

The Magnettes attract: They’re like a Punk Pop experiment

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The Magnettes sing about Go’ing Ugly, but their press photos are cutesy-psycho. does it work? It worked for Alice Cooper: though he used less cutesy in his psycho, it would reappear occasionally. The gendered difference between a man whisking these together and 2 women doing it are obvious upon listening, but we think they serve the same purpose. MUSICAlive! spoke with the founders, first Sanna and then Rebecka when they passed through Calgary during the Western Canada Music Association’s conference in late September this year: what’s with the expletive genre label?
… Continue Reading >The Magnettes attract: They’re like a Punk Pop experiment

CategoriesRoots

Blackie and The Rodeo Kings stretch the Roots rock envelope: They and their guitars sing ‘blood on blood’

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As is often the case, MUSICAlive! uses our soundcheck with Tom Wilson of Blackie & the Rodeo Kings to ask about the instruments he played on their most recent release, O Glory:

“Well, I played the computer. (general laughter) I played the guitar; I sang some. That’s all they let me do.”

Tom mentions the computer because of the remote recording they exemplified during the Covid years, … Continue Reading >Blackie and The Rodeo Kings stretch the Roots rock envelope: They and their guitars sing ‘blood on blood’

CategoriesFestival

Sled Island returns to Calgary: A cornucopia of musical flavours!

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Really, it’s not “Sled Island in Calgary” so much as “Calgary at Sled Island”. Because we are, finally (at Sled Island again), and there are (Calgarians listening and performing here), ecstatically! We’re happy to be talking to new Calgary musical adventures, as further proof of the fertility of the local musical garden; not just a reaction to our pandemic isolation, but a result of the cross-fertilization that we’ve somehow achieved out here on the prairies.
… Continue Reading >Sled Island returns to Calgary: A cornucopia of musical flavours!

Categoriesblues

Crystal Shawanda isn’t bigger than the blues, but her voice might get close!!

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Crystal Shawanda is driving fearlessly across Michigan while we speak: unlike earlier less-pragmatic musicians we’ve spoken with (I’m looking at you, Ms. Hou!) she’s a passenger in the Shawanda travelling revue, and the simple fact that this exists following the Dark Ages of the Covid Times is a delight!
… Continue Reading >Crystal Shawanda isn’t bigger than the blues, but her voice might get close!!