Kurt Loewen and Folk friends: A human touch despite social distancing

Listen to an excerpt of this interview on Apple Podcasts

Kurt Loewen has been to Calgary before: in fact, his parents still live here, as evidenced by them sitting just behind us when he and other locals performed at an outdoor concert in Ramsay in mid-September. It was a very folky, friendly, family event with other young adults and some parents and acquaintances wandering through the shared 2-yard space
Continue Reading >Kurt Loewen and Folk friends: A human touch despite social distancing

The Once Play With Your Musical Expectations: Is it Folk, or Pop, or Indie or . . .

It occurs to MUSICAlive! afterwards that we never asked Geraldine Hollet, lead singer for The Once, the significance of the band’s name. Sure, “once” is an adverb meaning “on one occasion”, or “for one time only”; but as a noun it becomes capitalized as their bandname and means “a Newfoundland-based folk-pop trio who have been combining 3-part harmonies and acoustic guitar and keyboards to confound … Continue Reading >The Once Play With Your Musical Expectations: Is it Folk, or Pop, or Indie or . . .

Calgary’s FiresideMusic.ca: Rhythm & Folk, or Indie Jazz?

This story is all about creating and supporting your community, musical or whatever it may be.
Jared Clark, founder and enthusiast of the Fireside Music monthly events, held in this city, tells us:
“My Dad started folk clubs in the cities where we lived: being a musician himself, he just wanted to create community around music . . . the most recent one (being) The Inglewood Music Club. So, growing up I was around music a … Continue Reading >Calgary’s FiresideMusic.ca: Rhythm & Folk, or Indie Jazz?

Having fun: Tom and the Orchestra still defy East Coast classification

In the best interviewing tradition, the first thing I do when speaking with Tom Fun Orchestra’s frontman, Ian MacDougall, is remind him that I offended his sensibilities in our first conversation (following the Orch’s first CD tour in 2010). At that time he responded to my simplistic interpretation with, essentially, ‘We don’t need no stinkin’ kitchen party!’

Essentially.

“I don’t think I’d be nearly so (concerned) about it now,” he says on the phone, while wandering the streets of Vancouver during their current tour last week. “I don’t even think I was then.”
Continue Reading >Having fun: Tom and the Orchestra still defy East Coast classification