Live! MUSICA Stories

‘Drumming is the Boss’: According to the powwow singer who started off dancing!

Firstly, I need to reinforce a bias I have for drummers, as more than one are mentioned in this article: drummers get *gold stars*. I can’t always manage the gold part, but that’s what’s happening. I mention this because both *Clarence M. Wolf Leg* and his father are drummers from Siksika. and because I ask him why powwow music is so powerful, you are about to learn a bunch of new stuff, … Continue Reading >‘Drumming is the Boss’: According to the powwow singer who started off dancing!

Sled Island 2023: Music from Siksika to Montreal, and everywhere else

Double Rider’s drummer, Lennon the Loomer (because he’s 6 foot something) finds me at the Palomino Smokehouse bar during Sled Island’s annual closing day Pig Roast.
I’m not at the bar because I’m weeping into my beer, but in fact I’m celebrating the cornucopia that is Sled Island’s week-long sensory romp … Continue Reading >Sled Island 2023: Music from Siksika to Montreal, and everywhere else

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

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 … Continue Reading >The Jared Daniel Experience: Neo-soul with a hint of more

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

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 … Continue Reading >The Magnettes attract: They’re like a Punk Pop experiment

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

Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Summary for Policymakers:
A Borrowed Planet – Inherited from our ancestors. On loan from our children … Continue Reading >Blackie and The Rodeo Kings stretch the Roots rock envelope: They and their guitars sing ‘blood on blood’

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

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!

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

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!!

John & I: These Rutherfords got the blues

On October 19th, 2021, after potentially crossing each other’s music trails since about 1985, John Rutherford and I sat down to have only the 2nd conversation we’ve ever had. the first was on the night of the 44th Canadian federal election a month ago, as I left the scrolling numbers to listen to his set in the hallowed Blues Can, and was finally able to break our dialogic silence. … Continue Reading >John & I: These Rutherfords got the blues