Live Music Is A Once In A Lifetime Experience
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! …
Drew Gonsalves is, amongst other things, a history teacher. When I inquire what a “cuatro” is, after he describes it as one of the instruments he’s bringing to calgary’s Festival Hall. …
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. …
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. …
When MUSICAlive! first gets Mark Limacher on the phone after listening to his most recent collection of piano improvisations, Things That Seemed Important At The Time, we were left wondering how this interesting assemblage of “quiet, slow, boring” works related to the boundary between pop and jazz music of the 1910’s that he would present online Wednesday. …
It’s -27°C, and there’s snow everywhere, and the windchill makes it -38°! What in the hell am I doing going to the bus stop at night, in such weather? The Blues Can has a small candle lit at its heart, which they’re trying to protect from the wind and weather: I want to help them Keep The Fire Burning. …
As to where she’s been geographically, Andrea Koziol has performed from the east to the west coast of Canada, and up north and down in the prairies as well. Musically, though, the trail has been less clear.
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When we originally contacted Gabrielle Papillon through her Pigeon row Records promoters, she was completely thrown by the phone call.
We had arranged to give her a day’s breather after arriving home in Canada from songwriting work in England, as it seemed likely she’d want some time to recover from the jet lag. Then the pandemic caught fire! …
