Winter is fast approaching, and with it comes a full slate of holiday shows. But that’s far from the only thing on offer in December, with a star-studded lineup including last year’s JUNO winner for “Artist of the Year” and a pair of sold-out shows by former Hey Rosetta! frontman Tim Baker. As always, The […]
Music
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Posted inArts + Music
Songwriter series aims to shine spotlight on women, non-binary artists across Maritimes
When Lisa MacIsaac was making a name for herself as a fiddler and singer in Creignish, Cape Breton, she was used to being the only woman in the folk bands she played with. That extended to festival lineups, where the JUNO-nominated artist found herself in concert rooms and on stages with very few faces that […]
Posted inArts + Music
Sam Roberts Band chase reinvention—and find it—on The Adventures of Ben Blank
Sam Roberts can write a song anywhere. True story: The down-to-earth Montreal rocker penned his breakout hit, 2002’s “Brother Down,” while living under a friend’s foosball table. (“It’s a memory I’ve tried to repress for the past 20 years,” Roberts jokes, speaking with The Coast over Zoom from his Notre-Dame-de-Grâce studio.) Over a quarter-century-long career […]
Posted inArts + Music
Jenn Grant brings Champagne Problems to Rebecca Cohn Auditorium
One of Halifax’s biggest album releases of the year gets its on-stage moment next Saturday: On Nov. 25, singer-songwriter Jenn Grant will perform at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium (6101 University Avenue) for the final leg of her three-month Champagne Problems tour. The album, a cross-country collaboration with the likes of Tim Baker, Dan Mangan, Basia […]
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Rapper Kardinal Offishall is still ol’ time killin’ onstage—and has no plans of stopping
If Kevin Bacon can have his own six degree rule, then Kardinal Offishall is going to need one, too. There may be no rapper—hell, entertainer—in Canada with quite the same ties across pop music history. Who else but Kardi can say they were part of Rihanna’s first demo tape? Hand-packaged their breakthrough EP in the […]
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Candlelit concert series to raise funds for Dartmouth’s North Grove community hub
Hear pop music with a classical twist the weekend of Nov. 18-19. For two nights in a row, the Rostova String Quartet—a group of classically trained musicians from Dalhousie’s Fountain School of Performing Arts—will perform covers ranging from Leonard Cohen to Lady Gaga at the Sanctuary Arts Centre (100 Ochterloney Street, Dartmouth). The music spans […]
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Nelly Furtado to host 2024 JUNO Awards in Halifax
From “Maneater” to the Maritimes: One of Canada’s most celebrated singer-songwriters, Nelly Furtado, will host and perform at the upcoming JUNO Awards in Halifax. The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences unveiled the news at a special event at the Marquee Ballroom on Tuesday morning. Halifax will host Canada’s biggest night in music on […]
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All the winners from the 2023 Music Nova Scotia Awards
There’s a new king of music in town: Juno Award-winning trombonist and composer Andrew Jackson took home Musician of the Year honours at this year’s Music Nova Scotia Awards, fresh off a year in which the Halifax artist assisted on Terra Spencer and Ben Caplan’s terrific Old News and David Myles’s It’s Only a Little […]
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Classified gets introspective on new single, “Wonder”
Judging by his Facebook posts, Luke Boyd—better known as Classified—has been doing his share of reflecting lately, so allow me to indulge for a moment in some of my own. We’ll get to his latest single, the tumbler-of-whiskey-at-night-flavoured “Wonder,” but first, I want to tell you about how a song is like magic. And to […]
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Kayo rides a wave on latest album, Trip
If you were to cross your fingers and wish for a strong end to 2023, you would be hard-pressed to dream up a better run than the one Kayo is on: Fresh off a win at the African Nova Scotian Music Association Awards, where the St. Lucian-turned-Haligonian brought home the honours for Artist of the […]
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26 years later, Halifax’s North of America still punk as ever
Mark Mullane has a job to do: For the next month, the former North of America singer and guitarist has his work cut out re-learning chord progressions and guitar tunings that, 20 years ago, in the midst of a whirlwind punk career, he hadn’t quite written down. Or if he did, that is, between European […]
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Kardinal Offishall and Haviah Mighty headline free November show in Halifax
What do you get when you bring one of Canada’s most influential hip-hop figures, a recent Polaris Music Prize winner and two Halifax music powerhouses together under the same roof? The answer: One hell of a concert. On Thursday, Nov. 9, Mr. “Everyday Rudebwoy” himself—Kardinal Offishall—will perform a free concert at the Marquee Ballroom (2037 […]
