“We’re playing 21 shows in 18 days,” says Lucas Stagg, on day four of his eastern-Canadian tour with Busted Flat labelmate Paul MacLeod. The two songwriters embarked on a similar tour this past October and Stagg says it went so well that they decided to do it again, this time in support of Stagg’s Great […]
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Melnyk’s key strokes
Composer and pianist Lubomyr Melnyk seems, at times, to have landed from another place or time. It’s possible, too: He claims that his “continuous music” technique lets the pianist “transcend all limits of time and space,” and that the “continuous pianist operates at speeds beyond human capacity.” Melnyk has been clocked in as the world’s […]
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Joy Ryder
Serena Ryder toys with rhetoric on Is It O.K., her latest release. She brings her pathos, ethos, logos and big voice to Halifax for a two-night stand at Casino Nova Scotia, March 20 and 21. “It’s an internal question. I’m kinda leaving it open to interpretation,” says Ryder, calling on her cellphone from the Rockies […]
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Kelly Joe Phelps
Kelly Joe Phelps has been travelling with the blues for over a decade and a half. Before that he was a jazz musician, bass player, music teacher and improviser. First and foremost, he is a songwriter and guitar player of both the straight and slide variety. Based in Vancouver, Washington—“Nowadays it’s a sprawling mess only […]
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Constantines constant touring
For many rock singers, vocal lessons seem to herald the approach of impending wankerdom. Case in point: Raine Maida takes vocal lessons. Sebastian Bach does too, no doubt while tossing his blonde mane as his reality-TV bride stands astride the piano. So when someone like Bry Webb admits he’ll be starting his first-ever vocal lesson […]
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Great Lake Swimmers’ out of water
Tony Dekker makes Ontario sound mythical. Both in lyric and location of the recording process, the Great Lake Swimmers’ latest effort, Lost Channels, explores the various caverns within the Thousand Islands region. From historic island castles to old-world churches, the album charts this mysterious terrain. “For songwriting, I usually try to get into a really […]
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Xara Young Women’s Choir
Xara. It’s an Arabic word meaning “blossoming,” and with its melodious sound and edgy “x,” it’s the perfect name (and adjective) for the choir of 24 young women conducted by musical mover and shaker, Christina Murray. In 2007, Murray was approached by four singers who were too old for youth choirs and not interested in […]
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MacLellan on home ground
“One of the reasons I wanted to move back home was because I wanted a better garden—the house we had in Halifax had a shaded-in yard,” says Catherine MacLellan. “This has been a snowshoeing year for me. That’s the culture I live in right now—skiing and drinking rum.” That culture is located in MacLellan’s home […]
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Pamela Under Water w/Dreamsploitation
Pamela McInnis knows how to do up a birthday right. For her 30th birthday party Thursday night, she is releasing a new CD, Last Night’s Lipstick, at The Company House. Expect baked goods. A former member of The Middleclass Pushovers and Museum Pieces who’s also played with a lot of bands around town, McInnis released […]
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Mongrel king of klezmer
Vancouverite Geoff Berner is touring his whiskey-soaked klezmer music to various watering holes across Canada. On February 20, he’ll drain liquor bottles and toast “mazel tov!” with The Whiskey Kisses and IDOW darling Amy Honey at Gus’ Pub to celebrate his latest album, Klezmer Mongrels. “The album is about the value of a good bar […]
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Benefits package
If you’re a musician in this town, then you’ve either been asked to play a benefit show or you’re about to be. Musicians and bands were contributing their talents to causes long before Bob Geldof globalized the practice in the mid-’80s. But in a city bursting with events and causes, how do musicians decide where […]
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Susanne Hou’s natural born talent
December 9, 1977, was a Friday. In Halifax it was warm and raining. In Shanghai the air was clear and dry with a slight breeze. The day had been warm, but come evening the temperature was just above freezing. The moon was a tiny sliver of a waning crescent. At the Shanghai Theatre the Shanghai […]
