Feature

By day, he’s Mr. Roberts, teaching social studies and gym to Fairview Junior High students. When night falls, he’s Devin D, a promoter and DJ spinning high-octane house tracks to the night-clubbing masses. It’s an alter ego Devin Roberts takes seriously, as he sets off on a multi-city US tour after the release of his […]

Full of raw talent, hip-hop and R&B enthusiast Kaleb Simmonds took the country by storm in 2004, infusing AOR radio hits with an aesthetic he learned on the streets and in the churches of Dartmouth. Over two years on after his top-seven placing on Canadian Idol, the 23-year-old artist is finally ready to take on […]

After years of playing behind charismatic front men, Pamela McInnis decided it was her turn to take the lead. A talented songwriter in her own right, she raised the money to record an album and left her regular gigs in two established local bands behind. The shadowy bass player in well-known Halifax acts the Museum […]

God bless the drummer. The person burdened with the task of keeping other band members in time so things don’t get messy is usually the one most ignored when it comes to the spotlight. Leave it to the person singing about his personal issues or the guy indulging in a way-too-long guitar solo to get […]

VIA Rail passenger Allison Crowe makes a triangle pit stop in Halifax this week. The menage a trois spreads from Thursday to Saturday, as she appears June 1 at Fairview Heights Elementary School, June 2 at The Music Room and June 3 at Pilot House Cafe and Cottages in Boutilier’s Point. “I’ve been touring by […]

It was a chilly Friday night, November 2004. The Halifax Pop Explosion was in full swing at The Seahorse, and The Illuminati headed the bill in the then-scrappy, pre-renovation basement bar. The unpretentious, hirsute power trio with a heavy handle and dueling vocalists came on and pulverized the audience with its unique blend of Black […]

Philip Clark is a strange guy. On the surface he’s soft-spoken and friendly. As a performer, however, he transforms into a mad scientist behind a bank of sound boxes and keyboards, dancing to his self-generated beats like an extra on the Mike Myers Saturday Night Live skit “Sprockets,” imploring others to join him. The bespectacled, […]

Sex, drugs, money, the quest for indie-rock message board cred: There are a lot of reasons why people start their first band. But creating a multi-vocalist concept album that focuses its theme on humanity’s lost touch with the divine isn’t exactly a reason that comes up very often. For Neverending White Lights’ Daniel Victor, this […]

If Hollywood wanted an archetypal rags to riches storyline, it would be hard-pressed to conceive a more sweeping character than Willie Nelson—singer, hit songwriter, actor, outlaw, author, spiritualist, pot advocate and music industry survivor. Rooted in the rich traditions of country music, blues, swing jazz and Tin Pan Alley show tunes, Nelson’s music has never […]