Music Festivals


 Mathias Kom lives in Peterborough, Ontario, a town he loves for all it offers, from the busy, tight-knit music community to the “daily sense of apocalypse” conveyed in the city’s fortunes. “It’s not a wealthy town,” Kom says on the phone from Guelph, on tour and on his way to Halifax. Besides Trent University, […]

Primed with potential, poetics and her 2002 debut Pretty Things, Christina Martin embodies soul and sass. At 28 years old she’s been many things (nanny, academic, wife), but recently has come to terms with being a songwriter. “Every time I think I am going to do something with my music, I chicken out,” she says. […]

For the past year, Laura Merrimen and the Lonesome Travellers have been mixing up alt-country and blues rock for delighted local audiences. After having gone through a few line-up changes, the band is currently recording a full-length LP under the aegis of Halifax blues master Brad Conrad. Merrimen, a Hubbards native with a 10-gallon voice […]


 
 If you ditch the riot element of Kathleen Hanna’s grrrl solo project, Julie Ruin, insert the alliteration and allurement of The Moldy Peaches, then add the carnivalesque connotations of Wax Mannequin, you’d get a hodgepodge portrait of Jenny Omnichord. A sister project for The Barmitzvah Brothers’ Jenny Mitchell, the singer, bassist and resident […]

With all the live music I managed to experience in one weekend, I can see why they called it Nova Scotia Music ‘Week’. Sunday evening, before heading to the Gala Awards show, I went to the Mersey House again to see Cape Breton born, now Halifax based Silvergun perform. The Mersey House was my most […]

After the showcases wrapped up on Saturday night I gave in to some (not-so) heavy persuasion to leave Lane’s Privateer Inn where my room was conveniently located two doors down from where the entertainment was taking place to hopping into a shuttle bus and embarking on a long, slow, slippery journey out to White Point […]

Lane’s Privateer Inn was ROCKING last night! After the Songwriters Circle, I headed over to Lane’s to see one of my favorite Halifax-based groups, Ryan MacGrath and Harlow perform. The emcee of the showcase said they were “undoubtedly the best dressed performers in Liverpool” as they all matched each other dressed in different styles but […]

Let me send a big “Cheers!” out to everyone that came out and braved the first snow storm of the year last night! The slippery roads were extremely hazardous, but that didn’t keep the out of town performers from coming down to Liverpool and the music fans from coming out and filling their boots with […]

Not only did November 10, 2007 bring us the first snow fall of the year, it also brought me to Liverpool, Nova Scotia where I am enjoying Nova Scotia Music Week. This weekend is organized by Music Nova Scotia (formally known as MIANS, or Music Industry Association of Nova Scotia, which is a non-profit organization […]

If you listen to CBC Radio as much as I do, then you have no trouble identifying David Myles. His 2006 International Songwriting Competition-winning song “When It Comes My Turn” (which took first place in the folk/singer-songwriter category) received a lot of airplay before and after his win. I admit, I wasn’t overly keen on […]