Ha!ifax ComedyFest To April 25 halifaxcomedyfest.ca
The Carleton
Posted inArts + Music
Review: Steve Poltz at the Carleton
This time last year, heckled by a thin man in a plaid shirt and a cowboy hat with a swagger and his loudmouth Australian sidekick going through security at Halifax Stanfield Airport, I unknowingly joined the Steve Poltz circus. Just after passing through security, Poltz and his longtime friend Dean Gifford, who was then acting […]
Posted inArts + Music
Where I work: Quake Matthews
WHO HE IS After his rise as a battle rapper, Quake Matthews has been grinding since his 2010 debut, The Myth, laying down tracks with everyone from Laura Roy to Dylan Guthro to Neon Dreams, working with Freeway, appearing in The Source and putting out The Book of Matthew and Corrado. On Friday, the King […]
Posted inArts + Music
La Ribera
2014 SOCAN Songwriting Award winner Alejandra Ribera’s music career is a tale of slow-burning success. After releasing her demo, Navigator, in 2009, she was discovered by CBC during a stint as artist-in-residence at The Cameron House. It took several years for her debut full length, La Boca (Pheromone Recordings), produced by Jean Massicotte, to be […]
Posted inArts + Music
Garden Ries
From singing church hymns to sharing the stage with Bon Iver and Anais Mitchell, Rachel Ries has come a long way. The daughter of Mennonite missionaries, the singer has always lived her life in song. Her music echoes the soulful melodies of Regina Spektor and Feist, while keeping in tune with the finger-pickin’, foot-stompin’ rhythm […]
Posted inArts + Music
Day 5 at Magnetic North
Thanks (or no thanks) to a broken axle, I had to miss out on 2b Theatre’s When It Rains on Sunday night, but I did see it, and loved it, when it premiered here in 2011. I can’t fit it in now, but with shows tonight and tomorrow, you can. The festival buzz on it […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
The Carleton’s new face
After five years The Carleton Bar & Grill (1685 Argyle Street) is getting a makeover, but the changes aren’t only skin deep. This week brought not just the news that the bar would be closed until Friday for renovations, but that Mike Campbell—a partial owner of the business from the get-go—had taken over majority ownership. […]
Posted inArts + Music
Ever Green
Fans of Heather Green will be happy to hear that she’s gearing up to record another album with producer Dan Ledwell. But for now, they can continue riding high with her on the success of the 2012 album, Your Last War. With nominations for ECMAs and Music Nova Scotia Awards, this past year has left […]
Posted inArts + Music
On the road
Winnipeg folk poet Jenny Berkel pulls no punches with her newest video for “Like a Rope.” She is trying to break your heart. Animated by Karsten Wall, the video features a beautiful and sad interpretation of Berkel’s heart-rending lyrics. Just try not to mist up. “When I wrote this song, a number of my dearest […]
Posted inArts + Music
Meaghan Blanchard’s empowerment to the people
When ECMA winner Meaghan Blanchard hits town this week, fans should expect to hear songs that mark significant growth for the Prince Edward Island singer-songwriter. Fresh off the album release party for her first full-length, She’s Gonna Fly, Blanchard is looking forward to touring with songs that have a more literary approach than her previous […]
Posted inArts + Music
Hitchcock presents
To borrow a phrase from another iconoclastic English singer-songwriter—in this case, Elvis Costello—Robyn Hitchcock is a man out of time. Coming from the same countryside that begat the simultaneously surrealistic and quaintly semi-rural stylings of Syd Barrett, author Douglas Adams and the Monty Python’s Flying Circus troupe, Hitchcock poked his head into the burgeoning punk […]
Posted inArts + Music
Mike check
“I feel more comfortable making recordings than performing live,” says Mike O’Neill. “There’s an ‘entertaining the crowd’ component that makes me nervous. It doesn’t feel natural for me.” Could have fooled us. Hilarious banter, genius arrangements and talent are just plain entertaining. O’Neill’s lasting appeal with Halifax audiences hasn’t been an accident either—a good song […]
