Whitehorse (Featuring Melissa McClelland & Luke Doucet) with Special Guest Frazey Ford (Wednesday): We are super excited to showcase to you all that is Whitehorse. Everybody’s talking about them – NXEW.ca called the newly released album “assured and excellent” and called the band a “marriage of songbird and falcon.” The Grid said they “might just be the Can-Con answer to She & Him.” After getting praise from both Spinner and BlogTO for their play to music supervisors and other industry types at last week’s Festival Music House (an invitation only event that was part of TIFF) the pair are ready to hit the Glenn Gould Studio stage. Of course, if you were unable to buy tickets to this sold out show, we’re presenting them again at the charming Winter Garden Theatre in February. Their GGS set will be preceded by a performance by Frazey Ford, a founding member of band The Be Good Tanyas – you can check out some of her tracks here.
An Evening With Bill Maher (Saturday): Bill Maher takes the stage at Massey Hall this weekend. Maher’s popular HBO show Real Time just returned to airwaves last week for its ninth season. Looking for a little more Bill Maher in your Tuesday in advance of his appearance this weekend? A catalogue of other videos is available at HBO Canada, his podcast is available here, and his Twitter here. Of course, much of this is NSFW, so use viewer/listener discretion on some of these pieces of content.
Raul Midón (Thursday): Raul Midón takes to the Glenn Gould Studio stage later this week with his soulful take on jazz guitar. The show promises some serious talent from Midón – the Memphis Flyer recently called him “ a player who’s not easily pigeonholed in any identifiable genre” and noted that his “nimble tenor and gift for melody earns comparisons to Stevie Wonder, but his guitar playing is seldom if ever compared to other artists because there aren’t any other players like him.” Those are some pretty serious compliments and we think you’ll find them well-deserved. Check out some samples of Midon’s smooth sounds on his myspace page.
An Evening with Joe Bonamassa (Saturday): This week is not one to disappoint fans of guitar geniuses as Saturday brings one Joe Bonamassa to Massey Hall. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review recently featured an article online regarding Bonamassa’s new album, Dust Bowl (released just last week), and his career. The album, Bonamassa’s tenth, is pretty special – the article notes that there are guest appearances from John Hiatt and Vince Gill and recalls that “[l]ast year, he was voted the best overall guitarist and best blues guitarist (for the fourth year in a row) by readers of Guitar Player magazine.”
ACCOLADES
The JUNO Awards were this weekend in Toronto, as we’re sure you know – but did you know that a whole bunch of awards were given to artists and groups who have recently been featured on our stages? Congratulations to all of the winners (and the nominees of course) but special shout-outs to: CONTINUE READING >
An Evening with Colin Mochrie & Brad Sherwood (Friday): We’re pretty excited to see these stars of Drew Carey’s Improv-a-ganza and Whose Line Is It Anyway? take the Roy Thomson Hall stage this Friday night and clearly so are you! Check out the excellent contest entries over at our The Colin & Brad Contest which ended just yesterday. Thanks to all of those who participated in the contest, we had a lot of fun reading your comments and appreciate hearing from you. Congratulations to Laura D, Jonathan Low, and Joe. Each won a DVD copy of Two Man Group and tickets to Friday evenings show. Called “Two Men. No Script.”, the show is absolutely and entirely improvised and without a doubt hilarious.
Melissa Etheridge (Friday): Melissa Etheridge is legendary – having earned fifteen Grammy Award nominations, one Academy Award, selling twenty-seven million albums worldwide, and most recently appearing as St. Jimmy in the Broadway musical American Idiot. This Times & Transcript article transcribes a heart to heart with Etheridge and notes that the “singer’s voice becomes noticeably animated when talk turns to her first Broadway experience” and Etheridge calls it one of the “Top 10 experiences of [her] life.” The current tour is in support of her latest album, Fearless Love. Winner of no less than three JUNO Awards, Serena Ryder joins Etheridge as her special guest for the concert. The pair will also be CONTINUE READING >
John Mellencamp (Wednesday and Thursday): These concerts are going to be pretty special. At 7pm they start with the screening of the documentary film It’s About You, about the making of Mellencamp’s latest album No Better Than This, produced by T Bone Burnett. If you don’t already know, his album is steeped in the rich history of American music, recorded at Savannah’s First African Baptist Church, Sun Studio, and San Antonio’s Gunter Hotel in the very room where Robert Johnson recorded in 1936 (listen to Robert Johnson in the video above). Doors for the show are at 6:30pm; the film starts at 7pm and Mellencamp takes the stage at 8:20pm.
Maceo Parker (Thursday): Maceo Parker hits the stage at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in what promises to be a funky good time. Just yesterday, we posted our favourite Maceo Parker videos including some pretty incredible collaborations. The man worked with none other than James Brown and George Clinton and has been known to make music with Ray Charles, James Taylor, Prince, and Ani Difranco. Talk about keeping good company. See the man – the legend – for yourself this Thursday.
Heart (Friday): The legendary Heart perform this Friday. It’s perfect really, a band called Heart playing just shy of Valentine’s Day. CONTINUE READING >
We’re pretty excited that the new album from Stars, The Five Ghosts, hit the streets yesterday but we’re even more excited that yesterday also brought with it the announcement that Stars will be hitting Massey Hall on October 23. Stars currently has a pretty sweet contest where they are asking you to remix their song “We Don’t Want Your Body” (the single off the new album) with “complete artistic freedom” and then post it on the world wide web (on Stars’ site, of course) for all to hear, enjoy, and vote on their favourite. All the details are here.
Craig Ferguson (two shows on Friday): It’s a late-night television love-in this Spring starting with Craig Ferguson’s double bill on Friday night (and then we’ll see Conan O’Brien in May. See Web Watch, below). Toronto’s pretty excited to have funny-man Ferguson in town – read all about Ferguson’s climb to the top of the Late-Night Ladder in this feature article in The Toronto Star .
Sibelius Festival (Wednesday and Thursday) : The Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s Sibelius Festival concludes with two concerts of “the three towering final works.” CBC Radio 2 will be broadcasting the full festival in the week of April 29 on Tempo, and this program on May 2 at 11 a.m. Also, check out Stephen McGrath’s thoughts on why Sibelius is not that different from Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett. CONTINUE READING >
So the snow is on the ground and the fog has rolled in. Seems that most flights have either been cancelled or seriously delayed. But I’m here, and so are hundreds of other music people. I was “screeched in” last night, along with several staffers from Universal Music Canada. If by chance you are not familiar with the concept, you can watch Conan O’Brien get screeched in here: httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3bD7427Nqc
25,000 feet in the air somewhere between Ottawa and Halifax… I am en route to the 39th annual JUNO Awards in St. John’s, Newfoundland along with several others who are clearly on their way to the same destination. In the seat ahead of me is a broadcast journalist, reviewing bios of all the nominated artists. There are two famous bands on board (it always makes me a little nervous getting on an airplane with a famous rock band, makes me think of Buddy Holly etc.) and several people who look conspicuously like they belong in the music industry.
Emilie-Claire Barlow (Thursday and Friday): The charming and talented Emilie-Claire Barlow returns to Glenn Gould Studio for two nights of delightful jazz vocals. To get to know Emilie-Claire a little bit better, check out her website and blog (and be sure to let her know if you know where to buy quince this time of year or are in the market for a grand piano.)
Classic Albums Live Performs Pink Floyd: The Wall (Saturday): The name says it all: these folks are brilliant at performing uncannily realistic recreations of albums (classic ones), live. Last fall, Classic Albums Live brought us Abbey Road on its 40th birthday and now you have a chance to hear Pink Floyd, “Note for note. Cut for Cut. Brick by brick.” Whether you need one or not, prepare yourself for An Education
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25,000 feet in the air somewhere between Ottawa and Halifax… I am en route to the 39th annual 
