COUNTRY OR FOLK? Corb Lund comfortable in the middle
Corb Lund is writing a new paradigm for country music. Not to put too highfalutin a point on it, but it’s a direction that favours honesty and critical thinking to a level hitherto unseen in the redneck stereotype you hear in most popular country music on the radio today. In a world of polarized politics […]
BIG VALLEY JAMBOREE: Country will get to you, if you let it
They can’t all be rural right wing rednecks, can they? Someone’s got to be faking it. It’s probably not Toby Keith. Saturday’s closer at the Big Valley Jamboree seems clear where he stands, and so do his fans. His album titles alone speak volumes: White Trash With Money, That Don’t Make Me a Bad Guy, […]
WHO NAMED THE BAND: Gorgon Horde turns to rock
Görgön Hörde is not comprised of actual Gorgons, is neither horde nor Swedish death metal band. It is an Edmonton punk trio saddled with a silly name that may already be too late to change. Nomenclatural intervention would be painful. And so it is written in gratuitous umlauts, which, like tattoos or ear lobe labia, […]
PREVIEW: Il Divo stick with the winning formula
Il Divo’s Sebastien Izambard does not know the meaning of the words “novelty act.” Seriously. He’s French, and there doesn’t seem to be a comparable idiom in his mother tongue for a group of singers whose style outweighs their apparent substance – in this case a poperatic quartet of Armani-suited man candy bellowing Nights in […]
Steve Martin’s second love didn’t put him on stage
There’s something disturbing about Steve Martin coming to Edmonton – because he’s not here to do comedy. He’s going to play bluegrass. Oh, joy. Sure, you can expect humour when Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers perform Sunday at the Jubilee Auditorium. They’ll probably do an a cappella number called Atheists Don’t Have No […]
CLASSICAL MUSIC: 17-year-old concert pianist an ‘old soul’
Asked what kind of music he likes outside of classical, piano wunderkind Jan Lisiecki doesn’t hesitate, “I love Pink Floyd.” Good answer, kid. He says it “takes him back.” So what’s more amazing – that a teenager loves Pink Floyd, or that a teenager has reached international fame as a master concert pianist? On stage […]
What’s in a name? Edmonton doesn’t have a clue
Edmonton can’t be the only city that has such a boneheaded habit of badly naming and then constantly renaming its festivals, buildings and streets. On July 10, organizers of the Capital Ex festival released the six choices to replace the name Capital Ex, which had in turn had replaced Klondike Days. They are: – EdFest […]
