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 […]
Sinatra sings Sinatra at the River Cree Casino
Now here’s one guy who has carried the “Junior” label with style and dignity – Frank Sinatra Jr. The son of the Chairman, a chip off the old block, the apple that didn’t fall far from the tree, will be singing the songs his dad made famous in Sinatra Sings Sinatra, an old school Vegas […]
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 […]
REVIEW: A spoonful too much sugar from Mary Poppins
Would it be unbearably clichéd to say that Mary Poppins just wasn’t my cup of tea? Yeah, it probably would. But I’m going to use it anyway, because that’s the best way I can describe the Broadway Across Canada production of the hit musical playing at the Jubilee until July 29th. There’s nothing actually wrong […]
REVIEW: Steve Martin bluegrass hits the right tone
Too much stage banter can ruin a perfectly good concert. That is, of course, unless it’s Steve Martin doing the bantering: then, corny jokes become the star attraction, and Martin doled out plenty at the Jubilee Auditorium Sunday night. For example, “I’m the one in the white pants, and I will be all night – […]
PREVIEW: Just don’t expect an abominable show, man
In a city that is positively overrun with festivals and things that call themselves festivals, the Sasquatch Gathering probably leaves, ironically, the smallest footprint. That’s OK with festival organizer John Armstrong. It is now the 17th year of the music festival you’ve never heard of — an event that is, pardon the cliché, a labour […]
Blackie and the Rodeo Kings book Winspear date
Blackie And the Rodeo Kings, a venerable alt-country-folk trio of three storied musicians, are on their way to Edmonton later this fall, playing Winspear Centre on Nov.21. Founded in 1996, the band is comprised of Tom Wilson, Stephen Fearing, and Colin Linden. The three originally got together to record a one-off tribute album to Willie […]
Art Walk to teach artists what they don’t learn in art school
Whether you’re a full-blown art-o-holic nurturing an art habit, or a raw newbie with four bare walls, the annual Art Walk will have something for you when the streets of Old Strathcona turn into a mammoth studio visit this weekend. Friday through Sunday, art-o-holics will revel in the opportunity to not only view acres of […]
COMMENT: Eskimos Ladies Night a flop even before it happens
The Edmonton Eskimos have 10 chances a year to lure as many as 60,000 people at a time to Commonwealth Stadium. In a league that lives and dies on gate revenue, they can’t afford to blow their chances to get bums in seats – and yet, somehow, they do. The Edmonton Oilers need only to […]
