A few weeks ago, I rescued a book from our department’s recycling pile. It was the Encyclopaedia of Canadian Country Music. I’m pretty sure my colleague went on a cleaning binge in our office, figured the book was useless, and […]
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I noticed recently that I’m coming up on my 100th blog on this site. Not actually true, because I’ve deleted a few. But it would be weird to put up my 100th a few posts ago and try to explain […]
I’ve interviewed lots of musicians, but nobody made me more nervous than Neville Quinlan. The lead singer and principal songwriter of the Toronto band NQ Arbuckle, he’s been the target of a strange sort of crush that I can’t explain […]
I love this adorable video from Red Molly (Laurie MacAllister, Abbie Gardner and Molly Venter), a song with sweet harmonies and a new twist on the usual relationship ups and downs. Excellent players too. Red Molly has a long string […]
Just last week, I was putting together a conference proposal. I originally organized a panel on Canadian cowboy music, taking advantage of the Alberta conference location, with the only two guys who are experts in the field. Then they dropped […]
When I apply to jobs in far off places and consider leaving Toronto, my first thought is often: how will I live without my book club? Yeah, I’m in a book club. We’re not all Oprah about it – that […]
Apparently Folk Alliance is a crazy time. All I know is that it happened during a crazy time for me, so I only got to see the last night of it. And then it took me another five days to […]
In my undergrad, my two friends and I divided up our listening test list and developed a complicated set of signals to represent each piece. Tchaikovsky, I’ll scratch my ear. Chopin, I’ll rub my nose. That sort of thing. It […]
“Para” by Calexico Fair warning: this is a dark song, and by extension, a dark post. I remember the exact moment this song got through to me, not just because it happened last week, but also because it was a […]
Whoever invented Valentine’s Day must have been in Toronto (or New York, or Boston…) on a February day like this. I’m sure he or she just wanted to skip work, go home, and get laid. Smart. Thought I’d make up […]
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