Magnificent Outpouring

After four decades of performing and recording, Gordon Lightfoot really needs little introduction in these pages. While everyone from Elvis Presley to Bob Dylan has covered his songs, Lightfoot’s vast repertoire ultimately remains an integral facet of Canada’s cultural DNA. Larry LeBlanc pays a visit.

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Oscar Brand: The Penguin Eggs Interview

Winnipeg-born Oscar Brand turned 90 in February this year—along with Pete Seeger, he’s the last singer standing who’s been part of the folk music scene since the ’30s.  

The Lucky Country

Penguin Eggs sent its staff to three major Australian music festivals this spring. They covered 4000 kilometres in four weeks and ran into some very familiar faces and rather noisy parrots. Words by Roddy Campbell and Annemarie Hamilton. Photos by Roddy Campbell.

Universal Americana 

The Avett Brothers rose out of the coffee houses of North Carolina to play the most prestigious festivals in the world. Iconic record producer Rick Rubin helped them get there. Mike Bell hears how.

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Martha Wainwright’s latest live disc literally evokes the spirit of Edith Piaf. Her current project includes covering the songs of Kate and Anna McGarrigle with her brother, Rufus. Tony Montague lends an ear.

Beyond The Fringe

Cheese graters and Jethro Tull play bit parts in Les Tireux d’Roches search for new approaches to timeless themes of war and recycling. Yves Bernard reckons they are the future sound of traditional music in Quebec.

The New Nu Folk

Colin Irwin wades through a baffling litany of terms describing the superb acoustic-based music currently coming out of West London. Cue Noah and the Whale, Laura Marling and Mumford & Sons, just for starters. 

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City To City

Delhi 2 Dublin perform an irresistible mash of dance music laced with Celtic and Bhangra. Their intensely physical musical border-hopping around Planet Electric startles our Patrick Langston.

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Mariposa at Fifty

Once the most innovative folk festival in North America, Mariposa fell on hard times during the ’90s only to resurrect itself in the past decade. Roddy Campbell provides a potted history of a turbulent half century.

A Mighty Wind 

A string of innovative North American Balkan brass bands continues to revitalize a tradition sometimes seen as sacred. Karl Magi has a word with the principal architects and discovers: “Tradition is stoking the fire, not praying over the ashes.”

Soul Sister

After a two-year hiatus from the Be Good Tanyas, Frazey Ford returns with her first solo recording, Obadiah. Inspired by classic southern soul singers as much as her country-folk-roots of the past, it resonates with a sense of joy. Ron Forbes-Roberts is suitably impressed. 

Bush Country

Chloe and Jason Roweth rank among the finest interpreters of Australia’s traditional bush songs and unique dance tunes—music gaining national attention as mainstream grows ever more insipid. Roddy Campbell caught them in Canberra. 

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Fatala Attraction

Alpha Yaya Diallo first came to Canada in 1991 with Fatala, the traditional band from Guinea that recorded for Peter Gabriel. Diallo never left. And now the three-time Juno winner has released his first album in five years. Roger Levesque reports.

Sweet Surrender

Martin Sexton no longer drinks. Sober and happy, he has just released the quite wonderful Sugarcoating—a disc that owes as much to Johnny Cash as it does to … erm … Led Zepplin. David McPherson encounters a whole lotta love

Jack Marks
Daniel, Fred and Julie
Rob Lutes
Dominic Mancuso