By Andreas Kessaris for Curtains Up! “No matter how lightly you travel, your baggage always comes with you…We can’t deny our own stories, no matter where we are.” -Bruce Cockburn Musician, singer, songwriter, activist, humanitarian, 13-time Juno winner and Officer of the Order of Canada; Bruce Cockburn has led a busy and fascinating life, having […]
Music
Meet the Hi-Fins!
By Jessica Dionne for Curtains Up It was an evening reminiscent of what it must have been like to have been part of some of the hottest live music venues of the 1960s in London, England – the audience unable to keep themselves from getting up off their seats and dancing the night away […]
Twin Forks follow the signs right back to Montreal
By Jessica Dionne Twin Forks frontman Chris Carrabba has always ended his Montreal shows with these wise words: ‘If you love us and you love our music, tell a friend that you saw Twin Forks and that they were f–ing amazing.’ These words must be working.
Vance Joy takes Metropolis by storm
By Jessica Dionne After his incredible performance at Osheaga this past summer it was only a matter of time before Montreal had the pleasure of seeing Vance Joy take the stage again. Currently on the North American leg of the ‘Dream Your Life Away’ tour to promote his […]
Elvis & Ginger by Ginger Alden (Berkley, $31)
By Andreas Kessaris for Curtains Up! “Welcome to Elvis’s world, I thought again. One simply had to be there to understand.” -Ginger Alden My mother, brother and I were spending the summer in Greece when on August 16, 1977, it was announced that Elvis Presley had passed away. I was seven years old. Growing up […]
Montreal reggae festival headliner Marcia Griffiths on Bob Marley and the role of women in reggae
By Richard Burnett for Curtains Up @bugsburnett I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen the “Queen of Reggae” Marcia Griffiths perform live over the past 25 years, in Jamaica and abroad. During that time I’ve also interviewed her a few times, but this last year heard for the first time a story from […]
From the Acropolis to America: The rise of New Age icon Yanni
By Richard Burnett for Curtains Up @bugsburnett There is an ancient Greek theatre on the southern slope of the Acropolis in Athens called the Herodes Atticus Theatre, built by the Greek aristocrat Herodes Atticus in 161 AD. Some 1,800 years later, another Greek, the musician Yiannis Hrysomallis – better known by his stage name Yanni […]
Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir by Linda Ronstadt (Simon & Schuster, $29.99)
by Andreas Kessaris for Curtains Up! “I think of music as dreaming in sound.” -Linda Ronstadt When Linda Ronstadt retired from show business in 2009 after five decades, countless hit records, multiple Grammy Awards, and over one hundred million albums sold, it signaled the end of an era when vocalists belted out lyrics that had […]
A Feast of Summer Activities in Montreal – Staycation!
by Abby Schachter for Curtains Up -When all you can afford is localities. Montreal in summertime is anything but boring. Embrace that ‘staycation’ of yours and take advantage of our festival filled and activity packed city. -St –Amboise Fringe Festival Fringe ( June) Budding artists and musicians take to numerous stages and […]
Heart raise the roof in Montreal, the city that launched band’s career
By Richard Burnett for Curtains Up @bugsburnett Heart’s longtime love affair with Canada – and Montreal in particular – dates back almost 40 years, to the night in 1976 when they were fired from Lucifer’s nightclub in Calgary, back when Heart was just another bar band . “I made some disparaging remark about the club […]