JAIMIE VERNON – POP GOES THE WORLD

For the last 15 to 20 years the idea of pop music – like the good old guitar/piano driven stuff we grew up with on the CHUM Top 30 and Billboard Top40 charts – has been Verboten and buried like a forgotten dog bone in the backyard. Like some nerdist guilty pleasure there’s been a counter movement which has dubbed itself the keepers of Power Pop though its supporters can never agree on the definition of the term.

JAIMIE VERNON: DO THE FAN DANGLE-O

On Wednesday March 6th Canadian music legend Stompin’ Tom Connors passed away peacefully at the age of 77 from natural causes. Tom was a folk & country fixture around Canada for nearly six decades. He might very well be the last of the Canadian troubadours following in the footsteps of Wilf Carter (aka Montana Slim), Hank Snow, and the Canadian Sweethearts: Bob Regan and Lucille Starr. Connors walked amongst the rarified air of Canadian country Gods. He was a fixture at the legendary Horseshoe Tavern during its inception where his rousing songs and foot stomping put a hole in the stage – which the venue wanted him to pay for. On subsequent visits he resorted to stomping on a piece of wood to save the stage further injury – and Tom Connors became Stompin’ Tom Connors.