GWNtertainment #28 by Jaimie Vernon

Lots of new music this week as post-summer tuneage is in full swing. Just ask Drake who now occupies half of the Top10 on the Billboard magazine charts. It’s also drawn battle lines between old pop music fans and new because Drake’s positioning on the charts breaks a handful of records previously set by The Beatles. Vitriol has been flying around social media dismissing Drake and his accomplishments. GWN celebrates any Canadian artist who has managed to raise the ire of a generation of music lovers who refuse to acknowledge that time has passed, and that a new generation also makes music that people love. We are here three times a month extolling the virtues of those new artists and that new music. Other music exists in the same universe as The Beatles…resistance is fertile.

Pat Blythe – The Stories Behind The Songs – Part Three

Some things just happen for a reason. A parking spot just as you need it. That cheque you’ve been waiting for arrives in the mail at precisely the right time. The job opportunity comes along right when you need it most. Somebody mails you a CD out of the blue while you’re considering what to write for the next column. Well….the latter just waltzed into my mailbox….it’s the most beautiful rendition of this classic I’ve ever heard. The vocalist was only twelve when it was recorded.

Cameron Carpenter: Past And Present Tens – Wrapping Up

Cam and Wendi at Cherry Cola’s

I am in the middle of a seven-day ten-event Christmas event marathon. Don’t know exactly what it is this year but it seems like every day this week there are a couple of shindigs. Thanks to the fine folks at The Talent House for their great event Monday at The Madison. It was fantastic to see and spend time with my old pal Robin Black who is now one of the world’s foremost  MMA analysts and a hero amongst Irish fight fans. Robin’s wife Erica is a client of the Talent House and currently performing in “Kinky Boots”.

Pat Blythe: The Women of Blues Part Four – Maggie Bell

Pat Blythe continues her series The Women of Blues with this fourth installment on a Legendary Scottish singer….

Pat Blythe: The Women of Rock – Part 3

March 2 was the 10th anniversary of Hunter S. Thompson’s death and a picture of one of his quotes was making the rounds in Facebook. I found the subject matter rather timely! Many of us will find both the truth and the irony in what he had to say.

Doug Thompson – “MONEY, IT’S A GAS”

Anyone familiar with that Pink Floyd tune? (c’mon, who isn’t?  It’s from “Dark Side of The Moon” for crying out loud).  The album, released on March 1, 1973, made # 1 for only one week, but in total, spent 741 weeks on Billboard magazine’s album chart.  Let’s put that into years shall we?  “Dark Side of the Moon” remained on the charts from 1973 until 1988.  If you know the song, then you’ll know that the next lyrics to the title at the top of the page are:  “Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.  New car, caviar, four star daydream, think I’ll buy me a football team.”

Roxanne Tellier: 20 Feet from Stardom

I’d been longing to see the Academy Award winning documentary film “20 Feet from Stardom” since it first came out in 2013, but it was only recently that I actually had the chance.

JAIMIE VERNON – OH! CANADA? THE OTHER SONGS OF MY PEOPLE

Tuesday marks the 147th birthday of this great Dominion known as Canada.  Though we’re not quite as old as our brother to the south, our European lineage dates back to May 2, 1670 when the Dread Pirate Ernie Hudson got his ship stranded in the northern waters of the arctic looking for a direct passage to Santa’s Workshop. He and the crew survived on nothing but Her Queen’s Own Biscuits, Tea Candles and striped blankets knitted from the wool of extinct mammoths. The native population had already been here 11,000 years longer and resented the idea that you now had to trade 10 beaver pelts to get a birch bark canoe. We’ve come a long way since then but still pride ourselves on our cultural diversity, beavers, hockey and fornicating while watching hockey. Oh, and we seem to be able to write a mean ditty (not “diddy” you internet meme idiots).

Doug Thompson: COVERING UP! VINYL RECORD COVERS CLASSICS!

I love album covers!  Not the shrunken down versions they use on CDs, I mean those gloriously creative (mostly) 12” vinyl record album covers.  I was looking through my vinyl record collection the other day and marvelled at some of the amazing designs of some of the covers.  Now, before we start delving into some classic album covers as well as a few personal favourites, a little history is in order, but don’t panic – there will not be a quiz later.