Folk + Roots

Joanna Newsom – Have One on Me

Rating: n/a Reviewer: Garth Paulson

That’s right, not applicable. Though I’m usually apprehensive of assigning a rating based upon my subjective impressions of an album at the best of times, I just can’t bring myself to do it for Joanna Newsom’s latest, the triple album Have One on Me, for two reasons:

Posted in Folk + Roots, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop


Rocky Votolato – True Devotion

Rating: 2.5 / 5 Reviewer: Kevin Hartford

Most of the songs on True Devotion are little more than Seattle folk singer Rocky Votolato’s voice over an acoustic guitar. While the stripped-down production does create a certain amount of intimacy between artist and listener, it also has the unintended side effect of showcasing how unexceptional Votolato is [...]

Posted in Folk + Roots, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop


Charlotte Gainsbourg – IRM

Rating: 4.5 / 5 Reviewer: Andrew Mitchell

Considering Charlotte Gainsbourg’s third release, IRM was conceived while she was recovering from a brain hemorrhage and developed while filming the disturbingly violent Antichrist, it’s remarkable that the album is not a complete exercise in abjectness.

Posted in Folk + Roots, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop


Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore – Dear Companion

Rating: 4 / 5 Reviewer: Kevin Hartford

Dear Companion is a folk album that sounds like a country album, and it wouldn’t be difficult to imagine Kentucky-based singer-songwriters Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore as the opening band for alt-country acts like Ryan Adams or Jenny Lewis in her Watson Twins days.

Posted in Folk + Roots, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop


Dan Mangan – Feb 6/10, The Gaitway, Calgary

Reviewer: Nathan Atnikov

With The Gaitway at SAIT set up as a seating only venue, it looked set to be a pretty chill night – even when Dan Mangan unassumingly slipped onto the stage, and started the opening notes of a slowed-down ‘Road Regrets.’

Posted in Folk + Roots, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop


Eels – End Times

Rating: 4 / 5 Reviewer: Greg Hutton

Mark Oliver Everett, front man and principle songwriter of the Eels, has never shied away from directly addressing his numerous personal tragedies via his art. His discography and autobiography are full of ruminations on his various losses as well as explorations of the subsequent confusion he feels in a [...]

Posted in Folk + Roots, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop


Woodpigeon – Die Stadt Muzikanten

Woodpigeon - Die Stadt Muzikanten

For Calgary-based indie darlings Woodpigeon, the start of a new decade brings good tidings as their new record Die Stadt Muzikanten brings to the table a much more consistent effort than last year’s Treasury Library Canada

Posted in Featured Review, Folk + Roots, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop


2009 RECORDS WE MISSED – Timber Timbre

Rating: 4.5 / 5 Reviewer: Greg Hutton

Timber Timbre, led by vocalist and principle songwriter Taylor Kirk, are somewhat of an enigma in the Canadian singer-songwriter scene. Finding the words to accurately describe Timber Timbre’s music, including their self-titled third album, is indeed a difficult task.

Posted in Folk + Roots, Miscellany, Music Reviews, Rock + Pop


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