Music | ShowbizMonkeys.com

2010 Winnipeg Folk Festival Wrap-Up and Photo Gallery

Posted by Paul Little | Thursday, July 22, 2010 @ 4:33am

Dozens of acts, tens of thousands of festivalgoers, and countless hours of great music helped make the 37th Annual Winnipeg Folk Festival a memorable five days. The weather held up for the most part, while the music certainly did.

I'm going to be honest here... when organizers first announced the complete Folk Fest line-up for 2010 and I perused the list, I wasn't overly excited. Sure, there were acts that I enjoyed listening to and would want to see live, but there weren't any names that personally jumped out at me as "must-sees", especially compared to previous years' line-ups. That's the thing about Folk Festivals, though: you may not know a lot of the acts going in, but you're certain to be surprised by quite a few of them.

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Interview: Leverage's Christian Kane shows off his musical side in tonight's episode of the TNT hit

Posted by Mark McLeod | Sunday, July 18, 2010 @ 2:38pm

After recurring roles on Angel and Close to Home, Christian Kane now finds himself as one of the stars of the TNT hit Leverage, playing Eliot Spencer, the highly-skilled muscle of the con team lead by Timothy Hutton's Nathan Ford. But throughout his time in Los Angeles, Kane has also developed his musical side, performing at places like famed club The Viper Room.

Now, shortly after releasing a self-titled EP (available on iTunes), he's being given a chance to showcase his musical side on his TV show, as tonight's episode of Leverage (9pm ET/PT on TNT) will feature his character going undercover as a country singer. Kane will be performing a new, never-before-released song, "Thinking of You", which will also be up on iTunes to download right after the episode air.

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The Cat Empire, Arrested Development, and Pieta Brown highlight a rainy Saturday at the Winnipeg Folk Festival

Posted by Paul Little | Saturday, July 10, 2010 @ 11:58pm

The rain finally came to the Winnipeg Folk Festival on Saturday -- but what would an outdoor festival be without a bit of the wet stuff falling? It didn't seem to damper the spirits of festival-goers, however, as plenty of people were out at all the workshop stages throughout the day -- some decked in ponchos and others just letting the rain cool them down. And by the time the Main Stage started, the clouds had mostly broken up, and the beautiful sunset accompanied some equally great music from Hot Tuna and Pieta Brown.

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Friday at the Winnipeg Folk Festival was all about sunburns, heatstroke, and -- oh, right -- great music

Posted by Paul Little | Saturday, July 10, 2010 @ 1:09am

On the first full day of the Winnipeg Folk Festival, the story was the sun and the heat. And of course the music, which is always the cornerstone of a festival like this, was in strong form, allowing the people in the sun to enjoy everything from blues to folk to roots to a conglomeration of pretty much every genre one could imagine. Between the Main Stage performers, and the more alt sounds of the Big Blue at Night stage (not to mention the countless daytime performances and workshops), there really was something for everyone on Friday in Bird's Hill Park.

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The 37th Winnipeg Folk Festival kicked off Wednesday for five days of folk and roots music (and a lot more)

Posted by Paul Little | Thursday, July 8, 2010 @ 9:16pm

The Winnipeg Folk Festival is in full swing, as the 37th annual folk music festival held just outside Winnipeg, Manitoba began with two evenings (Wednesday and Thursday) of music before the full day schedules kick in from Friday to Sunday. With names as iconic as Emmylou Harris, Levon Helm, Jimmy Cliff, John Hiatt, and Arrested Development joining more contemporary folk and roots acts such as Andrew Bird, The Weakerthans, The Cat Empire, The Swell Season, and Sarah Harmer, the 2010 festival is shaping up to be a remarkable 5 days of music and community.

As I mentioned last year, the Folk Festival -- which began in 1974 and last year saw attendance reach 53,000 people (many from across Canada and the United States) -- is more than just the music, even though the music is pretty great. The festival prides itself on being a sustainable, green, community event, with more than 2500 volunteers annually and workshop performances that allow the various artists to work together in front of a crowd.

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Following concerts by The Roots, The Slew, and others, the Winnipeg Jazz Festival ends with a weekend of free outdoor shows

Posted by Paul Little | Monday, July 5, 2010 @ 11:42pm

After an amazing opening weekend, the 2010 TD Winnipeg International Jazz Festival continued on throughout the week and closing weekend with a series of concerts from great performers and, generally, just a lot of fun! And while I unfortunately had to miss a couple days of the festival while zipping off to Saskatoon to see a decidedly NON-jazz concert (Iron Maiden and Dream Theater), I still got to see a lot of great jazz, funk, hip-hop, and overall solid music descend on our little Canadian burgh.

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Roy Hargrove, Buck 65, and Toshi Reagon kick off the opening weekend of the 2010 Winnipeg Jazz Fest

Posted by Paul Little | Tuesday, June 29, 2010 @ 4:18am

After offering up a "preview concert" last Wednesday night featuring living legend Sonny Rollins (a show I unfortunately had to miss because I was out of town), the newly-named TD Winnipeg International Jazz Festival officially kicked off this past weekend. And when a festival like this -- featuring such must-see acts as Roy Hargrove, Martha Wainwright, Terence Blanchard, and The Roots -- takes place in our back yard, you know ShowbizMonkeys.com will be there!

Throughout the next week, you'll see a few posts talking about the most exciting shows of the festival, as well as previewing what acts you shouldn't miss, in case you happen to be in Winnipeg this week and looking for some great jazz (or "jazz-ish" music, as the festival continues to bring in acts with new sounds that may not seem like jazz on the surface). Tonight, I bring you my thoughts on the opening weekend, which featured a trio of amazing shows -- two that I had already planned to attend, and one which I stumbled into and, ultimately, was thoroughly blown away by!

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DVD Review: Chickenfoot - Get Your Buzz On (Live)

Posted by Lawrence Lee | Tuesday, May 11, 2010 @ 2:04am

One of the most unpleasant trends in directing, especially in music footage, is the tendency of directors to show what they want the viewers to see, instead of actually capturing what is going on. This was especially true in Sammy Hagar and Van Halen's concert DVD footage, that tended to focus too much on the audience, going into black and white mode, and alternating the footage between two separate concert dates. This trend is, unfortunately, not limited to the music that Sammy Hagar has appeared in, but quite prevalent in the rest of the music industry. Therefore, it was the absence of this directing ego, and the focus on the performance and musicianship, that made the Joe Satriani-headlined G3 Live in Tokyo concert DVD so much different and better than what the rest of the industry had to offer.

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Album Review: Christopher Lee - Charlemagne; By the Sword and the Cross

Posted by Lawrence Lee | Sunday, May 9, 2010 @ 6:05pm

Charlemagne; By the Sword and the Cross is a concept album where Christopher Lee sings in the role of the dying King Charlemagne reflecting on his life. The album attempts to be epic, but fails miserably, due to several factors, despite having Christopher Lee's incredible voice. Christopher is joined by a pair of heavy metal bands, an orchestra, and guest singers, none of which contribute to making the album memorable. A lot of the blame goes to the songwriting, horrific guitaring, and intrusive narration. But more than anything, the album does not feel like a musical recording. Instead, it comes off like a man lecturing about history, as some instruments in the background are playing.

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Interview: Multi-talented Toronto singer/songwriter Emm Gryner

Posted by Paul Little | Tuesday, March 30, 2010 @ 12:47pm

Emm Gryner has a career that most people who choose a life in the arts would dream of. She's released a dozen albums of her own, collaborated with musicians from around the world, been praised by some of the greatest names in music (U2's Bono, for instance, called her song "Almighty Love" one of a few songs from others that he wished he'd written), received multiple Juno nominations, run her own record label, and even dabbled in acting and radio. And if that's not enough, she also spent over a year touring in the band of one of the greatest music minds of our time, Mr. David Bowie, which included performances at the Glastonbury Festival and on the live album Bowie at the Beeb.

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