Monthly Archives: March 2013

Nicole takes her Folk music back to its pre-bar roots this aft.

For artists of the Folk persuasion in particular, playing in bars is fraught with frustrations. For one thing, they tend to be noisy, with a lot of other (and usually, in my opinion, completely unnecessary) distractions such as tvs broadcasting poker tournaments and occasionally actually real sporting events due to an obsession most owners have…

Rick Gunn funeral & after-party Thurs. April 4

www.rickgunn.ca

Lisa Gunn The daughter of Rock-Blues guitarist Rick Gunn, who passed away March 25 after an 18-month battle with cancer, has announced details of his funeral and an after-gathering. The service has been set for Thurs. April 4 at 1 p.m. and will be held at the R.S. Kane funeral home at 6150 Yonge St.…

Haggis at Easter? It’s the weekend special at Hugh’s Room

Ener The Haggis -www.enterthehaggis.com

It’s been about a decade since I last saw riotous Celtic-Rock troupe Enter The Haggis perform and for most of that time I really hadn’t heard much about them playing anywhere on the GTA bar circuit, so if you’d asked me about them last week I would have told you I assumed they were extinct.…

Keys & Gauci bringing Boogie Woogie to changing Linsmore

One of Ontario’s oldest extant taverns, the Linsmore Hotel tap room at 1298 Danforth Ave. in East York must have been doing something right to stay open all those years. But nowadays the room is evolving into a different space (though the bathrooms, which would never pass code if the place were opening nowadays, are…

Music writer remembers Rick Gunn

www.rickgunn.ca

by Diane Wells SPECIAL TO TORONTO MOON MAGAZINE I first met guitarist Rick “Boogieman” Gunn in March 2002 at the ill-fated Blues on Bellair club in Toronto, co-owned by Peter and Diane Jermyn. He was sitting in with the Paul Fenton Band for a live recording. At that time I had mentioned to him that…

Artists join Kyp Harness tonight to cover his tunes

kypharness.net

Upon first hearing passionate and highly literate songwriter (and author) Kyp Harness perform almost 20 years ago at the old Ultrasound bar I instantly became a fan. Back then he was a quite quirky lyricist whose persona and writing was reminiscent of Bob Dylan in many ways. His sometimes zany but brilliant similes and metaphors…

The Dog is Loaded with pretty fine talents Wednesdays

It was nearly 1 a.m. by the time I finally got to The Loaded Dog in Scarborough last Wednesday and having visited a couple of other rooms where their open mics had been sparsely attended (St. Patrick’s Day-weekend hangover no doubt) I feared I might have missed my chance to catch the musical action at…

R.I.P. guitarist Rick “Smiley” Gunn

www.rickgunn.ca

It wasn’t easy during the past two years to tell whether or not guitarist Rick “Have Strat Will Travel” Gunn was in pain from the cancer that infected his back or not. It wasn’t that he particularly went out of his way to hide the pain —it was that the lanky-jawed duck-tailed Rock ‘n’ Roller,…

Tuesdays are often lively at Rusty Nail jam

Like any jam or open stage, you can never really predict what Tuesday nights will bring at the event hosted weekly at Rusty Nail in East York by affable songwriter Kevin Davies. The bar attracts a diverse clientele, ranging from scruffy-shoed locals magnetized by the cheap drink prices, to well-off professionals who dote on friendly…

Genres get Bent but never broken Mondays at Relish

Though described as a “Swampy Blues Band” in some of the promo for its Monday night residency at East York music and food emporium Relish, Bentroots goes way beyond the swamp in its rollicking and deftly delivered repertoire. [See also article from January 21]. Fronted by guitarist Nicholas Balkou, the group seems to define Blues…