Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

The home of music journalist Nicholas Jennings, author of Lightfoot, the definitive new Gordon Lightfoot biography from Penguin Random House.

Don Cullen: Bohemian Embassy ‘Ambassador’ Nurtured Talents of Fellow Artists

Tuesday, 05 July 2022

Blog Posts Obituaries

Creative versatility came naturally to Don Cullen. Writer, actor, comedian, producer and impresario, he could apparently do it all. His talents first surfaced at high school, where Mr. Cullen’s flexible physical features and talent for vocal impersonations made him popular with his classmates. “I became the funny kid,” he once recalled, “by capital...

Ronnie Hawkins - Last of the Good Ol' Boys

Thursday, 02 June 2022

Blog Posts Obituaries

He was such a good ol’ boy, a teller of such tall tales and the master of so many self-deprecating one-liners it was often easy not to take Ronnie Hawkins too seriously. “I’m a legend in my spare time,” he liked to quip. Calling himself the “Geritol Gypsy,” he claimed to have been playing rockabilly “since the Dead Sea was only sick.” But when the ...

Eurythmics - A musical marriage at the top of pop

Wednesday, 04 May 2022

Blog Posts Magazine

A metamorphosis is under way. A face, seemingly made of candle wax, takes shape beneath a flickering flame. It is Annie Lennox, provocative singer of Eurythmics, the British pop duo. Then, the video for Eurythmics’ latest single, “Missionary Man,” turns more sinister, with a scene in which a dark figure — Dave Stewart, the duo’s other half—is seen ...

Jackie Mittoo - Reggae's Keyboard King

Saturday, 12 March 2022

Blog Posts

Born on this day, March 3, in 1948, Jackie Mittoo can be rightly called the godfather of reggae music in Canada. When he emigrated to Toronto in 1969, Jackie was already a major star in Jamaica, having been a founding member of the ground-breaking Skatalites and a composer-arranger whose inspired keyboard work on countless Studio One recordings hel...

New museum exhibit: Caribbean music in Toronto

Monday, 14 February 2022

Blog Posts

Now open: a brand new exhibit at the Friar’s Music Museum, devoted to the deep, rich history of Caribbean music in Toronto. Among the Rhythms and Resistance exhibition’s many rare and wide-ranging artefacts are hundreds of photographs, posters, handbills, recordings, videos, instruments, costumes, clothing and assorted ephemera related to...

R. Dean Taylor - The Canadian who stepped out of the shadows of Motown

Monday, 24 January 2022

Blog Posts Obituaries

He was an unlikely pop star of the post-Woodstock era. Clean-shaven and pipe-smoking, with short, clipped hair and a preference for cardigans and safari jackets, he looked more advertising executive than hip musician. But Canada’s R. Dean Taylor was always determined to make it in the entertainment world. Venturing to Detroit in the early 1960s, he...

Nick's Picks of 2021

Tuesday, 11 January 2022

Reviews Blog Posts

Here, in alphabetical order, are the artists who made some of my favourite music of 2021. These are the albums that excited me most and that I turned to again and again throughout the year. Some, like Adele, Rhiannon Giddens and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, are international musicians I’ve been following from the start of their careers. Others...

Rosalie Trombley - 'The most powerful woman in popdom'

Friday, 17 December 2021

Blog Posts Obituaries

In the world of Top 40 radio, Rosalie Trombley was a trailblazer – one of the few women to hold a broadcast executive position in an industry that was essentially a boys-only club. Blessed with an innate sense of music, she could pick out a good song from a pile of duds and help to make it a hit, earning her the nickname “the girl with the golden e...

JoJo Bennett - Reggae trailblazer

Thursday, 19 August 2021

Blog Posts Obituaries

JoJo Bennett was a Jamaican orphan who found his calling when a teacher handed him a horn. Excelling on the trumpet, he grew to become a successful touring musician, songwriter and recording artist. In Canada, he added award-winning bandleader and owner of a recording studio and record label to his accomplishments. But he never forgot his roots, al...

Ellen McIlwaine - Goddess of Slide

Wednesday, 30 June 2021

Blog Posts Obituaries

Ellen McIlwaine was the epitome of an adventurous spirit: fierce and independent, the flame-haired artist took her musical gifts in surprising directions, defying expectations at every turn. As a virtuoso slide guitarist with a seismic voice, she excelled in a male-dominated field, leading her bands with a bold musical style that transcended genre ...

Words & Music cover stories

Saturday, 10 September 2022

Blog Posts Magazine

A sampling of cover stories written for Words & Music magazine between 2002 and 2014.

26 Hits

Inside Entertainment cover stories

Saturday, 10 September 2022

Blog Posts Magazine

Cover stories written for Inside Entertainment magazine between 2002 and 2007.

24 Hits

Maclean's cover stories

Saturday, 10 September 2022

Blog Posts Magazine

Cover stories written for Maclean's magazine between 1987 and 2000.

22 Hits

Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

Don Cullen: Bohemian Embassy ‘Ambassador’ Nurtured Talents of Fellow Artists

Ronnie Hawkins - Last of the Good Ol' Boys

Eurythmics - A musical marriage at the top of pop

Jackie Mittoo - Reggae's Keyboard King

New museum exhibit: Caribbean music in Toronto

R. Dean Taylor - The Canadian who stepped out of the shadows of Motown

Nick's Picks of 2021

Rosalie Trombley - 'The most powerful woman in popdom'

JoJo Bennett - Reggae trailblazer

Ellen McIlwaine - Goddess of Slide

Words & Music cover stories

Inside Entertainment cover stories

Maclean's cover stories

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