Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

The morning after her triumph at the Juno Awards, Jann Arden was sitting on a Canadian Airlines flight, bound for Calgary. It was her birthday, and the 33-year-old performer was looking forward to a quiet trip home before celebrating with family and a close circle of friends. But word about her presence travelled quickly through the aircraft. Several passengers offered congratulations on her Juno success. Then a flight attendant came and asked for an autograph. The pilot, a professed fan, even invited Arden to the cockpit, where he gave her a demonstration of the controls. Just when it seemed that she might be able to relax for the final leg of the journey, an announcement came over the spea...

It is the August holiday weekend, but there is no rest for Shania Twain. New country music's hottest new sensation is busy paying her dues to the industry that has helped to make her one of its fastest-rising stars. Under the glare of spotlights, Twain finishes a day-long photo shoot in a Toronto studio, posing for a series of portraits to be used on billboards, bus shelters and posters. She had spent most of the day before at Canada's Wonderland, a theme park north of Toronto, co-hosting a music festival sponsored by a country radio station. There, fans hooted and hollered for her to perform her current hit, Any Man of Mine--without the benefit of a backing band. She complied, and it turned...

She is the newest cover girl for "alternative" rock, a populist answer to Courtney Love. Fans and critics throughout North America have embraced Ottawa native Alanis Morissette as rock's second coming--and this year's best coming-of-age story. Some observers are still scratching their heads over the transformation of the former bubblegum-pop princess into the queen of ultra-hip music. But for the sold-out crowd that packed Toronto's Warehouse club last week, there was no such bewilderment. The more than 2,000 fans cheered on Morissette's every move--every melodramatic toss of her luxurious mane--and seemed to know the words to every song. When she snarled her way through You Oughta Know, her...