Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

More proof that Canada produces the best guitar pickers on the planet. This long-overdue retrospective shows that David Wilcox possesses fast fretwork, evocative fingerpicking and mind-blowing string bending. He also has a wicked wit to match his lightning-fast licks. The emphasis here is on his raucous roadhouse material, including “Rockin’ the Boogie,” made famous by Olympic skaters Jamie Salé and David Pelletier, and “That Hypnotizin’ Boogie,” from Tom Cruise’s Cocktail movie. But it’s all awesome.

Is Toronto’s suburban wasteland a breeding ground for punk-lite? First there was Sum 41 from Newmarket, and now along comes Not by Choice, formed in “the hallowed halls of a faceless Ajax, Ontario secondary institution.” Led by singer Mike Bilcox, the four-piece band performs peppy, wistful songs about unrequited love. Although the material is woefully one-dimensional, the band is as hyper as a teenager on a first date. Catchy choruses abound, especially on the Green Day knockoff, “Make My Day.”

This is cerebral jazz—think Diana Krall for eggheads. Chicago’s Patricia Barber loves inventive wordplay and unusual time signatures. “Lost in This Love” poses profundities over a syncopated guitar, while “Clues” clue rhymes off stark, snappy evidence like a gumshoe in a potboiler. In other songs, Barber shows off her interests. “If I Were Blue” references painters Goya and Picasso, while “I Could Eat Your Words” lists Aristotle and Descartes. But the singer-pianist is at her best on the sexy, bass-driven “Regular Pleasures.”