Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

Andrew Penner sings with the fervor of a gospel devotee. Small wonder: the Sunparlour Players’ frontman sang in a church choir while growing up in a Mennonite farming community near Leamington, the Sunparlour district of southwestern Ontario that gives his roots-rock trio its name. With horns and a string quartet adding to its core instruments of guitar, banjo and kick drum, the group’s second CD has a rousing, Arcade Fire-like sound, especially on Penner’s Lake Erie anthem “Point Pelee is the Place to Be!” July 2009

His stage name suggests the sunny Caribbean. But Bahamas, who served as Feist’s guitarist-pianist under his real name of Afie Jurvanen, is a dyed-in-the-woolen-toque folkie who has more in common with the confessional northern ballads of Ron Sexsmith than any hip-shaking calypso or steel-drum music. The songs on Pink Strat, named for the childhood guitar he still plays, showcase Afie’s gift for broken-hearted laments like “Lonely Loves” and “Till the Morning,” some of which feature Feist on backup vocals. July 2009