Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

Artistic genius, or howling, lost-on-the-moor madwoman? Kate Bush has always defied description—and divided audiences along the way. As British author John Mendelssohn put it, when Bush “came out of of nowhere in 1978 with her jaw-droppingly eccentric debut single ‘Wuthering Heights,’ screeching like a banshee, flapping her arms as though trying to take wing, pulling alarming faces, people either adored or loathed her.” But absence has benefitted Bush. Since dropping out of the music world to raise a family, a massive cult has grown up around the reclusive, publicity-shy singer. There are now Kate Bush fashions and fan conventions, while the truly obsessive celebrate her birthday as “Katemas...

Quique Escamilla’s music is a tantalizing blend of sweet and sour, light and dark. The talented Canadian troubador’s entrancing second album opens with the Manu Chao-like reggae vibe of the title track, a tart tale of historical corruption and exploitation in his Mexican homeland, and ends with the gorgeous “Tú Sólo Tú” (“You Only You”), a pedal-steel-drenched traditional ranchera about obsessive love, a song Tejano pop star Selena covered before her tragic death. As with his debut album, the Juno-winning 500 Years of Night, Escamilla doesn’t shy away from other hard-hitting subjects, including “Highway of Tears,” about British Columbia’s remote highway where so many Indigenous women and gir...

Rustico, P.E.I., native Lennie Gallant tended in his first two albums, Breakwater and Believing in Better, to focus on social issues. But on his third recording, The Open Window (Sony), Gallant’s first for a major label, the Maritime singer-songwriter shifts his emphasis to matters of the heart. Although he has been compared with Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp for his issues-oriented material, on his latest—a mix of folk-rock and country numbers—Gallant sounds more like a cross between Gordon Lightfoot and Stan Rogers. The romantic ballads, including “Three Words” and “Embers,” a love-on-the-rocks tale featuring producer Colin Linden’s chiming guitar, are a cut above the usual contemp...