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Leger is crazy prolific, having released almost an album-a-year of original roots rock since 2005. Specializing in image-rich narratives of heartache sung in a reedy tenor, the Toronto native has drawn inevitable nods to Dylan. At the star-studded tribute to the Band’s Last Waltz at Massey Hall in November, Leger was chosen to cover Dylan songs—and stole the show. With his latest album, the comparisons will only continue. “I Was Right to Doubt Her,” with its sneaky organ and sleepy border-town feel, conjures up Dylan’s “Just Like Tom Thumb Blues,” while the piano-laced ballad “Wounded Wing” boasts admirable Dylanesque poetics. Leger is unstoppable, his talent undeniable. 

Today is the 60th anniversary of Bob Dylan plugging in his guitar at the Newport Folk Festival, an event blown up into the book Dylan Goes Electric! The Night That Split the Sixties which, in turn, inspired the recent film A Complete Unknown. While much is made of Dylan’s now mythical July 25, 1965 appearance with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, the pairing pales in comparison with the huge role that Toronto’s Levon & the Hawks (later The Band) played in transforming the folk icon into a rock trailblazer.  It began quietly one night that September when Dylan flew up to Toronto to check out a super-tight rock group at Friar’s Tavern recommended to him by Mary Martin, ...

For Canada Day, I’m posting this photo of my prized Japanese issued picture sleeve copy of Ian & Sylvia’s classic “Four Strong Winds,” which might well be considered Canada’s unofficial national anthem. The fact that the song travelled all the way to Japan speaks to its power as a brilliant ballad with a universal message. And yet its distinctly Canadian. It’s been covered by many, including The Journeymen, The Seekers, Judy Collins, Chad Mitchell Trio, Marianne Faithfull, The Searchers, John Denver, The Kingston Trio, Trini Lopez, Waylon Jennings, Chad & Jeremy, Blue Rodeo, Joan Baez, Glenn Yarborough, Harry Belafonte, Tony Rice, Johnny Cash, The Carter Family, David Wiffen and Sara...

I collect hats. That's what you do when you're bald.                                                                                                                             So spoketh Sweet Baby James Taylor. Gordon Lightfoot was never bald and, therefore, not much inclined to collect hats. But he did once own a distinctive Homburg. Not the formal, stately kind made famous by Wi...

On the night of January 9, 1974, my buddy Bill Gardner and I joined the flood of people pouring out of Maple Leaf Gardens, babbling with excitement over what we’d just witnessed: a two-hour-plus concert by Bob Dylan and The Band who’d stoned us with the raucous opener “Rainy Day Women” and dressed us so fine with the euphoric penultimate “Like a Rolling Stone, asking us how we felt. As if we needed to be asked. The elation carried us along Carlton Street, undimmed despite nostril-freezing temperatures and a sudden snow squall. “Wanna go for drinks?” asked Bill. “Ronnie’s playing down at the Nick.” The thought of seeing Ronnie Hawkins on the same night and in the same building where Dylan had...