Blog Archives

The National Arts Centre theatre is a really intimate place to see a concert. Smaller then the standard auditorium, there isn’t a bad seat in the entire house.

Gordon Lightfoot celebrated his 80th Birthday on tour, with a Sunday night stop in Ottawa. The full house in Southam Hall at the National Arts Centre rang him in, after a couple failed attempts, to sing the Canadian legend Happy Birthday.

Sunday night’s show with Alan Doyle and his Beautiful Beautiful Band left the National Arts Centre’s Southam Hall buzzing (and slightly buzzed) as he played fan favourites, traditional songs and some of his new tunes as well. The night was filled with Newfoundland folk artists who graced the stage for the full house of adoring fans. The night was opened up by St.John natives, Fortunate Ones, who brought their traditional folk sound to fill the hall. Their unforgettable harmonies and accordion laced songs have made their way through Ottawa a number of times, this time bringing with them some new work with a pop twist to it. My first taste of the duo was at Blacksheep Inn when they opened for Nova Scotia’s own Rose Cousins (who is playing the NAC this Friday!) They have also come across the stage at City Folk as well as other stages at the National Arts Centre. The fashionable pair are always a good time, and I recommend you heading out to see them the next time they pass through.

What do you get when you spend ten days at Vancouver’ Warehouse Studio with talent like Alan Doyle? Well, when you ask him, he will tell you all about his appropriately named album A Week at the Warehouse. With an old school way of making this record, he had his whole band, (affectionately named “the Beautiful, Beautiful Band”), set up within the studio to do full recordings together. This created a fun environment for the musicians to record in, and an interesting space for the album to grow from.

Growing up, the Barenaked Ladies were sort of a staple for Canadian rock radio. Their songs were hook driven, contagious and just peculiar enough that you couldn’t avoid them. And for someone like me that was both a good and bad thing.

November 18, Samantha Martin and Delta Sugar played the NAC Fourth Stage, and the intimate setting leant itself to a great show for the 10 piece band. Samantha is exploring a new sound, taking Delta Sugar from a 5 piece to a 10 piece, and it works! Samantha’s roots/soul/blues sound has just been taken up a couple of notches.

Canada’s King of the rumba flamenco Jesse Cook took centre stage at the National Arts Centre’s Southam Hall on Tuesday night delivering a show not soon to be forgotten.  This was my first experience seeing Jesse live and it didn’t take more than one song to solidify his spot on my list of best live performances I’d seen this year.

James Keelaghan is a Canadian songwriter of the finest caliber.

My first experience listening to James was celtic styled folk tune, “Henry’s Downfall”. I positively expected he was from Canada’s East coast, but as it turns out, he originally hails from Calgary, Alberta.

Completed in an autobiographical format, Sass Jordan recounts her history through song and an interesting account of her personal experiences in the music industry. It was a great way to spend an evening.

Barney Bentall recently played the Azrieli Studio as part of the NAC Presents program, an initiative aimed at bringing Canadian talent, emerging or established, to the national stage. Donning his harmonica, guitar and hat, he was joined by two talented musicians, Eric Reed on mandolin/guitar and Anne Lindsay on violin.