“Feet don’t fail me now”… thus begins the debut disc from New York native, Lana Del Rey. The title track from Born To Die starts the disc off on the right foot, but clearly she’s walking with two different feet.
By the end of 2011, I had heard the name Lana Del Rey as much as I heard the name Adele. Without hearing a single note of music from the girl, she was exploding through the critical stratosphere, propelled by the song “Video Games”.
Fast forward some weeks later and my first exposure to Del Rey’s music, much like many others, she appeared on Saturday Night Live. Like watching a deer in the headlights, I thought her appearance was one of the show’s skits. Del Rey injected “Video Games” with the passion of a corpse and appeared more awkward than the freshest of freshmen at their first day of high school. It was uncomfortable at first, and then I decided to stop the pain and go to bed.
Clearly she wasn’t prepared for such a national/international stage and it turned me right off the girl. With the backlash that followed, I began to feel sorry for her, starting to chastise her management for throwing her to the wolves like that.
Since then, Born To Die came out and while resistant at first (the album sat on my desk for a couple of weeks) Del Rey’s face stared at me, almost daring me to give it a listen.
The verdict? Surprisingly good actually, but songs can be split into two teams: one where she applies a more hushed, smokey tone that will appeal to an older demographic; the other. definitely to aim for her own age demographic. Del Rey’s deep voice on “Born To Die” recalls the somber tones of Mazzy Star’s "Hope Sandoval," and was enough to make me instantly rethink my initial dismissal of her. The song’s sweeping strings and muted beats compliment the range of Del Rey’s voice nicely and while it would be easy to tread into adult contemporary territory, the lyrics and production lend it a current and vital vibe.
The album is hit and miss from there. The hits “Blue Jeans”, “Video Games,” and “Born To Die” are definitely worth the price of admission alone. These are the songs that wear well with the evening gown. I can almost picture her singing these in place of Isabella Rossellini in Blue Velvet.
The misses for me are the tracks where Del Rey sounds like she’s channeling Britney Spears. While this poppier stuff might find a home on the Top 40, ultimately they are forgettable and it will be the slower, almost Florence and the Machine style, that will continue carrying of Del Rey’s torch.
The girl is new and I should cut her some slack. She’s new to her feet, but given the dual personalities, she will need to decide which foot fits her best.
The following guest blog is written by Indigo's Regional Assortment Analyst, Andrew Rodwell.
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When I was a teenager I learned to play several musical instruments. Of all of them, the guitar was my nemesis. Give me anything brass or with a reed I could play passably well, or at least not terribly, but the guitar required practice and dedication. I just wasn’t that dedicated and my interest waned over the years. A few years ago I finally admitted defeat and sold my acoustic guitar after a decade of disuse. But it would have been great to play the guitar as an adult. I love music and I truly admire musicians in their skill and artistry.
Evidently Gary Marcus, as he writes in Guitar Zero, admires their skill and artistry, too.
Guitar Zero is a little bit A.J. Jacobs and a little bit Steven Pinker. Gary Marcus wants to learn how to play the guitar before he turns 40, though he has no previous musical training…or obvious talent. Marcus describes his musical adventure in adult learning with establishing the challenges of learning the guitar over, for example, the piano. Marcus explains how learning the guitar is much more difficult than learning the piano due to the many different ways a guitarist can play the same note. Each note on a piano is assigned a unique key, quite unlike the guitar. Examining this difference leads Marcus to explore how the human brain understands music, both as a listener and as a player.
Marcus is interested in what makes great musicians great. Physical dexterity is one of the characteristics needed for virtuosity. Great guitar players, he points out, have very fast and dextrous fingers. To me, the most interesting observation Marcus makes, is that virtuoso performances often manipulate timing and tempo to highlight the lead performance. If the lead performer plays just a few milliseconds ahead of their accompaniment, their performance will be noticeably more prominent to the listener.
And how the listener hears is as fascinating as the how the musician plays, especially the trained listener, such as a musician or a producer—who can hear things in the music most people do not notice. Musical structures create musical narratives or even jokes - if you know what you are listening for. By the end of the book, Marcus can listen to Miles Davis and understand what he’s doing with his musical choices. This deeper understanding leads to a deeper appreciation of music.
Throughout Guitar Zero Marcus asks and attempts to answer many questions: Can a person learn to play a musical instrument later in life? And learn to play it well? Is there a critical period where a person is most apt to pick a new skill? Professional thinkologist Malcolm Gladwell postulates that to be good at something you need to have done that thing for 10,000 hours. That may apply to many activities. Is this true of music as well? Can a person be born with musical talent? Does it give you a leg up if you come from a family of musicians?
I found Guitar Zero to be an engaging exploration of the cognitive geography of music and the human mind, and the social aspect of music making. As noted above, Marcus’s most compelling and reverent theme is that of virtuosity; how some musicians can understand music so well—with its mathematical and often bizarre rules—that they can break those rules, improvise, and perform compositions that are greater than the notes from which they are composed. Marcus does not answer the question of where virtuosity comes from, but that is alright, as long as there is beautiful music to listen to and gifted musicians to play it.
Steve Martin is a man of multiple talents. Known to many of us as an actor in films like The Three Amigos! and Father of the Bride, Martin has also written the bestselling novels Shopgirl (which he adapted for a film) and An Object of Beauty. He also plays banjo with his bluegrass band, The Steep Canyon Rangers.
His newest book, The Ten, Make That Nine, Habits of Very Organized People. Make that Ten. The Tweets of Steve Martin, is a collection of his witty tweets that have gained him 2.3 million followers on Twitter. You can read an except of this very funny book thanks to HBG Canada.
Read below, as Steve Martin answers questions on his Grammy wins, the perils of the banjo world "beefs," and his inspiration for The Tweets of Steven Martin:
Q: One more Grammy and you’ll catch up Taylor Swift. Is the prospect of winning another still exciting?
Steve Martin (SM): I want to win not only for the glory and the pleasure of defeating the other nominees, but also for the glory and the pleasure of defeating the other nominees.
Q: Do you have an acceptance speech planned?
SM: I don’t, but I do have a copy of Alison Krauss’ acceptance speech for her last 37 wins.
Q: Are you friendly with the other nominees in the bluegrass category?
SM: I have met all of them and liked all of them until now.
Q: Are there banjo “beefs” similar to those in the rap world?
SM: Similar, except we use poison.
Q: Most indelible banjo moment in pop culture?
SM: They are too not-numerable to name.
Q: What sort of expectations/hopes/fears do you have about playing [the Stagecoach Festival]?
SM: We have played Bonnaroo, the New Orleans Jazz Festival and the Newport Jazz Festival. That said, I didn’t know I should be worried about playing Stagecoach until just now.
Q: And then there's the book [out on Feb. 21]. What was your inspiration, in 140 characters or less?
SM: I am very excited about my Twitter book, which is released on February 21, because it
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This interview conducted by Lorraine Ali, originally appeard on the Los Angeles Times blog. We'd like to think HBG Canada for allowing us to repost it here. The Tweets of Steve Martin is now available.
ISBN - 10:1455512478
9781455512478
An Oral History of Grunge
The Nonfiction Blog is pleased to share this piece
from Indigo Bookseller (& all around music nerd)
Jordan Ferguson.
I'm sure everyone thinks the music of their adolescence is superior to everyone else's, so I can admit to a slight level of bias here. I was 14 years-old in an autoworker commuter town when Nirvana's Nevermind dropped 20 years ago. I was primed and ready for a musical revolution. And yes, it's easy to sneer at the dingy flannel shirts and the Doc Martens, and the unspoken competitions to determine whose hair could get the grimiest. There's no legacy to be found in the current musical landscape, but it doesn't change the fact that grunge was a real moment, arguable the last one in the history of rock music. The success of Seattle inspired similar movements in cities across North America, like Halifax and Hamilton. Even in Amherstburg, Ontario where I grew up, it seemed like everyone had started a band. Why wouldn't we? The underdogs were breaking through, and if it could happen in Seattle, it could happen anywhere.
But how did it happen? How did this handful of bands, connected only by a shared locale, capture the imaginations of a generation?
This is what Mark Yarm's Everyone Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge. What makes the book successful is right there in the title: inspired by the Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain's punk classic Please Kill Me, it's an oral history, the story told by the people who were there. And it's a story that goes back farther than most people might realize. Many of the musicians who would go on to form Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden were jamming around Seattle with each other in the early-to-mid 1980's. The Deep Six compilation album, considered to be the “big bang,” of grunge, came out in in 1986. This is fertile material to wade through, and Yarm, a former editor at Britain's Blender magazine, talks to everybody, not just the members of the most famous bands, but lesser known acts like The Melvins and Tad, as well as bands forgotten by all but the most hardcore of completists like The U-Men and Malfunkshun. It's a fascinating story of egos and drugs, starring a bunch of charming and charismatic musicians, most of whom were woefully unprepared for what the success machine would do to them.
For someone who grew up with this music, consuming every magazine article and taping every performance and interview I could find, Yarm's book is a fantastic read. Less concerned with analyzing what it all meant, what the music's success said about the world, Yarm steps into the background and lets these characters, over 200 throughout the book, praise and snipe at each other (Courtney Love is, not surprisingly, heavily demonized throughout). It's sometimes hard to get a bead on where the truth lies, as different people contradict each other multiple times throughout a chapter. But as the saying goes, when the legend becomes fact, print the legend.
The benefits of getting older can seem few and far between, friends. But you can always count on the passage of time to bring a nostalgic re-examination of that short moment when the music that mattered to you mattered to everyone, when you wrote bad poetry in spiral-bound notebooks, when it actually felt like you ruled the world.
Everybody Loves Our Town comes highly recommended not only for fans who remember the time, but for all fans of musical history. Learn more about the book, and celebrate the music it chronicles, at grungebook.tumblr.com. Those looking to continue their studies can turn to Kurt Cobain's Journals [frequently quoted in Yarm's book], Seattle journalist Charles Cross's Cobain Bio Heavier Than Heaven, the earlier oral history Grunge is Dead, Pearl Jam's recent retrospective Twenty, and the classic documentary The Year Punk Broke, chronicling Nirvana and Sonic Youth's 1991 European tour.
Title inspiration, courtesy of Mudhoney:
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Special thanks to Jordan for contributing – and interested readers can see a (long) interview with the author here.
This review generously provided by Jordan Ferguson.
On August 11, 1973, DJ Clive Campbell played his first gig, a back-to-school party organized by his sister Cindy in the rec room of their building at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx, New York. Campbell, a native Jamaican, incorporated elements of what he saw in the dancehalls of Kingston, including the tradition of “toasting,” where a DJ would talk to the crowd over the music. Campbell had also noticed that the dancers seemed to get more excited by the short instrumental ‘breaks’ found in the bridges of popular funk and soul songs, so he began isolating them and stringing them together in longer sequences. The kids loved the breaks, and the man who became DJ Kool Herc [a riff on his schoolyard nickname of Hercules] christened the dancers break-boys, or b-boys.
On August 11, 1973 DJing, MCing and breakdancing combined in one place for the first time, and the culture that became hip-hop was born.
So while I might be a little late to the party, I wanted to share with you what I consider a few of the best books on the culture and the music.
Total Chaos: The Art and Aesthetics of Hip-Hop, edited by Jeff Chang
Chang’s other book, the essential Can't Stop Won't Stop has already been deservedly praised in this space (here) as probably the best book on the history of hip-hop, so I wanted to give this lesser known work some exposure. A collection of essays that acknowledges rap is a music, hip-hop is a culture, and looks to educate and inform on the other arts that fall under that umbrella, including graffiti, literature, photography. Most fascinating to me were the essays on hip-hop dance, which are compelling reading for someone who doesn’t know their top-rocking from their footwork, like me. Lots to love here.
Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies, by Brian Coleman
Being a fan of rap in the 1980s and 1990s was a somewhat mysterious practice. The artists still weren’t getting any mainstream press, so it was impossible to learn anything about your favourite acts. The most you could do was squint at the production credits on your cassettes, which usually gave you nothing. Coleman’s book succeeds in filling this gap, collecting oral histories on the creation of both classic and, well, not so classic albums from rap’s golden age.
The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop, by Dan Charnas
How did hip-hop and rap go from the regional and isolated hobby of a passionate few, to a global and more importantly lucrative cultural movement? On one side you have the artists and musicians, Charnas’s book gives the other side, the story of the radio DJs, club promoters, record labels, artist managers and ad men that recognized ignoring hip-hop was leaving money on the table. From how Sprite used hip-hop to snag an NBA sponsorship away from its own parent company Coca Cola, to why 50 Cent is a more visionary businessman than anyone gave him credit for, every story in this book was new to me, and I can think of no higher compliment to give it.
Decoded, by Jay-Z
Part memoir, part lyrics book, part director’s commentary, Decoded is many things at once, and succeeds at all of them. For a nerd like me, the highlights are the footnotes sprinkled throughout his rhymes. Many might be obvious to fans, but some provided genuine insight to the inside references and wordplay Jay-Z makes in his rhymes. That alone would probably make the book worth a read, but add in the unusual candidness with which he discusses his hustler’s life in Brooklyn and you have not just a memoir but a love letter to the art by one of the best to practice it. The paperback version of Decoded releases in November 2011.
Book of Rhymes, by Alan Bradley
The more you read books on hip-hop, the more you come to see how political a lot of the scholarship is. That’s all well and good, since hip-hop has historically been the reaction of an oppressed people to the systems that hold them down. But it’s still poetry, and Bradley’s book actually remembers that language and its manipulation is a key component to hip-hop and rap. Breaking down styles of rhythm, wordplay, style and signifying, Bradley lays out what makes the greats so great, and what makes the art so compelling if you really pay attention to the complexity that goes into its creation.
… and finally, a book I don’t have my hands on yet, but will quickly get added to my library.
Def Jam Recordings: The First 25 Years of the Last Great Record Label
In 1984 a party promoter named Russell Simmons was growing tired of the disco-tinged rap that was starting to cross over onto radio and into the clubs; he didn’t think it accurately reflected what was going on in the streets. He liked more aggressive, beat-driven music. Music like ‘It’s Yours,’ a minimalist, pounding track by rapper T La Rock and co-produced by a 21-year-old NYU student named Rick Rubin. When Rubin met Simmons, Def Jam Records went from a vanity label Rubin ran from his dorm room, to the most influential rap label in music history. From LL Cool J to Public Enemy to Kanye West, Def Jam has been integral to the creation of some of the best music the culture’s ever produced, and this slick hardcover from Rizzoli promises to be as beautiful as it is informative.
There are others, of course: the dated but still hysterical and super informative Big Book of Rap Lists from the merry pranksters of Ego Trip magazine; public intellectual Michael Eric Dyson has a few books under his belt, including a celebrated biography on the life of Tupac Shakur, Holler If You Hear Me, and the The Anthology of Rap is an admirable resource for those who want to further investigate the work of the great lyricists.
Happily, hip-hop didn’t turn out to be a fad after all.
If you’re a 26 year old rocker, pushing 27, you may want to consider slowing down on the partying a little bit—that is, if there’s any truth to this myth—the Forever 27 Club—which seems to indicate a need to chill out on the substance ingestion (outside of Cobain, perhaps) before it goes a little too far.
The usual suspects on this list are Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and Kurt Cobain, and sadly, there’s a new member, Amy Winehouse. My colleague Michael Gallagher posted a great blog about Amy’s passing a couple of days ago, which can be found here—I agree with him; of the ‘club members,’ I’ll probably miss Amy’s artistic output most of all.
There’s no shortage of books on these compelling personalities – here is a look at some of the best of them.
For a look at the idea of the 27s, short stories about all of them, shared in the context of the concept (idea, urban myth, whatever you want to call it), Eric Segalstad has put together a work that highlights this legend in his book The 27s: The Greatest Myth of Rock and Roll.
If you care to read about some of these icons individually, here are some of the best biographies out there:
While not a book specifically on Brian Jones, True Adventures of the Rolling Stones by Stanley Booth is, I think, the best book on the Rolling Stones—(I know, it’s a bad cover, but it’s a great book). The book’s structure alternates chapter by chapter; one chapter will describe the genesis of the band, and the next will focus on their 1971 US tour. Brian’s life and contributions are covered in great detail; some of the most memorable sections include Booth interviewing Jones’ grieving parents, who are still wondering where it all went wrong. A reliable work where Jones himself is the focus is Brian Jones: the Untold Life and Mysterious Death of a Rock Legend.
For the Hendrix fan, the title to check out is Room Full of Mirrors, a meticulously researched biography that tracks Jimi from birth all the way to the end. Another great Hendrix bio is Becoming Jimi Hendrix: From Southern Crossroads to Psychedelic London, the Untold Story of a Musical Genius.
There are two schools of thought on biographies: those by the detached outsider (and often these can go the sordid route of the unauthorized and gossipy type), and those by the insider. One of the best Janis Joplin biographies out there is by her sister, Love, Janis.
Jim Morrison was the next unfortunate musician to join the club: Stephen Davis’ Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend is a definitive biography. This is by the guy who wrote Hammer of the Gods, so you know he knows how to write a rock and roll book. No One Here Gets Out Alive is the other definitive work on Jim Morrison and the Doors.
Charles R. Cross’s Heavier than Heaven has become a go-to work for the fan curious about Nirvana. Somewhat controversial, the book does include fictional aspects that does speculate on events where no research was available. Of course, going directly to the source is always a good idea, and Kurt Cobain’s own Journals are no doubt the best look directly into this subject. Cobain Unseen is another informative work, more visual than text based.
And now we come sadly, to the newest member of the club. Currently unavailable, but certain to come back in print soon (as well as new works, no doubt), are two books on Amy Winehouse: Amy Winehouse: The Biography and Amy Amy Amy: The Amy Winehouse Story. A biographical documentary is available on DVD: Amy Winehouse: The Girl Done Good: A Documentary Review.
Another DVD is available, Amy Winehouse: I Told You I Was Trouble two live performances and a documentary, released shortly after the release of 2006’s fantastic Back to Black album.
The fifth day at the 2011 Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest was sadly my last day.
Aside from Day 4’s surprise storm and exodus before The Black Keys came on, the week was filled with great music and the most fun I’ve had in a field packed with other people. My body missed the routine meals and not walking in the heat so much, but overall it was well worth it.
Day 5 was clearly the busiest day of the festival to that point, all the beer gardens swollen with the thirsty and lineups testing the patience of a saint. This was little a small obstacle to me in my quest for a couple of beers and a decent viewing area for the enchanting Erykah Badu.
Families, boys, girls, you name it, packed the second stage area in time for Ms Badu’s 8 PM set time. However, she did not show up in a timely fashion following the announcer’s introduction. By 8:30, the crowd finally grew restless, as her set had to be finished by 9:30 to make sound room for the headliners on the main stage.
All was forgiven as Ms Badu and her very capable band quickly locked in a groove with bass so heavy I’m sure the Parliament buildings shook. Over the course of an hour, Badu touched upon most of her catalogue for her first visit to the nation’s capital. Always a classy performer and in possession of great wit and an uncanny ability to engage a crowd, Badu left after an hour with her band still playing and a crowd that quickly realized they would have to wait until her next visit to get more.
The Tragically Hip closed Saturday on the main stage with the biggest crowd I’d seen all week. As the final notes from Erykah’s set rang out beside the main stage, Kingston’s favourite sons were firing up “Blow at High Dough” followed by “Grace, Too”. Possibly too eager to begin the festivities, front man Gord Downie shouted out words almost to the point of strain. We decided to venture around the festival grounds to give Downie some time to settle down.
The other stages failed to offer anything worth parking ourselves for, so it was back to the Hip who were tearing through “New Orleans Is Sinking” (featuring “Nautical Disaster” in the middle of it). Downie was still doing his Downie thing, but the shouting had subsided. Mark came out as a closet Hip fan so we stayed until the end, making him happy, joining legions of other happy people.
A refreshing cool breeze accompanied the summer evening warmth, making it a great night to enjoy the company of beautiful people enjoying live music on day 3 of the 2011 Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest.
You may not have heard of Gregg Gillis, a.k.a. Girl Talk, the Pittsburgh mash-up maestro. Mixing hip hop raps over rock, alternative and pop hits, an hour of the man is pop overload. I’d never seen the man but heard his performances were legendary. I was surprised to run into an old friend, one I would have never have expected to be there, who said “It’s not my thing at all, but Girl Talk was the best time last year”. My friend turned out to be right.
I’ve been on the fence about the artistic merit of Girl Talk. Many argue he just pushes buttons, but I don’t think it’s quite that easy. The man obviously has quite the ear for mixing songs you’d never think to put together. The songs Girl Talk combines and his manic energy for what he’s creating make for a euphoric atmosphere. Flanked by an elaborate lighting rig and about 50 fans dancing on stage, Gillis dropped 90 minutes of the most fun to be had at this year’s Bluesfest.
We heard snippets of Black Sabbath, Kylie Minogue, Ludacris, Beyonce, Michael Jackson, Pixies, Phoenix ... and I could go on and on. It was impossible to stand still, although my friend, unimpressed, did just that. But when the chorus of Nirvana’s “Lithium” came on, the entire place erupted into complete blessed abandon. Shivers went up my spine as thousands of people threw their arms in the air and exclaimed “Amen” or “Yeeeaaaahhh”. The experience was religious. I guarantee anybody at that show will never forget it. Some may want to, but they won’t.
After that, things were a similar anticlimactic experience as Day 2. Steve Miller got underway on the main stage and his sound was pretty muffled from our vantage point.
Venturing over to the Subway stage, Stephen Marley was paying homage to his father. The field was packed and we stayed for a few songs until growing restless.
David Clayton-Thomas of Blood, Sweat & Tears fame was definitely not our thing at that point in the evening, so it was back over to Steve Miller for a few more songs. The sound had greatly improved and “Take The Money and Run” surprisingly inspired clouds of cigar smoke. But the euphoria from earlier in the day waas not to be matched, so it was time to soldier home.
So the recent postal strike had more of an impact on my life than originally thought.
On the first day of Bluesfest, those who ordered tickets online were forced to suffer through punishingly long lines to pick them up. Thankfully I picked up my tickets before the park even opened, but my buddy Mark begins what will turn out to be a two-hour wait to get in.
If you’re in Ottawa to attend any of the Bluesfest, I highly recommend picking up your tickets at one of the offsite outlets, unless you are built with some strong patience and even stronger shoes.
We arrived as Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros were playing. We got to hear them from outside the park and I must say I was impressed with I heard and I’m now inspired to do further research on them.
One of the main reasons I’m here is for Oklahoma City’s The Flaming Lips. The Fearless Freaks return this year, relegated to one hour on the second stage. They still bring their full psychedelic carnival presentation, complete with frontman Wayne Coyne, wading through the crowd in a large bubble to start the proceedings.
The setlist draws mainly from their most recent albums, other than a detour to the old days via “She Don’t Use Jelly,” the closest the Lips have come to a hit.
After a beautiful sunset, loads of balloons, graffiti and a crowd sing-a-long to “Do You Realize?” they’re gone, but have inspired a celebratory start to the 2011 festival.
Not exactly continuing this vibe are Seattle boys Soundgarden, who have reformed after 14 years apart. Their tour started last week in Toronto and tonight they close the first day on the main stage, with a solid two hours of heavy hits. I did see them a few times back in the early 90s and tonight I catch the first half of their set (whilst still waiting for Mark to get in). The sound fills the packed field nicely. They seem genuinely enthused about being there, but some spark is missing. I need my celebratory vibe to continue…
The party that began with the Flaming Lips concludes in an almost religious form with a funky, frothy and fantastically flashy set courtesy of funk freak Bootsy Collins. Collins slings a mean bass and practically shook the trees from their roots with his frantic funky jams, including revisiting his old days with George Clinton in their Parliament/Funkadelic days. It’s a fantastic way to end Day 1 and even my hips continue to sway long after I’ve departed the park.
Spring was like one long episode of Punk’d this year—replaced with a lingering fall. At times I did lose hope summer was coming and we would end up plunged back into the depths of autumn and winter. Fortunately, summer has finally smothered the nation and people are now safe to abandon their extended hibernation.
My favourite thing about summer is not the weather. In fact, I’m a pasty Irish guy that wilts in the heat. What I love about summer is the ability to gather outside with a number of like-minded individuals and enjoy some live music. Festivals seem to be popping up out of nowhere, trying to establish their niches and capitalize on the success of Glastonbury, Bonnaroo, Coachella and the like.
There are many festivals across Canada over the summer, catering to almost any whim. They’re an inexpensive and fun way to discover new sounds and meet new friends. I’ve made my way to Ottawa for Canada’s biggest music festival, the Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest. For 13 days, Lebreton Flats Park plays amazing host to hundreds of bands spread over several stages. Check out the lineup and performance grid here. If there’s an act you’d like to recommend me seeing, please do!
I lived in Ottawa for seven years and watched this event grow slowly and surely into what has become, for me, one of the most anticipated music events of the year. So for the next 5 days, I bring to you the hot and sweat-soaked sounds from the 2011 Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest. Enjoy!
