Various Artists
Women’s Blues Revue Live
By David Barnard

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Women’s Blue Revue, the Toronto Blues Society has collected a CD’s worth of material from recordings made by CBC Radio between 1999 and 2005. In true revue form, the WMR Band is a crack seven-piece unit led by keyboard player Lily Sazz. They back-up each performer and provide many instrumental highlights. It’s hard to single out any one player but guitarist Margaret Stowe is a constant delight, adding jazzy runs to her solos and rocking out when it’s called for, such as during Suzie McNeil’s “Up Above The Clouds.” The band’s professionalism inspires outstanding vocal performances, including Alana Bridgewater’s “Trust In Me,” an Etta James classic, a powerhouse rendition of Big Mama Thornton’s “Hound Dog” by Rita Chiarelli, Molly Johnson reaching deep for Gershwin’s perennial “Summertime” and the CD’s showstopper, Jackie Washington’s version of “I’m A Woman” with just voice and bass. Roxanne Potvin, Sue Foley, Ellen McIlwaine and Suzie Vinnick sing and play, and their performances are amongst the best on the CD. Guitarist McIlwaine powers through an angry cover of the Isley Brothers’ “Fight The Power” and Sue Foley’s low key version of the Rolling Stones’ “I Got The Blues” exceeds the original. Also featured are performances by Diana Braithwaite, Georgette Fry, Divine Brown, Lee Aaron, Serena Ryder and Dawn Tyler Watson. Through 15 songs a wide range of blues styles are heard. There are enough surprises here that even listeners who find blues music of peripheral interest will discover much to enjoy. (Toronto Blues Society)
Silt - Cat’s Peak
A grand mix of Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and a subdued Magnolia Electric Co., with just enough awkward singing and weird chord combinations to keep things interesting, this album is, simply, a pure delight. The threesome of Ryan Driver, Doug Tielli and Marcus Quin may also moonlight in more experimental ...Read More
Belinda Bruce And The Tawny Stars - The Good Life
Bloody Miracles - Bloody Miracles
The Bosshoss - Rodeo Radio
David Bromberg - Try me One More Time
Dolorean - You Can’t Win
Downchild - Live at the Palais Royale
Friday Morning’s Regret - When Lost at Sea
Jake & the Leprechauns - Jake & the Leprechauns
James Gordon & Sons - Nine Green Bottles
Jeremy Fisher - Goodbye Blue Monday
Joel Kroeker - Closer To the Flame
Johnny Bush - Kashmere Gardens Mud: A Tribute to Houston’s Country Soul
Jon Rauhouse - Steel Guitar Heart Attack
Kat Goldman - Sing Your Song
Loomer - Songs of the Wild West Island
Lucas Stagg - Lucas Stagg
Michael Powers - Prodigal Son
Mister Mann - December Looms
Neil Young - Live at Massey Hall 1971
Radio Moscow - Radio Moscow
Robert Cray - Live from Across The Pond
Son Volt - The Search
Storyhill - Storyhill
Sunny Sweeney - Heartbreaker’s Hall of Fame
Uncle Earl - Waterloo, Tennessee
Wayne Petti - City Lights Align
Yael Wand - At Your Door
Crackdown G20
Crackdown 2 was pretty fun when I first played the demo. But before I got my thumbs on the final code, the G20 summit tore apart downtown Toronto — including an incursion of 300 riot cops into my neighbourhood to raid the protestors' Parkdale headquarters — and shook my faith in Canada's police services.... Read More
Books - The Way Out
After a quick succession of albums on Tomlab in the first half of the '00s, Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong took a five-year break from recording to do family stuff and recharge. The Way Out shows no superficial changes in methodology: odd found speech samples and folksy acoustic instrumentatio... Full Review
Joe Danger [PS3]
Super Mario and Zelda may have gotten more attention, but for those who grew up on Nintendo's original NES console, ExciteBike was equally iconic. Racing a motocross over jumps was awesome — but the ability to create your own tracks, even without being saveable on such a p... Full Review
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