Music

Story: Don Graham

CURTIS GRAMBO is one of those country artists that is comfortable in his own skin, making choices and making music that he can sing not just from his lungs, but from his heart.

Grambo will be the first to tell you he learned to sing country music from the "Legends of County". Growing up in Crystal Springs, Saskatchewan, the Grambo home was no different than most prairie homes, in that music was a big part of their life. Curtis grew up listening to the likes of Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, George Jones, Charlie Pride and many styles of gospel music. 

At the age of five, Curtis began signing in church, and by the age of twelve, he had developed a substantial array of vocal talents. Curtis vividly remembers August 16th, 1977 as a day that changed his life forever. He arrived home to find his mother crying and he knew something was really wrong. When he asked her the reason she was crying, she stated, "Elvis Presley died." Curtis couldn't let this go. He thought that if his mom was such a huge fan, this guy had to be something special, and was amazed at how one man's music could have such an influence on so many people. Curtis was hooked!

He spent the next five years expanding his vocal talents and learning from, what Grambo says, were the best teachers a young vocalist could have. It was straight home from school to his Silvertone guitar and Leroy Amp, copying mirroring, working on duplicating the skills of Elvis Presley, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, John Conley and many others.

Story: Lenny Stoute/James Lizzard

Photo at right: Last Year’s Men

So when’s the last time you saw a dude smash the splinters out of his axe to end the set? If you were at The Silver Dollar as Saturday night slid into Sunday that was exactly what went down courtesy of young Geoff Schilling. The boy plays lead axe with South Carolina foursome Last Year’s Men who deal in a sound mashup of thrash and speedcore rock wedded to Southern Gothic. That no one else is doing this is for sure, the jaw-dropped crowd mesmerized as hollow-eyed singer Ben Carr intoned his dire tales of dirty deeds over an ominous drumbeat echoing from the piney woods. When the guitars erupt it’s like somebody took the lid off a boxful of vengeful spirits. Along with Carr and Schilling, Last Year’s Men are bassist Montgomery Morris and drummer Ian Rose and y’all should catch them when you can.

Know what else you don’t see much of anymore? The classic knee drop, that potentially career-ending move what separates the men from the kids. But if you stayed around after the LYM set at the Dollar, you witnessed not one but three full-on knee drops from The Mercy Now bassist/frontman Russ Fernandez. The homie hammerheads were showing off tracks from current EP, Love Battles a collection of their trademark crunchy rock riffs married to heavy and danceable rhythms just this side of a mosh. The by now mostly fans in the house got into it in a big way, a testament to this crew’s way with three chords and as many hooks per tune, with “ Need Some Money” close to a template.

Par Marc Durand

Qui l’aurait cru. On se dirige dans le Vieux Québec, on passe les arches de la Porte St-Jean.... et, tout juste à côté de magasin Archambault (autrefois Musique d’Auteuil) , deux très gros drapeaux britanniques vont au gré du vent. Scandale, on ose confronter la laine pure et dure du Vieux Québec avec ces symboles de l’occupation du passé.

Eh bien, c’est le ‘décor’ extérieur du Pub St-Alexandre, établi rue St-Jean depuis 1988. Un véritable Pub Anglais, implanté en plein centre du patrimoine Québécois. Après une visite en Europe, les Barré ont transformé la veille Taverne Coloniale (1946) en pub typique. Boiseries foncées, miroirs, plus de 200 bières dont 21 en fut... et plus de 40 ‘single malts’ sont à la carte.

On y sert des repas de style pub et on y accueilles des musiciens et groupes plusieurs soirs par semaine. Le blues et le jazz y sont à l’honneur, mais on y accueille aussi des groupes de rock (pas de métal) et des chanteurs francophones... on y fait quelquefois des lancements de disque.

Pub St. Alexandre

À l’été, un ‘black cab’ se retrouve stationné droit devant... question de prolonger le mirage britannique.

Submitted by Cashbox Canada

Tonya Kennedy’s latest single “EVERYTHING”, tells of her and Neil’s story of unconditional love and the intense emotion shared between them.  In this Anniversary Edit (Neil and Tonya will celebrate 10 years on April 4th) producer Rick Hutt offers a re-mix of the album version adding various instrumentation to bring to you this huge powerhouse love ballad.
“This is a really special song to me because it’s a song about how I feel about my husband and song writing partner.  It’s so personal and a little scary at the same time to be so exposed to the world…but I adore my fans and want them to see this personal side of me”, states Kennedy.

The great news – “EVERYTHING” was hand picked by a music placement company based in New York City to be shopped for Film & TV Placements.

Tonya Kennedy began her pursuit of music in 1999 where she became a powerful force in the world of pop rock, touring Ontario and various provinces. During that time, Tonya realized her passion was in the world of Country music and in 2005 entered a competition through Durham based KX96 Country Music Radio and was crowned the KX96 Super Star Search winner. Her grand prize was an opportunity to record and release a country song to Canadian Radio and that is where it all began to evolve for this sassy and classy singer.