\ TO EAST \ After just over a decade as the host of an open mic he created at Dora Keogh after quitting his bartending job there in order to maintain a relationship with the owners, Julian Taylor is handing over the reins of the event to longtime pal Tyler Ellis. The event, as we’ve…
\ TO EAST \ It’s been a year now since family, friends and band mates of the late Bruce Adamson heard the shocking news that the Rock/Pop guitarist had died suddenly on December 15 of 2015 and for many the pain of losing him has not eased much in that time. While no cause of…
\ TO EAST \ We told you last year about Stuart Laughton’s Radio Dial, a band of top-flight performers that gets together one Tuesday a month at Dora Keogh at 141 Danforth Ave. near Broadview to do a wide range of eclectic songs that truly does recreate the feeling of spinning a radio dial (back…
\ TO EAST \ With the holiday season fast approaching, the bar that hosts the Riverboat Mondays open stage with Julian Taylor and Tyler Ellis tends to get booked up for private parties and other special events. So tonight’s edition of the popular 9-12 event at Dora Keogh on Danforth Ave. near Broadview will be…
\ TO WEST \ When is a music album not an album? Well, maybe when it’s actually two eps? For that is how autoharp/piano player, singer and songwriter Katey Morley is describing the release tonight of her Now/Then at The Piston, perhaps explaining the double-barreled nature of the title for the 11-song collection being launched.…
\ TO EAST \ Starting this afternoon and running through till Sunday evening, the 23rd annual Krinos Taste of the Danforth festival sees east end main drag Danforth Avenue closed to vehicle traffic from its emergence at Bloor as far east as Jones Avenue a half-block from Donlands subway station. And among the attractions is…
With Canadian Music Week going on in clubs all across the downtown, west end and even in the east, regular shows have a tough row to hoe to attract a lot of attention tonight. That’s not stopping a few dedicated acts from carrying on with planned special event shows, including Kayla Howran’s final residency show…
Click on gallery images to display \ TORONTO EAST \ We’ve told you many times now about how the three different regular musical events happening on Danforth Ave. near Broadview give the area the feel of a makeshift music festival on Monday nights —and even more so when, as tonight, The Danforth Music Hall is…
\ TO EAST \ As with any open stage, you never know whether, on any given Monday evening, there’s going to be a big lineup of artists or only a few taking part in the weekly event hosted by Sebastian Agnello at Black Swan Tavern at 154 Danforth Ave. But with a host as talented…
\ TORONTO EAST \ Although it’s a few weeks tardy in being commemorated, tonight Pop Rock/Funk-Dance songwriter and mesmerizing performer Julian Taylor celebrates seven years at the helm of a weekly open stage jam at Dora Keogh Irish Pub. The first night of the event in the pub at 141 Danforth Ave. would have actually…
\ TORONTO EAST \ It’s really a shame that a lack of professionalism of the management of Dora Keogh doesn’t give many of the artists who play there the exposure they deserve. The venue books great talent several nights a week but doesn’t bother to send listings to NOW magazine. And most months their website’s…
I love hosting open stages in part because it’s fun and seldom boring, with a wide range of artists of different styles usually in attendance. But the other great thing about doing so for me as publisher of this daily publication is that it introduces me to artists I might not come across otherwise. [I’m…
Danforth Ave. rules as Monday nights’ destination zone \ TORONTO EAST \ There are plenty of fine open mics and other shows happening across the GTA on a Monday, but when it comes to variety and quality packed into a relatively close-knit area, it doesn’t get any better than Danforth Ave. in east Toronto. Furthest…
Kyp Harness brings trenchant Folk to The Local tonight, Dora Friday \TO WEST/TO EAST\ As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been a fan of TO edgy-Folk songwriter Kyp Harness for about 20 years now, since first hearing him in the early 90s at the kickoff press conference for the very first North By Northeast Festival. (Too…
It’s a ‘Julian Salad’ as Taylor and Fauth both perform with bands tonight \TORONTO DOWNTOWN / TORONTO EAST\ Now that I’ve come up with the idea of a “Julian Salad” I think maybe I should try to arrange a show somewhere that combines the talents, versatility and variety of genre of both Juno-winning…
Guitar Boys and Funk Lad on the same gig is special /TORONTO EAST/ I was very pleased to see, during the weekend this past February when Winterfolk Blues & Roots Festival returned to its longtime home in the little clubs on Danforth Ave. near Broadview, that one of the area’s musical treasures and longtime…
Holiday Monday means more shows and less shows /GTA-WIDE/ Holiday Mondays are always funny creatures, with some places that normally have events on the first workday of the week cancelling them (such as the open stage at Dora Keogh, which is dark tonight) while other rooms put on special holiday events. Two afternoon shows going…
Julian Taylor’s new album unveiled at sneak preview tonight / TORONTO EAST/ I’m not sure why versatile Funk-Pop songwriter Julian Taylor decided to call his awesome new album what he did. To me its name, Tech Noir, connotes something dark (the “noir”) and cold (the “tech”); but this album is anything but either of those.…
