Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

Born to an Italian father and a Scottish mother, Paolo was once described as having “the face of a Benetton model and the voice of a 50-year-old soak.” Just 22, Paolo has already tasted success: his debut album, These Streets, sold two million copies and drew James Blunt comparisons. On his latest, the Paisley troubadour tries to distant himself from a commercial sheen, opting for rougher sounds on such disparate tunes as the Caribbean-flavored “High Hopes” and the country-tinged “Simple Things.” Oddly eccentric. June 2009

In what must be the year’s strangest, most out-of-character recording, the godfather of punk abandons his usual primal rock in favor of jazz with hints of ambient synth-pop. Even more surprising, Iggy performs at least some of the material in French. While his growling bass is hardly a croon, his moody delivery of songs like “Les feuilles mortes” and “Je sais que tu said” is certainly a revelation. More Iggy-like is the humorous swing of “King of the Dogs” and the nihilistic “Nice to Be Dead.” Call it middle age madness. June 2009

Canadian singing sensation Michael Bublé has enjoyed a storybook career. After performing at the wedding of former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s daughter, Caroline, Michael was introduced to award-winning producer David Foster. It proved to be a fruitful partnership. Michael’s albums, including Michael Bublé, It’s Time and Call Me Irresponsible, have sold over 15 million copies to date. Meanwhile, the Vancouver-born artist has won multiple Juno Awards and last year earned his first Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. His personal life has been equally charmed. His engagement and subsequent breakup with longtime girlfriend Debbie Timuss, an actress, singer and dancer, led him...

Lead singer Brody Dalle, once the partner of Rancid’s Tim Armstrong and now married to Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, with whom she has a three-year-old daughter, is a rock-and-roll vixen. Her previous band, the Distillers, was once described as “blood lust meets death wish where punk meets metal.” With the sexy swagger of tracks like “Ghetto Love” and “Sex Bomb,” Brody’s new group is no less raunchy. So, despite such new, gentler numbers as “Impaler,” she remains one of rock’s hottest moms. June 2009

It’s appropriate that LeRoi Moore’s solo is the first thing you hear on DMB’s latest. The saxophonist, nicknamed the Groo Grux King, died unexpectedly last year after a freak ATV accident. From the cover artwork by Dave Matthews himself, depicting LeRoi as a giant laughing head on a Mardi Gras float, to the funky grooves throughout, it’s a lovingly rendered tribute. But there’s also an understandably darker, heavy vibe than on most DMB albums, especially on the fatalistic “Spaceman” and the foreboding “Squirm.” June 2009  

They’ve been called America’s Radiohead and its “foremost rock impressionists.” Certainly Wilco, the popular Chicago band led by Jeff Tweedy, has been bravely experimental—to the delight and consternation of fans. Like Neil Young, one of Jeff’s biggest influences and with whom the group recently toured, Wilco has swung freely between genres. The band’s release Being There was classic alternative-country, while the Grammy-winning A Ghost is Born was pure indie rock. Its most adventurous effort to date was 2002’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, which remains the group’s best-selling album. The band’s latest CD, Wilco (the album), is a mix of both familiar alt-country sounds and edgy rock experimentation...

Suddenly, the brothers are everywhere: touring the planet and starring in their own Monkees-style TV series. For fans, the New Jersey boy band’s fourth album, released just 10 months after its last studio effort, is a Jonas bonus. Kevin, Joe and Nick are stretching out a little here, adding horns to their power-pop sound and tackling more topical subjects on songs like “Don’t Charge Me for the Crime,” featuring the rapper Common. “Trying Times” may be their nod to global problems, but the Jonas’ world has never been rosier. June 2009

Dallas Green helps to make Alexisonfire one of Canada’s most intriguing bands. When the guitarist-singer is not venting his spleen as part of the best-selling group’s post-hardcore “screamo” sound, he’s fronting the gentle folk outfit City and Colour. Alexisonfire’s latest is a predictably intense affair, full of blood-curdling howls and propulsive riffs. But there are also signs that the boys are growing up. As Dallas and fellow vocalist George Pettit sing on “Old Crows,” “We are not the kids we used to be.” June 2009  

Madison Violet’s Brenley MacEachern and Lisa MacIsaac have deep roots on Canada’s East Coast. Lisa, younger sister of fiddling sensation Ashley MacIsaac, was born in Cape Breton where she began playing fiddle at kitchen parties when she was just a child. Meanwhile, Brenley’s dad and Lisa’s father were close childhood friends who grew up on the island, immersed in its traditional culture. When the two women formed a duo in 1999, many expected to hear a distinctive East Coast sound. Says Lisa: “It’s hard not to get pigeon-holed as a Celtic band if you come from there, especially with the last name MacIsaac.” But the music that Brenley and Lisa make owes more to the Appalachian mountains than C...

When not playing keyboards for Barenaked Ladies, Kevin makes adventurous yet accessible music he calls “avant rock.” His solo work certainly comes from a brave, whimsical place. The talented artist named his fine 2001 album H-Wing, after the ward at Toronto’s Princess Margaret Hospital where he was treated for leukemia. Kevin’s latest is another daring delight, with dreamy pop concoctions featuring stellar guests like Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Chantal Kreviazuk and the wondrous Mary Margaret O’Hara. July 2009