Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

He made headlines for his drug bust, marriage breakup and departure from Canada’s favorite band. But the former Barenaked Ladies frontman has clearly turned over a new leaf. After scoring theatrical plays at Stratford and recording a collection of cover songs with a jazz and classical ensemble, Page is back with a strong collection of witty, melodic pop and an impressive commitment to songcraft. “No waiting limos, no cocaine and discos,” he sings, “I gave that all up for the chorus, girl.” Brave new beginnings.

It is a long climb up two flights of stairs, past a wall of hanging hats, into Jane Siberry’s private world. In many ways, her third-floor apartment in Toronto’s west end is a typical artist’s garret: small, bright and sparsely furnished. And like her songs, which offer unexpected views of daily life, Siberry’s living quarters reveal an assortment of striking snapshot images: a sundrenched guitar leaning against a wall, an unused painting easel standing in a corner, a solitary oak table sitting in the front room. With a piano squeezed in next to the kitchen sink, it is an unusually modest dwelling for one of Canada’s most celebrated singer-songwriters. Yet, for the past year, Siberry, who wa...

Dressed in white lace stockings and a silky smoking jacket, she fluttered tentatively around the stage. With her frail figure and whispery voice, she seemed fragile under the spotlight’s glare. But as her pulsing, ethereal music gathered momentum, Jane Siberry spun a web around her audience in Detroit two weeks ago. At 29, Siberry has been hailed in Rolling Stone magazine as a “fascinating” new artist, and many critics feel she is the finest Canadian songwriter to appear in a decade. Once considered too eccentric for popular tastes, the Toronto singer is emerging into pop’s mainstream: her North American tour of 50 cities is currently under way, and last week 30,000 copies of her t...