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Maclean's

Maclean's

Maclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.

36 articles

List of articles in the library

By date | By artist | Most recently added

King Sunny Adé: The African Influence

Profile by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 15 August 1983

AFTER EXHAUSTING the musical possibilities of rhythm and blues over the past 30 years, pop music is searching for ways to rejuvenate itself. The Police ...

Jane Siberry: The Eccentric Charms of a Pop Poet

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 7 October 1985

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 ...

Fela Kuti: Africa's Cult Musician: Fela Anikulapo Kuti

Report by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 13 October 1986

WHEN ONE OF Africa's most celebrated musicians receives visitors at his home in the Nigerian capital of Lagos, he lounges in little more than a ...

Robbie Robertson: Songs of a native son

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 23 November 1987

STEPPING OFF a Greyhound bus from Toronto in 1961, a 17-year-old boy found himself in West Helena, Ark., by the banks of the Mississippi River, ...

Joni Mitchell: Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm

Review by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 4 April 1988

THE FIRST LINES on Joni Mitchell's new album, Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm, are an invitation to intimacy "I'm going to take you to ...

Joni Mitchell: Portrait of an Artist in her Prime

Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 4 April 1988

IT HAS BEEN 24 years since Joni Mitchell left Saskatoon and eventually arrived on the coffeehouse circuit in Toronto's Yorkville district. And although she has ...

Leonard Cohen, Jennifer Warnes: Leonard Cohen: The return of the modern troubadour

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 9 May 1988

LEONARD COHEN, hailed 20 years ago as Canada's answer to Bob Dylan, had slipped into obscurity. It was the mid-1980s, and audiences seemed more interested ...

Ian Tyson: Cowboy troubadour: Ian Tyson is riding high again

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 13 February 1989

THE AUDITORIUM was a sea of cowboy hats in a variety of styles – High Sierra, Ridgetop and Cattleman. The ranchers, cowhands and wives were ...

Paul McCartney: Paul Gets Back

Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 2 October 1989

ENGLAND WAS basking in an unseasonably warm and bright afternoon one day last week. Paul McCartney, however, was spending it enveloped by darkness and fog, ...

Jane Siberry: Bound for Glory

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 9 October 1989

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 ...

Rush: Rock'n'Roll Royalty

Retrospective and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 30 September 1991

GEDDY LEE visibly tenses up when he talks about the period when fans drove him and his family out of their east-end Toronto home. ...

Snow: Snow Business

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 3 May 1993

AS A TEENAGER growing up in the housing projects of north Toronto, Darrin O'Brien did not seem to have much of a future. An indifferent ...

Jane Siberry: Songs in a Brave New Key

Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 9 August 1993

MOST PERFORMERS would call getting booed during a concert their worst nightmare. Not Jane Siberry. Although she suffered that fate last year, at the height ...

Joni Mitchell: Lady of the Canyon

Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 31 October 1994

FOR JONI MITCHELL, fame has been a fickle lover. In the 1970s, it lavished her with sold-out tours and numerous magazine covers. She was the ...

Alanis Morissette: Adventures of Alanis in Wonderland

Profile by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 1 February 1995

SHE IS THE newest cover girl for "alternative" rock, a populist answer to Courtney Love. Fans and critics throughout North America have embraced Ottawa native ...

Barenaked Ladies, Blue Rodeo, Crash Test Dummies, Sarah McLachlan, Sloan, The Tragically Hip: Canadian Rock Music Explodes

Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 27 March 1995

WITH HIS STRAGGLY, shoulder-length hair, torn blue jeans and red sneakers, Greig Nori doesn't look like the sort of man to be wined and dined ...

Ronnie Hawkins: Rock of Ages

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 15 May 1995

THE BEER WAS flowing freely as waitresses served platters of breaded shrimp, gourmet pizza and chicken wings. But it was not the regular hockey crowd ...

Sarah McLachlan: Front and Centre Stage

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 28 July 1995

SARAH MCLACHLAN was lounging in her air-conditioned trailer, exhausted but exhilarated after a day spent fielding media questions and a night spent singing, strumming and ...

Shania Twain: Country Princess

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 28 August 1995

IT IS THE AUGUST holiday weekend, but there is no rest for Shania Twain. New country music's hottest new sensation is busy paying her dues ...

Blood Sweat & Tears, Denny Doherty, John Kay, The Lovin' Spoonful, The Mamas and The Papas, Steppenwolf, Domenic Troiano, Zal Yanovsky: Blasts from the Past: Five veteran Canadian rockers recall their glory days

Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 11 March 1996

CANADIAN MUSIC passes a milestone this year as the Juno Awards turn 25. To celebrate the occasion, this year's event (CBC TV, Sunday, March 10) ...

Tracy Chapman, Sarah McLachlan, Kinnie Starr, Suzanne Vega: Songs of the Sirens: Lilith Fair

Report by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 28 July 1997

THEY READ tarot cards on the grass in the afternoon sun and danced under the moon to the sounds of Tracy Chapman. And before they ...

Buena Vista Social Club, Ry Cooder: Some Cuban Sizzle: Ry Cooder turns up the musical heat in Havana

Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 13 October 1997

RY COODER'S RESUMÉ is one of the most impressive in popular music. He has lent his guitar skills to recordings by the Rolling Stones, Van ...

Barenaked Ladies: Barenaked in America

Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 20 July 1998

THE LADIES' LUCK has changed. While Canada's Barenaked Ladies have fizzled at home in the past few years, their career has exploded south of the ...

Sloan: "Totally awesome"

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 23 November 1998

A FEW DAYS on the concert circuit with the Canadian band Sloan defy just about all the usual rock 'n' roll expectations. ...

Oscar Peterson: A Living, Swinging Legend: Oscar Peterson

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 13 September 1999

OSCAR PETERSON peers up through the glass ceiling of his sunroom and apologizes for the faint noise coming from a distant jet passing overhead. "We're ...

Diana Krall: Sweet Seduction

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 13 September 1999

IT'S MID-MORNING in a quiet hotel restaurant and Diana Krall is having a love affair with an artichoke. ...

The Guess Who: Guess Who's Reborn?

Retrospective and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 29 May 2000

ON AN EARLY May afternoon, on the eastern outskirts of Winnipeg, a spring ritual is under way. Like bears emerging from hibernation, some grey-haired men ...

Jane Bunnett: Our Gal in Havana

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 26 June 2000

SHE'S BEEN CALLED "Havana Jane", and Canada's Jane Bunnett has certainly earned the title. The celebrated jazz flautist and soprano saxophonist has been a familiar ...

Barenaked Ladies on Top

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 25 September 2000

IT WAS LIKE an IQ test question asking which was the apple among the oranges. ...

The Tragically Hip: From the Hip: The Tragically Hip

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 11 December 2000

WELL AFTER midnight, on a cold stretch of highway somewhere in British Columbia's Cascade Mountains, a party is in progress. It's mid-November, and members of ...

Gordon Downie: Gord goes it alone: The Tragically Hip's Gord Downie

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 26 March 2001

GORDON DOWNIE inhabits an enviable place in Canadian culture. At concerts, thousands of fans chant his lyrics as if they were mantras. They hang on ...

Hawksley Workman: Hawksley's Moxie

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 21 April 2001

IS HAWKSLEY WORKMAN too good to be true? At 26, the Canadian singer-songwriter has already drawn comparisons to figures like David Bowie and Tom Waits ...

Cowboy Junkies take the indie route

Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 7 May 2001

IT'S NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE to imagine Margo Timmins as a bad-tempered diva. The angel-voiced singer of Canada's Cowboy Junkies has always been a point of calm ...

Blue Rodeo: Going Indie on the internet

Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 7 May 2001

IMAGINE YOU'RE in a rock band that is wildly successful at home in Canada, but only mildly so in the United States. Canadian sales of ...

Ron Sexsmith, Rufus Wainwright: The New Romantics: Ron Sexsmith and Rufus Wainwright

Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, June 2001

THEY ARE THE sensitive boys of Canadian pop. Both are acclaimed singer-songwriters, and both are unabashedly emotional. One is gay, with an impeccable musical pedigree, ...

Leon Redbone: The Cult of Redbone

Report and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, Maclean's, 5 November 2001

FOR MORE THAN 25 years, Leon Redbone has been conjuring up the past with his Roaring Twenties show tunes and turn-of-the-century minstrel ditties. Wearing his ...

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