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Fiddlehead Music

Fiddlehead Music

Welcome to our Stop! Look! Listen! Music page! Here you'll find what our editors, contributors, and readers are currently listening to in short, snapy recommendations and raves. You'll also find the occasional playlist and other musical features. All contributions welcome — please get in touch to let us know what you're listening to!

What Lauren B. Davis is Listening To

Posted on July 11, 2016
Lauren B. Davis

For years I’ve listened to the likes of Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Mary Gauthier, and Chris Whitley while writing, as well as a smattering of classical works, but over the past year — perhaps reflecting a spiritual or emotional change — the focus has shifted almost entirely to classical music, both traditional and contemporary. Works by people like Olafur Arnalds, Ludovico Einaudi, Anouar Brahem, Hildur Gudnadottir, Hildegard of Bingen, and Dijan Gasparyan.

What James Adams is Listening To

Posted on June 27, 2016

Mostly jazz — an idiom in a hard way these days (once Sonny Rollins dies, that’s it for the giants who shaped it from the late 40s onwards; the Toronto jazz festival this year has the nerve to bill KC and the Sunshine Band as its headline act!). Still have a lot of vinyl and have been playing a fair amount of — you guessed it! – Prince, Merle Haggard and, for some unfathomable reason, R.E.M. from the mid-80s.

James Adams is a reporter at The Globe & Mail covering a variety of arts topics.

What James Langer is Listening To

Posted on June 21, 2016

Aside from waiting for the new Strokes EP to drop so I can buy it just to burn it? I’m listening to Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool. Obvious choice, I know. May as well get it out of the way. This is candid Radiohead. Seems to be Johnny Greenwood driven, symphonic and organic. It’s not In Rainbows, but what is?

Then there’s Marlon Williams. Self-titled debut album of a New Zealand singer-songwriter providing his take on American country-western. Voice like something you have to take methadone to kick. Eclectic and fucking eerie.

Remembering Prince

Posted on June 9, 2016

By Ross Leckie

An 18-year-old kid gets a record deal with Warner Bros. and he demands complete control over his music. I doubt that Warner Bros. knew what that meant. They cheerfully announced that the album would be produced by Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire. Prince Rogers Nelson replied, “No one produces Prince music but Prince.” He had, after all, spent an entire year in a friend’s studio when it was free at night recording and producing his demo.

What Mark Jarman's Listening To

Posted on April 15, 2016

I’ve been playing a lot of Kurt Vile, especially Smoke Ring for my Halo and b’lieve i’m going down; the latter took longer to grow on me but now I like it a lot. Also dug out some old vinyl, including Gilded Palace of Sin by Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Bros and can now declare that Sneaky Pete on steel guitar is an unheralded genius of the 1970s.  Also want to plug an odd tune, "Saddle in the Rain," by John Prine: produced by Steve Cropper of Memphis, has horns, and about as funky as you will hear Prine the folkie get.

An Interview with Singer-Songwriter Mo Kenney

Posted on February 4, 2016
By Ryan Gaio Mo Kenney is a singer-songwriter from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Her latest album, In My Dreams, produced by fellow Halifax native Joel Plaskett, was just nominated for Adult Alternative Album of the Year at the 2016 Junos. The Fiddlehead's editorial assistant Ryan Gaio spoke with the singer-songwriter in January, just before her two appearances at Fredericton's Shivering Songs festival. In this interview she talks to Ryan about her writing process, collaboration, dealing with negative feedback and more.

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