Gord Sinclair at The Danforth Music Hall - Concert Photos

Gord Sinclair performed at The Danforth Music Hall on December 3. His album Taxi Dancers is out now.

Gord and the band were opening up for The Trews. Check out photos of The Trews here.

Here's his rendition of "Get Back Again".

Photos by Brad Goldstein

Hillside 2019: Day 3: Skydiggers featuring Paul Langlois of The Tragically Hip - Concert Photos

The music world, and myself personally, are still reeling from the loss of Canadian musical icon Gord Downie of The Tragically Hip. This year's Sunday line-up at Hillside's main stage closed out with a special performance by The Skydiggers, joined by The Tragically Hip's Paul Langlois.

I didn't catch the whole set, but the ending was magical, with Tragically Hip tunes "Nautical Disaster" and "Wheat Kings" followed by "End of the Line" by The Travelling Wilburys.

Hope you enjoy the tunes below and will click here to check out a master Hillside 2019 post that includes links to everything we covered this year.

I've seen The Skydiggers once before, at TURF back in 2015. Those photos are here if you want to take a look.

Skydiggers' "I Will Give You Everything"

Paul Langlois' "Not Guilty"

The Tragically Hip's "Wheat Kings"

Travelling Wilburys' "End of the Line"

TURF 2016: Fort York Day 1: Dwayne Gretzky - Concert Pictures

Dwayne Gretzky are an all-star Toronto cover band. They appeared on the Battle of York stage at TURF performing the music of The Tragically Hip in honour of Good Downie. I couldn't catch the entire set, but from what I did hear, they did a great job honouring one of Canada's most venerable artists, poets and bands.

Since I could only find fan-shot clips of Dwayne Gretzky doing The Hip, here are clips of a couple of my all-time favourite Hip tunes from my favourite Hip album, Day for Night.

"So Hard Done By"

"Nautical Disaster"

The Tragically Hip receive honorary degrees from Queen's University, release new song

I was at Queen's University this past Thursday for my nephew's med school graduation. At the same convocation, legendary Kingstonian rockers The Tragically Hip received honorary degrees from the University.

In his speech to the graduates, bassist Gord Sinclair mentioned that the bulk of the writing for their album Road Apples took place on the same stage that he was speaking from, at Grant Hall at the University. Sinclair talked about how technology has evolved from their early days to today, and addressed how evolving technology will influence the careers of the graduating doctors. He continued with solid advice for the graduates and you can hear his entire speech below.

Guitarist Rob Baker, bassist Gord Sinclair, guitarist Paul Langlois and drummer Johnny Fay were all on hand for the ceremony. Singer Gord Downie was not able to attend.

Baker, Sinclair and Downie all graduated from Queen’s University and Sinclair, Langlois and Baker all live in Kingston. The band's new album Man Machine Poem, available June 17 and the track "In A World Possessed By The Human Mind" is below.

In case you missed it, check out my post on the recent twenty-fifth anniversary of Road Apples.

Twenty-five years ago: The Tragically Hip Road Apples

From the late 1980's through to the late 1990's, The Tragically Hip were undisputed Canadian rock royalty. Named after a bit in Michael Nesmith's Elephant Parts, they sold out stadiums from coast-to-coast with their art-school take on classic rock, with their off-kilter poet/frontman Gord Downie, their slide guitar on one side of the stage and solid chunking rhythm guitar on the other, and an unstoppable back-beat rhythm section behind.

Road Apples, the band's second full-length, came out 25 years ago today. I was on the air at the university radio station when they brought the album in. It immediately came out of the shrinkwrap and onto the airwaves. It followed up 1989's Up to Here which had some gigantic hit singles like "Blow at High Dough", "New Orleans Is Sinking" and "Another Midnight". This album had some big cowboy boots to fill and it did so remarkably well. I'm going to let the music speak for itself.

"I don't know what came over me, I'm too dumb for words

I didn't think I'd like it here at all, but I swear, I'm on the verge"

And bonus points if you actually know what "road apples" refers to.

Here are my favourite tunes from The Tragically Hip's Road Apples:

"Little Bones"

"Twist My Arm"

"Cordelia"

"Born in the Water"

"Three Pistols"

"On The Verge" I think it was during this song at one of those Canada Day festivals up at Molson Park in Barrie when they played this song and the crowd started getting more and more wound up and I was sure there was going to be a riot. Fun!

Pic from Amazon.

The intersection of Stereophonics and The Tragically Hip

So there I was, on the Toronto subway, listening to my iPod, when a song came on. It was "Violins and Tambourines" from the latest Stereophonics album Graffiti On The Train. And when I heard the lyric, I immediately thought of "Last of the Unplucked Gems" by The Tragically Hip from their 1991 album Road Apples.

"Violins and tambourines

This is what I think they mean

It's hard to say, it's sad but true

I'm kinda dumb and so are you

When the mystique varies thus

You can send a man to bury us

It's hard to say, it's sad but true

I'm kinda dumb and so are you

The last of the unplucked gems

The last of the unplucked gems

The last of the unplucked gems"

And here's the title track from Graffiti On The Train.