Singer-songwriter Donovan Woods has had a busy 2016: He released his fourth album and a companion EP, toured across the country several times, topped a few charts, made the Polaris Music Prize Long List and more. We managed to find a couple minutes to catch up with him ahead of his concert at Trinity St. Paul’s Centre on Friday, October 28.

Q: What’s stuck out for you this year?

A: I feel very lucky to show up and have people excited to listen and participate and have a good time. It just makes the whole thing a pleasure. I played so many awful gigs, including one open mic at the now-defunct Dufferin Mall Boston Pizza, and it’s starting to look like I may not have to play any Boston Pizzas again. That feels great.

Q: We’re about to watch you perform in a church. How will the surrounding affect your performance – and our experience of it?

A: I really like it in this church. I saw Hayden here and it was great. More importantly, I used to photocopy, fax and scan things at the Kinkos next door, when faxes were still a thing you had to do sometimes. So, at times, I’ll be thinking about that. Overall it feels like a very intimate space for fairly large group of people and that’ll feel really perfect.

Q: You’ve spent a lot of this year on the road. What’s the one thing people should know about touring that they might not?

A: You’ve heard it’s not glamorous, but it feels good to me. I really like hotels. I like seeing new towns. I like leaving places. Opening for Matt Andersen, I travelled on his bus and one thing I didn’t know was how much you literally just sleep in parking lots: The whole thing is mostly just sleeping in parking lots. But there’s a glamour in that too, if you look for it.

Q: What are five must-listen-to jams for you right now?

A: “Mr. Rodriguez,” Rayland Baxter; “Same Drugs,” Chance The Rapper; “All Time Low,” John Bellion; “You Want It Darker,” Leonard Cohen; and “Burn That Bridge,” Port Cities.

Q: What are the biggest misconceptionsw people have of you?

A: I’m happy that anyone has conceptions of me at all. Misconceptions are fine. You never REALLY know anyone anyway, right?

Q: What are you planning for the next 12 months?

A: It’s been long stretches between albums, so I’m trying to lock into a cycle that gets new music out more often. I hope to dive back into recording as soon as I can

Donovan Woods performs at Trinity St. Paul’s Centre on Friday, October 28 with special guest Joey Landreth.

During the month of October, Canada celebrates Women’s History Month. Massey Hall is part of the extraordinary story of women who have helped shape our country. One of the most progressive movements that Massey Hall became a community & political hub for was the suffragist movement in the early decades of the twentieth century. Massey Hall was visited by a number of feminists, such as Canadian-born Nellie McClung and the British-born Pankhurst women including Emmeline and her daughter Sylvia, all of whom paved the path for women’s equality.

On a visit to Massey Hall in December 1909, Emmeline Pankhurst was met with uncertainty by a curious audience that was not accustomed to exposure on the fight for women’s rights. At the time, Canadian women were not part of the suffragist movement the same way women overseas were. However, directly after Pankhurst’s talk, Mrs. Phillip Snowden was enthusiastically received when she gave details on the progress of the movement in Great Britain to a nearly full audience and went on to inspire the crowd by proclaiming that 15 different national associations were advocating for women’s suffrage in her homeland. The inaugural visits of these women inspired the local Toronto suffragist movement to grow as well as the rest of the country (The Globe, December 7 1909, p.14)

Emmeline returned to The Hall December 1911, 2 years after her visit, to an audience that was receptive and excited to her thoughts and ideas. The movement had gain traction and although she was more of a curiosity during her 1909 visit, this time around she was a force to be reckoned with. Pankhurst spoke about the unequal treatment of women by the law and she stood on stage, proud & strong, fighting for those conditions to improve. She made a plea for equality and faced lash back from an allegedly intoxicated man, who kept interrupting her lecture. As this happened, officers in the crowd stood by and did nothing, proving her point right there in the moment that the law was treating women unfairly (The Globe, December 13 1911, p.9).

Emmeline was not the only Pankhurst woman to speak to audiences at Massey Hall. Earlier that year in February, her youngest daughter Sylvia shared the successes of how their campaign had progressed in Canada. She spoke honestly to the crowd of her quarrels with law enforcement and of suffragette’s experiences in prison. With spirit and indignation she spoke out to the packed audience and said, “We do not feel the knocks on the head we get. We just see a great light in front of us, the light of our cause” (The Globe, February 13 1911, p.7).

The Pankhurst women laid the foundation for Canadian women to get involved and not long after their first visits to the Hall, Canadian-born and Winnipeg-raised Nellie McClung stood in the very same spot during the height of World War I on October 13, 1915 with a lecture titled “The War that Never Ends.”

McClung was praised for her ability to entertain, instruct, inspire and shock the large audience at Massey Hall. She presented her lecture under the auspices of the Ontario Equal Franchise Association for the benefit to provide a field kitchen for Canadians at the front. On stage she boldly stated, “We must all declare war on meanness and prejudice, we must drop bombs on prejudice and petty conceit and fight for better conditions. There isn’t any reason against equal franchise” (The Globe, Oct. 14 1915, p.10)

Women went on to campaign at every level of government to win the right to vote in provincial elections. The first victory happened in Manitoba on January 28, 1916 and other provinces began to follow with Québec being the last to concede the vote in 1940. All of this progress & success was thanks to women like those who were not afraid to stand up in front of crowds on stages like Massey Hall to inspire and educate women on the importance of equality.

Massey Hall continued to be a political arena and community gathering space over the years and to this day, the “Grand Ol’ Lady of Shuter” Street keeps her doors open for those seeking a stage to amplify their voice.

Ashley D’Andrea is Researcher in the Corporation of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall’s Development department.

Each year, as the moments and memories pile up, we like to take a minute to recognize and thank the incredible and dedicated staff, crew, patrons, artists, and community of leaders who help make Massey Hall so magical – night after night.

Over the past year, among countless happenings, we welcomed over 200,000 people through its famous red doors including more than 1800 students from 44 different GTA schools and community groups at Share the Music workshops and concerts. We honoured Blue Rodeo with The Massey Hall Honours Award on stage in front of a capacity crowd, kicked off our history-making 7-year Revitalization project, and our staff received the inaugural Canada Music Live Award for Best Teamwork in a Soft Seat Theatre. The legendary boards hosted iconic musicians and entertainers including Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell, Matt Andersen, Ringo Starr, Buddy Guy, Amy Schumer, Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, Tanya Tagaq, Chris Hadfield, Leon Bridges, Steve Reich, Bahamas, Smashing Pumpkins, and this very special tribute to Prince.

Today marks the 122 birthday of our beloved Grand Old Lady of Shuter Street and we thought it was a nice occasion to share with you some of the items that we dug up recently in our archives. For us, it all brings home the idea that we’re a part of a Canadian tradition, engaged in more than just presenting events. Massey Hall is a place where friends meet, where musical dreams become realized, and where important conversations and ideas can happen.

Happy anniversary Massey Hall!

1. USHER UNIFORM
It wasn’t enough to coat the Hall’s doors in fire-engine red: Coming into the Hall in the early 80s?, audiences were confronted with ushers dressed to match.

2 & 5. LEDGER and CHEQUES
A glimpse into the bookkeeping, and calendar, of the Hall of the early 1930s, when accounting was done by hand, in pencil and with pretty amazing penmanship. Over the course of this period, the Hall hosted many amazing performers, a few of which still grace our Halls: The Mendelssohn Choir (then approaching their 30th anniversary), the Salvation Army, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra; George Gershwin, Ballet Russe, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and many more.

3. RUSH
While cleaning up backstage in late 2015, our staff unearthed this vital piece of CanRock history: June 11-13, 1976, Rush recorded the over-one-million-selling All the World’s a Stage. President and CEO Deane Cameron quickly placed the artifact in a frame, and today, it sits at his desk.

4. PROGRAM
In January, 1934, Massey Hall hosted “the boy genius of the violin,” Yehudi Menuhin – who himself performed a Mozart concerto, Concerto in D major (The “Adelaide”), only recently discovered in Paris. The copy we found, autographed by Menuhin, offers a glimpse into an amazing past: Where new women’s washrooms were installed in the basement; where a miniature grand piano set you back a cool $1000 from Eaton’s, while a top-tier ticket at the Hall went for $2.50; and where Massey Hall put out a call for old programmes, photographs, or other souvenirs that might be included in a booklet celebrating the 30th anniversary of the laying of the Hall’s cornerstone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTcQdiNlGG8

On May 29, multiple Grammy-winner Kathleen Battle returns to Roy Thomson Hall for the first time since 2008. Her performance will feature the spirituals that have appeared in her repertoire for years, garnering wide acclaim, but which take on special meaning when brought together under the banner of Underground Railroad: A Spiritual Journey, a special afternoon of song featuring acclaimed pianist Joel A. Martin and Toronto’s own national treasure, the Nathaniel Dett Chorale.

That Battle returns to the Hall is cause for celebration. But that she does so with a program of the pieces that have proven some of her most popular and affecting makes this upcoming performances an even more exciting prospect. In her last appearance in Toronto, one reviewer called the two spirituals with which she wrapped up the performance “the best singing of the afternoon… She treated them tenderly, naturally and freely.” The audience, he added, was deeply moved “and demonstrated as much in the heartfelt liveliness of its applause.”

Much in the way that spirituals themselves – like the blues music they inspired – offer a celebration amidst difficult conditions, so, too, does Underground Railroad provide for both excitement and contemplation. The performance covers important and wide-ranging ground, telling a story not simply of a time in the past but of our present. Because the story in question – of American slavery and the efforts of so many to free themselves from it – is one that resonates, and continues to unfold, to this day: Refugees, racism, violence and reconciliation are all issues that continue beyond the end of the proverbial Railroad; the reflection that Underground Railroad inspires, therefore, is a major part of what makes this production important.

Battle’s decision to return to the Roy Thomson Hall stage has less to do with mapping a concert tour than it does with mapping the content of the performance: Like all cities that will host performances of Underground Railroad, Toronto played a part in the story the production tells.

“Between 1840 and 1860, even before the American Civil War, slaves followed the Northern Star on the Underground Railroad to find freedom in Canada,” notes Nikki Clarke, President of the Ontario Black History Society, a partner in this special presentation. “They risked everything for freedom: They left their families with the angst that they may never reunite. They risked their lives as they navigated through secret, dangerous routes and stops led by their conductor. The cargo as the slaves were called, traveled mostly on foot through untamed wilderness and extreme weather conditions. They paid the price to pave the way for over 30,000 slaves’ emancipation: exodus to the promised land.”

But while our contribution to the eponymous escape route is noteworthy, we also continue to struggle with the issues brought to the fore by Underground Railroad. This performance will provide an important opportunity to address them – and the spirituals that comprise the performance an ideal vehicle.

“Audiences will be taken to passages of the past to grasp the essence of the escaped slaves’ courage and faith,” adds Clarke. “Our mandate to promote, protect and preserve black heritage in Canada is beautifully aligned with this musical adaptation.”

Battle’s own connection to spirituals is deep, as she recently explained to a reporter: “There’s not a spiritual I’ve ever heard that I didn’t want to make my own. I may not have sung them but they live within me.” That makes for an intense experience – for both listeners and singer: “When you’re in one spiritual,” she said, “you inhabit that space. If you string a lot of them together, it can weigh heavy on your heart.”

That connection has clearly been inspiring Battle, with enthusiastic receptions greeting recent Underground Railroad performances. In Richmond, Virginia, one encore wasn’t enough for the theatre: “the audience called Battle back three more times, and she repaid them in purest gold, the Kathleen Battle voice, a capella.”

On May 29, that voice, we’re sure, will inspire audiences to more than an intense appreciation of the timeless songs on the programme. That voice will inspire important and valuable reflection upon the history and trajectory that these songs evoke.

There were at least two lukewarm reviews of the concert. The Globe and Mail’s arts critic, Alex Barris, was clearly nonplussed: “All in all, it was neither a great concert nor a bad one.” Barris, according to Don Brown, who attended the concert and worked for CBC, “had a complete change of heart” by the time the two men gathered for the CBC’s 30th-anniversary commemoration. Robert Fulford is also said to have written a negative review.

Lucky for us, though: Mingus is the one who brought the brand-new high-end tape upon which the concert was recorded – and, later, over which Mingus re-recorded parts prior to the album’s release. (It’s unclear whether those overdubs were the result of the house sound tech (described as “jazz-hating”) leaving his post.Upon settling on a lineup, it was something of a miracle that the event got started. Mingus biographer Krin Gabbard somewhat-diplomatically labelled the participants as “shall we say, temperamental.” And they proved that the question “How do you get to Massey Hall?” has several possible answers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OzGbp6wgpE

 Photo: Mobeen Ansari

A pioneering artist in a form long dominated by males, Abida Parveen is one of the most prominent and influential Sufi musicians of our time. She has transformed the tradition of Sufi singing and inspired a folk, and feminist, renaissance, influencing countless musicians – from Pakistani rockers to Björk (who remixed one of her tunes). But though she is a part of a very specific tradition, her work transcends boundaries, linking her to great artists across the musical landscape.

Which is why the specifics shouldn’t get in the way of digging in to her music. Like the best art, it’s not about language, or what, exactly, the definition of “Sufi music” might be. As the BBC put it in an album review, “it’s clear that the best devotional music (whether Gregorian Chant, John Coltrane or Le Mystere de Voix Bulgares) has a power to communicate across racial and denominational divides.”And Parveen’s performances are nothing if not a physical and musical demonstration of that power: Both performer (who’s admitted to hallucinating while in the thralls of the music) and audiences (often sent into literal swaying rapture) become transported.

Take note of the trifecta of musical references in that BBC review. Parveen performing Kafis, interpretations of Sufi poetry, is not as foreign an experience as one not versed in Sufi music might think. What links seemingly disparate artists is the idea that the performer is a vehicle for an experience of the divine. And however that divine is defined, the experience is what remains. Just ask anyone in Massey Hall last December, transfixed by the intensity of Tanya Tagaq’s performance; or those who were brought “to church” by the gospel section of Aretha Franklin’s 2014 Roy Thomson Hall appearance. In fact, later in the month, it’s more than likely that audiences will be similarly moved by the spirituals performed by operatic superstar Kathleen Battle. Like these other artists, Parveen and the material she performs serves as a platform for the experience of something greater.

Parveen’s penchant for transcending boundaries goes beyond music. There is no separation between performance, prayer, life and religion – or gender: “I’m not a man or a woman,” she has said. “I’m a vehicle for passion.” As Umair Jaffar, Performing Arts Manager at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto and an expert on traditional Pakistani music, put it, “She is a Sufi musician in the ultimate sense of those words. She lives it.” “Sufism is not a switch, the music isn’t a show – it’s all of life,” Parveen explained to the Guardian in a rare interview. “If I want to be recognised for anything, if we should be recognised for anything, it’s the journey of the voice. And that voice is God’s.” Which is not to say that audiences are attending a religious service of some kind – in the same way that Aretha Franklin wasn’t actually preaching. But it is to say that Roy Thomson Hall, and the audience – which, due to the rarity of this North American appearance, will be comprised of fans from across the US and Canada to experience the show – will be transformed.

Parveen was taught by her father, who ran a music school, and he chose her to be his musical heir – over his two sons. In an extremely patriarchal society, where, at the time, the shrines in which performances were exclusively held were off limits to female performers, this was not a decision – or, clearly, a talent – taken lightly. And in addition to affecting change in the way women are viewed and treated, Parveen, along with the late, great Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, created a traditional Pakistani music renaissance, both at home and around the world.

“‘Folk music’ was considered a lower form of culture and there was a lack of pride in our heritage,” says Jaffar. “She made it cool. Now, rock stars are singing tunes she made popular, and most pop lyrics are based on the tunes she sings.” Parveen herself, he adds, has helped bring the tradition forward, both as a judge on an Idol-type reality music show as well as in her music, demonstrating that Sufi music’s evolution is ongoing. “She’s not afraid of adding, say, a beatbox.” And that’s had an effect. “The young generation is embracing their heritage,” says Jaffar. “Thanks to her, it’s cool to be Sufi.”

WATCH: Parveen and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan – the nephew of legendary singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and grandson of another legendary qawwali master, Fateh Ali Khan – perform “Chaap Tilak,” a Qawwali song by Amir Khusro, a 14th-century Indian Sufi mystic.

In 1996, an understated clearing of the throat not only kicked off the debut album by the then-twenty something Paul Hayden Desser, but announced the arrival of a unique talent and voice. With subtlety, simplicity, depth and a haunting quality that is no less affecting 20 years later, Everything I Long For is a classic record.

The upcoming 20th Anniversary Celebration of Everything I Long For is a unique opportunity to revisit the album’s songs with Hayden – many of which he stopped performing in the wake of the album’s release.

With a 4-track he borrowed from a friend and a perch in his parents’ Thornhill basement, Desser recorded much of the album, often within hours of writing the material. As Exclaim!’s  9/10 review of the reissued album put it: “There was and is a certain joy you can harness when you first discover that you can make records for and by yourself, and the machines — the four-tracks and other portable studios — are very much part of the aesthetic here.”

Indeed, in addition to being inspired by the “standards” – Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell – Desser told Shad on q, that the “raw and original” music he’d heard from artists like Eric’s Trip, Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr. and others, who were “making stuff at home for fun.” Hearing their music, he said, lead to the realization that “Hey, I can do that too.”

He did, and the resulting album became the foundation upon which his career was built. Record labels eager to sign the then-25-year-old undertook “an absolute frenzy of competitive bidding,” The New York Times wrote, quoting an industry source that called the deal, with Outpost, “as favorable a contract” they’d ever seen for a new artist.

While that deal may certainly have turned a lot of heads, Desser’s career – eight full-length recordings and a devoted international following – proves that EILF was just the beginning. Hayden’s own belief in that first album, as he told The New York Times twenty years ago, says more than any of the (large amount) critical praise:

“I’ve done my album honestly and I’m proud of it.”

Since 2014, Massey Hall has been honoured to present the annual Dream Serenade benefit concert. Organized by Desser and his wife Christie Greyerbiehl, the event gathers a mix of musicians for unique performances to benefit special-needs children and their families. Past editions have featured the National, Feist, Serena Ryder, Bahamas, Billy Talent, Joel Plaskett, Barenaked Ladies and more. Plans for the third annual event, to be held again in the fall, are under way and announcements are forthcoming. More info is available at dreamserenade.ca.

Words like “cool” and “smooth” have come to be associated with West Coast Jazz, thanks to the late-40s and early-50s surge in popularity of a particularly Californian version. But the music of the SFJAZZ Collective, who perform at Massey Hall on Saturday, April 23, is of a different sort than that which came to be defined by folks like Stan Getz and Chet Baker.

You might say they’re the West Coast version of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra – who are no strangers to us, having visited Massey Hall four times in the last five years, and who will return to Toronto for the Jazz Festival in late June. The JLCO also showcases the work of major composers – in addition to members’ compositions – in order to entertain, enrich and expand the community. Like the JLCO, the Collective is committed to jazz as a living, ever-relevant art form, but the Collective expands the range of composers whose work they honour beyond jazz, and that’s what sets them apart from other ensembles.

The group’s repertoire honours the history of jazz while championing its trajectory, interested in not only where it’s going, but where it can go – and their journey takes them to what may seem like strange places. Their set list for each season is always a combination of new pieces by Collective members alongside the “compositions by a modern master.” The catch is their definition of “master.” While many of the names on their list of past masters will be familiar to jazz heads and novices alike – Chick Corea, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk, Wayne Shorter and more – there are a couple of names that stick out, namely Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson. While arguing with the label of “master” in these two instances would be futile, what’s so interesting about these choices is their distance – or so it would seem – from the jazz realm.

Jazz has never shied away from pop, and there has been, throughout jazz’s history, clear examples of how a great pop song can live on in various guises. Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, who performed at Massey Hall in the fall of 2015, has made it their business to transform current hits via a golden-era-of-jazz vibe, to much acclaim.  Indeed, going back to the period where Bradlee finds his inspiration, as Herbie Hancock put it: “What was the pop music in the ‘20s and ‘30s? It was called jazz.”

Jazz being informed by outside influences has a long history: A tune like “Summertime,” one of Billie Holiday’s best-known, was a version of the Gershwin/Heyward song written for Porgy and Bess. The power of the jazz filter is evident in the way the song has become a standard. Jazz artists throughout the decades have looked to popular music – and, in the process, taught us a huge amount about not only the source material, but about their own artistry as well.

Examples abound, and make for a fun trip down a musical rabbit hole (here is a great starting point): Dave Brubeck’s My Favorite Things featured the music of Broadway composer Richard Rodgers; rock and pop tunes are featured on Nina Simone’s Here Comes the Sun; Ella Fitzgerald sang the Cream classic “Sunshine of Your Love” – the list goes on. And swings.

More recently, Herbie Hancock, the Bad Plus, Robert Glasper, The Thing, Brad Mehldau and more have recorded inventive and reinvigorated versions of music as varied as ABBA, Nirvana, Black Sabbath, the White Stripes and more. And Steve Reich, another boundary-bursting artist coming to Massey Hall on April 14, took on Radiohead – a popular source for jazz covers – when he composed Radio Rewrite in 2012. Meanwhile, our own “house band,” the 15-piece “alternative big-band” Massey Hall Band, is devoted to reinventing some of our country’s favourite music, from A Tribe Called Red to Gordon Lightfoot and all points between and beyond (check them out during their 3-month residency at the Rivoli).

The SFJAZZ Collective’s only studio album, Wonder: The Songs of Stevie Wonder, raids the innovative pop musician’s catalogue, with some of his most popular tunes alongside deep cuts. Like this one:

On their current tour, which rolls up to Massey Hall on Saturday April 23, the group is performing songs from across the career of Michael Jackson, with creative takes on the pop cannon via Latin, swing, electronic music and more. Here’s a taste of what you might expect:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrQGuqcnngA

This morning we unveiled issue 3 of our new Soundboard Magazine which features our newly announced presentations from Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall. On the cover, photographer Matt Barnes captured an image of two artists we’d like you to hear – Donovan Woods and Liz Loughrey.

Our 2016 spring programming includes:
Jonathan Goldstein of WireTap fame, Gilbert Gottfried hosting our April Fools Comedy night, a monthly residency at The Rivoli by the Massey Hall Band, a Kreative Kontrol with Vish Khanna live taping that will feature  in-depth conversations with journalist and CBC host Piya Chattopadhyay and Nathan Lawr, the outspoken leader of indie-Afrobeat band, MINOTAURS. The band will also perform a full set to celebrate the release of their third album,Weird Waves.

Shane Koyczan returns, this time to Winter Garden Theatre, Hayden celebrates his Everything I Long For albums 20th anniversary, and Blues and Rock legends Randy Bachman, Buddy Guy, and George Thorogood return to the Massey Hall stage. Rheostatics (reunite! to) perform as part of Live at Massey Hall with special guest Amelia Curran, in addition, Abida Parveen, Kathleen Battle, Steve Martin, Deepak Chopra, Berliner Philharmoniker, Gordon Lightfoot, and more.

For tickets and further information, please visit masseyhall.com or roythomson.com
This video above was directed by Adrian Vieni and contains a sample of the song “Rise Up!” by Liz Loughrey. For more information on this artist, go here and/or see her live at The Rivoli on April 7, 2016.

You can flip through the digital version of Soundboard issue 3, here.

Last night (Thursday, Feb 18), as they kicked off the first of two sold-out shows at Massey Hall, Blue Rodeo was presented with the second-ever Massey Hall Honours Award by Deane Cameron, President & CEO of the Corporation of Massey Hall and Roy Thomson Hall. The inaugural Award was presented to Gordon Lightfoot in November 2014. The Award celebrates the cultural contributions of great artists and their commitment to performance at Massey Hall.

Since 1987, Blue Rodeo have become an important part of the history of Massey Hall, having performed at the Hall over 30 times and releasing two live albums from those concerts, the most recent of which is their latest, Live at Massey Hall (2015). “Blue Rodeo continues to be an ambassador for live music in our country and will continue to be for many more years to come,” remarked Cameron during the award presentation. “On behalf of all staff and fans, it is an honour that Massey Hall is a part of the Blue Rodeo story.”

On receiving the Honours Award, the band commented:

“Thanks to Massey Hall and all the folks who work to bring this grand venue to life. We have played at Massey Hall many times and it never loses its thrill. It is always a privilege to stand on the stage of this beautiful hall.”

Blue Rodeo continues its 2016 Canadian tour, bringing the magic of Massey Hall with them throughout the country. Visit bluerodeo.com for tour dates, CD, vinyl and digital download of Live at Massey Hall and to check out their Tour Archive.