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Not to be confused with the ‘Blue Ridge Ranger’ from the ’50s, Ray Hutchinson was born in Montreal in 1940. He was diagnosed at age four with tubeculosis of the hip, and spent much of his youth in and out of the local Shriners Hospital. He attended the School for Crippled Children next door, and …
One of the most popular folk trios of the 1960s was The Raftsmen, formed around Montreal natives Louis Leroux and Marvin Burke when they began playing together. They lured Toronto native Martin Overland from his group The Strangers, which also consisted of his sister Arlene and Leon Segal, at the beginning of the decade while …
Originally from Brantford, Ontario, Ray Materick came from a musical household, where his father played in a dance band prior to becoming an ordained preacher in the early ’60s. But although the trumpet was pushed on him as a child, he found his brother’s love of Elvis, Buddy, and Chuck Berry, more appealing. As a …
The story of Red Rider dates back to ’78 when Ontario natives Tom Cochrane and Ken Greer did local coffeshops as a duo. Greer was a student in classical steel guitar, while Cochrane grew up with the likes of The Beatles and Otis Redding. Cochrane had already cut his teeth in the studios 4 years …
Long before the name Justin Beber was even conceived, Rene Claude Simard was a childhood star in Canada – Donny Osmond, Paul Anka, Celine Dion, and Caillou all rolled into one by the time the training wheels were off his bicycle. Born in 1961 in Chicoutimi, Quebec, he was discovered by manager Guy Cloutier while …
Hailing from Etobicoke, Ontario, The Rheostatics were formed around highschool friends guitarist Dave Baldini and bassist Tim Vesely, drummer Rod Westlake and Dave Crosby on keyboards. They played their first official gig at The Edge in Toronto in February, 1980, and it wasn’t long after that when Westlake was replaced by Dave Clark. They released …
During the mid 1960s, the concept of record labels putting together ‘supergroups’ was nothing new. It worked for Buffalo Springfield, The Monkees, Moby Grape, and Blue Cheer, so Elektra Records executives Barry Friedman (going by the name Frazier Mohawk) and Paul Rothchild were tasked with looking to create the next big thing, with the promise …
Born in Sudbury, Ontario in 1947, Rich Dodson moved to Calgary with his family while he was still young. He grew up listening to the top hits of the day, and when he got his first guitar, began emulating the instrumental bands that heâd also taken to, such as The Ventures, The Shadows, and The …
One of the strangest off-ice oddities of the old World Hockey Association was the Cincinnati Stingers’ Rick Dudley’s foray into pop music. Born Jan 31, 1949, the Toronto native cracked the NHL with Buffalo in ’72-’73, but released a self-financed indie ’45 in the fall of 1975 called “Natural Man,” backed with “I Don’t Want …
Rik Emmett is unquestionably one of Canada’s greatest musical gifts. Born in Toronto in 1953, he took his first guitar lesson at age 12. His diverse playing styles of today could have been predicted in his childhood, with a wide array of influences, including The Beatles, Zeppelin, and Jimi, as well as blues, jazz, flamenco …