Canadian Music Week doesn't mean as much to me now as it did earlier in my career when I was editing music industry trade magazines and had to cover numerous panels, seminars and award shows and painstakingly map out a schedule of bands to see each night. This year I approached the annual Toronto event more like a casual music fan and hit a couple of things at the Fairmont Royal York on Thursday and saw performers at a more leisurely than normal pace over the last three nights.

I barely made it in to the Royal York's overflowing Ballroom on Thursday morning to see guitarist Slash interviewed by CNN's Kyra Phillips and John Roberts (who we knew as J.D. back in the days when he was hosting TheNewMusic). If you've read his self-titled autobiography, you probably wouldn't have learned much new information, but I was impressed how well-spoken the former hard-living rock wild man was.

Slash also plugged his forthcoming solo album, which features contributions from the likes of Fergie (who he says has one of the best female rock voices around), Maroon 5's Adam Levine, Iggy Pop and Ozzy Osbourne (who Slash said he listened to on Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" while on acid as a 13-year-old). The album will be out in April and Slash will tour this summer in support of it.

I also attended a blunt, entertaining, profanity-laced presentation by former Public Image Ltd., Ministry and Killing Joke drummer Martin Atkins that offered advice and insights into how musicians can better market themselves. I left with a card that will allow me to download his book, "Tour: Smart," and a small bag of mini blueberry muffins after leaving a toonie in Atkins' tip jar following his seminar.

Performance-wise, I was disappointed by England's Male Bonding and thought Brooklyn's Vivian Girls had improved from a year ago when I saw them both at Wrongbar on Wednesday night. Saint Alvia has been a favourite of mine for the past couple of years and The Clash-influenced band didn't disappoint Thursday night at the Rivoli, where I also had a fruitful introduction to Saskatoon electro-pop outfit, Violent Kin.

I made another pleasant discovery, Madrid, Spain garage rock band The Right Ons, Friday at Neutral. I then made my way to the Comfort Zone for an all-out guitar assault from Huron, Ian Blurton's Happy Endings, Dexateens and Catl.

The set that I'd been most eagerly looking forward to, and had waited 16 years for, was the return of beloved Toronto indie rockers The Lawn. Slide guitarist Gord Cumming (pictured above), guitarist Patrick Gregory, bassist Richard Gregory and drummer Mike Duggan definitely didn't disappoint the throng of well-wishers that turned out to support their old friends.

You'll be able to read my much more detailed reviews of the Friday performances (and tonight's set by The Beauties) on ChartAttack.com on Monday.

The agenda for the rest of today after I finish typing this includes a stop at the Mike Campbell-hosted Enter The Tiki party at the Rivoli. There's always great east coast food, lots of friends, free beer and short sets by Nova Scotia performers at this annual shindig.

I'll then head up to the Mod Club to see a great artist who Campbell manages, Joel Plaskett. Hopefully I'll get into the venue with my media badge, which I couldn't do last night when I arrived at the club to see Bedouin Soundclash and was told by security that only ticket-holders were being admitted because they'd reached their limit for festival passes.

I don't have any real must-sees for the rest of the night, but The Stanfields, The Beauties, Saint Alvia and either Electric Six or Two Hours Traffic will likely be among those on my dance card.

The Horseshoe Tavern has an extended liquor licence this week and I've been taking advantage of it to have a few nightcaps and hang out with friends for the past two nights, when I've arrived home after 5 a.m. The odds are that I'll make it a hat trick of late nights, so insomniacs and sociable folks should come by the Shoe and say hello.

Canadian Music Week acts as a warm-up for the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, where I'll be reporting from next week. Come back to this space starting on March 18 to read about the dozens of acts I'll be seeing there.

—Steve McLean

I wrote quite a bit about the various charitable events that were staged earlier this year to benefit the victims of January's earthquake in Haiti, so I feel responsible to shine a light on another humanitarian project organized to aid the same cause, Young Artists For Haiti.

More than 50 Canadian music artists assembled at Vancouver's The Warehouse Studio on Feb. 18 to record a new version of K'Naan's stirring "Wavin' Flag," which will also be the official song of this year's World Cup soccer tournament, with noted Canadian producer Bob Ezrin (Peter Gabriel, Alice Cooper, KISS, Pink Floyd and many others).

The song's lyrics were reworked to include references to Haiti, and an impressive assemblage of Canadian talent sang them.

Justin Bieber, Jully Black, Simple Plan's Pierre Bouvier, Broken Social Scene, Theory Of A Deadman's Tyler Connelly, Fefe Dobson, Drake, Elisapie, Esthero, Nelly Furtado, Metric's Emily Haines, Hedley's Jacob Hoggard, Ima, Chin Injeti, Pierre Lapointe, Avril Lavigne, Lights, Matt Mays, Justin Nozuka, Kardinal Offishall, Sam Roberts, Serena Ryder, Sum 41's Deryck Whibley, Hawksley Workman and Nikki Yanofsky were among those who joined the Somalia-born K'Naan (pictured above) on his track.

You can hear the results of their labour when the all-star Haiti version of "Wavin' Flag" goes on sale at 12:01 a.m. on Friday wherever music is sold digitally.

All proceeds from the sale of the single will equally benefit Free The Children, War Child Canada and World Vision and their individual efforts on the ground in Haiti to provide short-term relief, mid-term rebuilding and longer-term education and training.

"I'm still in awe of how quickly this all came together," Ezrin says of the project. "We had a vision and a small window of opportunity to make it happen, and within a few short days, the artists were engaged, the studio was set, and the song was recorded.

"In all my years in the business, I've never experienced anything quite like the energy and unity of these young Canadian artists as they came together to help the people of Haiti. They did so with no egos, just love, passion and a magnificent generosity of spirit. It was fantastic."

The Roots clothing chain will launch a specially designed Young Artists For Haiti T-shirt for both men and women that can be purchased from select Roots stores across the country and from the company's website. All proceeds from the T-shirts will benefit the three designated charities.

You can find behind-the-scenes footage, artist interviews, photos from the recording session and other information on the Young Artists For Haiti Facebook page.

—Steve McLean

Sean McCann has always written songs for Great Big Sea. But it was penning lullabies for his two young sons and a tune for his wife that set things in motion for him to record his recently released solo debut, "Lullabies For Bloodshot Eyes."

Album opener "Someone" is for McCann's two-year-old son Finnegan, while "Don't Cry" is for four-year-old Keegan and closes things out. "Wish," written for the singer and multi-instrumentalist's "beautiful and very patient wife," falls in between along with six other numbers that can largely be grouped under the headings of personal, gentle and acoustic.

"I'm using a different voice, a quieter voice, and I'm using different muscles as a writer in talking about different things," McCann explains about the direction he took on the solo album. "People travel at different speeds at different times.

"I was a confirmed bachelor, but the right woman came along and knocked me off my horse, and I just took a U-turn. I'm still the same lunatic. I still love to go out all night. I just can't do it as often as I'd like, which is probably a good thing. I'll probably live longer now. But I still like my red wine and my loud, late night conversations."

That aspect of the gregarious McCann's personality shows up on the new record's more up-tempo and somewhat raucous "Hold Me Steady," which was written by Rick Hartley and was the first song McCann learned to play on guitar in the late '90s. He's lobbied for the song about hard living to be included on a Great Big Sea album but, after being rebuffed enough times, he decided to record it himself.

McCann's Great Big Sea bandmates and manager Louis Thomas convinced him to issue "Lullabies For Bloodshot Eyes" on his own Warner Music Canada-distributed Lean Ground Music label. He enjoyed the process and is sitting on 70 unreleased songs, so he plans to head back into the studio in May to record more for his next solo effort, which he'll put out at some undetermined point in the future. McCann has also launched a new and cheekily named website, greatbigsean.com.

McCann still has his hands full with Great Big Sea, which recently finished recording the material for its next album in New Orleans. It marked the first time that the Celtic-influenced pop-rock group made a record outside of its hometown of St. John's, Nfld.

"We love New Orleans," says McCann (who appears on the right with Bob Hallet and Alan Doyle in the photo above). "It's one of the few American cities where music plays a vibe and there's a musical rhythm in everyday life.

"In the coffee shops and stores, there's a beat going on. We wanted to expose ourselves to that vibe."

Great Big Sea is in the midst of a U.S. tour after recently spending time in Vancouver socializing and performing four times as part of the Winter Olympics festivities.

"Vancouver handled the Olympics as well as St. John's ever could have, if it was big enough to get them," recounts McCann. "St. John's is the party capital of Canada, or at least we like to believe that.

"I expected it to be a rather subdued and sensible Olympics because westerners are generally very fit people who work out and stuff. But they really put on a great show and looked after everybody. Everyone was happy. There was a great vibe all night with parties. I was pleasantly surprised because everyone was happier than I'd ever seen in Vancouver."

When asked if St. John's can match that party atmosphere when it hosts the Juno Awards and all of the events that come before it next month, McCann doesn't hesitate in replying, "Oh yeah, we're all seasoned pros."

McCann threw a big house party the last time the Junos were held in St. John's in 2002, but says it wouldn't be fair to his young family to do that again. Still, he promises that it won't be a problem to find lots of other places to let loose.

"The city is set up to deal with people who are out looking for fun and wanting to have a drink and listen to music, because that's what everyone does," says McCann. "It's not a big deal. It's the New Orleans of Canada."

He convinced me. I hadn't planned on attending this year's Junos, but St. John's hosted my favourite such event in 2002 and I haven't been back to one of my most cherished Canadian cities since 2004, so I just booked my flight and am ready to rock on the Rock. Come and join me.

—Steve McLean

There wasn't a lot of star power at this morning's media conference to announce the nominees and some of the performers for the 2010 Juno Awards, which will be televised by CTV on April 18 from the Mile One Centre in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.

I saw Blue Rodeo's Jim Cuddy, probably the most recognizable face of any of the nominees on hand, when I arrived at the event at Toronto's Fairmont Royal York. But he was nowhere to be found when I was looking to do a couple of quick interviews afterward.

Nominees Stereos, Divine Brown and two members of the Arkells announced some of the other nominees, but most people in the room probably would have been hard-pressed to know who they were if CTV's Seamus O'Regan hadn't been on hand to introduce them.

I caught up with Danny Fernandes, who was nominated for both R&B/soul recording of the year for "Intro" and top new artist. He said he wasn't intimidated to be going up against rapper Drake and teen pop star Justin Bieber in that second category, despite their high international profiles, and said he was just honoured to be considered among them as well as his R&B/soul peers.

Great Lake Swimmers main man Tony Dekker was similarly humble about his band's first Juno nomination. Great Lake Swimmers could easily have fit into the best adult alternative or roots and traditional album categories, and the group got the nod in the latter grouping.

"I'm terrifically happy," said Dekker. "I think our sound is really informed by traditional and roots music, so it makes a lot of sense to me."

Fernandes and Dekker said they're both looking forward to going to St. John's, and I certainly can't blame them. The Juno ceremonies were previously held in the Newfoundland capital in 2002, and they were my favourite of the 14 I've attended.

It's a great party town and I have good friends there. What fond memories do I have of the events of that Juno week?

Let's start with having a record company employee ask me if I could score some pot for Shaggy, the pop/reggae artist who was flying high with his hit "It Wasn't Me" back then and won the best selling album of the year prize for "Hotshot."

I went to a fun house party hosted by Great Big Sea's Sean McCann and attended by a lot of musicians who jammed well into the wee hours.

Joydrop's smokin' Tara Slone gave me her phone number. We still exchange pleasantries when we run into each other, but unfortunately nothing hotter or heavier than that took place.

Daniel Lanois was rocking out in a hotel lobby at 4 a.m.

I socialized so heavily on the last night of Juno week that I missed my flight back to Toronto and had to stay an extra night, which of course I spent in a pub with my friends before crashing on their spare bed for a few hours before heading to the airport.

I haven't been back to St. John's since the East Coast Music Awards were held there in 2004 and, as much as I'd like to return for the Juno festivities this year, it doesn't look like it's in the cards. The South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas this month offers me more bang for the buck and, when it came down to choosing between the two events, I chose the land of the Longhorns.

But if anyone out there is willing to subsidize a trip to St. John's, pay me a decent amount of money to write about the Junos, or smuggle me on board a plane in a large suitcase, I'd be happy to go. Hurry and show your generosity by contacting me in the Comments section below before I take up someone else's kind offer.

—Steve McLean

March is here, which means three major things: the arrival of spring; NCAA college basketball playoffs; and the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas.

But for those of you not lucky enough to attend SXSW (and hopefully you can live vicariously through the reports I'll be submitting from there), there's still lots of music to be heard. Here's a look at some of the albums coming out this month:

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club — "Beat The Devil's Tattoo" (March 9)
Following closely behind last year's fine "Live" album, the dark, feedback-loving band returns with its first album with Raveonettes drummer Leah Shapiro. The 13-track effort was recorded at Philadelphia's Basement Studio, the same place BRMC made 2005's bluesy "Howl."

Broken Bells — "Broken Bells" (March 9)
The debut album from this duo of artist/producer Danger Mouse and Shins singer/guitarist James Mercer was introduced late last year by lead single "The High Road." You can win a deluxe version of the album by putting together four puzzle pieces you'll have to search for in an online scavenger hunt. I'll help you out by directing you to a piece here.

Gorillaz — "Plastic Beach" (March 9)
After this animated group's first two albums combined to sell 15 million copies worldwide, expectations are high for this record from Damon Albarn and friends. Snoop Dogg, Bobby Womack, Mos Def, Gruff Rhys, De La Soul, Mark E. Smith, Lou Reed, Mick Jones and Paul Simonon are among the guests on what is sure to be an eclectic collection of songs. "Stylo" is the first single.

Ludacris — "Battle Of The Sexes" (March 9)
This was originally supposed to be a joint album between the Atlanta rapper and female hip-hop artist Shawna, but has instead become his seventh solo studio record. "How Low" has already been a hit, and there should be more to come with an album guest list that includes Trey Songz, Flo Rida, Lil' Kim, Gucci Mane, Monica, Ne-Yo and Eve, among others.

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists (pictured above) — "The Brutalist Bricks" (March 9)
New Jersey's Leo is one of this century's most overlooked songwriters, and the outspoken vegan and his band make their Matador Records debut on this sixth full-length. Listen for more intelligent and melodic punk-based material that lyrically blends personal and political themes.

Drive-By Truckers — "The Big To-Do" (March 16)
This ATO Records debut and 10th album overall from this guitar-heavy band was produced by longtime associate David Barbe (Sugar) and is supposed to be the Athens, Georgia-based band's most rocking effort since disc two of 2001's "Southern Rock Opera."

Justin Bieber — "My World 2.0" (March 23)
Bieber grew up in the same small town as me (Stratford, Ontario), but the kid who just turned 16 yesterday (March 1) has probably made more money in the last year than I'll see in my lifetime. This is the second half of his debut album, after his "My World" debut EP was certified platinum within a few weeks of its November 2009 release, when it topped the sales chart in Canada and hit #6 south of the border. This album's "Baby," featuring Ludacris, was issued as a single in January. "Never Let You Go" just came out.

The Dillinger Escape Plan — "Option Paralysis" (March 23)
The New Jersey mathcore band's fourth studio album will be the first released on its own Party Smasher Inc label, but the group again worked with producer Steve Evetts (Sepultura, Every Time I Die) on the music.

Goldfrapp — "Head First" (March 23)
The British electro-pop duo of Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory's fifth album is the follow-up to last year's "Seventh Tree." The danceable first single, "Rocket," will precede the LP by two weeks.

Monica — "Still Standing" (March 23)
This actress and R&B singer's sixth studio effort shares a title with her BET reality television series that shows how the former chart-topping artist balances her music career with her duties as a mother. "Everything To Me," produced by Missy Elliott, was the first single. The omnipresent Ludacris is featured on "Still Standing."

She & Him — "Volume Two" (March 23)
The duo of actress/singer Zooey Deschanel and solo artist M. Ward received surprisingly good reviews for 2008's "Volume One" debut, and Deschanel has since increased her music credibility by marrying Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard. Tilly And The Wall provide backing vocals on lead single "In The Sun" from this album that features 11 originals and covers of NRBQ's "Ridin' In My Car" and Skeeter Davis' "Gonna Get Along Without You Now."

Barenaked Ladies — "All In Good Time" (March 30)
The multi-platinum Toronto pop band's 11th studio album is the first without co-founder Steven Page. Guitarist Ed Robertson sings lead on more than half the album, while keyboardist Kevin Hearn and bassist Jim Creeggan pick up the slack and take a larger vocal role in Page's absence. The record was produced by longtime collaborator Michael Phillip Wojewoda, and "You Run Away" is the first single.

—Steve McLean

The self-titled debut album from Broken Bells, a new musical project featuring Danger Mouse and The Shins' James Mercer, will be released into stores by Sony Music Canada on March 9. But you could be on your way to winning one of five limited-edition box sets from the group just by reading to the end of this blog post.

There are four Broken Bells puzzle pieces to find around the Internet, and your mission is to find all of them.

If you're successful, you could receive the CD, two oversized postcards, an exclusive poster, a glow-in-the-dark sticker sheet and a 44-page pocket notebook with photos and illustrations. All of this comes packaged in a "Music Box" that plays "The Overture," an exclusive soundtrack created by Danger Mouse (AKA Brian Burton) and Mercer, when opened.

You can stream the 10 songs from this unique pop album by the man best known as half of Gnarls Barkley and for his production work with Beck and Gorillaz and his collaborator, the frontman for the Portland, Ore. band that became a darling of sensitive indie pop music fans during the last decade, here.

Broken Bells will also play a March 17 showcase at the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, where I'll be keeping you up to speed on this 1,000-plus-act event while I'm there from March 16 to 22.

Here's one of the Broken Bells puzzle pieces.



Good luck in finding the rest of them, though you can follow Sony Music Canada on Twitter for clues. The contest ends on March 9.

—Steve McLean

Just as I've come down with Winter Olympics fever, I'll be heading to the airport in a few hours and will spend a week on a Caribbean cruise — preventing me from posting any new blog entries until the beginning of March.

But I'm leaving those of you who won't have the misfortune of spending time on tropical islands for the remainder of February a column dedicated to songs associated with Winter Olympics sports. I'll dedicate an entire post to hockey music upon my return, since the NHL will just be getting back into action then, but will now illuminate you on some tunes about other sports happening around Vancouver, Whistler and Richmond, B.C. these days.

Downhill Skiing
There apparently was a hunger for albums devoted to songs about skiing in the late '50s and early '60s, including Bob Gibson's "Ski Songs," Ray Conrad's "The Cotton-Pickin' Lift Tower And Other Ski Songs," The Hustlers' "In Ski Country," Oscar Brand's "A Snow Job For Skiers" and The Wegemen Brothers' "Gentlemen Skiers." You can check out the hokey covers and corny song titles from those albums here.

I tracked down three later albums that followed a similar trail.

Faust And Lewis' "Powder Party" includes "Skiing Bums #1," "Powder Party," "Alabama Skier," "Skiing Bums #2," "Terrified Skiers on the Bunny Slopes," "The Ski Line Song," "Skiing Bums #3," "Psycho Skier," "Snowball," "Skiing Bums #4," "Simon & Skifinkle," "Skiing the United States," "The Blue Square," "Skiing Bums #5" and "I Lika Da Snow."

Eric T. & The Skis' "Ski Patrol Revisited" includes "4 x 4," "Road Closed," "Rocks," "Unwanted Binding Release (U.B.R.)," "Mellow Daddy Skier," "Short Skis Suck," "Liftline Pileup," "Ski Naked" and "Last Night at Rosie's."

Darin Talbot's "Big Air" includes: "Tweeker Shred Master," "Big Air," "Ski Bum," "Boarder Girl," "Heaven's Pie," "Snow Day," "Loaded, Lazy, Leisure Life," "Perfect Tahoe Day," "Tahoe Castaway," "Einstein" and "Old Friend."

I've seen a video for "Skiing In The Snow," a somewhat wimpy but not unpleasant 1975 pop song by a British group called Wigans Ovation. Other relative unknowns who've waxed poetical about speeding downhill include John Winn ("Skiing Song"), Mausland Band ("Aggressive Alpine Skiing"), Chris Charles ("The Great Mt. Hood Skiing Disaster), David Walburn ("Meat's in the Freezer [Let's Go Skiing]") and Ben Patton ("She Wants To Go Skiing").

Sixties garage band The Arousers had a nifty little tune called "Snow Skiing" opening their intriguingly titled album, "Princes Of Penetration." If you like to swoosh down the slopes to cheesy dance music, "De Ski Song" by DJ DaRoon and Goldfinger is just for you. But if you prefer someone throwing down rhymes to a hip-hop beat, you probably can't beat Super G's "Rocket Sleds" or "Plank Skank."

And while it's hard to envision The Replacements skiing — or even being sober enough to ski — an almost entirely instrumental song from "Hootenanny" fits the bill as a skiing song as far as I'm concerned. The words "Buck Hill" are the only ones in The Replacements' (pictured above on an incline, but not moving) song of the same name. It's also a ski centre near where the raggedly brilliant band grew up in suburban Minneapolis, Minn.

Cross-Country Skiing
The Norwegians love their cross-country skiing, and I'm going to make an assumption that "Long Distance Skiing" by Norway's Blues Basement has something to do with that activity. Any Norwegians reading this are welcomed to confirm or deny my premise.

Ski Jumping
Britain's Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards became a cult celebrity after coming in last by a wide margin in ski jumping in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alta. He subsequently recorded a song in Finnish titled "Mun nimeni on Eetu" ("My name is Eetu"). Edwards didn't speak Finnish and his pronunciation wasn't very good, but that added to its kitsch appeal and led to a follow-up titled "Eddien Siivellä" ("On Eddie's Wing") being written for him.

Snowboarding
Keller Williams has toured with jam bands including String Cheese Incident and Umphrey's McGee, but the multi-instrumentalist is also a solo artist and wrote a snowboarding song titled "Freshies." Female-fronted German rock band Guano Apes also delved into the land of the half pipe with "Lords Of The Boards." And don't forget "Boarder Girl" from Darin Talbot's above-mentioned "Big Air."

Skating
The pickins here are surprisingly slim, and it may even be a bit of a stretch to cite Ocean Blue's "Ice Skating At Night" and Jethro Tull's "Skating Away On The Thin Ice Of The New Day" along with John Riggio's children's song, "Ice Skating."

Bobsledding
While Eddie Edwards was making a name for himself on the ski jump hill in Calgary, the Jamaican bobsled team made an even bigger splash at the 1988 Olympics and even had a surprisingly popular 1993 movie called "Cool Runnings" made about it. The film included a fun number by the Wailing Souls titled "Jamaican Bobsledding Chant."

Luge
Leave it to a southern redneck to come up with the only luge song I know of. Luckily, he's one of my favourite southern rednecks. The man is Mojo Nixon and the tune is "Arctic Evel Knievel-Luge Team Song" from his "Whiskey Rebellion" album.

Curling
The Dik Van Dykes' "Curling" had been my favourite song about the sport for 20 years and, while I still love the playfully amateurish track, it was surpassed two years ago by the Weakerthans' "Tournament Of Hearts." You can read about eight other curling songs here.

—Steve McLean

I'm a big David Bowie fan.

I have many of his albums, I own a book about the man, I have a Bowie "Outside" mouse pad beside me as I type this, and last week while sorting through some old things I had stored in boxes I came across a booklet he signed for me when I met him in 1995.

I've also seen four Bowie concerts, the last one being on April Fool's Day in 2004 at Canada's Air Canada Centre in support of his "Reality" album with openers The Polyphonic Spree. I have fond memories of that show, so I was looking forward to hearing the newly released, two-CD "A Reality Tour" that was recorded in Dublin, Ireland in November 2003.

"A Reality Tour" was released as a DVD in October 2004 to document what was the world's highest grossing tour of that year, but this new release is the first time these songs have appeared on CD. The music has been remastered and there are three tracks that didn't appear on the original: "Fall Dog Bombs The Moon," "Breaking Glass" and "China Girl."

The 33-song album opens with the classic "Rebel Rebel," and the two discs go on to encompass material from much of Bowie's storied recorded career, going back to 1971's "Hunky Dory" with the well-executed "Life On Mars?" and "Changes."

Excluding the bonus tracks, "A Reality Tour" ends with the brilliant trilogy of "Five Years," "Hang On To Yourself" and "Ziggy Stardust" from 1972's "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars." Bowie wrote "All The Young Dudes" for Mott The Hoople that same year, and his interpretation is a welcomed addition to this collection.

Continuing chronologically through the '70s, Bowie also performs the "Young Americans" John Lennon co-write "Fame," "Be My Wife" and "Broken Glass" from "Low" and "Sister Midnight," which Bowie co-wrote and produced for Iggy Pop's first post-Stooges solo album, "The Idiot."

There's also "Fantastic Voyage" from 1979's "Lodger," a too-often-overlooked album that may be my favourite Bowie record. I saw him perform  the Brian Eno-produced "Look Back In Anger" the first time I witnessed him at Toronto's Exhibition Stadium on 1983's "The Serious Moonlight Tour," but figured he never played enough from that LP, so it's good to have something here.

The high point of Bowie's '80s output was his first album of the decade, "Scary Monsters." He includes "Ashes To Ashes" from that album in this set along with "Loving The Alien" from 1984's "Tonight." There's also "Under Pressure," the 1981 single that Bowie recorded with Queen. Longtime Bowie bassist Gail Ann Dorsey does an admirable job on the duet, but there's really no replacing the late Freddie Mercury.

The '90s was Bowie's worst decade, and it included the unfortunate Tin Machine period. Thankfully, just four songs from that era are represented on this album: "Hallo Spaceboy" and "The Motel" from 1995's "Outside" and "I'm Afraid Of Americans" and "Battle For Britain (The Letter)" from 1997's "Earthling."

Though Bowie never again attained the creative and commercial heights of the '70s and '80s, he had somewhat of a return to form for 2002's "Heathen" and 2003's "Reality." Five songs from the former and six from the latter were performed at these gigs.

That's more than I recall from the show I caught on this tour, and devoting one-third of the time to those songs drags things down a bit since most fans would probably appreciate more of the earlier repertoire.

"A Reality Tour" is okay, and it's a good source if you're looking for live versions of more recent songs. But if you want to hear Bowie at his best on stage, pick up "Live Santa Monica '72," which was officially released two years ago. One of the reissues of 1974's "David Live" or the original or re-released version of "Ziggy Stardust — The Motion Picture" are also worth your while.

—Steve McLean

Kathy Dawn Lang's stirring rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" was undoubtedly the high point of the Winter Olympics' opening ceremony last Friday, but that gold medal-worthy televised performance that reached hundreds of millions of viewers globally is just one of the reasons to pay new attention to the Edmonton, Alta. native these days.

The boyish looking performer and her band The Reclines released their "Friday Dance Promenade" debut record in 1983 and their first Bumstead Records album, "A Truly Western Experience," a year later.

That nine-track effort's unique take on country music, which the woman who adopted the name k.d. lang called "a hootenanny wingding, daddy-o of a good time," earned her a 1985 Juno Award for most promising female vocalist. lang, who attracted almost as much attention for her outlandish outfits as her wonderful singing back then, charged on stage wearing a wedding dress to accept her prize.

To mark the 25th anniversary of the album that truly launched lang's still-thriving career, Bumstead released a deluxe two-disc version of "A Truly Western Experience" on Jan. 19. All of the original songs on the first disc have been digitally remastered and housed in eco-friendly packaging along with a demo recording of "Burrs Under Your Saddle" and live versions of "Hungry For Love," "Johnny Get Angry" and "Mercy." The second disc includes videos for "Pollyann" and the infectiously enjoyable "Hanky Panky" and "Bopalena."

lang's musical style has evolved considerably from those early days, and those changes can be heard on Nonesuch Records' "Recollection," which was released on Feb. 9 in two versions. The basic one features 22 of the most popular songs from the country/pop singer's 12-studio album career. The deluxe edition adds a third disc of previously unreleased recordings and a DVD of music videos and live performance footage.

The Olympic version of "Hallelujah," along with lang's take on it from the 2005 Junos show and the studio recording of the song from her "Hymns Of The 49th Parallel" Nonesuch debut have been packaged together on the "Hallelujah EP" that can be purchased through iTunes.

lang has been called "the best singer of her generation" by collaborator Tony Bennett and "the greatest female singer in the whole world" by fellow Canadian crooner Michael Buble. She's been nominated for 15 Junos and won eight, and received four Grammy Awards from her 11 nominations. She's an Officer of the Order of Canada and has a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.

The 48-year-old has earned kudos and simultaneously received criticism as an outspoken advocate of gay rights and vegetarianism, and that willingness to take a public stand earns her more respect in my eyes.

But perhaps most impressively, at least from my standpoint, is that Stompin' Tom Connors wrote a tribute song titled after her with this chorus:

"Little k, little d, little l-a-n-g, Her name was just plain k.d. lang, But her main claim to fame was how she sang with a twang, And jumped around like a 'rangytang, lady k.d. lang"

Brothers and sisters, can I hear a "Hallelujah" for k.d. lang.

—Steve McLean

Opinions are split on the legitimacy of Valentine's Day. Some people believe it's a very romantic day that allows you to show how much you care for a loved one. Others think it's just a marketing ploy to make money for companies that produce cards, chocolates, flowers and other such gifts generally associated with Feb. 14.

I'm currently single, but not without my romantic side, and believe you should tell someone how much you love them as often as possible. Valentine's Day shouldn't be used as a cop-out to avoid expressing your emotions the other 364 days of the year.

Still, I thought I should write something to mark the occasion since so many people will be doing something special for it on Sunday. But instead of just listing my favourite love songs, since I've seen a lot of similar tallies, I thought I'd limit myself to tracks I like that have three words closely associated with Feb. 14 in their titles: Valentine, Cupid and Heart.

And they had to be songs expressing love, and not about break-ups, bitterness or lost love, which eliminated such gems as Blondie's "Heart Of Glass," Hank Williams' "Cold Cold Heart," Connie Francis' "Stupid Cupid," The Replacements' "Valentine" and Billy Bragg's "Valentine's Day Is Over."

With these parameters in place, I found myself with a pretty short playlist. So instead of a full-length album's worth of songs I'd suggest to download for your sweetheart, I'm just presenting you with an EP this time.

I'm sure there are other songs that meet all of my criteria that just didn't come immediately to mind, and I'd be happy to read your suggestions in the Comments section, but here are my 2010 Valentine's Day songs:

Rockpile — "Heart"
Rockpile only released one official album under that name, but Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Terry Williams and Billy Bremner's "Seconds Of Pleasure" remains one of the favourite listens in my vinyl collection. Fans of pure power pop and old-fashioned rock 'n' roll who haven't heard this album are doing themselves a disservice, and "Heart" is just one of the many highlights from the LP. This just may be the best American-sounding album by a British band.

Herman's Hermits — "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat"
Herman's Hermits were a British band that preceded Rockpile by a decade, but the Peter Noone-fronted group had a string of '60s pop hits that were equally as vibrant and snappy. This one joins "I'm Into Something Good," "Mrs. Brown, You've Got A Lovely Daughter," "I'm Henry The Eighth, I Am," "There's A Kind Of Hush" and many others that will put a smile on your face.

Buddy Holly — "Heartbeat"
Holly died in a plane crash when he was just 22 in 1959, but he left an incredibly rich legacy of work in such a short time. "Heartbeat" is just one of the wonderful songs from his catalogue.

The DeFranco Family — "Heartbeat, It's A Lovebeat"
This Canadian brother-and-sister group had three bubblegum pop hits in the mid-'70s and, while I admit this song may be a bit cheesy, I still have a soft spot for it. Lead singer Tony DeFranco was just 13 when he recorded this debut single, which hit #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. in 1973.

Buck Owens — "Open Up Your Heart"
Owens was much more than just one of the stars of the corny '70s and '80s country music television show, "Hee Haw." He pioneered country's "Bakersfield sound" that incorporated country, honky-tonk and rockabilly and was a huge influence on Dwight Yoakam. Owens and his band The Buckaroos had 21 #1 hits on Billboard's country music chart, including this one, which turned the trick in 1966.

Sam Cooke — "Cupid"
I stated in an earlier blog post that Sam Cooke is the best singer I've ever heard. Listen to this exquisite pop tune and try and tell me who's better.

Elvis Costello (pictured above) — "My Funny Valentine"
Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart wrote this song for the 1937 musical "Babes In Arms," and it's apparently been performed by more more than 600 artists and appeared on more than 1,300 albums. Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, The Supremes, Barbra Streisand, Linda Ronstadt, Van Morrison, Carly Simon and Rufus Wainwright are among those who've interpreted this ballad, but Costello's take from the B-side of the "Oliver's Army" U.K. single and the 1980 North American "Taking Liberties" compilation remains my favourite.

—Steve McLean