Marcus & Mary Margaret O'Hara's Martian Awareness Ball @ the Horseshoe, March 14

Tonight's St. Paddy's Day bash will double as a celebration of life for Marcus & Mary Margret's beloved sister Catherine. 

Watch a clip of Mary Margaret O'Hara on stage at the 48th Martian Awareness Ball right here

R.I.P. Canadian screen great Catherine O'Hara, 1954-2026

Sadly, brilliant Toronto-born film and television star Catherine O'Hara has passed away at 71. She'll be greatly missed.

Toronto is losing another landmark – last call for the Imperial Pub

Afer 81 years in business, legendary Toronto gathering place, the Imperial Pub is being torn down for TMU student housing. 

Don't miss the 47th Annual Martian Awareness Ball @ The Horseshoe, Monday

Join hosts Mary Margaret O'Hara and brother Marcus for their annual St. Paddy's party at the 'Shoe on March 17.  Get tickets here.

LINKS

Watch "44 Years Of The Martian Awareness Ball" on Vimeo right here.  

Chris Houston's new Paranoid Bubble album boasts stellar support cast

Chris Houston's great new Paranoid Bubble album has contributions from Mary Margret O'Hara, Randy Bachman, Michael Fonfara, Herbie Spanier & other pals.

Chris Houston's latest album release Paranoid Bubble is a collection of recordings made over a period of years in various cities with an enormous cast of celebrated musicians including Guess Who and BTO guitar god Randy Bachman, Toronto vocalist extraordinaire Mary Margaret O'Hara, session keyboardist Michael Fonfara, jazz trumpeter Herbie Spanier and Sun Studios rockabilly guitar slinger deluxe Roland Janes! And how the heck does Chris Houston get all these credible singers and players to record his often unhinged experiments in unpopular song? Well, they each happen to be a close personal friend and have been for ages. And when Houston calls them for a session, they know it'll involve something they probably wouldn't try recording themselves and also that whatever goes on, it'll be a good time. Here are a few of Chris Houston's memories of recording with the people who helped create the music you'll encounter on Paranoid Bubble which follows below.   

Mary Margaret O'Hara 

 "When recording Mary Margaret I always do multiple takes so there's a Sea of Mary's voice. She naturally orchestrates the song in her mind as she goes so when all the takes are used – with no editing – it makes sense. You don't mess with genius from planet Mary Margaret – you're just grateful. She would do these crazy chicken sounds and created a barnyard of insanity. Once a week, my late father would ask me when are you going into studio with Mary Margaret. Daddy always had good taste in music." 

Michael Fonfara, Herbie Spanier and Terry Wilkins

"We recorded 'Hello Satan' at Elvis Monday downstairs at the Drake Hotel before renovations. The acoustics of the room were stunning. Terry Wilkins nailed all his parts on the first take. We were on the road so we were tight Herbie's horn really galvanized us. I think it was last time I played with him. Michael Fonfara did his dubs playing Curly Bridges' Hammond organ. Everything was very rushed. I can't believe the results. Thank you William New!"

Randy Bachman, Charlie Haas, Robbie King

"Recording with Randy Bachman is always fun. Trying to figure out different ways of tapping into his genius is challenging. Randy can send lighting bolts down your spine but to get that on tape can be a challenge. I usually try to set up series of accidents. For whatever reason, nobody showed up on time for this session so I had to reinvent everything. I ran some of my drum machine patterns and rolled the tape without giving Randy any direction. He thought we were on acid and wanted to check our eyeballs. But eventually he got into it and suddenly proclaimed, 'this is genius! This how Miles Davis works!' 

"When Charlie Haas came in, his hyperactive approach to steel guitar actually saved the day. Randy would pump out a lot of different melodies just to see how the Charlie would react and each note Randy played, Charlie would answer with his steel guitar. Robbie King showed up later on and overdubbed his organ parts on the tracks we had cut while Randy sat off by himself reading a magazine. As soon as Robbie King started tearing into the Hammond organ, all the jaded engineers jaws dropped. The Robbie demanded that I get Fonfara to play Hammond too. After we finished up for the day, I apologized to Randy for all the confusion early on, he said 'Chris, it doesn't get any better than this!'"

Remembering audio engineer Peter J. Moore on his birthday

Remembering Peter J. Moore with some songs he recorded with Neil Young, Garth Hudson, The Sadies and others.  Photo: Kevin James

Jaymz Bee presents A Very Untraditional Christmas

Jaymz Bee and pals knocked out a nutty Christmas benefit album with proceeds supporting musicians in need. 

Get a copy of Jaymz Bee presents A Very Untraditional Christmas right here. Listen to Jef Farquharson's "Christmas Iz" (vocally enhanced by Mary Margaret O'Hara) and Gita Baltensperger's version of "Santa Baby" following the album credits below. 

Charles Hackbarth created the album's colourful sleeve artwork. 

 

A VERY UNTRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS

​

1 - It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas 3:28 (Willson Meredith) Frank-Music Corp.

JEF FARQUHARSON  

 

2 - Santa Baby 3:15 (Joan Javits / Philip Springer / Tony Springer) Tamir Music/BMG

GITA BALTENSPERGER 

 

3 - I’ll Be Home For Christmas 3:36 (Kim Gannon / Buck Ram / Walter Kent) Carlin America Inc.

CHARLENE JALONDE  

 

4 - Silver Bells (4:38) (Jay Livingston / Ray Eans) Sony/ATV/Harmony  

HEINO  

 

5 - Winter Wonderland 2:53 (Felix Bernard, Richard B. Smith)

PD THE THREE QUINTS (Dallas, Hunter and Logan Quint) 

 

6 - Sleigh Ride 3:37 (Anderson Leroy, Parish Mitchell) Mills Music Inc. 

INGRID VON BIFFENFEFFEN  

 

7 - The Christmas Song 5:10 (Mel Torme / Bob Wells) Morris-Edwin-H-Co.

KING SALTY  

 

8 - Let It Snow 2:41 (Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne) Cahn Music Co. Quaytor Prod. LLC

ERINA CHORINA  

 

9 - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas 2:39 (Hugh Martin, Ralph Blane)  EMI Feist Catalog Inc.

BUEHLER TOBOGGANHEAD  

 

10 - White Christmas 3:02 (Irving Berlin) Irving Berlin Music Company 

ROGER © with DAISY BAMWOOD 

 

11 - It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year 3:27 (Eddie Bola, George Wyle) Barnaby-Music Corp.

FRED SPEK 

 

12 - There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays 3:20 (Al Stillman, Robert Allen) Charlie Deitcher Prod./KItty Anne Music Co.

FRIENDLY RICH & MARY MARGARET O’HARA  

​

BONUS TRACK (not available on vinyl) 

13 - Christmas Iz (Rusty McCarthy & Jef Farquharson) 4:12 

JEF FARQUHARSON 

Produced by Rusty McCarthy 

Jef Farquharson-lead vocals, background vocals

Rusty McCarthy-guitar, bass, background vocals

Matt Horner-keyboards

Mike Sloski-drums

Geoff Bennett-percussion

John Johnson-tenor sax

Mary Margaret O’Hara-sweet warbling

​

ARTWORK by CHARLES HACKBARTH

​

Recorded, Edited, Mixed and Mastered by Mariana Hutten

Additional Recording: Vezi Tayyeb & Ben Pelchat

Produced by Jaymz Bee

 

Starring:

Bulldog Ujjak Zene - Piano 

Great Bob Scott - Drums

Bartholomew Wankman - Bass

Ariana Chopstikz - keyboards, bv’s 

Hans Grober - lap steel, accordion, trumpet, slide trumpet, bells

Marcus O’Hara - balloon sounds 

Chauncey McBarnacle - flute

Dirk Fiddler - violin

 

ARC Sound play The Horseshoe, August 7

Gord Cumming's ARC Sound are playing their rescheduled gig on Saturday. Limited reserved seating available. Get tickets here. 

Watch Robert Frank's road movie Candy Mountain from 1987

The cast of Candy Mountain includes Dr. John, Tom Waits, Joe Strummer, David Johansen and Mary Margaret O'Hara as Darlene. 

The ARC Sound salutes Toronto's legendary Horseshoe Tavern with "The 'Shoe"

The ARC Sound's charming tribute namechecks Teddy Fury, Dave Porter, Mary Margaret O'Hara and others. Listen right here.  

Get tickets for the ARC Sound's Horseshoe show on Saturday, November 14 right here.

Here's the scoop on The Horseshoe's live room...

The Horseshoe Tavern live room will be reopening on Saturday, November 14th for the first time since mid-March 2020.

We'll be taking extra steps to maintain health standards as required in Provincial Regulation 364-20 and the November COVID-19 Response Framework, in ensuring physical distancing to keep everyone safe while being back in the venue listening to live bands, including contact tracing and completing a health questionnaire.

Advance tickets are now available for all upcoming shows at horseshoetavern.com, and are available for purchase on the night of the show. All tickets are seated at tables spaced 2 meters apart, and are sold in bundles of 1, 2, 3 or 4. The stage will be surrounded by a clear plexiglass barrier and our capacity has been reduced to 50. Artists will be mostly performing two 60 minute sets, with doors at 6:30pm (with some exceptions) and sets at 7:15pm & 8:45pm. Alcohol service will end at 9:00pm, and the venue will close at 10:00pm.

The venue's expanded front patio, equipped with heaters and wind barriers, is open under the expanded CafeTO program, and the venue front bar also re-opens on Saturday, November 14th. For now we are only operating the front bar washrooms and seating is first come, first serve, with limited capacity. Please note our updated patio/bar hours: Monday-Thursday: 12pm to 9pm, Friday/Saturday: 12pm to 11pm, closed Sunday.

Regarding postponed and cancelled shows, please see our website for any updates. All purchasers will continue to be informed via email. We encourage you to hold onto your tickets for any of the postponed shows as all tickets will be honoured for the new dates. We appreciate your patience as we continue to work to schedule new dates. Refunds will be issued for any cancelled shows. If you purchased tickets online, they will be refunded automatically, but please be patient as it will take time to process each refund. Physical tickets can be refunded in store.

We appreciate your patience and understanding during this crazy time and hope everyone is safe and sound. Please email shows@collectiveconcerts.com with any questions or concerns.

R.I.P. Hal Willner, 1957-2020

Sadly, music curator deluxe Hal Willner has passed away after a battle with COVID-19. Check out a few of his projects below.

Writes Dougie Bowne.... I used to joke about Hal, “he's my favorite kind of producer - he hires the right musicians, and leaves them the hell alone while they work shit out.” The joke, as they all must, wrapped itself around some truth, but what Hal did was make great art. The mysterious methods that were his and his alone might have looked like luck, accident, or sorcery, as if they weren’t being directed, but of course they were. He made great shit happen over and over and over again, putting together wildly important shows, producing beautiful, meaningful albums, introducing people to each other and all of us to ideas, and humor and beauty, and that takes some doing, it isn’t easy, though he made it look like it was. He made shit that could make you cry like a train, or laugh like a baby. He was an artist by any measure you might want to call up into play for deciding who to call by that name. And his loveably grumpy sarcasm could never conceal the fact that he loved more stuff - more musics, more TV shows, more films, more poems, more people, more everything than just about anyone I ever met. And I love him. 
Hal Willner April 6, 1956 – April 6, 2020 "No more to say, and nothing to weep for but the Beings in the Dream, trapped in its disappearance, sighing, screaming with it, buying and selling pieces of phantom, worshipping each other, worshipping the God included in it all—longing or inevitability?—while it lasts, a Vision—anything more?" Kaddish by Allen Ginsberg

LINKS
Rolling Stone Tom Waits pens tribute to Hal Willner
Brooklyn Vegan 32 Videos of Hal Willner's 80s series Night Music
New York Times Hal Willner's vanishing weird New York

Happy Birthday Mary Margaret O'Hara!

Toasting the divine Ms. O'Hara on her day with a clip alongside brother Marcus in Utrecht. 

The stars come out for Chris Houston's Hazards of Glitter album

Chris Houston's Hazards Of Glitter is out now on DW Records. Check out his cover of Tommy Ramone's Mean To Me. 

Forgotten Rebels great Chris "Baby Jesus" Houston is back with an all-star support cast of longtime pals – including the amazing Mary Margaret O'Hara, Teenage Head's Gordie Lewis & Jack Pedler, Blue Rodeo's Jim Cuddy, Bazil Donovan, Greg Keelor and Cleave Anderson, Michelle McAdorey, Harold Nix, Michael Fonfara, and his former One-Eyed Jacks bandmate Steve Koch – for his latest epic Hazards Of Glitter (DW Records).

Recorded with Tim Vesley at Toronto's Woodshed studio, the 10-track album of rough-cut gems is split between Houston's own streetwise revelations and well-chosen covers like the Robert Calvert-penned Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters ripper The Right Stuff, Lou Reed's Vicious Circle and Tommy Ramone's Mean To Me featuring fellow Hamiltonian Lori Yates of Rang Tango and Last Resorts infamy (listen below).

Chris Houston's Hazards of Glitter album is available now from DW Records right here. Incidentally,  DW Records also has copies of Houston's previous album Today's Temperature released last March and his Evil Twang album from 1997 which features many of the same suspects involved with Hazards of Glitter, namely Mary Margaret O’Hara, Jim Cuddy, Greg Keelor and Michelle McAdorey.

Starting the new year right with Mary Margaret O'Hara

Here's Mary Margaret O'Hara's recording of "Anew Day" from her classic 1988 album Miss America. 

Andy Kim's Christmas Show @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Wednesday

Andy Kim will be joined by Broken Social Scene, Ron Sexsmith & Alex Lifeson on Wednesday which is also Andy's 72nd birthday.

Listen to Mary Margaret O'Hara at London's Dominion Theatre in 1989

Mary Margaret O'Hara sings Live at Le Guess Who?

It's always an event when a new Mary Margaret O'Hara recording appears. Listen to her performance below. 

39th Annual Martian Awareness Ball w/ Mary Margaret O'Hara @ The Garrison, Friday

Join Toronto's fab Mary Margaret O'Hara & The Rusty Nails Allstar band for a full-tilt St. Patrick's Day bash at The Garrison.

Here's the tentative list of performers: Mary Margaret O'Hara with The Rusty Nails Allstar band featuring Rusty McCarthy, Russ Boswell, Matt Horner and Great Bob Scott
along with special guest singers:
Mike Schram, Laura Hubert, June Garber, Jeff Farquarson, David Newberry, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Johnny Spence, Jaymz Bee, Ori Dagan, Bradley Harder, Maya Bannerman, Heather Morgan, Chris Powell, Taylor Abrahamse, Bryn Scott Grimes, John Alcorn, Kirsten Johnson, Genevieve Gigi Marentette, Michael Patrick O'Hara, Michelle Rumball, Andyboy Broccoli and Jamie Lawliss.

Don't miss the 38th Annual Martian Awareness Ball @ The Horseshoe, tonight

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day with Marcus & Mary Margaret O'Hara and a few of their martian pals at the 'Shoe.

Lou Reed Tribute @ The Sister, Friday & Saturday

The two-night salute to Lou Reed at The Sister is kicked off by Mary Margaret O'Hara on Friday.