Similar to Friday night, after planning to check out some of the bigger names at CityFolk, I chose instead to see some of the lesser known, local acts. But this time instead of staying on the festival grounds at Lansdowne Park I went out onto Bank Street to check out a few of the Marvest shows. Marvest is an offshoot of CityFolk featuring shows by local artists at small venues all along Bank Street in an effort to create a bit of a SXSW vibe. It’s a musical harvest that presents “a feast of locally produced music”. After seeing a few folk rock…
Author: Kevin Bourne
Kevin Bourne
Kevin Bourne, also known as "KB The Boss" or simply "KB", is a Toronto-based host/on-air personality, arts & entertainment journalist, TV/film producer, and communications and content strategist. As a commentator and freelancer, he has appeared nationally as a correspondent on CBC News Network and host on CBC Music. He has also appeared locally on CTV, CBC Radio, CityNews, Newstalk 1010, and ByBlacks.com, and in the United States on Fox’s Black digital TV network, Fox Soul. He has covered some of Canada’s top red-carpet events, from the Toronto International Film Festival to the Canadian Screen Awards, and has interviewed everyone from Kevin Hart and "Fast and the Furious" star Tyrese Gibson to Ziggy Marley, Ava DuVernay, Dascha Polanco, Lilly Singh, and Howie Mandel. His years of work as an entertainment journalist led to him being named a Golden Globe® Awards voter and Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-Approved critic and being quoted as a critic in national ad campaigns for Black films and TV shows, both in Canada and the United States. Pivoting into the world of film and television, Kevin co-founded the film, TV, digital content, and live experiences company, SHIFTER Entertainment, alongside his wife and business partner, Koliah. Through SHIFTER he has produced a number of projects, including the Bell Fibe TV1 unscripted reality series A Date In The Life, serving as showrunner, executive producer, writer and co-director. Now, with a number of pilot and feature film scripts written and projects in development, KB is poised to continue to be a champion for Black entertainment and culture alongside his wife and business partner, Koliah.
On Friday night CityFolk featured one of Canada’s more intriguing acts, Broken Social Scene. Fresh off releasing their latest album Hug of Thunder they played an hour long set featuring songs from their diverse catalogue. What makes Broken Social Scene interesting is the constant rotating cast of members from other major Canadian Indie acts including Metric, Feist, Stars, Apostle of Hustle, Do Make Say Think, KC Accidental, Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton, Amy Millan, and Jason Collett. With such a diverse lineup the music obviously takes on different and varying characteristics as almost every song has a different lineup, sometimes members…
Day 2 of CityFolk included some big names like Hawaiian singer-songerwriter, Jack Johnson, but it was also a great night to see some lesser known, local talent. Performing at the same time as Johnson was the Ottawa-based country rock band Honey & Rust. I’d heard one of their songs before but this was my first time seeing them live. Even before they started playing, watching them set up set the tone for the performance. Lead vocalist, Jo Beattie, who was already on keys, put her harmonica around her neck and backup vocalist Cristy Williams took her seat at the drums. That says…
Post Malone has been one of the big break-out hip-hop and R&B artists. Combining elements of new school hip-hop with country has caused quite an industry crossover. Since he released his first song, “White Iverson”, two years ago he has worked with prominent rappers, released a single with Justin Bieber and dropped his first album Stoney in August of 2016. The show itself had a great atmosphere although the set noticeably declined in energy through the middle. Post himself commented, “I’m too fat to be doing this shit”. However he was a gracious performer thanking the crowd after every song. In…
Post Malone, Jenn Grant, Jack Johnson, Broken Social Scene, Dead Flowers, Royal Canoe, Father John Misty, Matt Mays, Scott Helman, Rodriguez, Bahamas Ottawa’s upcoming CityFolk festival is shaping up to be one of the most intriguing festivals in the city this year. While it may not have the same massive headliners as Bluesfest, it still features a tasteful and broad selection of artists from Canada and abroad showcasing quality and thoughtful songwriting. Opening night features one of the bigger name headliners with Post Malone. He’s an R&B/hip-hop artist from Austin, Texas whose latest album Stoney has taken the R&B and…
Samantha Clarke is an international wedding photographer based in Toronto, ON. We sat down and discussed the photography world and what it takes to be in this business. Samantha’s positive attitude and vivacious personality are what makes her so unique. She connects with each of her clients in such a way that immediately brings them at ease and allows them to open up freely, and that is what Samantha captures and what sets her apart. Her ability to connect and capture that raw and true emotion people and couples have. Samantha has truly mastered this, and continues to capture and…
Our Vladimir Jean-Gilles appeared on CTV Morning Live to share his list of the must-see films for this fall. Watch the segment below.
I have a confession to make. I’m a Christian. It’s not a popular thing to be nowadays. As soon as people know you’re a Christian they assume you’re judgmental, boring, flaky, unintelligent, or a Trump supporter. Jews are cheap, Muslims are violent and Christians are judgmental according to stereotypes. Over the past few months faith and Christianity have been in the news because of Justin Bieber. First, he cancelled his highly successful world tour. Initially we were told it was due to exhaustion, which I believe was part of the reason. Later TMZ reported it was because he wanted to…
So far it’s been a memorable year in Canada’s capital- car races, downhill ice skating races, three-course dinners 150 feet in the air, a dinner for 1,000 people in front of Parliament, and of course, giant mechanical spiders and dragons roaming city streets. Not what you would expect from a city with a decades old reputation for being a sleepy government town. The man in charge of making this all happen- Guy Laflamme. As the chair and architect of Ottawa 2017, he has helped take a city that some call “the city that fun forgot” and turn it into a…
In our in-depth interview with Guy Laflamme, Joe Mebrahtu and Kevin Bourne talk to the Ottawa 2017 executive director, about his legacy and efforts to rebrand Canada’s capital. Joe Mebrahtu: So when you started this, you know Ottawa 2017, what was your vision? What was a win for you at the time? Guy: To achieve everything I’ve been dreaming of and never managed to implement because I’ve spent most of my years as a producer in the federal government we had all kinds of justified restrictions. But like when I was producing Canada Day I had all kinds of crazy…
This past weekend was the annual House of Paint hip-hop festival, a must-see event on my calendar every year. It really is one of the most underrated events, not just within Ottawa, but North America wide. Every year House of Paint delivers top tier performers. Past performers include EPMD, Afrika Bambaataa, Big Daddy Kane and Canadian hip-hop legend, Maestro Fresh Wes. This year House of Paint had something for the old school hip-hop fan in New York’s Smif-N-Wessun, and something for the younger hip-hop head in Montreal-turned-Los Angeles DJ and producer, A-Trak. One thing that I’ve noticed is House of Paint’s biggest…
The Mayweather-McGregor fight is now in the history books. Floyd Mayweather fans all over the world celebrated his 10th round TKO while dogging Conor McGregor. Social media was filled with memes. Know-it-alls worldwide talked about how they knew a 49-0 legend like Floyd Mayweather couldn’t lose to a guy with no professional boxing experience. The truth is if you think Conor McGregor lost, you’re wrong. Boxing is business McGregor had the most to gain from this fight and Mayweather had the most to lose. As my colleague Sheldon Barrocks noted, it was McGregor who originally vocalized the idea for the…
