Chris Austin Hadfield is a Canadian retired astronaut, engineer, fighter pilot, musician, and writer. The first Canadian to perform extravehicular activity in outer space, he has flown two Space Shuttle missions and also served as commander of the International Space Station (ISS). Prior to his career as an astronaut, he served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 25 years as an Air Command fighter pilot.
Emm Gryner is a Canadian-Filipino singer, songwriter, recording artist, and author. She has released 20 albums as a solo performer, and has collaborated with artists including David Bowie and Chris Hadfield.
"Space Oddity" is a song by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie. It was first released on 11 July 1969 by Philips Records as a 7-inch single, then as the opening track of his second studio album David Bowie. Produced by Gus Dudgeon and recorded at Trident Studios in London, it is a tale about a fictional astronaut named Major Tom; its title and subject matter were partly inspired by 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Bowie's feelings of alienation at that point in his career. One of the most musically complex songs he had written up to that point, it represented a change from the music hall-influenced sound of his debut to a sound akin to psychedelic folk and inspired by the Bee Gees.
Ride On is an album by Irish folk singer Christy Moore, released in 1984. Its title track remains one of his most popular songs. A number of songs relate the actions of those involved in political struggles, or those affected by those struggles; such as "Viva la Quinte Brigada" which is concerned with the Irish contingent amongst the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War; or "El Salvador" dealing with the civil war in that country in the 1980s. Other songs deal with Irish history – "The City of Chicago", about emigration to America during the Irish famines of the late 1840s; "Back Home in Derry" written by Bobby Sands about the transportation to Australia of convicts; and "Lisdoonvarna" celebrating a music festival that took place annually in that town until the early 1980s.
Silly Wizard was a Scottish folk band that began forming in Edinburgh in 1970. The founder members were two like-minded university students—Gordon Jones, and Bob Thomas. In January 1972, Jones and Thomas formed a trio with their flatmate Bill Watkins and performed under various band names in Edinburgh folk clubs. In the spring of 1972, Watkins returned to Birmingham and, in June 1972, Chris Pritchard (vocals) came in as his replacement. In July 1972, this newly formed trio were offered their first paid booking at the Burns Monument Hotel, Brig O' Doon, Scotland, and needed a band name in a hurry. The name "Silly Wizard" was chosen and the continuing stream of bookings ensured that the name became permanent. In September 1972, the trio recruited Johnny Cunningham (1957–2003) and Silly Wizard started to take off.
Dayna Manning is a Canadian folk and pop singer-songwriter, as well as a producer and sound engineer. As a teenager she released her first album, Volume 1, on EMI and Nettwerk, with featured musicians including Sean Lennon and Melanie Doane. A single from the album reached No. 15 on the MuchMusic top hits chart in Canada, and she was nominated for the 1998 Juno Award for Best New Artist.
Yeah! is the ninth studio album by English rock band Def Leppard. It is the first cover album by the band. It was originally intended to be released on 20 September 2005, but it was announced on 31 March 2006 that the album would be released on 23 May 2006. The album charted at No. 16 on the Billboard 200 and No. 52 on the UK Albums Chart.
The Paperboys are a Canadian folk music band from Vancouver that formed in 1991. The Paperboys blend Celtic folk with bluegrass, Mexican, Eastern European, African, zydeco, soul and country influences. The band has had a variety of members and line-ups since its original formation, with Landa remaining as the sole founding member, although veteran banjoist/bassist Cam Salay often returns as a guest performer. Known for consistently creating pop songs with melodic hooks, their music has been called versatile, with a wide range of influences, melding diverse musical influences more successfully than some other Irish rock bands have previously.
The Duhks are a Canadian folk fusion band, formed in 2002 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Featuring banjo, fiddle, guitar, percussion, and vocals, The Duhks blend folk music together with various Canadian and American traditional styles, including soul, gospel, old-time country string, and zydeco. The band also commonly plays traditional Irish dance music, integrating Latin-influenced percussion as well as often Celtic- and Cajun-influenced fiddle-playing.
Danny Michel is a Canadian songwriter and producer.
The Original Leap Year is the second album by Emm Gryner, released on Gryner's independent Dead Daisy Records.
Genticorum is a popular traditional Québécois musical trio based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Members are Pascal Gemme, Yann Falquet, and Nicholas Williams, replacing Alexandre de Grosbois-Garand. Each member additionally provides percussion by clogging. The band formed in the autumn of 2000, and as of 2011, have released four albums all on Roues Et Archets, an independent record label.
Expedition 35 was the 35th long-duration mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The expedition started 13 March 2013, and marked the first time a Canadian astronaut – Colonel Chris Hadfield – was in command of the station. Expedition 35 was also only the second time an ISS crew is led by neither a NASA astronaut, nor a Roscosmos cosmonaut, after Expedition 21 in 2009, when ESA astronaut Frank De Winne was in command. The expedition lasted two months.
Chris Wardman is a Canadian music producer, musician and songwriter. Wardman was a founding member of Blue Peter, and was their lead guitarist and main contributing songwriter. Wardman was also a member of Breeding Ground in the late 1980s. Wardman has been actively producing albums for many Canadian acts, including Chalk Circle, Leslie Spit Treeo, Randy Bachman and Emm Gryner. Wardman produced two albums for Art Bergmann, including Sexual Roulette in 1990. Meryn Cadell's most recent new release, 1997's 6 Blocks, was produced by Wardman, for which he hired, among others, former bandmate Jason Sniderman, and he performed on the album as well. The Watchmen credit Wardman with discovering them while playing at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, and he produced their debut album, McLaren Furnace Room, which was certified gold in Canada in 1996. In his review of the album on Allmusic, Roch Parisien complimented Wardman's mix of the album for how he balanced lead singer Danny Greaves' vocals with the music production.
Sultans of String are an instrumental music group based in Toronto, Ontario, combining elements of Spanish flamenco, Arabic folk, Cuban rhythms, and French Manouche Gypsy-jazz. The group's leader is producer and Canadian musician Chris McKhool.
Chris McKhool is a Canadian violinist, producer, guitarist, composer, and singer-songwriter. He has received numerous awards for his work, including four JUNO Award nominations and four Canadian Folk Music Awards for his various recordings.
Frank Gryner is a Canadian record producer, mix engineer, audio technician, and multi-instrumentalist. He has mixed/engineered or performed on recordings for multiplatinum artist Rob Zombie, as well as A Perfect Circle, BT, Peter Pepper, and Andrew W.K. among many others.
Colleen Brown is a Canadian singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Edmonton, Alberta.
Folkyo is the third studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Dayna Manning, released on her own LeParc Records on December 19, 2006. Folkyo received positive reviews, praising the album's musical intricacy and Manning's voice and writing, as well as its complex tones and clever lyrics.
Völur is a Canadian doom metal band based in Toronto, Ontario, signed to Prophecy Productions. Since forming in 2014 they have released two full-length albums, two EPs, one split and have toured Canada, the United States and Europe. They play a hybrid style of doom metal and folk music while often incorporating jazz structures into their songwriting.
