No Sleep 'til Sudbury with Brent Jensen

My pal Sean Kelly wears a few different hats. He's primarily known as a Juno-nominated guitarist who's played with Nelly Furtado, Lee Aaron, Coney Hatch, Helix, and several other acts. He's also a music teacher, and the author of three books. He joins me today to talk about his newest work, the upcoming book entitled Battle Axes: A Hard Rockin' History of Pointy Guitars. The book examines the cult...

One July evening in northern Ontario back in 1994, I had a very unusual liaison with a person from the United States who would appear and then disappear within a span of about 12 hours, never to be heard from again.  Until she reappeared on the No Sleep 'til Sudbury podcast almost 32 years later. 

After listening to last month's NSTS episode featuring the guitarists who auditioned to replace Ace Frehley in KISS, friend of the show and co-host of the Famous Lost Words podcast Tom Jokic dropped by the NSTS studios with a list of other interesting musical substitutions, featuring artists like Dave Grohl, Stevie Nicks, Lenny Kravitz, and The Doors. According to Tom, Eddie Van Halen asked a well...

When Ace Frehley left KISS in 1982, a lot of guitar players lined up to take his place. Many of them, upon not getting the gig, went on to do great things. Two of those guitarists were Bon Jovi's Richie Sambora and Slash from Guns N' Roses. And, Eddie Van Halen was also rumoured to be in the mix. This week on the show I consider the ramifications of all of this - rock history as we know it would b...

West coast band 54-40 is a group we all know and love up here in Canada. Last week 54-40 guitarist Dave Genn called in to the show to talk about their new record Porto, which drops this Friday, January 23 rd . I've heard it, and so should you – quite honestly, it's really good.       Dave shared some great stories during our chat. Among them: his night out with Ronnie Wood and witnessing a funny S...

Here's the second half of my chat with Rik and Ian live from Rik's place. We couldn't talk about the upcoming Triumph tour as it hadn't been formally announced yet, and I was sworn to secrecy. But, there was so much more to cover - the retirement of Ian's longtime band Lunch at Allen's, how Ian used to get accosted by women at his shows and the hilarious commentary that ensues, the lyrics Rik and...

I joined Rik Emmett and Ian Thomas at Rik's home recently to talk to them about being inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame together. This episode is the first of two parts.  The conversation was fantastic, complete with a look back on the ceremony, plenty of fascinating details about their songwriting tendencies, how Rik and Ian's mothers taught them how to sing harmonies, the fact...

And now for something completely different! Catherine Fearns is a fascinating human being. Hailing from Liverpool and joining me from Geneva, Switzerland, she's a pianist, a composer, a guitarist, an author of six books, and an absolutely wonderful person to talk music with.  I contacted her because of a stunning video I saw on YouTube of her playing an Iron Maiden song on the piano, masterfully s...

Terrible news recently that one of rock's most authentic guitar players, Ace Frehley, passed away unexpectedly. I was obsessed with Ace and KISS as a kid, and they provided me with a lot of great memories from back then.  CHUM-FM producer and Famous Lost Words co-host Tom Jokic joins me in person to dig through those memories, he being a massive Ace fan as a child himself. Together, we go through...

The country music genre has undergone some pretty significant changes, with some particularly radical shifts coming within the last few years. Bree Taylor is an artist that embraces those shifts. She's been described as a cross between Carrie Underwood and Joan Jett, infusing her brand of country with a rock and roll grit that's getting a lot of attention lately.  Bree joins me on NSTS this week t...

It's that time, folks. Time to set everything else aside and really think about why Night Ranger never quite reached the same heights of fame as their rock brethren.  Was it the clothes? The saccharine? The genre confusion? Tim Durling, author of Sing Me Away: The Night Ranger Album Review, is here to help us make sense of the mystery that is Night Ranger - why didn't the band who wrote "Sister Ch...

Heavy episode. Songwriter and producer Rob Wells has worked with some of the industry's biggest stars - Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Adam Lambert, and loads of others. He feels music. In this episode Rob drops by my studio and there are laughs, misty eyes, and some really meaningful musical insights.  Rob talks about how he almost killed Dave Grohl at The Grammys, the day he met his producer idol...

In a lot of ways, the No Sleep 'til Sudbury podcast was created for people like this week's guest, emerging singer songwriter Becky Prokova. The range of emotions she evokes with her song selection is deep, and the stories she shares to accompany them are equally compelling - how she moved to LA to become a star, breaking swim records with Switchfoot, crashing cars with Coldplay, and her granting...

Here's part two of the two part series featuring Rik Emmett live at Black Bellows in Collingwood, hosted by NSTS.  In this set, Rik takes us through some songs by Jimmy Webb and Brian Wilson (RIP) that he wishes he'd written, along with insights into how they were composed. We also go through some Triumph material and the stories behind those songs, and wrap up with a Q&A with the audience. This w...

As the host of No Sleep 'til Sudbury for the past eight years, I've been fortunate enough to enjoy some pretty gratifying experiences. This one ranks up there with all of them.  Doing the show live in front of an audience was something I'd always wanted to do, and to do it alongside the legendary Rik Emmett just made it that much more unforgettable. Rik has always been one of my favourite guests,...

Former Jitters frontman and songwriter extraordinaire Blair Packham drops by this week to talk about his brand new record The Impossible Dream, and he brought his guitar to do a couple of the album's songs for us.    In addition to playing the tracks, Blair shares the stories behind the songs, which leads to some conversation around Canadian history, touring hijinks, and why he sometimes has to cl...

Here's part two of my hang with Rik Emmett, live from Eli's Loft, to talk about his newest project Ten Telecaster Tales. As always, the conversation is rich, insightful and a lot of fun.   Rik performs four tracks from the record that accompanies the book, for the very first time since they'd been recorded. In turn, he talks about performance as communion, from the smallest (this one for NSTS list...

He's back! The legendary Rik Emmett returns to No Sleep 'til Sudbury, or rather we return to his home studio, Eli's Loft, to discuss his new Ten Telecaster Tales project.  It's always plenty of fun hanging out with Rik - the stories, the music, the insights, the voices he can do...in addition to talking about Ten Telecaster Tales, Rik and I go way off track and talk about his violin lessons, his w...

Executive chef and massive music fan Christian Pritchard drops by the No Sleep 'til Sudbury studios this week, armed with some great songs and stories.   Christian, a Type II diabetic, discusses his plans to develop dishes geared more towards a healthier lifestyle, and also how much the No Sleep 'til Sudbury podcast sucks because he was only able to talk about five songs that make his skin vibrate...

It was my pleasure to host executive producer Stuart Coxe on the program this week. Stuart's credentials include producing CBC TV news program The National, developing the Dragons Den and Shark Tank TV programs, and working alongside Gord Downie on the Secret Path multimedia project. Stuart has since founded his own production company called Antica Productions, focusing on podcasts, television and...

It's that time once again, and this year I thought I'd combine music history and Christmas music to close out the 2024 No Sleep 'til Sudbury programming schedule.  Christmas music actually evolved from Gregorian chanting to celebrate the winter solstice and the return of longer days, as far back as the 4th century. From there, a number of eras were responsible for the gradual development of the 'c...

CHUM-FM producer, Famous Lost Words podcast host and friend of the show Tom Jokic makes his return to NSTS this week with a brand new angle. Tom does a segment on his podcast called "When Rock Stars Attack", a hilarious take on snippy-ish musician interviews found in the CHUM-FM and MuchMusic archives. Today he graciously shares some of these clips with us, featuring Simple Minds singer Jim Kerr,...

Ah, the eternal question - of all of those truly great Beatles albums, which one is the best? In this special episode of No Sleep 'til Sudbury, we go through the discography of the one of the greatest musical groups of all time, and arguably, the band that started it all, to determine their best work. Which album is it? Press play and find out.   

Jazz singer songwriter Lori Cullen calls into No Sleep 'til Sudbury this week to talk about The Thunder and The Bay, her new record dropping this Friday, June 7.    Lori goes in a slightly new direction with this release, introducing elements of electronica and taking the material to new places - the songs are airy, colourful and dynamic. And with her selection of songs that make her skin vibrate,...

We'd crossed paths previously over the years, but today Andy Kim sits down with NSTS for his first complete episode. The occasion is significant - on May 10, 2024 Andy's megahit "Rock Me Gently" turned 50.  Andy shares the tremendous story of growing up in Montreal tenement housing and hearing "Be My Baby" for the first time, which compelled him to move to New York City and co-write smash hits lik...