No Sleep 'til Sudbury with Brent Jensen

Friend of the show and Brighton Rock guitar slinger Greg Fraser returns to NSTS this week, with quite a different batch of songs - this time around, it's all rock.  It's always fun chatting with Fraze, he's a great guy and he and I love a lot of the same music. We cover off the important stuff - his favourite KISS song, watching Poison's bass player get punched in the face, Eddie Van Halen's Frank...

Audra Santa caused something of a sensation on the internet recently. The video for her latest single "Afterglow" was censored by Facebook for 'failing to uphold advertising standards'. Of course, you can watch the video and decide for yourself.  Audra is a fantastic conversationalist with a strong female voice, and our chat continued long after the episode wrapped. What was captured on the actual...

Here's something different for you this week. Something I've thought about doing for a while now. It's a privilege for me to have guests of No Sleep 'til Sudbury play their music on the show, and there have been some really special musical performances across the 90+ episodes we've done so far. So I figured, why not assemble a few of them and make a unique live music playlist of my own?  And so I...

Barney Bentall is an incredible songwriter and a terrific man. It was a real pleasure hanging out with him, capped with an unplugged performance of a song of his I've loved since my teens, "Something To Live For". Talk about skin vibration.        Barney and I cover a lot of stuff - his four-night stand at Hugh's Room in Toronto as part of a Gordon Lightfoot tribute, the sabbatical he took from mu...

Happy New Year, NSTS is back!  We kick off the year by hosting former Sting guitarist Jeffrey Lee Campbell. Jeff toured the world with Sting in 1987 on his Nothing Like The Sun tour, and he details that whirlwind period of his life in his new book, Do Stand So Close: My Improbable Adventure as Sting's Guitarist .      Jeff obviously has some incredible stories, and he shares some of them on the sh...

Here's the second and final portion of my time spent with the great Rik Emmett, going over the Christmas songs most special to him. Our first episode from last week was a massive success, earning the most downloads of any NSTS show in 2018. Hope you enjoy this one just as much.      This week Rik once again provides tremendous insight into the writing of some of our favourite holiday tunes, all wh...

Time to get into the Christmas spirit, friends. And who better to help us do that than Triumph guitar wiz and Christmas music guru Rik Emmett?  Rik has once again graciously invited me into his home, this time to record two special NSTS episodes featuring his favourite Christmas songs (Rik insisted it be two episodes - there was simply too much ground to cover). In addition to sharing an immense a...

This week on No Sleep 'til Sudbury I'm joined by former Sportsnet sportscaster and current Outta The Park podcast host Barry Davis. Barry's a big music fan (and the frontman of a Tom Petty cover band!), and we had a really terrific chat.  Among the topics covered by Barry and I are obscure Beatles facts, the future of Van Halen, what Barry's calf tattoo says, Sam The Record Man, Bowie's diet of mi...

She's a meteorologist. She's an author. And she's a big music fan. This week it's my pleasure to welcome my pal Amy Sweezey to the show to talk about our mutual love for 80s hair bands!  Amy and I have a terrific chat about the power of nostalgia, the pressures associated with forecasting the weather, Ron MacLean, suicide, KISS dress ups, Hee Haw, the Vietnam War, music therapy, and how a Tom Coch...

This week's NSTS guest needs no introduction. Canadian broadcaster Alan Cross returns to the show to talk tunes! As always, Alan and I have a great musical chat. Highlights include the future of rock, his new gig with Q107, his first impression of U2's "Vertigo", his days as a DJ, some great Beatles recording stories, and what's buried very, very deep in the mix of Pearl Jam's "Alive".         U2...

Radio and television broadcaster Todd Miller is my guest on NSTS this week, and he brings with him songs from a wide array of musical genres. I do love when that happens. In this episode Todd and I chat about the career twists and turns of Judas Priest, radio playlist secrets, the dulcet tones of jazz artists Weather Report, the AC/DC song he never needs to hear again, and why Monty Python is good...

This week we're doing something a little different.  My guest is Toronto Tabla Ensemble artistic director Ritesh Das, in to talk about his new album Bhumika that launches November 9. Ritesh has performed with The Tea Party's Jeff Martin, Loreena McKennitt, and other notable musicians, and he takes me through the history and cultural significance of the tabla, a percussion instrument originating in...

This year's Halloween episode guest is former Spoons and Honeymoon Suite keyboardist Rob Preuss. Rob took me to a studio on 72nd Street in New York City so he could play the spooky songs that make his skin vibrate on piano.  Rob is a ridiculously talented musician and an insightful mind. Rather than go through a specific list of songs, we go over some of the songs you'd expect and some you may not...

Country singer songwriter Kelsi Mayne drops by the NSTS studios this week, and she brings guitar player Annette Haas along to play her latest single "Woman Waiting" live.  Kelsi and I chat about her favourite place to play in Nashville, what separates Nelly from other hip hop and rap artists, what she has to wear when she raps, who her famous 'home girl' is, and how alarmingly different audiences...

My pal Stephen Stanley is with me in studio this week, and I always love having him in. He was gracious enough to bring his guitar with him to play two songs from his excellent Jimmy & The Moon album - if you haven't heard it yet, you really must.  Mister Stanley brings in a collection of songs representative of his band's recent European tour. Some I knew, some I didn't, but I liked 'em all. Step...

The very talented Christina Martin drops by the NSTS studios with her guitar player Dale Murray this week to play tunes and talk music.  Christina's latest record Impossible To Hold is full of really fantastic songs, and she plays a couple of my faves live amidst chatting about Columbia House, Paul Westerberg, the night she became a vampire, what it was like to have Don McLean open for her, the po...

This week on the show I welcome broadcaster and former educator Stephen Hurley to the NSTS studios. In addition to going through Stephen's skin-vibrating songs, our chat is centred around music education, and the fact that in schools, music is often a subject when it should instead be an experience.  I love talking music with guys like Stephen, because he's an old soul that truly cherishes music f...

It doesn't get much better than this, folks. Coney Hatch frontman Carl Dixon comes back for his second episode, and who should turn up to sit in but our pal Canadian broadcasting icon Ron MacLean!      I love hanging out with these guys, and this episode was a real treat for me to do. Lots of laughs and so many great music and sports stories...Lee Trevino's response to Tom Watson's open fly, Gord...

Fleet-fingered Brighton Rock lead guitarist Greg Fraser calls into the show this week to talk tunes. Greg is an incredible player and a great dude, and our conversation was a lot of fun.  Topics of interest include technology's impact on today's music, our favourite Zeppelin tracks, the Sudbury-Soo rivalry, Al DiMeola, Steve Harris' favourite song, Michael Schenker's unique response to Greg's dinn...

The No Sleep 'til Sudbury podcast is back with the incredible and irrepressible Molly Johnson. She's got fire, she's got insight, and the lady has stories.  What a discussion - Molly talks to me about the American civil rights movement, what Aretha smoked, Rick James' real name, the politics of tuna, where Jim Cuddy got his voice from, how The Police formed, the genius of Gord Downie, and what all...

If you're a fan of the show, this will be one of your favourite episodes. Singer and vocal coach Teresa Cirillo drops by the No Sleep 'til Sudbury studios for a very honest and personal chat about the music that makes her skin vibrate.   Teresa is enthusiastic, genuine, upbeat, and she doesn't hold back one bit. We talk about the peculiar coterie of characters that comprised Michael Jackson's ento...

Ethnomusicologist, professor, and writer Gillian Turnbull is my guest on the show this week. Gillian is a fascinating woman with a powerful social voice, and she provides some great commentary with lots of laughs.  Tune in to hear about her boozy encounter with Jim Cuddy, her theory as to why Billy Joel doesn't get as much respect as Springsteen, her love for Rush, and her affinity for Neko Case's...

My pal Ron MacLean comes back to the No Sleep 'til Sudbury studios again this week to chat about ten more songs that make his skin vibrate. It's an absolute joy to hang out with Ron - he's funny, whip smart, super gracious, and he knows his music. In this episode Ron and I discuss his ritual for listening to music in the car, his affinity for Tom Petty, Todd Rundgren, and Carl Dixon, his Olympics...

One of Canada's greatest ambassadors, broadcasting icon and massive music fan Ron MacLean joins me on No Sleep 'til Sudbury this week. Like most Canadian sports fans I've been a fan of Ron's for decades, and it was my privilege to chat with him about the songs that make his skin vibrate.  In sharing his love for the songs that moved him over the course of his life, Ron offers the clever quips I've...

This week, friend of the show and entrepreneurial juggernaut Terry Moshenberg drops by the studio for his second kick at the NSTS can with an all-new batch of great tunes.    Over the course of our chat, Mosh and I talk about his latest capers, cannabis and 'little people' wrestling, Pink Floyd's crazy Billboard run, the power of nostalgia, Bob Dylan's electric period, the beauty of mistakes, and...