For centuries, music and nice and clean. While different instruments gave notes different timbres, the frequencies of these notes were expected to be projected with clarity and purity. Yes, you could add a little oomph but playing fortissimo, but the dogma was “Let’s not overdo it.

But sometimes the situation called for overdoing things. Banging a piano in a certain way turns a melody and a beat into boogie-woogie. A raspy, hard-blown saxophone brings energy to a performance.

But creating lots of volume and pleasant distortion with either of these instruments–and we can name a few others–is limited to the abilities of the human body. Volume and distortion and all that energy that comes from playing this way are restricted by how hard you can hit or blow into something.

The electric guitar has no such limitations. It can be played so all the notes are pristine. Or you can summon all the demons of hell with plenty of power and glory. And that is cool.

The electric guitar is one of humankind’s greatest musical inventions. Starting in the 1950s, it revolutionized many types of popular music. Country, the blues, jazz, and, most of all, rock. After it appeared, nothing was ever the same and the sound of music changed forever. It’s impossible to imagine what today’s music would sound like had the electric guitar not been invented.

But how did we get here? This is the story of the electric guitar part 2.

Songs heard on this show:

• • Big Wreck, The Oaf
  • Sex Pistols, Anarchy in the UK
  • Radiohead, Bodysnatchers
  • Oasis, Supersonic
  • Lenny Kravitz, Are You Gonna Go My Way
  • U2, Beautiful Day
  • Vampire Weekend, A-Punk
  • Duane Eddy, Rebel Rouser
  • Smiths, What Different Does It Make
  • Alice in Chains, I Stay Away

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This is Eric Wilhite’s playlist.

The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on the following stations:

• • 102.1 The Edge/Toronto – Sunday night at 7
  • Q107/Toronto
  • Live 88-5/Ottawa
  • 107.5 Dave-FM/Kitchener
  • FM96/London
  • Power 97/Winnipeg
  • Sonic 102.9/Edmonton
  • The Zone/Victoria
  • The Fox/Vancouver
  • Surge 105/Halifax
  • WAPS/WKTL The Summit/Arkon, Canton, Cleveland, Youngstown

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We’re still looking for more affiliates in Calgary, Kamloops, Kelowna, Regina, Saskatoon, Brandon, Windsor,  Montreal, Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton, and St John’s, and anywhere else with a transmitter. If you’re in any of those markets and you want the show, lemme know and I’ll see what I can do.

© 2023 Corus Radio, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Finding a name for your band is hard and it can take forever to come up with the right one. Sometimes, though, fate can intervene.

The two primary members of The Lumineers have always been Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites. When they first started playing gigs around New York City, they used a variety of names like Free Beer, 6Cheek, and the very basic Wesley Jeremiah. Nothing was working, including all the music they were trying to make.

Then one night before another crappy club show in New Jersey, the emcee made a mistake. Another band called “The Lumineers” was scheduled to play at that same venue in a week. The emcees introduced Schultz and Fraites as “The Lumineers.”

The name stuck—and no one seems to know what happened to the band who originally had that name.

© 2023 Corus Radio, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Crews battling ongoing wildfires in Nova Scotia — which includes the largest wildfire ever recorded in provincial history — could get some welcome relief Friday with rain in the forecast.

Environment Canada forecasts a 60 per cent chance of showers Friday, with rain beginning in the evening. Periods of rain are also expected for the next few days.

Officials have said the hot, dry weather seen so far this wildfire season is making it easier for the fire to spread and harder for crews to fight.

According to Nova Scotia’s wildfire map, there are currently 16 active wildfires burning in Nova Scotia, with four considered out of control.

A blaze broke out Sunday afternoon in the Tantallon area, about a 30-minute drive from downtown Halifax, and has since grown to about 837 hectares. The fire has destroyed about 200 buildings, including 150 homes, and forced the evacuation of more than 16,400 people.

David Steeves, a technician of forest resources with the Department of Natural Resources and Renewables, said Thursday that the fire had not grown in the last day and is about 50 per cent contained, though he warned “we are far from being out of the woods.”

Some people whose homes were damaged or destroyed will be able to see their properties today. The municipality’s Emergency Management Office sent an email to impacted residents Thursday night, saying they will be able to participate in a bus tour Friday morning to see the damaged homes. People will not be able to leave the bus to walk around their properties, the email said.

Fire crews in the Halifax area were kept busy Thursday afternoon, with at least 12 outside fires reported, including at the Waegwoltic Club on Coburg Road.

Halifax Mayor Mike Savage says at least two people in the city have been fined for violating a provincewide burn ban after one was caught lighting leaves on fire with a propane torch and another decided to have a bonfire.

Shelburne fire largest in province’s history

In the southwestern part of the province, there are two out-of-control fires in Shelburne County, where 40 per cent of residents have been evacuated.

A fire that started Saturday at Barrington Lake has grown to 20,000 hectares — over 200 square kilometres — making it the largest wildfire ever recorded in provincial history. The blaze has destroyed about 50 homes or cottages.

A new, smaller fire at Lake Road, also in Shelburne County, was estimated at around 120 hectares Thursday.

And another wildfire that started Monday in nearby Pubnico in Yarmouth County measures around 163 hectares.

On Thursday, a small fleet of water bombers took aim at the biggest fire amid soaring temperatures and tinder-dry conditions, and the provincial government said six more aircraft would be flying in from the United States today and over the weekend.

As well, an unspecified number of firefighters from the U.S. and Costa Rica were on their way.

In Ottawa, federal officials announced that more than 300 firefighters from the United States and South Africa are heading to Canada to battle what has become an unprecedented wildfire season.

More to come.

— with files from The Canadian Press

© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Firefighters pulled an unconscious man from a burning building in Mississauga late Thursday, the city’s fire chief says, in what she is calling an “incredible rescue.”

A fire at Dundas Street West near Hurontario Street was reported at around 10:30 p.m.

Mississauga Fire Chief Deryn Rizzi said a 911 call reported that a generator that was on fire on the exterior of a structure.

“As firefighters were responding, the information was updated to a two-storey commercial building (home sales centre) on fire,” she said.

“Upon arrival, crews noticed heavy flames coming from the rear of the building, extending into the roof.”

Two crews entered the building to conduct an initial search, she said, as other firefighters were setting up for a defensive attack.

Firefighters inside the building used a thermal camera to find a man in the “dark smoke-filled structure,” Rizzi said, noting that he was unconscious but had a pulse.

Firefighters treated the man until paramedics arrived. He was then taken to hospital.

“Crews continued to set up master fire streams and large diameter hose lines on the exterior of the structure to extinguish the fire and protect exposures,” Rizzi said.

Peel paramedics told Global News the man was taken to hospital in life-threatening condition.

In an update posted to Twitter shortly before 1 a.m., Peel police said the man was in critical, but stable condition.

The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

UPDATE:
-male party transported to hospital is in critical but stable condition

— Peel Regional Police (@PeelPolice) June 2, 2023

pic.twitter.com/arQ9HQplVa

— Chief Deryn Rizzi (@derynrizzi) June 2, 2023

© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Jade Najam was getting excited about camping during the May long weekend, sitting around the campfire late into the night with his family and sipping hot chocolate.

“Camping is all about the campfire. Just surfing the fire and sitting around the fire,” said Najam. “Sitting around the campfire is the most important part of our evening.”

But Alberta’s fire ban, which was put in place in early May, still hadn’t been lifted. Najam called off the plans to go camping in the wilderness, deciding it was better to stay home instead.

Fire bans began rolling in after hot, dry weather took over much of Canada early in the season – starting in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, now expanding to the Maritimes. While Saskatchewan and Alberta have lifted the bans in some regions, people in the Prairies have been monitoring the wildfire season closely.

Companies that supply camping enthusiasts have been seeing trends change.

Najam, who is the managing director of Smart Firewood Products, based in Leduc, Alta., says demand usually picks up around mid-April and continues until mid-October.

“This May, I’m not even at five per cent of what I did last year in sales,” he said.

Najam said his company provides “truckloads” of firewood to national parks in Alberta every year, while serving locals with retail firewood in his yard.

“My semi-truck full of firewood didn’t even get out of the yard,” he said of the current season.

One outdoor outfitter, meanwhile, is seeing a jump in sales for propane gas outdoor firepits.

“People have to look at things a bit differently when planning their camping trip due to fire bans,” said Mike Eerkes, general manager at a Mountain Equipment Company store in Edmonton.

He said campers are opting for alternatives that don’t get the classic smoky-wood campfire but still provide a warm glow.

For propane fires, Eerkes said, “All you need is a propane firepit, a propane tank and some gas in it.”

The biggest advantage to propane fire is that “you can have it,” he said. “They’re fully compliant with the fire bans.”

However, he acknowledges that propane fires are not fuel efficient, based on his experience. He suggested buying larger, refillable propane tanks for cost-effectiveness.

Overall, Eerkes said he hasn’t seen a remarkable shift in the sales of camping gear overall.

“It’s certain the fires are going to have some effect but I’m not convinced we’re seeing a massive downturn in people going camping this year.”

A private campground about 100 kilometres southwest of Halifax has been getting cancellations since the fire ban and camping bans in wooded areas of Nova Scotia earlier this week.

“When fire bans are in place, it’s the private campground’s choice to follow the fire ban to not,” said Minseo Kim, manager of the Little Lake Family Campground in Lunenburg, N.S. “But for this fire ban, private campgrounds have to listen as well.

“This has never happened before. We never faced this issue.”

Kim said the cancellations will not have a huge effect in the coming weeks, partly because the peak season begins in July and the campground also has an open space outside of the wooded area.

He is hoping the fire ban lifts soon for overnight campers.

Nova Scotia imposed the fire ban on Monday, with Prince Edward Island following Tuesday.

Chris Nuttall-Smith, the author of the newly released book “Cook It Wild,” said campers don’t really need campfires to enjoy the outdoors or prepare meals.

A longtime backpacker and camper, Nuttall-Smith said fire bans are not a “huge limitation” for cooking outdoors with alternatives like backpack stoves available.

Nuttall-Smith, in his book, shares 75 recipes to cook in the wild, with up to 65 of them possible without a campfire, he said.

“Some of the best trips that I’ve ever taken are in places where you’re never allowed to have a campfire,” he said. “I don’t think a lot of people miss it.”

He recommends campers making due without fire this season bring pre-prepared food and enjoy the outdoors.

“You can find so much beauty out in the wild at dusk, after dark, like looking at the fireflies, looking at the stars. There is so much to do.”

© 2023 The Canadian Press

A teenage boy has been charged in two separate incidents involving a firecracker being set off on a Toronto public bus.

Toronto police say in the first case on May 24, a boy boarded a TTC bus in the Guildwood Parkway and Livingston Road area, and threw firecrackers from the bus into a crowd of people waiting at a bus stop.

He then reportedly left the vehicle and got on a different bus, where he threw another firecracker, with one person suffering minor injuries.

Police allege on May 25, the same boy got on a bus in the Guildwood area and threw a firecracker, forcing the evacuation of the bus due to smoke.

A 16-year-old boy has been charged with three counts of mischief, two counts of assault with a weapon and two counts of possessing a weapon for committing an offence.

The Toronto Transit Commission says it has launched an investigation into several incidents of fireworks/firecrackers being set off on its buses in recent weeks, including one caught on video and posted online.

© 2023 The Canadian Press

Annie Stewart’s parents have lost everything.

Ed and Stephanie Stewart live in area near Bocabec, N.B., where a wildfire broke out on the afternoon of May 28.

At first, she said, everything seemed fine, but it quickly changed.

“It came down over Bocabec mountain and went straight down to my Mom and Dad’s house and burnt everything and then went right back up the hill,” she said in an interview on Thursday. “It happened within maybe an hour.”

The couple sought refuge from a neighbour, Steward said.

“It happened so quickly. They went to a friend’s house across the street and watched it burn,” she said.

It was a house that took three years to build, reduced to ash. Stewart said her mother was beside herself in the days after the fire, and said it’s still hard to believe.

Stewart said in the panic to get out of the house, there wasn’t much time to pick up some of the things the family would have liked to have saved — typical items like photo albums and generational toys, among others.

“What we just keep in our minds is we have the memories,” she said.

The cleanup process has begun, she said, but the family did not have insurance, so they’ve turned to GoFundMe to help the process and to rebuild — with a goal of $20,000.

Stewart said donations and support have been pouring in as well, something the entire family is grateful for.

“It just keeps growing, my mother has people helping in St. George and St. Stephen, they’re just overwhelmed by the generosity and they can’t thank everybody enough,” Steward said.

Fire fight continues

But as people begin to turn the page, the fire fight continues.

Roger Collet, a forest ranger with the Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development, said residents can expect to smell smoke for the next several days.

He said the fire, which burned 540-hectares, is only about 25-per cent contained as of Thursday. The hope is the rain forecasted for the weekend and Monday may help partially extinguish any remaining hotspots.

“We’ll assess every day and make our decisions … it’s likely there will be a few people when it seems like it is completely extinguished that will still be checking,” he said.

He said there is likely a couple weeks left in the battle against hotspots.

Global News went out to Bocabec Ridge on Thursday to survey some of the damage and found large portions of the area burned, but others untouched.

Fire retardant, a sticky, orangish-red substance that helps prevent trees and grass coated with it from burning, was also visible along the sides of the road and in the treetops in the distance.

One tree was still smouldering on the inside, with the top part of the tree missing entirely.

‘This is going to stay with them for a long time’

The experience, though, has been one Saint Andrews Mayor Brad Henderson will think about for a while.

On Sunday, he got the call where he works, moving quickly to start sharing as much information as he could on social media.

“There’s been a lot of hours put in,” he said, describing while there had been both dark and worrying moments, there were also heartwarming ones.

He said there should be a time to look at how things unfolded after the fire is extinguished. Henderson explained he felt there were many positives through the ordeal, but said there are also things to learn from.

The most worrying decision, and one he gave the most thought to was the decision to, was to send evacuated people home on Tuesday.

Fire officials deemed it safe for people to return, but Henderson made the announcement during a press conference being livestreamed.

“I can tell you it wasn’t an easy decision,” he said on Thursday. “There is a lot of different conversations that had to happen but having them home, that might have been the first night I could go to sleep.”

Henderson said he is grateful things weren’t worse.

“For the people that lost their home, even to the people that had to evacuate in such a hurry, this is going to stay with them for a long time,” he said.

© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Guelph police say one person is dead following a collision on Thursday afternoon.

Just after 3:30 p.m., police said the driver of a pickup truck had a medical episode while going westbound on Stone Road.

They said the pickup truck went off the road and hit a woman, who had been reading while sitting under a tree.

Then the truck reportedly hit several parked and unoccupied cars before coming to a rest in the parking lot of Stone Road Mall.

Police said an-off duty nurse tried performing life-saving efforts before the 64-year-old was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

A 32-year-old pedestrian was airlifted to a hospital out of the region with serious injuries to her lower body. Another woman was a passenger in the truck at the time of the collision, however authorities said she was not injured.

Anyone who saw the crash and has yet to talk to investigators can call Guelph police or Crime Stoppers.

© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is welcoming Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to Canada Friday as the federal Liberals keep quiet about a democratic backslide in his country.

“There is too much silence, and I think we are on the edge in Poland,” said Marcin Gabrys, a political scientist with Jagiellonian University in Krakow.

“How can you have a shared commitment to democracy when there is a clear threat to the electoral process?”

Gabrys, who specializes in Canadian studies, said Canada and Poland have been undertaking an unprecedented amount of collaboration since the ruling Law and Justice party, locally known as PiS, took power in 2015.

Yet the party has “a strong discrepancy” with the values held by the Trudeau government, he said.

For example, a new law in Poland will create a commission to probe alleged Russian interference in the country. Academics and civil-rights groups say the mandate is so vague that the panel of mostly government MPs will be used to attack opposition parties.

“It threatens, for sure, not only the electoral process but also academic freedom, because the commission has such large powers to question people from academia,” Gabrys said.

On Monday, the U.S. State Department expressed concern over a new law “that could be misused to interfere with Poland’s free and fair elections.”

Gabrys was surprised that on that same day, Trudeau announced Morawiecki’s visit by praising “a shared commitment to NATO and democracy.”

On Tuesday, a Polish MP from the far-right Confederation party blocked University of Ottawa professor Jan Grabowski from delivering a lecture in Warsaw that would have touched on Polish complicity in crimes during the Holocaust.

The topic is a sore point for PiS, which in 2018 outlawed truthful statements that some Poles were complicit in Nazi war crimes.

“This timing doesn’t serve the social agenda of the Trudeau government,” Gabrys said.

Two years ago, Morawiecki’s government limited abortions to cases where a pregnancy resulted from a criminal act or posed a serious health risk. The party has called out LGBTQ rights as “an attack on the family and children” and turned a blind eye to municipalities and regions declaring themselves “LGBT-free zones.”

Gabrys expects Trudeau will avoid talking about any of those issues while Morawiecki is in the country.

“For Canada, many times the economic interest and security interests are more important. And sometimes it means that Ottawa has abstained from saying what it should say. Nevertheless, the case in Poland is so clear; it has been for so many years. And I didn’t see any reaction from Canada,” he said.

Canada and Poland have been ramping up military collaboration since Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine.

That ranks high in Trudeau’s official notice about Morawiecki’s visit, which pledges “to address the regional defence and security challenges resulting from Russia’s brutal and unjustifiable war of aggression.”

Poland has been among the most assertive European countries in urging military allies to provide Ukraine with equipment. Gabrys says that’s in part due to a conviction that a victorious Russia would feel emboldened to target Poland and the three Baltic countries.

He’s watching to see if Poland makes a request for Canadians to train European soldiers in specialty equipment or in winter conditions, or to station more Canadian soldiers in the region. Gabrys expects Morawiecki to praise Canada for resettling Ukrainians who fled to Poland last year and for funding projects to help integrate those staying in that country.

Trade between Canada and Poland has been booming, rising 52 per cent in the five years since the Canada-EU trade deal came into effect, even though Warsaw hasn’t fully ratified the deal.

Poland recovered faster from the 2008 global recession, the European debt crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic than most of its peers.

The country is looking to Canada for know-how in carbon-capture technology and the fledgling nuclear field of small modular reactors.

Gabrys said his country would be open to Canadian hydrogen, uranium and liquefied natural gas if there’s enough of a business case, and Poland is trying to become a hub for electrical-vehicle battery factories.

He noted that Poland’s ambassador in Ottawa, Witold Dzielski, is close to the PiS leadership and has a better understanding of Canada than most envoys.

That has led to a series of unprecedented visits, Gabrys said, such as when Polish Health Minister Adam Niedzielski visited Canada in March to take stock of medical support for Ukrainians and to examine possible collaboration in life sciences.

“I see a new chapter, a new energy in the relations between Poland and Canada,” Gabrys said.

© 2023 The Canadian Press

TORONTO – As the Toronto Blue Jays prepared for a three-game interleague series in New York against the Mets this weekend their starting rotation did some additional research: looking for the best restaurants.

Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt, Yusei Kikuchi, Alek Manoah and José Berríos make a point of going out for meals together as often as they can, whether it’s in the cafeteria at Rogers Centre or at well-reviewed restaurants on the road. Although they never play at the same time, it’s a kind of cohesiveness that they all value.

“You get to know guys a little bit better and get to know their personalities and how they are in the real world,” said Gausman by his locker at Rogers Centre. “We all like food so we usually go to good restaurants and that’s a plus too.”

Bassitt, who sits next to Gausman in the Blue Jays clubhouse, immediately warmed to the topic when he heard his teammate talking about the rotation’s meals together.

“We have a great group of starters here that are going to be here for a while. I think we all just genuinely like each other and want to spend time with each other,” said Bassitt. “That’s kind of basically it, we’re bonding because we want to hang out with each other rather than order room service in your room by yourself.

“It’s a lot more fun to go out and hang with Manoah, Berrios, Kikuchi, and all those guys. I’d rather spend time with them than spend time by myself.”

That fondness is evident around the ballpark.

All five starters sit in a row in the home clubhouse at Rogers Centre. They watch each other’s bullpen sessions. After the starter warms up, the pitchers on their off day walk with him from Toronto’s bullpen to the dugout.

But eating together is a different feeling, at least according to Gausman.

“You really get to know each other away from the field, because we’re all different when we’re here,” said Gausman, gesturing around the clubhouse. “Whether we’re more laid back at home or at a restaurant it’s definitely a different setting than obviously here, where we’re working.”

Gausman and Kikuchi both consider themselves foodies, but Bassitt and Gausman agree that Kikuchi is the most adventurous of the group.

“Yeah, I always like to try new things,” said Kikuchi through translator Yusuke Oshima. “I’m just trying to learn more about the Canadian culture and American culture.

“They told me to try frogs, so I even tried frogs. I’m pretty adventurous. You can say that.”

The one MLB city where the group hasn’t gotten to explore the culinary scene is, ironically, Toronto. Because most of them have their families with them in Toronto, they have responsibilities when they’re not at the ballpark.

Gausman said that when he was on the Baltimore Orioles he always loved going to Toronto’s steak houses like Barbarien’s or Jacobs & Co. Kikuchi said that Tim Hortons has quickly become a favourite for him.

But two restaurants on the road stick out to the group.

Kikuchi said a dinner that they had before the season opener in St. Louis was his favourite meal they’ve had together, less because of what they ate but the camaraderie around the table.

“We don’t usually get all five of us out together because usually the starter that has to pitch the next day can’t join,” said Kikuchi. “All five of us were able to go together, so that was the best one so far.

“Everyone has different characteristics and joke around. Everybody’s funny.”

The other one that sticks out was The Pearl, a restaurant in Tampa, Fla., that Bassitt and Manoah discovered.

“Good breakfast/brunch place,” said Gausman. “And we won that day so we went back the next day.”

“We didn’t win the next day though,” laughed Bassitt.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2023.

© 2023 The Canadian Press