Meanwhile at The Piggery…
Saturday, June 10 at 8 p.m., the Piggery will present singer Craig Morrison with a wide repertoire of Canadian music. You will hear pop, rock, folk, country, and blues from a wide range of artists.
The playlist includes Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, The Band, Paul Anka, Anne Murray, Hank Snow, Ian and Sylvia, Steppenwolf, the Guess Who, Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Michel Pagliaro, the Diamonds, and many more. You will also hear other songs you didn’t know were by Canadians!
Craig Morrison is a Montreal ethnomusicologist and musician. Raised in Victoria BC, he bought his first guitar in 1966 and played in coffeehouses. As a teenager, seeing concerts of blues (beginning with Sonny Terry and Brownie Mcghee), jazz (including Louis Armstrong), and rock (including Janis Joplin) led to an interest in music history.
Playing in bands gave him a deeper appreciation of music styles. He sings, plays guitar, keyboard, and lap steel guitar just to name a few.
After researching rockabilly for a master’s thesis at York University (Toronto), eventually expanded and published in 1996 as Go Cat Go! Rockabilly Music and Its Makers by the University of Illinois Press, Morrison moved to Montreal in 1984.
He formed Craig Morrison and the Momentz, a band specializing in roots rock. He also wrote articles for the Encyclopedia Britannica and several other reference books, until he was asked to write a whole one by himself: American Popular Music: Rock and Roll, published in 2005 by Facts on File of New York.
Morrison earned his PH.D. in 2000 at Concordia University, writing his thesis on San Francisco psychedelic music, which is now available via online sources, including amazon.com.
He taught for five years at Mcgill University and currently teaches at Concordia University in the Department of Music and the Faculty of Fine Arts on music and culture. His courses include Rock and Roll and Its Roots (such as ragtime, jazz, blues, folk, country, gospel, and pop), Pop/soul and Its Roots, Black Music, Music of the Beatles, Psychedelic Music, Musical History Tour (on the traditions of seven cities), and Montreal’s Festival Culture.
Morrison will be at the Piggery to share his love of music as well as to bring you a lot of great music. Besides his books, Morrison has 11 CDS on the market. You can reserve by calling 819-8422431 for a superb evening.