McLachlan, Nickelback, Rush make Grammy radar; Avril misses out
TORONTO (CP) - This year's crop of homegrown Grammy nominees runs the gamut from the usual suspects - Shania Twain, Sarah McLachlan and Nickelback - to pleasant surprises like Rush and jazz guitarist Benoit Charest.
Other Canuck-born nominees include polka king Walter Ostanek, producer David Foster and the orchestra of Tafelmusik.
Composer Howard Shore returns to the Grammys with two nominees for his famed Lord of the Rings score. He's already a favourite, after the scores for the first two Rings films won him Grammys in 2003 and 2002. He scored the Oscar last year too.
Shore will also compete in the best song from a film category for Annie Lennox's Into the West, a song he co-wrote.
He'll be up against Charest. The Montreal songwriter co-wrote the title tune of The Triplets of Belleville, an animated film made in Montreal. The song was also nominated for an Oscar last year.
Twain was a double nominee with nods for the song She's Not Just a Pretty Face in the female country vocal performance category and another for her Dolly Parton-tribute duet with Alison Kraus, Coat of Many Colors.
McLachlan will compete in the highly coveted category of best pop vocal album. She'll face fierce competition from Norah Jones, Ray Charles, Joss Stone and Brian Wilson.
Missing from this year's list are pop stars Avril Lavigne, Nelly Furtado, Alanis Morissette and jazz singer Diana Krall.
However, Krall's The Girl In the Other Room did garner recognition for producer Tommy LiPuma and sound engineer Al Schmitt. As well, Morrissette's So-Called Chaos producer John Shanks is up for the best producer trophy.
"Avril is the big one (missing)," agreed Aaron Brophy, managing editor at Chart, a national music magazine based in Toronto. "Next to Shania, she's probably our biggest music export right now."
Her record, Under My Skin, released last May, showed a shift from teen-friendly pop-rock hooks toward a moodier, heavier rock sound.
"It's probably going to make her look better for the next 20 years but it's not going to earn her nearly as many awards," said Brophy referring to her debut record Let Go, which earned five Grammy nominations in 2003. "It's pretty clear the Grammy people don't like the angry young girl routine."
The first reaction at MuchMusic, the nerve-centre for youth's musical taste in Canada, was of amazement.
"The talk around the office was 'Wow, look at all the hip hop' and secondly 'Wow no Canadians,' " said Hannah Sung, a VJ at MuchMusic. "That was something that really stood out to most people when they first heard of the nominations."
But she said explaining why isn't easy.
"Who really knows why that's happening? . . . I watch shows like the Grammys for entertainment value. I don't really think it judges the best artists out there. It judges the best of the most popular," she said.
One factor could be that Canadian talent isn't as strong in R&B and hip hop, arguably the hottest genres currently heard in the U.S.
Kanye West, Usher and Alicia Keys - all urban musicians - led the nominations' list.
"In Canada we're this isolated, throwback where we still have a lot more rock bands," said Chart's Brophy. "Urban music hasn't penetrated as thoroughly here. That also means that we don't have the same type of artists to compete in those genres."
The exception to the theory might be Prince, who received five nominations including best R&B album for Musicology. He has publicly credited Canada's diverse musical landscape, including "melting pot" inspired radio playlists, for helping him make the record.
"Musicology is the first record I've recorded in Toronto and I can really feel the difference," the musician said in an interview earlier this year. "It has a completely unique sound that came from the total disregard for what's happening in American music, and for the workings of the American music industry. It doesn't sound like anything else that's out there right now."
Rock veterans Rush was nominated for best rock instrumental performance for O Baterista, a track off the band's Rush In Rio live disc recorded from the band's Vapor Trails World Tour.
"We are exceedingly proud of Neil in particular for his outstanding virtuosity which is fully displayed in this drum solo piece," said Geddy Lee.
Rush will be up against The Allman Brothers Band, Los Lonely Boys, Steve Vai and Brian Wilson. It's the band's third run at a Grammy. The group was nominated in 1992 for Where's My Thing and in 1982 for YYZ.
Nickelback finds itself competing against metal bands Metallica, Incubus, Slipnot and Velvet Revolver in the best hard rock performance category.
Famed producer David Foster is up for an arranger's award for his work with teen jazz vocalist Renee Olstead on Summertime.
Toronto's Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, conducted by violinist Jeanne Lamon, is up for best small ensemble performance.
In the best musical albums for children, one-time Montrealer Cathy Fink and partner Marcy Marxer got a nod for cELLAbration! A Tribute to Ella Jenkins.
The Feb. 13 awards will mark the end of Quebec-born Pierre Cossette's run as the show's executive producer. He's credited with bringing the awards ceremony to the TV masses since 1971.
Hundreds gather for celebration to remember prolific author Pierre Berton
TORONTO (CP) - The Governor General told some backstage tales. Publisher John Neale hawked some of Pierre Berton's books. And curmudgeonly columnist Allan Fotheringham wept.
It was the kind of night Berton would have loved, from the sentimental to the irreverent. Some 500 people - friends, family and just plain admirers - came in out of a mild autumn rain and crowded into the atrium of the CBC broadcasting centre Tuesday evening for a public celebration of the life of the broadcaster, journalist, author of more than 50 books and, all agreed, a one-of-a-kind nationalist who will be greatly missed.
Berton died of heart failure Nov. 30 in hospital at the age of 84, triggering a national outpouring in recent days that culminated in the event, A Celebration of Pierre Berton, with a who's who in Canada's cultural and literary establishment present. Speakers at the gathering included Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson, Margaret Atwood, June Callwood, Lister Sinclair, Betty Kennedy, Rick Mercer, John Honderich as well as members of the immediate Berton family.
"You'll never die, Pierre," Callwood said in a voice that shook slightly with emotion. "You're gone, but you'll never die."
Fotheringham told a story of the night a teenage Berton got drunk, stole a car and got arrested in Dawson City, convinced his life was over, and how in later years one historian accused the writer of making Canadian history interesting just as a ploy to sell books. But as the laughter ebbed, Fotheringham began to choke up on his closing words.
"One of a kind, and there'll never be another Pierre Berton."
Back on the lighter side, Neale, chairman of Random House Canada, held up a copy of Berton's last book, Prisoners of the North.
"With the collective will of all of us in this room, I know this book will be back on the top of the (best-seller) list very soon," he said to laughter. "I'm a salesman. Crass commercialism, yes. Pierre would have wanted me to do this."
A giant black and white photo of the smiling man of honour, with arms crossed and trademark bow tie untied, served as a backdrop for the stage.
Clarkson shared personal stories of their friendship, talking about the time she was a guest panellist on Front Page Challenge, Berton's birthday party at Rideau Hall and get-togethers at his home in Kleinburg, Ont., where he barbecued "to a crisp all those sausages."
"He was really a remarkable person and I think of him always as a comrade, an ally, a friend and a colleague," Clarkson said.
"We were allied in all sorts of battles together, as many of you were, against capital punishment, against the libel laws, but the causes were always many and we were always, I'm happy to say, on the same side."
Berton's longtime manager Elsa Franklin took the stage wearing what she called a "silly" bow tie, and described him as a "dynamo."
"He wrote and he wrote and he wrote and he wrote," she said. "For Pierre, family and friends came first, after writing."
Author Margaret Atwood recalled a long-standing rumour in the literary community that Berton was the only writer in Canada who had his own "forger" - someone who supposedly sat in a back room in a Vancouver book store filled with Berton books and signed them.
Singer Dinah Christie played her guitar on stage, and sang what she said was the first folk song she ever learned - one Berton taught her.
But it wasn't all praise. His shortcomings as a singer, poet, artist and motorist were eagerly referenced, too.
Comic Rick Mercer got the final laughs, describing how he and a TV crew went to Berton's house in October to tape the now-famous sketch in which Berton taught a lesson in how to roll a marijuana joint.
He said Berton willingly agreed to the idea, adding only: "Bring the pot."
As they packed up to leave, Mercer thanked the family for their hospitality, and Berton's parting words were: "Leave the pot."
Mercer said Berton was not only a shit-disturber but "the Wayne Gretzky of shit-disturbers."
Berton's widow Janet, recovering from a broken hip, looked frail in a wheelchair but was smiling and serene as she spoke to VIP well-wishers paying their respects before the event began.
"This is overwhelming," she said. "It's so sweet and warm, and very difficult."
Berton's sons and grandsons all wore bow ties in honour of Berton's famous neck attire.
Here are some quotes from A Celebration of Pierre Berton, held Tuesday night:
"He just couldn't stop writing. It was compulsive, obviously. And he had, luckily for us, the talent to go with the compulsion." - Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson.
"Pierre was in fact a Peter Pan sort of person. He never grew up, he never lost his sense of wonder and curiosity and his love of adventures. It was what made him a great storyteller." - Berton's sister, Lucy Berton-Woodward.
"He had a great reverence for life. For his family, for begonias, for cats, for dogs, for rascals, losers and friends, often the same person." - June Callwood.
"Pierre was big. He was big in every way. He was big in physical stature and he had a heart to match the frame. We shall miss him dearly." - Betty Kennedy.
"As you can see, the banana is very odd and the grapes are questionable. And I'm very glad he stayed with the writing! It's of course worth a fortune." - Vicki Gabereau, holding up a painting Berton the amateur artist once gave her father.
Ferguson Named New Host 'Late Late Show'
NEW YORK - So much for being a TV hotshot: Craig Ferguson spent the first night after finding out he'd been selected as the new host of CBS' "The Late Late Show" sleeping in his car. After months of on-air tryouts for Craig Kilborn's replacement, CBS announced Tuesday the selection of Ferguson, the Scottish actor who portrayed boss Nigel Wick on "The Drew Carey Show" for eight years.
He'll start Jan. 3.
Ferguson was in Vancouver filming a movie when he got the word late Monday, and he immediately began driving toward his Los Angeles home. Near Grant's Pass in Oregon, he searched for a hotel room but couldn't find one. So he slept in a parking lot.
"It made me laugh," he said. "I should probably do that every now and again."
Ferguson, who wrote and starred in the films "Saving Grace" and "The Big Tease," passed through a gauntlet of on-air tryouts set up by Worldwide Pants, David Letterman's production company. He was one of four finalists with actor Michael Ian Black, comedian D.L. Hughley and MTV "Total Request Live" host Damien Fahey.
Kilborn announced in August he was leaving the 12:35 a.m. talk show after five years of fruitlessly chasing NBC's Conan O'Brien in the ratings.
With his Scottish burr, the 42-year-old Ferguson brings a different sound to the time slot.
He had no aspirations to be a talk show host when he was asked to try out, so he relaxed and tried to be himself.
Then after a few times on the air, he realized he really wanted the job.
"It was like show-business crack to me," he said. "Once I was in, I was totally addicted."
A top comedian in Britain before moving to Los Angeles in 1995, he studied tapes of Letterman, Johnny Carson and Regis Philbin for pointers. That was a savvy move: Worldwide Pants was responsible for picking the new host, Carson is Letterman's hero and Philbin one of his biggest show business pals.
"Once I sat in the chair, I thought, `I love this. This is great fun," he said. "You do comedy, you talk to people, you meet hot-looking women and movie stars. This is fantastic!"
Pixar, Disney Delay Release of 'Cars'
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Walt Disney Co and Pixar Animation Studios Inc on Tuesday said they would postpone the theatrical release of their animated feature "Cars" to June 2006 from November 2005.
Officials from both companies said the move was aimed at profiting from potentially stronger movie attendance by kids on summer break, but analysts said it may help buy Pixar more time to find a new distributor for its films.
"Cars," an animated road movie helmed by "Toy Story" and "A Bug's Life" director John Lasseter, is the seventh and final film produced by the successful Disney-Pixar partnership.
Pixar Chief Executive Steve Jobs said on Tuesday the schedule shift would also apply to films released after "Cars," meaning they will be released in theaters over the summer and on home video at the holidays.
Last month, Jobs said the company hoped to replicate its success with "Finding Nemo," a summer release that became the 12th highest grossing U.S. movie of all time.
Jobs' announcement in November that Pixar was considering the schedule change prompted Wall Street speculation that the company would postpone making a distribution deal planned for mid-2005.
Emeryville, California-based Pixar's distribution and production agreement with Disney is set to expire in 2005 with the delivery of "Cars."
Pixar now pays Disney 10 percent to 15 percent of revenues from the films, plus a 50-percent cut of profits. Jobs and outgoing Disney CEO Michael Eisner have publicly clashed over terms for a new deal.
Jobs admitted then that he wanted to see how the "musical chairs" affecting the heads of several major studios would turn out before committing to a new partner.
Disney spokeswoman Heidi Trotta said on Tuesday that the two studios were not in talks over a new distribution pact.
"This is about moving a summer movie to summer," she said.
Analyst David Miller of Sanders Morris Harris said the shift shows Pixar needs more time to find a new partner.
"They're going to sugar-coat it and say, 'Well, this is going to play better in the summer,' but that's only a quarter of the story," Miller said.
The schedule shift also will mean that Pixar will have only the DVD release of "The Incredibles" on which to peg its financial performance in 2005.
Fulcrum Global Partners analyst Richard Greenfield called the move "not terribly surprising" but predicted it would pressure Pixar's stock price.
"We are surprised that Disney was interested in pushing out a very important part of its fiscal '06 earnings," Greenfield said.
Rapper Kanye West Leads Grammy Nominees
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Chicago rapper Kanye West, who survived a near-fatal car crash to score one of the biggest hits of the year with his debut album, led an eclectic field of commercially successful Grammy Award contenders with 10 nominations, organizers said on Tuesday.
R&B singers Alicia Keys and Usher picked up eight nominations each, followed by late "Genius of Soul" Ray Charles with seven, and punk rock band Green Day with six.
Jazz pianist Norah Jones, country veteran Loretta Lynn, funk musician Prince and engineer Al Schmitt each earned five.
West, whose nominations included the key categories of best new artist, album of the year and song of the year, told Reuters he was overwhelmed to receive so many nods.
"I won't even lie. It's really just as much scary as it makes you happy," he said.
Already a successful producer, West began recording his first album in 2001. But work was halted in October 2002 when he was involved in a car crash. Battered and bruised with his jaw wired shut, he returned to record the track "Through the Wire," which related his experience.
His debut album, "The College Dropout," a soulful mix of hip-hop and gangsta rap, has sold over 2.5 million copies in the United States since its February release.
It will compete for album of the year with Charles' posthumous duets album "Genius Loves Company," Green Day's "American Idiot," Keys' "The Diary of Alicia Keys" and Usher's "Confessions.
Green Day, which burst on the scene 10 years ago with its Grammy-winning major-label debut, becomes the first punk rock band to be nominated in this category, having topped the U.S. charts with its million-selling "American Idiot" in September.
"The older that you get and the longer that you've been around, for me, it's a lot sweeter," said Billie Joe Armstrong, the band's singer/guitarist and primary songwriter.
RAY VS. RAY
It was a bittersweet experience for Ray Charles' friends and collaborators. The soul icon, who won 12 Grammys during his career, died of liver disease in June, aged 73.
Charles will compete against himself in the pop collaboration with vocals category, with "Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word" (with Elton John) going up against "Here We Go Again" (with Norah Jones). Two other dead artists, punk rocker Joe Strummer and country outlaw Johnny Cash, were nominated for their cover of Bob Marley's "Redemption Song."
There were few surprises among the main categories, although Irish rock band U2's new single "Vertigo" failed to make the key song and record of the year categories. The song landed three nominations in the rock and video categories.
Although the Grammys honor artistic excellence, most of the leading nominees have in fact sold millions. Usher's "Confessions" was the biggest seller in the United States this year with sales of 7 million copies.
Keys, who was the big star of the 2002 Grammys when she won five awards for her debut album, has sold 3.6 million copies of her follow-up, "The Diary of Alicia Keys." Jones has also sold 3.6 million copies of her second album, "Feels Like Home," having won five Grammys in 2003. Charles' album has sold 1.6 million copies, the biggest tally of his career.
Besides West, the other best new artist nominees were Texan rock trio Los Lonely Boys, country singer Gretchen Wilson, pop band Maroon 5, and young English soul singer Joss Stone.
Winners of the 47th annual Grammy Awards will be announced on Feb. 13 during ceremonies at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.