There’s Something Happening Here: The Music of the Laurel Canyon

There’s Something Happening Here: The Music of the Laurel Canyon – Mondays: October 20 – November 10, 1:00 – 2:30 pm

Guest speaker: Dr. Rob Bowman, Grammy Award-winning ethnomusicologist 

The Laurel Canyon – the West Coast music colony that flowered in the late 60s and early 70s – was a creative, collaborative, countercultural awakening. In the mid-1960s, the music industry started to shift from New York City to Los Angeles. Beginning with the Byrds, and the Mamas and Papas, the new sound of folk-rock emerged, as did the singer-songwriter movement. This Hollywood Hills enclave attracted such figures as Joni Mitchell, The Mamas & The Papas, Buffalo Springfield, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. These burgeoning superstars experimented with new sounds, influenced each other, formed bands together, and transformed the sound of popular music in the West. Later artists, including Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles, brought country music into the mix. Over the course of four lectures we will look at that incredible musical renaissance that produced some of the era’s most prolific and enduring music. Join us in the Al Green Theatre, on Zoom simulcast, or register to receive the recordings!

Join us in the Al Green Theatre, on Zoom simulcast, or register to receive the recordings!

Monday October 20 – Los Angeles and Laurel Canyon on the Rise: The Byrds, Mamas and Papas, and Buffalo Springfield
Monday October 27 – The Singer Songwriter movement begins: Joni Mitchell and Neil Young
Monday November 3 – Laurel Canyon explodes: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, James Taylor and Carole King
Monday November 10 – Commercial success and the Loss of the Sound: Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles

Don’t miss our Epic Eagles Tribute Concert on Thursday December 11 in the Al Green Theatre – the perfect complement to this lecture series!
Mondays: October 20 & 27; November 3 & 10
1:00-2:30pm
Al Green Theatre

Series: $64; drop-in: $20

For registration assistance, please call 416-924-6211 x0 or email help@mnjcc.org.
For more information, contact Lisa Roy at 416-924-6211 x6155 or email lisar@mnjcc.org.

Professor Rob Bowman is a Grammy Award-winning ethnomusicologist who pioneered popular music studies at York University. He lectures, publishes and broadcasts in many areas of popular music, from country, R & B and gospel to reggae, rap and funk, and has interviewed several hundred artists, from Bob Marley to Mick Jagger. Rob has written liner notes for hundreds of recordings, including working on boxed sets for Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and Rush. He authored the award-winning book Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records which earned him a spot in the Blues Hall of Fame. Rob regularly authors, produces and advises on major documentary and CD reissue projects for record companies in Europe and North America. He is integrally involved in two documentary films that are currently on Crave that are based on his research and writing, Stax: Soulsville U.S.A. and Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story. Both films recently won Peabody Awards. We are very excited to welcome Dr. Bowman to our JCC this fall!