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Winnipeg Free Press
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Cultural history of late-'60s rock hits some sour notes
There's a depth and richness in rock 'n' roll that, at its best, rivals other art forms. But to reveal it, the music has to be placed in the broader texture and framework of culture and politics. John Einarson is the Winnipeg author of more than 20 rock-music music biographies. His past subjects include Neil Young, Randy Bachman, John Kay, Ian & Sylvia, The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield. From Born to Be Wild to Dazed and Confused Despite his literary output, he allows his crowning epitaph to be that 'he opened for Led Zeppelin' as the 17-year-old guitarist of local band Euphoria at the Man-Pop Festival at Winnipeg Stadium in August 1970. He's clearly a rock-music musicologist of the first order. And he also knows the tech stuff inside out. As a former rock musician, he writes knowledgably about guitar makes and models, tunings, chord progressions and amplifier manufacturers and sizes. But his focus this time round is conceptual, and much more ambitious than a rock bio. It's a cultural history, viewed through the lens of rock music in the late 1960s. He's set himself a tall order — one he doesn't fill, and which is handicapped by a dubious editorial choice in the book's format. Einarson traces the evolution of rock 'n' roll from psychedelia to heavy rock to heavy metal. Each of the three years he principally treats of — 1967, '68 and '69 — is introduced by a 'Timeline of Significant Events,' multi-page month-by-month one- or two-sentence bulleted lists of significant historical or musical events of each year. It's the kind of pedagogical aid Einarson, a former schoolteacher, might employ for instructing middle or high school students. But it has no business in a cultural history about rock music. Some of the timeline potted summaries also surface in the chapters that follow. But far better if more of them were integrated into the music-driven narrative, and the bulleted lists nixed. The net result: the music isn't fully and seamlessly placed within the larger context of the times and shaping historical events. The book's title encompasses two songs Einarson considers signal recordings for the birth of hard rock — Steppenwolf's Born to Be Wild, released in 1968, and Led Zeppelin's Dazed and Confused, released in 1969. But he begins the narrative in 1965, with the rise of psychedelic music. He charts how psychedelia's gentler, more experimental ethos gave way through 1966-67 to a louder, heavier and more visceral sound, pioneered by the Who, the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Jeff Beck. It finally crystallized in the likes of Steppenwolf and Led Zeppelin, he maintains. He links the evolution of psychedelic-cum-flower-power rock into a darker, heavier rock genre due to worsening geopolitical events — the Vietnam War's Tet Offensive, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy, increasingly violent student and civil-rights protests, the presidential election of Richard Nixon. This heavy rock, often today dubbed 'classic rock,' in turn gave way to a host of successor imitators, collectively known as heavy metal. Heavy metal music's intellectual quotient is near zero. It's a kind of a soma, loudly lulling its fans into ignoring real-world issues. Both early and later practitioners (Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Megadeath, Metallica) are weak derivatives of the pioneers of heavy rock (Jeff Beck, Cream, Led Zeppelin, Steppenwolf). What heavy metal imported was more overt sexual content, dilettantish dabbling in the occult, mysticism and Satanism, and adolescent proto-anarchism. Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. But Einarson renders neither a critical judgment nor an endorsing defence of the genre, remaining pretty much mute on its merits or lack of same. This is an intelligent record of rock music's evolution in the late 1960s. But while it's an interesting chronicle, there's a dearth of considered scrutiny. The music's interaction with politics and geopolitics is thin. The music's interaction with contemporary books, movies, plays and television is negligible to non-existent. The broader context of the music is too often missing. As cultural history, it's criticism lite. Douglas J. Johnston is a Winnipeg lawyer and writer.
CBC
24-03-2025
- Sport
- CBC
Lead Briane Harris leaves Kerri Einarson curling rink for Team Kate Cameron
Team Kerri Einarson and lead Briane Harris are parting ways. The four-time national champions made the announcement on social media without providing a reason for the departure. Also Monday, Team Kate Cameron posted Harris has joined the Winnipeg-based rink at third. Harris was provisionally suspended for almost a year due to an anti-doping rule violation in early 2024. The ban was lifted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport last January. Harris claimed she was unknowingly exposed to a banned substance through bodily contact. Alternate Krysten Karwacki filled in at lead during her absence. Team Einarson, based in Gimli, Man., is ranked fourth in the world.
CBC
21-02-2025
- Sport
- CBC
Homan, Einarson gain shorter road to Scotties Tournament of Hearts final
Defending champion Rachel Homan and Manitoba's Kerri Einarson will clash in the Page playoff between the top two seeds at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts after winning their first playoff games. Homan was a 10-5 winner over Nova Scotia's Christina Black on Friday and Einarson downed Alberta's Kayla Skrlik 7-4. The winner of the Page playoff between Homan and Einarson earns an express ticket to Sunday's final, while the loser drops to the semifinal. Black meets B.C.'s Corryn Brown and Skrlik takes on Ontario's Danielle Inglis in later playoff games. The winners meet in the Page playoff between the third and fourth seeds with the victor reaching the semifinal. Homan remained unbeaten in Thunder Bay, Ont., with nine straight wins. She's skipped teams to four Canadian championship. Einarson teams won four straight from 2020 to 2023.
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Playoffs set at Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Rachel Homan unbeaten
THUNDER BAY, Ont. — Kerri Einarson's curling team from Manitoba claimed a top playoff seed at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts after scrambling hard to get there. Einarson, who skipped her teams to four straight Canadian women's curling championships from 2020 to 2023, trailed at the fifth-end break in three of her four straight wins to cap pool play. "We're definitely excited to be in this position because it wasn't looking like that early on in the week," Einarson said Thursday night. "It definitely hasn't been easy. We haven't made it easy on ourselves. We're trending in the right direction, and I think we're getting hot at the right time." Einarson, Nova Scotia's Christina Black and Ontario's Danielle Inglis went 6-2 to advance from a tough Pool B and were seeded in that order. Defending champion Rachel Homan carried a 8-0 record atop Pool A into Friday's championship round followed by Alberta's Kayla Skrlik and B.C.'s Corryn Brown at 6-2. Skrlik ranked higher because of a win over Brown in the preliminary round. Homan faces Black, and Einarson meets Skrlik on Friday afternoon. The victors advance into Saturday's Page playoff between the top two seeds. On Friday evening, the loser of Homan versus Black takes on B.C.'s Brown, and the loser of Einarson versus Skrlik faces Inglis. The winners meet in Saturday's Page playoff between the third and fourth seeds and the losers are eliminated. Sunday's winner at the Fort William Gardens represents Canada at the world championship March 15-23 in Uijeongbu, South Korea, and earns $100,000 in prize money. Einarson started the tournament 2-2 before escaping with wins against Kate Cameron and Black when trailing by large margins after five ends. "When we were tested, we came out and made those clutch shots when we needed," the skip said. Einarson downed fellow-Manitoban Kaitlyn Lawes 9-6 on Thursday night. Halifax Curling Club's Black, who reached the final four two years ago in Kamloops, B.C., defeated Cameron 8-6. "I'm a lot mentally tougher than I was two years ago," Black said. "You just know what it's like to be out there in the playoff round. It's different than the round robin, less people out there and the games are tough. You just have to be able to maintain your focus for such a long period of time. It's such a grind." Inglis and teammates out of the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club were 9-3 winners over Kerry Galusha of Northwest Territories. They went 3-5 in their Hearts debuts last year in Calgary. "We're the underdogs because the eyes aren't really on us," Inglis said. "Especially with the way our season had played out so far, I think coming in here, might have been underestimated by a few people, and I think that's a good place to be." Homan wanted her Ottawa Curling Club team to finish pool play strong in an 8-4 win over Alberta's Selena Sturmay, and continue scouting rock movement and ice behaviour heading into the next round. "It was the opportunity to play on those middle sheets, learn the ice and the rocks, how we need to play moving forward," said Homan. "Unfortunately, it's pretty straight out there. Can be a bit frustrating at times, but this is the ice conditions that we have in this building. Just learning to love them as much as we can and learn them as best we can, how we need to sweep them, how to approach shots and just trying to stay in the moment of every rock." Skrlik downed Nunavut's Julia Weagle 7-4 and Brown beat Prince Edward Island's Jane DiCarlo 9-2 in the final Pool A draw. Skrlik skipped a slightly different lineup to a 4-4 record in her Hearts debut two years ago in Kamloops, B.C. With Margot Flemming coming on board for this season at third, sister Ashton and Geri-Lynn Ramsay shifting positions and the latter holding the broom for Skrlik, the Garrison Curling Club foursome out of Calgary played 13 events this season to forge team chemistry. Skrlik reached the final of September's single knockout PointsBet Invitational in Calgary where the team fell 8-3 to Homan. "I think this is our 79th or 80th game of the season, so we've played a lot," said Skrlik. "It's been very, very beneficial this year, with Margot being new in the lineup, Ashton being in a new position, and Geri-Lyn being in a new position. "We've gone from our first time showing up, playing the Scotties, not playing almost a single team in the field, to playing quite a few of these teams. It's really, really paid off." Brown, who is almost six months pregnant, reached the playoffs for the first time in the tournament's current format. Her Kamloops Curling Club lineup includes Erin Pincott, Sarah Koltun and Samantha Fisher. "This is the most relaxed we've ever played," Brown said. "I don't think any of us have really felt kind of the nerves. We've had some really good kind of guidance from (coach) Jim (Cotter) and our sports psychologist Tracey Bilsky, to kind of guide us through that." Fisher topped all leads at 93 per cent shooting accuracy in pool play. "The lead can either make it really hard or really easy, and Sam's done a fabulous job all week to kind of lead the way for us and really kind of put us in a really good position in all games," said Brown. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 20, 2025. Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press
CBC
19-02-2025
- Sport
- CBC
Rachel Homan closes in on playoff berth at Scotties Tournament of Hearts
Rachel Homan's curling team was virtually, if not mathematically, assured a playoff spot at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts with a fifth straight win. The defending champions and reigning world champions remained unbeaten with a 7-4 win over New Brunswick's Melissa Adams on Tuesday. In the four years the Canadian women's curling championship has been an 18-team affair, only once has five wins not been enough for the playoff cutline. It happened to be Homan's team in 2023, with six wins in Pool B, that shut the door on teams below it. "We're pretty close to playoffs," Homan concurred. "Just have to keep getting better. "It wasn't a great performance today, so just need to keep building as the week goes on. Just learn the ice a little bit. We had lots of curl yesterday and then lost it all today. I guess just keeping up with the draws as they go." Homan, vice Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes out of the Ottawa Curling Club extended their run of wins in the tournament to 17. Homan is the only woman to have skipped teams to unbeaten records twice in the tournament (2014, 2024), but running the table in back-to-back years wasn't a priority for the 35-year-old. "It's never on my mind for sure," she said. "It doesn't really matter. At the end of the day, we want to be in the final and we hope to make more shots that the other team, but we're a long ways away from that right now, so just focus on what you need to do now to come out tomorrow strong." The top three teams in each pool of nine advance to the round of six, who will battle for four Page playoff berths. Sunday's winner represents Canada in the world championship March March 15-23 in Uijeongbu, South Korea, and earns $100,000 in prize money. Homan (5-0) takes on B.C.'s Corryn Brown (4-1) in a key Pool A matchup Wednesday morning. Galusha stuns Einarson in extra ends Northwest Territories' Kerry Galusha upset four-time champion Kerri Einarson of Manitoba 9-6 in an extra end to put both teams at 2-2 after the morning draw. Tied 4-4, Galusha scored two in the eighth to put Einarson on the ropes. However, Einarson scored once in the ninth and tenth ends to force extras before eventually falling. Galusha didn't throw her final stone after Einarson's attempted draw was short of the rings. The result puts both Einarson and Galusha at 2-2, with the latter ahead in the standings in fifth. Alberta's Kayla Skrlik got to 4-2 with a 10-5 doubling of Nancy Martin that dropped Saskatchewan to 3-3. Skrlik's spectacular double tap double takeout to score five in the sixth end cracked the game open. "It sealed the deal pretty much," Skrlik said. "We will be competing against Nancy for a playoff spot the rest of the week, so to win that one and go head-to-head in the win column against her is huge in our playoff run." Tiebreaker games are no longer in the format. The first tiebreaker is the head-to-head result followed by the cumulative results of last-stone draws that precede each game. Martin has just two games remaining Wednesday in the pool, so her team could spend Thursday awaiting its fate. "Thursday may be an interesting day," the skip said. Alberta's Selena Sturmay was 3-2 after a 9-4 win over Prince Edward Island's Jane DiCarlo. Northern Ontario's Krista McCarville won a second straight games to get to 2-4. Her team doubled Nunavut's Julia Weagle 8-5. Ontario's Danielle Inglis (4-1) had the Pool B evening draw off while others chased her team. Manitoba's Christina Black and Manitoba's Kate Cameron were 3-1 and Quebec's Laurie St-Georges was 3-2. Manitoba's Kaitlyn Lawes was 2-3 after a 13-3 victory over Newfoundland and Labrador's Brooke Godsland (0-5).
