Recording: Thom Gill

Artist: Thom Gill

Song: Single Girls [Ronley Teper cover]

Recorded at Holy Oak Café ("Toronto Does Toronto 3"), January 5, 2014.

Thom Gill - Single Girls

Full review to follow. Once again the Holy Oak invited some of the best Toronto songwriters of right now to pay tribute to their local musical heroes, with their choices ranging from past to present and from the familiar to the obscure. As far as I can tell, there's a lot more water in this well, so hopefully the series won't end here.

Thom Gill heard Ronley Teper play this song at the Tranzac — y'know, once, a few years back. Sometimes that's all it takes to give a song a foothold in your mind, and now here he's re-animated it, combining Teper's incisive wit — cutting yet sympathetic — with his own soulful delivery.

Recording: Simone Schmidt

Artist: Simone Schmidt with Doug Paisley

Song: Smoke [Crash Vegas cover]

Recorded at Holy Oak Café ("Toronto Does Toronto 3"), January 5, 2014.

Simone Schmidt - Smoke

Full review to follow. Once again the Holy Oak invited some of the best Toronto songwriters of right now to pay tribute to their local musical heroes, with their choices ranging from past to present and from the familiar to the obscure. As far as I can tell, there's a lot more water in this well, so hopefully the series won't end here.

Simone Schmidt (of One Hundred Dollars, and, more lately, of Fiver and The Highest Order) joined forces with Doug Paisley to rustle up the ghost of Handsome Ned — and also to revisit this song which she first heard in her older sister's music collection. Michelle McAdorey, the voice of Crash Vegas, is still writing some great songs. She has a new album on the way and you can hear some of those songs at an upcoming residency at The Tranzac, coming every Friday night in February.

Recording: Chris Cummings

Artist: Chris Cummings with Ryan Driver

Song: Double Suicide [Sandro Perri cover]

Recorded at Holy Oak Café ("Toronto Does Toronto 3"), January 5, 2014.

Chris Cummings - Double Suicide

Full review to follow. Once again the Holy Oak invited some of the best Toronto songwriters of right now to pay tribute to their local musical heroes, with their choices ranging from past to present and from the familiar to the obscure. As far as I can tell, there's a lot more water in this well, so hopefully the series won't end here.

Sandro Perri provided one of the highlights of the previous T.O. does T.O. night, and here Chris Cummings (who records as Marker Starling) got some help on backing vox from Ryan Driver for a stripped-down take on this number from recent classic Impossible Spaces. There's a new Marker Starling album on the way, so keep an eye out once spring rolls around.

Recording: Lisa Bozikovic

Artist: Lisa Bozikovic

Song: I Wanna Go Home [Party Time cover]

Recorded at Holy Oak Café ("Toronto Does Toronto 3"), January 5, 2014.

Lisa Bozikovic - I Wanna Go Home

Full review to follow. Once again the Holy Oak invited some of the best Toronto songwriters of right now to pay tribute to their local musical heroes, with their choices ranging from past to present and from the familiar to the obscure. As far as I can tell, there's a lot more water in this well, so hopefully the series won't end here.

Besides paying tribute to Jennifer Castle, Lisa Bozikovic played a song by her friend Emma Moss Brender who was in The Pining as well as having this solo project whose name was chosen with grim irony.

Recording: Sandro Perri

Artist: Sandro Perri

Song: Maybe Life Will Be Worth Living [Doug Randle cover]

Recorded at Holy Oak Café ("Toronto Does Toronto II"), October 27, 2013.

Sandro Perri - Maybe Life Will Be Worth Living

Full review to follow. The basic idea here — having Toronto musicians pay tribute to the songs of other Toronto musicians — is something I can get behind as a musical locavore, so I was sad to have missed the first night in this series back in summertime. Fortunately that went over well enough to bring about a second instalment — and word on the street is that we can expect another come January.

Closing out the night on an upbeat note, Sandro Perri (joined by Mike Smith and Blake Howard) let loose some low-key grooves on one of Doug Randle's Songs For The New Industrial State.

Recording: Alex Lukashevsky

Artist: Alex Lukashevsky

Song: Back to the River [Anna Siddall cover]

Recorded at Holy Oak Café ("Toronto Does Toronto II"), October 27, 2013.

Alex Lukashevsky - Back to the River

Full review to follow. The basic idea here — having Toronto musicians pay tribute to the songs of other Toronto musicians — is something I can get behind as a musical locavore, so I was sad to have missed the first night in this series back in summertime. Fortunately that went over well enough to bring about a second instalment — and word on the street is that we can expect another come January.

Anna Siddall's The Day has been one of my autumn faves, finely-honed pop that doesn't flaunt its slightly-bent sophistication. It's the sort of thing that would have slipped under my radar were it not being raved about by a lot of musicians (some of whom played on it), so perhaps it's befitting that it gets surveyed here by another of the city's most prominent "musician's musicians".

Recording: Chuck Erlichman & Doug Paisley

Artist: Chuck Erlichman & Doug Paisley

Song: This Dream [Great Speckled Bird cover]

Recorded at Holy Oak Café ("Toronto Does Toronto II"), October 27, 2013.

Chuck Erlichman & Doug Paisley - This Dream

Full review to follow. The basic idea here — having Toronto musicians pay tribute to the songs of other Toronto musicians — is something I can get behind as a musical locavore, so I was sad to have missed the first night in this series back in summertime. Fortunately that went over well enough to bring about a second instalment — and word on the street is that we can expect another come January.

Playing in a duo with troubadour Doug Paisley, Chuck Erlichman took the lead on this one by Great Speckled Bird, a Yorkville-scene band that included Ian & Sylvia Tyson, and would become their backing band as the pair gained prominence. Erlichman is another musician you should seek out at the Holy Oak — he'll be there playing along with Ian Russell (ex-$100) on November 8th.

Recording: Nifty

Artist: Nifty

Song: This'll Never Last [Tradition cover]

Recorded at Holy Oak Café ("Toronto Does Toronto II"), October 27, 2013.

Nifty - This'll Never Last

Full review to follow. The basic idea here — having Toronto musicians pay tribute to the songs of other Toronto musicians — is something I can get behind as a musical locavore, so I was sad to have missed the first night in this series back in summertime. Fortunately that went over well enough to bring about a second instalment — and word on the street is that we can expect another come January.

Leading off the night with a couple "miserable" tunes, Matt Smith gave high praise to a Blocks Recording Club compatriot (and a musician that he has previously been on a split single with). James Klassen, who records under the moniker Tradition has been on the scene for awhile now, but his low-key presence and slow-simmering songwriting style are perhaps a bit out of step with out short-attention-span times. Klassen put out a new album this summer and will be taking to the same stage at the Holy Oak next week (on November 5th).