ANOTW: A Walking History of Toronto Music Podcast + Map, Episode 1: Yonge Street & the Downtown Core

Episode 1 of the ANOTW podcast for the Toronto International Festival of Authors is now streaming! Listen on the TIFA site or wherever you get your podcasts.

The first of five episodes takes you on a walking tour through Yonge Street and the Downtown Core:

"The history of Toronto’s music scene starts on Yonge Street, though the garish commercial strip has long since withered away as a hotbed for live music. Walking north along Yonge from Queen up to Bloor, we take a chronological and geographical trip through history, from the debut of the New Symphony Orchestra at Massey Hall in the ‘20s, jazz at the Colonial Tavern in the late ‘40s, the heyday of rock’n’roll and R&B on “the Strip” in the ‘50s and ‘60s, and community spaces for Caribbean and LGBTQ+ musical expression; continuing through the sleazy hard rock era of the ‘70s, punk rock and new wave on the edges of the core in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, and the birth of Canadian hip-hop at the Concert Hall in the mid-’80s."

And please unfold this map to guide your journey along the Any Night of the Week "walking tour" podcast via the Toronto International Festival of Authors! This is the first of three gorgeous maps created by Daniel Rotsztain (@theurbangeog) to accompany the podcast series. New episodes (and maps) will be posted every two days until Oct. 31st.