Echoes Across the Border: Laurel Canyon and the Northern Connection

In collaboration with the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music (BSACAM), the National Music Centre (NMC) brings notable speakers to Calgary to explore the cultural synergies between Canadian and American music.

Echoes Across the Border: Laurel Canyon and the Northern Connection brings together industry leaders to discuss how cross-border Canadian-U.S. influences have shaped generations of artists, with a special focus on the '60s and '70s Laurel Canyon era, where songwriting visionaries like Joni Mitchell and Neil Young made their mark at home and beyond.

The summit includes a carefully curated lineup of speakers from Canada and the U.S., including Rob Bowman, a Canadian GRAMMY Award-winning musicologist, known as York University's "rock 'n' roll professor"; Holly George-Warren, a two-time GRAMMY nominee and the award-winning author or co-author of 18 books; Nicholas Jennings, one of Canada’s most respected music journalists and finest music historians; Judith Klassen, an ethnomusicologist and curator of Music and Performing Arts at the Canadian Museum of History; Larry LeBlanc, a leading music journalist awarded for his impact on the Canadian music industry; Alan Light, an Emmy Award–winning music journalist, rock critic for Rolling Stone, editor-in-chief for Vibe, Spin, and Tracks, and author of several books; Eileen Chapman, Director of the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music at Monmouth University in New Jersey, who was responsible for bringing the collection to the University; and Robert Santelli, a GRAMMY Award-winning music historian, producer, and educator, who is the Executive Director of the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music.

Summit Schedule — Saturday, October 4

About the Panelists

Rob Bowman

Rob Bowman is a GRAMMY Award winning musicologist and professor of Music, based in Toronto. Formerly the director of York University's Graduate Program in Ethnomusicology and Musicology, he pioneered popular music studies at the university. He lectures, publishes and broadcasts in many areas of popular music, from country, R&B and gospel to reggae, rap and funk. He has written liner notes for dozens of recordings and regularly authors, produces and advises on major documentary and international CD reissue projects.

Holly George-Warren

Holly George-Warren is a two-time Grammy nominee and the award-winning author or co-author of 18 books, including Janis: Her Life and Music; A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton; and Public Cowboy No. 1: The Life and Times of Gene Autry. She co-wrote with Dolly Parton Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones, a New York Times best-seller for 11 weeks and a Grammy nominee for Best Audiobook.  She is currently writing a biography of Jack Kerouac for Viking Press. A longtime music journalist, George-Warren has written for numerous publications, including the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Oprah Daily, the Oxford American, the Times Literary Supplement, Texas Monthly, and MOJO, among others (many of which no longer exist). She has served as editor or co-editor of a variety of books in collaboration with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Farm Aid, Bonnaroo, and other entities, as well as companion books to documentaries produced by Martin Scorsese, among others. She served as Editorial Director of Rolling Stone’s book division, Rolling Stone Press, from 1993-2001, overseeing dozens of works such as The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll and Trouble Girls: The Rolling Book of Women in Rock. George-Warren has also served as producer of several documentary films, including Muscle Shoals, Nashville 2.0, and Hitmakers. A former professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz and NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, she resides in New York’s Hudson Valley.

Nicholas Jennings

Nicholas Jennings is one of Canada’s most respected music journalists and finest music historians. From 1980 to 2000, he was the music critic and feature writer for Maclean’s magazine. He has also written for Saturday Night, Billboard, Words & Music, TV Guide, Inside Entertainment and Hello! magazines, reviewing literally thousands of recordings and interviewing and profiling many of the world’s leading artists, from Oscar Peterson, Paul Simon, Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney to Joni Mitchell, Sarah McLachlan, Diana Krall and Shania Twain. Nicholas’ third book, Lightfoot, became a national bestseller.

Judith Klassen

Judith Klassen is an ethnomusicologist and curator of Music and Performing Arts at the Canadian Museum of History (CMH). In addition to research and collection development in areas of sound, puppetry arts, and other aspects of expressive culture, she is the curator for Retro: Popular Music in Canada from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s — a current CMH exhibition that explores popular music as a social, cultural and political force. Dr. Klassen has published in popular and academic fora and, with Anna Hoefnagels and Sherry Johnson, is co-editor of Contemporary Musical Expressions in Canada. Dr. Klassen is a former board member for the Hnatyshyn Foundation, past president of the Canadian Society for Traditional Music, and has worked as a violist and string instructor in Canada, Mexico, and Paraguay.

Larry LeBlanc

Larry LeBlanc is widely recognized as one of the leading music industry journalists in the world. Before joining CelebrityAccess in 2008 as senior editor, he was the Canadian bureau chief of Billboard from 1991-2007 and Canadian editor of Record World from 1970-82. He was also a co-founder of the late Canadian music trade, The Record. Over his five decade career Larry has acted as a consultant for The Canadian Competition Bureau, The Canadian Private Copying Collective, The Canadian Association of Broadcasters, Heritage Canada, Musicians' Rights Organization Canada, Astral, CHUM Ltd.; the Neighbouring Rights Collective of Canada; and the National Music Centre. He was a regular music commentator on CTV’s “Canada A.M” for over 35 years, and has been featured on numerous CBC-TV, CTV, Global, YTV, MuchMusic, MusiquePlus, Newsworld programs, and The Movie Network in Canada; as well as on VH-1, HBO, and EEntertainment in the U.S.; and BBC Radio in the U.K. Larry has been extensively quoted on music issues in hundreds of news outlets including: Canadian Press, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, and Calgary Herald in Canada; The New York Times, Time, AP and Forbes in the U.S.; and The Times, and Reuters in the UK. He is co-author of the 2010 book Music From Far And Wide: Celebrating 40 Years Of The Juno Awards. He is a Lifetime Member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and a recorded songwriter with songs covered by Johnny Reid, and JP LeBlanc. He is the recipient of the 2013 Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award, recognizing individuals who have made an impact on the Canadian music industry.

Alan Light

Emmy Award–winning music journalist Alan Light is the author of numerous books including Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of “Hallelujah” (which was adapted into an acclaimed documentary), as well as biographies of Prince, Johnny Cash, Nina Simone, and the Beastie Boys. He was the cowriter of bestselling memoirs by Gregg Allman and Peter Frampton. Alan was a senior writer at Rolling Stone and the editor-in-chief of Vibe and Spin magazines. He contributes frequently to The New York Times, Esquire, and The Wall Street Journal, among many publications, and cohosts the podcast Sound Up! Alan's latest book, Don't Stop: Why We (Still) Love Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours,' will be published by Atria/Simon & Schuster in November 2025.

Eileen Chapman

Eileen Chapman is the Director of the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music at Monmouth University and was responsible for bringing the collection to the University. In addition to her position at the BSACAM, she is also a councilwoman in Asbury Park. Prior to her directorship, she was the Associate Director of the Center for the Arts also at Monmouth University. Chapman was a founding member of the Jersey Shore Jazz & Blues Foundation, Riverfest Jazz & Blues Festival, Clearwater Festival’s Entertainment Director, the Asbury Park Jazz Festival, director of the award-winning New Jersey Seafood Festival in Belmar, consultant and entertainment coordinator of the Guinness Oyster Festival, a consultant to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & Museum and is the liaison to Monmouth University’s GRAMMY Museum affiliation. Chapman opened and operated the state’s first CD music store, Almost Live CD Center, in Belmar from 1986 to 2000. She was the General Manager of several well-known Jersey Shore entertainment venues which include the iconic Stone Pony, Fast Lane and McLoone’s Rum Runner in Sea Bright.

Robert Santelli

Bob Santelli is the Founding Executive Director of the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey. He is a noted blues and rock historian, curator, music journalist, and a GRAMMY Award winner. He has authored more than a dozen books on American music and is the winner of the 2022 Deems Taylor/ Virgil Thomson Award for Woody Guthrie: Songs and Art * Words and Wisdom, which he co-authored with Nora Guthrie. Santelli was one of the original curators of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, becoming the museum’s first Director of Education and Vice President of Public Programs in 1995. In 2000, he became the CEO of the Experience Music Project in Seattle, the first-ever interactive music museum. Santelli became the Founding Executive Director of the GRAMMY Museum in 2006, where he curated more than 65 exhibitions and produced centennial celebrations for Frank Sinatra, John Lee Hooker, Ella Fitzgerald, Leonard Bernstein, Woody Guthrie, and others over his sixteen years at the museum. Santelli serves as the Director of Popular Music and Performing Arts at Oregon State University and teaches courses on popular culture.

More Events

NMC Presents: Laurel Canyon Legacy

Saturday, October 4 | 8:00 pm

As the sun sets on day one of Echoes Across The Border: Laurel Canyon and the Northern Connection, join us for an evening celebration of the era's most memorable music featuring Laurel Canyon Legacy. Get tickets.

Echoes Across the Border: Laurel Canyon Film Screening

Sunday, October 5 | 1:00 pm

Join us for a matinee screening of Laurel Canyon. The 2020 documentary paints an intimate portrait of the artists who created a music revolution that would change popular culture. Learn more and register.