This makes it look as if all my writing in January was done for Stir. The truth is, I have several exciting things coming up for other clients, but they haven’t been published yet.
Daily human cost of the Russo-Ukrainian war revealed in PuSh Fest’s Eight Short Compositions
(Stir, January 15, 2026)
THE TRUE COST of war isn’t necessarily calculated by adding up the numbers of battlefield casualties or the schools and hospitals lost to missile strikes. It’s tallied in the trauma it can inflict on entire generations of people for whom life can never truly go back to the way it was before.
The full impact of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine may not be evident for some time to come, as the war there continues. As this article is being written, Russian troops occupy almost 20 percent of Ukraine. Hundreds of thousands of military personnel and tens of thousands of civilians have died, and millions of Ukrainians have fled the country, creating the worst refugee crisis Europe has seen since the Second World War.
Produced by the Czech Republic’s Archa Centre of Documentary Theatre, Eight Short Compositions on the Lives of Ukrainians for a Western Audience isn’t about those facts and figures. The show, based on stories collected by playwright Anastasiia Kosodii, is instead about small moments in the daily lives of ordinary Ukrainians as they navigate this most extraordinary time...
Folk-rooted string quartet the Fretless finds a voice in singer-songwriter Madeleine Roger
(Stir, January 20, 2026)
ALMOST SINCE ITS inception, Toronto-based four-piece the Fretless has been recognized as one of Canada’s top instrumental groups, with the hardware to show for it. The band’s 2012 debut LP, Waterbound, for example, helped earn the Fretless a Canadian Folk Music Award for instrumental group of the year. The band’s third album, 2016’s Bird’s Nest, won the 2017 Juno for instrumental album of the year.
In 2021, however, the group’s four members—Trent Freeman (violin, viola), Karrnnel Sawitsky (violin, viola), Ben Plotnick (violin, viola), and Eric Wright (cello)—invited a bunch of their favourite singers and songwriters to collaborate. The result was an album called Open House, which featured vocals from Dan Mangan, Ruth Moody, the Bros. Landreth, and others.
Freeman tells Stir that working with singers forced the four musicians to alter their way of approaching their craft.
“It was quite a change, because for nearly a decade it was just the four of us, deeply working together and really getting to know each other’s writing process…”
Theatre review: You’re Just a Place That I Know is a moving musical reflection on family and memory
(Stir, January 26, 2026)
ADRIAN GLYNN McMORRAN’S You’re Just a Place That I Know plays out a lot like a concert. The local singer-songwriter and his band, sometimes accompanied by a choir led by Adam Kozak at stage right,, play songs drawn from Glynn McMorran’s 2024 album. (The album bears the same title as the show, and if you’re looking for it at your local record shop or on your streaming service of choice, note that he released it under the more compact moniker “Adrian Glynn”.)
And these are songs that certainly lend themselves well to a live performance. Most of them fall loosely within the catch-all description of “folk-rock”, leaning more into the rock side of the equation when Glynn McMorran cranks up his Fender Telecaster (as he does on “Lionize”), with the rhythm section of bassist Cat Hiltz and drummer Sally Zori providing taut support. With added ornamentation courtesy of violinist Marlene Ginader and cellist Martin Reisle, numbers such as “Just a Place That I Know” take detours into chamber-pop. The multitalented Reisle also plays banjo, guitar, and even a balalaika, which Glynn McMorran reveals his grandmother gave him 20 years ago.
This isn’t just about Glyn McMorran’s baba and dido, though; throughout the performance, various members of the band step up to a microphone to share their own reflections on those who came before them...
John Lucas 
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