Yorkville: How a 1960s Coffeehouse Scene Rewrote Popular Music, (Hardcover)

<p>The untold story of the explosive 1960s music scene that transformed a quiet neighbourhood into one of North America's most influential creative hubs.</p><p>Yorkville: How a 1960s Coffeehouse Scene Rewrote Popular Music traces the rise and fall of the remarkably dense musical ecosystem that flourished in Toronto's tiny Yorkville district between 1954 and 1968. Within a few blocks, dozens of coffeehouses incubated emerging folk, rock, R&amp;B, and jazz talent long before the artists became international stars. Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Rick James, Ian &amp; Sylvia, Steppenwolf, and many others refined their sound in these smoke-filled, liquor-free rooms--creating a scene whose impact would ripple far beyond its borders.</p><p>Drawing on more than 100 new interviews, previously unseen documents, and extensive archival research, music historian Mike Daley reconstructs Yorkville's evolution: the bohemian roots, the folk revival, the shift to electric rock, the legendary venues and eccentric characters who ran them, and the crackdowns, moral panics, and real-estate pressures that brought it all to an end.</p><p>Vivid, authoritative, and deeply human, Yorkville captures a rare moment when music, culture, and youthful ambition collided to reshape the sound of a generation.</p>

• Yorkville: How a 1960s Coffeehouse Scene Rewrote Popular Music, (Hardcover)
• Author: Mike Daley
• ISBN: 9781997701569
• Format: Hardcover
• Publication Date: 2026-10-13
• Page Count: 340