For the 50th anniversary of the Juno Awards, CBC's Alan Neal reached out to 50 Juno winners and nominees from Ottawa, asking them what venues and stages they remember most.
Here's a taste of the first Juno decade.
When 13-time Juno-winner Bruce Cockburn first arrived at Le Hibou Coffee House, it was as a dishwasher.
While he had been introduced to the folk scene and had heard of the coffee house — once located on Rideau Street, then Bank Street, before moving to Sussex Drive — the guitarist and singer-songwriter was in high school at the time, working in the kitchen and helping with the espresso machines.
"I worked as a waiter one night but that was a disaster," he told All In A Day host Alan Neal. "I couldn't remember people's orders and I couldn't make change."
Le Hibou Coffee House, which closed in 1975, attracted big stars to Ottawa, including Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, Kris Kristofferson and Gordon Lightfoot.
Once in a while, Cockburn would leave the kitchen and perform at the café's local talent night.
Soon they started paying him to play, said Cockburn, who later forged a long international career with songs like Lovers in a Dangerous Time and Wondering Where the Lions Are.
He'd also often show up on nights he wasn't performing to hang out, occasionally even being asked to pitch in if the café was short-staffed.
The venue also became home base for local bands like the Heavenly Blue and the Children, two groups Cockburn played for, and a hub for the arts scene.
"It was such a focal point of the whole of the Ottawa music scene that I was part of," he said. "Those gigs are probably among the most memorable of any for me from that period."
Cockburn said he still longs for those days at Le Hibou.
"It was home for me, in a way," he said. "I mean, I felt at home."
Ottawa Morning9:15JUNOS 50-50: Bruce Cockburn Remembers Le Hibou
For Louise Reny, Barrymore's Music Hall is probably one of the best clubs in the city — even if she couldn't stand it when she first started performing.
While Reny's pop group One To One was nominated for Most Promising Group of the Year at the 1986 Junos, the seeds of their success were planted earlier when she was in the group Mainstream, which played the Ottawa scene in the 1970s and focused heavily on Led Zeppelin covers.
At the time, Barrymore's was more of a disco club — which Reny said she hated at the time.
"It was ruining our jobs," she said. "All these bars that had live music were just turning into discotheques."
The stage was like a homage to the genre, she said, with the "square disco" popularized by the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever.
Still, despite being mortified, she swallowed her pride and performed. The group's earnings from weekend performances at Barrymore's and other venues helped kickstart her music career.
Reny and future One To One member Leslie Howe spent their days off writing songs and sending cassettes to record companies. Eventually, they landed their deal in England, where they moved in 1984.
The decades have warmed Reny to disco, a genre she now likes, and to the venue that helped get her started.
"Barrymore's [is] probably the best bar in Ottawa proper. No doubt."
Wherever you are in the world, you can watch the 2021 JUNO Awards on Sunday, June 6. You can watch live on CBC TV and CBC Gem, listen on CBC Radio One and CBC Music and stream globally at CBCMusic.ca/junos.
Five decades of Ottawa's music venues, starting in the 70s - CBC.ca
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