Yorkville (Preorder)

The untold story of the explosive 1960s music scene that transformed a quiet neighbourhood into one of North America’s most influential creative hubs. 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&B, and jazz talent long before the artists became international stars. Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Rick James, Ian & 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.