January 30, 2010 Well I've managed to post an update in January ... is it too late to say Happy New Year?
The shows at the Black Sheep and Dakota Tavern earlier this month were a lot of fun. The John Punch Band opened things at the Sheep and did a great job. Definitely a group of fellas to keep on your radar. the Dakota in Toronto was highly winging it ... no rehearsals with a band that I picked up just for the night. Course when you're playing with David Baxter (Justin Rutledge, etc), Brian Kobayakawa (Creaking Tree String Quarter, etc) and Blake Manning (Matthew Good Band) you know its gonna be a stellar evening.
I'm getting ready to head out on my first Home Routes Tour next week. I'll be driving all over Ontario and I can't wait. I even have snow tires.
After that it's off to Memphis for Folk Alliance. I've got a couple of private showcases lined up, as well as an official showcase on the Saturday night.
Will start recording for the next CD for a couple weeks once I'm back from Memphis, then it's on to Texas for some shows, SXSArtz and a round of golf. Yes, I am serious about the golf. Then back to see about trying to squeeze in a little more recording.
Deep breath and JUMP IN...
November 21, 2009 I spent 6 days in England and am finally re-adjusted to EST. Though in all honesty, not sure I ever really switched timezones based on when I was finally going to bed over there. I spent the first three days sightseeing in downtown London and figuring out how to navigate the Tube. Then it was on to play a couple support shows with Dar Williams. Her fans have to be some of the nicest I've ever had the pleasure to play in front of. It was also my first opportunity to see Dar perform live, and I was absolutely blown away. What a perfect introduction to the UK performance scene. I fear I may now be spoiled!
Tonight is the gala for the Canadian Folk Music Awards. It's an honour to be nominated along with a group of very talented folks in the new / emerging category. The ceremony has been moved to the Dominion Chalmers church due to an ongoing labour dispute between the Museum of Civilization and some of its staff.
I went shopping in Montreal for a little black dress for the occasion, and was treated beautifully by my good friends at Sinequanone. If you ever drop by the shop tell them I said hi!
October 3, 2009 Back from another trip to Texas, this time for the Southwest Regional Folk Alliance (SWRFA) conference in Austin. The first three days included playing a song at the legendary Threadgill's, assembling an instant band for my official showcase (thanks to Butch Morgan / guitar and Sean Kelly / bass), and a whole lotta jammin.
The Sunday morning song assignment performances were a definite highlight. We were all assigned a topic when we registered, and during Sunday brunch it was time to deliver our songs. My topic was "Little Joey and his Ukelele." Was the perfect song for someone who'd gone to bed as the sun was rising ... "even tuba players get more chicks ..." And death by ukelele at the end of the song. yep great way to end things.
Just prior to heading to Austin I was in Toronto working on demo recordings with David Baxter. If all goes well we'll be in studio this winter to record CD number three. Now back to regularly scheduled programming ...
July 26, 2009 Here's some footage from Westfest. What an awesome festival ... and about the last time we've had sun in Ottawa this summer!
June 13, 2009 The Rose Garden Coffeehouse competition was a LOT of fun. Amazing venue, and Garrison Doles and Chris Elliott were amazing! The CD release by Taylor and Jake Armerding was right up my alley, with some ripping bluegrass and high lonesome harmonies. Had a wonderful jam session afterwards too. Video from the performance is up on YouTube:
I love Texas. Everything really is bigger. Including the hospitality. At the Ranch for the Kerrville Folk Festival Deb, Lindsay and Liz Rouse set up the Rouse House campsite and hosted all 32 of us NewFolkers. The Rouse hospitality is legendary for a reason. There were early morning and late night campfires - Coho, Camp Cuisine, NashBill - it was like coming home to trade songs with so many unbelievably talented songwriters.
Playing the Threadgill Stage in front of a Kerrville audience is a priceless experience:
photo: Paul Barker
Then there was the thunderstorm. Which flooded the Rouse House campsite on the second weekend of the Kerrville Folk Festival, when I was strategically "roughing it" at a nearby hotel. I also picked up a temporary souvenir from Tattoo Sue artist and owner of The Blue Buddah:
photo: Susie Parrent - check out her amazing pics here In between Kerrville weekends I hung out with Paul B in Austin, along with three Great Danes and Charlie (the dog with the insatiable appetite). While in Austin I got to sit in with Danny Britt and his amazing band at Artz Ribhouse, the exquisite Sarah Sample at Flipnotics, see Gurf Morlix and Mark Jungers at Patsy's, and play a couple tunes with the Flying A's at the Mesa Ranch. There is no shortage of great music in Austin!!
I also started to write my first love song. Yep. And there's no hearbreak. Must have been all that sun, quesos and margaritas. Hard to be sad when life is that good ...
April 17, 2009 Looking forward to heading to the Rose Garden Coffeehouse in Mansfield, MA on May 16th as a finalist in their Performing Songwriter's Contest. And then the following week its off to Kerrville, Texas to take part in the Kerrville New Folk songwriting competition!!
April 4, 2009 I spent 10 days in the Netherlands playing shows and getting an early jump on Spring. The sun was out and the flowers were just starting to venture out of the ground for the first time in months.
The first show was in Spijkerboor, at Cafe 't Keerpunt, presented by Roots on the Road. The audience was wonderful, and I had the pleasure of being joined by pedal steel player Rob Van Durren. Despite having just met him an hour earlier, he performed superbly! Here I am with a few of my new friends ... Jaap, Rob, me and Jan.
Next stop was Cafe DeSchalm in Westwoud. Alex Akela joined Rob and I, so we were a trio for the evening. At this point I was starting to feel pretty spoiled, as the audience, venue and my fellow musicians once again making me feel very much at home!
The next day was my birthday. Joanna and I biked to the beach in The Hague and I had poffertjes. They are little Dutch pancakes ... and better than any pancakes I've ever had before! I didnt have green beer, but the chocolate cake complete with candle more than made up for this.
The show Wednesday took place at Transvaria in the Hague. There's a review of the show here as well as some youtube video ...
Amsterdam for some fun on Thursday.
All I'm gonna say is what happens in Amsterdam stays in Amsterdam :-)
Friday was my first attempt to get to a gig on my own. Joanna had been road managing me, and dropped me at the train station with instructions on how to get to Bergen op Zoom for live radio on Crossroads. Well I managed to get quite lost in the Dutch train system. A big thank you to the young gentleman who advised me to transfer in Rotterdam Central. I was an hour late for the show ... but Leo Meerman was still waiting for me to take me from the train station to the studio. Jos Van den Boom walked me back to the train station after the radio show, and didn't leave till the train left so that he could report having put me on the right train.
The last show was In the Woods in Lage Vuurse. What a great room! Rob had a little technical difficulty with his pedal steel but a welder was tracked down and a little soddering later we were good to go.
It was one more day in the Hague, and then off to Amsterdam to catch a flight home. After staying up in the Amsterdam airport to catch a 7am flight, it was through Frankfurt and on to Montreal. No sleep on the flight tho, as a youngin was quite vocal for all but about 10 minutes of the 8 hour flight. Special thanks to all those folks in Montreal who let me jump to the front of the line through security so that I didn't miss my connection!!
March 1, 2009 Back from Folk Alliance in Memphis, with stops in Nashville and Greenbank Ontario along the way. In Greenbank opened for the always amazing Lynn Miles for a show put on by the Greenbank Folk Music Society. Wonderful room, wonderful volunteers, and a wonderful audience. There ought to be medals for folks who keep on making sure performers get to experience nights like that one! Then on to Nashville for a couple of days. Saw Elvis (he was chained to a building), drove up and down Music Row and BongoJava'd. Got to sit in with Danny Schmidt for a couple tunes at Norm's. You need to check him out if you like great songwriters. Also fell in love with a Collings guitar. Currently accepting donations to aquire one. The National Folk Alliance Conference in Memphis was everything it was billed to be. Anyone who'd like to hear the stories can get the dirt if you buy me a beer :-)
January 14, 2009
First off, the new news. There's a feature article in the February 2009 edition of Maverick Country Magazine out of the UK written by Maurice Hope. Here's a PDF version of the article.
Huge thanks to all the DJs and reviewers out there who've been giving their attention to Eleven Months. It was beyond gratifying to see that the CD even made a few "best of 2008" lists:
Alan Neal host of Bandwidth on CBC Radio (Canada) Marie Crichton host on BBC Radio Shropshire (UK) Tom Fahey host of AmericanaOK (UK) Karen Miller host of The Miller Tells Her Tale (UK) Gail Comfort host of The Comfort Zone (UK)
The Cowboy's Sweetheart on BayFM 99.9FM (Australia) Steve Clarke host of Acoustic Planet CHES (Canada) Dennis Brunnenmeyer host of Nevada City Limits KVMR (US) Mark Michaelis host of Acoustic Harmony WGDR (US) Don Grant reviewer Freight Train Boogie (US)
Which got me to thinking about my top 10 musicial moments of 2008. It was tough to narrow it down, as musically it was a great year, but here goes:
#1 - Outselling Coldplay for a week at Plato in Den Haag. I was number one till Metallica's new release knocked me from the top!
#2 - Releasing Eleven Months to a sold out audience at the NAC 4th Stage while having the concert recorded by CBC Radio. I have been an uber fan of CBC since birth, so it was an honor to have them record my performance.
#3 - Filming my first music video in late September. I felt like a diva for a day. Or was that acted like a diva for a day ... The crew from Mountain Road Productions were absolutely wonderful. Can check out the finished product on YouTube here. If you have a high speed connection watch in HD to get the full effect.
#4 - Taking part in my first Folk Allilance Region (FAR) West Conference. It was my first trip to Phoenix. Was sunny and hot, and lots of fun. I got to perform as an official showcase artist, and meet some wonderful people, including several Folk DJs that I'd only ever talked to via email.
#5 - Being a regional finalist in the Mountain Stage New Song Contest. There are some awfully talented songwriters in this country!
#6 - The Buffalo Bills starting the season at 5-1. Okay that's not really about music, but it helps me to forget that they ended up 7-9 and out of the playoffs again.
#7 - Signing a European distribution deal for Eleven Months with Weatherbox out of the UK.
#8 - Getting to work with some really talented musicians as Jason Jacknunas and I pieced together my second CD. Dan Whitely, Lynn Miles, Chris Barkley, Chris Breitner, Doug Cox, Steve Marriner ... just a few of the wonderfully talented people who lent their abilities to help me achieve my musical vision.
#9 - Spending a month in May touring both coasts of this great country. Met too many wonderful people along the way to possibly be able to list them, but each experience reminded me of how lucky I am to get to travel around meeting people and playing music.
#10 - Playing the Fred Eaglesmith Down East Picnic in July. Playing to a park full of Fredheads is really something everyone should get to experience!
