Hey, I've shifted my writing over to the PG or Japan or Europe page depending on where I am. Won't be posting on this page anymore. Thanks!
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This has been a really excellent week of music provided by the Coldsnap Music Festival people. They organize a series of musical concerts at night and also mini-concerts during the day. I had the pleasure of taknig in Diyet, an aboriginal songstress from the Yukon. Also saw Dala from Scarborough (yeah Scarborough!) Jake Morley from the UK, and local Derek Joyce from PG. Jake was really cool because he had his guitar on his lap and he would hit the neck with both hands as he played. Interesting to watch. "Many Fish to Fry" was a great song with the line "Meet a girl taxidermist in a geothermal pool". We also had Betsy Trumpener from CBC there to record the show and facilitate the workshop. Later that day, I saw Ewan Dobson at Long and McQuade and he was a metalhead who studied classical music and then sort of fused it together with world music. It was amazing to watch his fingers working over the fretboard and his rifts were hypnotic.
Friday was a real highlight. The Old Time Fiddlers opened for Daniel Lapp and Jason and Pharis. We did our 3 songs as the beginners and that was neat. Met Carmen who is managing the troops at the Lac there. She's enjoying her stint there and doing well from what I've heard. It was a real treat to watch Jason and Pharis sing. They take many old songs from the 30's and 40's and give the history of the song. They have a fantastic blend of voices and I noticed that the sound seemed to envelop the audience and transfix everyone. This was most apparent when the song's final notes stopped and the audience was entranced for just a few milliseconds before they clappedd. What a show! And how fantastic it was to hear Daniel Lapp play. He is a PG boy with a great legacy. He plays all types of stuff with his fiddle and his electronica tunes were also captivating. He even pulled out a trumpet for a tune. As the encore, all 5 performers came out and sat on the edge of the stage and did their 2 tunes without benefit of electronics. It was an interesting excersise to be part of an event that has been happening for hundreds of years...people gathering around to take part in music. I also wondered who would be singing their songs in a hundred years and if they think about that. What legacy will my songs have if any? Still, to be here in the moment and enjoy them has been enough. I finished off the Coldsnap Festival by watching the same group at Knox United and the accoustics in there were also amazing and seemed to stretch the space with their energy. Getting geared up for Japan and Europe and have started making inquiries into booking flights but have not settled on a landing spot just yet. Might bike up from Spain or Italy?? Who knows??? It has been a rough start to the New Year. I have been working harder than a Japanese Prisoner of War the last few weeks. Megumi's Dad, passed away just before the New Year after a brief illness necessitating her return to Japan for the funeral. At the same time, I fell sick and sat on the couch for about a week. I was responsible for looking after the 7 cats residing in the house and having graduated with a degree in Resources Management, am familiar with the aggregate industry. I was doing mining of a different sort and I suppose I should feel blessed for having my cold during this time.
My much anticipated build-up to the piano exam came to a crashing halt when teacher discovered that I had not prepared a section B for the exam. I considered slapping together the Beethoven piece but decided that I would wait until next year to do the exam with extreme confidence. That being said, I have purchased the books for Grade 6 and look forward to doing that exam next summer. My teacher was dissappointed but the end result is that my piano playing has improved over the last 3 months and that is what it is really about. Really want to dedicate some time to finishing off the songs composed over the trip and mixing them with the pictures. Still have a #1 and #2 on the www.homegrownhits.com country website and a #1 and #3 on the pop charts last time I checked. The songs have suffered on the overall charts though and now reside in the low teens. Still considering how to do the Europe trip. I'm leaning towards another ramble since I figure if the Queen and Pope can produce one, then so can I. A little blogging is a dangerous thing! On December 25th, there was a notable event for my website, I'll refrain from using the term "Miracle". I checked my stats page and there were "0" visits which means that people were interacting with families instead of staring at and enjoying this amazing site. Very happy to see that. And like Lazarus from the tomb, I see that the day after, I am back up to 20 viewers. A little higher than my 5 steadfast followers!
Notable events this week were the release of the "Saskatchewan" song which got lots of positive reviews from Ross Gould exclaiming that it had "commercial potential" to Marlene Bernier who said it took her back to her birthplace. I was initially worried as it landed at #9 (#113 Overall) before jumping up to #2 on the country charts. I still have the #1 slot with "Christmas in Khandahar" as well which makes 3 weeks now! Very pleased! Other songs occupy spots 7-10 on the overall charts so that is good as well. Thanks to George for continued advice on production. Had a good time at the annual Christmas party of Bill Perrin who I jam with on a monthly basis. Missed having Bruce there but the band did an excellent job with leading the partiers through the Christmas standards. Highlights of the night were the " Glee Mash Up" of Holly Jolly Christmas and Rudolph. Doug Borden kept using this terminology even though it is slightly inaccurate. Essentialy what we did was sing the two songs at the same time with the crowd divided in half. It went quite well! Megumi then sang Rudolph in Japanese which was neat. Bill squeezed in my number one hit song towards the end with Daryl's son doing a great job of rhythm. My favourite moment of the evening was Bill shouting out "Tag it" to finish off a song. Very professional! A great time and a good way to end the year. On a sadder note, male liberation was set back several generations this week in my house. I had not one but two culinary accidents. The first involved me sending my liquid scrambled eggs off the edge of my Foreman Grill and into a drawer of towels and utensils. The pancakes I made were also brutal-a poor start to Christmas Eve. :( Apparently on Christmas Eve in Japan, kids get KFC and Fruitcake on Christmas Eve so this is the tradition Megumi and I have done for the past 9 years. We were joined by our fried Ami who provided a great potato salad and a cheesecake. Even though Megumi is not German, she has adopted the tradition of opening her presents on Christmas Eve. I really wasn't sure if she would be completely happy with the house insurance I bought her so I got a few extra items for my own insurance! :) Inevitably though, on Christmas morning, she is complaining that there are no more presents to open. I should also add that Megumi drank several of her presents the week before Christmas! My second culinary disaster has reinforced my opposition to the pipeline that Enbridge is considering putting through the forest here. Again, I was working with scrambled eggs and I went to pour oil into the fry pan at the back but accidentally put the 2 litre plastic container on the hot element that was being used. Within a second, I had oil leaking out the bottom of the container! Actually, "pouring" is probably the better word to describe what happened. It was like one of those races where you run with a collander and try to fill a bucket on the other side. I managed to cover a good section of the floor with cooking oil and I think Megumi's anger was blunted by the company we have staying with us. She kept muttering "Chi Matsuri" which translates very loosely to "Blood Festival". In all my time in Japan, I never came upon this festival but I have a sneaking suspicion it is one I should not attend. I managed to clean it up eventually with remarks abot how shiny and slippery our floor was now. The animals pitched in as well and helped lick up the remenants even after I have cleaned up. This "Oil Spill" will be uttered and I was very compliant today and even went as far as fixing the upstairs toilet that continues to run despite my best efforts. I have set up the Herculean task of organizing my pictures into a slide show and then using the songs I wrote as a soundtrack to the slideshow. I've already begun culling several pictures otherwise the thing will be longer than a Tarantino movie! Next song up is "Manitoba" which sounds a bit like "Saskatchewan". No release date as of yet but pre-production will start tonight. Additionally, I've made some tentative research into Europe and I am debating between staying in one spot or biking around like the homeless guy in Prince George. Quite perplexed. The best announcement is that my new passport finally arrived in the mail today! Aghhh...this has been one huge learning lesson but happy to use the sucker now. Canada has raised the prices but does offer a 10 year version. I think I will for that in 2017 if I am still taking foreign trips. Hope everyone has a great New Year and thank you for being part of this wonderful year off. I wish you all the best! Cheers! Seems a waste to post this song when no one will get a chance to listen to it but here goes nothing. Spent a bit more time on the fine tuning of this one and it seems to be getting easier. I still have a #1 song on the homegrownhits.com country charts so I thank you for that. This song came about when I discovered that the city of Lloydminster is divided in two by the provincial border. The roads and sidewalks got a little sketchier at a certain intersection and sure enough, that was where the division was. How odd I thought, to be divided by a line yet be in the same city. I pondered a person camping on the border and rolling around in the tent and actually waking up in Saskatchewan after bedding down in Alberta. This might be the closest thing to a Bluegrass song I've written. Very happy with the secondary harmony towards the end of the song. Enjoy! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I figured I should write on the last date to say 12-12-12. Imagine how exciting it must have been in the year 1212! That would have been cool. I have no idea where all the time has gone! Perhaps I have been dedicating too much time to figuring out ways to be a better husband! I am trying to mail out cards to most of the people I stayed with over the trip. I am realizing how many people were nice enough to open up their homes to me. It meant a lot.
Very exciting news over the last 48 hours. I uploaded some songs to homegrownhits.com and my work has broken out! I have one song, "Christmas in Khandahar" at #1 on the country charts and I have 2 others on the pop charts at #4 and #6 respectively. For those of you thinking that I just voted for my own song 500 times, you are wrong! Believe me, I tried that but it only lets you vote once. So, I am getting some sort of feedback from people who are complete strangers! Neat! Website traffic is also up slightly from the average of 2 to a whopping 15! I have been asking Megumi whether we should live in Prince George or Los Angeles. Maybe we could commute between the two... I have been working on more material and find myself becoming more picky. I am no longer happy with just putting anything out there, I'd like it to really be good but that takes so much time. I find I just do a little each day and that the recording is the easy part, it is the mixing and fixing errors that takes the time. Still, I feel I am getting better and it is nice to recollect the trip while singing the songs. I had a friend pay me a huge compliment by saying that the music reminded him of Boxcar Willie! Wow! Trip to Japan is changed to March 1-17. Might be too early for Cherry Blossoms but we'll see. Until the next time... Wow! Decmber already! Big news is that Megumi and I have booked tickets to Japan. Feb 23-March 15th. Lots of time for relaxing, visiting friends and family and taking in a hot spring or two. Cannot wait! I have been hammering away on the piano in preparation for my Grade 5 Piano Exam. I spend about 2-3 hours a day working on scales and songs. Doug Borden has also provided me witha violin bow that was given up in Melbourne, QC so I might try to start playing that thing again. Not sure if I will ever get a fiddle solo down on a song. After the Mary Lake song, I cranked this one out. I had to redo several parts due to a power outtage where I lost most of my work. I think this song actually started in BC before Sumapta Pass and was finished in Vermillion, Alberta as I neared the Saskatchewan border. I recall sitting in a baseball dugout that was to be my bed that night. Special thanks to George Garbutt who is providing me with advice on mixing my stuff. His suggestions have been implemented into this song. However, I'm not sure he'll like the guitar solo but I do. Enjoy.
I am impressed, yet still sad for the 5-10 people who continue to check in. I've been busy chauffering around, walking the pets, playing the piano and getting to recording. Headlights are working on the car, went for my first run in a long time (10 km), and am amazed at how fast time is flying. This song is a tribute to my cousins the Gleasons and the Loneys. I had the priviledge of staying at their wonderful spot for a few days this summer and after the trials of Hwy 17 and the Wasaga beach Corvette Club, this place was great to get to. My cousin Karen gets credit for helping with the chorus! Big news is that my nephews got played on CBC Radio 2 last week. Very cool to hear the announcer talk abot them. They are on an Eastern tour to promote the album. They are the Cameron Brothers from Toronto. Enjoy my humble offering. Think the sound is getting better? Enjoy.
The more fanatic of you will remember Lanigan, Sk as the spot where I came across a thirsty man walking along the road with some story about his company truck running out of gas and walking to meet his friend who was coming to pick him up from Manitoba. It was only later that I started questioning why he was walking and along came this real, hurting song. On a side note, one of the most wanted Vancouver rioters was recently apprehended in this same town. That must have been a sad day for him as well. Sound quality marginally better than the previous song. Enjoy. |
About meAmateur cyclist, bon vivant, writer and internationally acclaimed singer/songwriter. Archives
February 2013
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Travelling Musician |
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