Newsletter
February 07, 2007
Long time no clicky clacky of keys. Here is a really unimaginative diary style info newsletter. I much prefer to go outside but I figured I better let people know what was up.
Doug Elliott, Pat Steward and I have been having seven ton of fun lately. We attended the Barenaked Ladies “Ship & Dips” cruise to Turks & Caicos and let loose some new sounds. It was a thrill to discover “Guster”. I live under a rock at the best of times. My nose is down in whatever I am doing and I somehow missed out on this great band for too long. Get their latest album “Ganging Up on the Sun” on iTunes. We saw the maiden voyages of Steve Page's “Vanity Project” which is always a thrill. Cool things happen on stage when people are figuring it out. Those are some good songs. Check out that album on iTunes too. Kevin Hearn’s “Thinbuckle” were fantastic. It’s worth the price of a cruise just to see Great Bob Scott play the drums. The Brother’s Creegan played some intimate shows and the addition of Tyler Stewart made for a soulful blend. It’s rare to catch those guys at work. Sean Cullen, Harland Williams and Marc Hickox were all up to no good in the best of ways. We all really enjoyed a psychotic cover band called “Acid Wish” that played on the Lido Deck every night. Personally I would never hang too long with a posse like that but it was damn entertaining. Who am I to judge? I mean that “Owl” guy with the acid wash skirt seemed so peripheral and drunk. “Ladysmith” was a deadly guitar shredder and I hope that next year he will open some sort of instructional “Shred Shack” so I can pick up some two handed tapping techniques. He’s a bit full of himself but I guess that’s what it takes to rock like that. “Legend” on bass is definitely a borderline idiot savant. I spotted him drooling a number of times. The capper was “Tantric” on drums. That guy is a freak in more ways than one. He seemed quite jazzed about playing rock whilst in the “Devil’s Triangle”. I think he may be an acid casualty.
On a non-musical note it was thrilling to scuba dive with all those crazy fish. We saw a Barracuda and a String Ray and decided not to taunt them. There has been some bad press about taunting String Rays.
Last week I went down to “Sketchfest” in San Fransisco to help out on a show with “the Bruce McCulloch Project”. The troupe was made up of Irene White, Ernie Grunwald, Janet Varney, Stephen Brophy and Bruce himself. The shows were a riot and on the closing night Bruce & I sang some songs for the peeps. Scott Thompson joined us for a reworking of the Kids in the Hall classic “Running Faggot”. He stole the show…of course. Our pal Paul Myers got up and played some bass to help the production value.
I’m in the studio this week starting the next Bob Kemmis CD and then next week I start a CD by a killer countryish vocalist Wendy Bird. Wendy was in “the Sugarbeats” which was the band that followed “the Blue Shadows” after Billy Cowsill left. The chief writer was Jeffrey Hatcher of Winnipeg’s “the Big Beat”. I have always been a huge admirer of Jeffrey’s writing and singing so we have decided to record only Jeffrey Hatcher songs on Wendy’s album. The string arrangements are by Terry Townson and Steve Hilliam who some of you will know from the Colin James Band.
Doug, Pat and I go in to record some new songs on the 13th of February. We won’t get finished but I am excited about getting started. Murray Atkinson will be along to play some guitar. He’s fit in really well on the shows we’ve used to try out the stuff so I can’t imagine doing it without him.