Long Overdue Update on Everything Craig

January 17, 2010

What happened to this site you say? Why doth he forsake it? Well...I've been pretty busy with Odds stuff and that ends up over there on that page and then this Twitter thing got invented and I find it easier to say 145 characters and go back to work so sometimes I just jot a note up there. To top it off somebody hacked this site and wrecked all my galleries and I don't have a lot of skills in that department and don't know how to fix it. Look for a revamp around March when things open up a bit for me.

Currently I'm the scoring composer on two TV series. Right now I'm polishing up episode 7 of "Hiccups" starring my pals Nancy Robertson and Brent Butt. It’s going to be on CTV and I think episode 1 airs in February or March. I'm busy enough with it that I don't actually know. It's damn funny and I know fans of their work are going to love it. In fact...new fans are going to love it. You'll even hear Pat Steward singing in the end credit piece.

I am also sharing duties with musical marvel Jim McGrath www.jimmcgrath.ca on Kids in the Hall's "Death Comes to Town" for CBC. It started last week with episode 1. Tuesday nights @ 9pm. You can download the first episode FREE at the itunes store right now (in HD). We had 1,054,000 viewers on the first night. In Canada those are pretty great numbers so I am happy that something so good will actually be seen by a lot of people. We're working on the final 2 episodes right now and it's a musical Rubik’s cube of tension and release. Odds can be heard playing the theme and all over the place in the score as I hired Doug, Pat and Murray to cut bed tracks with me for all the major character themes.

During it all the Odds are playing quite a bit at the Olympics. There's a place called Molson Hockey House that will be filled with hockey fans and players from all over the world...having a good time. Odds are pretty much the house band and we'll also do double duty as Sean Cullen's band for his talk show there.

The play we wrote "Odds in a Good Weird Story" had a nice little showcase in Calgary a couple of months back. This performance led to 9 others that will take place in Ontario and the Maritimes in the fall. We're working on spreading that out to a full, big tour. I'll keep you posted.

A question I get asked a lot..."when will there be new Odds music"? In March we'll start on an EP that we've written but have had no time to record. Doug and Pat are currently out on the road with Colin James "Rooftops and Satellites" tour so go say hi if they're in your town. Doug, Pat and I were in the band for that record and it’s a real gooder. Colin is a true artist who likes to go where his muse takes him and, this time, he wanted to make a rock record and we got the call. www.colinjames.com

Murray is about to release his first album under the band moniker "Swan". It rocks you right in your man or woman balls. It will be released on the Pheromone label as was Odds "Cheerleader". Look for it in 2010. I got to help write one song so I am glad that having Murray join our band worked in MY favour.

Young Liam Titcomb is about to release another precocious album. I hate when the young cats are so good. It might mean I am booted from the lower middle of the totem pole. We wrote some songs together a while back and Liam has put another of them on this new record. It’s called “Raise Your Right hand” and I must say he put a sweet spin on it. I don’t know how these young bucks can out Beatle a Beatles rip-off artist like me…but they can.

Our chums the Gin Blossoms are also in the thick of a new album. Jesse Valenzuela and I wrote a song for this one called “Dead or Alive on the 405”. They send me the track yesterday and its pure pop for now people. I forwarded the track on to Terry Townson and Steve Hilliam (the Vancouver Horns) and they’re going to go all “Tumbling Dice” on its ass. Look for that one.

In recent news Wendy Bird has released her album “Natural Wonder”. I implore you to buy this record. I will personally guarantee it. I don’t know the technicalities behind a personal guarantee but I am doing it right now. I suppose if you bought it and didn’t like it then I would have to buy you a drink or something. We’ll work that out later because it will never happen. You’ll love it. I produced the record and played on it…but the list of people who played on it is pretty amazing…Barney Bentall and all his Legendary Hearts, Elvis Costello, Odds, Colin James, John Ellis, my sister Morag, Geoff Hicks, Simon Kendall, Rick Hopkins and other CJBand members and alumni and Adam Levy (Norah Jones etc). The more amazing thing is that almost all these people played together live on a 2-day session. The songs are all Jeffrey Hatcher songs. Jeff is “the” unsung Canadian songwriter and he deserves a tribute as grand as Blackie and the Rodeo Kings did for Willie P. Bennett. Read this…it explains it all -- http://tinyurl.com/yfbr46e

The reviews for this record are coming in VERY strong and I’m stoked for Wendy. She’s a talent that needs some applause. Get it here: www.beaumontclassicrecords.com/

If you’re near a computer or a local Vancouver radio on Thursday’s at 6pm PST you can hear me on Shore 104’s “Music Notes at Six” – 104.3 on your FM dial. I do a turn as “the Connoisseur”. They let me pick a song for their playlist and I make a case for it and then we spin the tune -- pretty good gig. I get the power that all musicians dreamt of having over the last 50 years. Shore 104 is the new Vancouver AAA station and it deserves your support. They and the new “Peak 100.5” are exposing Vancouverites to all the music they may have been missing with local radio in the past. I’m very happy that these stations are taking the plunge and giving people choices that they should have always had. www.shore104.com