Geoff Muldaur played at Hugh's Room last night and I ran into some
like-minded guitar aficionados, Mr. Rick, Ken Whiteley, Eve Goldberg,
Tony Burns and a big fan, Jane Moore from Sam The Record Man, pictured here with Geoff.
It turns out that Geoff has a new "signature" model Martin
Guitar - the 00-18H. It sounded great, but I'm sure a lot of that had to do
with the pickup, which was a Highlander system. Just the sound I've been
looking for, I thought. Don't know how much was the guitar and how much was
the pickup. But the guitar is $4,000 and the pickup is $125. So you can
guess which I will try first.
Muldaur was still fuming that Canada Customs did not let him bring in CDs to
sell. He talked about playing at a Buddhist Temple in Japan (Yamaguchi) and
had a great story about an editorial cartoon he saw after the launch of
Voyageur (which contained digitized music from all cultures and all ages).
The cartoon showed a rocket ship crashed back to earth with a note that said
"Send More Chuck Berry". After Geoff Muldaur, I dropped in to the Orbit Room
to see LMT Connection for the first time - I even had $5 at hand to pay my
way in, because it's not one of those place I can just walk in. Anyway, it
was $8 so I listened to a little bit then moved on down the road to
Thymeless where my own flesh and blood was spinning...but alas he wasn't
there yet, so I made my way home. Still baskling in the beautiful space that
Muldaur created.
Monday night I went to meet Tannis and not only did she bring along a kora
for me to mess around with but she gave me a showcase slot at the OCFF
conference. I'll be hosting the Toronto Blues Society Showcase at 11:30 in
the Chaudiere Room on the Convention Level. I've got a feeling that's a very
big room for our purposes. I'll be the "tweener" and maybe for a change I
should give a little thought to what tunes I will play. Then, thanks to
Tannis, I will be doing a showcase on the Saturday Night from 1:00-1:25 in a
room to be determined. I think we're going to call it the "Milk & Cookies"
Suite at the The Crowne Plaza Hotel, 101 Lyon Street North in Ottawa. Here's the full schedule
>>>> Friday Night
Tannis Slimmon Midnight to 12:25
Dale Nikkel 12:30-12:55
Steve Schellenberg 1-1:25
Allister: 1:30-2:00am (Still tentative)
>>>> Saturday Night
Tannis Slimmon Midnight to 12:25
Dale Nikkel 12:30-12:55
Brian Blain 1-1:25