Blainletter #122

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April 2020 View this email in your browser People used to kid me about not getting my Blainletter out until the day before the gig - well, this time it's coming to you on the same day as the gig - and the gig is my 2pm ET Facebook Live Basement Blaincast, episode 4 in my weekly series since the coronary. If you're not on Facebook, you can replay it here later at www.torontobluesdiary.com   Tonight, I'm coming to you from my shotgun shack on Woodfield Road, hunkered down like everybody.  watching  the Thursday streaming concert (from Feb) of Tedeschi Trucks.  This is not "live from a living room" like most of the corona-programming but 2 sets of their terrific band - still in their stride.  Like I said to Derek's daddy when the band was playing the jazz festival here, I said "that boy of yours! Every time he takes a solo he really goes someplace with it,"  ...and, as I write this, he's launching into another great solo. "Scuse me while I kiss this guy"   Next Day - Good Friday!  It was not a good day for Jesus and one remaining artifact of my Catholic upbringing (by the Salesian Brothers) was a special moment at 3pm on Good Friday,  the moment Jesus breathed his last breath on earth.  I always tried to make that a moment to reflect and it never left me - even many decades into my Buddhist practice.  This time, I had just finished doing my Qigong session with Michael Herring.  Every day at 2pm he does a Facebook Live session and I've been joining in every chance I get.  Check it out on his Facebook Page.   Some folks have missed these Basement Blaincasts because they're not on Facebook so I'm putting up replays on YouTube  and on this  blog and here are the first three: Episode 1 (World Water Day - Launch of my "Water Song" plus my "Mother Trilogy"): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl9f62HLBmI Episode 2 (the Maple Blues, You Are Also His Son and "Have a Toke" and a little preview of the remix:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fag6mXNq414 Episode 3 (songs and stories about Prof Piano, Kathi McDonald and Lenny Breau plus my rendition of the poem of the day, "And The People Stayed Home" by Kitty O'Meara Hopefully as we go along, the production values will improve.  Production values seem to be optional in these days of just trying to put out some songs for the fans.  I'm reminded of a quote from David Lee Roth when I saw him being interviewed way back in the early days of Much Music and he said "it comes down to what can you deliver with just you and your guitar" (or something to that effect).   I've been watching a lot of great streams - just now I started watching Julian Taylor and it was sounding great.  Julian is making his mark - good for him. I'm discovering lots of new sounds and making the best of a bad situation, and I hope you are too! Please check out the "Blaincast" and you'll notice at the end of each episode a virtual "tip jar".  "Playin for Tips"  paypal.me/brianblain or e-transfer brianblain@brianblain.ca Quote of the Day From Sylvia Browne, 2008 Thanks for reading this far. Feel free to forward this to any friend you think might enjoy my occasional ramblings (and maybe my music, too). These clips and more are always available on my blog, www.torontobluesdiary.com. See you out there, eventually... BrianB, aka Butch, Nappy, Shaker, Two-Lane Blain, Colorblind Brian, Stringbuster, Buddha of the Blues Upcoming Shows I will be going live again on (Easter) Sunday at 2pm with Episode 4 of the self-isolated socially-distanced Basement Blaincast (though one of these days I'm going to move it out onto the patio). This edition will feature "Songs of the Townships" - prompted by a request for "The Big Fire" (my "exit music" from the Townships and the only tune I've ever had covered). Some of you may remember my pioneering attempts at livestreaming from the back yard.  Who would have thunk that these things would become the main outlet for musicians... I call it my "living" album because it started life as a solo "live" recording with bassist George Koller and has now been "sweetened, stacked, mixed and mastered" with new instrumentation on all the songs. It starts with New Orleans marching horns from Alison Young and Colleen Allen on "Forgotten",  “Alice“ gets violin and banjo from Drew Jurecka and Tim Posgate. There's a reggae percussion workout with Trinidadian Wayne Stoute and the wonderful Michelle Josef, some sweet slide from Harry Manx on the French tune, barrelhouse piano from Toronto expat Patrick Godfrey and organ grooves galore from Australian B3 sensation Clayton Doley. "The Ghost of Clinton's Tavern" is a full-tilt electronic ambient remix by my son the DJ.  Copyright © *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved. *|IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE|* *|LIST:DESCRIPTION|* Our mailing address is: *|HTML:LIST_ADDRESS_HTML|* *|END:IF|* Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list *|IF:REWARDS|* *|HTML:REWARDS|* *|END:IF|* Share Tweet Forward