Just back from the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals conference in Sudbury where I had a great old time even though (whine, whine) I was not selected to showcase and the song I submitted did not win the "Song from the Heart" contest.



As we were driving up, my travelling companion Michael Wrycraft mentions that he was on the selection committee...Whaaat! ...and it turns out I know all of the damn committee! Once again, proof positive that it's *not* "who you know."



Paul came by this afternoon to get my studio set up - I added a couple of new devices and trying to get them "in the loop". He's been on the road non stop so I was glad to have him here for a couple of hours to straighten out a few things. He helped me get the MIDI running too, though I'm sure he thinks it's just another vehicle to enable my "fear of completion."



While I was out, he ran a couple of the tunes through some mastering tools to show me how the sound could be improved. It sounds pretty good already, but this did make it a little less boxy. Now I can play these tracks on some different sound systems and make sure my monitors are not hyping us. Bax (my producer) sent a "how's it goin?" email. Fred (my record company) hasn't been in touch lately and everytime he calls me from the 401 and asks me to meet him, I'm sure that he's about to tell me that the deal is off, but so far, he's been very supportive. I'm sure he has his limit, but we all agree that there's no point releasing an album before I have some gigs in place, so we're now looking at a February release. I definitely want some copies to distribute at the Blues Summit at the end of January. For the OCFF conference, I burned a few with 4 songs each, two with original mixes and two re-worked versions



Back to the conference, I'm still intent on playing for the folk audience rather than the hard-core blues audience. There was some blues at the conference and Harrison Kennedy was one blues guy that made a big impression. His showcase seemed quite short, he started with a work song singing and playing a shaker. After that he did something on guitar then quickly went back to a blues "sing-a-long" with harmonica accompaniment. Then it was over - he got a great reaction. Other showcasing artists who knocked me out were Chris Demeanour and a lady called Allana (both from Manitoba, I think)



We had our own little blues enclave in 221. Lily had her piano set up and I brought a bass - and glad I did! The first night I was jamming with a high-energy kid called Dan Frechette. He brought a mandolin and played the hell out of it - I found out later from his manager, the legendary Mitch Podolak, that he's only been playing mandolin for a few months. Amazing.



Podolak was the founder of the Winnipeg Folk Festival and I found myself around a lot of Winnipeg folks. I asked them all if they had ever heard about an RCMP narcotics officer who had infiltrated the Winnipeg Music scene in the seventies by playing in a band and had then busted half the rock musicians in town. Nobody could verify that legend - too bad, because I've got a tune I wrote back then called "Winnipeg Nark" and I'd like to know if there's any truth to it. I'm sure I didn't just make up the story. I'm one of those rare songwriters who does his research *after* he writes the song. Ken W chided me when he heard one of my songs that starts with the line "In Nineteen Thirty-Five or Six"...Can't you nail that down?



I had a great time playing with Harrison Kennedy himself, Mo Kauffey, Doc McLean, Ken Whiteley and even Paul James dropped by. Flo saw him playing at a bar in Downtown Sudbury and invited him back to the hotel. He'd never seen a "music conference." We got busted on the second night - boyish, but burly, security guard walked into the room and asked. "Smokin up in here???" Everybody held their breath. Then he asked if we would please keep the windows open!!! Sure, no problem.



The most fun I had was when the London group Mosaic dropped by our room and launched into some amazing harmonies and I found myself (scat)singing along. I *never* do that, but I must be changed forever by that vocal workshop I did with Elaine Overholt a couple of weeks ago. I was finally ready to just let my voice pour out - and it did.



I also had a little session with Liam Titcomb, who is on the fast track to the big time, and who's grown musically as the entire folk community watched (his dad is Brent Titcomb, a veritable guru of the folk scene - and his mom happens to be my Reiki Master). I lured him to my room with a song idea and we jammed a bit with it - now I have to follow up and have another session with him. That will be tricky knowing his schedule, but we'll see.



What did I get out of this conference? Well, let me pass along a few "tips":



When you head into an interview, you should have three things in mind that you want to get across, whether or not you are asked.



Radio guys like to have a CD sized insert that gives a short description of each song - nor do they want to receive an entire press kit. A CD and a little sheet as described above is all they care about.



Call the local radio show two weeks before an appearance in their town to set up an interview, or at least to get something played



When you plan out your showcase set, also plan what you're going to say and when you're going to say it. (That's advice I'll have trouble following)



The day after we got back, The Toronto Blues Society announced the nominees for the Maple Blues Awards and the dates for the Blues Summit. If you're interested in either visit www.torontobluessociety.com Congratulations to all the nominees.



Yesterday, Harry Manx came through town on his way to Montreal. He stopped at the house long enough to re-dress the wiring in his rack - he bought a new preamp - and I left him in my kitchen as I took off to a "casino party" at my agent's office. They had rented all kinds of gambling equipment and everybody that arrived got $10,000 in funny money, which we then used to buy chips. I learned a lot about playing blackjack but I did better at roulette. They've gotten me a lot of work at the Woodbine Racetrack (their biggest client, I discover) but for all the times I've been, I've never made a bet...



So what else have I been up to since my last post???



I've booked a series of house concerts at the Downtown Jazz office - I did this before and it was a very nice setup - there's a built in PA system and a piano, too. When you push aside the big board table there's room for 30 or so. Tomorrow I'll be doing a "preview" concert but after this I play Oct 30 with Lily Sazz, Nov 20 with Paul Reddick and Dec 13 with Butch Coulter who'll be visiting from Germany. Next Thursday (Oct 29), I open for Harry at Hugh's Room and I do a couple more gigs with him. Hoping to keep up the momentum by scoring a few more concerts. Anybody out there interested in having Brian Blain entertaining them in their own living room??? Just ask.

September is winding down fast and I had promised the overdubs would be done by the end of the month. But it's been an incredible flurry of musical activity for me to cover as the resident media mooch. I just got in from sitting in with a great musician from England, Steve Payne. Michael Pickett did a feature set as did a young woman called Sara. And, considering my luck at jams, I should be thankful that I got on at all. but I grabbed my guitar as the evening was winding down and did a couple of tunes with Steve.



I was trying to make up my mind which tune I would sing, but after we were into it for a little bit, i got the feeling that the only way I was going to sing is if I jump right in. Lucky for me, I had some lyrics that fit with the groove we were playing so I just started singing "Girlfriend Blues". I don't know if Steve was planning to launch into a vocal himself, after all, it was him that started playing that groove. Anyway, he seemed cool about it. I was glad that I made it down for his last appearance in Canada, but it reminded me why I don't go to these jams. This time I had been invited by Steve himself and I barely got to play. It is the assertive ones who get to play in these jams. But, on the other hand, I must be prepared. This time, I couldn't even decide which song(s) I should play. I should at least have a few tunes at hand, hopefully something people can play-along - maybe even sing along. That will come in handy since I just made arrangements to attend the Ontario Council of Folk Fetivals conference in Sudbury. I had a great time last time I attended one of these - non-stop jammin in the hallways of the hotel (on dedicated "music" floors)



One more obstacle between me and a finished album - but a wise move for the career. Too bad I'll have to pass on opening for Harry Manx at Readers Cafe in Dunville. I will be opening some other dates for him, though. Well, we'll press up some "preview" CDs to hand out to artisitic directors and whoever else. I hope I get invited to a couple of folk festivals next summer. It's always great to see someone who didn't think they would like the blues, but after hearing my version of the blues, they now loved the blues.

Saturday Afternoon: When I left off on the last post, I was hoping I might schmooze my way into the film, "Festival Express" and at the last minute it worked out and I headed downtown at 2:30 in the afternoon. I was trying to think of the cheapest way to park but as I cruised along Shuter St, I saw the point where the free street parkling ended and the metered street parking began - Jarvis Street! So I walked 4 or 5 blocks then at the theatre, there's a huge lineup. I go to the front of the line to get my ticket from media gal Jane Harbury, but then I have to go back to the end of the line to wait. As I'm walking back I say hi to Ray Blake who I had chatted with at the party the previous night. He was part of Mashmakhan, a very big band in Montreal in the 70s - less known in Toronto. At the party, I had introduced him to Toronto music historian/musicologist/archivist Bill Munson who surprised him by telling him he owned several obscure 45s that Ray appeared on.



When the movie starts up, the first band to play is Mashmakhan, and there is Ray in his 70's glory. Looking very dapper. It must have been a great moment for him. I wonder how it was for some of the other "stakeholders" at that premiere. At one point in his remarks, the director said "To the guy that put it all together, wherever you are, Ken Walker...." and just then several people a few rows in front of me stand up and shout "He's right here" pointing to Ken Walker in the aisle seat. He takes a little bow, but as the producers walk back upo the aisle, I notice there is no contact as they walk right by him. No "hi-fives" here. I hear later from Rob Bowman that it's been a lot of struggles getting it out - all the footage for the Toronto concert had been stolen, and I just had the feeling that there was a lot of sour grapes still - after 30 years. Maybe some of them will recover the money they lost 30 years ago. The other partner, Thor Eaton, probably doesn't need the money.



The performances by Janis Joplin in the film are close-up, gritty, full-tilt Janis. The Band casts their spell and the look like they just drove up from Big Pink. The Grateful Dead are stars of the show - especially when they agree to put a couple of flat-bed trucks together outside the stadium and give a free concert to quell a riot. But where were Bonnie & Delaney? We see them jammin' on the train, but was the stage performance too rough? Traffic was also cut out because their songs were way too long and they wouldn't allow them to be edited.



Tuesday 5:30, The Rivoli: It's the CD Launch for the Gordon Lightfoot tribute album, and the house is stunned when Gordon himself is introduced from the stage by Grit Laskin. Word is he's not well, and he looks a little gaunt but he hung in right to the end - even going up to the stage to shake hands with Aengus Finnan who performed an original composition about Lightfoot and told how it helped him understand Canada (he came from U.K) James Keelaghan played a live rendition of the Canadian Railroad Trilogy - imagine doing that with Lightfoot himself in the audience. He pulled it off great. Interespersed between the live performances they played tracks from the album. It's hard enough to get the attention of a media schmooze audience when you're playing live - it's even harder to get them to shut up and listen to recorded music, even if it's a first like the Cowboy Junkies or Bruce Cockburn doing a Lightfoot song.



10:30 After attending two board meetings (my co-op and the end of the Blues Society meeting) I still have enough steam head up to the Iridescent Music Anniversary party. There's sure to be some great folks playing. I drive up with Lily Sazz and Matt, the new TBS admin guy. When I walk in, Blue Willow is playing. They're the only band that ever fired me - but I deserved it. I was so overcomitted doing all these newsletters that I would miss rehearsals and often be late for gigs. Five years later, the girls are still at it and sounding great!



I start talking to London sax player Chris Murphy about the last discussion at the board meeting - the dying blues venmues in Toronto. He travels a lot and sees this happening in many other towns. He said something interesting, though. In his travels in ther States, he founf the really succesful blues bars had a few things in common: They were in the suburbs with lost of free parking, a safe clean environment, good food - establishmenst that did very well all day as restaurants. And the audience was well-heeled professionals who livbed in the area. Well, yuppies deserve the blues, too.



The stage changes over and we're listening to Johnny Wright, one of the finest R&B singers to come out of this town. Michael Fonfara is playing keyboards and Joe Mavety is on guitar. There's another guitar player, short blond hair, very youthful looking - turns out it's the legendary Danny Weiss, moved back to Toronto. Gary Kendall says to me me "That's the guy who's supposed to play on your album" - and I remembered telling him that Frazier M. had offered to remake my album for $1500. and the first thing he said was he was going to get Danny Weiss to play guitar. That was a deal buster. No reflection on Danny - he's a phenomenal musician - but the guitar star on my album has got to be *me*. Producer David Baxter saiud "you hire a guitar player to produce your album then you don't let him play!" Maybe it was a big mistake, Davis is a real creative guita4r player, probably more suited to my songs than a Danny Weiss. But it's up to me now, time to get back to those overdubs.

It's the day after my birthday and even though I know I should be home overdubbing guitar parts on my forthcoming CD (see previous posts) I'm at big party at the Palais Royale. It's a movie release party, a much bigger deal than the CD release parties I'm used to. Little food stations all around the place. A couple of guys shucking oysters here, smoked salmon there, another area serving jambalaya and cornbread, outside they had corn-on-the-cob and turkey. Lots of other goodies, all dished out by fresh-faced servers in cute uniforms - cruise ship might have been the motif.



And there on stage, fronting the Full-Tilt Boogie Band - mostly original members - was Bonnie Bramlett, invoking the spirit of Janis as she tore into a searing version of "Piece of My Heart." Then she did a tune that she wrote especially for Janis - she said Janis asked for a shuffle, but never lived long enough to perform it. Bonnie is nothing short of a spectacular vocalist. It was great hearing John Till play - the last time I saw him play was at the Coq D'Or in the sixties. Richard Bell was doing double duty - stretched between the organ and piano - he said afterwards he was glad that Lou Pomanti was able to jump in on some of the tunes. Ken Pearson couldn't make it. Sylvia Tyson and Lorraine Segatto joined in for a rousing jam of CC Rider.



Bernie Leadon of the Flying Burrito Brothers was flown up for the occasion and did a great set but when Bill King tried to get him up for the big finale, Bernie waved off the invitation. I wouldn't be surprised if he was a little miffed that the crowd never shut up for the three tunes he did solo. Sylvia, who was in Great Speckled Bird with then-hubby Ian, had also been part of the Festival Express, sang an a capella tune to kick off the proceedings. Garth Hudson played a couple of Band classics with his wife Maud doing the vocals.



You had to be close to the stage hear the music. As the evening progressed, it seems that the crowd got more attentive. It was such a beautifully managed party, it might have been managed a bit more in favour of the musicians if they had asked people who insisted on carrying on a conversation to step out to the patio. Who am I to talk? - I was blabbing away with lots of people - most of them asking when the hell I'm going to release that CD of mine. And then I found myself face to face with David Baxter who is the producer-of-record for this album but who doesn't ask that question anymore.



As soon as I've done two more CD release parties in the next week, I will start to spend all-day (yikes) working on the CD. I promised the label I'd have therse overdubs done by the end of the month. David's eyes rolled when I told him i've been adding some MIDI tracks. This may just be another waste of time diversion, but I'm going to record MIDI as well as the regular guitar sound and then decide - keep them both, or one of them or none.



Oh, did I mention the film is called "Festival Express." I may yet get to see it, but for now all I can say is they give a great party. I comisserated with other (younger) bachelors how these film festival parties attract large numbers of stunning women. I guess they're all actresses and models. And also some not-so-young but equally attractive ladies of a certain age - the ones that were there for the original Festival Express



The Dexters started off the evening and closed it out with some special guests, Jeff Martin of Tea Party played some very credible blues. The Dexters horn section was Perry White and Steve Donald - tenor and trombone. What a great honkin sound. Amazing evening.

September allready and I didn't make a single post in August. I aplogize to the two or three of you who were looking for more chapters in my ongoing saga. Since we advertised the release of my CD for September 03 September, and since it's September now and it's still not released, I guess I owe an explanation.



It all started a couple of years ago when Fred Litwin of Northern Blues offered me a contract to lease my indie CD (made five years ago at Puck's Farm). With Bill Garret in my corner, we convinced Fred to let me record a new album. I spent a few months recording my new tunes in my home-studio, set up and operated by Paul Benedict.



The solo acoustic thang did not get them very excited but we had a straict deadline so I called in a couple of players I knew well and we laid down some solid tracks, but I still wanted a "quiet" album - because I find the first one too raucus.



Well, now I find it *too* quiet and now I'm at the stage where I'm overdubbing some gritty electric guitar on some of the tracks. I may re-do a couple of vocals then we're gonna mix the sucker and get it out there. I've got the old Strat out and I'm even using a pick!



Had a nice break visiting the Eastern Townships and Cape Cod. I was happy to visit the Singfield Brothers who I played with in the Seventies. I played them the track I recorded called "Terrace Inn", named after the club we worked at every summer when I was playing bass in their band, Oliver Klaus. Then in Provincetown, I found myself having dinner at Alice Brock's - this is the Alice who has been immortalized in the song "Alice's Restaurant". I was playing a few tunes at the dining-room table and Alice told me that was the table where Arlo wrote that folk classic. I can only imagine some of the other formidable musicians who sat around that table. It's a round oak dining table and looks almost new, but Alice explained that it's quite old but that it is a "self-healing" table. Many a cigarette had burned a mark at the edge but they all faded away - not to mention a lot of spilled red wine, I'm sure. She showed me a crack in the table that had been a major gash where a knife had been plunged into it, but it was now practically closed up. On the drive back to Toronto, we stopped at the original Alice's Restaurant in upper Mass - it's now called the Guthrie Center and presents music regularly.



I haven't been hustling for gigs during the summer - I guess I thought I'd get invited back to a few festivals as I was last year, but ...wrong! Time to get on the phone. Harry Manx was in town for a couple of gigs and invited me to open for him at Hugh's Room but when I got there, it turns out that another opening act had been booked, unbeknownst to anyone. Her name was Heather Horak and she had driven all the way from Ottawa so we worked out a way for both of us to play. I did a couple of tunes then brought her up for a short set. I got to be the M.C for the evening and that was a lot of fun. I was up with Harry till 4:30 the next morning putzing around with my MIDI guitar setup.



I love bass players (maybe that's because I started as a bass player) and this month I played with a couple of greats. Terry Wilkins played with me at Chicago's (along with Michelle Josef on drums and Lily Sazz on piano) and although I generally prefer string bass, he played electric on that gig and it was the same solid groove that I'm usewd toi from his gut-bucket bass. Then a few days later I played with Ka-Cheung Liu, who is making a name for himself on the jazz scene but who really kicks ass with the blues - hope I get to play with him again.



Meanwhile, I've been totally distracted by lots of "other people's music." The Toronto Star Bluesfest brought an incredible array of talent. I was out of town but made it for the Saturday night and Sunday performances. My highlight was David Lindley. I've heard lots of great lap slide lately, and he had that "low-end" that is an essential part of Harry manx' sound, but he brought something else - funny lyrics, for one thing. The site was great, three stages in close proximity. Based, I'm told, on a floor plan developed when the CNE was being considered as a venue for the jazz festival. I didn't even take advantage of my media pass to get into the backstage or VIP area (Gary Kendall thought it was the best backstage buffet of any festival he's attended).



I only had one media pass but Jacquie Houston and I walked right through the gate and straight to the stage area where Rick Fines was playing (playing great, I might add). Then a very earnest volunteer tapped me on the shoulder and said "We saw your pass but we didn't see hers," Busted! Jacquie had a couple of tickets in her purse anyway, but it shows they had pretty good security. At one point, a security person signalled that I should be leaning on the barricade. I heard the volunteers were very well treated, except for the transportation co-ordinator who quit halfway through the festival (another thing I heard behind the scenes).



I got to see Anson Funderburgh - my man on guitar. But this week-end featured a procession of great guitarists - Tommy Castro, Robert Cray, Kelley Joe Phelps, John Mooney, even Richard Thomson. I saw Big Ben Richardson pulling a double shift playing with Tony D then playing with John Mooney. Later David GoGo was ragging on him that he had wanted him for his set, too.



There was one off-the-wall performer named Howard Gelb (sp) who I never "got." He would stop in the middle of a song to play a clip of Ellington on a CD player. Go figure. Somebody even called the Blues Society office complaining about him - not that we had anything to do with it.



The Bluesfest was put on by the same group that does the Ottawa Bluesfest, a phenomenally successful event in Ottawa, and I hope their coffers were filled because they lost their shirt in Toronto.



A few weeks later, it's the Southside Shuffle in Port Credit - a very different kettle of fish. They've got the audience - the streets were packed with throngs of people, I bet most of whom never get out to a blues show. But no big bucks for talent here - mostly local bands playing and no signs of big sponsors. The closest I got to the main stage was looking through the chain-link fence by the porta-potties with a generator blasting. On the street I got to hear some bands I've never heard - Wayne Buttery and the Groove Project, a big 8-piece classic R&B unit. Nice to meet someone in person after you've been reading their emails for years. And The Livin Blues Band had a special guest, Maria Aurigema, a great singer-guitarist from upper state NY. And there was a great young singer called Larissa, I think, playing on the street. (She also had a fine bass player, there I go again about bass players) Who was that young woman playing bass? If anybody has contact info for her, write me at brian@blain.com - and I'll know that there's somebody out there reading these rambling blogs.

I see that I finished my last post with the words "Hey, maybe we'll play a little modern jazz!" Famous last words.



As I've been focused entirely on the recording, I haven't been hustling any gigs so I was happy that one trickled down to me in the Downtown Jazz festival. I didn't have a band in place so I put together something "completely different." Caspar Project is Peter Hasek and an arsenal of synths and samplers. We needed a third (the club owner had asked - as I discovered later - for a "jazz trio"). So for a third, we brought in Lowell Lybarger, a world-class tabla player and what a virtuoso he was. He asked if he could bring along his dijeridoo and when he pulled that out, it was amazing - the sound was being sent through Peter's processing gear. It was fucking amazing! ...at least I though so. The club owner thought otherwise and we were fired...I should have known this would not work in a sports bar.



Meanwhile I've still got a record to finish. Now that I've got my Strat set up with a MIDI pickup, I'm going to do a last pass of guitar overdubs. I've got to get a little more energy into it - I know I told everybody I wanted a laid-back record but now I find that it's *too* laid back. We'll punch it up a bit. I know I shouldn't be talking about this in public - I"ve been told I "planted the seeds of doubt". Well, regardless of what everybody else says, I'm not going to put this out until i have no doubts.









SO WHAT ELSE HAVE I BEEN UP TO?







As I write this, the Toronto Rocks concert is taking place in my town. My friend Dan even offered me a ticket but here I am watching the webcast in a little window on my computer. I was almost ready to go for it, but last night I started to write a new tune and I haven't hardly touched my guitar in weeks and I just decided that I was not going to go watch somebody else's music - even the Stones - I'm going to stay and work on my own (this song better be good so I can tell people that I missed the most historic music event of my generation - or is it the next generation?



So what's the update, you ask? (I know you're out there because every once in a while somebody tells me they've been reading my blog)



Listening to Dan Aykroyd saying this is "a piece of History"... ooops the webcast just reached its capacity and I've been knocked off. Oh well, I'm just going to have to go someplace where there's a TV - but not till 9:00 o'clock.



Now I've turned on the radio and they seem to be doing a live broadcast (the webcast was not live but rather assembled highlights...no the announcer just said that was a previously recorded Justin Timberlake ("Can you hear the sound of the projectiles being thrown at the stage" he says)

Freddie Roulette is in town - some say for the first time - and he's doing a week at Top 'O The Senator. I caught the opening night and was floored by his virtuosity on the lap slide guitar. I haven't seen too many musicians that are in such complete control of their instrument. He had it jumping through hoops, making sound effects and "talking" noises. I've seen Sonny Rhodes do his thing on the lap slide but this was way beyond that - and I got the feeling that he was sticking to the simpler blues tunes because he was working with a pick-up band of local musos. Howard Willett was playing harmonica, Mitch Lewis on guitar and a great rhythm section of Bucky Berger and Dennis Pinhorn. Terry Wilkins dropped in later in the evening and he told me he had been working with Mitch all day, so if they did any rehearsing it must have been at the sound check. I guess they just had to learn the material from the CD's and that's fine as long as the artist still does the tune the way he did it when he recorded it.



I wouldn't want a back up band learning my stuff from CDs because songs have changed so much since I recorded them. I swore after that first CD that the next time I make a CD I will put together the band first, work up the new material in front of an audience and *then* record. Oh well, once again the pressure was on to get the project happeing, so I did the next best thing, call in a rhythm section that had worked a lot with me, but still it was all new material.



We had a nice little BBQ on Tuesday and I had a chance to socialize with some of the players outside the stress of the recording situation. Still some overdubs to do and perhaps a couple of vocals. when will this end?

Just recorded two new tunes for the album - I hope the fact that we recorded a couple of tracks with different players and no producer (same engineer, though) will not give the impression that we were unhappy with what we had achieved already. When we started this project, I told everybody I wanted to make a "quiet" album and that's what they delivered. I have a few issues about my own performance but I'll skip the self-flaggelation for now. My first album is so raucus that I would rarely have an occasion to put it on, so I was intent on producing an album that I will be able to listen to and enjoy for years to come. Well, now it's *too* quiet - so we're adding a couple of electric tracks...but as it turns out, they're not that "electric" after all, but they will pick up the energy of the album. We remade the computer song as a blues shuffle and I was delighted to have my old buddy Mike Fitzpatrick at the kit. He is the shuffle meister and I seem to recall when we were making the first album he said "this is the first blues album I've ever made without a single shuffle". Well, this one will have a shuffle!



I would still like to record a solo instrumental for this album, but that's looking less likely because I haven't even started to write that. That was another item I had on my "wish list." I was fortified being around Harry Manx last year when he was going through the same sort of thing - going over the album with a fine-tooth comb, tightening it up and making it as good as it can possibly be. We are surrounded by people who just want to put out the first thing you record - "It perfect just like that." I was actually relieved to have the record company come back and ask for some things to be improved because there were a few things I wanted to add, including a song I just wrote. Even though the timing wasn't the greatest, we did get Harry Manx on one track (overdubbed in my home studio) and we did send some tracks to Germany so my buddy Butch Coulter could overdub some tracks.



I found it great to work at home and even if I did not record there, at least to edit the tracks so that when they go to be mixed - or, in this case, remixed, I will have removed anything I didn't ever want to hear again. Fred has asked for a remix and he would like to hear some of the vocals re-done. I'm very curious to hear somebody else try to make something out of this album. We recorded is right off the floor with everybody playing in the same room - just like blues albums should be recorded, and now we're stuck with sound leakage in all the mics - Any mixing will be quite challenging as it is mostly about getting a sound while compensating for the leakage.



I don't have the budget to re-mix anyway, I will be cutting into the mastering budget and then into the design budget. One of the songs we just did is a remake of the computer song on my last album. Fred had asked for this song to be re-recorded all along, but nobody paid him any heed. Finally when the opportunity presented itself at a gig with Gary Kendall, I did another spontaneous thing and booked the Downchild rhythm section (Kendall, Fonfara and Fitzpatrick) for a session the following Monday. We'll I still hadn't decided on a new groove for the computer song (now called Hi-Tech Blues 2.0) and I wasn't nearly finished the other song I wanted to record. So here I am in the same boat again - I'm going to record a song I just wrote the night before (which is the opposite of what I know I should do, which is play the tunes with the people who are going to record them - preferably at live gigs (consider it getting paid to rehearse). So that song wasn't ready but we worked on it together and got something. The lyrics were not right, though I spent another 24 hours trying to make them sound OK - especially since they described the triumphs and tragedy of Loreena McKennitt's life. I hope she doesn't hate me for writing this.



When will I get to make a record when they do more than put a mic in front of me and get me sounding exactly like I do? I guess I was looking to sound *better* (different?) than I do...but who can fault an acoustic solo recording where you close your eyes and it's like the singer is sitting across from you? We had the songs sounding *that* good on the first round before we brought in any producer. We were recording at my place on my old beige G3 Mac. But Fred was underwhelmed with the solo acoustic effort and wanted something a little more produced. I chose my first producer because he had a reputation as a song-fixer. He did have some ideas for improving the songs and even tried to show me some more appropriate chord changes, and pasing chords, etc. Anyway, I couldn't play hardly anything that he suggested. I would try, but it just didn't come naturally. Other things like repeating a little tag in one tune, I remember long enough to record that way, but playing live I bet you anything I will revert to the original arrangement.



Speaking of reverting, my engineer had suggested that one of the tunes was dragging at the beginning so we should cut the first verse in half to get to chorus quicker. I was able to remember the change and we recorded it that way. Then a few weeks later I arrive at the studio and engineer and producetr are working on that same song - and they have edited back a long double verse at the beginning because it "sets the narrative." ?!?!! I was speechless but made a mental note to just stick to my arrangements the way I first write them.



I started this project with the intention of doing it in my own studio. Paul Benedict sold me some converters and got me set up and we spent about six months trying stuff at my place. We ended up recording most of the album at his place but we did the most recent stuff here and I hope that at least some of the next album will be done here, too. Both producer David Baxter and myself received a valuable crash-course in Cubase because Paul was very generous in taking time to explain stuff and even letting us get "hands-on" (though he lived to regret that).



Quote of the day: "An amateur practices until he gets it right. A professional practices until he can't get it wrong."





Seen about town: The Toronto Blues Society had a special evening at Hugh's Room and I decided to go "all out" and have a nice meal there - the most expensive piece of chicken I've had in a long time - but worth it.



The first performer up was was the wonderful Morgan Davis - he got us immediately into the blues zone. I love the sound he gets with his solid body guitar and small amp. He keeps getting nominated as "Acoustic Artist of the Year" but I've never yet seen him playing an acoustic guitar. On the other hand...



Jack De Keyzer had his trusty Yamaha flat-top to finish off the evening with Al Lerman. It has no pick-up so must be mic'd. He was using that guitar when He played a short set for the media launch of the new Toronto Star Bluesfest taking place at the CNE. They have mega stars and an very reasonable ticket price. I met Mark Monahan and some other luminaries of the Ottawa Bluesfest but do you think I would have thought to bring a package to pitch some gigs for myself? Naw! Consequently I have no festival gigs this summer - except for Downtown Jazz who found me a spot in a little sports bar called Brass Taps. Well it really is a "sports bar". When I went to check it out I was shoved back out the entrance by two guys with hockey sticks and equipments bags who were coming the other way.

Anyway, I've decided that if they're going to be a loud inattentive audience I'm going to play some even louder music that doesn't require attention and to this end I have engaged Caspar Project to collaborate with me on these shows. This will mark my first foray into MIDI since I arrived in Toronto over ten years ago.

I was one of the first people (in my area) who ever heard of MIDI - and see how it's been integrated into the larget musical world now. I'm going to pull out my old MIDI guitar controller and my MIDI pedalboard and see how much information I can throw at Caspar Project (ak Peter Hasek), because he's got amazing tools to manipulate the sound. Hey, maybe we'll play a little modern jazz!

Hey Russ, I hope you enjoyed hearing the first mixes of my new CD. Some people hate it and some people love it - that's always a good sign. I'm still trying to address all the coments from "Make the vocal louder" to "Put the vocal back in the track". Andrew, my next door neighbour said he really enjoyed the "spare" guitar playing. It is plenty spacious - maybe because I was planning on overdubbing more guitar but in fact we took off most of what we had overdubbed, so it's still quite spare and understated. That's me!



The gig with Gary went great - I played the new arrangement (upgrade) of my computer song and tried a new one out of the blue. We had some killer grooves goin. So I end up asking him to get together with his Downchild rhythm section, Michael Fonafara (whom I've never played with) and Mike Fitzpatrick who played drums on my first CD. Fonfara was the producer for a band I played with, Blue Willow. I'll always remember when they brought in Carlos del Junco to do some harmonica parts and at first they played him the track with the guitar solo, then they just pulled out the guitar so it wouldn't distract him. Well Carlos nailed a solo and that was the end of my guitar solo. Anyway, I'm going to lay down a couple of electric blues numbers with these boys so we can liven up the album.

Well, Gary, last night when I should have been rehearsing for our gig, I decided at the last minute to head over to the Silver Dollar and catch the first set of Junior Watson. Larry Garner was down at Healey's too, so I though maybe I'd end up there, but Junior was irresistible. I had to stay till the final encore (at 1:30 or so). Junior put on a great show, better, I thought, than when I saw him at the BBQ Festival last summer. Beyond his playing though, there was the wonderful Sax Gordon Beadle playing with him - my favourite all time sax player! I've seen him with Luther Guitar Junior, then many times with Duke Robillard - He tells me he's playing on the new Toni Lynn Washington album which Duke produced. Another pleasant surprise was to see Tom Bona on the drums - it seems their regular drummer couldn't get across the border. Tom did an amazing job - it was something to watch as he tried to feel his way into the groove within a bar or two - but he does it no problem. He is a groove-meister. Raoul and Terry got up to do a couple of tunes - I was amazewd to hear Terry speaking positively about the amplified bass sound - something he usually hates! We chatted a bit - he is a good mentor. As we talked about digital versus analogue recording he kept saying there was no "aya" in the digital recording. After he said it a few times I figured out he meant "air". The city's cruelest reviewer was in the house, I'll be interested to see what he writes about the evening. I remember one time you wanted to bring me over and introduce me to him and I said "I don't think I need to meet a guy who, one day, is going to have to say some bad things about me."

More feedback from the label and I guess we're going to go back into the studio! Yea! Well, conseidering it's not my favourite thing to do, I think I'm looking forward to adding something a little more "peppy" to the album. Fred has always wanted me to re-record Computer Club Queen, which is a track off my last album which he put on last summer's sampler (because I hadn't yet finished anything from the new album - in fact, I hadn't even started the new album). So I've got a new version of that - I had to upgrade the song - the original line was "That girl's got a giga - she's got 40 meg of RAM" - (seemed like a lot back then...) I've also got a new tune that I'm going to lay down - it's really a pretty sad story but I'm going to give it an upbeat treatment - because I want it on this album and because this album can't handle another slow song.



Then we have to remix several tunes to get them sounding as good as the best ones. Interesting to note that the best sounding one is the last one we mixed. I had been bugging Paul to refer back to previous mixes to make sure we had some continuity in the sound but both he and Bax go on on on about how they need to treat each tune separately and get the best they can out of each. Well now they're going to have to go back anyway - I wish there was a way to load up each song into the same mixer but we can't do that easily because we used different inputs/tracks from one session to the next. Part of me would like to have the whole album all lined up in the same file, with all the vocals on the same track so that (presumable) the vocal would sound the same from one tune to another - though I'm sure I'd be proven wrong again.

I worked a little on the new tune last night. I had intended to go to Mark Stafford's CD Launch at RD's, then I was going to try to drop by at Hugh's and catch the last set of the Jesse Winchester show. I haven't seen Jesse since that day that day in 1972 when he told me he was going back to Montreal and leaving me to produce the Fraser and DeBolt album (to be called "With Pleasure"). on my own. He was the only reason I was on the gig, because Columbia records didn't want some unknown kid from an ad agency producing the follow up to a ground breaking critically acclaimed (really) album. They had wanted a guy called Todd Rundgren to produce it but none of us had ever heard of him but we all agreed on Jesse since he had just made an album with Todd. In fact, I think they both had the same manager, Albert Grossman, and I think it was Albert on the other end of the line when Jesse yelled at me from a phone booth that he was packing it in and going home.



I have to admit it was not great chemistry. Jesse was into the cognac and everybody else was tripping on mescaline. He must have felt a little out of place. We did preproduction for a week or so at F & deB's farm in the Eastern Townships with a bunch of local musicians. It sounded pretty good on mescaline but when we got to Toronto it fell apart. One of the engineers knew a Toronto band that could jump in and pull it all together so we decided to try it with them - Simon Caine was there name. Dennis Pendrith, John Savage, Bruce Pennycook and Patrick Godfrey - and Joe Medelson came by and played some harp. In fact, that's they day I went back with him and auditioned to be Mainline's bass player. I think I told this story in another blog. If I find it, I'll link it.



So I didn't go see Mark, and I didn't go see Jesse, but by 12:30, I had worked enough on the song, and also taken care of a little business so I shot down to the Silver Dollar to hear Mem Shannon and am I glad I did! This was funk heaven, not a real blues show but this is what the people in New Orleans were coming out to hear and it was great playing - fabulous drummer, very young - keyboard player using losts of that chunk clavinet sound. And Mem playing all those classic funk guitar rhythms. I got to hear the last 45 minutes and I wish I'd been there all night. This man belongs on the big stage.



Tonight I stayeg home again (all week end I've been organizing my CDs - somebody gave me a big shelving unit so I've been gathering them from various stacks and boxes and putting the all in one place, alphabetically. Very enjoyable doing that (feeding my Virgo nature, I guess). I've got over 600 CDs and I'd be hard presssed to find any that I've bought for myself. There's one Japanese import of Gatemouth Brown and that was a big mistake! These are all promo copies I've received in my capacity as editor or MapleBlues & Downtown Jazz. You only have to gaze through my collection to get a quick idea of which blues artists are good at promoting themselves or have someone to do it for them. Also being a judge for JUNO's and INDIES really builds up the collection with the best of Canadian releases. Now I see that I've got some doubles and I think I'll go down to some CD trader and pick out some new music. I've never sold or traded promo copies before, that's illegal isn't it?



Tonight I worked on the new tune for a while and then tuned in Saturday Night Blues where they played a live concert by Savoy Brown. Just a couple of months ago, I dropped by the Dollar on my "rounds" and I arrive just in time to hear the very loud ending of the last song of their first set. The audience was very different than the usual Dollar crowd, obvious all old fans of the band in the Seventies. I didn't know much about them but at that moment I decided I wasn't going to hang around for a long break and then probably too-loud blues rock, so I didn't stay. After hearing this live recording I sure wish I had. It's the real deal.

Just back from seeing an old musical buddy (I use the term advisedly, he came to stay with me in Montreal thirty years ago and seduced one of my back-up singers - the one I was seducing!) His name is Alan Gerber, he's opening for Jesse Winchester at Hugh's tomorrow night. Real high energy - puts on a great show, multi-instrumentalist. I haven't seen him in 30 years and I don't think the show has changed a whole lot. They love him in Quebec.



He was saying he get's a lot of work from the Folk Alliance Conferences. Maybe I'll break down and invest in the next one. I have been to a few, usually on my Media Credentials - once when I was on a panel on creating a web presence for yourself. I'm sure Alan is successful because he is such a good "salesman". Meanwhile I haven't gotten a single festival invitation for this summer (not counting Downtown Jazz who I work for). The Downtown Jazz gig is in a noisy bar on the Danforth so no wait I'm going to take in my laid back country blues. I'm going in with a guy called Caspar Project, doing electronic ambient/groove sounds on synths, sequencers and a MIDI wind controller. We only had one rehearsal so far but I can tell already this is going to be a lot of fun. And I won't have to worry about the audience being more noisy than me!



No matter, the CD won't be out till September - Street Date September 9, Fred says. And in order to do it right, he needs finished product reday to go by mid-June. Yikes! I just gave him the final mixes last night. He called this morning with some feedback... loved the last song... move the first song...Harry Manx is not loud enough...more comments to come, I'm sure. I told him it was going to be laid back and it is - this is an album I'm going to enjoy putting on for many years to come - something I couldn't say about the last one.



Now we have to decide about mastering. I have heard so many comments about mastering voodoo and you would not believe the extremes...from "there's nobody in all Toronto that has the toys or the ears" to "so-and-so" will do a great job for $300. The producer recomends one place then somebody tells me their equipment is fucked - that they took all the transformers out of their Neve board and put in ICs (thus eliminating that elusive "warmth".



I always thought the trick to mastering was to not lose what you got in the mix (come to think of it, the trick to mixing is not to lose what you got in the tracks). This will be the album that took TWO DAYS to record, TWO MONTHS to all all kinds of shit and another TWO WEEKS to take it all off again - most of it anyway. Less is more, eh?



What do you think of the title "Cold Country Blues" instead of "Overqualified for the Blues"? Or Frazier says I should just call it "Brian Blain".



Fred wants me to make a CD Launch Party but I've been a little negative on that idea. It's so hard to get people out in Toronto - not to mention getting any attention from the media... anyway I'm going to give it some thought. Considering I know so many of the media and "industry" types, I think I am living proof that it's *not* "who" you know...Bye for now

The CD was supposed to be mixed this week, but we took a breather. Getting back into it tomorrow.



What I did when I should have been mixing:



Sat - Saw a great film called Amandla, about the importance of music to the South African struggle against apartheid (free showing at Harbourfront)

Sun - My first show at the legendary Elgin Theatre. What an impressive place, and an amazing "folk opera" of Bible Stories from a South African opera company.

Mon - An advance screening of the movie "A Mighty Wind" a hilarious spoof 60s folk phenomenon at its worst. Side-splittingly funny but even before the movie started we were entertained by a goofy trio led by Steven Ambrose (not exactly a folk fixture). Terry Wilkins was playing bass. They were snging in the upstairs foyer of the Paramount (a real state-of-the-art megaplex) and then they actually took to the stage in the theatre, trailers flashing behind them (obviously no one told the projectionist there were going to be musicians in frront of his screen). They looked so small - a little minitature trio playing in front of that giant screen.

The humour of the film is so close to truth that I'm told some folkies didn't find it funny, but I thought it was a gas (don't know if it'll make a big popular hit...)

Tues - The Funk Brothers - Standing in the Shadows of Motown. This was a Downtown Jazz production so I got to hang around at Massey Hall for the sound check. They were getting some amazing sounds during the sopundcheck - a keyboard player, somebody singing and two drummers playing full tilt. And these were just the roadies setting up the gear!. Walking in the dressing room area I saw through an open door that the horn section was being rehearsed. I heard them running through a couple of classic horn riffs, then I hear sombody say "by the way, have you guys met? Looked like they'd already rehearsed half the set before the regular horn guy was introduced to the two Toronto "ringers" one of whom was Chase Sanborne. I know only because at the end of the show, the entire band was introduced (and a big band it was) and when he got to the two new horn players, he had to be told their names. This was the greatest show I've seen in...whatever. At first I wasn't too sure about this, but as it progressed it was a phenomenal musical experience, especially watching bass player Bob Babbit drive that huge hit-making machine. An inspiration watching a bass player where every note counts.

Second Mix:



We all agree that we get the best results when we leave Paul to himself. Many engineers are that way. But I can't believe I've allowed myself to be so rushed...I was never a one-take-wonder! Anyway before handing off the big dual-processor mac to Paul, I plug in the pod and my strat and had a last shot to improve on the solo. I finally got a take that picked up the whole song, but I don't expect anybody to like it. I'm finding it quite stressful making this album but it's probably because there was already a residue of stress in me.

I was born in 1946, they say September 11 but no one knows exactly - I was taken in by some French Nuns who yearned to find me a nice catholic home. Two nuns were talking and one said " We have a patient who just lost a child and it looks like she might adopt" They brought me right away - all dalled up - but the woman said she was still grieving and sent us away. But the nuns came back the next day with another orphan, but she would not see them. The nuns returned a third time with another child and the woman relented, she said "l'll adopt... but I want you to bring me back the first one" (just trying out the intro for one of the tunes on the upcoming CD, Overqualified for the Blues) The song is the true story of how I was adopted.

Thank you, dear Fred, for being patient while I put together this album. I know you've been announcing its release since 2001.



I wanted to do this at my leisure and while I was grabbing a breath, a year went by. I started out recording at home, with basically the same equipment we used to record the final album in Paul Benedict's basement studio. Ah, to enjoy the wonders of being able to go through and edit the music in a safe, non-destructive environment. I guess everybody does this now, but it was a wonder for me, who's first professional session was on an Ampex 3-track at RCA's Montreal studio in 1964.



I go to pick up my old Strat and I notice i'm having trouble holding down the strings with my left hand. My nails have grown out to the edge of the finger so you can't press down on the guitar strings. That's a true sign that you have not been keeping music at the forefront of you consciousness.



It's so typical of this whole project that the moment I have a little time to play with the tracks some more that they're being taken away from me to be mixed. So I still want to fix some guitar parts but I haven't been playing in weeks - and my nail work needs to be done pronto. Like the day we started the sessions and I had this weird rash on my thumb - nothing serious, just enough to make me want to use a pick instead of playing finger-style. Then the day sheduled for some vocal overdubs, which we only used one, I wake up with a nasty cold - laryngitis even! On the third take of Ghost, my voice got very rough - I attribute it to a chanelling attempt from that damn ghost. This song has a new groove that came to the surface when I played it a few times with Lance Anderson and Terry Wilkins.

CHAPTER TWO



Today we started mixing - I shouldn't say "we", I wasn't even there - There was a lot of housekeeping to be done first so I didn't expect to get into the actual mixing so soon, alas, I am surrounded by people who crave completion - something I've never been acused of. Anyway, today was the last day of production for MapleBlues, so the only song I could mix would be "I Ain't Goin' Nowhere". But we got it together by eight at which time I got a call from Fred, boss man of Northern Blues, and I said I would meet him at the Silver Dollar to hear a bit of label-mate J-W Jones backing up the amazing Kim Wilson. Well, that was not a set you could walk out of. The band played like they've been backing him for years and JW must have been in "Blues Heaven" playing with blues royalty (and rising to the occasion). As I was watching the show, I realized I was surrounded by harp players, so on the break I got a photographer to shoot Kim posing with most of the great Toronto harp players who were in attendance: David Rotundo, Dr Nick, Lil Bobby Chorney, Mark "Bird Stafford" and Bob Adams. Carlos del Junco was the first player I approached about it but he said "can we talk on the break" and I got a little deflated about the idea but we rounded up them all up (except Carlos who slipped out for a slice of pizza). I don't think he wanted to be in that picture - maybe he was having a bad hair day...



On the break we slip out to Fred's car to hear the final (Sterling) mastered Johnny Cash tribute album with amazing renditions by Mavis Staples, Gatemouth Brown, my buddy Paul Reddick and some great playing from Colin Linden on several of the tracks. He sure puts the pedal to the metal. Fred is going to come by tomorrow to hear how we're coming along and this will be the first he's heard of the Brian Blain album. I hope it's up to his rigorous standards.



This album came together the week before Christmas when I realized I had to finally deliver an album before year end (or at least have one started). Michelle Josef (drums) and Victor Bateman (bass) are two musician friends I played with quite a bit, though not recently, so I called in some favours. Paul Reddick joined us for part of the first day and Richard Bell sat in for most of the second day. The running gag at the studio was that I took two days to record the album and spent the next three months trying to wreck it by adding more stuff, but the sweetening we did adds a lot. Harry Manx plays on a track and 19 year-old Mark Roy added some mandolin. After that we had some fun adding back-up vocals from Garth Logan, Sue Lothrop, Lily Sazz and Rebecca Campbell.

Mar 5 - Back in the studio after long diversion. I hadn't listened to the material for a couple of weeks - come to think of it, I haven't touched my guitar for a couple of weeks, but then, that's my life cycle - a couple of weeks of music, then a couple of weeks of desktop publishing and webwork.



On Thursday, Michelle came to add a few more percussion tracks. As usual, I was totally unprepared and didn't really know which tunes to work on - I had a feeling the faster tunes needed a little something extra. We got a couple of tracks down but then everybody was getting hungry (that was my cue to be a leader a get a pizza happening or something, which I did finally but by then Michelle had left). *Then* I look at my notes and see that I've flagged a couple of tunes for percussion but of course it's too late. I'm the only one in this crew taking anything resembling notes and then I forget to use them!



Now David has made a list of what's left to do on each song and has stuck it up on the wall and takes great pleasure in crossing off each item as it's done. I can't blame him for "craving completion" - this was going to be a quick and dirty, almost live, album and now here we are, two months later, adding shit.



Friday was scheduled for my vocals and guess what, I wake up at 7:30 in the a.m all stuffed up, sniffling and sneezing. I've got a cold. I go take a Contact-C and go back to sleep in the hopes that I will be unplugged by noon.



This is just like when we started the project - the first day we had to lay the tracks down I had some kind of rash on my thumb and couldn't really fingerpick without some discomfort - so I used a flat pick on some songs that I normally don't. Oh well, they dig in a little more now.



Now I've got both producer and engineer feeling a little impatient with me. They wanted this finished last month and I've been the stalling factor. Paul, the engineer, is convinced that I have a "fear of completion" disorder and is now using "tough love" to get me to finish this album.



I redid the vocal on a tune that might yet be "fired" from the album, but it was a good one to see if this is going to work. This is a tune I've only sung in public one time and I've changed the lyrics a million times - and, of course, I came to the session with *no* lyric sheets.



TIP: If you're doing vocals, bring lyric sheets. In nice big type. Even if you know the song, it's one less thing to go wrong if you have those lyrics right in front of you, and it can be a big help to the engineer and musicians - especially if it's the closest thing you've got to a chart.

I redid the vocals on one tune where there was a little problem and it went better than I thought. I said something to the boys about re-doing *all* the vocals and that brought forth some moans and groans. I continued on to a second tune, "Ghost of Clinton's Tavern" and by then my voice is going and the first note I sang came out very coarse - kind of "bluesy" I thought, so I kept it up for the whole take. I never sounded like that in my whole singing life (and probably never will again) but I rather liked it - I started thinking maybe it was the ghost himself chanelling through me. Anyway, nobody wants to use that take, so I guess we'll live with the original (live) vocal.



Saw Kelly Joe Phelps performing with Zubot & Dawson the other night and got some good ideas how to treat some of my tunes. After having toured with Harry Manx, who is often compared to Kelly Joe, I could see the importance of having the best and biggest guitar sound - especially when you are playing solo. Harry had insisted the club bring in a subwoofer (maybe it was 2) to augment their already very good sound system and it sure made a difference.

(TIP: if you're playing solo guitar, do not be satisfied with a thin, pick-up-into-PA sound. Get a decent preamp that puts out the sound you want. Stephen fearing has a description of his rig on his website and Harry uses a TC "Gold Channel" which is really a mic preamp, but which allows him tio optimize EQ and compression for each instrument and call it up with a MIDI pedal.

My Canadian Music Week Diary



Wed Feb 26 Phoenix Concert Hall - The Indie Awards were a pretty freewheelin affair this year. Host(s) Dave Bidini and Radio guy______________ presented all but a few awards and it moved along quite quickly. The musical presentations were fine - slightly underwhelmed by Corb Lund - probably because he's been so built up.



I think I probably said the wrong thing to at least one person in the first ten minutes there, and as I saw one famous publicist leaving before the awards started. I never got into that other room - The invitation was in my coat which I left at the Downtown Jazz office - right across the parking lot.



They opted to start the show with a loud agressive band. Last year The Brothers Cosmoline opened the show.



The first award was Blues and was a tie between Fathead and The Twisters. They first announce Fathead the read on and said "Wait a Minute It's a Tie!" A lot of time went by until Julie Hill climbed up there and accepted on their behalf. Host Dave Bidini asked her "Who are you?" and said something about "Toronto Blues Society" and that seemed good enough for them - then she got her picture taken - holding *both* awards. Then someone who seemed like a very distant relative got up to accept an award - a little later an entire band got up to accept on behalf of another band in Vancouver



A drum/voice aboriginal/world group had trouble carrying to the back of the room. It was much noisier than the Maple Blues Awards in the same venue a couple of monrths ago.





Day Two - Thursday Saw a few panels - how to budget CD production and a panel of publicists with Richard Flohil and Karen Bliss butting heads. She said something like "maybe sometimes an artist doesn't need a publicist"



Evening showcases, no standout. I decide to head to Healey's to hear Morgan Davis - a guitar hero of mine. There were three guitars - Pat Rush, Healey and Morgan. I would have thought that Pat Rush might have been the expendible one except that when I walked in I was imediately capticated by a burning guitar solo and when I got closer, I realized it was Pat. When it was Jeff's turn to solo, it was starting to sound a lot like Morgan. It was the best mucic of the evening!



Day 3: Didn't get to CMW until 4:30 - checked out the songwriters evaluation (used to be "Date with a Tape" Suzie V. was rushing one of her new tunes, but alas it did not win the luck of the draw.

At 6, I skipped out to hear Daniel Lanois "Celebrity Interview" but I needn't have worried because

Wow, I just blinked and it's 2003! My producer called today to nudge me along - he says we haven't done anything for a month, but we've been trundling along, We did some sax overdubs with Jim Galloway and some fiddle/mandolin with the young Mark Roy. And a first for me - we did some trans-atlantic overdubs with Butch Coulter adding harp tracks from a studio in Hamburg Germany.



Saturday, Feb 1 - Drove out to Thorold, near St. Catharines to be the special guest at Arizona's. What a delight being backed up by Gary Kendall and Jim Casson. Teddy leonard was subbing for the regular guitar player. Teddy was in great form and I threw him a lot of solos. I had this spontaneous idea (watch these!) to play my King Biscuit Boy song. I learned this song in the 60's when I taped it off the radio by holding the mike of my Phillips reel-to-reel recorder in front of the speaker. I missed one of the verses and to this day, do not know it. I remember seeing Biscuit at a small club in Kitchner and came up to him on the break to say how happy I was to meet him and how I've been performing one of his songs for years, and had performed it for years without knowing the artist or songwriter. He asked what the song was amnd I old him "I'm Gone" He snapped, "I didn't write that, Allen ToussainT wrote it" Now that I'vew learned a bit about Biscuit The Archiver, I can see why he was annoyed that someone who is suppose to know about the blues has to do it this way.



Tuesday, Feb 11 - Hamilton, The King Biscuit Memorial Show. Must have been over 700 people crammed into this large club. The downstairs club was used just as a musician hang-out, but I wish I'd spent more time upstairs. My set was pretty early - I was doing it with Lil because she worked hard on this project. Also invited Mark "Bird" Stafford to sit in. Broke a string on the second song - shodda knows. I changed the 1st string but was too lazy to change them all, or at least the most-likely-to-break. I looked around to see if someone was going to hand me a guitar but, alas, this was no folk festival. I pulled out my spare strings and got Lily to go up and read messages from musicians who couldn't make it. Next day I'm copied an email saying there was "Too much Toronto Blues Society and not enough people that actually played with Biscuit" Nasty.



Wednesday, Feb 12 - Just opened a couple of shows for Harry Manx (Startford and Dunville) and had the priviledge of accompanying Harry to the JUNO awards media even announcing the nominees (Harry nominated for Blues Album of the Year). NorthernBlues also scored a nomination for Saved in the Gospel category. That afternoon Harry did some overdubs on my album. Without Paul at the hellm, there were a few technical glitches but we did get something down - an exquisite track.



Thursday, Feb 13 - Could have gone with Harry to Ottawa, but stuck here at a board meeting of my co-op, plus getting Crescendo to printer.



Friday, Feb 14 - Valentine's Day. I let myself get dragged out to a dance where there were supposed to be lots of attractive women but I'm not that motivated because I just fell in love with a bank teller - she's one good reason why people are still preferable to bank machines. Anyway there were no wild women at this event, so we headed off to the Silver Dollar to Dylan Wickens' CD launch. Not a great crowd, but Dylan was on fire. He sure can get the sound happening - using a big Fender Showman head.



Speaking of amp heads, I stopped off at The Montreal Bistro on the way home because Jim Galloway mentioned this afternoon that he had been playing all week with Doug Riley (as well as Lorne Lofsky and Don Vickery). This organ/guitar combo could not get better than this. When I took my seat, I realized the music stand was blocking my view of Lorne's left had (the fretting one) but as quickly as a thought of moving I had to say to myself "Why Bother?" - I could never play that stuff if my life depended on it. They ended the night with a blues and rocked out.



Doug manages so well with his bass pedals that the resident piano tuner, Dale, was shouting "Where's the Bass Player?" When Jim introduced the band, he said "Claude Rains" on bass. I guess he could see me shaking my head at the bar - he said, impatiently" Clause Rains played the "Invisible Man" - Do I have to spell it out for you, Brian?"



Young Sarah French, who want to be an artist manager is now a roving reporter and I had arranged acces for her to the Maple Blues Awards and she tells me the story was already published in T0-Nite, but I haven't seen it yet.

Last week we finally got into the studio to do some tracks for the next album. I did the basic tracks with Victor Bateman on bass (he played on my first album) and Michelle Josef on drums and percussion. Richard Bell came in to play keyboards on the second day and Paul Reddick also made a guest appearance - more to come.

Michelle and I went up to the Studio at Puck's Farm over six months ago and we recorded several of the new tunes but the tunes were not settled and the grooves I though too frantic. Now the tunes have matured a bit, even got road tested on a couple of tours, and they seem a bit more relaxed now.

...though I was hardly relaxed myself with a million other things going on - plus the week before Christmas, what was I thinking. Then I had the small but irritating rash on my right thumb so I had to use a flat pick on the first day instead of the usual "country blues fingerpicking" that I'm so famous for...(ha, ha) Stay tuned for more updates. Let' see, do I have any tips so far...

...well, always make sure there's some food around.

2



Then just when I could play with the thumb again I broke the thumb nail and it is now piching the skin everytime I apply a little pressure. We may have to do some guitar overdubs though the album is pretty live. We recorded at Paul Benedict's studio - with Paul (sometimes know as "Eggs") at the helm. He's got big ears and has been my biggest supporter.



I was feeling a certain presssure to get this project going and since I was moving a little too slow when left to my own devices, I brought in David Baxter to act as producer. I'd only met David once but I heard great things about him from different people and then I heard the new Bob Snider album he just did and that clinched it.



I thought we'd spend a little more time with the songs but I had said I wanted to deliver this album before the end of the year and he proceeded to put the schedule in place and here we are in the middle of it.



I've been less than totally prepared but then again, I never will be so it's time to "print one" and give fy friends and fans a taste of Brian's mellow side. I found the first album too aggresive. My goal now is to produce a recording of myself that I can listen to without cringing. Something more relaxing.



Like just about every singer, I can't stand the sound of my own voice on tape (or now, digital) That's alright, I'll get over it.



I felt "underprepared" although I was told I didn't need to supply charts for all the songs since we had already played them with most of these musicians at one time or another. They said charts were uncessary because this was blues session but they would have been good to have. I had the words to each song for everybody, but when Richard Bell arrived, we were a little embarrased but ultimately whispered the melody in his ear.



(still trying to remember wjhat else I learned from this)





For bio info and some sound clips of the first album visit my official web page at Northern Blues

What a week it's been. Not just my own musical breakthroughs (see below) but it's been sheer Toronto Blues/rock history. In the space of seven days, we've seen albums released by Mainline, Ronnie Hawkins and the Cameo Blues Band.



The Mainline release was at a new venue called club 279 (?) above the Hard Rock Cafe on Yonge St. It's a great, room, and that was my first time there. I don't know if they were charging at the door, they were certainly trying (unsuccessfully) to get people to check their coats.They were on stage, sitting down, ofcourse - they were know as the "sit down" band that plays "sit down" blues. I think the "sit-down" was more Mendelson than McKenna... Joe wasn't there and I suppose had nothing to do with it. After the set I went up to Ted Purdy and asked him if he remembered the day he auditioned for the band thirty years ago. I asked him if he played a Rickenbacker bass back then annd he did! Then I asked if he remembered lending it to this bearded guy who was also auditioning but had no bass. He did remember the incident and, of course, I was the guy with the beard. I told how I was in Toronto back then (1973) producing an album for Fraser & DeBolt for CBS Records and we had just finished a session with Joe guesting. If I remember correctly, Joe headed directly to the auditions from the studio and I just tgged along. To his credit, Ted got the gig. And went on to a long association with Joe, more than the others. Now I'm starting to wonder if I remember correctly about Ted being so willing to lend me his bass...Nah, I'm sure he was a real good sport about it. He's a corporate lawyer now.



Wish I had stuck around to say hi to the guys - at least the ones I know. Bob Adams was playing harp. He's a new addition but fits in great. I only met Mike McKenna a few times - starting back in '71 where he borrowed my '59 Strat for a while.



By the end of the 70's there were a few more great blues bands in Toronto and one of them was the Cameo Blues Band who were the house band at the legendary Isabella Hotel. Last night they too celebrated a new CD, a revival of sorts. I had never heard the band live, probably because I arrived in T.O. just as the Izzy was winding down. The were a little tighter than Mainline, I have to admit, and they put on a great show. I was standing at the back between Michael Fonfara and Rod Phillips, two of the top B3 players in town and they were in awe seeing their mentor at work. He's a little rougher than those two but they obviously learned as lot from him.



On the week-end, there was a huge all-star event at the colliseum in Hamilton for the launch of the long awaited Ronnie Hawkins CD (long-awaited? I *still* haven't heard it. Paul Benedict, who is recording my new album right now, was Ronnie's sound guy for five or seven years...a long time with Ronnie Hawkins, I'm sure. They called him "Eggs" Benedict.



Paul has been recording me for months witrh different guitars and amps and amp-simulators and we are getting to the main stretch - more on the recording in the next post.

I was just sitting back on the couch listening to the new live album by Mainline. It sounds fabulous from the next room, tighter than what I heard live when I just dropped by the Hard Rock Cafe where they were having their CD launch. They're allowed to be loose - they're Mainline for fuck's sake. I split right after the first set and didn't have a chance to say hi to Mike or Bob Adams, their harp player who is kind of a new kid on that block. I met bob when he was part of the crew filming the Danny Marks Stormy Monday blues jams at Albert's Hall.

Back to the Mailnline story, I was so happy to meet Ted Purdy. I reminded him that 30 years ago we were both auditioning to play bass with McKenna Mendelson Mainline. He must have been very young (so was I, I guess) but he had a bass (I remembered it was a Rickenbacker) and I didn't. Anyway I reminded him how much I appreciated it when he let me use his bass and congratulated him on getting the gig. When I suggested he had benefiited with a lot of work with the band he corrected me and said "with Joe" and I guess that's where I've seen his name over the years.



Now I'm thinking maybe he wasn't so thrilled to let a stranger (and competitor) use his bass. Maybe there was some pressure because, I think I arrived with Joe himself. If I recall correctly, we came directly from a recording session I was producing for the folk group Fraser & DeBolt. Joe had played some harmonica on the album - he and Daisy had been friends from her first days in Toronto. That project was the first paying customer at Manta Sound - then the brand-new, starte-of-the-art, money-is-no-object ultimate recording studio. And now it's been gutted - the condo contractors are probably using it as a workshop & office until it, too, gets torn down.



Anyway I was glad I made it to a bit of the Mainline Party. I couldn't believe the venue! It's above the Hard Rock Cafe and the inside glass walls look down on the legendary restaurant , where there's even a radio booth where they broadcast "classic rock radio". Big stage, lights, large capacity room - and I hear they've been packing it for the Saturday afternoon matinee - Mary deKeyzer's Melody Ranch.



All week end - since Thursday - I've been getting to shows just in time to hear the closing chord and thundrous applause. Thursday was a group from cuba & montreal and Friday was a french/afro band. I would have loved to see both, but it was not to be. Then on Saturday - I should have gone to see Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels at Healeys. The publicist had even given me a pair of tickets...and I forgot completely. I can't keep track of these things. I can hardly keep track of my own gigs!



The reason I was delayed on Thursday was because I dropped in to the Tranzac to see how the Thursday nights were going now that they replaced my Acoustic Blues nights with some very scronky jazz. Well the scronk did seem to be doing a little better that I - especially getting out young people (who tend to drink other than tea and a lot of it). Saw Victor Bateman sitting in with the group on bass and I remembered what a pleasure it is to play with that gentleman. Saturday night I went to hear Johnnie Johnson, the piano player behind all those Chuck Berry hits. There he is at 81 - still having to get out and play the blues circuit. It makes you wonder. I hope he's doing it because he wants to. The performance had me wondering how much he *wants to*. I took a walk down to Grossmans and there I heard a set by Mark "Bird" Stafford - playing and singing better than I've ever heard him. He had that hot young guitarist Darren Poole with him. I'll tell more about it later - or not. Time to crash. We4 started pre-production on the 1st of December and I intend to have an album by the end of the month. Wer'll keep you informed.

Mark wrote:

of the women's blues revue!!

can someone please share the wealth.......and let us know how it went.....



*****You missed a great night, Mark. Here a re-post of my late-night reply on canadianblues-l. Joe Curtis sent me a more detailed review which I won't be able to use in the newsletter (sorry, Joe) but maybe he'll post it here - (or maybe he has already - Joe, is that *you* posting to mapleblue under the pseudonym music1won???) BrianB



At 11:16 PM 11/23/02 -0600, you wrote:

>Could anyone provide a quick recap/review on the Women's Blues Revue show.

>Could not afford the airfair from Manitoba to see it in person.



Manitoba's own Tracy K really got things off to a great start and Dawn Tyler Watson brought the house down at the end. I was especially delighted to see Diana Braithwaite on the stage doing her thing with a voice that is so distinctive and emotive that she could go away for ten years and you would remember it the minute you heard it again (which may have been the case for some in the audience). Diana has been out of the scene for a while but the audience was immediately swept under her spell. She followed Anne-Marie Woods was making her debut as a solo artist - and boy does she have a voice! You wouldn't believe it was her first time fronting a band. There was not a weak set in the whole evening, though some may have thought there were too many slow tunes, but it was an older crowd and they appreciated the quiet stuff as much as the shouters. Serena Ryder made a lot of new fans and sold a whack of CDs. She nailed the Etta James classic "At Last". Lee Aaron gave a great performance, too and must have surprised many of her old fans with the "softer side" of the former "metal queen". I didn't see all of Georgette's set but she owns that stage when she steps up and, like Diana, has a such a distinctive voice that you would recognize her on a car radio 2 blocks away. She was the evening's favourite to at least two people I spoke to. But there was no way to pick favourites among such a bevy of talent. Even Suzie Vinnick's one tune at the start of the second set many hearts aflutter, too, and was a big after-show buzz.



Many of the singers referred to family in the audience and the whole thing has a real "family" vibe. The WBR Band has become a de-facto family and this is their annual get together. It's a real love-in and mutual admiration society. Colleen Allen who missed last year's show was welcomed back like a long lost sister - and boy did she play her heart out. Her solos melted the audience. Someone who really helps make it feel like "family" is Shelagh Rogers who was still making friends with everybody at the after-concert party long after most had left. She even got her sister to fly in from Vancouver to see the show! And, despite a grueling schedule, promises to be back next year. Next year I want to hear Shelagh sing more than "Happy Birthday"! (she did a spontaneous a capella version for Holger Peterson).



As we left the Music Hall, I dropped in on Bradley and the Bouncers with my old buddy Professor Piano playing and singing and the lovely Maureen Brown on drums, one of the pioneers of the Women's Blues Revue. After schmoozing a bit at the Swan I drove Canada's pre-eminent music publicist to the Dollar to hear the the last of Duke Robillard's set. Dawn and another group went down to Healey's to catch Sue Foley (and by all accounts, she was rockin'). When last seen, Tracy and Dawn were making their way out of the Silver Dollar (as they were closing up the joint) to head back to the hotel and enjoy a late night snack in their jammies. I wanted to come along but that was not to be. Oh well. What a great blues town this is (I'm sure Winnipeg is fun, too, though a little more chilly).

Just when I thought the production blitz was over (4 newsletters in two weeks) I have to get ready to jump right in to the MapleBlues December issue. Tomorrow night I've got a gig. Saturday night is the Women's Blues Revue which I would not want to miss, Sunday it's Pat Carey's CD launch, then Monday, we have to put together a newsletter.



I have to start going through the pile of listings tomorrow because Jacquie, my assistant, just did something to her knee and is in excruciating pain. She's been to the emergency ward and tonite she called to say she won't be able to help with the listings. Oh, woe is the Toronto Blues community now...no one could be as meticulous as Jacquie. Let's see who falls through the cracks



I took a moment after speaking to her to get into the right state of mind for reiki - did the Cook's Hook-up (left ankle over right ankle, left hand on right thigh, right hand over on left thigh, tip of tongue on roof of mouth) and started thinking of Jacquie, visualizing her left knee (I had to call to find out which knee it was). Then I just put out my hands, letting the reiki energy flow through like I usually do when suddenly my right arm was "pulled" suddenly into a full extension, fingers extended, and it continued to pull me right off the couch at which point I just left my eyes open enough to avoid tripping on anything and it pulled me right across the room, quite quickly, and led my fingers over a pile of papers and dug right in at the back of the desk, trying to get under a speaker. As I was standing there trying to figure out "what's under that speaker" I realized that my hand was resting on an ashtray that had been a favourite of my mother's. In fact it's the only hand-me down from her in that room (if not the house). There isn't even a picture of her in that room (I'm embarassed to say) even though there's pictures of bandmates, friends and my two sisters. The immediate message I read into this is that "she's OK" - which I might not have thought. I had a similar "message-from-beyond" experience from my father which I took as his acceptance that I was playing music (he never approved). You can read/see about that experience on my old Blues Diary on the icomm server. visit http://www.icomm.ca/jazz/b/BD801030.html



This afternoon I dropped by the rehearsal for Women's Blues Revue. Haven't seen some of those girls since last year. Serena Ryder was there rehearsing and as they were leaving her manager turned to her with one of the newsletters and said "look they called you punk folk in here too!" and I had to cringe because I seem to recall that at the programming meeting I heard her being described as some wimpy folksinger and I said (having seen Serena play for the first time at the Peterborough Folk Festival) something like "she's more like punk-folk", thinking of Ani deFranco. Well she did not like being called "punk-folk"(maybe Ani doesn't like it either) (maybe I should forget about putting labels on people) and we had to change it on the website. I hate it when I have to face my incompetence like that - I know, I know, I just do too much. Lat time this happened, I checked the listings in the jazz newsletter and made a special trip to the Rex to see my buddy/bassman Victor Bateman doing a reunion of a famous group he led in the 80s (Vektor). Anyway, I got there and it was Tony Quarington. I had the wrong date in the newsletter...hopeless.



Tomorrow night I'll be doing a special evening in the Main Hall at the Tranzac. I was just running over a few tunes, but I don't think I'll be playing that much because Paul, my sound tech has rounded up a whole crew of musicians from Stratford and I will be the host-with-the-most. I'm sorry I lost my house gig but at the same time I'm glad to have my Thursdays off. It was a good run. I have been replaced by a band that plays very scronky jazz but who apparently have a big student following. Well, it wouldn't take too many students to surpass the bar sales that were generated by my tea-sipping fans. Jeremy Jenkins, who was always at my gigs wrote to say he didn't like the new set up very much. I guess I have to look for another house gig - but now I realize that I'm no good at promoting these gigs. At best, I get out an email on the day before - half the time, I forget to do that.



I hope some people do show up to hear these great kids from Startford.

It's 3am and I'm sitting here sighing a breath of relief that i"m finished with putting out four newsletters in two weeks and get my mind back to music. I should really be working on my album, running over those tunes ...you know, an amateur practices till he gets it right but a professional practices until he can't get it wrong! Homilies Schmomilies. I never had a guitar lesson in my life but the few times I tried to practice something, I did get something out of it. Had to write a song with the lick right away or I'd forget it. And I don't have that many songs and a lot of them use the same licks, too. I've got a great tune called "Just Leave" that uses the boggie-woogie style bass pattern that I learned off a Danny Gatton instructional video.



But I don't care - when I turned fifty, I said to myself I'm not going to end my days making newsletters and websites. I'm going to get the music back in my life because it's good for me to play and because most of the people that hear it feel better too. At least they spend a couple of hours distracted from their daily preoccupations. Then they probably forget me - more so if I was doing the opening set for a phenomenal artist like Harry Manx, as I just did for a couple of weeks last month.



I guess I can blame Harry for the fact that I'm not using this precious time to work on my soon-to-be-recorded tunes and instead messing around with a newly set-up lap slide guitar, just like Harry plays. You couldn't spend that many nights watching him close up without being inspired to try it. I've never played slide or open tunings (in fact I remember that Lorraine from Blue Willow gave me a slide for a birthday present and I never made any effort to figure it out). But this time, I had an extra flat-top guitar hanging around (that's another heavy, sad story) so I bought a "thang" to raise the strings and Harry helped me pick out a proper slide. Now I'm into it, but my son has asked me to lay off, because all that shaky sliding is making him nauseous. He never complains about my playing in the house so I take this as a message that I better not inflict this on anyone for quite a while.



Last week-end I had a lot of musical activity (as (barely)managing editor, I get into a lot of shows for free and for the first time in months, I had a Thursday off. I was doing a Thursday house-gig at the Tranzac for almost a year, with an amazing lineup of guests (link) but not an amazing lineup at the door, unfortunately. Now they're trying scronky jazz on Thursdays and even that is doing better than my blues night. I will continue doing a series at the Tranzac but it will not be every week - rather try to make each time a special event. And here comes one now. Mark your calendars...



Friday, November 22

(in the Main Hall - $5.00 cover)

The The Entire Stratford Roots Music Scene

(well, maybe a few won't be there, probably not Loreena)



Lineup includes: Jamie Randsley, Michelle Hundt, Sophie,





hosted by Brian Blain



Yesterday, as I dropped by the Toronto Blues Society office I found in my mailbox two new blues CD releases. Two Walkers! Joe Louis Walker (releasing his 3rd album in 14 months - I'll be lucky to get 3 albums done in the next 14 years!) and Wailin' Walker, a Vancouver-based guitar hero. Never saw him in Toronto, though he must have played here. Five years back, a band I played with - Blue Willow - shared some tracks on a Peerless compilation CD with Wailin. And this new CD of his is still on Peerless, with the first 3 tracks produced by Fred Xavier. Fred lived in Toronto for a while and from what I remember he was very business-like. I always had the feeling that he was only interested in the two blondes and not the bearded guitar player.



That's my connection to Wailin' Walker - or, more precisely, Peerless Music. Hearing Joe Louis reminds me of the time I came along for the ride with an American label head and his A&R director as they auditioned artists while rolling down the highway in a big SUV. I seem to recall they had considered signing Joe when he was cut loose from Verve (was it Blue Thumb?). But they had discovered that his last two albums had not scanned well - in fact, neither made it near 5 figures. Shocking when you coniser he is one of the leading lights of the blues scene - hope he continues to be.



I just realized, I have the distinction of being his neighbour on the Northern Blues compilation CD, The Future of the Blues. He's on a track with Paul Reddick and the Sidemen from a CD he produced for them a while back. I have a song on there from my first CD. It features one of the all time great piano solos from "Professor Piano" Scott Cushnie - equal to anything from Otis Spann or Pine Top. You can order the sampler at the NorternBlues website - http://www.northernblues.com.



Any way, in my (barely)managing editor role, I get a lot of promo CDs and I get to hang around music industry types. I dare say I know many music movers and shakers (disproving the theory that you make it based on who you know).

It's great to be back in Toronto. Tonight I wanted to get out and hear a new artist called Nathalie Renault. She's from Quebec but I heard about her in Pisek, Czech Republic. I was sitting in the office of UrbanWorld (the booking agency that got me these gigs) and there was a large, attractive colour poster on the wall - and it was ...Nathalie Renault. They were surprised I had not heard of her. Last week, I saw her announced in a press release - she was the opening act for a French "flamenco" guitarist called Serge...

Nathalie played great - doing all original tunes and giving long chatty intros for each song (in French). She would end each intro with "and I offer it to you" . (note to self: treat every song as an offering to the audience)

I stuck around for the guitarist - he had an electric bass virtuso with him and an amazing percussionist. It finished off very much like the Gypsy Kings with only one guitar.



I had a chance to speak to Nathalie and she was pretty surprised when I told her I had just been in Czech Republic myself (she had toured just a little before me). I told her she had just had a great "entree" into the Toronto Market with this concert. Wish we'd had a chance to talk a bit more...



...or I could have dragged her along onmy little "club crawl". As I left the Music Gallery venue, I decided to head to the Silver Dollar even though I hadn' made a note (mental, or otherwise) about who was playing this night. I walked into the club thinking "I like surprises" _ Indeed it was, it was the Paul James Band. These guys have been doing it forever, and even though there was a small house, Paul gave the complete show along with spinning aroud and playing in the audience.



After that, I headed straight down to Chicago's to hearm some of the best harp players in the city. I know, because I've had them all at my Thiursday Blues Nights at the Tranzac which regretable ended last night (with a very thin audience and another fabulou player - Barry Mack). But it's hard to lament over a regular Thursday night gig - after a year of it, I'm ready to "re-claim" my Thurdsdays.



The harp players at Chicagos were all rockin out and not worried about tryin new stuff. The band had to figure out right on the spot - usualy successfully. I heard Mark "The Bird" himself, Dr. Nick, Lil' Bobby, Raoul Bhaneja.

Brian's Bohemian Blues Diary - The jazz gang has headed back to Toronto and I made my way to Hamburg to rendezvous with harmonica ace Butch Coulter and head out on a tour of the Czech Republic. We spent a day in Hamburg and I had a chance to hang out in a cafe on their equivalent of Queen St West, except it was across from a boarded-up historic building that is full of squatters trying to get the city to turn it into a drop-in centre. The city already provided a place a few doors down where junkies could get a clean needle (or methadone). Didn't get to hear any music but walked by the the place where Beatles played before they made it and dropped into a music store in the Reeperbaum, though we had to make our way through street after street of strip bars and sleaze joints.



Next morning, Butch and I got on a train to the Czech Republic. Butch had bragged about the punctuality of German trains but as it turns out this one was delayed due to an accident on the previous train, so we were a half-hour late for our connection but they held the train and we were on our way through the former East Germany into Czech Republic.

Day 3 - Started the day with breakfast in an elegant dining room in the Arbanazi Palace. It's supposed to be a hotel, but we seem to be the only guests. Beautiful tapestries on the wall. Tai chi on the deck. There's an ancient fortress nearby and we took a quick look but didn't climb the road to it because it was raining. Headed off on the drive to Varna. Near Varna, we stopped at a little-known site where there are huge stone pillar-shapes, covered with fossils. It is reputed to be a "power spot" and there was one circle that someone had marked with stone. I felt more of a "vibe" at another spot facing the pillar known as "fertility". No one has been able to figure out how they were formed but it all fits with the theory that this is the area that was under the sea and that suddenly the sea dropped (maybe at the time of the Great Flood?) and they were left standing. Some archeologists are actually searching for the remains of Noah's Ark in the Black Sea. Others Claim the remains of Atlantis are down there somewhere.

At 5pm, we arrive at a government-owned estate by the sea called Evksinograd that is reserved for the exclusive use of diplomats and visiting dignitaries. Military guards at the gate and patrolling throughout. Even the attractive young woman who greeted us at the entrance to our guest house looked like she had some martial arts training. Strict instructions to stay within our designated area - which includes a huge private beach. I found out later that we had been bumped out of the house we were origially going to have because a delegation from France had arrived - and I guess they were more important than a bunch of festival organizers.

That young woman in the lime green suit/uniform was stationed at a small desk at the entrance and everytime I came around the corner, she would snap to attention. I must have driven her crazy when I would start down the stairs, then in my inimitable fashion, remember that I forgot something, go back up, then back down, etc...

We are staying in one of many guest houses on the estate - this place must have been the ultimate in Eastern Block luxury - but sometimes the plumbing is still a bit of a challenge. There doesn't seem to be too much in the way of industry standards for plumbing and it's always hit-or miss which will be hot water (if at all) and trying to figure out where to push to get a toilet to flush is a new game we've developed. Doors open weird and sometimes don't seem to fit right, in some cases because they've been hanging there for hundreds of years but in other cases because somebody just didn't care that's not the case in this place - where shoddy worksmanship would have been grounds for the firing squad if you incurred the wrath of the czar. Our place must have about 8-10 suites plus the large suite for the head of the delegation which included a living room big enough to have a party (a communist party, ha. ha). We were invited to have a guided tour of the estate on our second day there. It includes more guest houses than I can count, a 25m indoor swimming pool with salt water, filtered and heated, a bowling alley (yes, we see a lot of them in Bulgaria - but not usually private ones) and one of the most complete and beautifully designed garden/greenhouse/ecological centres you could imagine. All kinds of species were planted throughout the park and they are very developed because they started doing it 140 years ago. The gardens are spectacular, one done in the english style another designed bu Louis 14th's gardener.A shame this place isn't open to the public. Thene there's a winery (they produced 120,000 bottles a year of white, red and cognac) which has been let go a bit in recent years but they's just brought back the master winemaker who was there for 30 years but has just returned to get it back in shape. He led us through a wine tasting - what an education that was! more later