[Posted by Brian Mon Oct 29, 2007] I just played 5 nights in a row and I can't remember that happening to me since the 70s. And it's a beautiful tour, fascinating venues, great audiences and short drives. Last night I was presented a bouquet of flowers as I took my bow (CAREER MILESTONE #33). It was also a milestone for me to play on a stage where the dressing room/green room is behind the stage and I was able to slip behind the curtain and into that room while Butch did his solo feature. That was also cool, but every gig is different and nothing was more different than last night when we played in a 13th century Castle - a Benedectine Monastary before that. Now it's just Schloss Gostek, home to some squatters turned entrepreneurs and now the info centre for the recently uncovered/restored 7000 year old solar observatory and some say temple of sorts. I stood in there alone and began twirling around slowly and then I was compelled to start turning the opposite direction. As I walked away, I thought to look back down into the valley at the site one last time and I received a very powerful message to NOT look back. Which I didn't. OK, enough of the spooky stuff. Back to Music:
The first night of this leg of the tour was Divaldo Pod Charou in Pisek, CZ. It's the first place I ever played in Europe and I was glad to be back even though I wonder if they remember me. We have to sell the CDs a little cheaper here - just because the Czech Republic is not as economically flush as many other European partners. This tour followed a 3 day break in Dresden where I was able to co-write a song with Kathi *and* edit my MapleBlues newsletter remotely. With me here in Germany, the publisher in Spain and the office manager in Paris, it was good to have the internet (and for those reading this who don't know me personally, I was making websites when they were text-only.
We took a train to Prague and it was a familiar ride to me. We were picked up at the station by Hansa, our driver fo the rest of te tour. In Pisek, they put us up in a "sports" hotel next to the arena. The bedrooms all had 3 beds in them, but we each got a whole room to ourselves. Saw some old friends and made a few new one (Malak is a local musician who really enjoyed the show and was very complimentary to my guitar playing - one other sound guy said my guitar was an "orkestre" - I guess he meant I got a lot of sound out of that $250 Johnson resophonic.) Anyway, enough patting myself on the back...did I mention I got a bouquet of FLOWERS???)
The club in Pisek put us up at what they called a "sports hotel". It was next to the arena and each room had 3 beds - it had been home to many a hockey team, I'm sure. As I walked down the dark hall, I had a vision of being a young hockey hopeful, a contender, on my way to play an important game that might bring me to the attention of the NHL. The hotel was called The Buly - we had lots of bully jokes in the van after that! Still, I can't complain about the accomodations on this tour. It's been first class, sometimes literally first class.
Driving down the road I'm hearing lots more stories - why is their a harpsichord intro on "For Your Love" by the Yardbirds (because there wasn't a piano or organ in the studio that day...btw, it was Brian Auger playing). Or how did Keith Richard get that distorted guitar sound on Satisfaction (he dropped his amp). And why was Sonny Terry not talking to Brownie McGhee (well, maybe some things are best kept private).
The Maltzhaus in Plauen, Germany took the record as the oldest club I ever played - it was built in the 1200s. We had a great audience (goes without saying in this country). I got a big roar from the crowd in the middle of a guitar solo. One guy in the audience even knew who Magic Sam was. Kathi and I had written a song on a day off and we performed it for the first time. All these towns are turning into a blur of cobblestone streets but what I do remember is when we got a TV with an english channel (or two). This one had CNN and BBC all-news along with a couple of channels that featured pretty graphic ads for phone sex and then some kind of phone-in gambling game with a semi-nude hostess. Also two (count em, 2) channels with jazz - one had old footage of Thelonius Monk and the other was showing more contemporary jazz. Curtis Tigers was playing a great tune that inspired me to start re-working "Last Time I Saw Lenny" (note to self: in F)
Next day in Pirna, we played a room where there was a spacious, comfortable dressing room right behind the stage. We were served a fabulous spread Tapas-style from the Spanish restaurant next door. How convenient to have a dressing room where I was able to slip in and sit for a minute while Butch did his solo feature spot. Great PAs in all these venues, this one was the Klein & (something) - considered the Rolls Royce of PAs (The Courthouse in Toronto just installed one of those high-end systems)
The last gig of this leg was The Schloss Goseck (the castle I mentioned at the beginning of this post). The gig was great - wonderful audience , a real cross section of "townies" and the ver alternative types who started out as squatters here and now interact quite nicely with the local populace. This morning after the gig, I got up at 8:30 and walked up from the Castle where we played and walked through the village and over to the site of this restored 7000 year old sacred spot where cavemen would calculate the time of the year by the way that the sun would shine through certain openings in this tall woodden "fence" which has been rebuilt according to the ruins that were recently discovered. I had the place to myself. I stood in the centre and did my tai chi set, then chanted and spun around slowly and without making any conscious effort I realized that I was now spinning the other way (???). Then as I walkied away from the site, I had a very strong feeling that I should not look back, so I didn't. That's as "mystical" as it got, but I did have a little incident as I was leaving the abbey where we stayed (part of the castle). There was a rack of tourist brochures and I grabbed one and as I was looking at it, another fell to the floor. I thought some light-hearted message like "well, if you're a ghost doing that then thank for leaving me alone to a peaceful sleep" and then a whole stack of brochures flew off the rack onto the floor....hmmmm. Kathi was shown the chapel last night and said she felt nothing spiritual in there and more likely that horrible things had gone on in there.
[Posted by Brian Wed Oct 24, 2007] I was going to send you all individual postcards but I left behind my bag with my address book in Switzerland so this will have to do.
Greetings from Switzerland! We've just completed the first leg of our tour. These gigs were with a full band that included a German rhythm section with very big ears - Ingo Rau on bass and Vladi Kempf on drums. Playing with Kathi McDonald is akin to being on the stage with Etta James or Aretha, and any connoiseurs of blues vocalists would probably agree. I have to get used to playing with goose bumps running up and down my body for half the show. Shortly into the first set on the first night, Kathi leaned into me and said "pretty good for the first night with no rehearsal..."
I ran into Madagascar Slim at the Toronto Airport - he was heading out on a Western Canada tour with Tri-Continental. He warned me about Air France being hard on instruments (they wrecked his Fender acoustic) but they allowed me to take the guitar in the cabin with me on two flights so far. And I dare say the food on Air France is tastier (even though they played the same damn Robin Williams movie I saw the night before at home)...I even had a bottle of wine with my dinner...good preparation for this tour allright. I just mentioned to Miss Kathi that I've been called upon to open more bottles of wine in the last few days than in the last couple of years in TO. If I had to choose between ice cream or booze, it would not be hard decision for this old blues guy. As some tight-ass reviewer wrote a while back..."Brian Blain Bluesman? Ha Ha Ha..." Well this tour could turn it around - I've had more wine & cheese than at a year's worth of CD launches. And tomorrow we head to the Czech Republic where beer is cheaper than water (and safer to drink) so here goes...
Just before jumping on that plane, I was at the OCFF conference in London where I think I managed to line up a little work in both Western and Eastern (as in St Johns Nfld) Canada. I have to accept the fact that if I want to play I'm going to have to hit the road. The highlight of the conference was jamming in our little "blues room" What a pleasure playing with some of the up and comers on the blues scene like Steve Strongman and introducing them to some of the veterans like Danny Brooks and Bill Bourne and Rob Lutes.
In a moment of rationality I bought a watch at the airport, but I realized after the first gig that the hands and the watch face look the same to Ole Colorblind and I can only see the time when the light is right (ie *not* on stage).
As soon as I got to Germany we headed down to Freiburg, on the edge of the Black Forest - right where Germany, France and Switzerland meet. We did a gig in Freiburg (this must be the bicycle capital of Europe) It is apparently the warmest place in Germany. A real college town. We did a show there then a couple in Switzerland (though nothing within a view of the Alps...damn). The first gig was a club called the Albani in Winterthur which transformed into an after-hours rave scene after our show. We were lucky to get our stuff off the stage before the place turned into a veritable mass of tatooed flesh. They were dancing madly to old Buddy Holly records and singing along to "My Boyfriend's Back." Go figure...
We ate our dinner in a rather funky place too - lots of leather and piercings but the food was great and the punks quite friendly. Actually the club had reserved a table for us at a nice Italian restaurant but we got there too late and it was packed. Man, those Swiss really know how to run a hotel. The place we stayed in Winterthur was not only clean and elegant but visually so modern...No rectangular mirrors in these rooms. The Alte Post was quite the contratry - very rustic. Kind of in the middle of nowhere but 90 people came out of nowhere and filled their little concert room. I felt pretty close to home when I saw the owner's wife wearing a Rita Chiarelli T-shirt and when I commented on it, they started playing Rita Chiarelli CDs. They love Rita at the Alte Posta. Very appreciative audience and I've already sold most of my CD's - I only brought 50. I was a little embarassed that I didn't know the last names of the bass player & drummer when I was doing the band introductions but then later in the set, Kathi whispered in my ear "I don't know your last name..."
As we ended the set with a Long John Baldry hit, It Ain't Easy, Kathy was in tears and I couldn't understand why until she told me afterwards that this venue was the first gig on the last German tour with Long John. I brought along a copy of the new Long John biography for her - she had not received one from the publisher so she was devouring it right away and I was hearing her having laughing fits as she read some of the things she had related to author Paul Myers (she is probably the most-quoted Baldry band-mate in the book...and boy have I been hearing Baldry stories as we travelled along those Swiss mountain roads. Tomorrow we head to Prague where Hansa, Baldry's long time road manager will be picking us up and managing the rest of the tour...I'm sure there will be more stories. I still can't get used to paying for a washroom (and it's not cheap, sometimes as much as a buck). And the quality of the facilities varies from a hole in the ground to the most sophisticated antiseptic toilet that has a seat that rotates around a cleansing pad of some sort...pretty freaky.
[Posted Wed Oct 10, 2007] Here I sit running over the chords for tunes I haven't played in thirty years. Whiter Shade of Pale, Southern Man...I've never been much of a "jobbing" musician. I don't have a vast repertoire of standards - I do what I do but here I am figuring out the guitar parts for Long John Baldry and Rolling Stones tunes. As I have probably bragged below in earlier installments of this blog, I am off to Europe in a few days to do a big German tour (big for me!) with legendary vocalist Kathi McDonald.
I'm sitting here listening to Steve Gash being the guest host on Low Down to Uptown on CKLN-FM, his old stomping grounds. I'm juggling my iTunes between the radio show and downloading songs that I have to learn in three days because in a few days I'll be on stage playing them with Kathi McDonald and Butch Coulter.
Mama! I'm a jobber! I can't remember the last time I actually had to figure out the chord changes from a recording. But who would have ever thought that you could dial up any song you want and download it...even if it costs 99 cents.
OK Folks, I'm going to get back to learning some tunes and then....I'm outa here. My Blainletters will be short and sweet from here on out.
Saturday October 6: Here are some of the gang at Michael Jerome Browne's Toronto CD launch at the Acoustic Harvest. Pictured above are Grit Laskin (Borealis Records), MJB, drummer John McColgan, the legendary Stephen Barry, Suzie Vinnick and moi. This was not a show I was going to miss even though I should be home preparing for my European tour - I leave in A WEEK! And meanwhile I've got the OCFF conference where I hope I might line up a little work for next year. I had also hoped to attend Liam Titcomb's show tonight but that was not to be. That song I wrote for him is getting to a good comfort zone for me. I had to put it into the third person but I think I'm going to pull this song out at an appropriate time - it's a bit rocky for yours truly but always nice to have a change. I was riveted by Michael's performance. I called him the "professor" because he has such a schooled approach, without diminishing any soul or heart. He's got it all. I saw Suzie Vinnick taking it in from the front row. After the show, I looked over and saw Suzie stacking chairs - just like the old church-basement concerts. Everybody pitches in.
Thursday, October 4: Here I am on the big stage at Healey's. I one of several guests at the jam hosted by Danny Marks - a throwback to the days when I first met him hosting the Stormy Monday blues sessions at Albert's Hall. That's back when the blues clubs were packed on the week-ends and you could even get a crowd out on a Monday night. I'm excited because I've got a new pick-up in the old Epiphone and now I will see what it sounds like through a big PA. Well, I plug into the DI (direct box) and...nothing. The sound man just points me to the Fender Twin and has me plug in there. Would it have been too much trouble to try another direct box. So much for hearing my new pick-up (LR Baggs I-Beam, fyi)...But what a treat playing with keyboard genius Dennis Keldie for the first time. He is most highly regarded in this town and now I know why. He picks up on what you're doing and fits right in - phenomenal solos. Danny also played some great guitar and I had Jerome Godboo on harmonica and the dream rhythm section of Al Webster and Alec Fraser. And on the break, there we were, a bunch of blues musicians in the "Green Room" talking about how to edit video clips for YouTube...
Before heading to Healey's, I swung by Hugh's Room to hear my old buddy Ray Bonneville who was opening for Guy Davis. I had actually jammed with guy in a hotel room at the Folk Alliance conference a few years ago. Ray played great and I only stayed for a couple of Guy's tunes - Ken Whiteley had just climbed up and played some killer mandolin.
Wednesday, October 2: I got invited to be part of the audience for a video shoot for Country Music Television (CMT). I'm planning a DVD so I wanted to see how they did it (six cameras, fyi). The band was Little Big Town, who I had never heard of but are apparently the next Dixie Chicks. beautiful harmonies, to be sure - never got to hear the band as a whole - they had set up a wedge monitor for the small audience but all it projected was vocals. All we heard was vocals and drums (the band were all wearing hi-tech in-ear monitors). It's the first time I've ever been to a session that got interrupted so that lipstick could be adjusted.
Sunday, Sept 30: Just back from a little getaway to the Eastern Townships & Montreal. Somebody said the fall colours were beautiful but they forgot that Ole Colorblind needs some pretty dramatic reds and yellows to enjoy the light show. The subtle colours escape me. Got to hang out with my old friends Allan Fraser & Donna (The first Fraser & DeBolt album has been re-issued and the Cleveland paper just reviewed it - "...no denying the raw emotion of this rediscovered gem"). Then I saw Maurice Singfield from Oliver Klaus and the brilliant Daniel Racine who's been producing some very atmospheric music. A great visit even though I missed 2 CD launches, a book launch and Nuit Blanche. It's hard to pull yourself away from Toronto - so much going on. As I pulled out of my old stomping grounds, Waterloo, Quebec, bluesman Bob Walsh was setting up for a concert in the old Masonic Temple. Wish I could have stayed.
Monday, Sept 24 - I'm sitting here putting some new strings on the old Epiphone and then heading down to the Now Lounge to do a couple of tunes at the Anniversary Party for Jennifer Claveau's Groovy Monday concert series at the Now Lounge which I played at last year. The long rambling Blainletter below was supposed to go out in August, but this time the technology got the best of me and I couldn't send it to my whole list - so here it is for any and all interested. This is going to replace my blog. It's so easy.
The August Blainletter was supposed to go out at the beginning of the month to promote my gig with Lily in Hamilton (and we sure could have used a little promotion) We played in a restored train station of sorts...weird setting.
...Anyway, here's your monthly update from the front lines in my "career development" (career development tips are highlighted in red, in case there are any other 60-something emerging artists out there who might benefit). This week-end I was planning to go down and check out the Burlington Ribfest where I have some friends playing and this morning I get a note from Michael K. who books it saying he's sorry he wasn't able to fit me in the programme this year. Now I just remembered he offered me a gig in the festival when we played together a few months back. So much for my follow-up skills. Memo to self: Follow up, follow up, follow up
Here's another valuable tip: Always bring a back up guitar in case you break a string and make sure it's tuned up. I'm usually good about this, but the one time I don't check the spare, I get a flat (so to speak).
For a while, I've been reading the infamous "Lefsetzletter"(yes, that's where I got the idea to call this the Blainletter) but lately I heard him speaking in a podcast from a music conference in Australia...and he was coming down pretty hard on artists who don't have a following (ie, "if you don't have any fans it's because you suck. If you are great, they will find you."). He's got a point. The good news is that it doesn't take a huge ammount of fans to support a career - not in this town anyway. If you've got 50 friends who will come out, you can play practically any club in this town.
Lefsetz was mostly talking about the MySpace phenomena. We'll I've got a MySpace and until now it served as my default website but starting now I will use this Google Page to keep everything under one roof - my bio page at northernblues.com, my old blog, my photo album and a couple of podcasts featuring...me. More podcasts to come, some right from my backyard.
These Google Pages are great because they're free and easy (I never paid for web hosting yet and I wasn't going to start now). Try it yourself, it's a robust elegant interface.
Anyway, back to music - my career development - which is what this blog is supposed to be about. The Hamilton gig was the last gig between now and my European tour with Kathi Macdonald and Butch Coulter - and I just got a call this morning with two new dates - Nov 2 at the Palette in Kappeln, Germany and Oct 25 at the first place I ever played in Europe, The Pod Garou in Pisek, gateway to the real Bohemia in the Czech Republic.
I've been messing around with video editing software and will soon be loading up more performance clips - maybe raise the "profile" a bit, and of course, show any potential employers what I can do. My friend Harry Manx was in town last week and we grabbed a clip of a DVD he brought and sucessfully loaded it up to YouTube (search for Harry Manx Portugal).
And a Blainletter would not be complete without a quick look back on all the great music I've heard this month: The latest was Carlos del Junco last night. Just him, Mark Sepic on guitar and Al Cross on drums. Three virtuoso musicians...it was mesmerizing. Lot's of really intricate worked-out stuff. I don't think Kevin Breit played those tunes with Carlos...though I love Kevin's wild abandon. I kind of missed Henry Heillig on bass but Mark had it covered, in some tunes he had a bass sound on the two low strings of his MIDI guitar. Anything Carlos tries is OK with me. The night before him, we went to the Bob Snider CD release. I was with my best-ex who never lived in Ontario and had no idea of Bob Snider's special place in the hearts of Toronto folkies. He was charming and Paul Mills did a great opening set but I realized that this would have been an ideal show for me to open. This was "my crowd" (though they hadn't heard me...yet). Tip of the Day: Don't be afraid to suggest yourself as an opening act when it seems like a good match.
The fellow who designed my CD (and Bob's), Michael Wrycraft, was sitting next to me and I couldn't resist mentioning that the one typo that had slipped through the long, arduous CD artwork process created a problem this month when a radio host Lynn Thompson played the wrong track while interviewing me live from Nanaimo. She was getting the track number from the booklet rather than the back of the CD. Oh well..
On the non-musical front, I'm back on the Board of Directors of my housing co-op (my last residency resulted in the song "No More Meetings" - maybe this round will inspire another tune...But this time I'm NOT going to be secretary! I was so eager to get back in the game that I seconded the first motion that came up - only to be reminded you cannot second a motion to approve the minutes of a meeting you weren't at (that would count as a tip, too, but not that important to your career development.
Earlier this month I had the extreme pleasure to watch my son Joel (aka DJ C.O.I.)on stage at the Rivoli and he put on a great display of scratching and beat- making - he had the crowd mesmerized including his mom who came up all the way from Cape Cod.
A few days before that I heard the internattionally renown bluegrass group, the Grasscals - I have been hearing about them for from my friend Donna Wilson and after hearing the group I went to their website and happened upon a picture of the group backstage at the Grand Old Opry with Dolly Parton...and there in the picture are Donna and Ken!
I had a chance to sit in with UK guitar whiz Steve Payne at the Gate 403. Haven't been there in quite a while and it's a great place with a PA, a real piano...who could ask for more. Well, an attentive audience would be the final ingredient. Steve played great and I hope to hook up with him in the fall when I go to Europe.
Here's my closing tip (got this from Tom Jackson, a "band-coach" (not the actor/musician) who is full of tips for performers. Tom believes that the audience wants to see something spontaneous - something that's never happened before. Well, no problemo when it's a Brian Blain show. Just ask anyone who's ever played with me. I couldn't play a song the same way twice if I tried...well, maybe if I ever took some time to rehearse, but for the moment, let's be happy with the spontaneous effect!
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Quote of the Day
"I don't want to sell my music. I'd like to give it away because where I got
it, you didn't have to pay for it." Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet)
it, you didn't have to pay for it." Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet)
Monday, June 4, 2007
Orangeville Blues & Jazz
What a pleasure playing with the phenomenal Henry Heilig at the Orangeville Jazz & Blues festival. I was lucky he could get away from his intense rehearsal schedule with the newly reformed Manteca (who will be opening the Toronto Jazz Festival on Friday June 22). Henry will also be joining myself and the Blainettes (Carrie Chesnutt and Lily Sazz) for my gig at Toronto Jazz Festival - That's Saturday afternoon, June 30th at the Greektown Stage, Logan and Danforth.
Friday, June 1, 2007
June Blainletter plus Bob Lefsetz' take on managers
Welcome to my June Blainletter. I won't be playing in town until my Toronto Jazz festival gig on June 30th. (June 30th, by the way is the second full moon of the month, the "blue moon" – thus the expression "once in a blue moon". I never knew that, thanks Bette! This week-end I'm playing the Orangeville Blues and Jazz festival on Saturday night at a little bar called the Wild Wing at 75 Alder St. I'll be playing with the wonderful bassist Henry Heilig, whose band Manteca will be opening the Toronto Jazz Festival. Then on June 15, I'm at the Moonshine Café in Oakville. If any of my dear blog-readers live in the environs of either of those remote locations, please drop in
Your (barely)managing editor has just wrapped up another newsletter. This month I created a headline for the cover of MapleBlues and I realized as I was about to go to print that I didn't really know what it meant. I wrote "Reddick Redux" just cause it looked good on the page but then I realized that I wasn't really that sure what it meant. Well I looked it up and it turned out the "redux" meant exactly what I wanted to say. There couldn't be a better word. Now it will be interesting to see if the majority of our readers will know what "redux" means…but what the hey, it's about Paul Reddick and he is regarded as a bit of an intellectual on the blues scene. He'll know what I meant.
I've been thinking of calling him up to do a couple of gigs. I'm playing this week-end and I still don't know who with. I like to wait till the last minute and see who falls in my lap (not necessarily the best approach in romance).
Last night I went to see Mendelson Joe play (he I knew him when he was Joe Mendelson). He was a curmudgeon then and he's a curmudgeon now. I thought about introducing myself to see if he remembered that I auditioned to play bass for McKenna Mendelson Mainline 30 years ago. I thought better of it when I watched him brush off our senior publicist and my friend Jacquie with "I know who you are" and "OK, I gotta go". Still, he's Joe and we love him. He was riveting on stage. He had not played a music gig in Toronto for 10 years, imagine that. Talk about "I'm going to the country" (…and I ain't coming back).
He marched onto the stage in paint-splattered pants carrying his guitar case (with the hand painted warning "very, very, very fragile") and a back-pack. As he was being introduced, he took the guitar out of the case, sat himself down and had a drink from a big bottle of Perrier water (which he thanked Mose Scarlett for bringing). His first song was his most recent, he said, "I'm a folkie and that ain't no jokie." After a 75 minute show, he came back with a short instrumental encore…his fans still wanted more but he came back up to the stage, slowly packed up his stuff (while people still clapped for more) and then he was gone.
Joe's comments about the air in Toronto really struck home after my experience last week-end playing the Twisted Pines festival a couple of hours out of town. They billeted the bands in some kind of wilderness retreat and I could not believe how refreshed and invigorated I felt after only two days away from the pollution of Toronto. I realized it the next morning when I woke up to the sight of all kinds of colourful birds at the array of feeders just outside the kitchen window…with little squirrels and chipmunks scampering around the bases of the feeders. What a sight. What a breath of fresh air. I had the pleasure of meeting a couple of my blog-readers up there…so hi to you and thanks for your interest. I don't think I'd keep this going if I didn't keep running into people who tell me they enjoy it.
The original impetus for the "Toronto Blues Diary" was to pass along tips on "career development" (long before I ever heard the expression). I used to put the tips in red. I should really cut and paste some of Bob Lefsetz stuff – he's got a lot to say about career development…You can see his "blog" at http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
Anyway, back to Twisted Pines. My first "arena show" – though there was only enough audience to fit into a club, but it was a great experience and I'm sure the festival will build up from here. I just got invited to play the volunteer party. A couple of days before we had a "warm-up" gig at Free Times. It was my "Motherless Day" show and we had a nice friendly group came out…but once again, I looked out into the house and I knew pretty well every person. It's great to have a friendly, supportive audience, but this is not how careers are built…
Last night I attended the opening of the Art of Jazz festival at the Distillery. That room is the size of an arena, but it didn't sound nearly as good as Twisted Pines. Since it was opening night, there were a few speeches and the soft spoken guys like Don Thomson and Kenny Wheeler were not cutting through at all. I could not hear a word they were saying. Meanwhile, when Jon Hendricks got on the mike I could hear every word. So it's not just the PA. The music seemed kind-of uninspired and I was ready to leave but then Kevin Mahogany hit the stage and launched into a marathon version of "Route 66" and everybody started playing their ass off – leave it to the blues to pick things up. It was my first time hearing Kevin Mahogany and he is something to behold – physically and vocally (a giant in both respects).
What else did I do this month (besides start making a garden – thanks to all those that have contributed. I'm going to make a slide show on Flickr when I get a minute. I also started editing a video clip of me singing "Blues is Hurting" at the Hi-Tech Blues Revue. We'll see how long it takes me to get that together.
I had the delightful experience of seeing Allan Fraser's (& Donna Louthood's) daughter Kaya performing at the Now lounge. She played some fine guitar (very much like Allan) and when she sang it was like listening to Donna. What a trip.
I saw lots of great jazz at the new Courthouse venue this month – surely destined to be a world class showcase venue. Shakura S'Aida did a CD launch there and she rocked the joint. It was the first blues show in the place…tonight Susie Arioli begins a 3-night engagement. I hope she can get a decent crowd over three days.
The Blues Society had a birthday party at Jeff Healey's new club with Jack de Keyzer playing and yours truly as MC. I actually got some spontaneous applause when I introduced myself as the editor of MapleBlues. I wonder if I would have got such an enthusiastic response if I had introduced myself as the 60-year old emerging artist…
Just so you get a taste of this Bof Lefsetz guy, I'm going to paste in part of a recent rant about managers… Here's Bob. See you next time.
"…In other words, you don't need the heavyweight, well-connected manager to make it. Unless you're playing the traditional radio/TV hit single game.
If you're playing the old wave game, sign with someone who's got the chops, who knows the ropes, who isn't reinventing the wheel so much as applying what they know to your situation. You might grow, but your handler, he already knows the game.
Whereas if you're not signed to a major label, don't want to get signed to a major label, don't make Top Forty singles, then you don't need a manager connected so much as one who is savvy and HUNGRY!
The established management players are akin to mini-conglomerates, they're the new labels. They want to get paid, right away. If you're not delivering cash, if they sign you, you're not getting much attention. Or, you're getting attention from the untested newbie. If that newbie is truly great, break off and do it yourself, as Irving Azoff did with the Eagles. Otherwise, you're probably going to get lost in the shuffle.
If you're starting from ground zero, no name manager will probably be interested. But that won't hurt you.
What do you need most if you're a developing act?
Gigs. You need someone to get on the horn, go down to the venue, and cajole and connive 'til they get you a shot. Then you must deliver, but it's the manager that creates/midwives the opportunity.
Where are you going to find such a bloke?
Look around you, he's probably already a friend. Or that dude who comes to each and every show and hangs backstage and won't leave until you do. THAT'S your manager.
Oh, don't throw out your instincts. After all, Paluska went to Amherst, he's no dummy. But find someone committed who will do the job for you.
So much of what Phish did, they did first. Or their spin on an event made it unique. They did their destination festivals. They released live albums of their shows, and then downloads. Elektra didn't deliver these, rather their manager and agent, Chip Hooper, did.
Yup, Chip saw the numbers, he wanted to represent Phish. He didn't care about record sales, but TICKET COUNTS! Most agents feel the same way today, but fifteen years ago, the focus was on the label.
Yes, after you get your manager, and he gets you gigs, he tries to get you an agent. And the agent you want is not the one with the name, the one who wines and dines you so much as the one who BELIEVES in you.
As for music... In today's market, you've got to allow recording and trading, you've got to give the music away for free, you've got to let the seed grow into a tree. If you can't get significant airplay, THIS IS THE ONLY WAY!
It's not the way of the major label, and not the way of the old line manager. But it's your way. You know the Net, you've got friends, both online and offline. You have to create something incredible and give your peeps the tools to spread the word. Not through fake incentives, you've got to trade purely on their belief, your honesty.
It's all about the music when you're doing it yourself. Everything must be subservient to the music. And you must create the best situation to experience the music.
When Phish played the Santa Monica Civic ten plus years ago, the police frisked the attendees. Paluska vowed to never play the building again, and his band DIDN'T! He didn't shrug his shoulders and say he couldn't do anything, that it wasn't his fault, he took matters into his own hands, to defend his band's relationship with its audience.
And when Phish started selling its music online, it offered FLAC files, so its fans could own the best sounding versions. Isn't it funny that EMI is offering 256 kbps AACs supposedly sometime in the near future when Phish sold CD quality YEARS AGO!
So don't lament that the manager with the name isn't interested in you. There's a good chance he might not be right for you.
Inexperience is no longer the handicap it used to be. Drive and appreciation of the band/fan relationship are paramount for today's touring acts. That's more about instinct than big time experience. Furthermore, you want someone who can develop on the fly.
Maybe you outgrow your manager, you end up signing with one of the big boys, who wrings out every last dollar for you.
Or maybe you stay with your guy, who delivers for you.
Or maybe your guy makes a deal with Irving, and uses Frontline's power to get you what you want and need.
It's a new game. It's the sixties all over again. The wheel is being reinvented. Don't be hamstrung by the old wave players and the old wave rules."
Your (barely)managing editor has just wrapped up another newsletter. This month I created a headline for the cover of MapleBlues and I realized as I was about to go to print that I didn't really know what it meant. I wrote "Reddick Redux" just cause it looked good on the page but then I realized that I wasn't really that sure what it meant. Well I looked it up and it turned out the "redux" meant exactly what I wanted to say. There couldn't be a better word. Now it will be interesting to see if the majority of our readers will know what "redux" means…but what the hey, it's about Paul Reddick and he is regarded as a bit of an intellectual on the blues scene. He'll know what I meant.
I've been thinking of calling him up to do a couple of gigs. I'm playing this week-end and I still don't know who with. I like to wait till the last minute and see who falls in my lap (not necessarily the best approach in romance).
Last night I went to see Mendelson Joe play (he I knew him when he was Joe Mendelson). He was a curmudgeon then and he's a curmudgeon now. I thought about introducing myself to see if he remembered that I auditioned to play bass for McKenna Mendelson Mainline 30 years ago. I thought better of it when I watched him brush off our senior publicist and my friend Jacquie with "I know who you are" and "OK, I gotta go". Still, he's Joe and we love him. He was riveting on stage. He had not played a music gig in Toronto for 10 years, imagine that. Talk about "I'm going to the country" (…and I ain't coming back).
He marched onto the stage in paint-splattered pants carrying his guitar case (with the hand painted warning "very, very, very fragile") and a back-pack. As he was being introduced, he took the guitar out of the case, sat himself down and had a drink from a big bottle of Perrier water (which he thanked Mose Scarlett for bringing). His first song was his most recent, he said, "I'm a folkie and that ain't no jokie." After a 75 minute show, he came back with a short instrumental encore…his fans still wanted more but he came back up to the stage, slowly packed up his stuff (while people still clapped for more) and then he was gone.
Joe's comments about the air in Toronto really struck home after my experience last week-end playing the Twisted Pines festival a couple of hours out of town. They billeted the bands in some kind of wilderness retreat and I could not believe how refreshed and invigorated I felt after only two days away from the pollution of Toronto. I realized it the next morning when I woke up to the sight of all kinds of colourful birds at the array of feeders just outside the kitchen window…with little squirrels and chipmunks scampering around the bases of the feeders. What a sight. What a breath of fresh air. I had the pleasure of meeting a couple of my blog-readers up there…so hi to you and thanks for your interest. I don't think I'd keep this going if I didn't keep running into people who tell me they enjoy it.
The original impetus for the "Toronto Blues Diary" was to pass along tips on "career development" (long before I ever heard the expression). I used to put the tips in red. I should really cut and paste some of Bob Lefsetz stuff – he's got a lot to say about career development…You can see his "blog" at http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
Anyway, back to Twisted Pines. My first "arena show" – though there was only enough audience to fit into a club, but it was a great experience and I'm sure the festival will build up from here. I just got invited to play the volunteer party. A couple of days before we had a "warm-up" gig at Free Times. It was my "Motherless Day" show and we had a nice friendly group came out…but once again, I looked out into the house and I knew pretty well every person. It's great to have a friendly, supportive audience, but this is not how careers are built…
Last night I attended the opening of the Art of Jazz festival at the Distillery. That room is the size of an arena, but it didn't sound nearly as good as Twisted Pines. Since it was opening night, there were a few speeches and the soft spoken guys like Don Thomson and Kenny Wheeler were not cutting through at all. I could not hear a word they were saying. Meanwhile, when Jon Hendricks got on the mike I could hear every word. So it's not just the PA. The music seemed kind-of uninspired and I was ready to leave but then Kevin Mahogany hit the stage and launched into a marathon version of "Route 66" and everybody started playing their ass off – leave it to the blues to pick things up. It was my first time hearing Kevin Mahogany and he is something to behold – physically and vocally (a giant in both respects).
What else did I do this month (besides start making a garden – thanks to all those that have contributed. I'm going to make a slide show on Flickr when I get a minute. I also started editing a video clip of me singing "Blues is Hurting" at the Hi-Tech Blues Revue. We'll see how long it takes me to get that together.
I had the delightful experience of seeing Allan Fraser's (& Donna Louthood's) daughter Kaya performing at the Now lounge. She played some fine guitar (very much like Allan) and when she sang it was like listening to Donna. What a trip.
I saw lots of great jazz at the new Courthouse venue this month – surely destined to be a world class showcase venue. Shakura S'Aida did a CD launch there and she rocked the joint. It was the first blues show in the place…tonight Susie Arioli begins a 3-night engagement. I hope she can get a decent crowd over three days.
The Blues Society had a birthday party at Jeff Healey's new club with Jack de Keyzer playing and yours truly as MC. I actually got some spontaneous applause when I introduced myself as the editor of MapleBlues. I wonder if I would have got such an enthusiastic response if I had introduced myself as the 60-year old emerging artist…
Just so you get a taste of this Bof Lefsetz guy, I'm going to paste in part of a recent rant about managers… Here's Bob. See you next time.
"…In other words, you don't need the heavyweight, well-connected manager to make it. Unless you're playing the traditional radio/TV hit single game.
If you're playing the old wave game, sign with someone who's got the chops, who knows the ropes, who isn't reinventing the wheel so much as applying what they know to your situation. You might grow, but your handler, he already knows the game.
Whereas if you're not signed to a major label, don't want to get signed to a major label, don't make Top Forty singles, then you don't need a manager connected so much as one who is savvy and HUNGRY!
The established management players are akin to mini-conglomerates, they're the new labels. They want to get paid, right away. If you're not delivering cash, if they sign you, you're not getting much attention. Or, you're getting attention from the untested newbie. If that newbie is truly great, break off and do it yourself, as Irving Azoff did with the Eagles. Otherwise, you're probably going to get lost in the shuffle.
If you're starting from ground zero, no name manager will probably be interested. But that won't hurt you.
What do you need most if you're a developing act?
Gigs. You need someone to get on the horn, go down to the venue, and cajole and connive 'til they get you a shot. Then you must deliver, but it's the manager that creates/midwives the opportunity.
Where are you going to find such a bloke?
Look around you, he's probably already a friend. Or that dude who comes to each and every show and hangs backstage and won't leave until you do. THAT'S your manager.
Oh, don't throw out your instincts. After all, Paluska went to Amherst, he's no dummy. But find someone committed who will do the job for you.
So much of what Phish did, they did first. Or their spin on an event made it unique. They did their destination festivals. They released live albums of their shows, and then downloads. Elektra didn't deliver these, rather their manager and agent, Chip Hooper, did.
Yup, Chip saw the numbers, he wanted to represent Phish. He didn't care about record sales, but TICKET COUNTS! Most agents feel the same way today, but fifteen years ago, the focus was on the label.
Yes, after you get your manager, and he gets you gigs, he tries to get you an agent. And the agent you want is not the one with the name, the one who wines and dines you so much as the one who BELIEVES in you.
As for music... In today's market, you've got to allow recording and trading, you've got to give the music away for free, you've got to let the seed grow into a tree. If you can't get significant airplay, THIS IS THE ONLY WAY!
It's not the way of the major label, and not the way of the old line manager. But it's your way. You know the Net, you've got friends, both online and offline. You have to create something incredible and give your peeps the tools to spread the word. Not through fake incentives, you've got to trade purely on their belief, your honesty.
It's all about the music when you're doing it yourself. Everything must be subservient to the music. And you must create the best situation to experience the music.
When Phish played the Santa Monica Civic ten plus years ago, the police frisked the attendees. Paluska vowed to never play the building again, and his band DIDN'T! He didn't shrug his shoulders and say he couldn't do anything, that it wasn't his fault, he took matters into his own hands, to defend his band's relationship with its audience.
And when Phish started selling its music online, it offered FLAC files, so its fans could own the best sounding versions. Isn't it funny that EMI is offering 256 kbps AACs supposedly sometime in the near future when Phish sold CD quality YEARS AGO!
So don't lament that the manager with the name isn't interested in you. There's a good chance he might not be right for you.
Inexperience is no longer the handicap it used to be. Drive and appreciation of the band/fan relationship are paramount for today's touring acts. That's more about instinct than big time experience. Furthermore, you want someone who can develop on the fly.
Maybe you outgrow your manager, you end up signing with one of the big boys, who wrings out every last dollar for you.
Or maybe you stay with your guy, who delivers for you.
Or maybe your guy makes a deal with Irving, and uses Frontline's power to get you what you want and need.
It's a new game. It's the sixties all over again. The wheel is being reinvented. Don't be hamstrung by the old wave players and the old wave rules."
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Celebrate Motherless Thursday
Happy Mother’s Day to all my fans and friends who are mothers, grandmothers, sons and daughters, orphans and adoptees. It’s becoming a tradition to have a show on the Thursday after Mother’s day – I call Motherless Thursday and this year it’s an early show:
Thursday, May 17, 7-9 PM
Free Times Café, 320 College Street
This is a warm-up gig for some festival dates with Colorblind Brian and the New Blainettes. The cover charge is $10 with a generous sliding scale for struggling artists, under-employed and working poor.
If you never heard it, got to www.myspace.com/brianblain and listen to “Don’t Forget Your Mother” a boisterous production of
I’ve been chained to the computer lately and had almost given up on the idea of a Motherless Thursday concert (a mostly annual event on my gig calendar but I am happy to announce that thanks to Judy Perly at Free Times, there will be a Motherless Thursday show. As Judy would say, “Come early. Eat!”
This will be a good warm-up for some upcoming festival dates, starting with The Twisted Pines Festival on the May long-week-end (May 18-21) in Midland. It’s a solid lineup – mostly blues on Sunday (I play at 3:45 in the afternoon) with Downchild headlining but I’m especially looking forward to hearing the great Fred Eaglesmith for the first time. He plays Saturday night. Friends of the Toronto Blues Society are entitled to a $20 discount if you purchase your week-end pass at www.twistedpines.com and enter the code “tbs0407”
I’m not being much of a media mooch these days. I think I’m losing that craving for free shrimp. A couple of days ago was was the big media launch for North by Northeast and I just didn’t have it in me to go schmoozing. Hell, I didn’t even get to the launch party for the Jazz Festival (that was because I was back at home frantically updating their website before they went live). Not a lot of gigs last month but I don’t mind being home on a week-end because I love the radio. Friday nights it’s Reiner Schwarz on jazz.fm. He’s one of the pioneers of underground radio and a guy who hasn’t lost that spirit. It’s a credit to jazz-fm that they’ve hung in with Reiner, even though I’m sure he’s considered a bit of a “bad boy” over there. Right now I’m listening to the inimitable Danny Marks (he’s interviewing Morgan Davis) and my Saturday nights at home are often spent channel hopping between Danny and Holger Peterson on CBC – at one time I even had it set up to record one while I listened to the other. Just flipped and Holger is interviewing Dan Aykroyd! And playing some great tracks, of course.
I got to play on the stage at the new Jeff Healey Roadhouse the other day, and it’s a beautiful stage with lots of monitors and a huge monitor board but I have to say it was not exactly a comfort zone for me. The problem with a big expensive PA system is that we tend to have expectations of a nice big natural sound. Not necessarily. Most of the time a bigger PA just sounds like a bigger box. I shouldn’t fault the monitor guy, it was a benefit concert with lots of acts and a quick turnaround. I saw him a couple of days later and I had the feeling he was a little peeved with me – maybe because I was the one that had to ask him to put the acoustic piano back on the stage. The young lady handling the mains is top-notch. Interesting that there are a respectable proportion of female sound techs (well, two) in the top rooms – Ann at Hughs‘s Room and Debbie (?) at Healey’s.
Harry Manx dropped by and we all went to the Reservoir Lounge where Marg Stowe was subbing with Bradley and the Bouncers, a group that my old buddy “Professor Piano”, Scott Cushnie was playing with until recently. Marg was playing up a storm – man when I watch a guitarist of that caliber playing it might as well be another instrument because they’re shaping chords and playing riffs that are so far beyond the simple country blues that I’ve been playing for the last 40 years (on the same guitar, as I am wont to say). The next day Harry tipped me off that Randy Bachman and Duke Robillard were going to sitting in with Jeff Healey at his club so I dropped in when it was almost midnight. When I walked in there was Randy Bachman on stage with a woman singing “You Got Me Running” or some such blues standard. Turns out it’s Denise his wife, and I listen to them all the time on the radio – they are a great team. Then Randy got a request to do “Taking Care of Business” but he announced that he was going to do it as a blues shuffle. The band was a little thrown off as he started up with those familiar chords in an unfamiliar rhythm but they caught on quick enough. I thought I wouldn’t get to hear Duke play, but he hung around and sat in for the last set, though by then the room had mostly cleared out and both Randy and Jeff and their respective entourages had left the building. After playing one tune on a borrowed Strat, he excused himself to go out to his car and get a big red Gibson that he had picked up that afternoon at the new Gibson showroom. He dug in with an old Room Full of Blues Tune that was requested by one of the horn players and it rocked. This was the first time I ever exchanged more than a couple of words with Duke, and when he heard my name he sort of recognized it and asked if we had ever played any festivals together. I realized afterward, he probably recognized my name from the MapleBlues masthead (…or maybe he saw it on my picture at the Silver Dollar Room, still hanging at the foot of the bar)
Next night we went to see Harry & Kevin at Hugh’s Room and it was a phenomenal evening. It was their first real gig together as a duo and they pulled it off beautifully, though reports were that the second night was even better, but I don’t know how it could get much better. Music, any music – not just blues, is about emotion and energy. And if you can pull out a bit of both in the course of an evening then you have created a moment that people will remember – and people were still talking about that show weeks later. The night after that, I was in the revered Massey Hall listening to Bettye Lavette and the Blind Boys of Alabama and they were all wonderful, of course, but I was still in the “Harry Zone”
Now the work has really piled up, and wouldn’t you know this is the time I get some inspiration to play guitar and work on some tunes. So deadlines or no, I take a liitle time out to play some guitar and I have no regrets. (it’s a good thing none of my clients read my blog, but I know there’s a few of you out there that get a kick out of this and that’s why I keep it up).
Thursday, May 17, 7-9 PM
Free Times Café, 320 College Street
This is a warm-up gig for some festival dates with Colorblind Brian and the New Blainettes. The cover charge is $10 with a generous sliding scale for struggling artists, under-employed and working poor.
If you never heard it, got to www.myspace.com/brianblain and listen to “Don’t Forget Your Mother” a boisterous production of
I’ve been chained to the computer lately and had almost given up on the idea of a Motherless Thursday concert (a mostly annual event on my gig calendar but I am happy to announce that thanks to Judy Perly at Free Times, there will be a Motherless Thursday show. As Judy would say, “Come early. Eat!”
This will be a good warm-up for some upcoming festival dates, starting with The Twisted Pines Festival on the May long-week-end (May 18-21) in Midland. It’s a solid lineup – mostly blues on Sunday (I play at 3:45 in the afternoon) with Downchild headlining but I’m especially looking forward to hearing the great Fred Eaglesmith for the first time. He plays Saturday night. Friends of the Toronto Blues Society are entitled to a $20 discount if you purchase your week-end pass at www.twistedpines.com and enter the code “tbs0407”
I’m not being much of a media mooch these days. I think I’m losing that craving for free shrimp. A couple of days ago was was the big media launch for North by Northeast and I just didn’t have it in me to go schmoozing. Hell, I didn’t even get to the launch party for the Jazz Festival (that was because I was back at home frantically updating their website before they went live). Not a lot of gigs last month but I don’t mind being home on a week-end because I love the radio. Friday nights it’s Reiner Schwarz on jazz.fm. He’s one of the pioneers of underground radio and a guy who hasn’t lost that spirit. It’s a credit to jazz-fm that they’ve hung in with Reiner, even though I’m sure he’s considered a bit of a “bad boy” over there. Right now I’m listening to the inimitable Danny Marks (he’s interviewing Morgan Davis) and my Saturday nights at home are often spent channel hopping between Danny and Holger Peterson on CBC – at one time I even had it set up to record one while I listened to the other. Just flipped and Holger is interviewing Dan Aykroyd! And playing some great tracks, of course.
I got to play on the stage at the new Jeff Healey Roadhouse the other day, and it’s a beautiful stage with lots of monitors and a huge monitor board but I have to say it was not exactly a comfort zone for me. The problem with a big expensive PA system is that we tend to have expectations of a nice big natural sound. Not necessarily. Most of the time a bigger PA just sounds like a bigger box. I shouldn’t fault the monitor guy, it was a benefit concert with lots of acts and a quick turnaround. I saw him a couple of days later and I had the feeling he was a little peeved with me – maybe because I was the one that had to ask him to put the acoustic piano back on the stage. The young lady handling the mains is top-notch. Interesting that there are a respectable proportion of female sound techs (well, two) in the top rooms – Ann at Hughs‘s Room and Debbie (?) at Healey’s.
Harry Manx dropped by and we all went to the Reservoir Lounge where Marg Stowe was subbing with Bradley and the Bouncers, a group that my old buddy “Professor Piano”, Scott Cushnie was playing with until recently. Marg was playing up a storm – man when I watch a guitarist of that caliber playing it might as well be another instrument because they’re shaping chords and playing riffs that are so far beyond the simple country blues that I’ve been playing for the last 40 years (on the same guitar, as I am wont to say). The next day Harry tipped me off that Randy Bachman and Duke Robillard were going to sitting in with Jeff Healey at his club so I dropped in when it was almost midnight. When I walked in there was Randy Bachman on stage with a woman singing “You Got Me Running” or some such blues standard. Turns out it’s Denise his wife, and I listen to them all the time on the radio – they are a great team. Then Randy got a request to do “Taking Care of Business” but he announced that he was going to do it as a blues shuffle. The band was a little thrown off as he started up with those familiar chords in an unfamiliar rhythm but they caught on quick enough. I thought I wouldn’t get to hear Duke play, but he hung around and sat in for the last set, though by then the room had mostly cleared out and both Randy and Jeff and their respective entourages had left the building. After playing one tune on a borrowed Strat, he excused himself to go out to his car and get a big red Gibson that he had picked up that afternoon at the new Gibson showroom. He dug in with an old Room Full of Blues Tune that was requested by one of the horn players and it rocked. This was the first time I ever exchanged more than a couple of words with Duke, and when he heard my name he sort of recognized it and asked if we had ever played any festivals together. I realized afterward, he probably recognized my name from the MapleBlues masthead (…or maybe he saw it on my picture at the Silver Dollar Room, still hanging at the foot of the bar)
Next night we went to see Harry & Kevin at Hugh’s Room and it was a phenomenal evening. It was their first real gig together as a duo and they pulled it off beautifully, though reports were that the second night was even better, but I don’t know how it could get much better. Music, any music – not just blues, is about emotion and energy. And if you can pull out a bit of both in the course of an evening then you have created a moment that people will remember – and people were still talking about that show weeks later. The night after that, I was in the revered Massey Hall listening to Bettye Lavette and the Blind Boys of Alabama and they were all wonderful, of course, but I was still in the “Harry Zone”
Now the work has really piled up, and wouldn’t you know this is the time I get some inspiration to play guitar and work on some tunes. So deadlines or no, I take a liitle time out to play some guitar and I have no regrets. (it’s a good thing none of my clients read my blog, but I know there’s a few of you out there that get a kick out of this and that’s why I keep it up).
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Correction, Address Change, Apology...and another Blainletter
THE CORRECTION: As many of you know, my "day job" is putting together MapleBlues, the Toronto Blues Society magazine (among others). I don't know if being the (barely)managing editor helps or hinders my performing career, but sometimes it leaves me in an embarrassing predicament. Tonight my dear Listing Coordinator pointed out that mine was the only name listed performing at the big BluesLink Benefit concert at Healey's Roadhouse on Wednesday Night (Apr 11). How could that happen? Well, she didn't know the names of the participants but she knew I was doing it and she figured I would add the other names later (which I should have if I hadn’t been rushing to get the magazine out on time). So to make up for this glaring omission. Here's the complete schedule. I hope a few people from my mailing list will come out and support this good cause. Read about it at
Here’s the actual running order:
“Colorblind” Blain 8 pm
w/Lily Sazz & Michelle Josef
Lucian Thomas 8:45
Gary Kendall Band 9:30
with special guest: Jani Lauzon
Mr. Rick and the Biscuits 10:20
The Harmonica Knights 11:00
Paul Reddick, David Rotundo, Chuck Jackson,
Dr. Nick, and host Mark “Bird” Stafford
See you at one of these gigs I hope:
Wed. Apr 11 8pm Healey's Roadhouse (see sched above)
Sat. May 19 afternoon Twisted Pines Music Festival, Midland (solo)
Sun. May 20 evening concert Twisted Pines Music Festival (w/Blainettes)
Sat. June 30 2pm Toronto Jazz Festival Greektown stage Danforth & Logan (w/Blainettes)
THE ADDRESS CHANGE: Oh yeah, due to the ever increasing volume of spam I’m getting (and having my address hijacked by spammers) I am changing my email to brianblain@brianblain.ca. blain@tojazz is still fine Please update your Blackberrys or whatever device you use.
THE PITCH: There is no dignified way of saying this, but if you are a festival director, I am still looking for some dates in July and beyond. A couple of festivals have booked my blues band, "Colorblind Brian and the New Blainettes" but at this point I can be a solo, tweener, whatever gap you might need to fill. In French you could call me a "bouche-trou." I'm fun, I'm bluesy, I'm bilingual. Hire me. End of commercial.
THE APOLOGY: If you have received this Blainletter on a listserve like MaplePost or MapleBlue, I don't mean to spam you. It's only because a certain listmom/friend has accused me of being too "shy" so I am sending this one-time-only e-blast to the world. If you would like to continue receiving the Blainletter, then please replay to this with the word “subscribe” in the subject line… and Welcome to Blainville! Some find it to be entertaining commentary - I send out once a month or when I can manage.
My night in Toronto: As I was typing away this blog, I realized there was some music I wanted to see tonight so at 10pm I jump in the car and head straight over to Clinton’s to hear Montrealer Rob Lutes. Rob delivers a great show, some great originals and well-chosen covers. One tune I thought right away sounded like Chris Smithers and sure enough it was one of his tunes. Then he did a cover of “That’s How Strong My Love Is” and even a credible version of “Wichita Lineman” His long-time guitarist, Rob Macdonald was in fine form, getting applause at the end of every solo (and sometimes in the middle of a solo!). Rob had a great sound and I asked him after what kind of guitar/pickup he had. It was a wood-body resophonic. I think he called it a “Listell” I told Rob if was heading down to Healey’s to hear Garrett Mason, and he said he might try to get down but I realized as I was driving away that he probably thinks Healey’s is still at Bathurst & Queen. Well even if he headed straight down to the new place, he would have missed the show – as it was I only heard the encore (but it was rockin’). Then I stop at a 7/11 on the way home, I park next to a small car with a dark, mysterious woman at the wheel. When I come out, she has rolled down the passenger and call’s me over to get some directions. When I approach, I realize she’s pulled down her shirt to expose some pretty massive breasts. She says “Do you live alone?” I said something like “Lookin good but not tonite…” and got back in my car but I guess she took that as some kind of encouragement because she pulls out right behind me and start to follow me. At the red light, she pulls up alongside still flirting, I make a left, and she cuts across the lane to keep following me. Yikes, I’m being stalked. I speed up up and she speeds, finally I see my chance and I race towards a light that is about to change and make a quick left and finally I’ve lost her. That was pretty exciting. I think I owe her a few bucks just for that little thrill!
Dan Hill: I don’t know if this guy has a new record coming out, or a book or a movie but all of a sudden I’m hearing “Sometimes when we touch” all over the CBC. That song does not bring back great memories for me. A lot of people may have issues with that song, but for me it represents a career altering moment (and none of my career altering moments have furthered the career). It was about 1973, I was visiting Toronto after having released a single on the Montreal-based Good Noise label. I was feeling pretty confident, I had done some nice showcases in Montreal and opened some big shows for Lou reed and Seals & Crofts and now I came up to TO. to try to get a gig. It was bad enough the record company (Polydor) was completely focused on a new release by Jim (?) called “Spiders and Snakes” which they classified as a novelty record and since mine was also considered “novelty” it was second banana and never got the pus to radio that it would have received otherwise. Anyway, I was here in Toronto and I had my guitar and someone dragged me down to an “open stage” at a club called Eggertons. I was set to play when the newly-signed Dan Hill came in with a big entourage (I think their might have been a flamboyant publicist with log white hair in that party – I must ask Richard Flohil if it could have been him). Anyway, I was “bumped” and Dan got up and played his soon-to-be mega hit and my window to make a little splash in Toronto evaporated. I went back to Montreal and did not pursue the solo thing. I think I spent the next five years on the road playing bass for all kinds of groups, country rock to wearing a tux backing up a Streisand clone. And did I mention that now Hollywood has come out with a movie called “The Pick of Destiny” which cops that “novely tune” of mine. It was called “The Story of the Magic Pick.”
Other Music around Town: Since getting back from Memphis last month, it’s been non-stop music. I know, I know, I should be home working on my own music, but when you’re a part-time media mooch like myself (I mean, desktop publishing mogul) you get invited to so many CD launches and great concerts. In addition, my boss has opened a new club which is destined to be THE showcase room for jazz in this city, and the whole country for that matter. The opening was packed with high-rollers and beautiful people. Since then I’ve been a few times to hear some local jazos and the wonderful Roberta Gambarini.
Then I took Jacquie to the Johnny Winter show (yes, this is the same Jacquie that screwed up the Blueslink listing in the MapleBlues). Jacquie had always wanted to see Johnny Winter and even though I heard that Johnny was not in great shape, I was glad for the opportunity to see him again since the only other time I ever saw him was at a rock festival at Varsity Stadium in 1970 (??). It was the most dramatic entrance I’d ever seen anyone make. The announcer had already yelled out “Johnny Winter!” a name that meant nothing to me, but then I heard a searing slide guitar intro, but there was only a bass player and drummer on stage. Then after another minute or so, he appeared from the side of the stage, resplendent in satiny black outfit with flowing white hair, playing a burning slide lead on a 12 string electric guitar. I’d never seen slide played on a 12-string and still haven’t to this day. Now it’s 35 years later, I’m standing by the side of the stage as his drummer does the intro after they’ve played a couple of tunes with a guest guitarist. Then I see Johnny being led in through the back door, directly up to the stage where he is placed in a chair with a cushion taped to the seat with duct tape. He walked like a little old man and his arms were so thin. My comment to those who asked was “He can still play” but the fire was not there. He chose a lot of very predictable blues standards to start – it made you wonder if this was just a pick-up band. One friend who’s band had opened a bunch of shows for Johnny a few years back asked if he had occasionally shifted keys in the middle of a song, and I do believe that happened once or twice. It was hard to watch the senior version of someone who had been just about the most glamourous figure in Rock and Roll at a certain moment. But “he can still play” and he can still pack a club. Good for him.
Downchild had a big CD launch of their live album at the new Healey’s and they rocked the house. I was at the gig they recorded – it was at the Palais Royale, where I’m headed in a couple of days for the National Jazz Awards. I also saw two of the great blues touring acts from the west coast, Coco Montoya and Mark Hummel (with Rusty Zinn). Some great guitar playing, and I want a hat just like the one Mark Hummel was wearing. Canadian Music Week kicked off with some interesting speeches (from record pioneer Jac Holzman and rapper Chuck D) and was followed with three nights of music that is all just a blur. I remember young Liam Titcomb did a great showcase and played some tunes from his new album – I hope it gets out pretty soon, it’s been in the can for a while. I told Liam that I had reworked the song I was pitching him back when he was writing his first album and that I was now performing it myself. I still want to play it for him one of these days. It’s called “The End of September” and it’s a “first-day-of-school” scenario. I remember when I was describing the tune to one of Liam’s songwriting pals, she said she questioned whether Liam would be interested in that “schoolboy” thing. She’s probably right, but if I’d got it to him back when I thought of it (of course, it wasn’t finished at that time).
This reminds me of my song about New Orleans. When a promoter friend said he was involved in a benefit concert for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, I told him I was writing a song for the occasion. Still, I didn’t make it onto the bill, and it’s just as well, cause I’ve only just finished the song. Then there were a couple of events that I attended just briefly; the Lula Lounge celebration for CBC’s Global Village program and The Indie Awards.
One lasting image of Music Week is a bare-chested guy with eye make-up jumping around the stage like a chimpanzee and making weird gutteral sounds into the mic. I didn’t stick around for the whole thing but I discovered after that they were a group from Montreal called Les Breastfeeders and that they are “the next big thing” (in Europe, at least).
Speaking of Europe, I had bad news and good news from harp player who I played with last year in the Czech Republic and Germany. He said our Czech tour for this fall was not coming together and that he was not going to be available at that time because he would be on tour with Kathi Macdonald. She is a powerhouse (3 years as an Ikette with Ike & Tina Turner) – I sat in with her once at a tiny bar in Montreal called “G Sharp” and she raised the roof. Anyway, the good news was that Butch couldn’t track down the guitarist who was supposed top do the gig and he offered it to me. Here’s some of the dates…if you’re in the neighbourhood:
Oct. 18 Jubez - Karlsruhe
Oct. 19 Wodanhalle - Freiburg
Oct. 20 Albani - Winterthur, Switzerland
Oct. 21 Alte Post - Aeugstertal, Switzerland
Oct. 26 Maltzhaus - Plauen
Oct. 27 Kleinkunstbuhne - Pirna
Oct. 28 Schloss Goseck - Goseck
Nov. 1 Buchcafe - Bad Hersfeld
Nov. 3 Kulturverein - Kellinghusen
Nov. 4 Heimathaus – Twist
Folk Alliance in Memphis
I got to Memphis too late for the opening press conference so I missed hearing Buffy St-Marie who made a huge impression on everyone who heard her keynote address (I had a bit of a breakthrough when I opted to stay in, check out my gear and prepare for my showcase rather than go to the keynote). Maybe I should have just gone to hear Buffy because there were only five or six people at the showcase anyway, though it was an audience many of those showcasers would have killed for - Rounder founder Ken Irwin and wife Donna Wilson Irwin whom I've known for years and who were just there supporting a friend). Rather than play my prepared set, I pulled out some tunes I've never played in public including "Last Time I Saw Lenny" (Breau) and "Alice," a where-is-she-now ballad about Alice Brock, the subject of the now 40-year old "Alice's Restaurant." I've reworked the tune since Alice told me it wasn't her favourite Brian Blain song and that it wasn't exactly a "toe-tapper." I didn't feel so bad about having just a handful of people at my hotel room showcase when I walked by many "official" showcases in much larger spaces with even fewer listeners – in one case, I was the only person in the audience which was pretty awkward for both of us.
Then there was Rory Block's show on the Martin Stage. Rory is a blues headliner and probably got a nice fee from Martin Guitars (the better to pay the gas in her giant tour bus…I think it was hers, anyway). The Martin Stage was in a cavernous space in the convention centre outside the trade show area (double cavernous). There was hardly anybody seated up by the stage though there were lots of people wandering around in the distance. I gather from his recent post that the guy sitting a few seats from me was Steve Edge – hey Steve, if I'd known it was you I would have said hello! That was a thankless gig but Rory dug in and put on a show for anyone who cared to listen. She talked about her early days as a teenager touring the rural south with Stefan Grossman telling how he would stop in at every pawn shop and ask if they had any old Martin guitars. Many times the pawnbroker would pull out a banged up pre-war Martin and Stefan would get it for 40 or 50 bucks. When they returned to New York, he had accumulated ten or more of these priceless guitars. We can only imagine what they're worth today.
I slipped away from Rory's set to make my way to the Blues Workshop where I found Ann Rabson (playing guitar, which she pointed out was her main instrument long before piano). Also on stage was William Lee Ellis who I met earlier in our showcase room. I found out later that he is a prominent music writer in Memphis and he did the "celebrity interview" with Jesse Winchester. He's a great finger-picker too – I was watching carefully. There was a very small audience in the Blues workshop (I guess Steve Edge was there too) and the players opted to turn off the PA system, which was fine until the banjo workshop (amplified) got going in the adjacent room.
Following the Blues workshop, we had a blues jam and I joined in. Ken Whiteley and Alice Stuart were the hosts though Alice hardly played and split early. Apparently she is one of the first women on the blues circuit to play lead electric guitar and has been out of the scene for a while. Regrettably, I never got to see her doing a showcase. Ken was coaxing me to play Ben's electric string bass but I tried for a moment and realized it's been way too long (like 45 years). Maybe with a little tape to mark the positions I might have tried it, but it was just too strange.
At the same time as my showcase, the Quebec contingent were having a showcase with Penny Lang, Ray Bonneville, Jesse Winchester and others. I missed it, of course, but I had the privilege to tag along for a recording session with Penny and Ray and the legendary Sun Studios. Now there's a studio with some history. The front area had been converted into a souvenir shop and the upstairs was a veritable museum but the studio itself was pretty well the way it was when Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and Howlin' Wolf had recorded there. The equipment was not the same, though. There were a few old tape machines hanging around for décor, but the control room featured what many would consider "semi-pro" gear. Regardless, they laid down some great tracks and Penny loved that classic Memphis "slap-echo" on her vocal. I hope they get to use some of these tracks on her next album. Penny is a true national treasure and Ray Bonneville is a road warrior who lives to play.
At the Awards soiree, I got to see a phenomenal kora player, Mamadou Diabate – tall, elegant and an amazing player. I've had a kora in my living room for months but have not got to first base.
I had decided to bring my Johnson resophonic rather than my beloved Epiphone guitar but as I looked around I could see that everybody else brought there finest and most treasured instruments. I've seen a lot of old Gibsons, but I don't think there's ever been such a collection of "banner" Gibsons, the really old ones, under one roof. Interesting that everyone was so concerned about getting the best sound from their guitars with the state of the art pick-ups and pre-amps but I think the best sounding guitar I heard all week-end was Jesse Winchester's classical guitar with no pickup. He just pulled a mic in front of it and it sounded so full and beautiful. Maybe I was caught up in the emotion of the moment – Jesse had just been honoured by the greatest musicians in the country at a special ASCAP reception and he played a few songs for the large crowd. I spoke to him briefly but I'm not sure he remembered me. Thirty-five years ago we worked for a couple of weeks as co-producers of the second Fraser & DeBolt album but Jesse bailed on the project when things were getting too loose for his liking. I wanted to reminisce with him about when he first arrived in Montreal and I remember getting a call from Sue Lothrop telling me that she and Allan Fraser (then performing as a duo called "Breakfast") were going to pay the musicians' union initiation fee for this great guitarist who had just arrived in Montreal…that was Jesse, of course. I was their manager and forbade them putting out that money for Jesse when there were many other great guitarists who were already in the union, but we can all be glad they disregarded my fiscal concerns and went ahead and got Jesse in the union so he could play the gig with them (I think it was at the Venus de Milo Room).
I'm looking at the list I made of artists I wanted to see, but alas I hardly got to see half of them. I didn't get to hear Digging Roots with their new band lineup, but I heard lots of great comments. Raven was the first familiar face I saw at the hotel and then we ran into each other on Beale Street. The Canadian contingent fared very well. New Brunswick's Hot Toddy were rocking the "East Coast" room. I overheard one attendee talking about Andrew Collins of Creaking Tree String Quartet "After a week-end of listening to mediocre mandolin players it's a relief to hear someone who can really play". I went out for breakfast with Australian Jeff Lang and he was trying to remember the name of some high-energy duo from Canada that knocked him out. "The Undesirables?" I asked. "That's it," he said, and asked me to repeat the name again later. My faves were the Lovell Sisters, the Illuminatti Orchestrii from the Bronx and a crazy trio of gypsy-style performers from Australia called Vardoz. I heard a young Nova Scotian guitarist whose last name was Leblanc. I've got to hjear more of him.
The Carolina Chocolate Drops were the buzz of the weekend and they had a great shtick but I wondered how it would sustain for a whole evening. The best moment of the whole week-end for me was one of the groups that played right after me in the Rolling & Tumbling suite. They were an gospel quartet (actually five elderly black gentlemen wearing dark suits and matching ties) called the Spirit of Memphis. They performed a capella and stated proudly that the group has been in existence 77 years and it was a most uplifting performance. I sat mesmerized in a big armchair right in front. To the left of me was music industry pioneer Chris Strachwitz filming the performance on his camcorder and next to him the renown musicologist Dr. David Evans.
We saved the best for last and late Saturday Night the jamming began. First Michelle and I set up in the lobby mezzanine and attracted Eivor and Bill Bourne (man that guy really has something all his own, and Eivor is a vocalist nonpareil), then we made our way up to a room where I had a quickie jam with Ken Whiteley and played him my song-in-the-works about New Orleans. Finally (at about 3am) many of the Rolling & Tumbling participants gathered in our suite for an informal jam and we were all delighted when David showed up with legendary bass player Freebo who lays down a real solid groove. We had a room full of guitar players but it did not get out of hand at all and some great moments were had. I don't even know all their names, but the group included David, Michelle, myself, Freebo, Jonathan Byrd, David Glaser, Steve James, Greg Klyma, Andy Cohen and Spook Handy. What a pleasure jamming with these great musicians. That's what it's all about for me.
Then there was Rory Block's show on the Martin Stage. Rory is a blues headliner and probably got a nice fee from Martin Guitars (the better to pay the gas in her giant tour bus…I think it was hers, anyway). The Martin Stage was in a cavernous space in the convention centre outside the trade show area (double cavernous). There was hardly anybody seated up by the stage though there were lots of people wandering around in the distance. I gather from his recent post that the guy sitting a few seats from me was Steve Edge – hey Steve, if I'd known it was you I would have said hello! That was a thankless gig but Rory dug in and put on a show for anyone who cared to listen. She talked about her early days as a teenager touring the rural south with Stefan Grossman telling how he would stop in at every pawn shop and ask if they had any old Martin guitars. Many times the pawnbroker would pull out a banged up pre-war Martin and Stefan would get it for 40 or 50 bucks. When they returned to New York, he had accumulated ten or more of these priceless guitars. We can only imagine what they're worth today.
I slipped away from Rory's set to make my way to the Blues Workshop where I found Ann Rabson (playing guitar, which she pointed out was her main instrument long before piano). Also on stage was William Lee Ellis who I met earlier in our showcase room. I found out later that he is a prominent music writer in Memphis and he did the "celebrity interview" with Jesse Winchester. He's a great finger-picker too – I was watching carefully. There was a very small audience in the Blues workshop (I guess Steve Edge was there too) and the players opted to turn off the PA system, which was fine until the banjo workshop (amplified) got going in the adjacent room.
Following the Blues workshop, we had a blues jam and I joined in. Ken Whiteley and Alice Stuart were the hosts though Alice hardly played and split early. Apparently she is one of the first women on the blues circuit to play lead electric guitar and has been out of the scene for a while. Regrettably, I never got to see her doing a showcase. Ken was coaxing me to play Ben's electric string bass but I tried for a moment and realized it's been way too long (like 45 years). Maybe with a little tape to mark the positions I might have tried it, but it was just too strange.
At the same time as my showcase, the Quebec contingent were having a showcase with Penny Lang, Ray Bonneville, Jesse Winchester and others. I missed it, of course, but I had the privilege to tag along for a recording session with Penny and Ray and the legendary Sun Studios. Now there's a studio with some history. The front area had been converted into a souvenir shop and the upstairs was a veritable museum but the studio itself was pretty well the way it was when Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and Howlin' Wolf had recorded there. The equipment was not the same, though. There were a few old tape machines hanging around for décor, but the control room featured what many would consider "semi-pro" gear. Regardless, they laid down some great tracks and Penny loved that classic Memphis "slap-echo" on her vocal. I hope they get to use some of these tracks on her next album. Penny is a true national treasure and Ray Bonneville is a road warrior who lives to play.
At the Awards soiree, I got to see a phenomenal kora player, Mamadou Diabate – tall, elegant and an amazing player. I've had a kora in my living room for months but have not got to first base.
I had decided to bring my Johnson resophonic rather than my beloved Epiphone guitar but as I looked around I could see that everybody else brought there finest and most treasured instruments. I've seen a lot of old Gibsons, but I don't think there's ever been such a collection of "banner" Gibsons, the really old ones, under one roof. Interesting that everyone was so concerned about getting the best sound from their guitars with the state of the art pick-ups and pre-amps but I think the best sounding guitar I heard all week-end was Jesse Winchester's classical guitar with no pickup. He just pulled a mic in front of it and it sounded so full and beautiful. Maybe I was caught up in the emotion of the moment – Jesse had just been honoured by the greatest musicians in the country at a special ASCAP reception and he played a few songs for the large crowd. I spoke to him briefly but I'm not sure he remembered me. Thirty-five years ago we worked for a couple of weeks as co-producers of the second Fraser & DeBolt album but Jesse bailed on the project when things were getting too loose for his liking. I wanted to reminisce with him about when he first arrived in Montreal and I remember getting a call from Sue Lothrop telling me that she and Allan Fraser (then performing as a duo called "Breakfast") were going to pay the musicians' union initiation fee for this great guitarist who had just arrived in Montreal…that was Jesse, of course. I was their manager and forbade them putting out that money for Jesse when there were many other great guitarists who were already in the union, but we can all be glad they disregarded my fiscal concerns and went ahead and got Jesse in the union so he could play the gig with them (I think it was at the Venus de Milo Room).
I'm looking at the list I made of artists I wanted to see, but alas I hardly got to see half of them. I didn't get to hear Digging Roots with their new band lineup, but I heard lots of great comments. Raven was the first familiar face I saw at the hotel and then we ran into each other on Beale Street. The Canadian contingent fared very well. New Brunswick's Hot Toddy were rocking the "East Coast" room. I overheard one attendee talking about Andrew Collins of Creaking Tree String Quartet "After a week-end of listening to mediocre mandolin players it's a relief to hear someone who can really play". I went out for breakfast with Australian Jeff Lang and he was trying to remember the name of some high-energy duo from Canada that knocked him out. "The Undesirables?" I asked. "That's it," he said, and asked me to repeat the name again later. My faves were the Lovell Sisters, the Illuminatti Orchestrii from the Bronx and a crazy trio of gypsy-style performers from Australia called Vardoz. I heard a young Nova Scotian guitarist whose last name was Leblanc. I've got to hjear more of him.
The Carolina Chocolate Drops were the buzz of the weekend and they had a great shtick but I wondered how it would sustain for a whole evening. The best moment of the whole week-end for me was one of the groups that played right after me in the Rolling & Tumbling suite. They were an gospel quartet (actually five elderly black gentlemen wearing dark suits and matching ties) called the Spirit of Memphis. They performed a capella and stated proudly that the group has been in existence 77 years and it was a most uplifting performance. I sat mesmerized in a big armchair right in front. To the left of me was music industry pioneer Chris Strachwitz filming the performance on his camcorder and next to him the renown musicologist Dr. David Evans.
We saved the best for last and late Saturday Night the jamming began. First Michelle and I set up in the lobby mezzanine and attracted Eivor and Bill Bourne (man that guy really has something all his own, and Eivor is a vocalist nonpareil), then we made our way up to a room where I had a quickie jam with Ken Whiteley and played him my song-in-the-works about New Orleans. Finally (at about 3am) many of the Rolling & Tumbling participants gathered in our suite for an informal jam and we were all delighted when David showed up with legendary bass player Freebo who lays down a real solid groove. We had a room full of guitar players but it did not get out of hand at all and some great moments were had. I don't even know all their names, but the group included David, Michelle, myself, Freebo, Jonathan Byrd, David Glaser, Steve James, Greg Klyma, Andy Cohen and Spook Handy. What a pleasure jamming with these great musicians. That's what it's all about for me.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
The Blues Summit
I know I've been spending too much time on the computer when I find myself thinking about three or four things at once and I'm seeing them all in different windows in my brain and I find myself selecting "hide others" or "bring to front" as I try to keep track of all the things I must remember to do. Anyway, it's mostly done. I got my WholeNote column in, Crescendo is at the printer, MapleBlues is printed and delivered and all that's left is Downtown Jazz.
Meanwhile I did get away to a gig last night. Played with the wonderful Lily Sazz and we put out a lot of energy, even if I do say so myself. Haven't done much in the way of following up on the Blues Summit. Met a lot of great folks and now that I think about it, I saw a lot of folks I know across the room and never got a chance to say hello. I hosted an opening song circle/guitar pull which I had hoped would give a lot of visiting musicians a chance to get acquainted with some of the locals and it worked out great. In fact, I'm here listening to young Layla Zoe talking with Danny Marks on his radio show. They were both part of the "Campfire" (in fact, Danny was the consummate "utility man" playing bass, drums or whatever was required).
Here's a pic of Mr. Rick, Rick Fines and Steve Marriner with Danny in the background. Wish I had taken more pics.
Ken Whiteley dropped in, Bill Johnson from out west, Bird Stafford, Zoe Chilco and some folks whose name escapes me now. I think a good time was had by all, and it's was great to start the summit on a musical note. A couple of folks even got some gigs out of it.
The summit and Maple Blues Awards soiree were jam packed and it was an exhausting week-end. There are great pictures posted at www. talkinblues.com and www.dougalco.com/cgi-bin/portfolioshow.cgi . I just posted a bunch of snaps at www.flickr.com (just search for "blues summit"). You may be in one of those pictures…
On the Tuesday after, I got struck down with a cold and the this whole week I've been under the weather. Right now, I'm making plans to head out to a much larger music conference in Memphis next month. That is the "mother" of them all, the Folk Alliance. There will be lots of jamming and I've got a couple of showcase slots, one just in thanks to the cancellation of Mamadou Diabate. ! I just need to find someone willing to help with the driving – I get tired just driving to Hamilton.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Listening to the radio
Just finished my desktop publishing duties and got the January MapleBlues FTPd to the printer. Still trying to remember if I changed all the 2006s to 2007s.
I turn on iTunes to hear my favourite blues radio show on CKLN.FM and it’s not connecting. After putzing around for a while, I get 88.1 on the radio (usually very bad, if any, reception where I live) As I listened a bit, I was hearing an unfamiliar voice and it took a while before I figured out it was Gary Kendall subbing for Dr Feelgood. I started searching on my newly merged database for the direct line to the studio. I can’t find the number under David Barnard or Julie Hill , the regular DJs, but I find it with a long-gone blues DJ, Steve Gash (long gone to Universal-land).
Then I have to go to the other room because the battery on the cordless is dead…and I’m trying to hold that studio phone number in my head (I’m not good at that). I dial the number but when it doesn’t answer I’m thinking I got it wrong. I came back and listened on the radio for a bit then I heard Gary say on the air “Brian, call back” so we did get to chat and I made a call to the tech guy who checked and found that the server was down.
CKLN is back online and now I will sit back and enjoy Steve Pritchard’s Bluegrass show. Always a great selection of music. He says twin fiddles are all the rage in bluegrass these days. Or you could do what Drew Jurecka does and wrap the bow on both sides of the strings ..or whatever it is he does to get those “triple stops” (3 strings sounding at once - I heard him demonstrating the technique on Stuart McLean).
While listening to the bluegrass, I get an email from my friend Jacquie telling me to check out a link to iceberg.com where they have me listed (photo not available). It looks like they’re lnked to allmusic.com because it displays their review of my CD. It also say the release date was October 2005. Was it so long ago? Well my record company man just asked me if I had written any new songs so I think that’s the trigger for a long process that will culminate in another Brian Blain album. I think I heard a click. Is that the sound of a gun being held to my head? (sometimes I work best that way).
I turn on iTunes to hear my favourite blues radio show on CKLN.FM and it’s not connecting. After putzing around for a while, I get 88.1 on the radio (usually very bad, if any, reception where I live) As I listened a bit, I was hearing an unfamiliar voice and it took a while before I figured out it was Gary Kendall subbing for Dr Feelgood. I started searching on my newly merged database for the direct line to the studio. I can’t find the number under David Barnard or Julie Hill , the regular DJs, but I find it with a long-gone blues DJ, Steve Gash (long gone to Universal-land).
Then I have to go to the other room because the battery on the cordless is dead…and I’m trying to hold that studio phone number in my head (I’m not good at that). I dial the number but when it doesn’t answer I’m thinking I got it wrong. I came back and listened on the radio for a bit then I heard Gary say on the air “Brian, call back” so we did get to chat and I made a call to the tech guy who checked and found that the server was down.
CKLN is back online and now I will sit back and enjoy Steve Pritchard’s Bluegrass show. Always a great selection of music. He says twin fiddles are all the rage in bluegrass these days. Or you could do what Drew Jurecka does and wrap the bow on both sides of the strings ..or whatever it is he does to get those “triple stops” (3 strings sounding at once - I heard him demonstrating the technique on Stuart McLean).
While listening to the bluegrass, I get an email from my friend Jacquie telling me to check out a link to iceberg.com where they have me listed (photo not available). It looks like they’re lnked to allmusic.com because it displays their review of my CD. It also say the release date was October 2005. Was it so long ago? Well my record company man just asked me if I had written any new songs so I think that’s the trigger for a long process that will culminate in another Brian Blain album. I think I heard a click. Is that the sound of a gun being held to my head? (sometimes I work best that way).
Saturday, December 2, 2006
Blainletter #5
Jacquie Houston, Harry Manx, Roberta Hunt and Michelle Josef hanging out on the break.
Last night I did my first gig at Grossman’s. Grossman’s, a blues “shrine” on the Canadian blues landscape. I remember it’s one of the only blues bars I knew about when I arrived in Toronto. The place where Downchild were discovered by Dan Aykroyd and where Jeff Healey made a buzz. I have to say I was a little taken aback when I made my first pilgrimage…could this be the place I had been hearing about all these years??? I seem to remember the washroom more than the band that was playing. It wasn’t no Downchild, anyway.
I had previous been invited to sit in for a tune or two – I remember once with Gary Kendall and another time with Laura Hubert. But here I am – my first paying gig at Grossmans…and the pay wasn’t that bad. One CD sale topped it up to a reasonable wage. I guess I never asked for a gig at Grossman’s…but then they never asked me..not until Roberta Hunt sugeested we do something there (she plays there every Saturday with the Happy Pals). I got Michelle Josef to join us on drums and we had a ball.
I must say the evening got off to miserable start when my beloved Epiphone took a fall and the headstock popped off. It’s in the shop now – I’m sure it can be fixed. The end result was that I used my Strat all night – I hadn’t even planned to bring it. And I had a great time with the Strat…though I’m the kind of guitar player who will play whatever you put in his lap, as long as it stays in tune.
It wasn’t much of a turnout, I must say, though there was always at least 3 or 4 tables and more people hanging out on the periphery. I think one of them might have been a blues harp player I met in the summer. “Shrimp Daddy”, was that you? There was another illustrious visitor, Harry Manx dropped in on a (rare) day off on his tour with Michael Kaeshammer. I saw their show in Toronto a couple of weeks back - man, they are two phenomenal virtuosos.
One great benefit to playing Grossman’s was finding out where the best place to have late-night Chinese food was (it’s the place with the Green sign across Spadina). And it was good.
I have been putzing around with a new (improved?) system to send out e-blasts and it seems like it stalled on me. I'm now sending out the Blainletter 50 at a time.
I merged my old address book with my fanlist and took the liberty of adding a few names to the fanlist – if this is your first Blainletter and you want it to be your last, just let me know. I assure you they don’t come out that often.
On the Grossman’s poster I referred to myself as “The Real” Brian Blain, because following the theft of my wallet on a subway in Prague last month I’m starting to worry that there’s somebody out there who has more documentation to prove he’s Brian Blain than I do. (As if it wasn’t bad enough that there’s some pecan farmer in Oregon with my name). It’s time for me to be more assertive. For my remaining years, this Brian Blain is going to be IN YOUR FACE, lest anyone think they can steal THIS identity!
Back from a rehearsal with Roberta I tune in Dr Feelgood on CKLN and what do you know…he’s playing a track from my album! It’s always interesting to hear how your stuff sounds on the radio, or in this case, on the computer. It does get scrunched up a little bit, but still sounded fine.
Well, besides getting a spin on CKLN, what else has been happening in my music career, you ask (or not)... Last Saturday I was sitting with Shelagh Rogers backstage at Massey Hall and reminded her that I gave her a CD this time last year...I guess I was waiting for an engraved invitation to be on her show. Maybe this time I’ll do a little follow up. We were at the Toronto Blues Society’s Women’s Blues Revue where many of my musical colleagues were backing up a bevy of fine vocalists including the beloved Jackie Richardson and her powerhouse daughter Kim Richardson (who I had never seen perform, though I’m sure I’ve heard her backing vocals with many great artists). My long time collaborator Lily Sazz was the band leader and did a stellar job, as did Michelle, Suzie and Marg Stowe (who was in Prague at the same time as me and graciously invited me to open one of her shows).
Last night Michelle was playing at Shakura S’Aida’s CD launch and they were putting out some great sounds. Lance Anderson was amazing, as he always is when he gets on a real B3 Hammond organ. David Rotundo sat in on harp and we exchanged stories of my beloved Eastern Townships, where he was just playing. I’m still trying to get a gig in Sutton, the town where I was living before I moved to Toronto. I guess it will be Spring before we get a Quebec tour happening. After Shakura, I dropped by the Free Times to hear Mary Knickle, who was visiting from Nova Scotia. She has that crystal clear celtic vocal sound that transports you to a time and place far away. Mary and I swapped CD’s and agreed to become MySpace “friends.” If I have been less than pro-active in getting gigs, I’m even worse at gathering “friends” on MySpace, but they do trickle in. My SonicBids website has been shut down, an aftermath of the cancellation of my credit card after the pickpocket incident (they sure didn’t waste much time in shutting me down!) so I will have to make do with MySpace for now. I still have a bio and stuff at www.northernblues.com/bio_blain.html and I still have my blog at http://torontobluesdiary.blogspot.com. I’ve had the blog since before they were called blogs and it’s where I have been documenting my musical adventures and lessons learned since I arrived in Toronto. For example, here are some tips I’ve noted lately (let’s see how many I can apply to my own show):
- “Charisma comes when you take charge on stage”
- “capture and engage...make moments...change lives”
- The Audience wants spontaneity “Gee, this is probably the only time this ever happened” (this should come easy to me since I've never played a song the same way twice...many bandmates will vouch for that!)
- People want to “see” the music, too. Make it visual. “He was making love to his guitar”
- When you step up to the mike, make it a deliberate move (step in from the side rather than from the back)
- “What’s The hurry?” Nothing wrong with an extended vamp on that intro before coming in with the vocal. “If the audience is in the palm of your hand, then milk it” (That reminds me when I saw young Roxanne Potvin’s showcase: At one point she was getting some prolonged applause, but she cut it off. I felt the energy drop. She should have “milked it” a bit more.)
Here’s a “note to my self” before I go touring in the US: Get an “ITIN number” on the IRS website (for employer/presenter waiver) and get forms to pre-pay tax on CDs from carnetcanada@chambre.ca
Don’t know when I will be making my way back to the States but when I do, I hope to do another house concert at Alice Brock’s studio in Provincetown. Alice has been my biggest booster down there (she’s being celebrated these days because it’s the 40th Anniversary of “Alice’s Restaurant). Visit her brand new website, www.alicebrock.com to see what she’s up to these days.
Other shows I’ve seen since I got back from Europe: The Afro-Cuban All-Stars were at Massey Hall and though it started a little “sleepy” (for a Cuban band) it picked in the second half. The real highlight for me was looking across the aisle and seeing Billy Bryans, who has been going through some serious health challenges, looking fit as a fiddle and grooving to the music. A couple of nights later, it was the “Night To Remember,” Mory the Sockman’s big show at the Palais Royale with Downchild. I’ve never seen them playing better and Donny Walsh was really rockin’ on the guitar as were Michael Fonfara and a the rock solid rhythm section of Gary Kendall and Mike Fitzpatrick (who, regretfully, is leaving the band). Luckily, they recorded the night for a CD/DVD release so many more will share the excitement of that evening.
Downtown Jazz brought in Roy Ayers and the “Superstars of Jazz Fusion” and this was one show that both me and my son Joel could both get into, but I think Joel preferred Roy when he was playing in town last year with Nick “Brownman” Ali and some DJ/remixers who may not have been superstars but who certainly knew how to raise the roof. Then I saw Britain’s favourite R&B sensation, James Hunter, and even though James himself was in better shape than the last time I saw him - he was at the Supermaket last summer but apparently had a bad cold - so this time he was hitting a lot more of his trademark Jackie Wilson high notes, but there was something different about the band. Maybe the personnel had changed. Anyway, I love that tenor & baritone sax section. The Aboriginal Music Awards was, as always, a great uplifting evening. My friend Raven Kanatakta was doing a lot of the conducting and tore off a few blistering solos. We’ll be playing together in Barrie next month and I’m looking forward to it.
I had a visit from my old buddy Harry Manx and saw his show with Michael Kaeshammer at Harbourfront. They had been touring this show for a month when I saw them and had another 20 dates to go. Harry had just bought another guitar (he carries five or six already!) and we jammed a bit. It was a solid-body lap slide, beautifully made. Can’t remember the name of the luthier, but Harry tells me there’s quite a long waiting list for one of these instruments. Harry was happy to hang out in my neighborhood again (I live in “Little India”) and dropped a bundle on Indian CDs at my neighborhood music store.
Speaking of my neighbourhood, the other day someone sent an email with a link to a youtube video clip featuring a woman who recounted her escape from Lebanon to Israel with her injured mother and described the kindness and compassion she received from the caregivers in the Israeli hospital, even though she was an “enemy” and meanwhile, she couldn’t believe how another Lebanese woman, a patient in the next bed, was cursing her caregivers even though they had saved her life. You have to have a lot of hate in you to curse the people who just saved your life. Go figure. Then, that very night, I drive off down my street and promptly run out of gas on Gerrard Street (my gas gauge is a little screwed up). There’s a taxi-stand/gas station at the foot of my street that is run by some very surly, mean-looking Pakistanis (I’ve bought gas there many times and it is NOT “service_with-a-smile”). Even though it was closed, I saw some lights in the office and I walked in and told them I had run out of gas and asked if they could help me. Surly as ever, the older gent interrupted his card game long enough to say something to a younger man who then led me to the garage, got a can of gas and carried it acroos the street to my car. The car started up and when I went to pay him something, he would not take any payment and headed back to the garage and his card game with the boys. With the political climate these days, anyone would have looked at that mangy group and assumed they were planning a terrorist attack or something but they were just a bunch of guys playing cards, willing to help out somebody in trouble. I think I just had what my neighbour Bill calls an “attitude adjustment.”
Well, that’s probably enough for now. I was going to talk a bit about my European adventure but you can read more on my blog at http://torontobluesdiary.blogspot.com.
You can view some pics by going to http://www.flickr.com and searching for “Brian Blain in Prague” and there’s even a podcast of my Motherless Day concert with Harrison Kennedy – it’s at www.frankcasting.com. And don't forget www.myspace.com/brianblain (yes, I'll be your friend). I think that’s all for tonight. Now for the fun part – figuring out how to mail it to you all. If you got this far, then thanks for reading all this. Take Care, BrianB
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Take me to the Bridge (Colorblind's Prague Diary)
As I look around for my little notepad where I wrote some points to remember for this blog, I can't seem to find it. If I was home or anywhere but Prague I would assume that I had misplaced it but now I'm thinking it was swiped out of my jacket pocket as I strolled down Wenceslasss Square for a sausage from a street vendor. Well, it's only fitting that my last day in Prague I got accosted by a hooker and had my pocket picked (probably at the same time - I thought she bid a very hasty retreat when I expressed disinterest). The notebook had a few addresses I wanted to keep as well as the set list I used for the last couple of gigs - nothing as disastrous as the loss of my wallet on the Prague subway (yes, I had it in my front pocket...these people are artists!).
Nevertheless, It's been a great time. The food was way better than 4 years ago. The people are beautiful (except for the pickpockets of course) and the audience last night in Pisek was the greatest - I don't know why I bothered with a lot of spoken introductions because I know very few of them understood anything I was saying but they sure got into it when the music started. I was back together with my old musical buddy Butch Coulter who lives in Dresden now (we played there too) and we were having a real good time, despite the fact that we had to travel by train, then bus to get there. Originally we thought we'd have a driver but he's a new daddy, and family comes first. His name was Hunsa (?) and he came to the gig - he was Long John Baldry's driver and did Rita Chiarelli's last European tour. Another old friend, Pavel Mil*** (I'd have these names right if I still had my notebook) got us a PA and we invited him to sit in at the end of the second set and boy can he play guitar. Hope I get to play with him again next - and we are already planning a next time...but I think I'll skip Prague.
I played here twice, both at the same club and I was supposed to go back again tonight and sit in with the house band but I decided to lay low on my last night and get ready for the flight tomorrow. I spent a few hours working on the MapleBlues newsletter - I was able to get a lot done using a new program called Google Docs & Spreadshheets. Those guys at Google are geniuses...generous geniuses because they don't even charge you to use it!
Day one in Prague I made my way to the foot of the square and into the "old town" where hundreds of people are gathered around the legendary "Astronomical Clock" waiting for something to happen on the hour, but I couldn't see anything happening - I could hear the bell tolling but that was it. The next biggest tourist attraction is the Charles Bridge and I didn't get to see that until a couple of days later. It is a marvel, with all these imposing statues built into it...sort of an "abandon all hope ye who enter" vibe. The Castle is quite phenomenal but I never made it inside. Last time I came back from the Czech Republic everybody was saying "Whadaya mean, you didn't see Prague?" Now everybody will say "Whadayamean you didn't go to the castle???" I was grateful to have a direct flight, but I hope Czech Air has more up-to-date electronics in their cockpit than they do for the movies. The audio was totally overloaded and only in one ear. I think I was the only person on the flight that bothered with it.
I stayed at a nice "penzion" at the top of the square - more of a boulevard, really. As I walked along, I was reminded a bit of Provincetown where they alway have "shills" out in the street trying to attract customers for the show. In P-Town they were mostly guys dressed as Marilyn Monroe or something like that but here it's mosty black guys dressed up in colourful "doorman" outfits. And the entertainment they are drawing you to is mostly strip bars - I gather Prague was rather sleazy in the early 90s but they've gotten a lot more civilized. One guy was trying to get me into his strip bar and I said I was looking for a blues band and he said "These girls play blues!"
Well I saw eight or ten blues and jazz bars in Prague and there were a couple of decent ones but the fact is, none of them pay anything comparable to Germany or even smaller Czech cities. It's the classic case of a big music centre full of scuffling musicians and even the top notch guys are happy to get the equivalent of $40 and would often work for less. Marg Stowe was playing in town and invited me to open for her show and also guided me around a bit for those first few days. She delivered some serious jazz fusion - I think she's been calling it "psychedelic jazz" and the people here ate it up. She had a great back-up group of locals. The keyboard guy was something else and she said the drummer was fabulous with the odd time signatures (I wouldn't really know if an odd time signature was being well played or not).
Lynn Macdonald is another Toronto musician who played the Akord (the club I was supposed to go jam at tonight) and she had some sweet players too. The musicianship is quite phenomenal. There was a concert of Mozart arias earlier this evening at the Museum down the street and I should have gone but....you can't do everything. I came here to play and write. Well I got to play plenty, but it's just as well that I didn't get around to writing any new tunes because the lyrics would have gone south with my notebook.
Thursday, October 5, 2006
The Muldaur Martin
Geoff Muldaur played at Hugh's Room last night and I ran into some
like-minded guitar aficionados, Mr. Rick, Ken Whiteley, Eve Goldberg,
Tony Burns and a big fan, Jane Moore from Sam The Record Man, pictured here with Geoff.
It turns out that Geoff has a new "signature" model Martin
Guitar - the 00-18H. It sounded great, but I'm sure a lot of that had to do
with the pickup, which was a Highlander system. Just the sound I've been
looking for, I thought. Don't know how much was the guitar and how much was
the pickup. But the guitar is $4,000 and the pickup is $125. So you can
guess which I will try first.
Muldaur was still fuming that Canada Customs did not let him bring in CDs to
sell. He talked about playing at a Buddhist Temple in Japan (Yamaguchi) and
had a great story about an editorial cartoon he saw after the launch of
Voyageur (which contained digitized music from all cultures and all ages).
The cartoon showed a rocket ship crashed back to earth with a note that said
"Send More Chuck Berry". After Geoff Muldaur, I dropped in to the Orbit Room
to see LMT Connection for the first time - I even had $5 at hand to pay my
way in, because it's not one of those place I can just walk in. Anyway, it
was $8 so I listened to a little bit then moved on down the road to
Thymeless where my own flesh and blood was spinning...but alas he wasn't
there yet, so I made my way home. Still baskling in the beautiful space that
Muldaur created.
Monday night I went to meet Tannis and not only did she bring along a kora
for me to mess around with but she gave me a showcase slot at the OCFF
conference. I'll be hosting the Toronto Blues Society Showcase at 11:30 in
the Chaudiere Room on the Convention Level. I've got a feeling that's a very
big room for our purposes. I'll be the "tweener" and maybe for a change I
should give a little thought to what tunes I will play. Then, thanks to
Tannis, I will be doing a showcase on the Saturday Night from 1:00-1:25 in a
room to be determined. I think we're going to call it the "Milk & Cookies"
Suite at the The Crowne Plaza Hotel, 101 Lyon Street North in Ottawa. Here's the full schedule
>>>> Friday Night
Tannis Slimmon Midnight to 12:25
Dale Nikkel 12:30-12:55
Steve Schellenberg 1-1:25
Allister: 1:30-2:00am (Still tentative)
>>>> Saturday Night
Tannis Slimmon Midnight to 12:25
Dale Nikkel 12:30-12:55
Brian Blain 1-1:25
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Small World Music, Blackie, the Jennys and one gig gone south
Just in from the Blackie and the Radio Kings show at the Horseshoe - first
of two nights. A full house but not overflowing. Strange not to see Richard
Bell at the keyboards. Colin said they had been to see Richard before the
show and that he promised he'd "be there for the next time". For a few
seconds there was a lot of good energy directed at Richard.
Producer/Engineer John Whynot (who has played keyboards on many Blackie
albums but had never played on stage with them) did a fine job, though he is
not the strong soloist that Richard is. And, did I mention, the band played
great. They have some hard-core fans - folks who put a Blackie CD into their
CD changer and never take it out. I call that the "Harry Manx Effect" and
that is what it takes if you want your career to really take off.
Last night was chock full of music. First a stop at the Black Swan to hear a
bit of the Long-McQuade harmonica workshop with Hendrik Meurkens. When I
walked in, he was giving lots of good advice to a roomful of harmonica
players including Carlos del Junco and Jerome Godboo. In response to one
questioner about whether such-and-such could be played on the harmonica, he
said that of course it could be played, but the question was rather *should*
it be played on a harmonica. He explained how it's more important to find
the right "fit" - some tunes are going to sound better on that instrument
than others and the secret to success is to find the tunes that will sound
really special, magic when played on whatever instrument. I've thought the
same thing about my singing...how I occasionally happen upon a phrase that's
in just the right key for my voice and the sound just pours out, strong and
pure.
After Hendrik had played a tune, I had to split because I wanted to hear
some of the Wailing Jennys at the Mod Club. These girls have that 3-part
super-sweet harmony thing happening and it's so perfect...it seems unreal.
Is it possible they're singing through "auto-tuners"? And every instrument
perfectly in tune, too. At the start of one tune, drummer Mark Mariash
started a little rhythm groove with his hands (on the kit) and I was hearing
a distinct melody from his drums. I wondered to myself if the guitar would
be in the same key when it kicked in and sure enough, it was. Mark did not
play a lot - sat out of many tunes and played simple shakers in others but
everything he did fit perfectly. An exquisite drummer for what must be a
very demanding musical group. Now I really want to hear what he did on the
record.
Stayed till the end at the Jennys because I figured I'd never make it in
time to hear the first act in the Small World Festival at the Lula Lounge -
Didgeridoo player Ash Dargan from Australia. Before I left the the Mod Club,
my buddy Dr. Ric (who reads this blog, I gather) pulled me aside and
introduced me to Canadian Music legend, John Brower. Brower hadn't been to
Toronto in 13 years. He spoke about his new project - a young band that had
just made their debut on Chinese television performing at the unveiling of
the "mascots" for the 2008 Olympics.
The next band at the Lula was Mr. Something Something, a group that has been
touring relentlessly and building up a huge fanbase. They've combined a
world and funk groove - the drummer working very hard, the guitarist doing
his "chinky-chink" and...a go-go dancer. Richard Underhill was sitting in on
baritone sax and played great. CBC was recording.
And what about my musical activities, you ask? (or not)
Well the only gig I had scheduled after I get back from Europe at the end of
October were three night at the new jazz club in town, Sopra. Except, it
will now be known as the jazz club that didn't happen. They have "taken a
new direction" (meaning a DJ instead of jazz bands) and I got a perfunctory
telephone message saying it had nothing to do with my music but they were
canceling my gig in November. THREE nights with a full band - I was even
thinking of going into the studio to cut a new album right after because how
often do you get a chance to play three nights in a row? We would have been
really warmed up after that! I presume a lot of the leading jazz players in
town got the same message as me. I think Mr Massimo is going to have to
rehire the publicist that did such a great job putting his place on the map
to do same damage control because he's going to have a big black eye for not
honouring his commitments. Musicians do not take such treatment lightly, and
of course they all have a lot of people/fans interested in what they have to
say and eager to rush to their defense.
Anyway, it's almost 4am - time to turn off Reiner Schwarz (who is once again
playing a phenomenal selection of music on Jazz-FM, not to mention his
precious commentary). Friday nights will never be the same.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
A Birthday to Remember
On stage I had Juno and Maple Blues Award winners, Canadian jazz greats, Canada's pre-eminent music attorney, the head of music at the Canada Council, and a historic reunion of two Canadian folk icons who hadn't performed together in 30 years, Fraser & deBolt (pictured above with me in the middle)
As someone remarked, it's pretty nice to have an event like this while you're still alive - not at some memorial service when you can't be around to enjoy it.
The Silver Dollar never looked so good - Elaine Cooledge transformed it with so many little touches - some things I didn't even notice until I was looking at a picture then I would see a little shiny "60" in the background. If anybody's having a 60th birthday party, contact ecooledge@hotmail.com because she's got the fixins - lots of shiny 60's and much more. Come to think of it, maybe it could also work for a 90th:)
My heartfelt thanks to those who came out and played: Julian Fauth, David Rotundo, Dan Dufour, Paul Sanderson, Mr. Rick, Tony Quarington, Marg Stowe, Suzie Vinnick, Lily Sazz, Ed Vokurka, Allan Fraser, Daisy DeBolt, Donna Louthood, Mark Sepic, Gary Kendall, Michelle Josef, Zoe Chilco and Tony Springer. There were many more great musicians who never quite made it to the stage - Mike Fitzpatrick and Ric Levenston come to mind but I know there were lots of players who wanted to come (thanks for your good wishes) and lots more that I meant to contact myself but never quite did (and I've heard from a couple of you, too). The Colorblind Coordinating Committee consisted of Alyson MacGregor, Lily Sazz, Mary Jane (MJ) Russell and Barbara Isherwood but there were lots more folks working behind the scene to make a smooth party and to help with my general career development (as much as you can develop a career at this stage in the game).
Thank you to Rob Boyd, the Dollar's sound guy extraordinaire and Jon Long for putting together the back-line. Hey musicians, Long & McQuade is having their "Attic Sale" September 22nd and 23rd at the Bloor Street store only.
Sorry that I got so smashed at the end that once I crawled onto that stage I never made my way off to say goodbye to anybody. Thanks to everyone who came out to "make my day."
You can view party pics by visiting www.flickr.com and searching for "Brian Blain". If you took any pics yourself, please feel free to add them to the gallery.
Friday, September 1, 2006
Brian Blain at Hallmark Studios, Toronto
That little mixer in the background had the first slider pots in that studio. Before that, everything was big rotary pots. As the junior copywriter, I got got to come along with the ad agency crew for a few jingle sessions in the afternoon (usually linked to a roast beef dinner at Ed's Warehouse) but the fun was late at night when I got to mess around with some musician friends. Doug Elphic who worked there as an assistant had some friends, Peter & Sunny and he would record them. My pet project was "Breakfast", Allan Fraser and Sue-Ellen Lothrop.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
A Portnoy Complaint
Tonight I was supposed to be plugging away at the September issue of MapleBlues (available next week at your favourite blues club in TO), but I had to attend Mark Hummel’s Harmonica Blow-Out with Magic Dick, Lee Oskar, and the one I most looked forward to seeing, Jerry Portnoy.
One thing I couldn’t put off any longer was my Wholenote Column so I put that together and sent it off before heading out to the Silver Dollar. I didn’t expect an 8 o’clock show was going to start at precisely 8 o’clock so I didn’t think I would be too late, but as it turned out, I missed the first half which included Portnoy’s set. Argh!. It probably wasn’t as mind-blowing as Lee Oskar (absolutely phenomenal) but it wouyld have been “the real deal” the guy that played with Muddy on mamy of my favourite performances. Still I can see how his style might be more understated than the others. Maybe that’s why he was shying away when it came to the finale where many local harpmen got up a played a chorus with the big boys. Pickett, Rotudo, Carlos and Raoul all delivered the goods but what most impressed Hummell was Carlos playing his solo on a “A” harp while everyone else was playing in the key of “G”. Portnoy was lurk,ing in the back as these guys outdid each other and when called he stepped up a bit and blew a chorus. I only caught a peek of him and that chorus was all I heard of Jerry. That’s my Portnoy Complaint. When the band was called back for an encore and kicked into an impromptu jam, Jerry was visibly not into it. He was off the stage when Hummell called him back. He came back, blew into the harp but there might have been a problem with the gear, because this time he walked away and meant it. There would be no big group bow off the stage.
NOTE TO SELF: Find out who Hummel’s guitarist was.
As I was driving to the club I was beating myself up about not being enough of a full-time musician. I’m 60 years old and every day I can get an audience in front of me enriches my life and probably keeps me young. Not to mention what it would do for my guitar playing if I played every day. I don’t know what it’ll take to make music the top priority in my life, instead of the duties of my desktop publishing “empire”. I remember the first band I played with in Toronto fired me because I was missing rehearsals and could hardly make it on time for gigs. I could never be a “jobbing” musician because I don’t know the 3000 songs you have to know. (I know maybe 300 songs and most I wrote). The occasional times when I am invited up to the stage to sit in, I’m never prepared. At the House Full of Blues Festival in North Bay last week-end, organizer Sab Sabourin did make a point of including me in the big jam finale and even passed me his beloved white Les Paul. I believe that’s the first time I’ve played a Les Paul…and through a Marshall amp at that. I can check that one off my “To Do This Lifetime” list.
NOTE TO SELF: Get a blues standard (up tempo) to pull out on occasions like this.
I’m starting to think I have to stop expecting an audience to come to me and I need to go to them. If my music isn’t attracting ny audience, how do I get to them? If I wasn’t entirely confident that the music is good, I might get a little discouraged when I do a big email-blast to the blues lists (albeit at the last minute) get a spin on one blues radio show and a mention on the other and still not draw a single person. There was an audience, but I could account for every one of them and none came because they heard about it on the radio or saw it on the web. I was playing with Terry Wilkins the other day and he pointed out that my song “Blues Is Hurting” is not in a blues style. Nor are many other tunes I call blues, come to think of it. I think I use too many minor chords. That must be it. If I was going to be self-depracating (which I don’t do in public anymore – at the Sockman’s behest) I would say that I’ve been writing the same song for 30 or 40 years. It starts in E minor and changes to C at some point. It’s the same song…and I’m writing it on the same guitar. Right now I working on a New Orleans theme – maybe even try to incorporate a “second line” rhythm.
NOTE TO SELF: Send a copy of the a capella “Peacekeeper” tune to JSP.
Well last night I dropped in to see one of my favourite singers Dawn Tyler Watson (with an amazing guitarist, Paul Deslauriers) and then slipped up to Grossman’s where the Gary Kendall Band was playing. Gary invited me up to do a tune and (as usual) I was not prepared. Gary suggested Hi-Tech Blues because he plays on that track on my CD, but maybe that wasn’t the best tune to pull out in a jam situation like that, especially considering it modulates to a new key and changes tempo in the middle. Yikes. I thought it was a little rough but the audience seemed to enjoy it. The proverbial small but appreciative audience. Nobody had much of a crowd last night but what else is new…at the rate we’re going, pretty soon most clubs will have more people on stage that in the audience! We’ll see how I do on Thursday night at the Free Times. Last time I worked like hell to get some people out and this time I’ve done nothing… until this note to you, dear friend. So let me remind you now:
9PM THURSDAY AUG 10 Free Times Café, 320 College (I’ll have Terry Wilkins on bass) We have a little warm-up gig tomorrow at the Woodbine Racetrack, a good-paying nondescript kind of gig.
Home County Folk Festival: Even though I did play my share of festivals this summer, I hardly ever got to stay in a hotel room because they were all around town. I was cutting it close on arrival in London because my first duties were hosting the Open Stage at noon. I got there a little before noon and several people had signed up to perform (at specific time slots) and the stage was already filled with musicians from two London bluegrass societies. They had booked two fifteen-minute slots back to back. I played a tune to kick things off – “No More Meetings” (I’d like to play that one for the tireless festival organizers who I’m sure have too many meetings in their schedule). Both workshops I played got hit by rain but the audience was undeterred. My last tune on Sunday was “The Big Fire” which Bill & Sue had played at Home County the previous year and one couple had come up to me at another festival saying they came to see me play especially to hear that song. Well this time, a nice lady came up to me on the last night of the festival and had to share with me how much that song touched her. Well, that was the highlight of the whole week-end for me.
I haven’t been on the road long enough to hate hotels. In fact, I love the TV. I didn’t get much of a chance to get into it this time, but Roxanne Potvin told me she also has no TV at home so tends to take in a lot in hotel rooms. Roxanne did a workshop with me and Chris Whiteley and I was talking to Chris about his connection with Lonnie Johnson, and Roxy was amazed that the Whiteleys used to hang out with Lonnie (I found out about it when I complained to Chris about the high action on his guitar and he replied that it was Lonnie Johnson who told him to raise it up). On the subject of Lonnie Johnson, Jim Galloway was playing me an old blues record by Nellie Letcher (sp?) and casually mentioned that the song “My Mother’s Eyes” was probably the last tune that Lonnie played in public before he died – he had come by to sit in with Jim’s group, The Metro Stompers, and was back in the hospital a few days after that…
Beaches Jazz Festival: No, I wasn’t playing it but it’s so close to my house I can practically walk over. I wanted to see my label-mate Janiva Magness and she gave a great show. She looks smashing. You wouldn’t believe she’s a grandmother…and she flaunts it, shouting “give some love to the old lady!” and “I’ll sign CDs and anything else within reason.” Her keyboard player was Benny Yee who I saw playing with Coco Montoya and he is a monster player, though Coco seemed to let him cut loose a bit longer. In fact, Coco would often leave the stage while Benny took an extended solo. Anyway, I put my foot in my mouth when I asked Benny about Coco and he told me he’d been summarily fired after 15 years with Coco. He did not have happy thoughts about Coco. Meanwhile Janiva and Fred Litwin took off right after the show to visit Richard Bell in the Sunnybrook Hospital. Richard plays on both of Janiva’s NorthernBlues CDs (and mine too) and he is not in very good shape. Also my long standing organist Rod Phillips is also out of commission (with throat cancer). There was a huge benefit for him last Sunday and it was an amazing turnout – They raised lots of money for Rod’s treatment and expenses.
Also at the Beaches fest, I was knocked out by Jake Langley’s quartet with Robi Botos on organ. He kicked ass and when I complemented him afterwards he told me it was only the second time he played organ. Amazing.
Six String Nation: Yes, that’s the guitar the Jowi Taylor had constructed from different woods from across the country. I got to play it when he dropped by the Bob Snider CD launch and I must say it plays beautifully for a guitar that was made of an odd assortment of woods, regardless of their historical significance (an oar from Pierre Trudeau’s canoe, etc…). Even master luthier Grit Laskin, who was there, tried it and was suitably impressed. As the guitar was passed from one guitarist to another, Jowi whispered to me “notice how everybody starts with an E chord?” All until Shelley Coopersmith strummed a big C chord. Snider played a great set for the folks and the audience (mostly young women) was totally into it. I always thought I had something like Bob Snider’s approach and appeal, in fact it was upon hearing Bob’s album that I asked David Baxter to produce my record.
Birthdays: I’ve got a big one coming up on September 11th at the Silver Dollar. It’s the big 6-0. (Mark your calendars). But before I could start feeling old, I was celebrating Jim Galloway’s 70th – and what a party that was. Even a bagpiper to announce the birthday boy!
Weddings: Well, today I actually took a wedding gig. Never did that in my musical life, but I guess it’s never too late to try something different. Especially when weddings are traditionally the best paying gigs.
One thing I couldn’t put off any longer was my Wholenote Column so I put that together and sent it off before heading out to the Silver Dollar. I didn’t expect an 8 o’clock show was going to start at precisely 8 o’clock so I didn’t think I would be too late, but as it turned out, I missed the first half which included Portnoy’s set. Argh!. It probably wasn’t as mind-blowing as Lee Oskar (absolutely phenomenal) but it wouyld have been “the real deal” the guy that played with Muddy on mamy of my favourite performances. Still I can see how his style might be more understated than the others. Maybe that’s why he was shying away when it came to the finale where many local harpmen got up a played a chorus with the big boys. Pickett, Rotudo, Carlos and Raoul all delivered the goods but what most impressed Hummell was Carlos playing his solo on a “A” harp while everyone else was playing in the key of “G”. Portnoy was lurk,ing in the back as these guys outdid each other and when called he stepped up a bit and blew a chorus. I only caught a peek of him and that chorus was all I heard of Jerry. That’s my Portnoy Complaint. When the band was called back for an encore and kicked into an impromptu jam, Jerry was visibly not into it. He was off the stage when Hummell called him back. He came back, blew into the harp but there might have been a problem with the gear, because this time he walked away and meant it. There would be no big group bow off the stage.
NOTE TO SELF: Find out who Hummel’s guitarist was.
As I was driving to the club I was beating myself up about not being enough of a full-time musician. I’m 60 years old and every day I can get an audience in front of me enriches my life and probably keeps me young. Not to mention what it would do for my guitar playing if I played every day. I don’t know what it’ll take to make music the top priority in my life, instead of the duties of my desktop publishing “empire”. I remember the first band I played with in Toronto fired me because I was missing rehearsals and could hardly make it on time for gigs. I could never be a “jobbing” musician because I don’t know the 3000 songs you have to know. (I know maybe 300 songs and most I wrote). The occasional times when I am invited up to the stage to sit in, I’m never prepared. At the House Full of Blues Festival in North Bay last week-end, organizer Sab Sabourin did make a point of including me in the big jam finale and even passed me his beloved white Les Paul. I believe that’s the first time I’ve played a Les Paul…and through a Marshall amp at that. I can check that one off my “To Do This Lifetime” list.
NOTE TO SELF: Get a blues standard (up tempo) to pull out on occasions like this.
I’m starting to think I have to stop expecting an audience to come to me and I need to go to them. If my music isn’t attracting ny audience, how do I get to them? If I wasn’t entirely confident that the music is good, I might get a little discouraged when I do a big email-blast to the blues lists (albeit at the last minute) get a spin on one blues radio show and a mention on the other and still not draw a single person. There was an audience, but I could account for every one of them and none came because they heard about it on the radio or saw it on the web. I was playing with Terry Wilkins the other day and he pointed out that my song “Blues Is Hurting” is not in a blues style. Nor are many other tunes I call blues, come to think of it. I think I use too many minor chords. That must be it. If I was going to be self-depracating (which I don’t do in public anymore – at the Sockman’s behest) I would say that I’ve been writing the same song for 30 or 40 years. It starts in E minor and changes to C at some point. It’s the same song…and I’m writing it on the same guitar. Right now I working on a New Orleans theme – maybe even try to incorporate a “second line” rhythm.
NOTE TO SELF: Send a copy of the a capella “Peacekeeper” tune to JSP.
Well last night I dropped in to see one of my favourite singers Dawn Tyler Watson (with an amazing guitarist, Paul Deslauriers) and then slipped up to Grossman’s where the Gary Kendall Band was playing. Gary invited me up to do a tune and (as usual) I was not prepared. Gary suggested Hi-Tech Blues because he plays on that track on my CD, but maybe that wasn’t the best tune to pull out in a jam situation like that, especially considering it modulates to a new key and changes tempo in the middle. Yikes. I thought it was a little rough but the audience seemed to enjoy it. The proverbial small but appreciative audience. Nobody had much of a crowd last night but what else is new…at the rate we’re going, pretty soon most clubs will have more people on stage that in the audience! We’ll see how I do on Thursday night at the Free Times. Last time I worked like hell to get some people out and this time I’ve done nothing… until this note to you, dear friend. So let me remind you now:
9PM THURSDAY AUG 10 Free Times Café, 320 College (I’ll have Terry Wilkins on bass) We have a little warm-up gig tomorrow at the Woodbine Racetrack, a good-paying nondescript kind of gig.
Home County Folk Festival: Even though I did play my share of festivals this summer, I hardly ever got to stay in a hotel room because they were all around town. I was cutting it close on arrival in London because my first duties were hosting the Open Stage at noon. I got there a little before noon and several people had signed up to perform (at specific time slots) and the stage was already filled with musicians from two London bluegrass societies. They had booked two fifteen-minute slots back to back. I played a tune to kick things off – “No More Meetings” (I’d like to play that one for the tireless festival organizers who I’m sure have too many meetings in their schedule). Both workshops I played got hit by rain but the audience was undeterred. My last tune on Sunday was “The Big Fire” which Bill & Sue had played at Home County the previous year and one couple had come up to me at another festival saying they came to see me play especially to hear that song. Well this time, a nice lady came up to me on the last night of the festival and had to share with me how much that song touched her. Well, that was the highlight of the whole week-end for me.
I haven’t been on the road long enough to hate hotels. In fact, I love the TV. I didn’t get much of a chance to get into it this time, but Roxanne Potvin told me she also has no TV at home so tends to take in a lot in hotel rooms. Roxanne did a workshop with me and Chris Whiteley and I was talking to Chris about his connection with Lonnie Johnson, and Roxy was amazed that the Whiteleys used to hang out with Lonnie (I found out about it when I complained to Chris about the high action on his guitar and he replied that it was Lonnie Johnson who told him to raise it up). On the subject of Lonnie Johnson, Jim Galloway was playing me an old blues record by Nellie Letcher (sp?) and casually mentioned that the song “My Mother’s Eyes” was probably the last tune that Lonnie played in public before he died – he had come by to sit in with Jim’s group, The Metro Stompers, and was back in the hospital a few days after that…
Beaches Jazz Festival: No, I wasn’t playing it but it’s so close to my house I can practically walk over. I wanted to see my label-mate Janiva Magness and she gave a great show. She looks smashing. You wouldn’t believe she’s a grandmother…and she flaunts it, shouting “give some love to the old lady!” and “I’ll sign CDs and anything else within reason.” Her keyboard player was Benny Yee who I saw playing with Coco Montoya and he is a monster player, though Coco seemed to let him cut loose a bit longer. In fact, Coco would often leave the stage while Benny took an extended solo. Anyway, I put my foot in my mouth when I asked Benny about Coco and he told me he’d been summarily fired after 15 years with Coco. He did not have happy thoughts about Coco. Meanwhile Janiva and Fred Litwin took off right after the show to visit Richard Bell in the Sunnybrook Hospital. Richard plays on both of Janiva’s NorthernBlues CDs (and mine too) and he is not in very good shape. Also my long standing organist Rod Phillips is also out of commission (with throat cancer). There was a huge benefit for him last Sunday and it was an amazing turnout – They raised lots of money for Rod’s treatment and expenses.
Also at the Beaches fest, I was knocked out by Jake Langley’s quartet with Robi Botos on organ. He kicked ass and when I complemented him afterwards he told me it was only the second time he played organ. Amazing.
Six String Nation: Yes, that’s the guitar the Jowi Taylor had constructed from different woods from across the country. I got to play it when he dropped by the Bob Snider CD launch and I must say it plays beautifully for a guitar that was made of an odd assortment of woods, regardless of their historical significance (an oar from Pierre Trudeau’s canoe, etc…). Even master luthier Grit Laskin, who was there, tried it and was suitably impressed. As the guitar was passed from one guitarist to another, Jowi whispered to me “notice how everybody starts with an E chord?” All until Shelley Coopersmith strummed a big C chord. Snider played a great set for the folks and the audience (mostly young women) was totally into it. I always thought I had something like Bob Snider’s approach and appeal, in fact it was upon hearing Bob’s album that I asked David Baxter to produce my record.
Birthdays: I’ve got a big one coming up on September 11th at the Silver Dollar. It’s the big 6-0. (Mark your calendars). But before I could start feeling old, I was celebrating Jim Galloway’s 70th – and what a party that was. Even a bagpiper to announce the birthday boy!
Weddings: Well, today I actually took a wedding gig. Never did that in my musical life, but I guess it’s never too late to try something different. Especially when weddings are traditionally the best paying gigs.