Blainletter #77

Greetings beloved Blainreaders (and a fond farewell to the one who unsubscribed).

Thanks for the feedback on my last Festival Blainletter – I wrote it before the last two shows of the Jazz fest – and they were both pretty amazing, so worthy of mention.  Every year there are some names in the programme that I've never heard of and they turn out to be a big deal.  This year it was Morris Day and the Time (I guess I'm the only person on the planet who never saw Purple Rain) and last year it was Snarky Puppy at the Horseshoe making the biggest buzz of the festival.  And this year they played the main stage and I got to hear them first hand and they did not disappoint.  The next night was Gary Clark Jr, another "buzz act" and he was great, but I dare say, "understated."  A bluesman with nothing to prove, you might say – just playing the blues. And not on his highly-promoted "signature" Black and Blue Epiphone Casino.  In fact, he played mostly a Fender Strat and both he and bass player were using Fender amps.  The thing about Gary (and Snarky Puppy) is that they were not playing anything that would drop jaws – it was not about virtuosity.  They were just playing groovy music and the audience was loving it, unlike say, Al DiMeola a few nights before, who played stuff on that guitar that few others would ever attempt.  Nice that Gary Clark gave a big shout-out to his guitar tech (unlike Al DiMeola who fired his guitar tech right on stage – see my last Blainletter for back-story on that!)

Brian and Larry take Tremblant by Storm
I had invited Larry Kurtz and his wife Norma to the Snarky Puppy show (who certainly lived up to their hype) and the following week Larry and I played the Mont Tremblant International Blues Festival in Quebec.  I did a little iPhone video of our set on the "Vieux Tremblant" stage and I invite you to take a look at what we're doing.  You may not want to watch a full 50 minutes of BrianB & LarryK (unless maybe you're an artistic director considering us for your festival - hint, hint). It is quite notable in that you'll hear me talking a lot in French and even playing a French tune.  Wow, the audience was so surprised to hear me singing in French that there's an audible reaction from the crowd, "Y chante en Francais!, Y chante en Francais!"  We had a huge crowd and got a great reaction. What a fantastic blues festival that is, wish I could have stayed for all ten days. I gotta get my ass back to Quebec more often.

"Who Paid You To Give Me The Blues" Re-issued Online
And the other bit of news I wanted to share in this Blainletter is a new (to you) CD that I just put up on CD Baby.  This is the first CD I made back in the late 90s.  I just had a few physical copies left and when I saw that CD Baby had a special offer to put up a CD for digital distribution to iTunes and the all new Apple Music (which I have yet to check out). 

I've told the story of this CD a million times but I'll say it again because I take it as a point of pride that a lot of great musicians came to my rescue and played for free just because they thought it was about time Brian Blain made a record (and they knew that I'd never get it together if left to my own devices).

It all started when Victor Bateman heard me doing some of my tunes at a party and said he had a buddy with a DAT recorder and he could arrange for a little demo.  That encouraged me to get my ass in gear and think about making an album.

At about the same time, my old producer from the 70s, Frazier Mohawk, had built a studio on his farm in Schomberg, Puck's Farm.  He offered me free studio time because he recognized that I was (at least partially)responsible for bringing in the bucks that built that studio.  You see, a year or two before, I had been perusing the shelves of a CD store on Queen Street and came upon some CDs of recordings I knew he produced back in the 60s: Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Kaleidoscope among others.  When I  saw him next, I asked if he was getting royalties now that these albums were being reissued on CD.  I saw the light bulb go off in his head. When he finally reached the right person in the Warner Brothers accounting department he was told "Oh, we lost your address…"  Yeah, sure...  Well, some big retroactive royalty cheques flowed to him and that is what financed the studio.

The album we made was called "Who Paid You To Give Me The Blues?"  I've just been listening to some of the tracks and what a trip hearing some of those old tunes, long retired from the setlist: "Entrepreneurial Blues," "Dump That Lump," "Y2K Blues,"  "Vulcan Heart" and the favourite of all my Buddhist friends, "Ten Worlds." I started this player with a couple of tracks that Scott "Professor Piano" played on - what a blast listening to him rip it up on "Computer Club Queen"

At CD Baby, I checked off all the boxes that allow downloading, streaming of the full song ("Even Unpaid") .  Of course, you're most welcome to buy a track but I always say, "First let's see if you can't give it away."  I once found my music on a Russian website where they would offer the songs free, but if somebody downloaded one, then the price would go up to ten cents, then if a lot of people bought it at ten cents they would put the price up to 20 cents, and so on till it got to 99.  I thought it was a pretty good business construct (except for the part where I never saw a penny!)

OUT and ABOUT

Just got my first taste of Beaches Jazz (it's just down the street from me).  Headliner last week-end was the Melbourne Ska Orchestra – bunch of crazy Aussies. Very tight (check out this video from Kris King:

...but I've never seen so much shtick – replaying the end of a song repeatedly to get more applause and doing the "one time, two times, 12 times" thang, stopping a song in the middle and having everybody "freeze,"  stopping a song in the middle and the whole band (all 18 of them) rushing to the edge of the stage to mug for a photographer,  and it goes on.  All good fun and lots of "audience engagement." Plus they can really play!  Looking forward to more Beaches Jazz (and blues) as well as some choice Panamania shows.

And speaking of "audience engagement," Rich Aucoin really showed me how that's done at the Nathan Phillips Square Panamania Stage (two stages, actually, both way bigger than the stages we had for Jazz Festival, but you know what, they didn't sound as good - you can always tell with the acoustic piano).  I have been wanting to check out Rich Aucoin from Halifax for 2 years now.  I heard about him a couple of years ago when I was inquiring about musicians who were incorporating video with Ableton Live.  I wasn't able to see him at the time and I missed him again this year at Canadian Music Week but now I have seen him (up close and personal as you will see in this video clip) and I am knocked out. This clip doesn't really show much of the visuals he incorporates on the big screen but there was lots of that too. 

Best Blues Show of the Month
On Sunday afternoon, I headed down to the Rex to hear on of this country's greatest harp players (and there's plenty of great ones, I know) but I have been so impressed by Montreal's Bharath Rajakumar ever since the first time I saw him (on YouTube) and then hearing the high praise from local blues guys I made sure to catch him when he came to town to play with Junior Watson.  This time he was the special guest at Dr Nick's monthly gig at the Rex.  I could never figure why a harp player would invite another harp player to be his special guest but in this case I could see a kindred connection, right down to those obscure 50s amps they both use.  Here's a clip of the two of them going at it in what used to be called a "cutting contest" but this was not competitive at all. In the most Canadian fashion, they declined solos and encouraged each other to step up but then when they do play together you can hardly tell who's doing what.  The accompaniment was "official" (except they didn't have a bass): Michelle Josef on drums, Sugar Brown on guitar and the wonderful Julian Fauth on piano.

This just in - I will be playing with Julian at the venerable Old Mill on October 30^th.  It's a jazz venue but they're gonna change it up with a little blues (and I'm trying to come up with a few "jazzy" blues numbers).

TONIGHT is the big 30^th Anniversary bash of the Toronto Blues Society at the elegant Palais Royale. That's Thursday, July 16^th and if you're just reading this and you are a friend of the blues then get yourself down to the Palais Royale for 8:30 ($30 at the door). Lance Anderson's Ray Charles Tribute which has sold out everywhere he put it on.  The lineup is top notch with Jesse O'Brien, Colin James' piano man.  Lance says "He plays like he was siitting on Ray's piano bench"  Lead vocals will be handled by John Mays and other guests include Duane & Brooke Blackburn, Quisha Wint, Selena Evangeline, and Cheryl Lescom. Jack De Keyzer will perform a solo acoustic set on the patio and DJ Dave "Daddy Cool" Booth will be playing DJ for the first time in years.

Lastly, I'm sure many of you are acquainted with Zoe Chilco. Zoe is a very special person who has been a real positive force on the music scene ever since I arrived in Toronto.  She has been most encouraging to me and is always volunteering at Blues Society events and promoting local artists on her radio show in Haliburton, while putting out a CD every year or two with her own unique take on jazz & blues. One time she put out a double album and she even put on a cabaret musical about her friend the legendary jazzman Zoot Simms.  

She has gone out on a limb launching her latest effort at the venerable Hugh's Room (Wednesday, July 29) and she could really use a few more "bums in seats" to make it worthwhile.  I'll be doing a couple of tunes to warm up the crowd and I'm sure Zoe will give a great show and hopefully make some new fans.  It would be great to see you at the show and please grab me and tell me you saw it in the Blainletter!

Happy summer,  BrianB

Blainletter 76 – Festival Fever

I think I just saw Al Di Meola fire his guitar tech right on the stage of the Toronto Jazz Festival.  He was having trouble with his amp (a hi-end boutique amp called Fuchs) but it sounded fine to me (and probably to the other thousand people in the tent).  You can see in Bill King's video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5mdXfBPa1g that he keeps turning around and calling over his guitar tech but then a little later he came on the mic and said "paging my guitar tech. Is my guitar tech in the house?" And then after a pause, "Is there any guitar tech in the house?" At which point some guy stood up and Al invited him up to the stage. Then the real guitar tech shows up and Al says to him"you go sit down, I've got a new guitar tech" but then both techs were crouched behind the amp.

You could tell he was already pretty niggly about his sound – he was late for the sound check (he was flying in while the rest of the band was on the tour bus) and I could hear him saying "nothing is the same…it's all changed!" so they kept working on his guitar sound while Hilario Duran waited patiently to start his set on the outdoor stage.  Then, after the band was introduced, I was surprised to see Al and his guitar tech walk past me towards the dressing room and I overhear him saying something like "well, where are they, then?"  Moments later he walks past me again and I see he's putting in some earplugs – I guess that's what he was looking for. 

The audience's patience was further tested when he stopped the show (after the tech-firing incident) and asked the audience to give him 5 minutes to fix his amp.  No one seemed very troubled by this and I got the feeling his crowd would walk over a bed of burning coals to see their guy. I was not around for the rest of the show so I can't report what happened at the end. You'd think they'd carry a spare amp – they were hauling a big trailer behind their tour bus.  Maybe that trailer was filled with the elaborate plexiglass wall that was used to surround the amp (and another one for the drummer).

The night before I had a very pleasant a late night hang with Booker T and his wife Nan (?) hearing about their son the guitarist who had just joined the band (Blainreaders will know that I'm a big advocate of fathers & sons playing music together).  And I got to tell Booker how my first exposure to music (that I can remember) when I was barely able to walk and found myself at eye level with two stockinged feet playing the pedals on a Hammond organ and feeling the sound through my body. I didn't get to tell him the part when I looked up and saw the first black person I'd ever seen in my little life (there were no black people in Sherbrooke). That was at a summer resort called Beau Site in the Eastern Townships - Little Lake Magog.

A video posted by brianblain (@brianblain) on Jun 24, 2015 at 7:24pm PDT

Here's Booker on guitar singing "Mannish Boy"  (did you know he wrote "Born Under a Bad Sign"?  And played bass on Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"?  And lots more! Fascinating hearing stories from Booker as renowned musicologist Rob Bowman was encouraging him to get to work on his autobiography. 

Now that the Festival is almost done, I've had a little time to do some blogging (as well as laundry, a home cooked meal and mowing the lawn!).  One little fire to put out – the modem in the Jazz-FM tent got fried in the big downpour but it's fixed now.  The festival is running like the well-oiled machine that it is.

One show just got cancelled – Sonny Knight and the Lakers at the Horseshoe Tavern on Friday. "Transportation issues" as they say – code for "somebody couldn't get across the border." The band just posted a pic of themselves gazing at Niagara Falls from the American side. They also were scheduled to play at Ottawa and Montreal jazz festivals.  Blackburn will taking their spot at the Shoe on Friday night.  I wish I could say come to Snarky Puppy in the tent but it’s sold out (I think it was the first show to sell out!)  But you can bet there'll be another thousand people standing outside the tent, where the sound (and the sightlines) are not half bad.

These ten days of Jazz Festival are about the only time of year that I have anything resembling a full-time job (come to think of it, it does not resemble a full-time job very much but you know what I mean).  Alas there was no "play" for me at this year's festival, no gigs with or without the Blainettes.  But the good news is next week I head down to the Mont Tremblant Blues Festival to play with my buddy Larry Kurtz – and they've got us doing enough sets and workshops to make up for 3 festivals.

A video posted by brianblain (@brianblain) on Jun 19, 2015 at 4:06pm PDT

Opening night of the jazzfest was a funk-fest and the whole square was packed with fans of Parliament Funkadelic, Morris Day and The Time, and my favourite – Dumpstaphunk.  I had been very disappointed when a huge downpour forced them to shut down their set after a couple of songs at Beaches Jazz last year, and I'm sure they were quite disappointed too.  Well they made up for it this time and put on a great show.

Morris Day is someone I never heard of – probably because I'm the only person on the planet who did not see the movie "Purple Rain." I had retired to the media trailer to catch up on some work but had the window open and could actually see a bit of the stage (the drummer).  I listened but I was not drawn to get a closer look but I was told after that half his appeal is the dancing and the stagecraft.  After seeing a couple of video clips I see what they mean.

George Clinton and P-Funk were amazing, even though I'm sure it's tamed down a bit from their heyday.  I never saw them back then but I remember doing some recording sessions in Toronto in the same studio right after they had wreaked havoc and after them, us Canadian joint-smokin' hippies seemed like altar boys.

The next night was Tower of Power, more funk.  My drummer friend Mike Fitzpatrick was a little disappointed that Dave Garibaldi was not at the drum kit – it seems he's recovering from hip surgery.  But the band raised the roof and there were lots of smiling faces.  Also got to see a few tunes from Robert Glasper (not as experimental as I expected but then he was promoting an album called "Covered" so I guess it was only natural that he was playing some standards (and a Prince tune that isn't a standard – yet). 

Then there's Mike Stern.  Already the highlight of the festival for many people.  I would count myself in that group, maybe a tie with the Toronto Mass Choir. Here they are raising the roof:



There's a couple more videos on my Facebook musician page at www.facebook.com/brianblain.musician (Beware, they'll probably try to get you signed up to Facebook) Stern has played the festival many times but I either missed it or got there just in time for the encore – this time I heard the whole set and loved it.  Here's a link to a blues standard that he pulled out as an encore – most people in the audience didn't even realize that he sang (though he would sometimes do some vocal scatting along with his guitar solos).  This time he sang "Red House".  Official. 

I've got another link, also on my Facebook, of the last song of the Christian McBride Big Band last night. I couldn't figure out why he had this old school MC guy bringing him on stage but was told afterwards by Don, the volunteer who drove him from the airport, that he was none other than Danny Ray, James Brown's valet and "cape man" for all those years. Now he's introducing Christian who idolized James Brown and now carries a little bit of JB history with him on the road. It seems Danny had fallen on hard times after JB passed away and Christian sure lived up to his name by taking him on and giving him a new lease on life.

Another big band that played was none other than the legendary "Count Basie Orchestra" – on the road for 80 years, if you can believe it.  And trombonist Clarence Banks (a fellow Buddhist who I've known for a few years) is the last remaining member of the band who was there when the Count was still at the helm.  We had a nice visit after the show and, as always, despite lots of challenges, he was the most positive and encouraging.  That's right, even musicians who are at the pinnacle of the music world are scuffling.  I was quite surprised when Phil Dwyer, a first-call sax player for many years in this town, told me that he has just completed his first year of law school and is looking forward to a more stable career.  When I mentioned this to David Basskin, a well-known music industry lawyer, he rolled his eyes a bit and said "I wish him luck" like even a new lawyer can't be assured an easy ride nowadays. 

Quote of the day Music (courtesy of Larry Leblanc) is from from Randy Lennox, the boss at Universal Music: He says "6 is the new 10" – meaning if a respectable hit used to sell 100,000 in Canada, now they would be happy with 60,000.

I would be remiss not to mention that this month three (count 'em, 3) of my old friends from Quebec were in town doing CD launches.  Russ Kelley has made his second CD since retiring from being the boss of the Music Section at Canada Council and even though he hasn't played very much in Toronto he's made some life-long fans with his sincere, heartfelt tunes and mellow delivery (www.russkelley.com).  

Chris Rawlings is someone I always thought of as a "national treasure" of Canadian folk music ever since he put "The Rhyme of the Ancient Marriner" to music - he writes songs about great historical events like Halifax harbour explosion or the Estevan miner's strike in Saskatchewan in the early 1930s.  Great stories, great songs (in English and French!).  www.chrisrawlings.ca

Then there's my old buddy Allan Fraser, who I worked with in Fraser & DeBolt and even before. He's now teamed up with Marianne Girard and they made a great album which was released with a big bash at Hugh's Room.  It's not Fraser & DeBolt redux, but they've found their own collective voice and between them have a vast reservoir of great tunes.  www.fraserandgirard.com

On the subject of Fraser & DeBolt, the double vinyl release on Roaratorio Records is due at the end of July and Christmas will be coming early for F&DeB fans because there's some amazing songs on there that you've never heard. (I think if you're still a fan after 40 years of no product and no personal appearances, you must be a fan-atic). http://roaratorio.com/

Anyway, I better stop here before I launch into more doom and gloom.  Hope to see you out there and check my blog for a final instalment of my festival diary

To see more of these videos you'll have to got to Facebook and search for me (if we're not already friends – and we should be!)Speaking of which, if you're already on Facebook, please visit my Facebook musician page and give me a "like".  I've been stuck at 149 likes for too long J

The new website is coming along. Still haven't launched it, but I keep adding pictures and I have created a video playlist of my YouTube favourites. You can even see what blues bands are playing tonight. Go to BrianBlain.com

Tips for emerging artists

In the early days of the Blues Diary I used to accent any career development tips in red but I think the coloured type has been lost in the numerous transitions and conversions.  So now I'm going to start again with this post and label it "Tips for Musicians"

- "Nowadays, great is not good enough" (overheard at Canadian Music Week)

- When you follow up about a gig request, try to include a "highlight," some recent achievement

- Bookers will look at your gig listings and you should also display a list of past gigs on your website

- Try to get established artists & influencers to put in a good word for you (this will only work if they believe in you)

Thinking of B.B.

Tributes to B.B. King were all over the TV yesterday and tonight I'm listening to Holger Petersen doing a one-hour special on BB which includes a long interview with him on his 80th birthday. Holger asks why he keeps playing and B responds that he doesn't really need the money anymore but many of the members of his band are "not as well fixed" so he keeps everybody working, and isn't like a blues musician - if his fortunes rise and his fee goes up, then he just would hire another player rather than pocket the difference.  I just read somewhere that BB's estate was estimated at 5 million dollars.  There's pop stars out there who's net worth is closer to 5 BILLION!

I spent a lot of yesterday listening to BB on the YouTube and was also pointed to a great BBC documentary which I watched:



And now we've commissioned Richard Flohil to write an Obit and I'm looking for a great pic of BB for the cover of MapleBlues

Here come the music festivals

Canadian Music Week is more than a festival - it's a bunch of conferences bundled together and the musician-oriented component starts tomorrow.  Actually there's been some music events all week, some of which I would have loved toss but when I went to pick up my badge this afternoon, I was too early.  You gotta wonder why the artist badge desk and the media badge desk were open for business but the conference badge desk was not open till 4.

This blog post is gonna be another big whine - I should be grateful they gave me a damn pass, but I can't help but point out some deficiencies.  I'm not inflicting anyone with my opinions - this is on myt blog where only people who came looking will hear my rant.

To start with, I just got my "welcome to CMW" email at 9:30 tonight.  Then I go the the website to see what I'm going to take in.  Not real intuitive.  I'm finding it hard to find a schedule and when I do, it's not very friendly.  When you bring a list of venues, you should be able to see who's playing at each venue with a click.

At this point, I decided to try the app hoping it might be a little more friendly.  First I try to download it on my iPhone and I get a message saying I need IOS 7 (and I'm still on 6).  It offers me the option to download the previous version but I should have known better, because it just downloaded last year's app (with last year's schedule...).

So then I pull out the iPad and download the proper version, but alas it doesn't really offer me any more features  I was going to check a few shows and see if the web and app were totally integrated or if some poor sucker had to re-enter all the information twice

When I finally get the app downloaded, I see that it does not search by genre (like the website). That's a bummer. I was trying to discover what artists might appeal to me.  Searching by "genre" is the holy grail of festival websites and apps (and it's the next frontier in event calendars..."if you like that, then you'll like this")  Even though the CMW artist description included genre labels, there was no way to pull up all the artists who were tagged with a specific genre on the app.  Oh well,

I'm really just ragging on myself here, because we weren't even able to achieve it on the jazz festival site.  It's not something that can be automated, and anyway we are just giving our opinion of the "genre".  I think with CMW, they actually ask the artists to put some genre(s).  Of course, half the rock bands include "Blues"...

So things I would have seen tonight if I had got my badge:
1) Xavier Rudd was at the Opera House, in my end of town
2) Richard Flohil had a showcase at the Painted Lady with some great talent from Quebec
3) Jane Bunnett kicked off 4 nights at the Jazz Bistro - Just last night I had asked Jane's husband, Larry Kramer about putting me on "the list" (which is unlikely considering he was calling me to point out that I had not included them in the list of JUNO winners that we published in Crescendo. Argh! "You always hurt the ones you love"

Thinking 'bout milestones

Here I am pushing seventy, playing guitar for more than fifty, and always boasted that I never took a guitar lesson or even made a conscious effort to learn a new chord, never played slide, used an open tuning or stepped on a wah-wah pedal. But for the last couple of weeks, I've been using the internet to learn a couple of jazz tunes (Round Midnight, Everything Happens to Me) and last week when Harry Manx came by with his new 6-string banjo, I became enamoured with the DADFAD tuning. Wonders never cease.

Jimmie Vaughan inducts SRV into Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame

Really nice closing tune with all out front singing and just Jimmie on guitar. #RockHall2015

A video posted by Peter Blackstock (@blackstock360) on Apr 18, 2015 at 6:54pm PDT

The Genealogy of Dylan's "Don't Think Twice"

With all the recent kerfuffles about the "blurred lines" of plagiarism, I was interested to note that Dylan was sued for basing "Don't Think Twice" on a 1959 release by Paul Clayton, "Who's Gonna Buy You Ribbons (When I'm Gone). Dylan got out of the suit by showing that Clayton had based his song on an old Negro public domain song called "Who gon Bring You Chickens"

There's an entire academic lecture about that song right HERE (you can skip across the first 10 minutes of introductions)

When I heard those clips of Marvin Gaye's tune compared with "Blurred Lines" on the news my first thought was that the 7 million dollars should go to the Gaye's drummer because that groove is what they copied...but how you gonna copyright a groove? The lawyers must be loving this.

Blainletter #74 Happy Easter

Here's a big THANK YOU to all who contributed to the Indiegogo Campaign to fix my old guitar. I knew she had more life in her...Here's a big THANK YOU to all who contributed to the Indiegogo Campaign to fix my old guitar. I knew she had more life in her... I shot a quickie thank-you video on the iPad: Special thanks to Gord at the 12th Fret who did a great job. It was ready sooner than they said and the repair cost less than they estimated,. How often does that happen. $967 was the bill. Seems like a lot of $$$, eh? I don't know if that beat up old guitar is worth a thousand bucks on the open market but it is sure worth it to me. I wish I could say I was "back in business" but the truth is that the business is kinda slow right now. Maybe it's just as well because I'm going to have a lot of non-music stuff on my hands with The Crescendo deadline yesterday and the jazz festival website going live on the 14th. I'd still rather be playing guitar but I figure if I just hang around long enough I'll qualify to be part of some tour package of Canadian blues old-timers :-) Speaking of old Canadian blues guys, King Biscuit Boy, who would be seventy this year if he had lived this long, has gotten a lot of props in the last week, a two hour radio documentary hosted by Rob Bowman on CIUT and a "jam" at the JUNO Awards with the hottest blues players on the scene today. The song was "Corrina," a bit of a signature tune for Biscuit. I posted an iPhone video on my Facebook and got over a thousand views. You can see it here Other JUNO highlights: Hanging out with my old bandmate Lily Sazz and the Linden brotrhers after the "Blame it on Hamilton" event. Colin is working on the TV show "Nashville" and will be going on the road this summer with some of the stars of the show.  The first JUNO event I attended was Thursday night -  a French-Canadian "soiree" that included some Quebecois delicacies (which were mostly gone when I got there) and a craft-beer sampling (of which I did not partake) but I did see the show by Marco et les Torvis - a bit reminiscent of "La Bottine Souriante" and that's a good thing. Maybe a little over the top with the schtick and mugging for applause. Before the band were a couple of septuagenarians, a gentleman playing jigs on a harmonica and a blue-haired lady with some rather blue jokes which she read from crib notes. Her humour went over great with the Quebecois crowd but there were a few afro-franco's in the crowd who looked a little aghast. I didn't get to any of the exclusive private parties but Gibson Guitar put on a big shindig after the Gala in the former Hamilton train station where I ran into a few old friends including Phillip Sayce, who just signed to Warner Bros. and I bet will be a Blues nominee next year. He said he'd enjoyed my You Tube videos. The sound was great, even for a big ole train station. Steve Marriner introduced me to one of the most respected audio engineers in the country. He's the house mixer at many big events and we commiserated how more headline artists insist on using their own soundman - sometimes to their detriment. I joked that there should be an App that would allow the resident soundman to sit off to the side and "override" the mix being done at the console by the visiting soundman. And I must admit, a lot of them would not even notice... He thought that was a pretty good idea and I'm sure many others would, too. I was in Hamilton for three and a half days as part of the army of media weasels covering the JUNOs. We get to watch the awards but not in the big hall. We are sequestered into a room backstage with a couple of big-screen TV's where you watch the show until the sound gets turned off for a Q & A with the winners. I didn't have any questions and just wanted to enjoy the musical performances so when it came time for the blues jam, I snuck into the main hall and shot the aforementioned video. I looked over and saw my pal Blues Doctor Julie Hill - a staunch vegetarian - and was thinking I would have swapped the vegetarian lasagna in the media room for the big fat steak that was being served at the $450-a-plate gala dinner. The reporter next to me thought they were "rubbing it in" too much, when our media co-ordinator read off the menu from the gala dinner. Really, we should be happy that they're feeding us at all - how often does that happen? In the media room I found myself chatting with David Farrell. I guess you could say he was the senior music industry journalist in attendance and I had a chance to thank him for his nice review of "New Folk Blues 2.0" on the New Canadian Music website. David was very encouraging and said NFB2 was "clearly not a rank and file blues album." He said that like it was a good thing :-) If I sound "whiney" about the JUNOs, I guess I'm still smarting from their rejection of my album because it had the same base tracks as a previously released album...yeah, that's why I called it "2.0" I couldn't dispute their argument that you can't just add some horns and strings to an album and then re-submit for a JUNO the next year.  Sunday was the big broadcast with the red carpet and celebrities but I woke up with a cold, coughing and sneezing. I made it to the noontime "Songwriter Circle" but after that I just made my way home to watch the JUNOs on TV with a nice cup of tea. The "Songwriter Circle" was at Hamilton Place's "Great Hall" - a beautiful facility but I think there's a big design flaw to that room. I noticed right away that there was a small army of ushers and flashlights were being turned on at any sign of movement - and now I know why. Twice I tripped on their steps and I wasn't the only one as I observed someone in the First-Aid room. You'd think they'd try to accommodate the geriatric crowd that come out for the classical concerts. Anyway, I've still got a sore ankle - I can't say the performances did much for me, considering this was the "creme-de-la-creme" of Canadian songwriters - Lights was my favourite - but like I said, I was a bit under the weather. Two things I noticed at the JUNO's:  I don't think I saw a single CD hand-off in the whole week-end. The only band that mentioned CDs from the stage was the band from Quebec, Marco et les Torvis who entertained at the "soiree francophone." CDs have not only ceased to be the main delivery system for music, but they are no longer even a "calling card." Winterfolkin':The month before JUNOs was the Winterfolk Festival where I did get to play a set and even did a bit of an electronica mash-up with Joel as a finale! I also did a songwriting workshop with the inimitable Wendell Ferguson, who I got to know a little better and here's where we discovered our mutual admiration for guitarist Lenny Breau. I sing "Last Time I Saw Lenny" and Wendell plays those beautiful harmonics just like Lenny. After the song, Wendell has a couple of funny stories about a recording session with Lenny. Fraser & DeBolt on vinyl:  Actually, F & DeB have only ever been on vinyl, and one of those albums was produced by yours truly.  Two of the out-takes from those sessions are part of an upcoming double album (LP) release on the audiophile label, Roaratorio. I have been involved in the restoration of many old tapes for this project and a couple of nights ago I finally got to sit back and listen to the sequenced and mastered songs by F & DeB, the original acid-folk duo.  And it is going to be a feast for their die-hard fans (40+ years without anything new).  Daisy passed away but you can still hear Allan performing with Marianne Girard, and they do some fine reworkings of some Fraser classics like "Dance Hall Girls."  Watch for a CD from them this year. Columbia Records loved Fraser & DeBolt  - well, for as long as any label could love an artist - It was a revolving door at head offices in New York (aka "The Black Rock"). I think we went trough 4 A&R Directors in the course of this project. We had a big budget (huge by Canadian standards) to make a second album but we tried to record with some Townships players and what we really needed were studio cats. After a week of messing around in Toronto's newest studio, Manta, the band and my co-producer Jesse Winchester went back to Quebec. We might have all gone back to Quebec but Rick Capriole, the assistant engineer (we called them tape jockeys back then)  said he had a band that could walk right in and make it happen. And they did! The band was Simon Caine and included Dennis Pendrith, Pat Godfrey and other great players. Tuck Fox stayed on and played  some guitar and piano as did the Americans, Cal Hand and Joe Ferguson. Joe Mendelson also played on a track. Other tracks on this new release are from live recordings and radio shows. It's worth the wait. Out and About: Harry Manx came to town for the first time in a long time. It was a great show with Steve Marriner sitting in on harp in that most elegant venue, the historic Winter Garden Theatre. What an amazing space, built in 1913. My seatmate Greg Vandall remembered that he had taken part in the restoration project by helping collect the branches that adorned the ceiling. On Sunday, I decided to finally check out Ken Whiteley's Gospel Brunch at Hugh's Room, especially since he had a great sacred steel player as his guest, "Big Ben" from Rochester. It was quite uplifting. I slipped out of Hugh's to catch the end of the the Lazy Cat Cafe at the Bain Co-op. This was the scene of my guitar tragedy when the Epiphone took a fall and broke its head off. It was only fitting that I should come back to the "scene of the crime" and I wanted to show the guitar to David Shilman who had suggested I start a crowdfunding campaign to get it repaired. The 12th Fret did a beautiful job, but the strings had not really settled yet and when I was asked to sit in for the big finale, I just grabbed it out of the case as they were starting to sing "Jambalaya." I noticed right away that I was way out of tune, but I just tried to strum discretely until I was called to do a solo. Well that caught me off guard and it sounded like shit but I guess they were not too concerned because this morning I got an email inviting me to be the "feature" next month. Overheard on the Street: Number 9 Studio owner George Rondina is looking for a partner. A lot of fine music has come out of that studio, much of it shepherded by George Koller. It could be a marriage made in heaven but you know what they say, "If you want to make a million, you better start with two" (actually it was me that said that in my "Entrepreneurial Blues" :-) The buzz about the "Cobalt Prize" and the article we published in MapleBlues has generated some comments from some distinguished musicians in the blues community who are wondering out loud if the blues really needs a "saviour". I'm thinking a thousand bucks and a whack of publicity is a nice windfall for a songwriter who the Cobalt jury considers has the best contemporary approach to the blues idiom.  Maybe I should have submitted "The Day Coke Saved The Blues," my tune about how one songwriter's tune got picked up for a Coca-Cola commercial and literally saved the record label who owned the publishing (gave it a second wind, anyway). But I never entered a song contest yet, so I'm not going to start now. Besides, this tune is a little too inside, since I know the folks on the jury and the creator of the Cobalt Prize figures prominently in the song. The winning song was from two great friends who are most deserving, Raven and ShoShona (aka, Digging Roots). It's not your typical blues song, but that's the whole idea, isn't it? I found a great blog post called 9-things-you-must-know-before-choosing-a-music-venue from an L.A. musician who has a great DIY blog for indie musicians. There are some new live-music showcase venues materializing in Toronto. Thanks to Richard Flohil's First Thursday Series, the Painted Lady on Ossington might become a music destination. And there's a new venue in the west end called Fat City Blues.  I like the name and I like the pictures I've seen (yes, there's a real piano). Then again I heard of a restaurant that was gearing up as a live music venue but cancelled the whole idea when they were told they would have to pay SOCAN thousands of dollars for a license. It was a deal-buster for this small business. Link of the month: how-genre-affects-popular-musicians-life-expectancy Sorry if this got a little long.  There's even more stuff on my blog, www.torontobluesdiary.com.  Have a great Easter and see you out there! Your pal, BrianB aka The Stringbuster, Colorblind Blain, Buddha of the Blues PS: I have recently received spam from both my tojazz.com addresses (blain & editorial) They have subject lines like "Start Your Career with us"  or "Please Look it"  I'm told I can't do anything about it - it's the perils of having the same address for so long. Do not click on the links in these messages and please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any assistance

My old high school pals from St. Pat's started a Facebook group and one of them sent me some pictures I hadn't seen since then (if ever). Check out Brian as teen-age bass player with attitude:

Preview my new website,  BrianBlain.com, a portal to everything Blain.  My blog, torontobbluesdiary.com is linked, there's an EPK, a slideshow of pics, tips on blues shows in town and I've even put a widget that plays my favourite YouTube videos by other artists. Feedback welcome.

Easter Blainletter # 74 April 3, 2015

Here's a big THANK YOU to all who contributed to the Indiegogo Campaign to fix my old guitar. I knew she had more life in her...

Yes, she's Baaaaack! I just got my beloved Epiphone back from the 12th Fret repair shop and I'm so happy to be reunited with her. Thanks to Gord at the 12th Fret and the donors to my Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. It was ready sooner than they said and the repair cost less than they estimated, $967.00. Seems like a lot of $$$, eh? I don't know if that beat up old guitar is worth a thousand bucks on the open market but it is sure worth it to me. I wish I could say I was "back in business" but the truth is that the business is kinda slow right now. Maybe it's just as well because I'm going to have a lot of non-music stuff on my hands with The Crescendo deadline yesterday and the jazz festival website going live on the 14th. I'd still rather be playing guitar but I figure if I just hang around long enough I'll qualify to be part of some tour package of Canadian blues old-timers.

Speaking of old Canadian blues guys, King Biscuit Boy, who would be seventy this year if he had lived this long, has gotten a lot of props in the last week, a two hour radio documentary hosted by Rob Bowman on CIUT and a "jam" at the JUNO Awards with the hottest blues players on the scene today. The song was "Corrina," a bit of a signature tune for Biscuit. I posted an iPhone video on my Facebook and got over a thousand views. You can see it here


Other JUNO highlights:

I loved hanging out with my old bandmate Lily Sazz and we really enjoyed the event put together by Tom Wilson called "Blame it on Hamilton" (where King Biscuit Boy's "Corrina" was performed by Blackie and the Rodeo Kings and all-star guests). Many great performances of songs for, about or written in Hamilton. Nice to see Colin Linden and catch up a bit. He's working on the TV show "Nashville" and will be going on the road this summer with some of the stars of the show. Here's a pic of Lily talking to Colin with me in the background talking to Colin's brother, Jay.

The first JUNO event I attended was Thursday night -  a French-Canadian "soiree" that included some Quebecois delicacies (which were mostly gone when I got there) and a craft-beer sampling (of which I did not partake) but I did see the show by Marco et les Torvis - a bit reminiscent of "La Bottine Souriante" and that's a good thing. Maybe a little over the top with the schtick and mugging for applause. Before the band were a couple of septuagenarians, a gentleman playing jigs on a harmonica and a blue-haired lady with some rather blue jokes which she read from crib notes. Her humour went over great with the Quebecois crowd but there were a few afro-franco's in the crowd who looked a little aghast.

I didn't get to any of the exclusive private parties but Gibson Guitar put on a big shindig after the Gala in the former Hamilton train station where I ran into a few old friends including Phillip Sayce, who just signed to Warner Bros. and I bet will be a Blues nominee next year. He said he'd enjoyed my You Tube videos. The sound was great, even for a big ole train station. Steve Marriner introduced me to one of the most respected audio engineers in the country. He's the house mixer at many big events and we commiserated how more headline artists insist on using their own soundman - sometimes to their detriment. I joked that there should be an App that would allow the resident soundman to sit off to the side and "override" the mix being done at the console by the visiting soundman. And I must admit, a lot of them would not even notice... He thought that was a pretty good idea and I'm sure many others would, too.

I was in Hamilton for three and a half days as part of the army of media weasels covering the JUNOs. We get to watch the awards but not in the big hall. We are sequestered into a room backstage with a couple of big-screen TV's where you watch the show until the sound gets turned off for a Q & A with the winners. I didn't have any questions and just wanted to enjoy the musical performances so when it came time for the blues jam, I snuck into the main hall and shot the aforementioned video.

I looked over and saw my pal Blues Doctor Julie Hill - a staunch vegetarian - and was thinking I would have swapped the vegetarian lasagna in the media room for the big fat steak that was being served at the $450-a-plate gala dinner. The reporter next to me thought they were "rubbing it in" too much, when our media co-ordinator read off the menu from the gala dinner.

Really, we should be happy that they're feeding us at all - how often does that happen? In the media room I found myself chatting with David Farrell. I guess you could say he was the senior music industry journalist in attendance and I had a chance to thank him for his nice review of "New Folk Blues 2.0" on the New Canadian Music website. David was very encouraging and said NFB2 was "clearly not a rank and file blues album." He said it like it's a good thing :-)

If I sound "whiney" about the JUNOs, I guess I'm still smarting from their rejection of my album because it had the same base tracks as a previously released album...yeah, that's why I called it "2.0" I couldn't dispute their argument that you can't just add some horns and strings to an album and then re-submit for a JUNO the next year. But I did feel like I got a bit misled at the beginning and I would have saved myself the $60 submission fee if I had known in advance.

Sunday was the big broadcast with the red carpet and celebrities but I woke up with a cold, coughing and sneezing. I made it to the noontime "Songwriter Circle" but after that I just made my way home to watch the JUNOs on TV with a nice cup of tea. The "Songwriter Circle" was at Hamilton Place's "Great Hall" - a beautiful facility but I think there's a big design flaw to that room. I noticed right away that there was a small army of ushers and flashlights were being turned on at any sign of movement - and now I know why. Twice I tripped on their steps and I wasn't the only one as I observed someone in the First-Aid room. You'd think they'd try to accommodate the geriatric crowd that come out for the classical concerts. Anyway, I've still got a sore ankle - I can't say the performances did much for me, considering this was the "creme-de-la-creme" of Canadian songwriters - Lights was my favourite - but like I said, I was a bit under the weather.

Two more things about the JUNO's and Hamilton. I don't think I saw a single CD hand-off in the whole week-end. The only band that mentioned CDs from the stage was the band from Quebec, Marco et les Torvis who entertained at the "soiree francophone." CDs have not only ceased to be the delivery system for music, but they are no longer even a "calling card."

Winterfolkin':




The month before JUNOs was the Winterfolk Festival where I did get to play a set and even did a bit of an electronica mash-up with Joel as a finale! I also did a songwriting workshop with the inimitable Wendell Ferguson, who I got to know a little better and here's where we discovered our mutual admiration for guitarist Lenny Breau. I sing "Last Time I Saw Lenny" and Wendell plays those beautiful harmonics just like Lenny. After the song, Wendell has a couple of funny stories about a recording session with Lenny.

Out and About: Harry Manx came to town for the first time in a long time. It was a great show with Steve Marriner sitting in on harp in that most elegant venue, the historic Winter Garden Theatre. What an amazing space, built in 1913. My seatmate Greg Vandall remembered that he had taken part in the restoration project by helping collect the branches that adorned the ceiling. On Sunday, I decided to finally check out Ken Whiteley's Gospel Brunch at Hugh's Room, especially since he had a great sacred steel player as his guest, "Big Ben" from Rochester. It was quite uplifting.

I slipped out of Hugh's to catch the end of the the Lazy Cat Cafe at the Bain Co-op. This was the scene of my guitar tragedy when the Epiphone took a fall and broke its head off. It was only fitting that I should come back to the "scene of the crime" and I wanted to show the guitar to David Shilman who had suggested I start a crowdfunding campaign to get it repaired. The 12th Fret did a beautiful job, but the strings had not really settled yet and when I was asked to sit in for the big finale, I just grabbed it out of the case as they were starting to sing "Jambalaya." I noticed right away that I was way out of tune, but I just tried to strum discretely until I was called to do a solo. Well that caught me off guard and it sounded like shit but I guess they were not too concerned because this morning I got an email inviting me to be the "feature" next month.

Word on the Street: Number 9 Studio owner George Rondina is looking for a partner. A lot of fine music has come out of that studio, much of it shepherded by George Koller. It could be a marriage made in heaven but you know what they say, "If you want to make a million, you better start with two" (actually it was me that said that in my "Entrepreneurial Blues" :-)

The buzz about the "Cobalt Prize" and the article we published in MapleBlues has generated some comments from some distinguished musicians in the blues community who are wondering out loud if the blues really needs a "saviour". I'm thinking a thousand bucks and a whack of publicity is a nice windfall for a songwriter who the Cobalt jury considers has the best contemporary approach to the blues idiom.  Maybe I should have submitted "The Day Coke Saved The Blues," my tune about how one songwriter's tune got picked up for a Coca-Cola commercial and literally saved the record label who owned the publishing (gave it a second wind, anyway). But I never entered a song contest yet, so I'm not going to start now. Besides, this tune is a little too inside, since I know the folks on the jury and the creator of the Cobalt Prize figures prominently in the song. The winning song was from two great friends who are most deserving, Raven and ShoShona (aka, Digging Roots). It's not your typical blues song, but that's the whole idea.

I found a great blog post called 9-things-you-must-know-before-choosing-a-music-venue from an L.A. musician who has a great DIY blog for indie musicians. There are some new live-music showcase venues materializing in Toronto. Thanks to Richard Flohil's First Thursday Series, the Painted Lady on Ossington might become a music destination. And there's a new venue in the west end called Fat City Blues.  I like the name and I like the pictures I've seen (yes, there's a real piano). Then again I heard of a restaurant that was gearing up as a live music venue but cancelled the whole idea when they were told they would have to pay SOCAN thousands of dollars for a license. It was a deal-buster for this small business.

Link of the month: how-genre-affects-popular-musicians-life-expectancy

There is a new Fraser & DeBolt album coming. To some Blainreaders, this will be a very significant life event - I know that many of you will have experienced a life event when you heard the first album. The second album (which I produced) did not have the cosmic impact of the first. It's a band album and I'll tell you the story: Columbia Records loved Fraser & DeBolt (for as long as any label could love an artist) so we had a big budget to make a second album but we tried to record with some Townships players and what we needed was studio cats. After a week of messing around in Toronto's newest studio, Manta, the band and my co-producer Jesse Winchester went back to Quebec. We might have all gone back but the assistant engineer, Rick Capriole, said he had a band that could walk right in and make it happen. And they did. The band was Simon Caine and included Dennis Pendrith, Pat Godfrey and lots of great other players. This release includes a couple of out-takes from the sessions I produced for the "With Pleasure" album. "The Flight of the Light Air Force," written by David Owen (now living out west), which was not included because it was too long (and too slow, as I recall). This is just a rough mix, too. I'd love to share the technical aspects of those sessions with the gear-heads but suffice it to say... the first Studer tape recorders in North America, the first studio phase shifter in the country (Countryman, I think), the first Dolby system. This "last" F & DeB album is closer to the first and Ian Guenther figures prominently at the start. Some amazing live tracks. Oh, did I mention it will be released as a vinyl double-album. Stay tuned. And there's still more material out there.

A couple of the tunes were part of Allan's set list when we did a Home Routes House Concert tour together out west last year. I remember attempting to sing appropriate harmonies...another ten days I would have had it! Nowadays you can hear Allan as part of Fraser & Girard.

And here's another link: George Koller's new album includes a song about Daisy, called "My Favourite Flower is a Daisy" which he co-wrote with Daisy's son Jake:




After a brutal winter in Toronto that sometimes reminiscent of my boyhood days in Sherbrooke, we finally welcome the first day of spring (if not the first Spring day.)  My old high school pals started a facebook group and one of them sent me some pictures I hadn't seen since then. Check out Brian as teen-age bass player with attitude:

Have a great Easter,

your pal, BrianB aka Stringbuster, Colorblind Blain, Buddha of the Blues


Check out the new website, www.BrianBlain.com, a portal to everything Blain.  My blog, torontobbluesdiary.com is linked, there's an EPK, a slideshow of pics, tips on blues shows in town and I've even put a widget that plays my favourite YouTube videos by other artists.

























Not too many shows upcoming, but I do have a guest spot at a lovely poetry/music salon that has been going for many years. I was their featured musician a few months back and they've asked me to come and do a few tunes next Sat:

Saturday, April 4th, 2015
1:30 - 4:30 p.m.
Vino Rosso Bar & Restaurant

995 Bay St.
416 926-1800

Featuring poets Norman Cristofoli, Ellen S. Jaffe, Norman Allan and more. The featured musician is Ann-Marie Boudreau, who I wasn't familiar with but I'm very anxious to hear - she's doing healing Soundwork and Spiritual Psychotherapy in her private practice and a multi-instrumentalist and improvisational vocalist performing on a wide range instruments including sitar and harp being unique to her repertoire. She's very much into "sounding" probabably along the lines of Brent Titcomb's "toning" - using sound vibrations to heal. I'm all for it and look forward to what this lady has to offer.


Sunday, April 21, 2015
3PM-5:30PM
The Lazy Cat Cafe
113 Sparkhall Ave. (at Logan)

It's in the Bain Co-op Community Centre, entrance off of Sparkhall Ave., steps west of Logan on south side. Small building with 50' smokestack. FREE parking on Bain, Logan and Sparkhall. Hosted by Linda Lavender and David Shilman.

Wednesday, July 29, 2015
8:30 PM
Hugh's Room
2261 Dundas St W
416-531-6604

Zoe Chilco CD Launch

I'll be playing a few tunes to kick things off.

Last Night I had the Strangest Dream

Not so strange, really, because it was all a very familiar setting - some kind of campus where there was a music festival/conference going on. I guess I had just played a set and was now wandering around leaving my guitar unattended. At a certain point I realize I better get back to my guitar but now I'm having trouble finding where I left it. I'm going in and out of different entrances and making my way down hallways until I finally find the stage set-up and my guitar case is there, but alas, the guitar is gone. This has a devastating effect on me because I just got it out of the shop at a cost of almost a thousand dollars. My stomach sinks so far that it wakes me up and it still took me a few minutes of semi-awake state before I realized that I still had my guitar and it was just a dream...make that a "nightmare"