The Trials and Tribulations of a Musician

A LITTLE VOODOO – Contemporary Blues, Centre 64, Saturday October 17, 2015, 8pm. This is the third concert in the fall Jazz and Blues Festival series.

Everyone would like to play music but for a potential musician the first step is deciding to actually go ahead and do it. The next step is to get hold of an instrument, take some lessons and start practicing. Then there is the whole process of developing a professional skill set to make it all worth while. It is supposed to be fun, and it often is, but as the old saying goes “10% inspiration, 90% sweat”. So it isn’t as easy as some people imagine. Then there is the search for musically compatible partners to maybe form a working band. By this time you and your musical partners have been playing for years and the aim is then to develop a really tight group sound. And, of course, if you are a rock/blues musician you have “to have the moves” for an on stage performance. At last you have arrived. The sound is tight, the moves groove, but lo, everything is not quite as it should be. It all starts to become a little to rote and stale. Even in the most popular and successful bands then comes a time when every performance starts sounding the same. The music has all been done before and even the banter in between tunes sounds just a little bit too rehearsed.There are no surprises and, often that is exactly what the audience wants, but musically it may not be that satisfying. But then along comes A Little Voodoo (Ron Burke – lead guitar; Tom Knowles – bass guitar; and Rob Vulic – drums) a Blues / Rock outfit whose avowed aim is to go beyond tight and loosen it all up a bit. Risk is the name of the game and the result is “real live music”. The last set list Ron put together was back in the 90’s so the performances are coming out of the air and everybody has to be on his toes. This Calgary band was a real treat for a Kimberley audience that may not have been used to loud, in your face blues/rock music that owed a lot to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmie Hendrix and the like. Never-the-less they took it in their stride and obviously enjoyed the opening tune with the refrain “I’m tired of living hand to mouth”. What followed was a night of exciting music that included a stellar version of Donovan’s (remember him, a soft sell folkie from way back in the 60s) of Sunshine Superman. There was nothing soft sell about this version!! Not to be outdone by all that came before in the evening the band finished the night with a lesson in constructive feed back. At the end of which Ron finally left his Epiphone guitar standing in the rack while it continued to echo its way through its feed back riffs. To help those riffs reverberate in your mind’s eye here are some images from the evening.

367. Ron Burke  112. Tom Knowles   300. Ron Burke  200. Rob Vulic 216. Rob Vulic308. Ron Burke    320. Ron Burke   312. Ron Burke  100. Tom Knowles   106. Tom Knowles   104. Tom Knowles212. Rob Vulic242. Rob Vulic   355. Ron Burke   227. Rob Vulic353. Ron Burke

348. Ron Burke  360. Ron Burke    362. Ron Burke002. Voodoo Header

I hate to sound repetitive but the Stage 64 / Centre 64 organization have scored top marks again. Another sold out show, another stellar performance and mucho thanks to the organizers, sponsors and volunteers.

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Tyler Hornby B3 Trio at Centre 64

TYLER HORNBY B3 TRIO, Centre 64, Saturday September 26, 2015, 8pm. This is the second concert in the fall Jazz and Blues Festival series.

500. Tyler Hornby B3 TrioThe Tyler Hornby B3 Trio is basically a Jazz organ trio with Tyler Hornby on drums, Steve Fletcher on B3 organ keyboards and Aaron Young on electric guitar. They play Bluesy, Funky, rock solid music in the style of the classic Hammond B3 Trios  of the 50s and 60s (a la Jimmy Smith).

304. Steve Fletcher

To play an organ as a professional musician is a tough gig. Maybe not as much now as in days gone by. But in Bach’s day the musician had to have access to a pipe organ and that usually meant a trip to church to play a huge pipe organ in a monumental church or cathedral. Similarly, in the early days of Jazz,  pipe organs were only found in churches and big theaters. Once again “Mohammad had to go to the mountain” just to play. For a jazz musician there was the added obstacle of the mechanics of the keyboard. There is a significant delay from the time the organ key is depressed until the sound is produced by the pipes. “On a normal Pipe Organ the lag from striking the key to hearing the sound is about half a beat behind and this plays hell with a musician’s mind” – Clare Fischer. The great Jazz pianist Fats Waller was probably the first, and possibly the only successful jazz musician to manage to make the pipe organ “swing”. Although, in the late 80’s, Dick Hyman recorded some Fats Waller pieces on the Emery Theatre Wurlitzer in Cincinnati that sound pretty good. By and large Jazz musicians left the pipe 020. Keyboardsorgan alone. That started to change in the late 1930’s when the Hammond B3 Company started manufacturing “portable” Electric organs. Portability is a relative term – the instruments still weighed 400lbs with an additional 100lb for the Leslie speaker. Jazz musicians did start to take notice. Earliest jazz performers included Wild Bill Davis, Sir Charles Thompson, Milt Buckner, and even Count Basie at one point. It was in the late 1950s when Jimmy Smith exploded onto the jazz scene with an engagement at Small’s Paradise in Harlem. This, and the classic Blue Note records that followed, initiated a tectonic shift in the way jazz organ was played. His playing ushered in an era of the classic “Hammond B-3 Trio” of organ, guitar and drums. He used his right hand to play single note lines on the top keyboard console, his left hand to play chords on the second keyboard and his feet to play bass lines on the foot pedals. The whole concept sounds, at the very least, to be energetic, athletic and musically very challenging . On top of that he manipulated the draw bars to emulate the organ stops of the conventional organ. He literally set the musical standard for organ trios. Over the years the instrument  has under gone changes. The original company folding at one stage before it was resurrected by a new company to produce more contemporary versions of the classic Hammond-B3. Modern electronics and programmable keyboards have reconfigured the organ and eliminated the weight problem. The weight of the huge Leslie Speaker remains but it does work well with the light weight electronic keyboards. Still there are musicians like Larry Goldings, Dr. Lonnie Smith  and Joey Defrancesco who still chose to haul the cumbersome Hammond B-3 from gig to gig. In the Tyler Hornby Trio Steve Fletcher gets the job done with two electronic Keyboards, pedals and a Leslie Speaker.

This concert was a good bookend to the Gabriel Palatchi Band concert in this same venue a couple of weeks ago. Gabriel’s band was a stripped down trio of drums, keyboards and bass (no guitar) and performed music out of a funky Latin sensibility. The Tyler Hornby Trio is more into the classic Hammond B3 groove. Of course the presence of such an outstanding guitarist as Aaron Young cements the basic B3 sound. The band kicked off the evening with Locus,  an original tune by Tyler and followed that with a Sam Rivers ballad called Beatrice. The first set included Larry Goldings Crawdaddy, To See Your Eyes Again (another Tyler original – who said drummers can’t write ballads?) and Aaron Young’s Chisel. By this time one would have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to be impressed by Aaron’s superb fleet of fingers and funky guitar playing. We rarely get to see and hear guitar player of this caliber. The band kicked off the second set with Miles Davis’ classic Nardis followed by Aaron’s Rabbit Hole  and Tyler’s Tessla’s Trance. This tune was a slow burner that built up a head of steam. Two more tunes, Alone Together and Tyler’s Big Mountain Bounce followed before the final blow out encore on the classic Charlie Parker’s Billie’s Bounce. So that was it – a nice mixture of original and classic tunes to resurrect one’s taste for the classic Hammond B3 trio sound. Needless to say I spent the following week digging though my collection of Jimmy Smith and Larry Young’s Hammond B3 recordings just to perpetuate Saturday night’s groove. Here are some images from the evening.

606a. Tyler Hornby   314. Steve Fletcher  404. Aaron Young  630. Tyler Hornby322. Steve Fletcher   434. Aaron Young400. Aaron Young   424. Aaron Young  444. Aaron Young300. Steve Fletcher   602. Tyler Hornby  314. Steve Fletcher448. Aaron Young462a. Aaron Young302. Steve Fletcher  357. Steve Fletcher 516. Tyler and Steve 616. Tyler Hornby  637. Tyler Hornby618. Tyler Hornby422. Aaron Young   458. Aaron Young 456. Aaron Young  633. Tyler Hornby  626. Tyler HornbyI am always a little surprised by Kimberley audiences. The Centre 64 Concert series offers up some pretty hard core music that normally, given the demographics of the area, might not be the music of choice for Kimberley. However, as I said, surprise, surprise, Kimberley audiences turn out in full force. Once again this concert was sold out. And, of course, thanks must go to the organizing committee and the volunteers that make it possible.

700. Keith Nicholson - MC

And here is a bonus. I tried to find Aaron Young’s version of the Charlie Parker classic Billie’s Bounce but this is the best I could find. It is a version by the Swedish guitarist Andreas Oberg. This may introduce a new guitarist and give you some of the flavor of the Tyler Hornby Trio’s encore for the evening.

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It’s a long way from Buenos Aires – The Gabriel Palatchi Band

CENTRE 64 FALL CONCERT  SERIES – THE GABRIEL PALATCHI BAND, September 5, 2015, 8pm

Yes, it is a long way from Buenos Aires, Argentina to the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia. But the Argentinean  Gabriel Palatchi has made the trip with many stops along the way to sharpen his musical skills and soak up the some interesting musical vibes. Gabriel plays piano and keyboard. Along the way he also managed to pick up the crack-a-jack rhythm duo of Tony Ferraro on drums and Doug Stephenson on 5 string electric bass. Now most people know my aversion to loud drummers but for Tony I more than make an exception. He is loud, sure, but he works so hard at being musical that the loudness is not a factor. It seems that everything he plays ends up in the perfect sonic space. He is probably one of the best drummers I have come across in recent years.  On bass Doug doesn’t appear to work as hard but that is probably an allusion because he looks like he is having way too much fun and how could that possibly be work? Both of these master musicians reside in the West Kootenays and the question that must be asked is why are they hiding away in the jungles of British Columbia? Their answer is that it is purely a life style choice. Sure, they could make it in the big smoke but at what cost? The music they played on Saturday night can only be described as high octane improvised jazz with many overlays of Latin, Funk, Tango, Reggae, Klezmer,  Brazilian and whatever else Gabriel manages manages to pull out to the air. With the exception of Juan Tizol’s Caravan and Ahmad Jamal’s Poinciana  most of the compositions played where originals. Caravan was an absolute tornado of variations on the original classic jazz tune plus quotes from all across the American Song Book. Even Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue appeared in the mix. Caravan was written in the late thirties by Duke Ellington’s valve trombone player Juan Tizol and there must be a million interpretations out there. Think about it; a tune that has been around for over 70 years that can still be fresh and exciting. I have yet to hear a version that does not work. At the bottom of this page there is a link to a couple of Gabriel’s YouTube performances. Once again the production team at Centre 64 has come up with another winner. They don’t seem to able to come up anything less than the exceptional. Although Gabriel resides in Mexico he does a tour through this part of the world every summer and hopefully we will see him back here next year. Here are some images from the evening.

208. Gabriel Palatchi  220. Gabriel Palatchi     292. Gabriel Palatchi     

424. Doug Stephenson544. Tony Ferraro

 

 

 

 

404a. Doug Stephenson254. Gabriel Palatchi    262. Gabriel Palatchi   258. Gabriel Palatchi      260. Gabriel Palatchi513. Tony Ferraro    515. Tony Ferraro    517. Tony Ferraro412. Doug Stephenson  008. Header549. Tony Ferraro270. Gabriel Palatchi   300. Gabriel Palatchi  426. Doug Stephenson

547. Tony Ferraro

So once again a big thanks must go to all the volunteers and sponsors – The Burrito Grill, Mountain Spirit Resort and Ray’s Music. Mike Redfern finished up the evening with the wonderful news that Jim Webster and Anita Iacobucci have donated $3,000 dollars towards the installation of professional theater lights in the Centre 64 Studio. The money comes from the proceeds of the recent Music on the Mountain event. As a photographer I am very excited at the prospect of the difference enhanced lighting will make to my photos.

Here are some YouTube clips……..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDZgT44Hsas

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Music behind the Green Door – Sophiella Watt and the Huckleberry Bandits

Soph Poster 15x11
On Saturday, August 22, 2015 the Green Door in the Platzl in Kimberley continued with their policy of live music by presenting Sofiella Watt and the Huckleberry Bandits. The opening act on the patio at 7pm was Rod Wilson on vocals, 12 String 020. My name in lightsGuitar and Cittern. At around 08:15 Sophie and her crew kicked off their portion of the evening by performing a couple of songs out in front of the Green Door  in the platzl. The weather quickly got chilly so they issued an invitation to everybody to move inside for more music, food and good cheer. That was the beginning of a night of unique music. The musicians are all, at the moment, residents of Nelson and, true to the Nelson norm, their music was outside the box. It is essentially acoustic based but not BlueGrass, not Old Timey, not Country, not exactly folk and certainly not pop/rock. In a nutshell this was “Sofiella Watt and the HuckleBerry Bandits and this is what they do”. Members of the band included Sophie Watt on vocals, open back banjo, guitar and washboard percussion; David Reid on back up vocals, mandolin, harmonica and guitar; Jimmy Mayer on vocals, open back banjo and guitar; Jakob Simek back up vocals and upright bass and tucked way in back on drums Lee Campese. Out side in the platzl Lee hauled out a magnificent Gon Bop Cajon to provide the appropriate percussive rhythm.

In their own words “If we were a wanky wine label, we would read something like this: …a motley mix of winsome folk, bruised with blues and infused with banjo. A full bodied country blend, with heady jazz notes, and spicy gypsy undertones”. Sofiella Watt and Huckleberry Jim are an independent folk duo hailing from the East Coast of Australia. 2013 marked the release of the EP “To Friends Of The North Wind”, and saw these two huckleberry nomads commencing a 20 show tour over four Australian states, from Melbourne to Darwin! Since relocating their guitars, banjo and washboard to Nelson, BC, the duo have formed Sofiella Watt and the Huckleberry Bandits; with Lee Campese on drums, Jakob Simek on upright bass, and David Reid on mandolin. The group recently received ‘Best Folk/Country/ Roots Act’ in the Kootenay Music Awards, and have been getting many feet stomping across BC and Alberta with their unique brand
of gypsy folk-a-billy-blues. The troupe will be touring throughout the summer, promoting their fresh off the press self-titled EP. ! Here they are outside the Green Door in the Platzl enticing patrons to come on inside for more good times, good food and very interesting sounds.

106.Outside  110. Jimmy Maher   120. Sophie Watt  112. David Reid  116. Lee Campese on the Cojon 132. Outside  134. Sophie Watt 130. Sophie Watt

Once inside the light was warmer and the fun continued unabated with a whole bunch of homespun originals that included Old Man Trouble, Junkyard Betty, Gypsy Green Eyes, Mama’s Got a Secret, and a cover of Tom Waits’ Chocolate Jesus.

200. Sophie Watt   314. David Reid   436. Jimmy Maher206a. Sophie Watt  512. Jakob Simek   222. Sophie Watt  434. Jimmy Maher316a. David Reid   208. Sophie Watt   244. Sophie Watt212. Sophie Watt318. David Reid   218. Sophie Watt  402. Jimmy Maher346. David Reid228. Sophie Watt432. Jimmy Maher700. Jakob, Jimmy and Sophie

This was a night of very entertaining music. So much so that the organizers of Cranbrook’s Summer Sounds and Kimberley’s summer festivals should take a note and add Sophellia and the Huckleberry Bandits to their “must have” list for next year’s music scene.

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Caitlin McCaughey in Recital at the Knox

CAITLIN McCAUGHEY IN RECITAL AT THE KNOX PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH   Caitlin is one of a number of young Cranbrook performers who take their music very seriously. To prove the point Caitlin presented the following program at the Knox Church on Monday August 17, 2015 at 7pm.

Caitlin's Program

Here are some images of Caitlin and her accompanist Ellen Ortega performing.134. Caitlin McCaughey202. Ellen Ortega    230. Ellen Ortega  242. Ellen Ortega114. Caitlin McCaughey  116. Caitlin McCaughey  120 Caitlin McCaughey244. Ellen Ortega 144. Caitlin McCaughey    146. Caitlin McCaughey142a. Caitlin McCaughey 152. Caitlin McCaughey 250. Ellen Ortega 040. Caitlin's dress@@@@@@@@@@@@

Words become Images / Silence becomes Songs

422. Dusty Strings HarpPROSE, POETRY & PROVOLONE AT THE KIMBERLEY KALEIDOSCOPE FESTIVAL, Wednesday August 5, 7:30pm at Studio 64 in Kimberley.

It was the promise of an evening of Harp Music that got me out of the house. But it was the evening of Poetry and Prose that was my unexpected reward. I have never been a great one for poetry and that is probably the fault of my faulty education. In my youth there was a notion that Poetry was a “girly” thing – guys did Literature and the girls did Poetry. Over the years I have tried to overcome that educational deficient but still, to this day, any attempt to read  poetry causes my eyes to glaze over. I can’t seem to invest the written word with any real life. Every now and then that changes when I actually hear some one else evoke images with the spoken word. On this particular night that was very much the case when members of the Kimberley Writers group, Mike Whitney, Lori Craig, Sharla Smith, Bob McWhirter, Jill Christine and Jeff Pew invested their written words with lots of imagery and life. There was a lot to appreciate but my personal favorite was Jill Christine’s Tin Roof. It may have been about her own memories of Scotland and Kimberley that inspired the piece but for me, coming from Australia, the land of the “Corrigated Tin Roof”,  it evoked many images and memories that had largely faded into my past. Jill, I thank you for bringing those images back to me. The icing on the cake was the the poetry and music of Dawna McLennan. Dawna is a performer from Kaslo who writes, sings and plays possibly one of the most magnificent Celtic harps that one is likely to see up close. This beautiful hand crafted instrument was built by Dusty Strings in Seattle and would have looked very much at home in the stately houses and halls of olde Scotland and Ireland. Ever since I attended a concert of Celtic Harp Music in an old church in Australia many, many years ago I have had a soft spot for the folk harp. That concert, although billed as a concert of Celtic Harp music it turned out to be much more than that. The real knockout punch of the evening was delivered by a Chilean refugee who played a huge South American Harp, first as a solo instrument, then in ensemble with Quena, Pan flutes and percussion. To this day I can still hear the lopping bass passages that he used to invest his indigenous melodies with such dance like potential. Unknown to most of us the folk harp was introduced into South America by the missionaries in the early days of the Spanish conquest and to this day it is a major instrument in the indigenous music of the Andes. That’s all bye the bye in a trip down memory lane. Back in the present Dawna’s mission in life is to rock the world with her poetical images and that she did as “Harp Pixie” in her portion of the evening. The images were there and so was her voice in song. I always hesitate to compare contemporary performers to those of the past. I think it does a disservice to the performers own special uniqueness. But having said that there were qualities in Dawna’s vocal performances that reminded me of a young Joni Mitchell. Sorry about that Dawna. You deserve to be accepted on your own terms rather than as a ghost of days from the past. Here are some images of a wonderful evening of poetry, prose, music and song.

106. Lori Craig  104. Mike Whitney  116. Jill Christine124. Dawna McLennan 110. Sharla Smith   128. Dawna McLennan   118. Jeff Pew132. Dawna McLennan   126. Dawna McLennan     134. Dawna McLennan  400. The Dusty Strings Harp

And I almost forgot to mention the wonderful wine, cheese, meats and fruits that was more than a nice touch for the evening of poetry and music. Who ever made the food choices needs to be congratulated.

And here is a bonus from YouTube

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Music behind the Green Door – Corinna Rose, Leah Dolgoy and Wizard Lizard

Music behind the Green Door, July 22, 2015, 7-10 pm

100. Wizard Lizzard

The opening act on this particular night was another nod to Cranbrook’s cadre of youthful performers. This time it was the duo Wizzard Lizard. Kyle Albrecht was the guitar wizard and I guess Maddi Keiver is supposed to be the lizard in this organisation. That is most unkind. No lizard I have ever come across looked as pretty nor sang with such a strong voice. In fact I have never heard a lizard sing. Kyle kicked off the evening with an unnamed slide guitar  blues in open E. Throughout the evening , with the exception of one cover tune, Van Morrison’s Moon Dance, it was mostly original songs that seem to have been written mostly by Maddi Keiver. She has an exceptionally strong voice that she uses to deliver her musical messages with great confidence. Kyle is no slouch either. His guitar playing is very smooth.  I am constantly amazed by the number of outstanding musicians in this area that emerge from the woodwork. Or more correctly the number of talented performers who can probably trace their origins back to Evan Bueckert’s  excellent  music program at the Mount Baker High School. Here are some images of Wizzard Lizzard’s performances behind the Green Door  in the Kimberley Platzl.

206. Maddi Keiver  300. Kyle Albrecht  212. Maddi Keiver217. Maddi Keiver302a. Kyle Albrecht218. Maddi Keiver  208. Maddi Keiver  220. Maddi Keiver306. Kyle Albrecht215a. Maddi Keiver

And now, all the way from Montreal, we have Corinna Rose (vocals, open back banjo, guitar) and Leah Dolgay (vocals, Autoharp, and Harpsicle). I like music that is different so these two ladies made my day. Once again for the evening the music was mostly original material performed in a highly original way. With her open back banjo, Corinna was the front “man” of the duo. I hesitate to describe the banjo and her style of playing as clawhammer because, apart from a couple of instances, she did not go very far 418. Corinna Rosedown that road. Rather she used a more full blown finger picking approach using the standard G banjo tuning. There were some nice dissonant chords in there now and again that added to the uniqueness the the music. From time to time she picked up the Larivee guitar that she has had since she was seventeen years old. Like most small body Larivees it was beautiful to look at and a pleasure to hear. 504. Leah DolgoyLeah Dolgay played an autoharp built by the luthier George Orthey . Leah manipulates the EQ of the instrument so that, when played in tandem, with Corinna’s banjo they end up with the banjo’s sound floating on top of the Autoharp’s melodic picking, 540. Leah Dolgoystrums and very solid bass runs. Leah is a recent convert to the rather large Celtic Harp,   but while traveling she has to leave the full sized instrument at home. Instead she uses a more airline friendly “Harpsicle”. In reality the Harpsicle is a small lap harp that can just fit in the overhead compartments of the average airline. Here are some images of their performance:

600a. Corinna and Leah

408a. Corinna Rose    500. Leah Dolgoy   420. Corinna Rose424. Corinna Rose537. Leah Dolgoy   416. Corinna Rose550. Leah Dolgoy412a. Corinna Rose   400. Corinna Rose  426. Corinna Rose 438. Corinna Rose        452. Corinna Rose  506e. Leah Dolgoy   414. Corinna Rose   510. Leah Dolgoy450a. Corinna Rose560. Leah Dolgoy514a. Leah Dolgoy  530. Leah Dolgoy   516. Leah Dolgoy

The duo did mostly original material that seem to draw inspiration from broken relationships. That included the cover tunes they did. Although Shady Grove  was done in an upbeat hoe down clawhammer style but it was out classed by their cover of the Hank Williams classic I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.  I loved the textures of the interpretation.

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Dave Prinn and Friends at Perry’s

Perry’s Pizza and Grill present Dave Prinn and Friends, Friday July 17, 2015 6-10 pm.

Our gracious host and supporter of live music – Perry Levoe of Perry’s Pizza and Grill

100. Perry Levoe

As always this was another evening of fine acoustic music performed by Dave Prinn, Gerald Dalum, James Neve and Tom Bungay. Unfortunately the light was less than optimum and, with the exception of the above photo of Perry and Dave’s Hawaiian print shirt  the resulting images were sub-par so I am reluctant to put them out there. Better luck next time.

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Summer Sounds on Canada Day

FISHER PEAK PERFORMING ARTISTS SOCIETY PRESENTS A CANADA DAY CELEBRATION, July 1, 2015: featuring the roots music sounds of Joshua Burning

224. Joshua Burning

The featured band for the day’s festivities was Joshua Burning whose style of music is basically funky country roots music. They also feature  original material and covers of music that may not be usually associated with country music. The name of the band,“Joshua Burning”,  is a nod towards the legendary country singer Gram Parsons who, upon his death, wished to have his ashes spread over the landscape in California’s Joshua Tree National Park. When he died, as we all must do eventually, his body was stolen from L.A.X. international airport by his best buddy, Phil Kaufman and taken to Joshua Tree Park where it was incinerated with a jerry can of high test gasoline. Of course all of this was illegal and against park policy and for his efforts Kaufman was fined $750 for the theft of the coffin. Now that’s something that should be in the movies. The band features the guitars, vocals and song writing skills of both  Garnet Waite and Keith Larsen. Garnet is an especially fine singer, guitar picker and song writer. Keith is a crackerjack acoustic guitarist with some solid rock credentials on electric guitar. He also doubles on mandolin and blues harp. The band is anchored by the electric bass playing of John Gerlitz. John is well known for his classic acoustic interpretations of old time finger picking blues. Together they are an especially fine ensemble who are a step above your average country guitar strummer. These guys are guitar pickers rather than strummers. During the afternoon  they strolled through some of Garnet’s original tunes that included Lucille, Daybreak Number 3, Angelina, and High Water Channel. For variety they thew in Keith Larsen’s Best Laid Plans. They also did a few covers including a Lyall Lovett tune, Lucinda Williams Drunken Angel, Peter Rowan’s Midnight Moonlight, Steve Goodman’s Banana Republics, a Marshall Tucker tune, the Grateful Dead’s Tennessee Jed, and to soothe my Celtic ancestors they covered The Pogues If I Should Fall from Grace. Here are some more images from a fine afternoon in the sun at Rotary Park in Cranbrook.

404a. Garnet Waite  502. John Gerlitz  300. Keith Larsen314. Keith Larsen415. Garnet Waite  306. Keith Larsen  425. Garnet Waite 014. I'm so sad  013. who am I440a. Garnet Waite 010. Keith's guitar  324. Keith Larsen 052.  012. Louie Cupello302. Keith Larsen   070. The three no evil monkeys 016. I'm so sad   318. Keith Larsen232. Joshua Burning

So, thanks Louie, James, “BBQ Bob”, Janice and all the volunteers and sponsors of the Fisher Peak Performing Artists Society that made it possible for the rest of us to kick back, enjoy the sunshine, burgers and the fine music of Joshua Burning. Thanks and more thanks.

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Music in the Great Outdoors

Ravens Roost Open Mic Session, hosted by Bill St Amand on the deck of the Kimberley Golf Club. Friday June 19, 6-9 pm.
This year’s RAVENS ROOST session got off to a great start with flawless weather, responsive patrons, friendly staff and some fine music. As usual Bill St. Amand was on deck, setting up the sound system, organizing the musicians, performing and acting as MC for the evening. Naturally he was first on stage with his signature small body Martin guitar and his unique interpretations of some fine old tunes. Rod Wilson joined him with some back up percussion on a Peruvian Cajon (box drum). Alphonese (Fonzy) Joseph ran though his blues tinged repertoire before the Blarney Pilgrims (Rod Wilson Wilson on Cittern and vocals with Wally Smith on Accordion, Irish Whistle and Darbuka) did their little Celtic trip. The Blarney Pilgrims have not performed often over the last little while and this was an opportunity to trot out some old favorites such as Ben’s Lament, Dimming of the Day, The Black Velvet Band, The Boys of Blue Hill / Harvest Home, etc. It was also their first opportunity to try out their latest venturing into the uncharted waters of Bulgarian / Macedonian music with the Sarajevo Set that included a Balkan Tune, Richard Thompson’s Will I ever Be Simple Again and The Belgarth Waltz. From where I was sitting Wally Smith’s Middle Eastern rhythms on the Darbuka (Turkish drum) sounded outstanding. One of the great things about these events is when a new, unknown musician steps onto the stage and surprise fellow musicians. Maigan Jayde did just that. Maigan is new to the area and it was real treat to hear her magnificent strong voice run though a few songs including the classic blues In the Pine, in the Pines. Here are some images from the evening:

102. Bill St Amand   100. Bill St Amand and Rod Wilson 404. Alphonse Joseph 500. The Blarney Pilgrims110. Bill St Amand  400. Alphonse Joseph  604. Maigan Jayde514a. Wally Smith516. The Blarney Pilgrims  520. Rod Wilson602. Maigan Jayde 510. Wally Smith  410. Alphonse Joseph608. Maigan Joseph

(Another great session – thanks Alphonse for the grabbing up the camera and taking the extra shots).

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Wednesday June 24, 2015, 6-8 pm: Fisher Peak Performing Artists Music and Vendors Market, Open Mic Session hosted by Ferdy Belland and Jamie Neve – Performances and vendors in the Rotary Park in Cranbrook.
James Neve (guitar, vocals), Ferdy Belland (guitar, vocals) and Colin Righton (hand percussion) were well into a set of tunes when I walked into Rotary Park on Wednesday evening. So is this the next local “super group”? I suspect this was just a pickup group and we may never hear them again in this configuration. That would be a shame because as a trio they offered up something that was new and different and I liked it. The weather held and the evening was pretty low keyed with only a few performers and a small crowd in the park. Here are some images from the evening:
100. Colin, James and Ferdy     310. James Neve 412. Ferdy Belland214. Colin Righton  318. James Neve  400. Ferdy Belland210. Colin Righton322. James Neve  402. Ferdy Belland708  004. The Dog gallery604. Bill Renwick010a. In the Dog Gallery
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That’s the beginning of the SummerSounds Program in Cranbrook’s Rotary Park. Check the poster below for more coming events
SummerSoundsPoster2015
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