Music on Vancouver Island, gigging and busy boy...

The previous blog I posted was in January. I can’t believe how time goes flying by. Here we are in March and I’m finally getting a chance to get back to the blog. The first quarter of the year has been a busy one with the “Acoustic Monday” shows at the Queen’s Hotel in Nanaimo and the Hygrade party rock cover band picking up pace as well. Hygrade has done a series of shows at different venues in the Nanaimo area, as well as up and down the island. The repertoire of well known dance and sing-a-long rock tunes played with a wailing harmonica in the mix seems to be going over very well and gaining popularity. Hygrade has shows coming up at the Timberland Pub in Cassidy, the French Creek Marine pub in Parksville and the Cranberry in Cedar over the next couple of months. Dates can be found on my BoodAbooM website. Beyond some recording projects and working on new videos, the “Acoustic Monday” shows have been great fun working them as the BoodAbooM Duo with my friend, bassist Marisha Devoin.

Click here for a video clip from one of the shows. The Next Queen’s Acoustic Monday show is on St. Paddy’s day March 17th starting at 7 PM. Elf Song is on the line up with their penny whistles and Celtic flavour to honour the day. 4 acts for a low $5 cover charge and there is a great chinese food kitchen associated with the venue. Dinner followed by a great music show.

This week I am the featured artist on Tom Lambert’s syndicated show from Ireland which rebroadcasts on over 200 internet and other radio stations. This of course brought a huge smile to my face as it helps the music and the message reach out across the world. What message? That love is “The Answer”. As well, I was asked to write a blog / article for Canadian Musicians. So, remember to be kind to each other and here’s what I wrote about being a musician on Vancouver Island.

Vancouver Island is one of the most beautiful places in Canada to live. Most times the winters are mild, spring and fall are wet but it give folks more reason to go to the night clubs. Summer time on Vancouver Island is festival season, time for the outdoor art shows which often feature music performances as well. In the early Fall the community fairs and exhibitions offer places for island musicians to perform and for others to listen to the abundant musical talent living on Vancouver Island.

Let me enlighten you as to why I think Vancouver Island is a great place for musicians. First off the climate means very little travelling in sub zero weather. Although we do get our occasional big dump of snow, the norm around here is decent travelling weather and reputed to have the mildest climate in Canada. Having literally performed from one tip to the other of this paradise island, I speak from experience when I say the next gig up the street is not really that far away. The entire island is 460 Km long and 80 Km wide at it’s widest point. Vancouver island is covered with vast uninhabited areas which are mostly forest, mountains and valleys. With a decent industrial base, folks do have money for entertainment of one form or the other which always helps the musicians cause. The bulk of Vancouver Island’s 760,000 people live in the greater Victoria area on the southern tip of the island consisting of about 360,000 folks, about 98,000 in the mid island Nanaimo region. Duncan, Courtney, Campbell River, Parksville / Oceanside and a host of other small communities comprise the rest.  Obviously gigs are more plentiful in more populated areas, although for myself being based out of Nanaimo there isn’t a single music venue anywhere on the island that isn’t within a days drive.  Vancouver, being a North American major music center is only a ferry ride away.

We have a thriving music scene with each major community having a host of coffee house venues, pubs, nightclubs and bistros with live music. Rock, reggae, folk, celtic, bluegrass, country, jazz, childrens music, metal and funk, you name it and it can be found on the island. There are more recording artists living on Vancouver Island than I can mention in this blog. Nearly all the larger population centres have first rate recording studios, many of which are so busy they do little if any advertising. We even have our own “Vancouver Island Music Awards” which is a well attended annual event hosted by James Kasper honouring the best of the previous year’s V.I. artist releases. Musical gatherings are happening up and down the island on virtually a daily basis. There are several songwriter circle gatherings, folk guilds, open mics, showcases and jams in nearly every community. A little networking, attending a few open stages and it doesn’t take long for the musical world of V.I. to open up for you.

We’ve had quite a few award winning musicians come from Vancouver Island from Carly Rae Jepson to David Foster, Diana Krall, Nelly Furtado, Christine and Ingrid Jensen, David Gogo, Randy Bachman, Valdy and the list goes on. Many more musical artists of notoriety have migrated to Vancouver Island as a place of refuge and inspiration. Places like Cathedral Grove and Long Beach Tofino are the kinds of locations that are steeped in spirit and offer the sort of environment songwriters thrive on.

There are many relatively unknown stellar musicians on this magnificent island and with a little ingenuity, effort, networking and diligence, everything a musician could want is here. From the weekend rock shows to the bars, night clubs, bistros, coffee houses, restaurants and lounges, there are plenty of places to catch some live music and obviously just as many places to perform. Small, medium and larger concert halls in most communities host music acts from classical to jazz, rock, blues and children's music. During the summer months Vancouver Island blossoms with farmer’s markets, free outdoor shows in community amphitheatres, all of which provide platforms for potential performances as well as entertainment. Come on out to the west coast and join the fun on Vancouver Island. It’s a different pace in a different place, you may never want to leave.

Until later, Brother T

The BoodAbooM album, video, tee shirts, Juno Awards, change and the erosion of free speech

As May begins and the spring brings new growth, things are still bubbling along on the BoodAbooM front. Distribution and who to go with for manufacturing has been a process to be reckoned with. There are a lot of considerations and while “Choices” will remain with CD Baby for distribution at least for now, “The Answer” by BoodAbooM will be handled by Indiepool. One of the big reasons is because Indiepool is a Canadian company offering the same services as what are otherwise American firms. So as this blog is being written, the wheels are in motion to have CD’s available in about three weeks.

The BoodAbooM tee shirts have been manufactured and look great! It was a push to get them in time for the show in Port Alberni April 19th and I was happy to find an accommodating company to do the deed. Marisha Devion joined me for this performance playing her upright acoustic bass. It was a real treat for me as Marisha has a great ability to fill out the sound of a duo with sweet harmonies and a nice percussive approach when needed with her massive upright bass. I hope to do more shows with Marisha in the future. 

If anyone is interested in buying a BoodAbooM tee shirt, send me an email and I will personally contact you to work out the details. For that matter you can also send me any comments regarding this blog or whatever at boodaboomband@gmail.com

The first video from “The Answer” has been posted on my Youtube site. The song “Another Sunny Day”, our inaugural visual offering, reflects on the cycles of life and this world. A funny little side note is that “Another Sunny Day” was actually written on a rainy summer day knowing that the sunshine was right around the corner. The road of life, the cycle of seasons, the day, the night and that ever forward driving motion of striving for a better tomorrow. Check out the video and let me know what you think.

As much as I regard award shows in the entertainment business with some disdain, I found this year’s Juno Awards quite entertaining. The old joke is they are called the Juno Awards because people watching the show say, “who’s that? Juno who that is? I dunno?”. Not quite that way anymore with the likes of Carly Rae Jepsen on the younger side and KD Lang on the established side represented at the awards show. Artist like those along with Justin Bieber, Diana Krall, Rush and The Tragically Hip to mention a few have certainly heightened the profile of Canadian artist internationally. Michael Buble was a fine host with some funny antics and of course his golden voice. Serena Ryder was pretty good with her anticipated “Stompa” and I thought it was cool when Serena accompanied Billy Talent for a tune. I enjoyed watching KD Lang get her “hall of famer” status and again, the presentation from Anne Murray was excellent. I expected the absence of Stompin’ Tom references as he was not a supporter of the Juno awards, the academy in general or how the music industry conducts itself. He was truly a rebel and a Canadian icon that will be missed. My eldest brother Gerry was a music journalist who interviewed Stompin’ Tom and considered that amongst his most treasured moments in the journalistic field. One thing that did surprise me was that there wasn’t a greater tribute to our other great loss in Canadian music, Rita MacNeil. I believe there was a mention, but I expected more given the stature of this amazing talent. Rita was another who typified Canadiana. Rita and Tom will both leave a great void in the Canadian musical landscape.

Not a part of the Canadian music scene, but a great loss to the world of music is the passing of Richie Havens. At the cusp of my adolescent years, I remember being blown away by his spirited performance of “Motherless Child” in the Woodstock movie. Imitating his style, I would wail away like a wounded puppy in my mother’s basement pounding the poop out of my brother’s acoustic guitar. Richie showed me how to just let it flow. Brother Bert taught me that pick marks on his Gibson was not cool.

Beyond the music there have been a lot of things in this world rattling the chains of my being. The tightening control on the last vestige of free speech and dissemination of truthful information without the risk of that information being filtered by the powers in control. What does that mean? The Internet is constantly under attack, either directly or indirectly. Freedom of speech is being eroded. The recent attacks at the Boston Marathon have come under suspicion in true 9-11 fashion while the mainstream internet feeds and the evening news spin and entirely different picture. Our controlling political party, Stephen Harper and his Torie buddies miss placing 3.1 billion dollars and having a hard time figuring out where it went. I had heard yesterday that Stevie baby has said it’s all a misunderstanding. So much for transparent politics and honest government.

I have often alluded to how radical change has less of a chance becoming the standard than does incremental change. One thing is blatantly obvious and that is that the world needs change. Feed the rich and forget the poor is not working folks. Change is inevitable and sooner would be better than later because things appear to be falling apart. I’ve started reading a book about and called “Peace Pilgrim, her life and work in her own words”. Her message was simple, if we wish to achieve world peace we have to start with finding inner peace. A good place to start the change I’d say.  So I leave behind the thoughts of bungling bozos in politics, eroding freedoms, and flying falsehoods, having shined the light of blogging on the issues. Now I will return to seeking inner peace and striving for the ability to approach the world from a standpoint of loving kindness.

Nudging my way to a better day.

Brother T

New shows, cool shows and crazy politics

So I’m kind of a crazy busy guy. I’ve had this urge to blog often over the past few weeks. Either it was some move on the part of Stephen Harper, our own Nanaimo City council, cool shows I’ve gone to see or cool stuff to talk about, the urge to write has been large!! Unfortunately in trying to keep balance in my life, everything seems to take a little longer than I expected including getting back to the blog.  Let’s start with some music before I rant on about local, provincial  and federal politics. Something I said I would avoid in the new blog, but sometimes you just have to raise your voice in case someone is listening or at least get it off your chest.

As to the music, I have been quite occupied with several projects at once! One of the projects has been to expand my rehearsal space from a modest 150 square feet to about the 260 / 270 square feet. That included fresh flooring, carpet and laminate, as well as a double, double window and a door to the shop / storage area. I have been rehearsing a with a few different line ups including a four piece rock cover band where my main duty is to play harmonica. Big fun for me as I don’t get to do much of that in the BoodAbooM band. The way things were, I had to either take out the back wall or blow out the front window with sound pressure. A little engineering to supply bearing supports and we got it done. Smacked my Canadian salute fingertip with a hammer which made practising tough for a while. It was also hard to show anyone my injury without looking like I was flipping them the bird.

Expanded music room, note the modern hillbilly motif.

Progress on the BoodAbooM album / project is moving along. The protective digital fingerprint is in place, the distribution selection is narrowing down and a release is not far off. Work on the art, images and layout for the CD are now in progress. The first official BoodAbooM performance will take place in Port Alberni on April 19th at Char’s Landing, a super cool all ages venue where the first show is an acoustic duo. Marisha Devion is back on Canadian soil and as much as she is a sought after bassist, Marisha will be joining me for this and coming BoodAbooM performances. Since returning to Canada after performing internationally, she has been adding her talents to the theatre performance “Patsy Cline’s a closer walk”, as well as several other well known acts and recording engagements. I’m looking forward to sharing music with folks from my old hometown and the opportunity to perform with Marisha.

Before that happens, March 30th will see myself and Dean Doyle banging out a night of party tunes and covers at the Landlubber Pub in Nanaimo. Dean and I have performed at a variety of shows together from the theatre performance “A luncheon of Leonard” which was a Leonard Cohen tribute performance, to concerts, private functions and various fundraisers. This will be our first “pub” performance as a duo. In this case the duo consists of myself and Dean on drums, kind of like the Black Keys or White Stripes. I will play a few of the original tunes for those who are fans of my music, but the focus will be on a rockier selection of favourite covers. We will be playing tunes from Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty, Bob Marley to current stuff like yes, The Black Keys. No cover charge and great deals on meals, so be sure to mark your calendar for a fun night and join us.

Managed to take in a couple of cool musical shows, “Diggin’ Roots”. I went to “Diggin’ Roots” show with my buddy the mountain man, Paul Jay. “Diggin’ Roots” is a Juno Award winning musical act centered around Raven Kanantakta and his wife Shoshona Kish. The couple hail from northern Quebec and lay down a funky mix of styles on a blues rock foundation. Very entertaining indeed. My friend Paul had to leave his camera at home for this one, so no images. On the subject of Paul Jay, A.K.A. “The Mountain Man”, he is responsible for most of the images captured and displayed on my web sites. I also attended a show my friend Fiona Stuart did where she was joined by bassist / instrumentalist Kenny Brault (Sgt. Helmet Fender), Jeffery Randle on percussion and Maxime Alarie on didgeridoo. I always enjoy Fiona’s performances. She has interesting renditions of covers like the classic “Killing Me Softly”, great original songs and also performs traditional Yiddish songs. Very cool and an entertaining show. This beautiful young jewish woman knows how to command a stage and engage her audience.

I was please to see that the little island I call home yielded 9 Juno nominations for 2013, Diana Krall, Helen Austin, Carly Rae Jepsen, Alex Cuba, Hey Ocean, Nelly Furtado, The Tenors, Japandroids and Ian McDougal all have Vancouver Island connections and roots. Not bad for an island of fewer than 900,000 people.

Ok, what’s been crawling under my skin? Well, let’s start local and work our way up to the federal. The Nanaimo Port Authority has decided to hand over our boat basin to Pacific Northwest Marina Group, an American firm with a questionable reputation. The crazy part of this deal is that the NPA is willing to hand over the taxpayer owned working harbour, on a 30 year lease with only 5 year projections / commitments in return. Furthermore the American company plans to change the boat basin from a working harbour where private and commercial vessels share the facility into a high end yacht only marine destination. This is not what the people of Nanaimo and area want. Most enjoy the boat basin work what it is. Sure there is room for improvements, but we all love buying fresh fish directly from the fishing boats. Sitting with a hot espresso and a good friend along the existing venues watching the boats is a wonderful experience. You can watch this short video to understand and see it for yourself. The folks living on Protection Island which is part of our inner harbour would see their access to downtown Nanaimo cut off which will affect their property values and life stlye. Nanaimo city councilman Fred Pattje asked the city to stand by it’s citizens with this issue, but mayor John Ruttan said there was little he could do. Former mayor Gary Korpan disagrees and publicly criticized mayor Ruttan’s position.

Provincially, Christy Clark and her crew crawled under my skin with a story about the Liberal party spending 64 million dollars on an advertising campaign that more or less says, “look how well we manage your money”. Ah, I find that rather paradoxical.

On the Federal level we have Stephen Harper. Some of these links are to stories about how he is muzzling scientist who are bringing forth information that he doesn’t want made public. I once heard a group of political analyst on CBC call Harper “an affront to democracy”. These links add testimony to their view. If I got into all the details, I’d be here a long time before the blog would be posted. Beside that, when it comes to the matter of how Stephen is running Canada, I could write a book.

Well I’m jumping over my 1200 word limit, so there is no time to talk about the 105 year old Zen teacher who likes boobies, facebook’s evil plan for world domination or the whole Tesla vs Edison thingy. If you’re interested, check out the links above.

Until next time, remember that it serves us well to be kind and loving to other. Do your best to be aware and mindful.

Brother T