I’m happy to write that I have actually started on my only New Year’s resolution: having more French songs. I felt it times to get back to my linguistic and cultural roots, and frankly, with only one French song in the repertoire, I was clearly neglecting that part of things. To that end, I translated Loud Girl, which may end up called L’audacieuse, and wrote a new one from scratch called Comme une boule de gomme. Both are pending recording but should be done in a week or two, depending on other distractions.

What propulsed this along was meeting Frédéric Boutin at Relish. He plays with a few other Francophones, and coincidentally teaches music at G. E. Cartier, where my three kids all received their elementary schooling. In chatting, it rekindled the idea of more French material which I had backburnered. He also mentioned a French open mic called delightfully Franc’Open Mic, a forum for music, poetry, comedy or almost any performing art that has been operating for over 3 years. The event his hosted and curated by songwriter Kyris Mignotet and actor/playwright Florian François.

The next one takes place at the Free Times Café on February 15, and I fully intend on being there to première at least one of the new songs.

Out and About

I made it back to the Linsmore for my first Indie Tuesday in a long time, since the ABC Songwriters’ Circle is on break until January 16. It was great to catch some people I know well and mentioned in previous posts, and new kids just starting out as well. Kudos to Mary-Elizabeth Gilbert for keeping this format thriving. It’s particularly great for people just breaking in to the scene, and for them often one of their first paying gigs.

On Friday, I was able to catch a set of Leanna Yamada‘s band at Relish. It had been a while since we had worked together in the “day job”, so it turned out to be a lovely reunion. The band sounded great too!

New Show Alert!

For those who missed the social media messages or the update in this blog’s sidebar, I’m happy to announce a fresh new show at the Linsmore this coming Tuesday, January 9, 2018, opening for Juno Award-winning musician, songwriter, producer, actor, and teacher Russ Wilson of Junkhouse fame. It’s a thrill and honour to be included with this talented line up; I’m on at 8, Paul O’Toole is at 9, Russ at 9:30 and closing the night Homa & Alex at 10:30.

This will be special, so please make the time to come down. Looking forward to seeing you there. In the meantime, be well!