Month: February 2019

Winterfolk Wrap-up

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The last weekend was a whirlwind of activity. Besides family commitments, I worked 3 nights at this year’s Winterfolk XVII, the first two as tech assist and the final as MC, and all at the Black Swan.

I have to comment how much I respect the organizers, hired staff and other volunteers for their commitment to making this an amazing event. Particularly, Jen who patiently herded many cats, and Kevin, Aaron and Richard for amazing technical prowess, not to mention their kindness with me, and skill and persistence with technical challenges. I learned a lot!

The great fringe benefit was listening to so many great and unique performances. There were too many to include in one post so I will drop a mention to as many as possible in the upcoming weeks.

img_1147.jpgNotable for personal reasons on Sunday afternoon was the performance by family friends Alana and Leigh Cline. Here is a bit of them in performance. It takes me back to the kind of music I would hear when visiting the relatives in the Bas-du fleuve.

Reggae Fans Take Note!

This coming Thursday evening (February 28, 2019), FatCats bassist NeMo will be holding the the bottom end with Reggaddiction at the cool Jasper Dandy. It gets even better as ABC Songwriters’ Circle alumnus and all-round muy versátil artist Lilly Mason will be up front on vocals. The band will be performing songs from Ganja Harvest, their upcoming album which pays tribute to the Canadian legend Neil Young’s Harvest album, reinterpreted in a reggae dub version. Can’t wait!

Gig This Saturday

The Cats are back at Relish this coming Saturday. As always, super big thanks to Joanne Clayton who makes musicians always feel so welcome. We hope you can come down for this show—things kick off at 9:30.

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The line-up for this Saturday!

Until then, be well!

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Substantial Completion

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Finally!

After weeks of work, the isolation room is essentially done.

Here are a few pictures to illustrate.

From top left: the “sauna” with main wall closed—padded door is on the right; the same with front wall open (this is for accessing the mics and drums easily from the front side—it’s pretty tight in there—and moving gear in and out easily; view from the front with wall open; view through the regular door. Bottom row: overhead paired mics in XY pattern—I had previously used the ORTF method but clip limitations make that challenging; cable conduit and sound maze vent for air—drummers with a good oxygen supply keep better time. Bottom right: the drummer’s perspective.

I’ve also added extra cabling so the room can double as a vocal booth or iso booth for amplifiers on overdubs.

Further tests will have to confirm whether it has reduced the outside levels as much as hoped for, but a quick check gives hope that it has gone from unbearable to somewhat annoying, at the very least.

Gig Alert!

While I haven’t stopped playing entirely (a few open mics here and there), it has been rather quiet on the performance front lately. That is about to change as the Cats are back at Relish very soon on Saturday March 2 from 9:30 to 11:30. Please put THAT on your calendars, why doncha!

Winterfolk

This weekend, I will be volunteering at Winterfolk XVII, an annual music festival held in 3 clubs near Danforth and Broadview. You can find me at the Black Swan running cables and setting up mics on Friday and Saturday, then on Sunday evening MC’ing on the 3rd floor at the same venue. Should be a fun gig. More info including the full lineup of artists and ticket prices at the Winterfolk site here!

Until then, be well

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Up To My Eyeballs

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Not much of a blog this week. More construction, although hard to tell from the photo. Ceiling done with insulation and paneling. One wall done inside and partially insulated.

Gotta focus…

By the by, thanks to Tony Oldland for having us guest-set at last Wednesday’s jammers’ night at the Salty Dog and to the guys and gals who let me sit in for a fun Stones set.

More updates next week!

Be well!