News

Still recovering from Halloween – whew, what a late night after the drive back into town! The show was a wild one for sure – with plenty of young students present and in rowdy form. Despite adding a whole lot more fun country tunes prepping for this gig…(I draw the line at “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy”), it was a great night with lots of dancing. In other news, my web designer, Han Siu, came by last week and showed me how to upload new photos and videos all by myself…so I’ll hopefully be keeping a few more of the photo sections updated!

Just confirmed that Tim Leacock will be performing with me and Stefano at the Christmas in Inglewood show on Thursday November 13th. Tim is an excellent singer and performer – technically I should really be backing him up! And I also have booked Danny Patton to join us on keyboard for the Halloween show in Water Valley…Danny is an excellent musician, and usually plays bass – so he says that for Halloween he’s “going as a keyboard player!”

Just finished booking two more shows in October – in particular one for the whole band at the Water Valley Saloon for Halloween! The place has some history in my family – which I’ll tell you about if you come on down to the show. Also a mystery: what the heck am I going to wear to perform in on Halloween??? (any suggestions, or costumes, drop me a note!)

Just finished up two wonderful solo shows this week, one at the Delta Bow Valley Hotel Lounge, and another at a cozy music room/restaurant called Jacqueline’s Bistro. In other news, I am thrilled to let you all know that my former accordion instructor, Penny Sanborn, has released her debut solo accordion CD, called “Serenade”. The CD is absolutely, completely unbelievable, and gorgeously performed…(and after having had accordion lessons, I think I can fully appreciate the skill it took.) Listening to it transports you immediately to the streets of France and Italy! Visit PENNY’S WEB SITE to have a listen.

Heading out to Saskatchewan for a family event, I stopped in to Sun Country 100 (100.7 FM in southern Saskatchewan) and taped a live interview with deejay Jim Strom. The station will be airing a feature on my music on Sunday, September 21 at 8:30 am and 8:30 pm in the Regina/Moosejaw area, and in Weyburn on Saturday, September 20, 7:05am.

THANK YOU to all my friends, fans, and family who packed the Ironwood and Mikey’s Juke Joint for my CD Release Shows! The musicians were fantastic, and CD sales fantastic. Check out the photo page for new images from the shows. “Rolling Wind” is off to a Rolling start!

TONIGHT IS THE BIG IRONWOOD CD RELEASE SHOW! WAHOOO! And in today’s Calgary Herald there is a feature story written by the gracious and talented Mary-Lynn Wardle that details the bizarre and hilarious journey I took getting here! Pick up today’s Herald, and/or CLICK HERE to read the story.

Thank you to Aaron and the wonderful staff at San Carlos Caffee, as well as all the fans (including Aaron’s sweet baby – who spent about a half hour calming my nerves before the show), who made last night’s show a beautiful, wonderful evening all around. Great food, great atmosphere, and a very responsive audience!

Thanks to Tamara Neely and the Western Wheel newspaper who were kind enough to publish an wonderful writeup about me this week.

It was a wonderful maritime holiday, which included a fantastic show at Sessions Cafe for all my NB friends and family, and a rockin’ family wedding which turned into a serious jam session! Tasha and Jordan Zboya, my new “cousins in law” have generously offered to open for my Ironwood CD release show on fiddle and guitar….so it’ll be a real collaboration of family talent. Also, CBC aired my “Takin’ Back this Life” today on “Key of A” with Tim Tamashiro. Thank you CBC!

An amazing week! Played the Nanton shows with Gord Bregg, Ron Lukiv, and Kenton MacDonald – and they were fantastic! Also, at least three of my songs have already aired on CKUA….Hooooray for CKUA! I’ve also booked Steve Zaat, a New Brunswick guitar player/ singer to join me at the show on July 17th. I am so looking so forward to playing for my maritime family and friends. Also, we now have online ordering for the CD up and running.

The debut show at Carlson’s in High River Friday night was an incredible, wonderful experience! The room was filled with an attentive, exhuberant audience (thanks to many friends, fans, and family who made the trip down to High River) and the owners of the venue, Brenda and Don Carlson, even bought me a beautiful bouquet of roses! Check back soon for a video clips of the evening.

Wahoooo! The CD’s are complete, in hand, and sound wonderful!!! We have already placed a few initial copies at Megatunes in Calgary (932 – 17 Ave SW). In addition, we’ll soon have online ordering channels in place. Check back soon for further CD purchasing options.

The CD is now mastered, the graphics complete, and before you know it, hitting the street! We should have them by about June 22 – so they’ll be ready for the High River Show. We’ve also just booked two new shows in Nanton, July 4th and 5th. Those are the first couple nights of Stampede, so if you want some great music while avoiding the rush in Calgary, mosey down to Nanton to take it in!

Two nights ago we finally finished the studio work on the CD! I am now bouncing off the walls – it is so incredibly surreal, and sounds just magically beautiful in my ears – what a terrific collaboration of talents! Clips will be on this website in a day or so. Now it’s on to the mastering, pressing and printing!

Allen Baekeland was in the studio this weekend – putting down harmony vocals. Now here’s a fellow who makes singing multiple harmonies look really easy… “Smooth like Buttah!” Thanks Al!

I was in the studio all weekend, laying down final vocal tracks. Feels good to notch it up another level!

Steve Pineo was in the studio today, laying down acoustic and electric guitar parts for 6 tracks of the CD. I’m a big fan of Steve’s – “Too Bad for Me” was a big hit for Prairie Oyster last year. And let’s not forget “Canadian Man” recorded by Paul Brandt. Love the melodic, musical way he plays guitar!

Launch: of website and more… Here we go! Thanks to all the friends, family, fans, and mentors who are pushing me ahead on this! Design of the website, including photography for my artistic portraits, was by handled by incredibly talented Calgary designer, Han Siu.

The great Charlie Villieux (my dear friend and former band-mate from the Men of Constant Sorrow) came to the studio this afternoon and laid down pedal steel on two tracks for the CD… gorgeous work, Charlie! Thank you!!

Peter Marley was in-studio, laying down guitar tracks today. Magic on the strings! (Peter has been giving me guitar lessons since December) You can hear a rough cut of Peter playing guitar with me on the “Long Way Down” track currently on the web site (he’s doing the fancy stuff!). Not sure if we’ll keep the accordion track I played on there… send me your opinions if you like!

Just had the first day in the studio with my rhythm section, including Thom Moon on drums, Danny Patton on bass, and Ron Casat on the keys – the songs are already taking shape… some great ideas from the guys too!

I’m a songwriting maniac… where is it coming from? Lyrics are constantly dancing in my brain. Charge ahead… I can do this.

Can you say “Constant Sorrow”? Now it’s regroup, write, regroup, write. Feels like I just jumped off a cliff.

The final CD Release Show… the most incredible crowd ever. I couldn’t get over the noise as I played Warren Zevon’s “Carmelita” and Justin Tubb’s “Imagine That” for the last time with the band… Yahoo, what a memory!