Movable Feast
The fundraiser at PARC was just the beginning of the evening.
Around 9:00, I headed across the street to one of my favourite neighbourhood venues, Mitzi's Sister. Fred Robinson books the live music there and planned this evening in collaboration with the PARC Fundraiser folks.
Ken Whiteley was hot on my heels and he opened the show with some old-time solo blues (including a great Son House number on National Steel) followed by a real find: Del Barber from Winnipeg – currently on a 30-city solo tour of Canada and the U.S. He's a great guitar picker and a smart songwriter. Only problem is that he's left-handed so he couldn't manage much on Voyageur. Still we got a nice picture of him with it (above).
After that was Camden Blues from Thunder Bay.
And then I got to go home and try to catch up on a lot of lost sleep and jet lag.
Thanks to Richard Peachey, Victor Willis and all the PARC staff and event organizers, Fred Robinson, Lesli Gaynor, Sheila Kauffman and Another Story Bookstore.
Posted at 2:50 PM
Red Eye
After a busy day at SMUS on Thursday, I managed to squeeze in a dinner visit with my sister and her family on Broad St. and it would have been great to spend another night at the Empress but I had scheduled myself a busy evening in Toronto on Friday.
At the foot of my street is PARC – the Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre for homeless adults. It's part drop-in centre, part residence, part employment and housing directory and part jam studio! PARC is currently in the process of renovating a former rooming house next door into 18 residences and last night was a fundraiser for which I'd offered the guitar.
The place packed out and Ken Whiteley and Mike Ford both agreed to play.
The presentation went really well but before we got to Mike and Ken, there were two special performances to start the musical part of the evening. Dora and her music partner performed one original song and then a group of PARC clients whom I'd challenged to write a song for this night when I met with them about 10 days ago, performed what they'd come up with: a soulful singalong called "Walk a Mile In My Shoes".
After that it was over to Ken and Mike (pictured) who rocked the house and had everyone singing along. Of particular note was Ken's lovely "It's Golden".
Thanks to Bob, Richard, Cynthia, Zephenia, Ken Whiteley, Mike Ford and all the people who came out to support PARC.
Posted at 1:08 PM
Back to School
Still glowing from last night's performance, I returned today to St. Michael's University School to do a few different sessions with students.
We started in the morning with a visit to the SMUS Junior School in the Oak Bay area of Victoria. These were younger kids and they were absolutely fantastic! When I was telling them about the Golden Spruce, one boy in Grade 1 knew that the missing ingredient in the tree's needles was chlorophyll.
Paul O'Brien did his song "The Voyageur" again and then came up with a really brilliant way to get all the kids close to the guitar at the end of the presentation: they got into a line and as they approached Paul, we handed them a guitar pick and they strummed the strings while Paul chorded the song. It was just beautiful.
From there, it was back to the main SMUS campus for lunch and a couple of presentations in the chapel (built by students back when it was a school for troubled boys back in the 1970's!). Again, students got up to give Voyageur a go at the end of the presentations but there were two real standouts: the student who did the Jackson Browne tune and the student, Rowan, who did the stunning instrumental.
Thanks to John Liggett and the staff and students of St. Michaels University School, Victoria.
Posted at 7:13 PM
The Main Event: UVic
The whole reason for this trip to Victoria, really, is one song. And it's a pretty remarkable song that had its remarkable debut last night.
At the Edge of the World Festival on Haida-Gwaii two summers ago, I met a wonderful guitar player and songwriter named Paul O'Brien – a recent immigrant from my mother's hometown of Birmingham, England. As so often happens, I find, people who are new to Canada get the project in a way that some who take Canada for granted don't. Paul was especially moved by his encounter with Voyageur but I didn't really appreciate how moved until yesterday.
Paul and I met for the second time in October 2009 when I presented the guitar at St. Michaels University School in Victoria, where Paul is a part-time guitar teacher. He did us the honour of playing the guitar at the presentation and we began corresponding after that. Pretty soon, he let me know that he had written a song about me and the guitar called "The Voyageur" and that SMUS music teacher Donna Williams had arranged the song for the school orchestra and choir and they wanted me there for the debut.
SMUS paid for my trip out and Paul (bless his heart) organized some additional school appearances for me to help me survive January. At the first of these sessions – the one at Gordon Head Middle School – I first heard the song and was moved to tears. But nothing could have prepared me for the emotion I felt last night at the official premiere of the work with the full choir and orchestra filling Farquhar Hall at the University of Victoria. I know that Kent and his crew were filming and recording the show so as soon as the video is available, I'll post it here.
Thank you, Paul, for one of the great honours of my life. Thanks also to Donna Williams, Peter Butterfield (pictured, above right, with Paul O'Brien (L) and me (centre)), the wonderfully musical students of SMUS and everyone who came out to see this event. Thanks to Lisa Cole for putting it out on her network and coming to see the show.
Posted at 12:53 PM
The Roaring Lyon
From Gordon Head, Paul and I stopped in at UVic for a rehearsal for tonight's performance with the St. Michaels University School Senior Orchestra and Choir. It was a great chance to re-connect with music teacher Donna Williams, who arranged Paul's piece for this large ensemble and who was the first to welcome us to SMUS.
It also gave me a chance to see how the programme would work with the visuals I had planned so I managed to organize and pace the slides a bit better and finesse the timing.
From there, it was on to Glenlyon Norfolk School, where our presentation was in their very cosy theatrical space with a nice raked bench seating, black curtains and the whole bit. The schedule of the day meant we were presenting to mostly the middle school group but towards the end some of the senior students came in and they really seized on the project as well – with a few of the students already aware of Voyageur from the media surrounding my last trip to Victoria in October.
I'm always taken by surprise when there's a bit of a mad scramble after the presentation for students to touch the guitar and take pictures and so on. It's great to see so much excitement over it, though sometimes a little nervewracking as well. Still, it all turned out great and it would be a wonderful school to return to for a more robust programme with more of the students involved.
Thanks to the staff and students of Glenlyon Norfolk School and to Paul for being such a great person to hang out with as we traipse around Victoria!
Posted at 5:43 PM
Oh Victoria!
I left for Victoria on a direct flight last night. Paul O'Brien was there to pick me up at the airport and drop me at the historic Fairmont Empress down on the harbour – with those wonderfully Dr. Seuss-esque trees indicating the original grand entrance.
This morning bright and early, Paul picked me up again and took us to our first engagement at Gordon Head Middle School, where the principal threw the schedule into disarray on our account so that his students could have a chance to see the presentation.
They were a fantastic group and, as usual, I invited students to come up and play the guitar at the end. Among those students who jumped at the chance was Paul O'Brien's coming on 13-year-old son, Fintan (pictured), who performed a song of his own composition. My goodness! Such poise, such assured playing, a well structured song with great phrasing, mature lyrics and a note-perfect delivery. He has clearly learned well from his father and, at this rate, will be a songwriter to contend with in no time!
Paul also gave us all a sneak preview of the song he will officially unveil later tonight, The Voyageur, but I'll leave that for a separate post.
Thanks to Principal Brent Kelly and the staff and students of Gordon Head Middle School – Go Grizzlies!
Posted at 1:21 PM
Kate McGarrigle: 1946-2010
I've been donating to Haitian Earthquake relief in small increments via text message this past week as have countless others. It has been reassuring to see the outpouring of compassionate response to the victims of this disaster whether or not we have personal connections to people in that country. I encourage you to continue supporting those relief efforts through a variety of agencies.
But this morning I want to encourage you to also make a donation in honour of one of Canada's greatest musical treasures, Kate McGarrigle, who passed away last night at age 63 following a battle with a rare form of cancer.
In 1993, my writing partner Gord Nicholson and I (as Catastrophe Theory), composed and produced a 12-minute piece of music as a collaboration with pyrotechnic designer Eric Tucker for the Canada Day fireworks display at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. The fireworks capped the evening show at the big outdoor stage where the headline act was Kate & Anna McGarrigle. I was a huge fan, having been introduced to their Dancer with Bruised Knees album as a kid by my English aunt and had followed them ever since. As the ovation for their final number began to fade, I stood on stage with them and turned with the audience to watch the skies as our music swelled in the sound system and the fireworks began to punctuate the night.
Watching 12 minutes worth of colourful explosives going off to music you've written is a pretty big thrill to begin with, but doing it as you stand on stage with a couple of your musical idols was the rarest of treats. I recounted this adventure to Kate as we chatted in the lobby of the Brook Street Hotel in Ottawa two summers ago. She was on tour with her son, Rufus Wainwright, and was waiting as the tour bus loaded out front. She was lovely as ever, though I discounted her slightly tired appearance to the rigours of touring. I gave her one of the Six String Nation brochures to read on the bus and feel lucky that I got to meet her twice in my life.
Online donations to the Kate McGarrigle Fund for Cancer Research at McGill University in Montreal can be made here.
Posted at 9:15 AM