Apr 17, 2010
At Home with the Amazing O'Briens


If you follow this blog or get my newsletter, by now you know the name Paul O'Brien. Paul is the wonderful Birmingham-born singer-songwriter who now calls Victoria home. And you'll remember his extraordinary song "The Voyageur" that he wrote for me and the guitar and performed with the St. Michaels University School Senior Orchestra and Choir back in January. If you missed it, you'll find the video here.

Last night was a much more intimate affair as Paul and family invited friends and neighbours to come to their home for a presentation and concert built around Voyageur. You'd never have known you could pack so many people into that living room. It was truly a wonderful evening. Paul was extraordinary - as usual - and encouraged several guests to come up and take a turn on Voyageur. One of the most special moments was the family performance with Paul and son Fintan on guitars, daughter Emelia on vocals and son Cormac on bass. Fintan (pictured) also stepped up and did one song solo on Voyageur as well. He's a great writer and he had Justin Bieber's hair before Justin Bieber did!

Thanks to Paul, Louise, Fintan, Emelia and Cormac for their warmth, hospitality and talent and to everyone who came to the Blue Cottage in Victoria for this very special evening.

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Posted at 11:45 PM


First Nations Food!


I met Sarah Cormode a few months back at an event with Paul O'Brien in Victoria BC. She was really taken with the project and saw a place for it in a conference she was planning at the time. True to her word, she got in touch and invited me to present Voyageur at the "3rd Annual Traditional Foods of Vancouver Island First Nations Conference" at the University of Victoria. I know that's quite a mouthful and, in truth, I was kind of hoping there might be quite a mouthful to be sampled over the weekend as well!

I was met at the airport by Sarah's father, Ted - a great guy full of great stories of his travels working as a doctor in many different parts of the world. Clearly Sarah has followed in her father's footsteps in terms of both her sense of adventure and her commitment to building healthy communities. I attended much of the conference and it ranged from more anthropologically-based surveys of aboriginal diet in the region to full on data-crunches of distribution of toxins in the First Nations food chain. While mercury-levels aren't as high as I expected them to be, they, of course, get concentrated in animals further up the food chain. And while most Canadians might eat salmon a couple of times a month, British Columbia's First Peoples not only eat more salmon, they eat some of the creatures that eat the salmon and concentrate more of the mercury.

Anyway, you might be wondering how the guitar and its story might fit into all this but it actually did and there was a really great feeling in the room after last night's presentation after one 10-year-old girl sang her song on Voyageur and one visiting delegate - who came especially to meet the guitar - played a topical tune (sung to the melody of Bob Marley's "Jammin'") but more fittingly titled "Salmon" (...and I hope you like salmon too...).

Today I had no official duties but Sarah had loaned me her car and I drove out to the Tsawout First Nation for the big banquet. There were all manner of local favourites including local prawns, fish soup and fresh salads. Fantastic! I had a great day but have to get ready for tonight's house concert at Paul O'Brien's place.

Thanks to Sarah Cormode, Ted Cormode, Jocelyn Sam, John Rampanen (pictured) and all the volunteers and delegates at the conference. Special thanks to the Songhees and Tsawout First Nations for their hospitality.

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Posted at 6:07 PM

Apr 12, 2010
St. Clements School

A very nice visit today to St. Clements School for girls in Toronto. The presentation was filled with lots of bright super-achieving students. Unfortunately, time constraints meant that the presentation had to be a bit rushed but i think the students enjoyed the presentation. The girl who played at the end had written her song herself! Nice job!

Thanks to Maggie Thompson and the staff and students at St. Clements.

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Posted at 6:01 PM

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