Last night at the famed El Mocambo was partly a tribute concert for Jack Layton from the music community that supported him for years and partly a transmission mechanism to transfer some of that momentum to Ontario Provincial NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who was the official host of the evening.
I got a call from Davenport MP - and founder of early Toronto punk band L'Étranger - Andrew Cash, who asked if I would bring Voyageur to the event for him to play. I was only to happy to do so. And it was great to be among other friends of the project including our pal Hawksley Workman who may be the only artist to have played Voyageur in three different cities: Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary. I let him know about Luke Gillett's great performance of "You and the Candles" at Niagara College and he was delighted.
Andrew Cash opened the proceedings with Voyageur and then called me up to say a few words and I showed our Jack Layton portraits on the screen behind us. Then Kevin Fox came up to accompany Andrew and Voyageur on cello for the next couple of numbers - that's the two of them pictured at right - before starting his own set. You might remember Kevin for accompanying Steven Page at the Layton state funeral proceedings. I also remember that the last time he accompanied Voyageur was at Hugh's Room behind Derek Downham and Andy Kim.
I had to leave by the end of Hawksley's set in order to prepare for some meetings this morning for which I'm already about to be late. But thanks to all the artists who participated.
Thanks to Andrew Cash, Andrea Horwath, Dianne, Laurie and Frank from the NDP team, Fote from the ElMo and everyone who came out to the show.
Posted at 8:35 AM