Uniformly Diverse
Men and women in uniform, that is...
Some time in the summer I got an email from the Canadian Forces asking for permission to download and distribute 120 copies of our media kit to senior officers participating in a course at the Canadian Forces College in Toronto. "Sure", I said, "but just out of curiosity, what are you doing with it?"
It was a course in Strategic Studies and part of the course was a unit on Canadian identity and the organizer of the course, Lt. Col. Susan Beharriel (Canada's first woman senior intelligence officer and one of the first two female fighter pilots, BTW!, pictured) thought the guitar was a great way into the topic.
I suggested that, since I was based in Toronto anyway, I'd be happy to bring the guitar by the College if they wanted. The response was extraordinary and Lt. Col. Beharriel began planning the visit. I was included on a list of civilian panelists but they didn't let on that the guitar would be there.
The day was fascinating: John Lagimodiere spoke from the perspective of a Saskatchewan Métis; Dr. Pierre Pahlavi from that of a Quebec Nationalist; Dr. Jim Bickerton from that of an Atlantic Canadian; Dr. Roger Gibbons from the Canada West Foundation; Che Latchford from that of a disadvantaged youth and Dr. Raheel Raza from that of a Muslim Canadian woman. Dr. Raza engaged in a pretty interesting piece of political theatre involving a burkha and all the speakers were really very eloquent about how Canada looks from their point of view. What really impressed me was the level of engagement of the officers in the room and how open everyone was to the discussion - not, I must admit, what the preconception of military folks is like for many people. I was even asked in one of the breakout sessions for my honest opinion on Canada's mission in Afghanistan. They really wanted to know, understand and have a feel for the range of opinion and debate.
Anyway, my own appearance was a bit of a wild card. I was saved for last and we had stashed the guitar case behind the podium. When I got up to speak and people realized who I was there was a slight buzz but when I brought out the guitar case and opened it up there was an audible gasp that went through the room - they all knew this guitar well.
The presence of the guitar was not a secret to one Commander Glenn MacIsaac, however. We had arranged that I would hand him the guitar after my presentation for him to perform a song for the assembly. He chose "Wheat Kings" by the Tragically Hip. After his performance, John Lagimodiere came up to me and said: "Watching a soldier from Cape Breton play a song about the prairies by a Kingston Ontario band on the Six String Nation guitar is the most Canadian I've ever felt in my life!"
Likewise, John - it was a really special moment.
Afterwards, we all retired to the Officer's Club where we did portraits of everyone with the guitar - including officers on the course, guest speakers, other military personnel, staff and some of the veterans who were regulars at the club. Some of those pictures should be up in the Gallery section soon.
It was also agreed by everyone there that it would be a great thing to get this guitar to the soldiers in Afghanistan as a significant piece of home in that troubled situation. We'll start working towards that.
Special thanks to Lt. Col. Susan Beharriel, Commander MacIsaac and the CFC Commandant, Col. Jerry Gillis (also from Cape Breton!) for making our visit so wonderful.
Posted at 1:24 PM
Cobalt: If you don't play there it's your fault
A few days late but I have a good excuse: I was sitting on the dock at the family cottage where there is no internet access. Hopefully I earned the respite but now it's back into the frying pan.
So, we left Sudbury Friday morning and arrived right on time for soundcheck at the refurbished Classic Theatre in Cobalt Ontario. Now, I have to admit that the inclusion of some silver from Cobalt on the first fret and the organization of this show at the classic are no accident. My dad was born in Cobalt. My grandfather was Mayor of the town for a while and a provincial member of the Ontario Legislature for the riding from 1941-45. So while Cobalt may have been named by a panel at TVOntario as "Ontario's Most Historic Town" it has a lot of personal history for me as well. Plus, the cottage is nearby and I was determined to keep up the tradition of the Labour Day weekend spent there with my friends Richard and Erin (this time with new baby Oliver along!).
The show was put together pretty quickly by Helen Culhane and friends in Cobalt but they did a great job. The evening was bookended with performances by Chuck Angus. Charlie was formerly with a Toronto-based band called The Grievous Angels and, after moving to Cobalt, began a northern literary magazine called The Highgrader. Highgrading is the practice of smuggling minerals out of the mine by miners. I suppose you could call it a kind of under-the-table stock market investment. Anyway, Charlie is now the federal MP (NDP) for the neighbouring riding of Timmins/James Bay so I'm especially glad he was able to make the show. He's a great storyteller and songwriter and really added a lot of depth to the appreciation of the guitar and its elements in the context of the area and the evening. He was accompanied on electric guitar by Dave Patterson - who did his own song on the 6SN guitar and sounded a lot like Keith Richards!
Also on the bill: the Roberts family, including young Sabrina - a golde-voiced teen who returned from Newfoundland just for the show; Jon Lehti from Kirkland Lake; Martin Drainville and his brother Gaetan; Bob Ruddy (also known as Karaoke Bob) who had the most amazing near-Orbison-like voice; and Freeman Smith. The presence of Freeman at the event was a real honour for me and a real acheivement for Freeman. He is recovering from throat cancer and had had his saliva glands removed. Learning to sing and play again was a real struggle for him but he wanted the opportunity to play this guitar and really rose to the challenge. I thought he might get through maybe one song but he did three or four and sounded pure rock 'n' roll - a real inspiration.
Another real honour was the presence of Armand Cote at the show. See, the thing about Cobalt is that the mining companies pulled up stakes when the silver was gone. And it was gone. And it was all theirs. Most of the silver around would have been of the aforementioned "highgrade" variety – and not too many people want to admit to owning that. But Helen Culhane approached Mr. Cote who had a few chunks of legitamate silver that he generously offered to the project. The local press took some photos of me with Mr. Cote and the guitar – I'll post them in the Gallery when they send them on.
In true Cobalt tradition, Charlie lead the cast for the finale singing the Cobalt Song, the lyrics of which are as follows:
CHORUS
For we'll sing a little song of Cobalt
If you don't live there it's your fault,
Oh you Cobalt where the big gin rickies flow,
Where all the silver comes from
and you live a life and then some,
Oh you Cobalt you're the best old Town I know.
You may talk about your cities
And all the towns you know
With trolley cars and pavements hard
And theatres where you go.
You can have your little auto
And carriages so fine
But it's hobnail boots and a flannel shirt
In Cobalt town for mine.
Old Porcupine is a muskeg
Elk Lake a fire trap
New Liskeard's just a country town
And Haileybury's just come back.
You can buy the whole of Latchford
For a nickel or a dime
But it's hobnail boots and a flannel shirt
In Cobalt town for mine.
We've got the only Lang Street
There's blind pigs everywhere
Old Cobalt Lake's a dirty place
There's mud all over the square.
We've got the darndest railroad
That never runs on time
But it's hobnail boots and a flannel shirt
In Cobalt town for mine.
We've bet our dough on hockey
And swore till the air was blue
The Cobalt stocks have emptied our socks
With the dividends cut in two.
They don't get any of our money
In darned old Porcupine
But it's hobnail boots and a flannel shirt
In Cobalt town for mine.
Song by: L. Steenman & R.L. MacAdam, 1910
Special thanks to Helen Culhane, Dale Taylor, Armand Cote and Melanie Aquino and her team at the Classic.
Posted at 1:23 PM
Sudbury Thursday Night
OK - it doesn't have quite the same ring as Stompin' Tom's classic "Sudbury Saturday Night" but last night shone like a brand new nickel right in the very place where Tom wrote the song with trains shunting in the yards right across the street.
It was a sold-out night at the Townehouse - a place I've been only once before but that's already a legendary haunt on the Canadian club circuit.
I had called Paul Loewenberg, who books the club, just a couple of months ago to suggest a bilingual show on my way through to Cobalt for the Labour Day weekend. He eagerly agreed. Then I called Kelly MacInnes at CBC Radio in Sudbury and she managed to secure some funds from the "Transcultural Projects" pool to record the show. Then I called Robert Dickson - the GG Award Winning poet from Sudbury - to pen some companion poetry to bring the evening together and he said YES as well! Why can't the rest of life be so simple?
Anyway - it was a spectacular evening of music. From the older generation: Paul Dunn, Gary diSalle and Robert Paquette - all luminaries from the great '70's generation of Franco-Ontarian musicians. And from the younger generation: Stephane Paquette (no relation), Brian Dunn and Gary diSalle. Peter Cliche filled out the sound on mandolin and violin. Everyone took turns on the guitar and it was a real honour to be in that place with those musicians embracing the guitar so beautifully.
Earlier in the day, we had popped into Innovative Guitar Ideas on Durham St. to address the fact that I had done a rather sloppy job of a string change last week and couldn't manage to replace that one stroppy bridge pin that popped out during Derek Downham's manic performance at the Andy Kim show at Hugh's Room. Jesse thought he had the problem figured out and had all the messiness on the string-winds tidied up. However, down in the basement at the Townehouse, Gary diSalle was giving the guitar a try when the bridge-pin that is Paul Henderson's '72 Series hockey stick popped itself out and went flying somewhere none of us could see. It was a great way to get to know a new group of people - all crawling around on our hands and knees looking for a bridge pin. It turned out it had popped itself right into Paul Dunn's guitar case! The problem walrus tusk pin popped again during the line check and we never did find it. Perhaps it will now be a permanent part of the Townehouse stage.
Certainly the Townehouse is permanent part of Six String Nation history after last night's show - a real gem. As I said in closing: not only history in the making but - with the reunion of the elders on stage - history in the re-making.
Special thanks to Paul Loewenberg and the Townehouse staff, Kelly MacInnes and CBC North and the whole gang at Innovative Guitar Ideas.
Posted at 1:22 PM
Another Jory Story
Jory Nash was at Hugh's Room last night. I had promised him I'd be there for soundcheck so he could use the guitar in the show. However, a series of events meant that I missed that by a long shot. Jory took it all in stride. I showed up at the club a few songs into his set and he just picked me out of the crowd, strapped on the guitar and away he went.
I always say that the guitar comes with 64 stories baked right in and another gets added every time a musician plays it. In the case of Jory Nash, quite a few get added! We'll see him again at the OCFF Conference in Ottawa in October.
In the meantime, it's off to Sudbury today for the show tomorrow at the Townehouse and then on to Cobalt for the show at the Classic Theatre (and some downtime at the cottage!).
Steamwhistle Brewery has been kind enough to give me some beer to take for the artists so I'm on my way there first!
Posted at 1:21 PM
In the Army Now
Well, not exactly. But we were asked permission to distribute our press kit to a group of Senior Officers on a Strategic Studies course at the Canadian Forces College. That doesn't happen until next week but the Commandant of the school, Colonel Jerry Gillis, is on assignment next week and really wanted to see the guitar before he left. Once we were in his office he asked us to close the door (a little shy) and sang a couple of songs! You know, he was actually pretty good. I suspect it's his roots in Cape Breton - one of the most musical places in the country.
With Colonel Gillis and Lt. Colonel Susan Beharriel we advanced the idea of the Six String Nation guitar visiting the troops in Afghanistan. I've now been in touch with Captain MacNair and hopefully we can make that trip happen in December some time.
Anyway, we'll be back at the college next week with the full photo set up and I'll be addressing the class about the origins and diversity of the guitar. Looking forward to it.
Posted at 1:20 PM
Harbourfront Homecoming
Harbourfront Centre is where I first met George Rizsanyi and where the whole notion of Six String Nation was born so it was great to be received with such a wonderful homecoming. CEO Bill Boyle hosted a reception for us in the lobby of the Power Plant. He provided the food and beer and we got a generous donation of wine from Vineland Estates (I confess, I'm including the link here because I'm hoping they'll invite me to do an event with the guitar at the winery some time!). We had the photobooth set up and got some amazing shots of guests at the reception. Bill gave a wonderful speech and then I let everyone know that the project is in an enormous amount of debt as a result of a successful summer tour. Strange I know. If you've been thinking of using the DONATE button above, now would be the time to do it.
The high point of the reception, though, was the performance by Tony Dekker of Great Lakes Swimmers. When I first got into the space I was thinking it was pretty poor acoustically but, in fact, it wasn't that much different from the silo where Tony recorded the first GLS album - a perfect cradle for his sweet bell of a voice. And the guitar sounded great.
The next day we set up the photo studio in the Marilyn Brewer Gallery. I was a little worried at first because it's not a high-traffic area but it worked out pretty well. We got another 140 or so portraits over the weekend including some real gems. I was especially glad that Bebhinn Jennings came down. She's the jeweller who did the cut of Maurice Richard's ring for us. She said she didn't look good in photos but she looked absolutely gorgeous. At the very end of the day on Sunday, we did a group portrait with the guitar and the cast of Bob Wiseman's rock opera "The Rat King". I think those will be great.
We also got some pretty great stage time with the Great Lakes Swimmers and Amy Millan on the main stage. Amy's voice is pretty much perfect and she seems like a great person.
Special thanks to Bill Boyle, Melanie Fernandez, Alok Sharma, Shannon Gardiner, Manny and Adam and Luke Gillett from Vineland Estates (and his lovely sister Sarah).
Posted at 1:20 PM
PEI at the Bottom of my Street
Last Thursday I went down to Mitzi's Sister at the bottom of my street. That's the club where we had the send-off for Matty Powell and I gave him the guitar to play for his final set there.
Thursday it was a visiting artist. I had first seen Catherine Maclellan in Charlottetown at a birthday party for Lloyd Doyle's Sandbar Music. She has a remarkable voice. So here she was in my neighbourhood! We met beforehand at a local coffee shop and there she is with Jason from Tall Poppy. Small world? I call it the PEI Mafia - they're everywhere in Toronto! Anyway, she really liked the guitar and played it for a few songs in her set at Mitzi's Sister and it was lovely. Lots of interest from the audience as well.
Catherine is the daughter of Gene Maclellan, the composer of "Snowbird", "Put Your Hand In the Hand" and other classics but her musical voice is very much her own. You can find out more on her website at www.catherinemaclellan.com.
Posted at 1:17 PM
In the Neighbourhood: Hugh's Room
So we've been travelling across the country with this guitar - going to some amazing places to get the guitar into the hands of some amazing people. Meanwhile, Hugh's Room in Toronto – one of the best live music venues in the country – is just a few blocks from my place and tonight was a real reminder of the magic that lies in your own back yard.
Blair Packham had sent out a notice last week about a special show tonight at Hugh's: Blair opening for Andy Kim. I've known Blair for a while and I spent some time with Andy Kim and his wife Summer last Thanksgiving at Andy Stochansky and Lisa Whynot's place. I figured it would be nice to offer up the guitar. Blair immediately took up the offer and suggested I bring the guitar by for soundcheck. Andy was receptive but more concerned about breaking in a new band.
I arrived at the club around 5:30 and we ran it through the system. There are still some concerns about whether that iBeam pick-up really captures the essence of this guitar but Blair ran it through and external pre-amp and got it sounding really nice. He ended up using it for his whole (and wholly charming) set of smart, sensitive and funny pop songs. At the end of the set he disappeared offstage with the guitar while Sarah and I sat at a table right next to the keyboard player at stage right.
Just before Andy Kim's band took their places, Tim Bovaconti brought the guitar back on stage. I figured something was up. It sat there looking pretty while Andy and the band ran through a string of hits that truly boggle the mind – how one guy came up with so many gems. Even the ones I didn't know sounded like something plucked from the music hall of fame. Then, Andy then quoted Camus about the immortality of great artists as a way of introducing to the stage the one and only Ron Sexsmith. Ron came up and Tim directed him to the Six String Nation guitar. He played it for a gorgeous duet with Andy.
That seemed to inspire Andy's acoustic guitarist, Derek Downham. He took up the guitar and immediately the band launched into "Sugar Sugar". Right after that it was "Rock Me Gently". Holy cow! Two of Andy Kim's biggest hits played on the guitar right there at an Andy Kim show! But it didn't stop there. The band came back to do an encore of "Baby I Love You" (truly, the man is a hit machine!) which headed for such a climax that Derek popped a walrus-tusk and St. Armand-slate bridge pin from the B-string right across the stage. We found it after the show so all is well.
It just doesn't get better than that.
Thanks to Blair, Tim, Andy, Derek, Ron, Colin and Richard from Hugh's Room.
Posted at 1:11 PM
Owen Sound - Summerfolk
What a terrific weekend. We got fair warning about a coming storm on Saturday night and closed up the booth before it hit. Other than that, it was nice weather and lots of great music. We also managed to strike just about the perfect balance between time spent on stage and time spent at the booth. We also seemed to inspire a disproportionately high number of impromptu performances in the photo-booth from people like Heather MacLeod, John Wort Hannam, Rita Chiarelli, Jory Nash and a guy who didn't stick around to get his portrait taken but who sang a terrific blues called "Players Plain".
We had line-ups at the booth all day Saturday and Sunday. Lester Quitzau used the guitar in a "Guitar Gods" workshop with Donne Robert, Bill Bourne and others. Adam Solomon played it for a bit too but something was wrong with the cable so he and I were the only ones who heard it. We'll make sure Adam gets another shot at it here on home turf.
The guitar got used a few times on Saturday night on the main stage. I went out to say a few words about it and Scott Cameron-Smith came out to put it through the paces with a ragtime piece. Then Heather MacLeod used it for her 'tweener. What a sweet voice she has. And finally, Tim Harrison - an old colleague of mine from CKLN days - played it for his 'tweener set as well. Backstage it was played by Russell DiCarle from Prairie Oyster, members of Hart Rouge and others.
But there were two especially sweet moments for me at Summerfolk:
Mae Moore was hosting a workshop called "Canadian Eh" and wanted to lead with the guitar. She and Lester Quitzau are such a great couple and so unbelievably kind and sweet. Mae was one of the first artists I had asked to participate in this project about ten years ago so it was amazing to finally have the opportunity. She re-tuned the guitar and went up to start the workshop. She said: "I was trying to think of the most Canadian song to lead of this workshop on this guitar and I've decided to play this Jean MacLelland song that I hated when I was growing up". Knowing exactly what she was going to play, I interrupted and said: "And the fretboard of this guitar is taken from the bar where this song was played for the very first time". She then launched into the most beautiful version of "Snowbird" you've ever heard. It's quite extraordinary when an artist like that completely re-imagines a song and you realize the strength of the original composition by how it responds to a whole new treatment. I, Lester and several audience members were in tears by the end of it it was so beautiful.
The other moment came when the stage manager, Ariel Rogers, came to get her picture taken with the guitar. On our waiver form we ask: Which Canadian musicians would you most like to hear playing this guitar? She wrote simply: "Stan would have loved this." I hadn't realized until then that she was Stan Rogers' widow. We told her that Stan's name frequently appears on this list all across Canada and that James Keelaghan had used the guitar at the finale in Winnipeg to sing Stan's "Mary Ellen Carter". It was an emotional moment for both of us.
Special thanks to outgoing Artistic Director Liz Harvey-Foulds, incoming Artistic Director Richard Knechtel (who dropped by to say hello and thanks), Lester Quitzau, Mae Moore and Ariel Rogers.
Posted at 1:10 PM
Owen Sound way - at The Don's
Owen Sound is a beautiful spot on Georgian Bay. It's the home of Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery (Thomson was born in the area) and a favourite bay for sailboat enthusiasts. We contacted the Summerfolk Festival early in the summer to see if we could visit. They really wanted us there but had completely exhausted the available accommodations. I told them not to worry - we'd figure something out. I then did absolutely nothing about it. I didn't have to. Kathy Hill is someone I used to work with at Hernandos Hideaway in Toronto. Her brother-in-law had heard Madagascar Slim play the guitar on CBC Radio and really wanted to have a go himself. She wrote to ask me if it was possible that I might be coming to Summerfolk when everyone would be at her dad's place near Southampton - we could even stay there if we liked! There you go - the universe found us a way. Now, Kathy is also best friends with Susan Vandendam, whose name you might recognize from our ABOUT pages as our tour travel coordinator. Susan had yet to see the guitar so they both volunteered to work the booth at the festival. Christine was coming up too (she'd only met Susan by phone as the tour coordinator) and so was Doug's son Gabriel so it was turning into quite a party. Friday night we checked in briefly at the festival and got our accreditation and found out where we were going to be set up and then headed off to Don's place.
Don and Doris were fantastic hosts (along with a dog and three cats who made room for us) and Kathy's sisters were there as well - along with assorted partners and children. They had a campfire out back on the edge of the soybean field and we had a couple of beers and passed the guitar around. Two of Kathy's nieces sang with really beautiful voices and Jamie got his time with the guitar as hoped. Don is a former military pilot and had some great stories. I told him i had hoped to get a piece of the Avro Arrow test plane they went looking for in Lake Ontario a few months ago (but didn't find) and Don had actually seen the thing fly. I'm at least glad we got to represent some Canadian aviation with the moulding from the Beaver bushplane.
At the end of the night - a bowl of chili just to make the campfire experience complete.
The next morning was a huge breakfast of eggs and sausages before heading off for the festival.
Thanks to Don, Doris, Kathy and the whole Hill clan.
Don, a T-shirt is on its way as soon as I get them.
Posted at 1:09 PM
AIDS 2006
Got back from Edmonton and spent a couple of days trying to get caught up on email and various other business that doesn't let up just because you're on the road. Whew.
First order of business was a concert on Thursday night (August 17th) at the Workman Theatre at the Queen St. Mental Health Centre in Toronto as part of the AIDS2006 Conference. The conference was massive and there were all kinds of ancillary cultural events. Thursday night was also the vigil at Yonge-Dundas Square that attracted close to ten thousand people so attendance was light at our little show way out on West Queen West. But man, that was an appreciative audience! Rez Abassi (Kiran Ahluwalia's husband who played the guitar in Edmonton) got another moment with it for one of the songs in his set. He's quite a superb jazz player and the Toronto band he picked up for the occasion was HOT.
Extra exciting for me, though, was the other act on the bill: Digging Roots. Raven and ShoShona are great people and we've been talking about the guitar for over a year now - wanting to get it into Raven's hands. He actually had a bit of a preview at Pearson Airport coming back from.... (now, where was that?).. a few weeks ago. We bumped into Raven and ShoShona at the baggage claim area and he gave it an acoustic tryout. Thursday night, though, he plugged it through his pedals and was getting some monster sounds out of it. He's one of those guys who doesn't seem to have to think too hard about it to pull off some very heavy licks. Great player, great guy. ShoShona was gorgeous as usual with her sweet smiling blues voice and her incredibly talented younger half-sister came to dance for one song. It was an especially poignant performance for her since she lost her father to AIDS a few years ago.
Thanks to Farah Ally for the invitation.
Posted at 1:08 PM
Edmonton - the Big One
The Edmonton Folk Festival really is a major-leaguer on the festival scene. It's a well oiled machine from just about any way you want to look at it: great music, great organization, great volunteer base, great site, great hospitality. They really rose to the occasion this year given the "liquid terror" threats announced a couple of days before that wreaked havoc with airline schedules. But they ended up losing only one artist from Scotland to the increased security measures. After that, the only thing left to worry about was a little bit of hail on Saturday!
I had my own difficulties - not security related (though possibly a by-product as a result of general disarray at the airports) - which meant that my luggage and the guitar-case display unit for the booth both got sent to Ottawa. They didn't arrive in Edmonton until Saturday night so it was a case of the 3-day T-shirt for me.
But none of that meant anything compared to the amazing time we had at the festival. We were set up in a great tent space right next to the CKUA booth. Although things were a little noisy at times, they were great neighbours. They did an interview with me about the guitar and it got used a few times by artists they were interviewing.
Paul Quarrington from the Pork Belly Futures was the first to use the guitar on Saturday afternoon. After that, we took it to a workshop featuring Jez Low, Sarah Harmer, the Wailin' Jennys and K'naan. It was K'naan's guitar player, Keirsey (a lefty!) who really took to the guitar and used it for K'naan's amazing peace anthems.
After that, it was back to the booth for a little bit and then back to stage 2 for Lynn Miles' set. She'd come by the booth earlier and had her portrait and got to know the guitar a little bit. I told her I'd love to hear her "Hockey Night In Canada" song on it - one of her older tunes. That's exactly what she did on stage - just perfect. Right after Lynn it was Lennie Gallant. Lennie, of course, has a personal connection to the guitar as well. He was with me on our gathering trip through PEI (doesn't hurt to have one of the island's favourite sons with you in your travels) and his own ancestry is reflected in the guitar with a piece of the Doucet House - the oldest Acadian dwelling on the island - that is one of the horizontal braces on the bottom of the guitar. So to hear him do a rockin' Acadian song in French on the guitar was just the right touch.
At that point we got back on track with the photos (on our way to a near-record 240 photos for the weekend) and just talking to folks. Heather Kelly (our communications person) came out to Edmonton to staff the booth (and see family) and managed to coax her friend Carma out to help as well. We also had the amazing Andrew Wilcox working the booth. I met Andrew a few years ago when he was visiting his birth mother in Toronto. He's a great young guy and was just getting into radio at that point. At this point he's working for a private station in Edmonton and doing lots of promo work so he really got people over to the booth. One woman in particular was absolutely ecstatic that Andrew had convinced her to come and take a look at the guitar. She was one of several people who came up to tell me that the presence of the Six String Nation guitar was their personal highlight of the festival. I have a couple myself:
On Sunday morning we took the guitar to Sandy Scofield. She's a Six Nations artist who's been living in Vancouver for quite a while. She's a wonderful singer and always has a bag full of jokes she brings out for every show. We had talked about the guitar a couple of years ago in London Ontario so it was great to finally get it into her hands. I had invited her to perform a song or two on it but she adopted it for the entire set, which was a real honour and a definite highlight.
Another highlight was having the legendary Amos Garrett come by the booth to get his picture taken and regale us with some very fine picking. It was also a treat to have my friend Kiran Ahluwalia's husband Rez Abbasi play it during their CKUA interview.
However, the big highlight for me and the whole team was the finale of the festival. It's a tradition in Edmonton to wind up the festival after the headliner with a group rendition of Ian & Sylvia's "Four Strong Winds". The song was lead this year by Bill Bourne using the Six String Nation guitar. Not surprisingly, I was up amongst the thousands of candles in the audience on the hill in Gallagher Park, welling up and feeling like i was the luckiest guy on the planet.
Here's what Bill posted on the Six String Nation MySpace page the next day:
Thank you for the beautiful gift of The Six String Nation. Playing the guitar in the finale at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival is an honour and a memory i will cherish my whole life long.
I know this is only the beginning...I believe in people, and this guitar is an inspiration that will grow in the hearts and minds of Canadians indefinitely. Every day that passes, Canada will become more united in peace because of The Six String Nation.
The honour is all mine, Bill.
Specially thanks to Terry Wickham and all the incredible staff and volunteers at the Edmonton Folk Festival. You are the best.
Posted at 1:07 PM
Lunenburg
Drove much of the day from Summerside to Lunenburg just in time to set up for the opening night of the festival there. We had a tent set up right next to the entrance and actually had line-ups all night long of people wanting to get their picture taken.
There was lots of interest in the guitar partly because George is from Pinehurst - not too far away in the Lahave river valley. So George came to pluck out a few notes on stage to introduce the guitar officially. It's the first time he's seen the guitar since it's been on tour and I think he was pretty pleased with how it's been treated and how its settling and sounding.. It was good to see George.
Fortunately, there was just one stage on the site for last night and it was close to our tent so we basically shuttled it back and forth for public photos and stage appearances all night. I was also the emcee so it worked out pretty well.
Mary Knickle is from Lunenburg and she was the first after George to play it. Then Greg Simm from the Gordon Stobbe Trio played it for a song in their set. And then (a great thrill for me) one of Canada's greatest songwriters, Bob Snider, opened his set with it.
One last order of fried clams and scallops and it was back to Halifax for three hours of sleep before our flight to Toronto and on to Edmonton.
Doug's family, Sarah and Gabriel Dube have all gone home now - leaving Doug and I in the transit lounge (thanks to the wonderful Air Canada concierges at Pearson) awaiting our departure to Edmonton. Things are a little bit delayed because of the "liquid terror" alert but otherwise OK.
Posted at 1:06 PM
Island Magic
Sorry - just catching up.
Left the Aspins on Tuesday morning and went into Charlottetown to visit with Johnny Reid. He's the J.R. of the late-lamented J.R.'s Bar - a Canadian music landmark that now exists mostly in salvaged scraps in the shed of Johnny's long-time handy-man (except, of course, for the piece that now functions as the fingerboard of the guitar!). Johnny turns 80 in a couple of weeks but he's looking fantastic. He attributes it to Goji Juice that helped him get through the last phases of his chemotherapy. I don't know about the Goji Juice but he's certainly walking better than he was when I saw him back in the spring. We visited with Johnny and his wife Judy for a while at their home and took some pictures of them with the guitar. Johhny showed us the song Stompin' Tom wrote about J.R.'s and I felt I could sing it just from seeing the lyrics. He also showed us the chapter in Tom's book about the night the two men met in the Charlottetown jail. It's a great story. Stompin' Tom calls J.R. "The Lebanese Leprachaun".
We made our way back to Summerside just in time to miss dinner (almost everywhere that's not pizza closes at 9:00 - strange thing for a supposed tourist destination). We had pizza.
The next day was much much better. Perfect, in fact. In the morning, we went to Cavendish to visit with John and Jennie MacNeill - relatives of the "Green Gables" author Lucy Maud Montgomery. They look after the homestead where Lucy grew up with her grandparents and worked the desk in the post office they ran (and where she intercepted countless rejection letters before she was finally picked up by a Boston publisher). It was lovely to visit with them and to meet their two grown sons who were back for the weekend to help them celebrate the official designation of the grounds as a Heritage Canada site.
Then, it was off to body surf and bake on the beach for a while. Once we were good and toasty, we went of to Carr's Oyster Bar in Stanley Bridge. We had met David and Robert - the Pendergast brothers - at the Tyne Valley shucking competition and they suggested we swing by if we got the chance. Had a spectacular early dinner on the deck at Carr's with beautiful fresh oysters and lobster. Robert and Leon Gallant were out back preparing a clam bake for a visiting tour bus. As we were heading out back we thought we bumped into David but it turns out it was another Pendergast brother, Michael. He's a full-time musician and knew all about the guitar and had dropped in by coincidence. He sang a beautiful song of his own composition called "Salt Water". I asked if we might have a chance to record him and he suggested we come by the ceilidh in Malpeque later that night. It was going to work out just fine. Karen Gallant (Lennie's sister and a fine artist) had organized a reception for the guitar at her gallery in Rustico and invited the community out. Lennie's parents, George and Fanny, were there and another sister, Anne, who now lives in Kentucky. The amazing Bobby Doucet - wearing cool spandex on both his artificial legs - was there too. He's a direct descendant of the Doucets whose house (the first Acadian dwelling on the island) is in the guitar. We took lots of pictures and met lots of nice folks. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay for the chowder George had made since we were now due in Malpeque. The drive to Malpeque was a little longer than we'd thought but we arrived just in time at the community hall. I introduced the guitar and Michael Pendergast performed his song on it again just before the stage turned over to some amazing step dancing and fiddling.
That was our perfect PEI day.
Posted at 1:05 PM
In the Shadow of Tyler's Tree
Some time around 1997, someone threw a newspaper on my desk and said: "Looks like someone else has got your idea". It was an article about Tyler Aspin and his Canada Tree sculpture. It was indeed a very similar idea to the Six String Nation guitar but Tyler had done a lot more work on his project than I had on mine and it was hugely ambitious - a tree made from different pieces of contributed material from across Canada meant to tell all kinds of stories. It was itself a few storeys tal, 12,000 pounds and it needed a flatbed truck to take it across the country. I thought it was great - and really a lovely kind of echo of what I had in mind - part of the same zeitgeist. I always figured I'd meet Tyler Aspin but it wasn't to be. He died in his sauna in a cabin in Quebec when it was struck by lightning on August 14th, 2001. But i often had him in my thoughts as the Six String Nation project began to grow and it was a complete coincidence that my friend Jeremy at CBC was related to the Aspins. He offered to introduce me to Tyler's mother and stepfather, Linda and John. I had decided it would be fitting to reflect Tyler's vision in the guitar with some piece representing him. At first, Linda wasn't sure. The shock of losing Tyier was still a bit raw and I was perhaps a dubious interloper in the story of Tyler and his tree. But after some e-communication and phone calls, I went to visit last March and John and Linda presented me with a mallet that John had given Tyler and that he had used in construction of the tree. George found a place for it in two opposite spots on the rosette around the sound hole.
On Monday evening, we went to visit the Aspin's B&B in Pinette. Tyler's sister Meigan was also there and so were a couple of Tyler's friends: Vaden Somers worked with Tyler from early on in the project and travelled the country with Tyler and the tree. He was there with his girlfriend Andrea. Also there was David Miller. Davey is an actor and friend of Tyler's who also spent some time travelling with the tree even after Tyler had died. He had another special connection with the guitar: he portrayed Paul Henderson in the TV Movie about the Summit Series.
This wasn't a public event. It was a chance for some of Tyler's family and friends to meet the guitar and incorporate our visit in their own process of recognizing the fifth anniversary of Tyler's passing. It was a privelege to be among them at this special time. They were all wonderful people and meeting them, sharing a meal with them and sitting around the campfire with them helped bring me a little bit closer to a friend I never got to meet.
Special thanks to John and Linda for their hospitality at their gorgeous B&B, The Anchorage, in Pinette, Prince Edward Island.
Posted at 1:04 PM
Fireworks in Caraquet
What a great day! It was absolutely perfect weather. It was also the first day we've had to sleep in for quite a while (and we'll make up for it with our 5:00am start tomorrow).
After a leisurely breakfast/lunch, we visited the Caraquet Cultural Centre where a show called Ode a l'Acadie is playing now through the end of the month. It's a musical tribute to some of the great Acadian songwriters and a weaving together of the story of the Acadians and the story of the 7 very talented stars of the show - all multi-instrumentalists. We brought the guitar by to show the cast and they instantly fell in love with it. They even did an impromptu performance (7 voices, 1 guitar) that really hit me emotionally - itself an Ode to Acadia. They asked if they could use the guitar in the performance and of course I said yes. (After all, there are two important pieces of Acadian heritage in the guitar: the bridge, made from the French frigate the Machault from the Restigouche river in New Brunswick, and part of the oldest Acadian dwelling in PEI - the Doucet house in Rustico, where we'll be next Wednesday). It's a nice soft-seater theatre and they were using in-ear monitors so conditions were ideal and the guitar sounded amazing.
All of the members of the cast took a turn on the guitar before the show but it was Francois Emond who played it during the performance and he was terrific. The song was about the various parts of Acadia coming together and it was a duet for guitar and piano - played by Isabelle Theriault. Isabelle was also the musical director of the show and I interviewed her afterwards - which you'll soon hear in the playlist on SixStringNation.com.
After the show and the interview, we went for dinner at a completely charming maison called La Chocolatiere and then back to the balcony of Doug and Gabriel's room at the hotel, where we had a perfect view for the fireworks that officially launch the celebrations of the Fete de l'Acadie.
Special thanks to the cast and crew of Ode a l'Acadie and to the Artistic Director of the Festival Acadien de Caraquet, Paul Marcel Albert (he's the bald one in the middle of the picture).
Posted at 1:03 PM
Les Acadiens
It was a long drive yesterday from Summerside PEI but quite beautiful. Stopped for fried clams along the way. Superb.
Arrived around 2:00pm in Caraquet, which is a beautiful spot about an hour north of Miramichi on the Acadian Peninsula. It's on a broad, sweeping bay where the wind was sure blowing when we arrived. Fortunately, our photo set-up was inside the hall last night before the show with Gildor Roy and Nova. Gildor has had a many-faceted career including folk songs, country music and a little jazz. These days he's fronting a latin orchestra. Last night was really a warm up. Tonight there will be fireworks and the blessing of the boats moored in the harbour. Too bad we'll have to leave before things really heat up for the big Acadian holiday next weekend. Already there are Acadian flags, banners and lawn decorations everywhere. It's really a shame that I never got that piece of aboiteau for the guitar, however, the bridge is that gorgeous piece of red oak from the Machault that Allan Muzzerall gave us from Atholville and we do have that piece of the Doucet House - the first Acadian dwelling on Prince Edward Island. And at we did get the ultimate Acadian imprimateur from the parade couple playing the legendary couple Gabriel and Evangaline who were separated by the Grand Derangement that sent the original Acadians packing to Louisiana.
Later today, we'll take the guitar by the Ode de l'Acadie that's part of the festival.
BTW, Patrick MacMurray did NOT win the Tyne Valley Shucking Championship - it was taken by Jason Woodside from Oyster Boy in Toronto (my neighbourhood oyster bar!)
Posted at 12:59 PM
Oystermania
There's still a day to go – with the crowning of the new Miss Oyster Festival and the big blow-out tonight but yesterday was pretty much perfect for the Six String Nation team. After breakfast, we drove up to the very northwest hump of PEI to Skinner's Pond - hometown of Stompin' Tom Connors. Right there where Stompin' Tom Connors St. crosses highway 14 is Stompin' Tom's schoolhouse. It's boarded up at the moment and apparently under some cloud of controversy I didn't quite get the gist of. Still, there it was and we got a few pictures of the guitar with the building, the plaque and the street sign. Then, to the end of Stompin' Tom St. and we parked the car, walked the little boardwalk and made it to the beach. It was not the sunniest of days and the Northumberland Strait is not the warmest of Ocean's but hey - it was a day at the beach and the sand was fantastic between the toes (though not as fantastic on the bathroom floor at the hotel when I shook out my shorts).
From there, it was back to Tyne Valley. Gary and Anna had set us up with a scallop and oyster dinner - with different kinds of homemade pie for dessert. Then, back to the arena and our set-up. We took a bunch more pictures - including shots of the various Toronto-based shucking teams and the one from Carr's in Stanley Bridge PEI. Even Rodney himself came by for a bunch of shots. Just before the shucking competition got started, Danny MacNevin played a song on the guitar from the stage and then they were off - judged for speed, cleanliness, accuracy and presentation. I may be jumping the gun, here (we had to leave before the final tally) but I'm pretty sure Patrick MacMurray from Starfish in Toronto retained his championship.
Delicious. Thanks again to Gary and Anna and Jeff and the Labobe Family.
Posted at 12:57 PM
With the Labobes
Back in March, Geoff Siskind, Lennie Gallant and I came to PEI to gather some of the pieces for the guitar and shoot some footage. It sure didn't hurt having Lennie Gallant with us - he's a songwriting hero here on PEI and everybody knows him. One of our stops was on the Mi'kmaq reserve of Lennox Island where we had come in search of something from Joe Labobe. I first heard about Joe Labobe at an oyster bar in Toronto - can't remember if it was Rodney's or Oyster Boy. Joe was a champion shucker from Lennox Island who had been to the big show in Galway Ireland and come in second back in the '70s. I'd been wanting to reflect the native fishery somehow in the guitar and an oyster knife from Joe seemed the perfect object. I got in touch with Leslie Labobe - his son - and we back and forthed for a while. When we went out in March, Leslie was actually in Toronto so we connected instead with Joe's daughter Mary, her husband Sherwin, and Joe's widow, Genevieve. She wasn't well that weekend and we were a bit worried she wouldn't be able to do an interview but rallied herself and she was terrific. They are a fantastic family and there were lots of stories about Joe. As we were leaving, Mary suggested we come back with the guitar to the Tyne Valley Oyster Festival. I thought about it for about 5 seconds and immediately put it in my mental calendar.
So here we are: me, Sarah, Gabriel Dube, Doug Nicholson and Doug's son Gabriel. We arrived on the Island yesterday and went over to set up the booth at the arena. The set up works perfectly for us. Gary and Anna are organizing the festival and have both been fantastic to work with. They and Leslie worked me into the opening ceremonies last night. I introduced the guitar on stage and pointed out a bunch of pieces in it - including Joe's knife handle, which surrounds the plug/strap-pin at the bottom of the guitar. At that point, I invited Gary Francis - a Mi'kmaq guitar player from Lennox Island - and his father Alan to come up and play a song. After that, I introduced Keptin Frank Nevin - the Grand Chief of the Mi'kmaq Council from Shubenacadie First Nation - who sang three wonderful honour songs. He and the fancy-dancer Samantha Lewis both came by to get their picture taken with the guitar and were a riot. Keptin Frank is a guitar player himself and Samantha a natural model. But the picture I'll really cherish is the one above of me with the Labobe Clan (above). This was taken before the grandchildren came into the picture.
Afterwards, Mary gave me a knot of sweetgrass. I've put it in the guitar case around the headstock pad. It smells wonderful.
Back to the festival tonight after a scallop and oyster fry and then it's all the fresh oysters we can eat at the competition. We'll have plenty of hand sanitizer around for when people get their picture taken with clammy... i mean oyster-y... hands.
Thanks to Gary and Anna and the whole Labobe family.
Posted at 12:54 PM
Points East
Landed last night in Halifax and picked up the van. We're ready to start our swing through Nova Scotia, PEI and New Brunswick. Off to an interesting start this morning as Steve Page from the Barenaked Ladies came by the table at breakfast to say hello. They'll be doing a show Sunday night in Charlottetown, which, sadly, we'll miss. However, we'll be thinking of them while we're at Acadien de Carraquet.
Right now I'm mostly thinking about the scallop and oyster supper that awaits tonight at the Tyne Valley Oyster Festival. Can't wait to see the Labobe family - there's a little ceremony planned at the start of the show tonight and I get to introduce them to the stage. Should be quite a moment - showing them the guitar that includes their father's champion shucking knife.
Posted at 12:53 PM
Antebellum Glory
David Neale is one of the behind-the-scenes champions of the Six String Nation project. He's a business man by day but a guitar nut by night (well, perhaps part of the day as well). During my brief time back in Toronto, he suggested a get-together. So last night, I went over to his place with Bob Stamp and Blaine Philippi, the f8inc team who shot so much of the building process in Pinehurst. It's been stinking hot in Toronto lately and the air was so thick you were practically swimming in it. David opened some nice wine and we settled out on the porch with the guitar and several of David's various stringed instruments. Bob also brought his old Gibson and his brand new mandolin.
After a while, Martin and Joe - friends and neighbours of David's - came by with instruments as well. Martin had a beautiful voice and sang one of my favourite songs, "When I First Came to Caledonia" - a really old Canadian song. With the air and the cicadas and the music and the porch, it felt like we were in the old South with a touch of true north.
Posted at 12:50 PM
The Hillside Experience
This was my third or fourth visit to Hillside. There is something very special about this festival. It is held at the Guelph Conservation Area - about 80 minutes west and a little bit north of Toronto. There's something about arriving on the site that makes you feel like you're entering Avalon and Sam Baijal, the artistic director, does some of the best music programming around. Where else are you going to see Ken Whitely and Holy F*ck on the same stage?
Friday night was really about the music so we just hung out and got the guitar into a few hands. First up was my good friend Kurt Swinghammer, who has known about the project for years. Kurt played it in a workshop and told me yesterday he's already started to write a song around the guitar. After that early evening turn, we got it into Corb Lund's hands for his mainstage set (pictured above). Corb is a great guy and seized on the hockey lore in the guitar before launching into a version of Stompin' Tom's "Good Old Hockey Game". For some reason, the guitar was only coming through the monitors for most of the song but they got it going for the second tune he did on it.
Over the course of the weekend, the guitar was also played by Aengus Finnan, Ken Whitely, Susie Ungerleiter (O' Susanna), Jory Nash and Roxanne Potvin. But when I think about it, I'm not sure how it managed all those appearances - we had more people getting their picture taken at the booth than at any other festival so far. Lots of great conversations with educators wanting to get the guitar into school and a terrific turnout of musicians in the booth - managed to get Joel, Lex, Reg and Maggie from Hidden Cameras and whole bunch of others as well. I'm especially glad that my good friend Deirdre Logue (and her sister Glynis) and her girlfriend Allyson Mitchell were able to come by. Likewise Shelima and Nuru and their extended family from the Diana Downtown restaurant who are always so hospitable to me whenever I'm in Guelph.
Speaking of which, went to the restaurant for breakfast on Sunday with the team from the booth (Doug, Heather, Brian and his son Milo - who was a great guy with some great ideas, like the Six String Nation belt buckle! - Matthew and Christine) and my friend Larry Wray. I took the guitar out to show Larry and the staff at Diana's and several other people gathered around to hear the story. I love the way that happens.
Special thanks to Sam, Nicky, Chris and Shawna at Hillside. The whole team had a great time.
Posted at 12:49 PM
Midnight Sun in the Six String Nation
You HAVE to go to the Dawson City Folk Festival. It is a great time in a town that seems to largely be built around having a great time (when you're not breaking your back looking for gold, that is). The Yukon hospitality really is very special and it was very much felt by Doug and me and the guitar. At one point, I was leaving the hotel to take the guitar around the corner to the Palace Grand Theatre (an extraordinary place) and a young couple I'd passed in the lobby followed me out and said: "Is that THE guitar?" (I'm getting that question a lot these days). It seemed everyone knew about it and was anxious to see it and it started the very moment we pulled into town - here's what happened:
The festival was kicking off at 4:00pm with a live broadcast on CBC Radio that my pal Bob Unger was producing. We thought we had plenty of time and, frankly, I was booting it in the chock-full Trailblazer but it was still looking pretty tight. About 30 minutes outside Dawson I got pulled over for a speeding ticket and I figured we'd missed our opening spot for sure. When we rolled into town along Front St., there was the CBC tent set up next to the Gazebo on the east bank of the Yukon River. Cuff the Duke were on the stage. I went up to say hello to Bob and he said:"I'd like to introduce you to John K. Samson. I told him about the guitar and he wants to play it in his set in about 10 minutes. Now, John K. Samson is one of my favourite writers in Canada and his band, The Weakerthans, is one of my top 5. So not only was it super cool that he wanted to play the guitar but when he picked it up to play on stage he immediately starting talking about the St. Boniface wood in it and launched into "One Great City" - my favourite Weakerthans song!
Friday night we hung out and met everyone and found ourselves having afternoon sushi and saketinis at 10:30pm under a brilliant blue sky - weird and wonderful. Finally called it quits around 2 (sort of dusky looking sky at that point) and headed off to bed but not before experiencing the famous "Sour Toe Cocktail" - a shot of Yukon Jack whiskey with an actual pickled human toe in it.
Saturday morning I was at the Gazebo at 8:30 to do a hit on Bob's live morning show and then by noon Doug and I were up and running with the photobooth in the lobby at the Palace Grand - a gorgeous old theatre built in 1899 and now run by Parks Canada. It's also one of the festival venues. Got lots of great photos of all kinds of folks with the guitar, including a great leaping action shot of Grant Lawrence, who was up with Chris Kelly from Radio 3 to do some hosting and other stuff. Around 2, JJ van Bibber - who contributed the Marten Hide Stretcher (see his video in the Guitar Explorer section) came by for a photo and Doug had a field day with him. Lots of great pictures of him and the guitar plus with his sister and his younger brother Pat (who I think was about 76). They were fantastic and lots of fun and told us all kinds of stories about working the traplines. You'll see those photos up in the Gallery section once its up and running in a week or so.
In the afternoon, we took the guitar for a while back to the Gazebo - where I hosted a workshop called "Six String Nation" featuring Donne Robert, Mark Thibeault and Matthieu, Todd and Francois from Les Batinses (whom I've been crossing paths with for a couple of years now). It was a great workshop and everyone took a turn on the guitar. Later on, back to the PG where Wickham Porteous opened his set with the guitar before we took it back to do more photos with it.
For dinner - the most amazing BBQ'd salmon I've ever tasted - right from the Yukon River.
Daniel and Sam are radio rookies working with my friend Dave White on a Yukon-based CBC summer show called "Steal This Show". They were great and Daniel did an interview with me for the show. I let him know that I was interested in connecting with Johnny Rogers from Death In Venice, who is a friend of his. I've heard a lot about this young player and wanted to get the guitar in his hands. Daniel told me that he'd told Johhny all about the project and he was stoked about seeing it and playing it. When we were introduced that night in the hospitality tent I realized he'd come by the PG earlier that day for a photo. We arranged to do an interview this morning at 11:30 and then promptly went to see the band at The Pit in the Westminster Hotel until about 3 - one of the best blues harp players I've ever heard.
At 9:30, I interviewed the Mayor of Dawson, John Steins (pictured above) - a terrific guy and one of the founders of the Dawson City festival. We'd photographed him with the guitar the night before but it wasn't until the interview that he told us about his own personal connection to the Yukon Rose - a piece of which is part of the guitar. You can hear that interview in the podcast probably in less than a week. Anyway, so Johnny comes by the hotel and we've already checked out so we don't have a quiet space. We decide to go see if we can get into the Palace Grand. They're setting up in there for the 1pm show but we have just enough time to get Johnny on the stage with some really good mics (nice not to have to rely on my Marantz and the shotgun mic to do the job) and we got a brilliant recording of one of his original songs. He's got a bit of a Jeff Tweedy sound to his voice and the writing and playing is very strong - i see big things for this kid (i feel like i can say that - he's not yet 18).
So special thanks to CBC Whitehorse, Dylan, Glenda, Emily, Paul and the whole team at the Dawson City Festival and to Mike Edwards and Jodi Beaumont from Yukon Heritage. They were really helpful with the Yukon pieces in the guitar and made sure JJ came by for his picture - plus they were working the festival as well!
And Bert Cervo - sorry we missed you. We had a blast.
Posted at 12:48 PM
Wings to Whitehorse
A few tense moments there at the airport in Vancouver where it looked like I might have to pay the extraordinary extra baggage charges threatened in Winnipeg. But, as usual, this guitar makes a great case for itself and the agents and concierges totally get what we're trying to do getting this thing into people's hands across the country. So hats off not only to the Air Canada staff in Toronto and Vancouver but also to Lisa and the First Officer on the flight to Whitehorse, who knew all about the guitar and were excited to have it on board (the guitar has it's own seat - for booking purposes it's Mr. Nation).
I arrived in Whitehorse and promptly ran into someone i know: Daniel Janke, kora player and television writer. Then I ensconced myself in an office at the CBC and caught up on some email and phonecalls. Doug came in on the late flight from Vancouver and I went to pick him up at the airport. He was on the same flight with a lot of musicians coming up for the festival - Donne Robert, Les Batinses and others. We'll see them all later today.
I'm writing now because I'm told internet service is a little sketchier in Dawson. If it is, you'll hear all about the festival on Monday or Tuesday.
Posted at 12:45 PM
Vancouver Guitar Spa - Nicole Alosinac
I'm learning a lot about guitars through this guitar. They always seem to be so solid. They are constructions of wood and metal and you pick them up and tune them and play them. That's it, right? But of course they are complex arrangements of materials of different densities and characteristics. They are held together by tension and glue and time and care. The genius of George Rizsanyi is partly his willingness to use materials that are not customary. Part of this for him is a concern for the environment, part of it is pride in Canadian woods and part of it is the challenge of thinking about guitar-making in a new way. The Six String Nation guitar was that challenge 10-fold, 20-fold, 64-fold. Not only did he have to consider the material characteristics of each piece, its acoustic or structural qualities, its aesthetics, but also its story and how it would relate to those around it. For the longest time, we couldn't convince people that this wouldn't be some Franken-guitar with hockey sticks glued all over it. So while I was confident George would create something beautiful looking and sounding and George was confident he'd be able to fit these disparate pieces together, I think for many people it was a revelation when the guitar debuted on Canada Day that it was as lovely as it was.
But as old as some of the pieces in the guitar are (the oldest is 3.96 billion years old!) it is still a new guitar. So the natural tensions of a new instrument settling in are compounded with the fact that it is running right out of the starting gate - covering a lot of ground and passing through many, many hands. Roger House and Dave MacIsaac, who gave it the first going-over in Pinehurst, had remarked that it already felt a bit like an old guitar. But out here on the road, its youth is starting to show. I remember Stephen Fearing and Colin James remarking that they felt the action could be a little higher (though Danny Michel thought it could be a little lower) but Stephen also found that it had shifted quite a bit less than a week after Canada Day when we met at Mariposa. Cockburn felt it too when he played it at Winnipeg. He said it was going to be a very fine guitar when it had settled a bit more, been played and loved a bit more.
Nicole Alosinac was the onsite guitar tech and instrument repair person at the Vancouver Folk Festival. She had heard that the guitar was going to be at the festival and was dying to see it so she came to the back of the main stage and kind of hovered at the edge of conversation as various people were passing the guitar around and having a little moment with it. She took the guitar as other people were talking and I could see her looking at it with a luthier's eye - straight down the neck from the headstock. I asked what she saw and she said (with just a hint of apology) "looks like you've got a couple of high frets and a bit of a cup in your fretboard near the top... but it's beautiful - fantastic warm tone right across the spectrum". I was grateful that she wasn't afraid to be critical but delighted that she was so impressed with the guitar as well.
It turns out that Nicole is also a talented young guitar repair and restoration artist. She has done some extraordinary work bringing some nearly dead hunks of wood from Randy Bachman's considerable collection back to bright and shining life. She began her career on the line at the Larrivee guitar factory here in Vancouver under one of the most respected names in North American luthiery, John Larrivee. Pretty soon she was in charge of quality control and was writing standards manuals for the entire plant. Guitar-craft was not only a kind of calling for Nicole, it was also a kind of paid education at the feet of a master.
Since George is on the other side of the country from here and I had only a few days before heading off to Dawson City, Nicole and I agreed that this would be the perfect (and only) time for the guitar to have a bit of a spa day. So yesterday morning we took it by her new workshop in a fairly dodgy part of town near the Vancouver portlands (actually just a few blocks from the Larrivee factory). She said no payment was necessary - that she was honoured just to have the guitar in the shop. Her friend Carol was there when we arrived - guitar in hand. She'd been told the guitar was coming and was hanging out just to see it. We did a few pictures and then Nicole walked me through some of the things she thought would compensate for the changes the guitar has been going through in its whirlwind travels: a set-up, a fret-dressing, a truss-rod adjustment and raising both the nut and the saddle - as well as securing the pick-guards. Don't worry, I didn't know what half that stuff was either but Nicole explained everything patiently and I felt OK about leaving it with her.
Today, I went to pick it up. To the naked eye, it looks exactly the same but it felt and sounded renewed - a few incremental adjustments to compensate for the incremental adjustments nature and climate have made of their own in these first few weeks of life. Tariq Hussain came by Paolo and Natasha's tonight to play it again. He was here for the party a week ago and he remarked that it felt more settled and a bit more comfortable. We are ready for the flight to Dawson.
Thank you Nicole. Thank you Tariq. Thank you Paolo and Natasha. Thank you Vancouver.
Posted at 12:44 PM
Vancouver Folk Music Festival
I imagine there are few places as perfect in the world to hold a music festival as Jericho Beach Park in Vancouver - with the mountains across the bay and the sunset directly facing the stage. A bit more difficult for the audience, methinks, trying to decide what to look at: musicians or ocean sunset.
We arrived on site with some confusion as to where we were supposed to set up but once that was sorted out we had a terrific little spot next to Nancy's Medicins Sans Frontiers booth. Once again there was a ton of interest from the public and musicians. We did close to 200 portraits over the course of te festival - including some completely brilliant shots of Kevin Breit. There is probably no better guitarist on the planet and he came back to play the guitar several times at the booth and backstage. What a completely lovely guy he is.
Feist took a shine to it as well but had to cut it out of her performance when her set was cut by a few minutes (her guitar player Julian managed to teach me a few chords before the show - i've forgotten most of them already but seem to have at least two still in my head). Still, the guitar did have some wonderful onstage moments. Mario Vaira, whom I mentioned in my last post, used the guitar in both of the "Collaboratory" performances - most effectively in the second of those, where he played a beautiful piece he wrote on the Six String Nation guitar (the first person to have composed on it). James Keelaghan took another turn at it and I look forward to seeing him with it again in Edmonton. But the moment that really choked me up was yesterday afternoon with Madagascar Slim. Ben has been a friend for many years and I've always told him i wanted to see him play this guitar when it was done. I sprang it on him on Saturday and he was so happy. I took it over to his performance with Ndidi Onokwulu on stage 3 and he just about choked up (that made me choke up) while he played a gorgeous Malagasy melody on it. It was a moment I'll never forget. He also said it was the best guitar he's ever played! Thankfully, the moment was caught on tape by CBC Radio's "The Circuit".
Last night was a bit of a disappointment, though. Jane Siberry was ready to use it for a song in her finale set right after my good friend Popo Murigande, the Mighty Popo. Popo is currently touring with a troupe he brought over from Rwanda. You may recall that he played it in the song circle on Canada Day so he was looking forward to using it on the main stage in Vancouver for the title track from his new album "Muhazi". CBC tape was rolling in the truck and Popo made a beautiful introduction to the guitar but for some reason the front of house sound guy couldn't control the sound - in spite of it having worked just fine in the brief sound check. He valiantly tried a few times before finally giving up. Of course, by that time I had no doubt Jane Siberry would be thinking twice about using it as well so I went and retrieved it and thanked Popo for trying. We were both pretty bummed out. Still, it was a pretty great festival on a just-about-perfect weekend and lots of new people fell in love with the guitar so I can't complain too much.
Trying to sort out some arrangement with Air Canada this weekend before I head off to Dawson City on Thursday. Talk to you then.
Posted at 12:43 PM
Vancouver before the Fest - Radio Three
I know I've said it already but you have to love the way this guitar makes friends.
I decided to come directly from Winnipeg to Vancouver and spend the days between those cities' folk festivals with my friends Paolo and Natasha. I'm going to miss their wedding in August because I'm on the road with the guitar so I thought it would be nice to have a little reception at their place in lieu. They invited a bunch of friends to come over for drinks and snacks last night and get familiar with this guitar. As much as I love seeing this guitar on stage and in the hands of famous Canadian musicians, I love the thought of it around campfires and backyard BBQs and living rooms. It is, after all, the peoples guitar.
So last night was the first of those occasions. It was great. Jian Ghomeshi, Tarek Hussain, Chris Kelly, Don Pennington and Jon Siddall all took turns on it. And Grant Lawrence from Radio 3 was there too. We'd just missed each other doing emcee duty in Winnipeg so it was nice to catch up with him and meet properly. He was really moved by the story of the guitar and instantly invited me to come on his show on R3/Sirius. I've been to the CBC plant here in Vancouver before but never to these particular bowels of the building reminds me of my days at CKLN with the bunker-like studios but everyone totally into what they're doing. Very cool.
Nice interview with Grant and he reminded me that I want to get A.C. Newman on this guitar and I want Douglas Coupland to do an essay for the eventual book. Maybe he can hook me up!
Posted at 12:41 PM
Main St. Vancouver
Posted at 12:32 PM
Winnipeg to Vancouver
Angel Nicky: Nicky Mehta plays in the chapel at St. Boniface.
Posted at 12:21 PM
At the Winnipeg Folk Festival
Posted at 12:20 PM
Six Strings at Mariposa
I never imagined a "quick trip" to Orillia but that's what we had. Gabriel Dube drove us up with the guitar to the venerable Mariposa folk festival. Really just wanted to make sure the guitar got to put in an appearance there. Arrived and did a whole bunch of media with Stephen Fearing, who was sticking around for the rest of the festival. We, however, had to head back to Toronto to catch a plane to Winnipeg. But not before the wonderful Danny Michel spent a little time with the guitar. I've been dying to put it in his hands so it worked out great - not a full performance yet but that will come. He's a great guy and a great musician. Posted at 12:15 PM
Holy Canuck - what a debut!
We arrived at Parliament Hill in Ottawa on the evening of the 28th in time for our first tech rehearsal. Unfortunately, the guitar didn't! It was lost in transit from Halifax along with George's wife and kids. The guitar arrived 6 hours late, the family about 20 hours late. After that, things improved. Once the guitar was out and into the hands of artists for rehearsal, everything was fine. Jean-Francois Breau was the first up on Thursday morning followed by Aselin Debison and Colin James. Kyle Riabko's flight was delayed by bad weather so he didn't appear until the next day. Posted at 12:14 PM
July 4th Blog
Last night was Matty Powell's last night at Mitzi's Sister.
Matty Powell is a singer-songwriter from Saskatoon and Mitzi's Sister is a great bar on West Queen West in Toronto. Matty has been living in T.O. and playing regularly but also bartending at The Local on Roncesvalles and at Mitzi's Sister. Matty and his girlfriend just had their first child and they've decided to raise the kid in Saskatchewan so they're packing up the U-Haul this week.
Posted at 12:12 PM