Happy Mother's Day

A Mother's Day Campfire Jam | The Vacation that didn't happen | a Come-to-Jesus Moment | Out and About in April | Bandcamp Friday | Nothing about Politics

Welcome to my April Substack! I know, I know, it’s May already. My Blainletters always went out before the end of the month (sometimes just barely). It would have gone out yesterday except I got a last minute invite (invited myself, really) to get myself to a blues jam where I would have the opportunity to run over some tunes with my old musical pal and former Blainette, Lily Sazz. And it would be my last chance to play with the Kenny Wayne, the “Blues Boss,” before he moves to Calgary.

I was all happening at Dan & Rosie’s in Waterdown, a fair stretch out of town, and I got lost both coming and going. I won’t curse the GPS like some folks do, but it did confound things. Firstly my phone battery is on its last legs, I had a battery pack, but it died too. I stopped at a Home Depot in guelph and bought a car charger and cable. I plugged it int my cigarette lighter thang and it didn’t work. I brought it back into the store and got my money back but I asked to plug in the phone at their counter and got it up to 2% and I open the maps app on the iPhone and write down the directions in my notepad - and it’s many, many turns - because I realize after that I had selected “no highways”. Coming home was equally screwed up. “Big Dan” had given me very simple directions to get down to the highway, but then the phone woke up because my friend Janet gave me her car charger, and it was giving me different directions, then I guess I missed a landmark and got away from the highway and spent the next twenty KMs on Lakeshore. The “scenic route” (if it had been daytime).

Anyway, I was anxious to play with Lily, because….

She will be my very special guest at the Mother’s Day Campfire Jam on Sunday afternoon, May 11.

Lily is working on a solo recording and will soon be putting out a beautiful song about…her mother… so it is quite a-propos. You can see her video here. I expect some of my regular Sunday jammers will be joining in too. We will be doing a live Blaincast right here on Substack but if you’d like to attend in person let me know - there’s only room for an audience of a dozen or so in my backyard and we will have a tip jar, virtual and in person.

I’m still trying to keep my long-standing tradition of a Mother’s Day show (a nod to my 70s “cult classic” Don’t Forget Your Mother). Last year I did a Campfire Jam at the Redwood and even though I had some top-notch guests (Ken Whiteley and Rick Taylor) there still wasn’t enough of an audience to get invited back so I’m just going to do it in the back yard and we’ll see if we can fill that.

My Vacation (not)

Last week I was supposed to be basking in the Dominican Republic as a guest of my friend Peter but somehow circumstances conspired to keep that from happening. Right from the time I had the ticket, one thing after another that you get when you’re pushing 80 - aching teeth, skin issues, wobbly legs, non-stop itchy eyes, a nagging headache for 3 days - my body was telling me something! Curiously, that was the week a roof collapsed at a big DR nightclub killing hundreds and some American girl went missing on the beach. I might have gone anyway and taken my chances but when I was unable to get the paperwork together to enter the country I just decided this was not meant to be.

So I approached this week with a pumped up determination to make every day count so I find myself putting in more than my usual hour or two a day that I worked on my musical project. It was nice talking about it with Kenny, who is also writing a musical - his is about Fats Domino. I was away from mine for a little while but now I’ve dived back in with a vengeance. I eliminated a character (the record producer/villain) and I’ve merged his character with the old wise musician who shows our young protagonist the true value of music. If you’re one of my paid subscribers you’ll be getting another update with some new versions of the tunes, updated lyrics and I’ve also rearranged the order of the tunes and I’m sure there will be more shuffling around. And as one of my “investors” (emotional or otherwise) I appreciate having you on board with this great musical adventure.

Easter musings

It was mid-afternoon on Good Friday, the only time this old Buddhist reverts back to my Catholic upbringing and I take a moment to reflect on JC, standing up to an authoritarian ruler and dying on the cross as a symbolic sacrifice and a reminder of the fundamental darkness that lurks within human nature. And in these heady days, it didn’t take much to crank up the anger and outrage in millions of our southern neighbours to the extent that they are burning down their own house (and the whole neighbourhood). It’s sad when your leaders only bring out the worst in you. Buddhists call it the “fundamental darkness” in human beings. You can hardly drive around the corner without encountering the anger and outrage that other drivers display all the time (or maybe it’s just because I drive like an old man).

That’s as political as this blog is going to get but if you want more political commentary, I recommend Bill King’s new blog, “The Sound & Reason” on Substack. It should be called “The Sound and Fury” because Bill does not pull any punches and since he got political, his readership has shot through the roof compared to his posts about music.

Out and About

What a delight to see my old pal Harry Manx at Hugh’s Room this month, and what a pleasant surprise to see Steve Marriner sitting in. This is a pic from Hugh’s Room next to a pic of them in the early days. I had been opening some shows for Harry in the early 2000’s and I remember when he told me he was going to get this wunderkind harp player to join him on a tour. I had met Steve when he was in JW-Jones’ band. We were playing a festival in Porquis Junction, northern Ontario, and he was pretty young - young enough that his dad was travelling with him and I knew better than to pass him a joint. Here’s a little video clip from that night at Hugh’s:

And what else did I see this month? Well, a few days after that I saw some old friends from Montreal, Bill Garrett and Sue Lothrop playing at the Acoustic Harvest. Just before that I dropped in to a fundraising event for a great music education/therapy organization called Springboard – lots of very enthusiastic kids banging on djembes. This is cute (and short):

I was running late to catch Bill and Sue and arrived just as they were finishing off their first set and someone said to me “you missed your song”. Shucks, I thought they might still have my tune, “The Big Fire” in their setlist but I figured I missed it. But then in the second set they played it and I captured it here. As Sue explained later, the song they sang in the first set was one I started writing with Sue back in the 70s but which she finished recently. Sorry I missed that one.

And then I headed down to my neighbourhood theatre, the Redwood, to see the Hogtown Allstars, which is Downchild minus Mr. Downchild, Donnie Walsh. This band provides a great vehicle for many of these talented players to play some of the original tunes they’ve written over the years. I had a video but I can’t find it.

Another old pal from Montreal, Chris Rawlings had a CD launch and here’s a tune from that concert called the Old Bush Pilot – Chris has a great video of that tune as well.

A little earlier in the month, I was invited to the brand new Aurora Cultural Centre to see a Ray Charles tribute organized by Lance Anderson. I don’t have a video of that because there was a warning from the stage that any video recording would result in expulsion (and “please exit from the doors at the rear”). Kinda old-school, eh? Anyway, here’s a pic of the stage, and yes, that’s Derek Andrews off to the side and he’s now programming this beautiful venue and promises the return of the Aurora Winter Blues Festival. Great to hear about a blues festival that’s coming back when we are mostly hearing about blues festivals that are going away|

The show was another Lance Anderson tribute – this time a Ray Charles tribute – and since Ray is always the first influence I ever mention when asked. I only had one Ray Charles album as a kid in Sherbrooke, and it was “Genius + Soul”, the theme of Lance’s show. I remember that album mostly because Ray played a lot of organ on it and that fueled my passion for the B3 – I’m surprised I didn’t take up playing the organ but having moved one those Hammonds up and down stairs a few times in my musical adventures, it’s not something I would want to make a habit of. Lance is totally dedicated to that beast and insists on dragging his own B3 to even the smallest gig.

The sound in this room was as good as it gets. From the first chord on that big grand piano you knew the sound would be top notch. We heard the most subtle moves on Lance’s organ and the vocals were crystal clear. Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne was channeling Brother Ray though several of the hits were covered by Jesse O’Brien, Quisha Wint and Lance himself. Kenny has obviously been playing these tunes all his life and a couple of times you noticed that, despite Lance’s new arrangements, he sometimes couldn’t help slipping back to the way he was used to playing the song.

What triggered my passion for the Hammond Organ, you may ask - or not…but I’ll tell you anyway because it’s my stock answer to “what is your first musical memory?” I was a toddler when my mother took me with her on a summer afternoon to a lakeside resort outside of Sherbrooke on Little Lake (Petit Lac) Magog. I remember slipping away from her table and making my way to the stage where this amazing music was coming from. When I got to the stage I was at eye level with a couple of stockinged feet pressing on pedals and a creating a sound I could feel. And when I looked up those feet belonged to a giant of a man and he was black – probably the first time I had seen a black person, in person. That memory stayed with me for my whole freakin life – and yes, I do regret not learning the instrument myself. I’m surprised I didn’t abandon my Buddhism and join the Baptist Church just to play that uplifting gospel music. Instead I took to the blues and I did get to play with some great organists. The first group that I led under my own name was an organ trio with the great Rod Phillips, R.I.P. (and Mike Fitzpatrick played drums). Later I played many times with Michael Fonfara, recorded with some greats like Richard Bell and Clayton Doley and even did a couple of gigs with Lance himself. And I wonder if Lance remembers when I hired him to play with me when I was asked to provide a little entertainment at one of the first meetings of Jazz Festivals Canada, a gathering of the artistic directors of all the major jazz festivals in the country (I worked for the Toronto Jazz Festival and that’s why I was asked to do a few tunes for the VIPs). And do you think any of those AD’s paid the slightest attention to us? Unh unh. Story of my life…

Finally, there was the show that didn’t happen: I was excited to hear that Montreal guitar star Steve Hill was coming to town and I promoted it with a picture in the MapleBlues. Here’s the caption I wrote (only to discover after it hit the street that the show had been cancelled - again!): “Quebec blues star Steve Hill has always been challenged breaking into the Toronto Blues scene. He even wrote a song about it. It all started when, as a complete unknown, he was nominated for a Maple Blues Award and when he got here he saw that he was listed with the "Best Female Vocalist" nominees. He was not amused. His last date in Toronto (at El Mocambo?) was cancelled for whatever reason and before that he had a whole tour cancelled after a car wreck in LA. Well, he's baaack! A guy who sells out concert halls in Quebec is playing the intimate back room at the Cameron House on Saturday April 19. Come early for Paul Reddick at 6 in the front room”

I was glad to see Steve was coming to Toronto and I would have bought a ticket for that show because the Cameron is a small room to support a touring artist. I paid to hear Rick Holmstrom (a bona-fide guitar hero and long-time guitarist for Mavis Staples) in that very room. Also at the Cameron, I saw Canadian guitar god Garrett Mason (who Rick praised from the stage). Neither of those shows was sold out either, so I suppose it’s safe to assume ticket sales for Steve were not sufficient to justify a trip down the 401.

More Stuff from other folks

Some highlights from Bob Lefsetz’ litany of the changes in the music business

Old School vs New School:

OLD SCHOOL: Lead with your music.

NEW SCHOOL: Lead with your identity/personality. Your image is just as important as your music. To be featured in the gossip columns means you've made it.

OLD SCHOOL: Print music magazines meant everything.

NEW SCHOOL: Not only is print dead, but the websites of the early twenty first century are irrelevant too, everything is word of mouth these days.: .

OLD SCHOOL: Get a record deal.

NEW SCHOOL: Get a fan base.

OLD SCHOOL: Learn how to play your instrument.

NEW SCHOOL: Learn how to use your computer.

OLD SCHOOL: Radio is everything.

NEW SCHOOL: TikTok is everything, that's where acts break.

OLD SCHOOL: Perfect the music and only release what's up to snuff.

NEW SCHOOL: Put absolutely everything up on YouTube so fans can find it if they're looking for it. Live shows, acoustic in the studio, everything. Forget quality, otherwise why would people be watching audience-based videos? They want a taste of what it was like at the show. Fans want to get closer, don't put up a brick wall, but a conduit.

OLD SCHOOL: Spend a fortune recording in a professional studio.

NEW SCHOOL: Record at home, maybe on your laptop.

OLD SCHOOL: Put out an album, shorter than forty minutes in the vinyl era, no longer than eighty minutes in the CD era.

NEW SCHOOL: Either put out an EP with only a handful of songs, or put out an opus, a double album with maybe even thirty tracks. Because if someone is truly into your music, they'll stream EVERYTHING!

OLD SCHOOL: Major labels shuffled the decks every three to five years or so. A new president came in and wiped out all the old employees and brought in his own team. It was a constant game of musical chairs.

NEW SCHOOL: The same people run the major labels ad infinitum.

OLD SCHOOL: An exec is only as good as his or her last hit, money is everything.

NEW SCHOOL: An exec is only as good as his or her last hit, money is everything.

OLD SCHOOL: You had to buy it to hear it. And when you bought it you listened to it over and over again.

NEW SCHOOL: Everything is available at your fingertips, and it's hard to get people to listen to anything, never mind all the way through or more than once.

OLD SCHOOL: Very few could be successful musicians, giving up their day job.

NEW SCHOOL: Everybody thinks they're entitled to be a successful musician and give up their day job.

OLD SCHOOL: The charts were manipulated and not to be trusted.

NEW SCHOOL: The charts are manipulated and not to be trusted.

OLD SCHOOL: The tour was an advertisement for the album.

NEW SCHOOL: The album is the advertisement for the tour.

OLD SCHOOL: Recordings were everything.

NEW SCHOOL: Playing live is everything. You may not even need a record. Or one every five years. Assuming your show is not identical every night. People will know songs that were never laid down on tape/hard drive/SSD. From going to the gig and watching on YouTube.

And there were lots more before-and-afters but it just keeps getting more depressing. That last item on Lefsetz’s list makes me think that when I started out, you could get a lot of work and you didn’t need a record, and now he’s saying today you don‘t need a record (because you’re music is readily accessible)

I remember back when I was just discovering the web, I said to the wife, “one day all these trucks you see driving by will have a website address (URL) painted on the side of the truck. That was such a radical thought but I said it…and look at any truck today, and it’s got a URL painted on the side. The ex is always reminding me how I was always at the head of the curve but somehow never got around the bend. I had email before anybody. I was making websites before they had graphics.I could see how television and computers would converge but one thing I never predicted was social media revolution (and how it would fuel tha “fundamental darkness” of the human condition.

Tip of the day

I never thought I’d be quoting Jordan Peterson here or anywhere but somehow he instigated himself into my newsfeed with a post entitled “Four things elderly folks should do to start their day”. I couldn’t resist checking it out and wouldn’t you know I was already doing 3 out of 4 and I will now adopt the 4^th, which is start your day with a big glass of water. I can do that. The other items were have a full breakfast, even if you’re not hungry, do some kind of stretching (I do Tai Chi) and start your day with a reflective moment and have some kind of intention for the day. I’m paraphrasing but these are 4 simple things that rang true to me so I pass them along (even though that guy has a lot of weird ideas).

…and Today is BandCamp Friday

If you’re a supporter of independent musicians like myself, you can purchase (or just listen) to our music at bandcamp.com and if you purchase it on the first Friday of the month, Bandcamp forgoes their commission and all the $$$ goes to the artist. Just sayin’…

Feel free to forward this to any friend you think might enjoy my occasional ramblings (and maybe my music, too). The archives (going back to 1990) are available at www.torontobluesdiary.blogspot.com

See you out there, eventually.

BrianB, aka Butch, Nappy, Shaker, Two-Lane Blain, Colorblind Brian, Stringbuster, Buddha of the Blues