The world was sent reeling March 25th, with the death of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. He had become a seminal part of Dave Grohl’s self-declared rock and roll machine. At age 50, it was a shock to see a man so vibrant and on top of his game lose to what appears to have been a substance battle.
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Aside from many, many tour announcements for most of Canada’s working musicians, it’s been a quiet week for new Canadian music releases. Many artists were ensconced in the revived annual music showcase SXSW in Austin, Texas, while others were already on the road putting music back on stage nationally. This is good news. We encourage people to support our working musicians and live venues with care and caution as mandates continue to be lifted. If everyone does their part the live music industry will continue to grow and prosper back to its pre-2020 levels.
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It’s Tuesday night, November 17. My renovations are nearing completion, the house is dead quiet as I sit here, stretched out on the couch, looking around at this home we lived in together for 18 years. Remembering all the wonderful celebrations, dinners, Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners, TV watching, companionable “book reading”, and just quietly being, soaking up each other’s presence.
OMG!!! I can barely contain myself from bouncing around in my seat. There is not one part of my body that is not vibrating. Finally, unencumbered by my theatre seat, the urge gives way to pure, uninhibited “singing and dancing in the aisles”. I just about vaulted over my seatmate beside me to rush the stage and boogie up a storm. It is so liberating to let it just take over. What an encore!!!! Thankfully, my good friend and date for the evening, Pat Kelly, encourages this irrational behaviour. Gotta love him.
I don’t get out much. Living in suburbia is bad enough; being unable to drive only compounds the isolation. Still, there are times when I brave Toronto’s transit and hit the big city. This is about one such time, just this week.
Rolling Stone Magazine recently released their latest ‘list’, “The 100 Greatest Songwriters” rollingstone.com). Let me repeat that title, “The 100 Greatest Songwriters”. Their descriptive line states “From Brill Building tunesmiths to Punk poets, from Woody Guthrie to Max Martin, the visionaries who defined music history.”
March 2 was the 10th anniversary of Hunter S. Thompson’s death and a picture of one of his quotes was making the rounds in Facebook. I found the subject matter rather timely! Many of us will find both the truth and the irony in what he had to say.
Wellllllll……all I can say is “I was there”. Up in the nosebleeds with the rest of the folks in the so-called “cheap seats”. My date for the evening and I had a direct aim at the stage(s), perfect viewing. I have no idea what you couch potatoes were seeing at various stages of the programme, but it was definitely different from the TV version.
As you read this my wife Sharon Vernon and I have just celebrated our 19th anniversary. We went to Cleveland to see two of her favourite bands – the American act Red Wanting Blue and Canadian rock darling The Trews who I introduced her to (musically) in 2003 after seeing them in a club in Halifax during the ECMA’s. We’ve done a lot of that on our anniversaries – going to see live acts. That includes Lighthouse on our 17th and Ian Mitchell of the Bay City Rollers (see story below).
Songwriters are a gifted breed. They’re poets that think in three dimensions. It isn’t enough to be able to put pen to paper and Chaucer their ideas onto papyrus. They have to lift those words from this black and white template and insert them into music from which a melody rises and falls.
Bullseye Records of Canada
Segarini: Don't Believe a Word I Say 