Pat Blythe – Indie Week wrap-up Part I…..and music

It’s been a whirlwind week with so many events happening. The big one and closing out music festival “season”…..Indie Week. Heralding five days of entertainment from all over the world, the launch bash was held at Revival this past Wednesday, Nov. 13. The following days and nights were filled with the sounds of music, cheers and stomping feet, all leading up to the wrap-up party at the Mod Club on Sunday, Nov. 17. With a 4am last call, thousands of ears were filled with international sounds emanating from the participating Toronto clubs salted all over the city

Peter Trump-ets Toronto’s Live Music and the Folks Who Make it Happen

Well Trumpelthinskin sure went off his script at last weekend’s well publicized 1% group grope. He went well off his message, well off on a tangent,; (well off his rocker?) His word salad of an address would probably have sounded better if his “speech writers” had taken an Oxford Dictionary, put it through a shredder, stuffed the resultant paper “scrap” into a muzzle loading cannon and promptly fired it at a wall covered with paper glue and begged him to read the result! America, I weep for you. You have “elected” a grifter, a cheat, a conman, a nepotistic thief who would gladly sell off everything that makes America great for 5 cents on the dollar, if it would fill his pockets and those of his dreadful family.

Pat Blythe – A little BoRap, More Indie Week …and Music!

Well this is going to take a while. A full six days of Indie Week including a fabulous launch party  and a very private event at a very secret location, three days on the road with ONES, Horseshoe and Hideout gigs, an MCN Open Mic farewell and move, Pretzel Logic at the Orbit Room….and I’m sure I’m forgetting something in there….. I know I won’t get this all in one fell swoop but needless to say it’s been a non-stop roller coaster ride. Going back to front, let’s start with…. Oh but first…….

Pat Blythe – London Bluesfest — Savoy Brown, Foghat, Mark Farner…..and Music!

I’m leaving my personal thoughts and musings to the end time……I’m still catching up with the summer and all the wonderful music I heard, the people I met and all those little moments in between.

So….starting with London Bluesfest….my inner teenager was agog, amazed and humbled by the lineup this year. Performers I never had a chance to see and performers that brought back some wonderful memories. I arrived in London on the Friday, just in time to pick up my badge, connect with friend Elaine Sawyer (whose company Wich is Wich was catering the event) and catch Savoy Brown and Foghat.

Peter Ponders the Painted Lady

In last last week’s column, some of my language was a bit salty. However, if you are more offended by that than you are about the threats to our democracy, freedom and tolerance posed not only by neo Nazis and white supremacists, but by extremist ideologues (on both sides), well then maybe you’re part of the problem. As far as neo-nazis are concerned, I will not attempt to disguise my distaste, disdain and disgust for those thugs, those losers who apparently venerate “Hogan’s Heroes” as a World War II documentary.

So now let’s lighten up and talk about some music. I dedicate this week’s column to all the people who whine “There just isn’t any good music being made anymore!” There is, you just aren’t looking in the right places. (It’s actually all around you.)

Pat Blythe – Every Picture Tells a Story…and Music!

I try and start the column with the actual focus of the column, which is music. Then the squirreling happens and my brain starts to meander all over the place….and nowhere in particular. Again, researching something entirely different I came across this quote from a video I stumbled upon. The video is actually produced by Canon (which happens to be the maker of camera I use).

Pat Blythe – HOME

I was introduced to a young lady several month ago at Cherry Cola’s. Her name is Sally Shaar. We chatted for a while….I can’t even remember if I gave her a business card…..shared a bit of information about each other (she found out I wrote for DBAWIS and I found out she was a singer in a band) and eventually we parted company.

Pat Blythe – A Ballroom, Hearts, a Secret and more….

The weekend of January 30/31 was….in a word….busy. This seems to be my mantra these days….busy, busy, busy….and I’m loving it. Two nights in a row at Cherry Cola’s introduced me to a few new Indie bands while allowing me the pleasure of hearing a few of my favourites. Something tells me “Indie Week” has already started….at least in this column.