Pat Blythe – Women & Songs Redux….catching up…..and music

I am currently spending some time with my mom…..trolling the local dollar stores for stuff neither of us needs, but enjoying the time out. The promised rain never appeared, which was probably a good thing as the air was already thick enough. We sat out on the front porch with a cup of tea and watched the fireflies the other night. It’s rather lazy days when I come to visit, although this week is a little busier with scheduled interviews for the series I’m working on. I’m also catching up with a few mutual friends of Greg Simpson’s and mine.

Pat Blythe – Contemplative weeding…..music man…..and music

The goal for today (Tuesday); get up early and dedicate a couple of hours to what I laughingly refer to as the back garden. So here I am having a war of weeds with Mother Nature. She’s insistent they need to have a place to grow and I vehemently disagree. Unfortunately, I think she’s winning this one.

GREG SIMPSON – RADIO MAN EXTRAORDINAIRE by Jaimie Vernon

I type this through tears. At this moment my old pal Greg Simpson is on life support in a London hospital. And I fear for his life. Suddenly a flood of memories come back to a 20 year friendship all of which involved good times.

Bill Does Bob – The Annotated Segarini Interview

Bill King is a Legend around these parts. A man of NBA qualifying height who is himself, a top of the key 3-pointer whose skills range from Band Assemblage, to Composing and Arranging, to Husbanding a bright, wine-loving, tolerant woman of limitless good humour and Sire to an equally talented and skilled Son, to Step-Fathering a plethora of tiny fur-covered Yappables, to Author, Photographer, and Archivist of Soul and Groove, Nature and Architecture, Enabler of Song Singers well known and not, Producer of fine Musical Moments both onstage and in studio, and a Master of the 88 Keys of Life, on which every piece of music in the Known Universe can be accessed or added to if one is in possession of the skill it takes to coach the notes out of the Ivories and into the Ether.

That’s Bill in a nutshell …and my longest Run-In-Sentence ever ….

Pat Blythe – Forest City London Music Awards Wrap-Up, CMW …and Music!

Music festival season is upon us. CMW (Canadian Music Week) is usually first out of the starting gate. This year FCLMA was ahead of the game so for me, one segues right into the other. I’ll also be heading to Mariposa in July and Summerfolk in August. With a myriad of music shows and festival in between it’s going to be a busy summer for many and one that will pass by far too rapidly.

Pat Blythe – The Mariposa Experience…..Part Two…..Stories and Music

I’ve had several people tell me I have so many stories….if you point something out in my home or mention the jewellery I wear, there’s always a story. Well…..here are my stories behind some of these incredible performers at Mariposa. Some I never thought I’d see, some were pleasant surprises and some were performers I had missed at other festivals or venues around Toronto.

Pat Blythe – A Date, a Concert, a Show……and Music……

It’s Tuesday. It’s sunny. It’s summer…..with a vengeance! It must be “writing day” since it’s not raining and miserable.  As I sit and stare out the front window my mind is a complete blank, overwhelmed with the proverbial “to do” list, my brain is at the point where it’s decided to wipe itself clean. The human hard drive. No back up. Just select “reformat” and be done with it.  A blank page which is basically what I’m looking at. As my mind drifts into nothingness, you know that stare you get when you’re looking but not really “seeing”. Yep, that’s it. I could close my eyes and…..God forbid!!!!……nap!!!!

Pat Blythe – Tom Petty, Burton Cummings, Scott Holt and Bill Durst…..

I open today’s column with great sadness. Tom Petty, a true rock ‘n’ roller and one of the most respected individuals in the music business today, as both as musician and a person, has died just days before his 67th birthday. Social media was on fire with the news, jumping the gun just a tad early (thanks CBS) but nonetheless, we instinctively knew in our hearts he wasn’t going to make it. I traversed the 70’s and 80’s with Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, listening to and loving his work. Not your “classic” rocker, in both appearance and musically, but we all knew Petty was pure talent. The “humanness” of his lyrics, his way of combining them with a unique melody and his distinctive voice, touched a certain part of your psyche and drew you in. You stopped to listen. There will be so much written about him over the next few days and weeks I won’t drag it out here. Suffice to say this is one rocker I will truly miss. I send my condolences to his wife Dana York, his two daughters Adria and AnnaKim, his step-son Dylan and his extended family.

Roxanne Tellier – 2 Dogs, 2 Cats, 1 House Chicken ….

Greetings from the westiest coast, where the weather just ‘is,’ no matter what’s predicted. Will it rain or shine? Be sunny and warm or chilly and damp? Stay tuned, weather fans – we’ll have your sun after this brief rain shower!

Last Monday I stepped out of the Abbotsford airport into an almost Floridian heat and haze. But by the time we’d driven out of the airport, the day had settled into a damper, greyer miasma, and has mainly stayed that way, with brief and wholly unpredictable flirtations with the sun sprinkled in for good measure.

Pat Blythe – The Women of Blues Revisited – Part IV – Maggie & Janis

I have “moved” Janis Joplin from my Women in Rock series to this one. When I started the “Women of ……” series, I felt she had a foot in both camps. However, the more I listen to Joplin the more I realize her feet were far more firmly planted in the blues as her voice alone attests. There have been comparisons over the years between Maggie Bell and Janis Joplin. They are reminiscent of each other and that starts with the hair. Scotland is steeped in the blues (just listen to the pipes and some of the Celtic music) but the seeds were planted, and the roots run to the core of the earth, in the U.S.’s “deep south”. Keep in mind, much of the southern U.S. became home to the Scots fleeing the oppressive English in the late 1700’s. Combine that with the African “slave” songs….mix with oppressive heat and stir….so, sometimes I wonder, who exactly influenced whom?