Pat Blythe – Where do we go from here? ……and music

Throughout the past two years we’ve all tried to predict, guess, envisage, calculate, even hope what the future of music will be, once we are no longer struggling and fighting this global pandemic. We have been living in a world that seems surreal…..like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from, just by rubbing your eyes. That anything like this could happen in the 21^st century seems rather absurd and unbelievable. Thing is…..it did. We are not impervious, but we are arrogant in thinking that we are. Lately, events have proven that we still have a long way to go. There remains, in all parts of the world, a whole level of uneducated obtuseness that exists even after we’ve heard from Archimedes, Aristotle, Galileo, Isaac Newton, Einstein, Stephen Hawking and their ilk. Baby…..we have a looooong way to go.

Pat Blythe – A Tribute to Jack Richardson, Tom Cochrane and Music

Back in London, Ontario for the Jack Richardson Music Awards (JRMA) and Jack Richardson Music Week. My home town and it’s about time I attended. There are multiple events happening every night. Great Lakes Blues Society presents Bill Durst; Doll House Showcase celebrates the Women of London in Music with Juno nominee Emm Gryner; Battle of The High School Bands in honor of Richardson’s love of teaching and encouragement of London’s young musicians ($2,500 top prize); an oral history of the London music scene from the 1960’s forward presented by Greg Simpson and Bob Klanac; Jack’s London Live….a full evening devoted to promoting live music and the live music venues in London (wonder how many I can cover in a single evening) and of course, to cap off  the week Jack Richardson Music Awards presentation and gala.