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 – Blues, Rock and a Fond Farewell….

My first AirBnB guest has arrived. A Brooklyn girl from NYC. A very young (emphasis on the word “young”), freelance film producer who has one of her works showing at the Female Eye Film Festival. Jessica has never been to Toronto before although this is the second time one of her films has been selected to show. With only two full days, unfortunately she won’t have an opportunity to really experience The Big Smoke. However, she was asking me if I knew any clubs with live music…..REALLY!!!

Roxanne Tellier Last One Out, Turn Off the Lights

The Canadian relationship with winter and snow is a lot like marriage; some love it, and look forward to their time together. Others tolerate winter, but spend a lot of time apart during cold patches. Still others grumble, but it’s a loving martyrdom that takes the good (skiing) right along with the bad (shoveling.)

Pat Blythe: Synchronicity….

Life happens (or maybe it occurs), either way my plans for today’s column were short circuited by a few happenstance events that tumbled into each other this past weekend. A visit, a text, a ticket, a song and two remarkable performances by two gifted artists. One who is just beginning on his journey and another who’s journey began over 50 years ago. This is the blues.

JAIMIE VERNON – A PIECE OF THE ROCK

The demise of Rock And Roll has been greatly exaggerated by the likes of Gene ‘I don’t know how to work an iPad‘ Simmons. That’s not to say we shouldn’t have it on suicide watch and coax it back from the ledge where its been hanging by its finger tips since Axel Rose delivered ‘Chinese Grafitti‘ and not ‘Appetite For Destruction 2‘.

JAIMIE VERNON – HEY, NINETEEN

As you read this my wife Sharon Vernon and I have just celebrated our 19^th 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 17^th and Ian Mitchell of the Bay City Rollers (see story below).

JAIMIE VERNON – 29 WITH A BULLET

A major anniversary passed surreptitiously on April 20th. It was the 29^th anniversary of my long-suffering record label Bullseye Records. Normally I’d have shouted from the rooftops and run some kind of anniversary commemoration on Facebook or with musicians I know or privately, silently weeping, into my morning orange juice. But, I actually forgot about it.

So far removed am I from the music world now, and my own legacy, and exhausted from the grind that is my paycheck shackles that it slipped under my radar.