Pat Blythe – It’s a Love Revolution Down on Main Street…..and music

I’m loving September. Warm(ish) days with cool nights are just perfect. Grape jelly made, herbs harvested, spaghetti sauce jarred (soup is next), podcast published and now it’s column time! In between all that is photo editing, cross stitching and a few telecom projects. Running around at Mariposa and Summerfolk; meeting new people and listening to new music during Canadian Music Week and Indie Week; dodging bodies, running into my friends and hearing more new music at the clubs…..I’ve missed it all. Fingers crossed we have some semblance of normal next year.

GWNtertainment #14 – Jaimie Vernon

SUNNY DAYS: THE SKIP PROKOP STORY (PART 10) by Jaimie Vernon

Lighthouse was gradually becoming a North American force to be reckoned with. They were making in-roads on tour on both sides of the border having performed a city-wide tour with the Winnipeg Ballet, played at Carnegie Hall in New York, The Isle of Wight Festival with Jimi Hendrix, the Atlantic City Pop Music Festival, and Expo 70 in Japan. In a short 18 months, Lighthouse had released three studio albums for RCA Records. They were a live sensation, but they weren’t selling a lot of albums. Something needed to change.

SUNNY DAYS: THE SKIP PROKOP STORY (PART 9) by Jaimie Vernon

SUNNY DAYS: THE SKIP PROKOP STORY (PART 8) by Jaimie Vernon

Through most of 1968, Skip Prokop’s band  The Paupers had been touring with new bass player Brad Campbell as they were making their way through recording and releasing their second album for MGM Records called “Ellis Island.” But Skip was getting a taste for session work and expanding his musical horizons beyond a 4-piece rock and roll ensemble.  It was leading him to decisions that would change his life and Canadian music forever…

SUNNY DAYS: THE SKIP PROKOP STORY (PART 2) by Jaimie Vernon

In last week’s installment of “Sunny Days: The Skip Prokop Story” our young drummer, Ronn Prokop (he had yet to adopt his nickname), was heading to the Preston Scout House to hone his drum corps chops. Suffice to say Skip would not only become quite adept at marching band drum skills, but became a reigning SIX time champion in Canada and the United States with the Optimists Drum & Bugle Corp.

SUNNY DAYS: THE SKIP PROKOP STORY (PART 1) by Jaimie Vernon

In 2012 I took on the task of interviewing internationally renowned drummer Skip Prokop on what we thought would be a quick set of sessions to lay down the most interesting stories from his impressive career as drummer for The Paupers and Lighthouse with side projects involving Peter Paul & Mary, Janis Joplin, Mama Cass Elliot, and Mike Bloomfield’s ‘Supersession.’

Pat Blythe – Canada Turns 150? and Canadian Music Reminders…..

A weekend (and a year) of celebrations across Canada….150 years young…..but is it really?

Oh how I love history! An item on my “to do” list before I pop my clogs is to work towards, and obtain, my BA Mediaeval History. Cambridge University is where I’d love to be (I do love England) but University of St. Michaels College here in Toronto is also an excellent choice and know for their studies in Mediaval history. The bucket list is not long, just really big projects.

Frank Gutch Jr: These Are People I’ve Known (But Who Try to Keep It a Secret); Plus Notes

The past week I have been revisiting some of my earlier DBAWIS columns and am shocked at how few people (as far as I can tell) know about them, even now.  When I write about musicians, it is usually personal, both the person or people and the music, and I feel that sometimes they are more water under the bridge than anything.  No one sends notes asking about someone I wrote about in 2012 unless something has happened since and there are so many truly talented people who deserve recognition.  So this week, I am going to point toward artists you may have missed whom I think are above the norm in terms of talent and/or personality.  And maybe I owe a few of them money, but that is neither here nor there.

Roxanne Tellier – Grant Fullerton … King of the Road

In 1967, the Song of the Year was “Canada” by The Young Canada Singers. I was a geeky, gawky Montreal teen with cats eye glasses and a bad perm. My season’s pass to Expo 67 made me feel like a citizen of the world.

But in Toronto, another kind of world was coming together; one of young, talented musicians who’d flocked to Yorkville to find fame, if not fortune.

Grant Fullerton was one of them.