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.

Pat Blythe – Hello September…..music news…..and music

September…..the beginning of my favourite time of year. There’s something so crisp and refreshing…..a newness spring doesn’t possess. New jobs, new schools, new grades, new homes, new lives…..September to me has always meant “beginning”. Maybe because it’s the month of my birth, or maybe it’s all the fall colours and brightness of the air, but I always feel inspired and invigorated in the comfortable cool months of fall. Of course, all things pumpkin spice doesn’t hurt either!

Pat Blythe – Smile, you’re on….and music

I’ve actually remembered how to use that contraption they call a camera and now I have two! I used them both for the first time last night photographing the Forever Seger band at their rehearsals. What a joy to have two cameras set up with different lenses…..sort of a “grab-and-go” scenario. Just pop the lens cover, make sure the camera is “on” (this is always helpful), point, focus and shoot. So good to be back!

Pat Blythe – On your mark…..book report……and music (of course)

…..and so it has begun. Music is starting to break out everywhere and many artists are “quietly rushing” to bust through the starting gate. With fewer venues, and so far, slightly smaller audiences, (which is going to mean a slightly lower pay day in the short term). I think the gates are going to get so jammed you won’t be able to slip a blade of grass through (among other things). It’s going to be quality over quantity so I hope all those drumsticks, keyboards and guitars are “sharpened”, tuned and at the ready. There’s been roughly 18 months of “practice” time.

Pat Blythe – Boom boom tsst…..Part One……and music

Why not?! I’ve covered the guitar, the violin, drums, the cowbell, all things keyboard and synthesizer….so why not the cymbal? There’s nary a drum kit or a percussion setup without them. From marching bands to the person in the back of the orchestra who sits patiently, waiting for the build-up and that one moment when they can leap to their feet to crash those two giant cymbals together for that dramatic crescendo……and then (like Christmas) it’s suddenly over. I can’t think of one child who doesn’t love banging and clanging those noisemakers together. So let’s delve right in, shall we.

Pat Blythe – Busy busy…..and just a few tunes

It’s Tuesday…..writing day. Today’s column is short…..very short. I’m taking my writing time to cogitate, reflect and sort. I’m excited to have just published my 20^th episode of The Pandemic Interviews. I’m teaching, designing, programming, writing, editing and now podcasting. I’m considering bringing back the Back Deck Concert Series, am in the process of having my front lawn dug up and “converted” into a garden, and waiting for travel to open up so I can begin to plan (and book) my trip back to England this year. Sorting out the house lurks in the background. I have no shortage of projects…..things to do. All self-imposed (well except for the telecom work) including most deadlines…..I do like to be busy, but it’s getting a bit crazy busy.

Pat Blythe – 365 Days …and Music!

When this column posts it will be exactly 365 days to the date the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic. It’s been 365 days since the entire planet turned upside down, essentially transforming life as we knew it. There have been massive upsides and downsides, upheavals and confusion, disruptions and adjustments. As much as I have an intense dislike for the phrase “new normal”, that’s what we’re experiencing and there is no turning back. So, whether we like it or not, here we are.

Pat Blythe – The music melting pot…….and music

We all seem to have a penchant for “the good old days”…..those seemingly free and easy days of the 60s and 70s. Thing is, they really were…..free and easy. Oh, they weren’t perfect. People had their personal challenges but the music, oh the music.

There was a special kind of ambience, a unique kind of camaraderie among the artists. It was an exceptional time and it was happening everywhere. The music sonic boom of 60s was taking place on both sides of the ocean. There’s been a cavalcade of books and documentaries written and produced about the artists themselves and the influences they and their music have on us all today, and will continue to for generations to come. It was the perfect storm of change culminating in Woodstock in 1969, propelling us full speed ahead into the 70s.

Pat Blythe – Sounds Like Toronto…..and music

There’s been much written about the vibrancy of Yonge Street, particularly beginning in the late 50s to its eventual winding down during the mid to late 80s. Clubs like the Brown Derby, The Colonial Tavern, Club Blue Note, Town Tavern, Le Coq d’Or, Steeles Tavern, Friars Tavern, Hawk’s Nest, The Zanzibar, Silver Rail…..graduating to The Gasworks, Piccadilly Tube, Nickelodeon, Hard Rock Cafe and many others. All gone, except the memories. The jazz and blues, the beginning of the Toronto Sound, rock, disco and punk invasions, the Yonge St. Mall…..

Pat Blythe – The Pandemic Interviews – Conversations in a changing time…..and music

Tuesday, January 26 at 6:01am my first podcast was posted on Podbean. It’s been a work in progress since last May….well technically last August/September. Let me ‘splain…..