Wood and String Soul

My guitar was a high school graduation gift from my parents. I have played it pretty much daily for more than twenty years. It has played around campfires, on stages, in kitchens and in bars. It has been with me on many adventures and has been there for most every song I have ever written. As far as guitars go I dare say it has a pretty good life.

Is it possible that this once living tree, that gives life to music and vibrates with every note is capable of carrying energy from where it has been, where it has played, and from all those it had made dance, sing or smile?

I have a banjo my father found for me at a yard sale. What is its story? Where has it been? How come I feel inspired to play certain things on it and new original songs come to mind when I am playing it?

I have a mandolin from my uncle that jams so easily. It blends in effortlesly with the group and every note, intended or not sounds so right.

I have a fiddle that squawks and squeaks – even though I continue to get better at it over time, it is a labour and the music is forced. Does it have nothing to share with me? I am its first player…

Do wood and string have soul? Even a little bit? Do they pass on and share something to each new host?

Christmas Lullaby

It's about images - Christmas cards depicting scenes.

A painting of city downtown with warm orange lights glowing in the windows, yellow streetlamps, the red tail lights of cars down the street and snow falling.

The edge of a forest viewed from a snow covered field with the winter moon overhead casting shadows with great contrast on the snow.

Bethlehem two millenniums ago - the original Christmas card.

All dreamy images - to lull you to sleep as I bid you goodnight.

Merry Christmas.

Hockey Night in the Man Room

Ah - back to posting. Let the sharing of songs continue.

I am going to have to find a new group to start jamming with soon now that I have moved. The Man Room out of NDG rocked - the best group of guys you could get together and jam with ever.

A couple of years ago when Hockey Night in Canada was looking for a new theme song, I came up with this. I could never have imagined it as a theme song, but it was real fun to record and I made it up as I went. It was only the second time I had played around with multi track recording on the computer and it was quite addictive. The sounds are my acoustic guitar through various effects, a keyboard I borrowed from school to get the drum sound, and my voice.

The video was the guys in the Man Room entertaining me.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Summer 1998 I worked at the Tim Horton Children’s Ranch in the Rocky Mountains in Alberta. It was completely magical. Kids would come to the camp from all over Canada to spend ten days hiking, horseback riding, rock climbing, white water rafting, bonding together, finding inner strength that they never knew was there, and leave with an absolute love the great outdoors.

My favourite quote of all time was from that summer, - it was the first night of a session and the campers were in their bunk excitedly talking with no signs of stopping as campers on the first night usually did. As I sat on the porch outside the cabin door, I gazed at the perfectly clear star filled mountain sky. I called them all to come outside and see the heavens (they weren’t going to sleep anyway) and then it became instantly clear that this beautiful scene had never been appreciated before.

“HOLY SH*T!!!”, one kid cried out.

That’s it. That’s the quote. To this day I have never heard those words used with such sincerity.

For the counsellors as well as the campers, it was a magic summer. This was a long time ago, so of course we were all younger then, but when I look back at working at the camp it was like going to the camp. We were all kids, big ones and little ones all having fun.

Words are hard to come by to describe the feeling of the experience. It was like a dream, all those nights around the big campfire pit, and those extra special ones where you would catch a glimpse of the northern lights...for sure it was like a dream, - a midsummernight’s dream.

Molly's Reach

"Dance your cares away, worries for another day..."

These famous words are from Fraggle Rock. Part of CBC’s Sunday night line up many years ago when I was burdened by junior high homework. Sunday night seemed to be the default time to do homework. It was always put off and put off again until the heavy ‘Sunday night feeling’ would come. I didn’t want to do the work, and probably didn’t feel like going to school the next day either. I think I actually believed that by watching Fraggle Rock, I could send my worries to another day – or at least put them off for half an hour. Funny thing is, I really didn’t even like Fraggle Rock but it was a welcome distraction.

But alas, “Down the road is where I’ll always be”...the Littlest Hobo came next followed by the Beachcombers. By that time, homework was delayed an hour and a half, and soon it would be time for bed.

‘Wouldn’t it be nice to be in Molly’s Reach? - hot soup, in from the cold, friendly conversation and no homework to do?’ That was the solution – just get to Molly’s Reach and everything would be all right.

Now many years later, I have shrugged the Sunday feeling, but I must have retained a lot of the philosophy from back then. I have a son named Jesse, and a daughter Molly, - no one named Nick or Relic though.

That happy feeling, born out of hopeful, wonderful, fantastic imagination I am sure was present, sub consciously we chose the name Molly for our daughter. I sing this song to her - while she is in her crib and I am beside her in the rocking chair in her room...and there I am so close by- in Molly's reach.

Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain

It's obvious that I didn't write this one, but it is a lot of fun.

About three years ago when I was starting to wonder if I would ever find a group to jam with or even dare to dream, play live in front of people again, along came 'The Man Room'.

An old friend of mine from high school introduced me to the group, and we have been making music in a Montreal basement ever since.

Recently we started to play live, and it is a lot of fun. We are a bunch of dads with daytime jobs living in the moment enjoying where the adventure is taking us. Seven of us round out the stage including a bunch of guitars, a banjo, a mandolin and you never know when we are going to get out the 20L water cooler jug, harmonica or anything else.

Here's to jamming and good fun live music.

Displaced Maritimers

I live in Montreal, not in New Brunswick, so I fit this description.

Displaced Maritimers are great. When I first joined the club, I found out that us displaced Maritimers are more ‘maritime’ than ‘back home’ Maritimers. We whoop it up and sing and talk about the Maritimes all the time telling the locals or other displaced people about the wonders of the far east. Probably the ‘back home’ types are whooping it up, singing and talking about other places that aren’t the Maritimes.

Anyways, it is neat -we displaced Maritimers seek each other out, whether in Montreal, Toronto, out west or wherever – we get together and have common, familiar ground.