Blainletter for March 2008

Greetings faithful Blainletter readers and new subscribers (I¹ve been trying
to update the list and I may have subscribed a couple of folks who didn¹t
specifically askŠ.please excuse me if I did and I will unsubscribe you).
Even though I'm plugging a gig TOMORROW NIGHT (THURS), I'm glad I waited a
few days to send this out because I received lots of good news today: I got
confirmed for two festival gigsŠthree if you count this one:

Monday April 7
2 shows 4:30 PM and 8:00 PM
Galaxy Theatres, Orangeville, Ontario
Film Presentation of ³The Honeydripper² starring Danny Glover . it will
feature a live blues performance in the theatre by Colorblind Brian Blain.
a co-presentation of Orangeville Blues & Jazz Festival and Monday Night At
The Movies

I did get the guitar out of the case today and ran over some tunes for my
gig tomorrow night in Thorold.

TOMORROW Thurs Mar 20 EARLY START: 8-12pm
Moose and Goose
54 Front Street Thorold 905-227-6569
Jack de Keyzer w/Brian Blain opening

Yes, I¹m opening for Jack De Keyzer and this gig is also for a festival -
it's the folks who do the Canal Bank Shuffle every October. For two years
I've had to decline their invitation to play the festival because that was
my time in Europe (hopefully this fall, too). So this will give me a little
taste of the canal bank vibe...
It'll be great seeing Jack. He never gives a bad show. I¹ve shared a
festival stage or two with him but never an opening set per se. I¹ve opted
to keep it ³peppy² ­ which means the Thoroldites (Thoroldians?) won¹t get to
hear some of my brand new soft and sensitive material like The Whaler¹s
Confession and Last Time I saw Lenny (but now anyone hear them by going to
YouTube.com and searching for ³Brian Blain² (I¹ve also got the same video
clips on www.MySpace.com/brianblain <http://www.MySpace.com/brianblain> ).
Tonight I just dug up a clip from a gig at The Silver Dollar a few years
back with the dearly departed Rod Phillips (Blues Is Hurting) and I will
load that up too. Pat Carey rips it up on the sax.

It¹s been a couple of weeks since the passing of Jeff Healey but the town is
still reeling from his loss. I heard beautiful tributes on the radio from
Colin Bray and Danny Marks and Jazz-FM has been re-running his old shows.
They just played a show I heard when it was first broadcast and it¹s
interesting to note that the only conversation I ever had with Jeff, besides
standing outside the Reservoir Lounge, was shortly after this show was
originally broadcast. I was at his club (I suppose he had just finished
playing a blistering setŠand the rest of his band would always rise to the
occasion). He was standing at the bar on a break and I went up and said how
much I enjoyed his radio show and asked about a piano player he had
featuredŠI couldn¹t remember the name, but he said right away ³That was
Herman Chitteson, he wasn¹t very well known in America because he worked
mostly in EuropeŠ² and proceeded to wax on enthusiastically with all kinds
of minutia about this obscure musician and you could tell he was so pleased
that he had been able to introduce someone new to this great unknown piano
player.² I was just listening to Jeff playing two recordings of Mae West
with the Dorsey Brothers (and finding out that she only did 3 recoding
sessions in her career!). On Danny Marks¹ show he played an old interview
with Jeff and a sneak preview of Jeff¹s new CD, coming out at the end of the
month.

May 3 & 4 there will be two special evenings for Healey fans to come
together and pay their respect. As has been repeated many times by different
friends and colleagues, ³Jeff was all about the music.² I only wish I¹d had
a chance to play with him once ­ probably could have if I was a little more
pro-active and came out to those jam sessions once in a while. I did play
with many of his bandmates though, Al Webster, Alec Fraser (who recorded my
first CD) and the wonderful fiddle player Drew Jurecka. My sympathy goes out
to those fellows and all who were close to Jeff. At the end of the re-run,
I hear Jeff saying ³we¹re going out on a high note as we like to do² Well
did he ever! I don¹t know if it was on purpose but there was almost five
minutes of dead air after Ross Porter¹s outro. A very deep silence, indeed.)

Speaking of being pro-active, I was starting to beat myself up because I
didn¹t apply to any summer festivals until this week and of course I¹ve
missed most of the deadlines. Needless to say, if you, dear reader, are
producing a festival this summer and and haven¹t quite filled your quota of
old Canadian bluesmenŠlet me direct you to my space
http://www.myspace.com/brianblain where I just loaded up some video clips of
me with band and solo. The solo tunes are all brand new (some not quite
finished) but we got these video clips from my set at Winterfolk at the
beginning of the month. One song is about Lenny Breau, ³Another Song About
Alice² is about Alice Brock (Alice¹s Restaurant) and there¹s my tribute to
the musicians of New Orleans (³Forgotten²) and a song about whaling (³The
Whaler¹s Confession²). Some years I¹ve made a big effort to get gigs and
other years I¹ve done nothing and it seems that either way, I end up playing
3 or 4 festivals. Anyway, it¹s always nicer to get invited than to go
groveling for a gig.

Out and About: As usual, I enjoy listening to music almost as much as
playing it and therein lies the reason that my career is not skyrocketing.
I¹m spending most of my time boppin around town hearing all kinds of
incredible music. Even though I¹m usually on the guest list, I¹d be broke if
I was a drinking man (hey, I am broke!). There¹s just too much good music in
this town. The other night I heard Charlie Hunter the renown 7-string
guitarist. This time he was playing for a young crowd and it was real loud
(but clear and loud - beautiful guitar sound). It's like listening to Robben
Ford or John Scofield in a bluesy mood except Charlie is producing the
thundering bass part with his thumb on that low B string.

After a stop-over at Thymeless where my son Joel (aka DJ C.O.I.) was
spinning I caught the last set at the Crazy Strings Wednesday at the Silver
Dollar. I thought I would be seeing a "skeleton staff" with Folk Alliance
Conference starting that day but they were all there in full force. I didn't
even count how many people on stage but there were lots - twin fiddles and a
great vocalist (Kristin, Christine?) I've always said that bluegrass is one
genre where you can't fake it. If you haven't been playing (or especially
singing) it all your life, it¹s so obvious. Well these guys are now old
enough to have been playing it "most" of their lives and it sounds pretty
official to me.

The next day I decided I¹d like to see Buckwheat Zydeco at the Horseshoe,
but didn¹t get in motion till late in the evening and all I heard was the
last couple of songs. In the old days, Buckwheat would have come back for a
half-hour encore but he¹s not a young man anymore and I heard he had
actually left the bandstand at one point and left the band to play a few
tunes on their own. On the week-end I saw two powerhouse guitarists - Johnny
V from Alberta and Big Gilson from Brazil.

On Saturday I took in three shows,,,first Laura Hubert and band at the Rex
(she had two great horn players, Chris Gale and Bobby BroughŠbut where was
the baritone?), then to the Silver Dollar to hear a touring outfit called
Big James and the Chicago Playboys (a blues funk outfit fronted by a
trombone player ­ he had played with many great blues stars and is now out
doing his own thing). Then to finish off the night I dropped in to a
neighbourhood bar where Michelle Josef was playing with David Wildsmith
doing a lot of cover material and packing the dance floor. David¹s
girlfriend Sarah works for Jeff Healey and she spent the whole time checking
her phone for an update on Jeff. Regretfully, the next day her worst fears
were realized.

I probably heard a dozen different bands during Canadian Music Week and
maybe I¹m getting old but they all sounded the same. They all had this
two-guitar thing with one guitar playing a repetitive riff high on the neck
so that it sounded sort of like a synthesizer. Roman Carter & Tom Rothrock
were the real dealŠnever mind three-chord blues. This was one-chord blues -
but Roman pulled it off. The film he premiered featured a whole bunch of
blues old-timersŠPrecious Bryant was the only name I recognized. Turns out
five of them had passed on by the time the film was finished. It¹s called
³Songs From The Soul².

Son Roberts Band and Steve Strongman made the best of a bad situation when
he was told he couldn¹t play ­ that the schedule had changed. He did manage
to hit the stage for a fiery fifteen-minute set and he did great. After
Steve, Son Roberts and the boys played. It did not have the intensity of
Steve but they take the blues to a different place.

This weekend I did an end-run across town and saw Roxanne Potvin at Hugh¹s
Room then Garret Mason at the Silver Dollar. Roxanne had Christine Bougie
playing guitar for her and Christine did a fine job but I know for a fact
that Roxanne can pull off a great solo and I couldn¹t figure why we had to
wait till the end of the show before she showed off some of her blues
soloing. Garrett Mason was quite the contrary ­ tearing it up with his
3-piece unit. Very Solid. I told him I had seen anybody using those big
Fender Showman amps since Johnny Winter in the 70s. He had this pedal that
made a real underwater warbling sound. I loved it.

Did u know? As I observed Conrad Black going to jail today, I had to say to
myself ³there but for fortune go IŠ² His publishing empire got a little
bigger than my non-profit desktop-publishing ³empire² but it¹s interesting
that we both got our start in publishing at the same place, The Sherbrooke
Daily Record. It was the first paper he owned and the first one I worked for
(actually John Bassett owned it when I started at the Record).

Today I was at the funeral of a fine gentleman who was probably my oldest
fan. Fred Houston was 92 years old. Five years ago he was celebrating his
60th wedding anniversary and I wrote them a tune called ³Together Sixty
Years²Šand they made it to sixty-five. Imagine being with the same partner
for sixty-five yearsŠ(hmmm, that could go either way, I guess). One time he
came up to me and said ³Brian you really make that guitar talk². I never
received a finer compliment.

June Blainletter plus Bob Lefsetz' take on managers

Welcome to my June Blainletter. I won't be playing in town until my Toronto Jazz festival gig on June 30th. (June 30th, by the way is the second full moon of the month, the "blue moon" – thus the expression "once in a blue moon". I never knew that, thanks Bette! This week-end I'm playing the Orangeville Blues and Jazz festival on Saturday night at a little bar called the Wild Wing at 75 Alder St. I'll be playing with the wonderful bassist Henry Heilig, whose band Manteca will be opening the Toronto Jazz Festival. Then on June 15, I'm at the Moonshine Café in Oakville. If any of my dear blog-readers live in the environs of either of those remote locations, please drop in

Your (barely)managing editor has just wrapped up another newsletter. This month I created a headline for the cover of MapleBlues and I realized as I was about to go to print that I didn't really know what it meant. I wrote "Reddick Redux" just cause it looked good on the page but then I realized that I wasn't really that sure what it meant. Well I looked it up and it turned out the "redux" meant exactly what I wanted to say. There couldn't be a better word. Now it will be interesting to see if the majority of our readers will know what "redux" means…but what the hey, it's about Paul Reddick and he is regarded as a bit of an intellectual on the blues scene. He'll know what I meant.

I've been thinking of calling him up to do a couple of gigs. I'm playing this week-end and I still don't know who with. I like to wait till the last minute and see who falls in my lap (not necessarily the best approach in romance).

Last night I went to see Mendelson Joe play (he I knew him when he was Joe Mendelson). He was a curmudgeon then and he's a curmudgeon now. I thought about introducing myself to see if he remembered that I auditioned to play bass for McKenna Mendelson Mainline 30 years ago. I thought better of it when I watched him brush off our senior publicist and my friend Jacquie with "I know who you are" and "OK, I gotta go". Still, he's Joe and we love him. He was riveting on stage. He had not played a music gig in Toronto for 10 years, imagine that. Talk about "I'm going to the country" (…and I ain't coming back).

He marched onto the stage in paint-splattered pants carrying his guitar case (with the hand painted warning "very, very, very fragile") and a back-pack. As he was being introduced, he took the guitar out of the case, sat himself down and had a drink from a big bottle of Perrier water (which he thanked Mose Scarlett for bringing). His first song was his most recent, he said, "I'm a folkie and that ain't no jokie." After a 75 minute show, he came back with a short instrumental encore…his fans still wanted more but he came back up to the stage, slowly packed up his stuff (while people still clapped for more) and then he was gone.

Joe's comments about the air in Toronto really struck home after my experience last week-end playing the Twisted Pines festival a couple of hours out of town. They billeted the bands in some kind of wilderness retreat and I could not believe how refreshed and invigorated I felt after only two days away from the pollution of Toronto. I realized it the next morning when I woke up to the sight of all kinds of colourful birds at the array of feeders just outside the kitchen window…with little squirrels and chipmunks scampering around the bases of the feeders. What a sight. What a breath of fresh air. I had the pleasure of meeting a couple of my blog-readers up there…so hi to you and thanks for your interest. I don't think I'd keep this going if I didn't keep running into people who tell me they enjoy it.

The original impetus for the "Toronto Blues Diary" was to pass along tips on "career development" (long before I ever heard the expression). I used to put the tips in red. I should really cut and paste some of Bob Lefsetz stuff – he's got a lot to say about career development…You can see his "blog" at http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/

Anyway, back to Twisted Pines. My first "arena show" – though there was only enough audience to fit into a club, but it was a great experience and I'm sure the festival will build up from here. I just got invited to play the volunteer party. A couple of days before we had a "warm-up" gig at Free Times. It was my "Motherless Day" show and we had a nice friendly group came out…but once again, I looked out into the house and I knew pretty well every person. It's great to have a friendly, supportive audience, but this is not how careers are built…

Last night I attended the opening of the Art of Jazz festival at the Distillery. That room is the size of an arena, but it didn't sound nearly as good as Twisted Pines. Since it was opening night, there were a few speeches and the soft spoken guys like Don Thomson and Kenny Wheeler were not cutting through at all. I could not hear a word they were saying. Meanwhile, when Jon Hendricks got on the mike I could hear every word. So it's not just the PA. The music seemed kind-of uninspired and I was ready to leave but then Kevin Mahogany hit the stage and launched into a marathon version of "Route 66" and everybody started playing their ass off – leave it to the blues to pick things up. It was my first time hearing Kevin Mahogany and he is something to behold – physically and vocally (a giant in both respects).

What else did I do this month (besides start making a garden – thanks to all those that have contributed. I'm going to make a slide show on Flickr when I get a minute. I also started editing a video clip of me singing "Blues is Hurting" at the Hi-Tech Blues Revue. We'll see how long it takes me to get that together.

I had the delightful experience of seeing Allan Fraser's (& Donna Louthood's) daughter Kaya performing at the Now lounge. She played some fine guitar (very much like Allan) and when she sang it was like listening to Donna. What a trip.

I saw lots of great jazz at the new Courthouse venue this month – surely destined to be a world class showcase venue. Shakura S'Aida did a CD launch there and she rocked the joint. It was the first blues show in the place…tonight Susie Arioli begins a 3-night engagement. I hope she can get a decent crowd over three days.

The Blues Society had a birthday party at Jeff Healey's new club with Jack de Keyzer playing and yours truly as MC. I actually got some spontaneous applause when I introduced myself as the editor of MapleBlues. I wonder if I would have got such an enthusiastic response if I had introduced myself as the 60-year old emerging artist…

Just so you get a taste of this Bof Lefsetz guy, I'm going to paste in part of a recent rant about managers… Here's Bob. See you next time.

"…In other words, you don't need the heavyweight, well-connected manager to make it. Unless you're playing the traditional radio/TV hit single game.

If you're playing the old wave game, sign with someone who's got the chops, who knows the ropes, who isn't reinventing the wheel so much as applying what they know to your situation. You might grow, but your handler, he already knows the game.

Whereas if you're not signed to a major label, don't want to get signed to a major label, don't make Top Forty singles, then you don't need a manager connected so much as one who is savvy and HUNGRY!

The established management players are akin to mini-conglomerates, they're the new labels. They want to get paid, right away. If you're not delivering cash, if they sign you, you're not getting much attention. Or, you're getting attention from the untested newbie. If that newbie is truly great, break off and do it yourself, as Irving Azoff did with the Eagles. Otherwise, you're probably going to get lost in the shuffle.

If you're starting from ground zero, no name manager will probably be interested. But that won't hurt you.

What do you need most if you're a developing act?

Gigs. You need someone to get on the horn, go down to the venue, and cajole and connive 'til they get you a shot. Then you must deliver, but it's the manager that creates/midwives the opportunity.

Where are you going to find such a bloke?

Look around you, he's probably already a friend. Or that dude who comes to each and every show and hangs backstage and won't leave until you do. THAT'S your manager.

Oh, don't throw out your instincts. After all, Paluska went to Amherst, he's no dummy. But find someone committed who will do the job for you.

So much of what Phish did, they did first. Or their spin on an event made it unique. They did their destination festivals. They released live albums of their shows, and then downloads. Elektra didn't deliver these, rather their manager and agent, Chip Hooper, did.

Yup, Chip saw the numbers, he wanted to represent Phish. He didn't care about record sales, but TICKET COUNTS! Most agents feel the same way today, but fifteen years ago, the focus was on the label.

Yes, after you get your manager, and he gets you gigs, he tries to get you an agent. And the agent you want is not the one with the name, the one who wines and dines you so much as the one who BELIEVES in you.

As for music... In today's market, you've got to allow recording and trading, you've got to give the music away for free, you've got to let the seed grow into a tree. If you can't get significant airplay, THIS IS THE ONLY WAY!

It's not the way of the major label, and not the way of the old line manager. But it's your way. You know the Net, you've got friends, both online and offline. You have to create something incredible and give your peeps the tools to spread the word. Not through fake incentives, you've got to trade purely on their belief, your honesty.

It's all about the music when you're doing it yourself. Everything must be subservient to the music. And you must create the best situation to experience the music.

When Phish played the Santa Monica Civic ten plus years ago, the police frisked the attendees. Paluska vowed to never play the building again, and his band DIDN'T! He didn't shrug his shoulders and say he couldn't do anything, that it wasn't his fault, he took matters into his own hands, to defend his band's relationship with its audience.

And when Phish started selling its music online, it offered FLAC files, so its fans could own the best sounding versions. Isn't it funny that EMI is offering 256 kbps AACs supposedly sometime in the near future when Phish sold CD quality YEARS AGO!

So don't lament that the manager with the name isn't interested in you. There's a good chance he might not be right for you.

Inexperience is no longer the handicap it used to be. Drive and appreciation of the band/fan relationship are paramount for today's touring acts. That's more about instinct than big time experience. Furthermore, you want someone who can develop on the fly.

Maybe you outgrow your manager, you end up signing with one of the big boys, who wrings out every last dollar for you.

Or maybe you stay with your guy, who delivers for you.

Or maybe your guy makes a deal with Irving, and uses Frontline's power to get you what you want and need.

It's a new game. It's the sixties all over again. The wheel is being reinvented. Don't be hamstrung by the old wave players and the old wave rules."

Blainletter #5

Jacquie Houston, Harry Manx, Roberta Hunt and Michelle Josef hanging out on the break.

Last night I did my first gig at Grossman’s. Grossman’s, a blues “shrine” on the Canadian blues landscape. I remember it’s one of the only blues bars I knew about when I arrived in Toronto. The place where Downchild were discovered by Dan Aykroyd and where Jeff Healey made a buzz. I have to say I was a little taken aback when I made my first pilgrimage…could this be the place I had been hearing about all these years??? I seem to remember the washroom more than the band that was playing. It wasn’t no Downchild, anyway.

I had previous been invited to sit in for a tune or two – I remember once with Gary Kendall and another time with Laura Hubert. But here I am – my first paying gig at Grossmans…and the pay wasn’t that bad. One CD sale topped it up to a reasonable wage. I guess I never asked for a gig at Grossman’s…but then they never asked me..not until Roberta Hunt sugeested we do something there (she plays there every Saturday with the Happy Pals). I got Michelle Josef to join us on drums and we had a ball.

I must say the evening got off to miserable start when my beloved Epiphone took a fall and the headstock popped off. It’s in the shop now – I’m sure it can be fixed. The end result was that I used my Strat all night – I hadn’t even planned to bring it. And I had a great time with the Strat…though I’m the kind of guitar player who will play whatever you put in his lap, as long as it stays in tune.

It wasn’t much of a turnout, I must say, though there was always at least 3 or 4 tables and more people hanging out on the periphery. I think one of them might have been a blues harp player I met in the summer. “Shrimp Daddy”, was that you? There was another illustrious visitor, Harry Manx dropped in on a (rare) day off on his tour with Michael Kaeshammer. I saw their show in Toronto a couple of weeks back - man, they are two phenomenal virtuosos.

One great benefit to playing Grossman’s was finding out where the best place to have late-night Chinese food was (it’s the place with the Green sign across Spadina). And it was good.

I have been putzing around with a new (improved?) system to send out e-blasts and it seems like it stalled on me. I'm now sending out the Blainletter 50 at a time.

I merged my old address book with my fanlist and took the liberty of adding a few names to the fanlist – if this is your first Blainletter and you want it to be your last, just let me know. I assure you they don’t come out that often.

On the Grossman’s poster I referred to myself as “The Real” Brian Blain, because following the theft of my wallet on a subway in Prague last month I’m starting to worry that there’s somebody out there who has more documentation to prove he’s Brian Blain than I do. (As if it wasn’t bad enough that there’s some pecan farmer in Oregon with my name). It’s time for me to be more assertive. For my remaining years, this Brian Blain is going to be IN YOUR FACE, lest anyone think they can steal THIS identity!

Back from a rehearsal with Roberta I tune in Dr Feelgood on CKLN and what do you know…he’s playing a track from my album! It’s always interesting to hear how your stuff sounds on the radio, or in this case, on the computer. It does get scrunched up a little bit, but still sounded fine.

Well, besides getting a spin on CKLN, what else has been happening in my music career, you ask (or not)... Last Saturday I was sitting with Shelagh Rogers backstage at Massey Hall and reminded her that I gave her a CD this time last year...I guess I was waiting for an engraved invitation to be on her show. Maybe this time I’ll do a little follow up. We were at the Toronto Blues Society’s Women’s Blues Revue where many of my musical colleagues were backing up a bevy of fine vocalists including the beloved Jackie Richardson and her powerhouse daughter Kim Richardson (who I had never seen perform, though I’m sure I’ve heard her backing vocals with many great artists). My long time collaborator Lily Sazz was the band leader and did a stellar job, as did Michelle, Suzie and Marg Stowe (who was in Prague at the same time as me and graciously invited me to open one of her shows).

Last night Michelle was playing at Shakura S’Aida’s CD launch and they were putting out some great sounds. Lance Anderson was amazing, as he always is when he gets on a real B3 Hammond organ. David Rotundo sat in on harp and we exchanged stories of my beloved Eastern Townships, where he was just playing. I’m still trying to get a gig in Sutton, the town where I was living before I moved to Toronto. I guess it will be Spring before we get a Quebec tour happening. After Shakura, I dropped by the Free Times to hear Mary Knickle, who was visiting from Nova Scotia. She has that crystal clear celtic vocal sound that transports you to a time and place far away. Mary and I swapped CD’s and agreed to become MySpace “friends.” If I have been less than pro-active in getting gigs, I’m even worse at gathering “friends” on MySpace, but they do trickle in. My SonicBids website has been shut down, an aftermath of the cancellation of my credit card after the pickpocket incident (they sure didn’t waste much time in shutting me down!) so I will have to make do with MySpace for now. I still have a bio and stuff at www.northernblues.com/bio_blain.html and I still have my blog at http://torontobluesdiary.blogspot.com. I’ve had the blog since before they were called blogs and it’s where I have been documenting my musical adventures and lessons learned since I arrived in Toronto. For example, here are some tips I’ve noted lately (let’s see how many I can apply to my own show):

- “Charisma comes when you take charge on stage”
- “capture and engage...make moments...change lives”
- The Audience wants spontaneity “Gee, this is probably the only time this ever happened” (this should come easy to me since I've never played a song the same way twice...many bandmates will vouch for that!)
- People want to “see” the music, too. Make it visual. “He was making love to his guitar”
- When you step up to the mike, make it a deliberate move (step in from the side rather than from the back)
- “What’s The hurry?” Nothing wrong with an extended vamp on that intro before coming in with the vocal. “If the audience is in the palm of your hand, then milk it” (That reminds me when I saw young Roxanne Potvin’s showcase: At one point she was getting some prolonged applause, but she cut it off. I felt the energy drop. She should have “milked it” a bit more.)

Here’s a “note to my self” before I go touring in the US: Get an “ITIN number” on the IRS website (for employer/presenter waiver) and get forms to pre-pay tax on CDs from carnetcanada@chambre.ca

Don’t know when I will be making my way back to the States but when I do, I hope to do another house concert at Alice Brock’s studio in Provincetown. Alice has been my biggest booster down there (she’s being celebrated these days because it’s the 40th Anniversary of “Alice’s Restaurant). Visit her brand new website, www.alicebrock.com to see what she’s up to these days.

Other shows I’ve seen since I got back from Europe: The Afro-Cuban All-Stars were at Massey Hall and though it started a little “sleepy” (for a Cuban band) it picked in the second half. The real highlight for me was looking across the aisle and seeing Billy Bryans, who has been going through some serious health challenges, looking fit as a fiddle and grooving to the music. A couple of nights later, it was the “Night To Remember,” Mory the Sockman’s big show at the Palais Royale with Downchild. I’ve never seen them playing better and Donny Walsh was really rockin’ on the guitar as were Michael Fonfara and a the rock solid rhythm section of Gary Kendall and Mike Fitzpatrick (who, regretfully, is leaving the band). Luckily, they recorded the night for a CD/DVD release so many more will share the excitement of that evening.

Downtown Jazz brought in Roy Ayers and the “Superstars of Jazz Fusion” and this was one show that both me and my son Joel could both get into, but I think Joel preferred Roy when he was playing in town last year with Nick “Brownman” Ali and some DJ/remixers who may not have been superstars but who certainly knew how to raise the roof. Then I saw Britain’s favourite R&B sensation, James Hunter, and even though James himself was in better shape than the last time I saw him - he was at the Supermaket last summer but apparently had a bad cold - so this time he was hitting a lot more of his trademark Jackie Wilson high notes, but there was something different about the band. Maybe the personnel had changed. Anyway, I love that tenor & baritone sax section. The Aboriginal Music Awards was, as always, a great uplifting evening. My friend Raven Kanatakta was doing a lot of the conducting and tore off a few blistering solos. We’ll be playing together in Barrie next month and I’m looking forward to it.

I had a visit from my old buddy Harry Manx and saw his show with Michael Kaeshammer at Harbourfront. They had been touring this show for a month when I saw them and had another 20 dates to go. Harry had just bought another guitar (he carries five or six already!) and we jammed a bit. It was a solid-body lap slide, beautifully made. Can’t remember the name of the luthier, but Harry tells me there’s quite a long waiting list for one of these instruments. Harry was happy to hang out in my neighborhood again (I live in “Little India”) and dropped a bundle on Indian CDs at my neighborhood music store.

Speaking of my neighbourhood, the other day someone sent an email with a link to a youtube video clip featuring a woman who recounted her escape from Lebanon to Israel with her injured mother and described the kindness and compassion she received from the caregivers in the Israeli hospital, even though she was an “enemy” and meanwhile, she couldn’t believe how another Lebanese woman, a patient in the next bed, was cursing her caregivers even though they had saved her life. You have to have a lot of hate in you to curse the people who just saved your life. Go figure. Then, that very night, I drive off down my street and promptly run out of gas on Gerrard Street (my gas gauge is a little screwed up). There’s a taxi-stand/gas station at the foot of my street that is run by some very surly, mean-looking Pakistanis (I’ve bought gas there many times and it is NOT “service_with-a-smile”). Even though it was closed, I saw some lights in the office and I walked in and told them I had run out of gas and asked if they could help me. Surly as ever, the older gent interrupted his card game long enough to say something to a younger man who then led me to the garage, got a can of gas and carried it acroos the street to my car. The car started up and when I went to pay him something, he would not take any payment and headed back to the garage and his card game with the boys. With the political climate these days, anyone would have looked at that mangy group and assumed they were planning a terrorist attack or something but they were just a bunch of guys playing cards, willing to help out somebody in trouble. I think I just had what my neighbour Bill calls an “attitude adjustment.”

Well, that’s probably enough for now. I was going to talk a bit about my European adventure but you can read more on my blog at http://torontobluesdiary.blogspot.com.
You can view some pics by going to http://www.flickr.com and searching for “Brian Blain in Prague” and there’s even a podcast of my Motherless Day concert with Harrison Kennedy – it’s at www.frankcasting.com. And don't forget www.myspace.com/brianblain (yes, I'll be your friend). I think that’s all for tonight. Now for the fun part – figuring out how to mail it to you all. If you got this far, then thanks for reading all this. Take Care, BrianB