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June, 2008
Summer is just around the corner and I have been busy enjoying my garden. Our usual June rains have descended upon us a week early this year. And still, after a very dry winter, I am grateful for the moisture that cleanses the earth and turns the world green. When the sun breaks through for the summer, I will be excited to see new growth - sometimes inches in one day!
I had a wonderful time competing in the Ship & Anchor and Calgary Folk Festival Song Writing Contest in May. Thank you to the Swing Geezers for supporting me at the competition - they are just great to work with! Although I did not place, the experience was invaluable, a lot of fun, and I was very honored to be chosen as one of the finalists.
Over the past few months I have discovered that I absolutely love supporting life celebrations such as retirement parties and birthday parties. It is such a blessing to witness the milestones in people’s lives and to be a part of the ritual and acknowledgement of these special times. I think we humans need to celebrate each other much more often!
I did not receive my AFA Grant and, I have decided to go ahead and begin recording a CD anyway. Although it will probably take me a good year to complete it, I am looking forward to finally getting some of my music out there.
June has already been, and will continue to be a busy month. I am playing at a few festivals so if you are in the neighborhood drop by and say hello.
Have a blissful summer!
March, 2008
Spring is just a few weeks away and I am thrilled! Each year when the world starts to awaken I am filled with a renewed sense of awe and wonder at everything around me.
I had an experience a couple of weeks ago on the stretch of highway that runs between Calgary and Edmonton that has been renamed the “Queen Elizabeth II.” I had never heard the shortened form “QE II” but the experience and the name has made an interesting story for a new song that I will be submitting to the Calgary Folk Music Festival Songwriting Contest this year and playing in some of my upcoming shows. You just never know when or where a new song will arrive!
January and February were very busy. I had a fair number of gigs, had a great time performing at the Tongue on the Post Folk Festival in Medicine Hat, completed and recorded a commissioned song entitled “Butterfly”, and I submitted a grant application to Alberta Foundation for the Arts to record a commercial CD.
Although the grant application was an enormous amount of work, it was extremely beneficial in helping me to clearly define where I am going with my music and how I am going to get there. I am very grateful for a number of people who have been very giving of their time and experience to support my application.
I have a few shows and festivals coming up and I hope to be adding in some more soon so I invite you to browse through the list. As always, I am grateful for your support.
Happy Spring!
January, 2008
Happy New Year and welcome to my site!
I was very busy in December with a great variety of shows and parties. I think the highlight was the show at the Cabin Café. There were so many people who came and joined in with different aspects of the evening…the youngest was around 2 and the oldest about 75! We sang carols, told stories, participated in activities, ate Tim’s great food and really celebrated the coming of Christmas in community.
I had a short conversation with one young man who was there with his wife and children. He was originally from a family of seven children in Newfoundland and explained to me that when he was growing up they had no TV or computers. For entertainment on a Saturday evening they joined together in story and song in much the same way we were that night. He was so excited and grateful to have been a part of our evening at the Cabin and to have experienced that wonderful sense of community once again. It is stories like this that make me truly grateful for the gifts I have been blessed with and am able to share with others.
I’m already off to a great start for 2008. I am in the beginning stages of setting up an Alberta tour for the summer so I can share my music and meet some more of the folks in my native province. In the meantime I invite you to check out what is up and coming under “shows.” If you can make it out to anything I look forward to seeing you.
Cheers!
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