I’ve been meaning to write about this for some time now (obviously), as we are now in the fall season!
This past June, I had the opportunity to work with some really interesting people.
Patricia Hammond (http://patriciahammond.com/) came to Toronto to do a few shows about town and needed an accompanist. Luckily, the dates managed to work out and I was able to accompany her. We played a bunch of war-era music at Hugh’s Room with the following instrumentation: Piano, Sousaphone, Banjo and Clarinet. (And voice, naturally…) Patricia has a beautiful voice and was a pleasure to work with. While she was in town, she was interviewed by Macleans magazine (http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/07/11/patricia-hammonds-sentimental-journey/). If you watch the accompanying video to the article, you will see several shots of me playing piano with her. You may even notice my stylishly-hatted head in the background of the main photo. Good times!
June was also a banner month for Jack Squat. Not only did we have three major gigs (Bobcaygeon’s “Unlock the Summer” event and two weddings), but we also managed to launch our website. Check it out at http://jacksquat.ca and/or “like” us on Facebook (http://facebook.com/jacksquattoronto). The band sounds better than ever and we are always evolving our song list!
I was also on Breakfast Television in June, playing for a talent competition known called Senior Star (www.seniorstar.ca). The competition happened the following week, but this was an opportunity to promote the event. In between segments, I got to chatting with Jennifer Valentine and I started goofing around on the piano. She started calling out TV shows and I would play them for her. We ended up videoing us doing this and she even put it up on her blog! Check it out at: http://blogs.bttoronto.ca/author/jennifer/page/2 (the second June 15th entry)
The other major gig that I had in June was the Gold Medal Plates fundraiser (http://goldmedalplates.com/site/?page_id=424). It’s an event that raises money for the Canadian Olympic team and they needed a backing band. While in that band, I got to accompany the likes of Jim Cuddy, Greg Keelor, and Colin Cripps (of Blue Rodeo – individually and later en masse), Oh Susanna, Molly Johnson, Anne Lindsay, and Ed Robertson. It was a super-fun gig with some really heavy Canadian music icons and it was a thrill to be up there! I don’t know that I’ll ever have the opportunity to back up Blue Rodeo and/or the Barenaked Ladies ever again, so this was definitely a unique experience! Just so you know: performing “Try” with Blue Rodeo and “Pinch Me” with Ed Robertson was pretty much the most amazing thing ever!
The rest of the summer as peppered with wedding gigs, keeping busy with Statlers and having lots of fun with Jack Squat.
Another highlight was playing two street parties with Jack Squat on successive weekends in August… But that’s probably another blog altogether!
In short: Summer 2012 was pretty awesome!