Part of the reason I haven’t been writing as much is because I have been playing more guitar. I recently bought a fancy new effects pedal from Line 6, and I have been learning to master it and incorporate it into my live performances. The options are virtually endless, and the going is slow. Here’s one of my favourite new things to do with it:
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Haven’t done one of these in a while. I have a gig with the band tonight and a solo gig tomorrow at the King’s Head Pub, the place where I got my start in Vancouver. Should be interesting. I also bought a new effects pedal that I am slowly learning to use (so many options, so little knowledge).
I will try to get some electric stuff recorded soon, but until then, here’s a new acoustic cover I’ve been working on:
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A year and a half ago, I got an e-mail out of the blue from my father, telling me that he had started learning the saxophone. Dad’s in a gradual state of growing retirement, meaning that he still works but on a purely opt-in basis. He does a number of things to fill his time, including a promising side-career as a photographer. Back in his youth, Dad played guitar in church choirs around the Caribbean – to hear him tell it, he was moderately famous. Since then he’s been singing in choirs and stuff, but the decision to acquire an entirely new musical instrument at the age of 60 was, I will confess, surprising.
Last Sunday, Dad did this:
I am crazy impressed with Dad here. I’ve heard him play a handful of times, and I knew he was pretty good, but I had no idea he was bringing game this hard. If you good folks would be so kind as to click through to the video, ‘like’ it, and leave complimentary comments, I know it would make his day.
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Around this time of year, television stations are flooded with “Year in Review” features. My personal favourite year-in-review things are created by a rapper called Skillz who does a yearly feature called “The Rap-Up” (although this year’s version is pretty… meh). My personal practice is to reflect on the past year around my birthday rather than at the turn of the calendar, but since this is a time where many people try to make sense of the last 12 months, it’s my hope that you will be able to find some joy and satisfaction in some of the things that happened this year, and use them to propel you into more joy in 2013.
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Some of you may know that I played in a band called Even Handed Odds for a while. The band has since broken up (meaning that we no longer play our own music), but we still play covers on occasion down at the Copper Tank, a bar in Kitsilano, on Friday nights.
Here’s a video of us doing a cover of “Home For a Rest” by Spirit of the West:
Right before we broke up, we recorded two songs at a local studio. I finally got around to uploading the audio of the finished product to Soundcloud, in case people were interested.
My personal favourite is this one, simply called “Space”:
There’s also the one that would have likely been our radio single, called “Gravity”:
If you’re in the city of Vancouver on a Friday night, you should come check us out!
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As part apology, part self-aggrandizing vanity, here is a bonus movie on this Friday, to reassure you that my Friday movie posts are back for good.
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We are playing two shows this weekend, so I’m going to be all messed up by Monday. If it shows in the writing then I do apologize.
Until then, here’s a video of me singing one of my favourite cover tunes:
Enjoy! Or don’t. Or… I dunno, something else.
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