The View From Here

I am behind again in my story telling. You will see why in a moment.

Feb 12

I was driving home for work, a minor snow storm was afoot. I was travelling cautiously through back roads, missing traffic and looking forward to a piano recording session the next day when KABOOM! Yes you guessed it, someone ran a stop sign in the snow and hit me. I saw it coming and slowed substantially, even in the snow, but the deed was done. No recording session, lots of hassles.


Feb 14


The first date my wife and I have had in ages, literally months. Very excited. We went to a restaurant down in Port Credit called "Ten" and had a fantastic date. Some pretty good live music, great food and atmosphere.

Feb 16

My wife breaks her knee cap ice skating with the family. Brutal, still working through that one.

Feb 17

My wife's mother falls down our basement stairs while she was here to care for the kids while we went to the Doctor to get Stef's knee looked at. She is "ok", with a few breaks, and a lot of pain and recovery time ahead.

I was supposed to be heading to Guatemala with work on a medical mission. Change of plans as I try to play Mr. Mom, full-time working dad etc. Thanks goodness I am wired at home. So far it has been tough, but I am getting somethings done and taking care of the family.

Quite a time.

Comments

By the bye, I have turned comments on again. I turned them off some time ago because I was getting some wierd ones and some unfriendly ones. Alas, I am trying to toughen up and create some community around some of the topics addressed here. I am still going to moderate them so no inappropriate stuff shows up, but for those of you who have noticed that function missing, it has been revived. Chat away!

Christian Music Community in Canada (Part 2)

Another thought that I often wonder about, is why there are not more bands made up of the music pastors of churches that play somewhere with regularity. My experience in trying to get this sort of thing started was negative. I don't know if it was a competitive thing, or whether the average music pastor is less interested in playing and more interested in the pastoral side. I don't think that is a bad thing, but I do think the music community suffers when we don't put the best players together with regularity and let sharper iron make other sharp iron sharper still. See what I did there?

Just thinking.

Christian Music Community in Canada (the start of a tale)

It is an interesting landscape in Canada, or should I say lack of landscape. I have to admit as a musician in Canada I am always surprised at the lack of opportunities to play. Having been a music Pastor etc. I understand many of the challenges of hosting concerts etc, but I am happy that I was able to host several artists successfully when I was there.

So what is the landscape?
Well there are a handful of artists, who have good Canadian profile, and I think in some way or another deserves it. This list in no exhaustive, but the usual subjects can be seen.

"Bigger Names"
Steve Bell
Jacob Moon
Carolyn Arends
Amanda Falk
Greg Sczebel
Thousand Food Krutch

There are a few other bigger names, Brian Doerksen is in the HUGE category and doesn't really fit in this list. TFK might be considered huge as well.

How about record companies? Really I only know of maybe two and I am not sure that any of them are full service (recording, publishing, marketing etc.)

Avante Records
and Steve Bell's Signpost Community (link above)

I have always thought that the arts are one of the best ways to share ideas and influence culture. I am more thinking of music, but I do agree that all the art forms carry weight in that discussion. It would be great to see more communities develop like the signpost one where artists of similar genre and goals could connect to a larger group of people who identify with their work, support them, and also use it as a tool to plant seeds of thought.

The View From Here

I think I may try and start a new repeating post type called, well, The View From Here. Thoughts on where things are and possibly going, and the mundane miscellaneous.

The New Album
I have decided to start uses the retro phrase album for several reasons. One being, I will be releasing this album of songs in several formats of which CD is one. So really it is a new album of songs. Anyway, February is a crucial month. The goal is to finish bass and track as much piano as possible. The goal for release is late spring still.

Gigs
I have three things on the appearances page currently, all of which I am very excited about. I am now trying to amp up the pressure on myself by booking release concerts for fall. If you are interested in booking a release concert do contact me through the website, phone number and email contact info is there.

New Opportunities
I am working on some expansion plans as well in terms of reach and scope of involvement in the music industry. Stay tuned over this year for periodic developments.

Super Bowl
I wanted to see undefeated history; I didn't want to see NY win. Not a big fan of any one team in the NFL, but liked that story. Ahh well, not a happy ending.