On the cancer front, not much news but it’s all good. My latest CT scan shows continued improvement. Last Thursday I received my 42nd chemo treatment. It was actually one of the better ones…no nausea, decent energy (though I do feel the need to nap most days, sometimes fairly long naps). It seems crazy to say but all of this is becoming more and more routine, I’m getting totally used to it. Yes, I’d prefer to spend less time in a cancer ward with IV tubes hanging out of me, but it’s not that much of an ordeal. The nurses are efficient and personable, and I’ve struck up relationships with two or three fellow patients and enjoy our conversations. Occasionally I think of how much worse this could all be and I count myself lucky. My attitude is good, I’ve made new friends and enjoy my old ones, I have my music. Life goes on, bruised a little but still vital and rewarding.

I have a birthday, my 62nd, coming up on February 4th. It will be just under two years since I received the colonoscopy report that sparked this journey. A lot of miles have since been covered marked by a personal and logistic upheaval that Maggie and I would not wish on anyone. There were some very low moments when I was frighteningly aware of my mortality and held little hope, but right now that’s all part of a murky past that sometimes seems to belong to someone else. I thank Maggie, the generousity of friends, and the constant challenge and occasional rewards of my songwriting for keeping my flimsy ship afloat.

If my own life is lacking in significant events lately, I can always turn to friends and colleagues for more exciting news. Mike Biggar is going stronger than ever. Aptly named, Mike carries a girth that has been a cause of concern for many of us…especially considering the energy he expends maintaining a day job and a busy weekend music career. Last fall he joined a local weight loss club, Simply For Life. They advocate a total change of lifestyle and offer smart but tasty menus. It seems to be working: Mike has lost 90 pounds in a few months! He’s aiming for another 100 or more (like I said, he’s a big guy) and is visibly feeling better as his clothes start to hang ever looser on him. He’s very determined and we’re proud of him. Mike continues to work hard toward finishing his album, which I predict will give his career an enormous boost.

My favorite jazz thrush, Halie Loren of Eugene, Oregon, has completed another excellent album, Heart First, which is currently charting in Japan (where she continues to have a large and enthusiastic fan base) and will be released in North America in March. Halie and I have two co-writes on the album, the title track (a product of Skype writing) and another that we wrote in Nashville several years ago. She grows with each outing. I listen to Halie as a true fan, admiring her phrasing, wonderful tone and flawless pitch, as well as her inventiveness and the sense of true joy she brings to her artistry. Then suddenly a song we’ve written will appear and I’m jarred back to reality: Oh right, that’s Halie! One thing that I find especially exciting is that she will perform two of our songs on February 9th backed by her combo and the Corvallis-OSU Symphony Orchestra! That will mark a first for both her and me, and Maggie and I dearly wish we could be there.

Hopping genres, I’d  also love to be in Nashille 20 days later on the 29th when Kaitlyn Baker (a wonderfully gifted 17-year-old country singer who’s been amply mentioned in this blog before) performs her first industry showcase at 12 & Porter. Kaitlyn has been working with songwriter-producer Dean Miller (son of the legendary Roger) toward getting a major record deal. The Bakers returned a few days ago from a whirlwind Nashville visit that saw her singing live, accompanied by an acoustic guitarist, for executives at Capitol, Warner Brothers, Showdog, Big Machine and Average Joe. Everyone was full of praise (Average Joe actually offered a deal) and it was recommended she do a showcase so she can be seen fronting a band and more original songs can be heard. Kaitlyn is a natural, in both beauty and artistry, and I don’t doubt she’ll wow them. The set list isn’t firm yet but there’ll certainly be two or three of our co-writes on board.

Years ago when Maggie and I started Brainchild Music, I envisioned these songs that I write and co-write as living things, finding their own varied paths in the world much like, well, children. That vision stays with me and I’m certain that in some way I’m healed by it.

We’re not big celebrators of Christmas, truth be told. We have no kids and don’t give each other gifts. I can’t remember the last time we had any sort of Christmas tree and we’ve all but eliminated sending cards (in favor of online greetings). And yet, Christmas does resonate deep in my marrow in some strange way. I loved it as a kid…the music, the gifts, the food, the all-pervasive smell of a real Christmas tree in the house. It was magical. I still cling to the fellowship and the good eating. And of course the music. It seems every year I write a Christmas song or two.

Larry & Melissa at the Somerset Pub

Thursday evening Melissa Hunt and I did a four-song set of Christmas originals at the Somerset Pub. Clinton Charlton, Paul Grady and Brent Mason, gentlemen all, were doing a writers night that billed them as The Three Wise Men. They kindly allowed Melissa and me to do our set during their break. We were Santa Clark and his favorite elf, Melissa of the North. We did a couple of lovely songs we’ve written together, I did my “I’m Sending You My Heart” (which will be familiar to many of you), and we opened with a rollicking rendition of “It Wouldn’t Be The Holidays,” written with Marc Rossi several years back. It went over very well. People seemed genuinely impressed to hear new Christmas songs that sounded like, well, “real” Christmas songs.

Christmas Eve will be spent with the Hunts and a group of their friends. Christmas day will be spent with my cousin Dave and his wife Carolyn, and a handful of relatives. I anticipate all will be pleasantly low key and joyful. I feel much gratitude. I’m facing my second Saint John Christmas feeling well and in good spirits, creatively engaged and positive. We’ve made some true friends here and still enjoy the warmth of old friends everywhere with whom we’re in frequent touch. Our lives may unfold under a cloud of uncertainty, but isn’t that true for all of us?

And in that spirit of friendship and deep affection, Maggie and I hope you enjoy the song on this webpage and would like to extend our sincere wish that a prosperous, productive and happy 2012 lies in wait for all of us!

Larry & Maggie

And me? Not doing much. This is a small apartment and my style is definitely cramped by the presence of strangers hard and quite noisily at work 25 feet away. Normally I might be playing my guitar, listening to soundclips or videos on the computer, tweaking songs…whatever. I feel sort of invaded but it’ll be over soon.

Outside the window it’s a gray day that can’t seem to summon the energy to actually rain. Can’t knock the temperature…balmy with not a sign of winter. We need no heat on in the apartment. Healthwise all is well. I had treatment #39 last Thursday. As these infusions accumulate I am starting to react more, especially the day and night of the treatment…little appetite, some nausea, and of course the famous insomnia that I’ve been dealing with all along. But I get over all that fast enough and all that lingers is the need for extra sleep over the next several days. Nothing incapacitating though.

Writers Night at the Somerset Pub December 3

I was perfectly able to play a writers night Saturday — in a round with Debbie Adshade and Clinton Charlton — at the Somerset Pub, and it went well. Melissa Hunt came up to the stage and sang our brand-new “Santa I’m Depending On You” to enthusiastic response. Wouldn’t we all like to write the next huge Yuletide hit…a “White Christmas” or “Little Drummer Boy”! Speaking of which, this Friday evening Mike Biggar will be hosting his Christmas show, which will be the second one we’ve attended. He’s still selling his The Season CD from last year, which has proven very beneficial to his career.

I’ve had a couple of productive Skype episodes of late. Wrote a good song with Ivan Daigle on Sunday and another with Marshall Dane Tuesday. This was my first experience with Marshall, who’s in Ontario. He’s been on my radar for a while (some good YouTube videos) and I caught a performance at the CCMA in Hamilton. He struck me as being a talent to watch out for…good looking, fine soulful voice, solid rhythm guitarist, good songwriter, and he fronts a band like he was born doing it. Hardworking too: he tells me he works up to 300 dates a year.

Marshall emailed me today that he tried out our new song, written yesterday, on last night’s audience. And he plans to try it again tonight in a different key! This is a lad with a hefty measure of hustle, I’d say. I’m glad to be part of the team.

There are no doubt a few other tidbits to share but nothing that pops to mind. It’s finally quiet. The plumber is gone and my guitar beckons. The new sink looks very nice. And Maggie made a sale.

And life, while we’re on the subject, is pretty good, thanks. I guess that may in some way account for my laziness in tending to this blog: all is quite normal, nothing earthshaking to report. Meanwhile I’ve had two chemo treatments since I last posted, with another due this Thursday…which will be #38. Getting up there. The only side effect I notice is that I’m definitely sleeping more, but my energy at its peak seems pretty much what it’s always been.

This past Saturday I played a writers night at the Bourbon Quarter, a restaurant and showroom that is one of my favorite Saint John venues. The round consisted of Mike Biggar, Jessica Raye, Dennis Ellsworth, Marcy Noel…and yours truly. Marcy is a young newcomer to the scene, and of course I scarcely consider myself a performer at all, but the others are all respected Maritime singer-songwriters. It was a good show, well attended and appreciated. Mike recently won an award for Best Spiritual Recording at the Music New Brunswick conference. This was for his Christmas CD from last year, The Season, which includes two of our co-writes, so I feel a grateful part of it all. Meanwhile Mike is making plans for 2011 Christmas shows. No snow here yet. The leaves have all turned but many are still clinging to the trees. It feels like deep fall. But Christmas decorations are beginning to rear their sparkly heads and our favorite TV shows are starting to be interrupted with the annoying clamor of toy commercials. But I’m not as Scrooge-like as that statement may suggest. I’ve even been writing Christmas songs of late…a romantic one called “What Christmas Is All About,” Skype-written with Ron Irving and Luke Isaac, and a sultry fun little jazzy thing with Melissa Hunt called “Santa I’m Depending On You.” Ho ho ho.

Songwriters Circle

Last night Maggie and I went to visit my aunt Trudy in the seniors’ home where she lives. We had tea, talked and went out for dinner. She’s 92, suffering from osteoporosis and is another cancer battler who seems to be clear for the moment. She’s as sharp as a tack and has amazing recall from her earlier life. Before we left she wanted to show me zomething. It was a school class picture from 1929, Grade One I’m guessing. She asked if I could pick out my mother. I couldn’t. Trudy pointed her out. It was eerie to realize that this unsmiling child (did no one smile in old photographs ever?) was indeed my mother, now 88. Trudy was quite delighted and so was I. Again…those resonant little joys.

Oh…I tried the cake. Yummy.

We enjoyed a few days of Indian Summer this week, which added a nice touch to Thanksgiving. Still sunny and bright today but fall is definitely on the way. Temperatures during the day are in the low Celsius double digit range and nights are chilly. But enough of weather, a subject with which Canadians are weirdly obsessed…

First of all, the latest CT scan. I got the results last week. Nothing dramatic but there are small changes. The tumors continue to reduce in size and my treatments (35 is the latest count) continue to have little effect on me. I’m staying busy and these days, so is Maggie. She is now a veteran of many bus tours and is making the best of this month’s opportunities. After October she’ll have no more tours until June. From all reports she’s doing very well, making good tips and winning praise and learning to sort through the unexpected wrinkles…like tours where some of the people don’t speak English.

I’ve been taking in lots of music. A couple of weeks back I traveled with the Hunts to Moncton where we heard Terri Clark perform at the Casino. She did a fine job and I admired the Casino’s auditorium; first time I’ve been there. I got to spend a bit of time with one of my favorite Nashville couples, RyLee Madison and Clay Krasner. Clay plays bass in Terri’s band.

Last night Maggie and I went to the Imperial Theatre to hear Travis Tritt. The Imperial is the local posh soft seater, holds about 850, and Travis had the place packed with an acoustic show…just him and his guitar. I didn’t realize just how good a musician he is, which is helpful when you’re listening to two hours of one voice, one instrument. He was excellent and turns out to be a superb raconteur, relating great stories about his early days in Nashville, meeting his heroes Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, and being the longhaired outlaw member of the so-called “class of ’89.” Nova Scotia troubadour Ryan Cook opened for Travis with a fine set of quirky, one-of-a-kind songs. I’ve become a big Ryan Cook fan since moving here. What he’s doing is almost totally off the commercial radio-hungry map but, like a young Roger Miller or John Prine, he makes it cool, even a bit sexy. I think he’s going places.

Speaking of Nashville, and speaking of Miller, I had a song recorded there at the beginning of the week with Dean Miller (Roger’s son and a singer-songwriter in his own right) at the helm. The artist was Kaitlyn Baker, a 16-year-old from Virginia with whom we’ve been acquainted for several years. Kaitlyn, who sang “I Wanna Live Like That” at my benefit last year, is pretty as a picture, smart and focused, and jaw-droppingly talented. And she’s a fan of our songs, bless her heart. I’ve been doing some Skype writing with her and the song she cut, “The Trouble Is You,” stems from one of those sessions. This recording was a three-song demo. Dean wants to shop her to the labels and, while I usually don’t allow myself to get excited about these speculative things, I have to admit I’m feeling a little buzz here. It seems unthinkable that Kaitlyn won’t get an offer. She’s that good and that driven.

Skype continues to keep me busy. My lovely friend Halie Loren just completed yet another jazzy, home-recorded project. She included a song that we Skype-wrote, “Heart First,” and included another co-write from her Nashville days, “Tender To The Touch.” I’ve heard early mixes of both and love them. Halie’s going for a slighly different vibe here, less dreamy and Latin-y, with a bit more Bonnie Raitt and R&B in the sonic stew. Great stuff. How lucky am I, getting to work with all these brilliant young people? I couldn’t ask for more…well, seeing one of these songs become an international smash hit earning millions would be nice. But, everything in its time. I remain an optimist.

Anyway, I’ll leave it there for the moment. Happy belated Canadian Thanksgiving to our Canuck friends, and thanks to all of you for checking in.

Larry

It’s been a while I know, and there’s actually been a lot going on. On September 7th I flew from Saint John to Toronto, where I was met by my cousin Bonnie. We drove to Barrie (about an hour north of Toronto) and I spent a couple of days with her, getting caught up on news and enjoying some lovely Ontario weather.

On Friday the 9th I met up with my young friend Taylor Abram (also a Barrie resident) and we drove to Hamilton where the Canadian Country Music Association’s annual conference was held this year. In spite of the complaints we constantly hear about the decline in music sales resulting in everyone being penniless, the conference showed no signs of deprivation or under attendance. Taylor and I had a nice hotel room but it was 20 minutes away in Burlington. It seems the hotels in Hamilton sold out fast.

I haven’t been to a CCMA conference since the event was held here in Saint John in 2006. I know the drill but I’m a little rusty in dealing with it . . . and believe it or not I ain’t getting any younger. It’s a mosaic of showcases, seminars, luncheons and dinners, open mikes, songwriting rounds, label parties, and so forth . . . the chances to schmooze your butt off are countless but you wind up with a raw throat from trying to talk above the music and you can, by small increments, walk for miles over the course of a day. In short it’s exhausting, but also exhilerating.

I met up with dozens of friends and colleagues from the past, all of whom seemed happy to see me up and around and complimented me on how healthy I look . . . which admittedly I never tire of hearing. Not just Canadians either. There was a Nashville contingent milling about and I got reacquainted with David Ross (Music Row magazine), Jeff Walker (Aristo Media) and Denny Carr from Open Road. Equally important, I met several young singers and songwriters and preached the gospel of Skype co-writing to one and all. Let’s hope that bears some fruit. I’ve already co-written one song online this week with the ever-talented Adam Gregory (an Edmontonian living in Nashville) and I think we’ve got ourselves a good one.

The CCMAs culminate in the Monday evening Awards Show, followed by the post-Awards party which is always a hot event. By the time that was done Taylor and I (it was his first CCMA) were ready to bid goodbye to Hamilton and the festivities. Tuesday morning we heading back up Highway 400 another hour beyond Barrie to tiny Brechin, Ontario. My good friend Jim Hopson lives there in a beautiful waterside home in which he’s installed his state-of-the-art Lake Effect recording studio. Taylor works for Jim as an engineer and overall aide-de-camp, besides being a talented singer-songwriter in his own right.

I stayed there till Friday co-writing with Taylor and several other gifted Ontarians . . . Colin Amey, James Barker and my lovely new friend Amelia Marcus. A good productive few days. Then on the 16th Taylor drove me into Toronto where I caught a flight back to Saint John.

Meanwhile Maggie had been busy doing her thing . . . which as you all must know by now is guiding tours around Saint John, standing at the front of a bus armed with a microphone and a dazzling United Empire Loyalist costume. She has now been out on four separate occasions doing two tours per outing so she’s gone from being a quaking neophyte to an old hand. By all reports she’s doing wonderfully; comments are encouraging and the tips are generous. Unfortunately this work will stop at the end of October not to resume till June, but we’ll squirrel away what acorns we can gratefully.

For your visual gratification, I’m attaching a photo of Maggie in full regalia. Now wouldn’t you want this charming creature to guide YOUR Saint John tour?

And on the health front . . . chemo #34 is under my belt and I’m doing fine. I’ve had another CT scan and should be able to comment on the results next time.

Everything is going along quite normally here. Chemo treatment #33 happened on Thursday past, and I’m doing fine. I just finished another novel by my new friend (whom I’ve yet to meet in person) Cathie Pelletier. But this novel, Candles on Bay Street, is written under her pseudonym, KC McKinnon. What’s it about? Well, uh, in large part it’s about a woman dying of cancer. Very touching actually. Though it might seem I’d be a tad sensitive, I actually don’t mind seeing or reading this kind of material. It’s all part of the stories that swirl around our lives, touching us all in some way at some time.

Next Saturday will mark Maggie’s official debut as a bus tour guide. She’s very nervous of course (who wouldn’t be…two hours of riding around Saint John trying to keep a gaggle of tourists focused on what you’re saying) but it’s high time: she’s studied hard and is becoming an expert on Saint John lore. I predict she’ll perform handsomely!

As for me, my next red letter day is September 7th when I depart for my Ontario trip. I’m looking forward to it a lot, a chance to visit with friends and family and partake of Canadian Country Music Week, always a slice of boozy, schmoozy madness.

What else? Nothing awfully new. Writing songs and watching the summer slip away. Last Sunday Maggie and I went on a lovely river cruise with several friends. Lovely…floating slowly down the river on a pontoon boat, sipping on wine and watching eagles and ospreys enjoy their habitat.

Mike Biggar and I went to the Shiretown Publicans bar last Friday. Mike did a half-hour opening set for Dave Gunning, a well known Maritime troubadour whom I was hearing for the first time. I became an immediate fan! There are some superb, truly world-class musicians and writers plying their splendid craft in these Atlantic Provinces, well beneath the radar, unfortunately, of the Beiberites and American Idol fans. Wonderful stories, lilting Celtic melodies, fiery musicianship. Check out Dave Gunning…and JP Cormier, Ryan Cook and the late Stan Rogers. This is music with echoes in our deep collective past, serious, heady, soulful stuff.

I’ve been going around for the past week humming “Broom of the Cowdenknowes” and the eerie “Pills of White Mercury.” I may never write another country song again. Just kidding…

But we’re doing well. I do find that the cumulative effect of the chemo is starting to show, mostly in the area of tiredness. It’s taking me longer than it used to to attain a more or less normal energy level after treatment. Today is Sunday and I’ve slept a lot during the day, even after a full night’s sleep. No pain or discomfort or even spiritual exhaustion…I just feel like lying down a lot and I do. And my “naps” can be one or two hours long. But my doctor assures me there’s nothing abnormal here, and she would prefer that I keep on with the treatments without taking a break as long as good results are being achieved without extreme side effects. So on we go. Over these next couple of days my energy will start normalizing.

I will in fact be getting one short break from chemo. In September I’m taking a trip to Ontario which will see me missing one treatment. I’ll be attending Canadian Country Music Week in Hamilton, Ontario, in early September. I’ll be part of a Round Table Discussion seminar where attendees float from table to table to receive various tidbits of “wisdom.”

I’ll also spend a couple of days with my cousin Bonnie in Barrie, and will then travel north to to spend several days at my buddy Jim Hopson’s beautiful Lake Effect Studio in Brechin, Ontario. I’ll do some co-writing with Jim and his assistant Taylor Abram, and whoever else shows up. Looking forward to that!

September will also mark Maggie’s foray into being a Saint John tour guide. She’s been studying hard, has gone along as a “shadow” on several tours to observe and learn, and she and I have taken several drives along the tour route while Maggie practices her commentary. For a small city there’s a lot to be said about it, and the challenge is how much to say before your customers enter a comatose state from information overload. She’ll figure it out. Meanwhile she’s becoming quite the expert on Saint John lore.

Not much more to say. I’m writing a lot, much of it by Skype. Had a great session with Halie Loren a couple of days back. I hadn’t seen her “in person” in quite some time and it was delightful to spend a few hours talking and writing. We came up with a pretty cool little song too.

We also received a lovely package last week from our Vancouver friend Trisha Gagnon. Trisha is Cathy-Anne McClintock’s sister (my “I Wanna Live Like That” collaborator) and I’ve known them both since the 80s. They were in a bluegrass band called Tumbleweed when we met. Now of course Cathy-Ann is a married mother of two living in Long Beach, CA, still writing and singing. And during all that time Trisha has been part of mandolinist John Reischman’s Jaybirds, playing upright bass as well as singing and writing excellent songs. They’re a very respected bluegrass unit and Trisha is much admired on the bluegrass circuit. Maggie and I were delighted to note that the band will be making a Saint John appearance at the Imperial Theatre in 2012. But in the meantime we received an envelope with a copy of Trisha’s brand new solo CD, and a jar of her delicious raspberry jam, which represents another little side business. And of course a lovely handwritten card.

Good friends…we’ve got a bunch out there and we’re deeply grateful.

This time I lucked out. AMC was showing a string of Breaking Bad episodes. I really like that show and I lost track of it after leaving Nashville, so it was great to watch four 2010 episodes that kind of got me back in the loop. Gotta love ol’ Walt, the world’s most soulful and self-examining meth cooker. Brilliant show, scripts, casting, sheer thematic audaciousness. It plunges with scary believabilty into dark areas beyond where any show has gone before. Even edgier than Dexter in my opinion. I just don’t believe that character, a serial killer who has conditioned himself to only target “bad guys” for his gory adventures. Yeah, right.

Speaking of writers, I’ve made a new friend, although one I’ve yet to meet in person or even lay Skype eyes on, Cathie Pelletier, with whom I became acquainted in a rather circuitous manner involving a mutual acquaintance. She lives in a small town across the Maine border, really not that far from here, after having spent 30 years in Nashville writing songs, poems and eventually novels. Cathie’s become rather celebrated in the literary world, writing under her own name and also as K.C. McKinnon. She’s been the recipient of several awards, hefty advances, and even got to write a screenplay from her first novel…which unfortunately, 15 years later, has never entered production. She tells me the movie business makes the music business look like a party! Only the tough-skinned need apply.

But for all her literary success, Cathie is especially fascinated with songs and songwriters. She sent an e-mail asking me to critique some of her songs, with an eye to perhaps co-writing down the road. Having since heard one song and scrutinized another lyric, I’m anxious to work with her. Maggie got a couple of her novels from the library and I started reading one, The Funeral Makers, in the wee hours of Friday after the Breaking Bad marathon ended. When I told her we had a copy of that book she said, “Please burn it and I’ll pay the library.” After enjoying several chapters I will assuredly do no such thing. Her work is both funny and dark, anecdotal and filled with feisty dialogue…all qualities that lend themselves handily to her lyric writing. We talked on the phone the other day and the conversation went on for hours, much of it trading Nashville stories. It amazes me more by the day what a small world this is.

I should run along, but I do need to add a sad note, by way of an RIP to bass player Pete King who was a well-loved career musician, best known for playing bass with Rik Reese and Neon Highway. Rik and Pete were were like brothers, having shared music together for nearly 20 years. Pete was memorable for his black jeans and spurred boots, and his metronomic body language while playing. He rode a Harley which he adored. After completing a successful and exhilerating gig at the Cavendish Music Festival on P.E.I, Pete said a casual goodbye to his friends and bandmates, saying he wanted to make an early getaway. In the wee hours of the morning, July 11th, Pete’s motorcycle collided with a moose. He was killed instantly. I guess if you look at the whole picture…the heady aftermath of a successful gig, a gathering of friends, riding his beloved Harley, instant death…I guess there’s a sort of poetry in all of that, in dying in the very fullness of how he lived.

But that makes it no less sad. So long Pete. I didn’t get to know you well but you were clearly a gentle and loyal soul. One of the good guys.

Chemo treatment #29 happened this past Thursday. Feeling good as always. Staying busy, much of it on Skype. But I did get to write face-to-face last week with Jay Semko, former bassist/vocalist/songwriter with the Northern Pikes, a name my Canadian friends will recognize. They were an excellent group who made a pretty big splash in the late 80s to early 90s. Jay is working solo now and, though he’s based out of Saskatoon, Sask., he’s managed by our friend Jeff Liberty who lives here.

Anyway Jay was in town to do a couple of shows and, courtesy of Jeff, I got to meet and write with him. A humble, talented and very likable guy. We wrote a wistful little ditty called “Hole In My Heart” Tuesday afternoon. The next evening I went to hear Jay’s show at the Bourbon Quarter. Just him and his guitar, and he rocked the place. For the second set he called on Mike Biggar and Grant Heckman (one of The Honeyboys and a top-notch guitarist) to do a couple of their songs and then finish the set with him. Great stuff! Another stellar night of entertainment out here in the Maritimes.

I also Skype-wrote a song last week with Alee Adomski who’s a fine 18-year-old singer living in Edmonton, Alberta. She also has an N.B. manager (what’s going on with this?), Steve McCauley, who was a Toronto based record guy in a former life. I’m totally impressed with Alee…lovely, smart, sings like a bird and plays very decent guitar. The whole package. We wrote a song that she is touting as a “keeper” and have a second date on the calendar. I tell ya, this Skype thing is a life saver!

I’m continuing to have fun with my little home recording unit. I had Melissa Hunt over here to sing on another unplugged demo, this one a tribute to her late grandfather. “Grandpa’s Dream” recalls his own unfulfilled music dreams. Ivan Daigle, perhaps the best country voice in this province, was here one night also to add a vocal to “You Can Stop The Music,” one of several country songs that we’ve written and that I love. Ivan is currently in Dauphin, Manitoba where he competed, and finished second, in the Countryfest Talent Contest…the only one of the 20 finalists not from Manitoba.

I’ve added these two new demos to my blog music page so you can take a listen.

I’ll run along now, but let me send out a slightly belated Happy Canada Day to my Canuck friends, and a premature Happy Fourth Of July to those south of the border. You’re all in my thoughts!