Magpies Extravaganza

Playing a Jimmy Rogers tune

with Louanne, Tom, Don, & Brian

Performing "Road to Nowhere"

We had been thinking of doing something where we could invite a few people we sometimes play music with, so they could all showcase what they do.   So, we rented Expressionz Cafe for the evening.  Expressionz is this great place in Edmonton where musicians and artist can showcase their talents.  We've been going there since last year, so it seemed to be the perfect place.  

I can't begin to tell you how much fun I had.  I think everyone there who came to play got the opportunity.   We ran it much like an open stage, but we encouraged everyone to ask others to come up and play.  It made for a very interesting evening that included standard country tunes with great guitar & fiddle playing, some folk and country folk tunes with everything from bouzouki, mandolin, fiddle, keyboard, bass, and accordion, and sometimes all at the same time.  It was great to hear some of our standard songs played with a whole new sound.   

We had some blues tunes played and a few more rockin' tunes too.  

I figured that I would only get up and play on a few songs, but ended up playing most of the night.   I invited a lot of good friends, some who I haven't seen for a while, and my biggest disappointment is that I didn't get to visit with them much.  

My biggest thrills for the evening is getting to play 3 new song for the first time in public.  Our friend Irene did a great job on vocals for "Two Roses". (we are going to do it again tonight in Stoney Plain).  We also played "Valley Green Monsters" for the first time.  This is a song that Brian, Don and I wrote.    We also did "Road To Nowhere" but differently that the version in my video (see a past post).  With Brian on Bouzouki and Don on Keyboard, this song has taken on a whole new and much more interesting life. 

We asked everyone to take lots of photos and videos.  We had a couple of family members take photos and videos of the entire evening, and we recorded it off the soundboard.  Once we gather up all the photos, videos, and 'soundtrack' we'll try to put it all together into a kind of documentary on the evening.  

In the end, we had to put out a bit of our own $ to cover the expenses, but it was a really cheap way to have fun with Friends and family.   Now, to plan the next Extravaganza

Songs From Dreams

I haven't said much lately about my progress to write 20 songs by the end of the year.  I'm still on target.   I do have a couple of tunes in the works.   If I can get focussed, I'll be ahead of schedule

One has started to take shape.  I woke up in wee hours of the morning with this idea and the first verse.  Weird!  Song about a guy waiting at the train station for the 'noon train'.  but its 12:35.   Still trying to decide if I should make it a happy ending or a sad ending.  Maybe I'll write two endings - could give me some options.  That would be interesting! 

The other song came about in the middle of the night.  So far it is only an idea with a few guitar bits and even fewer lyrics.  Idea is about turning on the TV at 3 am and what I see as I flip thru the channels.  

I get lots of song ideas that come to me in middle of the night - probably out of some dream sequence.  Usually, by morning I don't remember much about these ideas.  I did have one song that came out of a surreal dream about floating around on some object.  I woke up with the music and some lyrics that really didn't make any sense.  By morning, those irrational thoughts evolved into a song called "My Dream Automobile".  One of those songs that I didn't think much of at first, but my friends like enough that it is one of the songs we play often.