Sittin' Here

We've been doing this song for about 3 years now, and it's the song we got some airplay on CJSR in advance of the Hearth of the City Festival.  In an earlier posting, I included a live version that we did at the HOTC Festival in 2010.  That recording was a bit noisy as it was done on my Zoom H2 that we set up in front of the stage, so there's a lot of outside noise.  

We did another recording of this song a while back when Yvon was drumming for us and doing backing vocals on a few of our tunes.  So on this version I've included here, you'll hear Yvon on drums and backing voices - Brian on a short-scale Fender bass,   Don in playing the mandolin, and I'm playing my Tachimine and doing lead vocals. This is the version that got the air play on CJSR.  

Hey Expressionz Cafe Patrons

Welcome to my blog.  On the 18th of June, the Magpies will be playing our music at Expressionz between noon and 2 pm.  We'll be featuring our own original songs.  We do some cover songs, but not many. 

When we started playing about 4 or 5 years ago (time flies to quickly to remember exactly), we played cover songs with a few original songs.    Since then, we've penned somewhere around 60 original tunes, so our performances are now original songs with a few covers.  

I must admit, out of that 60 or so originals, there a a few tunes that aren't performance ready, and there's the odd one, that aren't Magpie songs.  For example,  we don't do "Two Roses".  Our friend Irene has been doing that song, and has become a bit of a hit where ever she does it.  (That's so cool!).  The first time Irene did the song in public was at Expressionz Cafe at the "Magpies Extravaganza". 

As for the 'Clever' description of our music.  We are quite proud of that description.  To us it meant that our music is a bit hard to put into the standard music categories.  at one time, we described our music as "roots'.   At that time, the instruments we played included acoustic guitars, mandolin, and bass.  If you were one of the fortunate people who caught our performance at the Heart of the City Festival, you would have seen 7 instruments, and a couple were still left at home.  The mix of instruments and the growth in our song writing has certainly taken us in a new and more interesting direction that can best be described as "clever". 

See you all at Expressionz Cafe 9938 70 Ave NW.  Check out Expressions at the link to the right of this page. 

On the Radio, Playing at the Carrot, and old friends

Today was a great day.  I got a call yesterday from Michael, the music director for the Heart of the City Festival.  He asked us to head down to CJSR radio to talk about music and the HOTC Festival.   So today Brian and I drove down to the University where the CJSR studios are and met up with Michael and David.  David is the same radio host that interviewed us at the Audition.   The session started off with a great honor.  David played one of our songs "Sittin' Here" over the air.  We got a song on the radio.  Very cool!   You can hear our discussion on CJSR below.

The other day an old Friend from Bethune sent me a note on Facebook that he was in town and would like to come hear us play.  Since Brian and I were heading out to the Carrot Cafe, I told him to come see us there.   I haven't seen Tom for probably 25 years, maybe more.   It was nice to catch up on the Reid family.  

Since Don is on some Island off the west coast and probably cursing at the rain, Brian and I decided to do a duet.  Did 3 songs - Sittin' Here,  Green Valley Monsters, and Blueberry Pie.  Brian's been working on the vocals for Blueberry Pie, so it was a first on stage with him doing vocals on it.  It wasn't a busy night at the Carrot, but still a fun night.  Since there was more evening than performers, we got to do a second set.  We played a song we haven't played for a while - My Dream Automobile.   Then we did Johnson  Browne.   

Wanda told when we were leaving that all the ladies at the Carrot were all tapping their feet to our songs.  The other performers were great, but they weren't playing toe tapping songs.  Tonight was our night to entertain.  

All in all,  a great day.