Little Flower Fest

The Little Flowerfest is called "The best micro-music festival ever".  It's 'not a paying gig', but it sure is a fun gig.  I am always amazed at the talent that comes out to play for fun.  The 6th annual Little Flowerfest was held this past weekend.  This is the 3rd time we have played there.  Didn't make it last year because two many of us were on vacation and out of town.  The whole thing is organized by Breezy Brian Greg and Patsy Amico. 

The festival starts on Friday night and goes through to Sunday.  You can camp out over the weekend or come and go as you please.   Saturday starts off with "the Hike to the End of the World Concert".  This year we got led through the forest by a bagpipe and at the end, we were truly entertained by the Sawhorse Symphony.  

After the hike back, the main stage show began.  After the first great four performances, we finally got to do our thing.  Again, we showed up with a few more instruments, but this time we decided to travel light and only bring 1 keyboard, the bouzouki, Brian's bass, my banjo, and 2 six string guitars.   Don and Brian weren't playing guitars at the same time, so they shared Don's.  

Our set list:

• Black Room
• Earnest and Lucy
• Road to Nowhere
• Green Valley Monsters
• Clouds of Alberta

We left out Blueberry Pie, but had it in hand.  We figured we'd be doing good to get in 5 songs considering the set up and sound check within 30 minute time slot,  We did good.  

We had a good set.  First song had a rough spot in the middle, but I don't think anyone noticed but us (nerves maybe).  Next 4 songs went great.  I think we did the best live version of Road to Nowhere that we have ever done.  I thought Green Valley Monsters went almost flawlessly too. 

Now on to Clouds of Alberta.  Cloud really rocks out, but we folk up the rock with the banjo.  Song was going well, but as soon as Don hit into it, he broke a string (again).   His guitar went out of tune when the string snapped, my banjo had one string that was off just a bit, and Brian says one of his bass strings went out.  We think the hot sun was at play.   We kept going anyway.  After such a good set, it was kind of an unfortunate set of circumstances, but interestingly enough, no one seem to notice.  I'm sure the musicians in the crowd noticed. 

After all was said and done, we had several people come and tell us they enjoyed our set. One fellow said our lyrics were 'brilliant'.  I told him that we call our music 'clever'.  He liked that. 

After the set a couple more players got up, then it was time for the pot luck supper - a Little Flowerfest tradition.  Again, this was a treat.  lots of variety and volume.  No one goes hungry here. 

Brian left early.  Wanda, her mom, sister and the kids left early too.  Don and Linda stuck around for a while, I stayed on until about 10 pm.  I would have liked to stick around for the fireside jam,  I could have camped out, but I didn't take my camp stuff because we are having a mosquito state of disaster.  Wasn't as bad out there and it is in the City.  Go figure.

Road to Nowhere - Part 2

In a very early post, I included a version of the song "Road to Nowhere" that was recorded with me playing electric guitar along to an electronic drum rhythm.   This is a new version that I play with Don and Brian.  Don is on keyboards (synth) and Brian is playing the bouzouki.  Me, I just play 6-string guitar.   I think you'll like this version. 

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

How A Song Can Change For the Better

Today we were working on plans and a few songs for an upcoming evening we call "Magpies Extravaganza", which is really an excuse to play music with all of our player friends. 

I was in a bit of a quiet mood and started fooling around with the song "Road to Nowhere" (see previous post).   Don started playing along on the keyboard and Brian picked up the bouzouki.   The song took on a whole new sound.   Instead of a 'rock' sound, it was more melodic and soulful.    As Don said, it better suits the song.  Same music, but a totally different feel.    

I've had a few experiences where a song has taken on a new life.   1st one was a song called 'Long Way Home" which I wrote a few years back.   When my music pals started playing it, they filled in with sounds I didn't expect and they made it sound great.   2nd time was on a song called "Green Valley Monsters" which I co-wrote with Brian and Don.   They took a simple lick and helped turn it into a great collaborative effort.   We'll debut both at the 'extravaganza".  

Road to Nowhere

Since my previous post, I've managed to pen another song called "Road to Nowhere". This was inspired from a recent trip to Iqaluit, which is on Baffin Island. Other than a few roads around the towns, there are no roads on Baffin Island. The only road that goes out of Iqaluit ends after 5 km. It is called the Road to Nowhere, and is probably the most famous road in Nunavut.

The writing of this song was also a bit of a social experiment. I posted the tag line 'traveling on the lonely road to nowhere' on facebook and asked my friends to come up with lines, ideas, thoughts that I could incorporate into the song. And they did. after I gathered all those ideas, it only took about 15 minutes to flesh out the song, although I'm still tweaking it. Not only have a successful social experiment, I also learned there must be a lot of lost a lonely people out there. The song took on a whole new direction that I was thinking. It became more about the individual being lost in life and going on a road to nowhere. The actual road didn't even come into play.

I figured I needed to give tribute to the place of inspiration, so I did include a line about the 'northern tundra town'.

Now onto the next song. I've got one tune in progress. Music is worked out (mostly) and ideas for the lyrics are there, but I really haven't put them on paper yet. I find that once I write them out, the song starts to fall together more quickly. But, I need to get in the right frame of mind to make it work. While, that song is coming, I got another idea today in the car, so two things going on.

To achieve my goal of 20 songs by Dec. 31, I need to write (almost) 2 songs a month. so this is 1st week of march and four tunes are under wraps, so I'm still on track.