I just spent the week-end at the Canadian Music Week summit in Toronto. The highlight of the summit for me was seeing Martin Atkins speak. The panel discussions at these things are still generally geared towards those who are going for a more mainstream approach to the music industry, but Martin Atkins is very much the DIY poster boy. I’ve got his book “Tour:Smart And Break the Band” which I can’t recommend highly enough, and he gave out downloads for his new book “Welcome to the Music Business You’re Fucked” which I’m currently devouring.
I also attended the...
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I saw Uli Jon Roth in February. He had to reschedule his performance from a Friday to a Monday thanks to the Canadian winter, but to make up for his lateness he played two 90 minute sets.
I was a little dissapointed to have caught him touring in the year of Scorpions 40th anniversary. This meant he played very few pieces from his various solo projects, and, well, pretty much 3 hours of Scorpions tunes, but there was a plethora of extended solos, so it was still well worth it. I look forward to the Electric Sun anniversary tour.
Meanwhile,...
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No Morbid Angel. They didn’t make it across the border. I sent an
e-mail to the Canadian Border Services Agency expressing my
displeasure. We tried to watch some videos on youtube when we got
home, but it was too depressing. It’s going to be hard to listen to
Morbid Angel for a while without feeling the dissapointment anew.
Sigh.
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September has been a great month for virtuoso musicianship. I saw Steve Vai a couple weeks ago. Very inspiring. He’s not only technically fantabulous, but incredibly creative as well. I couldn’t wait to get home and write music after seeing him. If Mr. Vai comes to your town, I highly recommend going to see him. Putting on an entertaining show is clearly important to him. On this tour he had an electric harp player in his band, and all band members got to showcase themselves throughout the evening. There were costume changes too. I particularly enjoyed the one with the...
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In other musical news, the Kyla Tilley album is well underway, but has taken a bit of a back seat since arriving on The Rock. Happily, the lovely Sahara Jane (aka Sara Nasr) passed through Montreal a couple months back. We played a show together, and then she dropped by my studio, napped on the couch, and laid down backing vocals for three songs. We also took a stroll among some caserollers, but I wouldn’t give her a pot to hit, cause we only had the one evening to get work done. The following week-end, Ed Hudson came by with...
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