November 23, 2010
2010: Year in Review
I certainly could take a lesson in keeping this site up-to-date. But here I am.
As 2010 begins its end, I look back and see a great year of fun and new adventures. Working backwards, I just finished a few shows in a hired gun role playing keyboards and guitar with The Grapes of Wrath, who recently reunited after an 18 year hiatus. Their songs are great and remind me of high school parties in the basement.
I moved to my own place in Toronto where I finally can stretch out and call something “my home”. All I need now is a couch.
October saw me land in Ottawa for the annual Ontario Council of Folk Festivals Conference (OCFF) which amounts to one of the best times of the year. Reconnecting with hundreds of musicians, industry people, house concert hosts, radio personalities — you name it in the world of Canadian folk music and it’s there. The sunrise jam sessions are quite the hoot too.
In September I had the opportunity to travel to the Maritimes and Newfoundland, partially due to the energy and music of Christina Martin, who invited me to play her CD release party in Halifax as well as other shows in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. I’d wanted to hit the East Coast for a long time and it was worth the wait. Beautiful land, beautiful people, beautiful fish ‘n’ chips. Plus I met Anne Murray!!!
The summer saw a trip to the West Coast to play Vancouver’s SHOREfest where we played in front of thousands of semi-attentive beachgoers on English Bay before the evening sky lit up with fireworks. It was a pleasure to play just before Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy. You can watch a video of it here.
A tour of western Canada was a highlight of the spring with several house concerts making me realize that there is a way to make it possible to be a Canadian musician in Canada these days. Thank you to everyone who supported us!
We made a good ol’ music video for the tune “I Don’t Want to Hear Another Love Song” in February. Watch it here. I’ve been fortunate to have had radio play with this song on several stations including national broadcast on CBC. Thank you, radioland!
There were many more highlights to speak of but I will save those for another time. Be good to yourself.
Patrick
Comments
Hey, Patrick. Chris Kelly here, your venerable Principal from Canyon Heights days. I’ve run into your Mom twice in the last six months, most recently today in The Bay, which is enough serendipity for me to finally connect with your website and music … all of which I enjoy and admire, second only to your rendering of Rooster Coburn in Little Orphan Annie which will always have a special place in my heart.
Speaking of music and great Canadian talent, I’m wondering if you’ve by any chance crossed paths with Dan Mangan, or even know of him? — a singer / songwriter / artist of some rising repute, with whom my son Simon co-produced his second cd “Postcards and Daydreams” a few years back. Dan’s latest is “Nice, Nice, Very Nice”, which also aptly describes him as a person. My purpose in this is to suggest the two of you would, I’m sure, make an interesting connection, which I would be most pleased to facilitate should you / he be interested.
Regardless, it’s a great pleasure for me to log-on to what you’re doing, and accomplishing, in such a competitive and challenging field. Well done, Sir.
Cheers,
Chris
Hello Mr. Kelly! Or perhaps it is time I could call you Chris. Thanks for searching me out. Yes indeed I have connected with Dan Mangan and have even played a few shows with him along the line. Great guy and certainly nice, nice, very nice. Canada is a big place but the music community is relatively close-knit which makes it a pleasure to be part of. Thanks again for the note and I hope to see you sometime in the near future! I should be playing in Vancouver in the summer. ~Patrick