Notes from …

Most of these stories have been a product of serendipitous encounters with various musicians or a bit of a by product of some freelancing, but since moving to Calgary I have also had the opportunity to actually buy an encounter with some fantastic musicians. Sounds sleazy, but relax; the money part was just basically a tuition fee for some amazing workshop experiences.

So far, this little series of stories has focused on my brief, but for me, memorable encounters with musicians. This piece is about my encounters with the grand “old lady” of Canadian music…

I remember my first glimpse of a kid that set us back on our heels as he lit up small town community halls across the fine province of Saskatchewan. It was time when we still had leaders who loved the culture in agriculture, notes and oats if you will …

Have you ever, by mistake, tuned into an AM commercial radio station and in doing so, set off a toxic flare in your brain upon hearing a Justin Bieber song? You then go tell a grandkid that you knew Canadian musicians who were ten times better, but they never, ever made it to radio. In fact, you recall, you have ridden in cars with them.

Listen to the story as you read along ... I first heard Billy Cowsill, like many of my generation, in the late sixties, on the push button radio of my 1953 Plymouth Cranbrook. The music was not coming through with the clarity of todays Bose...

It was early in the eighties … and we needed a break We were still a very young couple married at least a decade and a half with three kids and very little cash, We had never travelled out of the country or really had a big time vacation together. Serendipitously, Air...

My first encounter with live music and musicians was in our living room.  It came from the soundboard of the old Heinzman piano that my grandfather brought home home from town in the Dirty Thirties…teetering in the back of the farm truck.  The first musician I ever met was my mother, Betty Philips, who with only one piano lesson in her life, played that old upright like the lovechild of Jimmy Swaggert and the Church lady from Saturday Night Live.