Set your TV recorder: Les Cowboys Fringants

Les Cowboys Fringants en concert avec l'Orchestre symphonique de Montréal

In 2020, les Cowboys Fringant recorded a performance with l'Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. I was lucky enough to record it on my old PVR, and watched it many times.

The concert is one of the most moving, goose-bump raising performances I've ever seen even though my ability to understand spoken or sung French is very limited.

It will air on CIVM (Channel 69 on Rogers-Ottawa) this week at the following times: 

• Tuesday, November 28 - 8pm
• Friday, December 1 - 9pm
• Saturday, December 2 - 9pm

You should set your recorder. 

The concert will likely also play on the Télé-Québec app.

In Memory of Karl Tremblay

The tragic reason that this concert is being re-aired this week is that Karl Tremblay, the band's lead singer, died from cancer on November 15.

CTV reported:

Tremblay's death has triggered what Quebec Premier Francois Legault described Thursday as an "immense wave of love and sadness" across the province.

The CBC reported that Legault also said that Tremblay is entitled to a national funeral.

Although many Anglo-Canadians weren't familiar with Karl Tremblay and Les Cowboys Fringant, their music is well known and well loved in Québec and all of French Canada.

A teaser for the concert:

The hit that anchored their concert movie L'Amérique pleure:

Watch Lynn Miles from your couch!

One of the great things about living in Ottawa is how often you can go see a Lynn Miles show. 

With the pandemic, these options are more limited, but now Lynn is doing shows from her living room that you can see in your home anywhere in the world.

She did a wonderful show this past Saturday. It had the same intimate feeling as her shows used to have at Rasputin's.

She'll be doing three more, on Saturday nights at 8:00 pm, EST.

$10 tickets are availabe through Sidedoor.

If you are so deprived that you're unfamiliar with Lynn's music, this video will help. 

You can find more videos of Lynn performing on the internet, but they won't give you any appreciation for what she says between songs. 

On the technical side: The shows are broadcast on Zoom. So they'll show up on any internet connected computer. We like to watch on the big TV screen, but to do that, we had to connect a computer to the TV with an HDMI cable. Using our Chromecast was not an option.

Update: Great article about Lynn from CTV

Pappy's verse for I's the B'y

After doing a bunch of Googling this afternoon, I discovered that I know a verse to the famous Newfoundland folksong I's the B'y that apparently nobody has put on the internet.

Just about every Canadian who attended English elementary school knows at least a few verses of the song about the b'y who catches the fish and brings'em home to Lizer, doesn't want your maggoty fish, and has to take poor Lizer to a dance when every step was up to her knees in gravel.

Today, I created a sheet music version in Noteworthy Composer so I can do duets with my horn and someone else. I decided to add the lyrics. 

I had a piano score to copy that has the verses I learned in elementary school and one that they didn't teach us back in grade three:

Susan White, she's out of sight.

Her petticoat wants a border.

Old Sam Oliver in the dark,

He kissed her in the corner.

This verse is also in the Great Big Sea recording along with the elementary school verses.

And I found another verse I didn't know in a version by Shanneyganock:

Oh, me mudder, may I go out?
Yes, me darling daughter;
Tuck your petticoat under your skirt,
And don't go near the water.

But when I searched for the version Pappy taught me many years ago, not a single hit.

Stephen Scrimshaw, Albert Elms, David Scrimshaw in '64?

My grandfather, Albert James Elms, was born in Stones Cove, Newfoundland in 1903. He left school in grade two to become a fisher. Fished in dories off the Grand Banks for 23 years before getting work on the CS Cyrus Field, an Atlantic cable laying ship. He told people he was a spud barber, but his official title was probably steward's assistant.

He was a strong singer. Sang tenor in his church choir his whole life. I loved listening to his voice soar on Will Your Anchor Hold.

This is the verse of I's the B'y he taught me:

Lizer she went up the stairs,

and I went up behind her.

Then I opened up her legs

to see her coffee grinder.

If you want to check that I'm right that nobody else has put these words on the net, I suggest you use the last line of the verse and not the third line.

The sheet music I found says: "Most Newfoundlanders love to dance, and this lively ditty is one of their favourite dance tunes. It has many stanzas, some of which are hardly suitable for publication."

If you know other stanzas verses, I'd love to learn them.

Rose Roberts the Piper visits Lebreton Street

The residents of our block of Lebreton Street had a bagpipe concert last night from the talented Rose Roberts (contactable through Facebook). The concert was terrific and it was great to see all the neighbours outside smiling. The toddlers seemed to be especially delighted.

Hand washing songs

Last Wednesday, I was out for work, found myself washing my hands and remembered that we're supposed to sing Happy Birthday twice to make it a good 20 second wash.

But Happy Birthday is boring, and, let's be honest, annoying. Also, one of my self-improvement goals is to learn a new song every month and practise the songs I know. So, I decided I should find some new 20-second song parts to work on when I wash my hands.

Then I realized that I should share this with the world through a blog post.

A few minutes later, I got back to my computer and opened Laura Olin's email newsletter. Item 4 had a link to a Twitter thread on 20-second alternatives to Happy Birthday.

Which goes to show that it's hard to be the first person to do something.

Then yesterday, Boing Boing gave a link to an elegant poster generator created by a young developer named William Gibson (apparently not the cyberpunk author) whose generator helped me create this poster that illustrates my current hand washing practice:

Bohemian Rhapsody

"You have to arrange Bohemian Rhapsody," I told Dave Moyer. It took him several years, but he did it. And we played it yesterday.



It may have been the high point of my musical life.

Bec and Rusty at Irene's

Those of us who happened to be on the right email list got a real treat a week and a half ago when we saw Bec and Rusty at Irene's. Although Rusty (Russell Levia) lives in Ottawa, Bec (Rebecca Campbell) doesn't. I don't know when I last saw them perform together, maybe 1993? (Unless you count last year's Black Donnelly Sisters show where Russell joined in on a couple of songs.)

Pat Moore (hidden), Michael Ball , Russell Levia, Rebecca Campbell and Sally Robinson on the nice big stage at Irene's with sight-lines that are not blocked by support pillars

At this Irene's show there was a bit of tension before they sang the Three Bells, the song about the man whose life is measured by the chapel bells ringing in the village hidden deep in the valley among the pine trees half forlorn. Rebecca suggested that it was first performed by the Browns.

"No, Edith Piaf, I think," said Russell.

"I don't think so," said Rebecca.

I wasn't the only one who gasped. Sure, it sounds crazy that an American country classic like the Three Bells could have been debuted by Edith Piaf, but if Russell says a song he does was introduced by Piaf, you don't bet on the Browns.

According to Wikipedia, Piaf introduced Les Trois Cloches to America in 1945, and the Browns revitalized their career with the English version in 1959.

Youtube has a great video of Piaf singing Les Trois Cloches with les Compagnons de la Chanson.

If you have an Ottawa Public Libary card and you want your own legal MP3 copy:

1. Log in at the Public Libary website 
2. Explore digital music 
3. Open Freegal and 
4. Download your Edith Piaf's Les Trois Cloches 
5. For your second song of 3 free songs this week, you might want to get the Browns' the Three Bells.

If you want a Russell Levia CD (and trust me, you do), you'll find some information at cleverocity.

You can also buy CDs from Russell at any of his gigs, but ask him for one before the show even starts. It makes Russell sad if he doesn't sell all the CDs he brings to a show, so he will bring like 5 or 10. People have been known to drive him home to get more, but that might not happen the night you go.

The Big Star at Blue Skies 2011

The 20-somethings were super-excited about one of the performers at Blue Skies this year. I'd heard of him, but somehow I never got exposed to his work before.

Fred Penner told us he's doing really well on the college and university campus scene these days.

Mind you, he does have fans who are closer to my age.

On Sunday, Fred gave a workshop titled Respect and Connect with your Audience. His first tip was to demonstrate two ways of taking a drink of water. The wrong way is to have the water bottle on the floor. Stop talking. Bend down. Stand up. Open the bottle. Take a drink. Close the bottle. Bend down. Put the bottle back on the floor. Then resume the show.

The Fred Penner way is to have the bottle at waist height on a stand or stool. While talking to the audience and looking at them, take the bottle and open it. Say "cheers" while raising the bottle. Take your drink while the audience is saying "cheers" back to you. Continue talking to the audience while you put the bottle back.

Besides maintaining a connection with the audience for the whole procedure, this method also avoids displaying any thinning that might be taking place on the top of your head.

(Photos from Blue Skies taken by me and Manon are up on Flickr)

The Unofficial Blue Skies Music Festival Lineup 2011

[Update: Here is the 2012 version]

The Blue Skies Music Festival in Clarendon Ontario has no website and does not announce its lineup in advance.
However, a little work on Google has turned up a number of artists who say they will be there this year.

• Ball and Chain (reliable sources tell me they are participating in a workshop)
• Callum Graham
• Danny Michel
• David Ross Macdonald
• Ferron (not confirmed on her website. Pollstar says she’ll be there. )
• Fred Penner
• Kim Churchill
• Lehera - songs
• Magoo (no indication that he’ll be at Blue Skies on his website, but come on.)
• Matt Anderson
• Saritah - youtube

If you want to go to the festival and you don’t have tickets, my experience is that you may be able to get day passes at the gate and if you’re really lucky, someone may show up with a camping pass just when you do. For more unofficial information on Blue Skies, see my other postings:

• Guide to the Blue Skies Music Festival: Getting There
• Guide to the Blue Skies Music Festival: Jamming
• Guide to the Blue Skies Music Festival: Dancing
• Guide to the Blue Skies Music Festival: Things to Acquire and Bring
• The Unofficial 2009 Blue Skies Music Festival Page

And here's the Environment Canada Forecast for Sharbot Lake

as of Weds, July 27:

Fri

• 29°C
• 18°C

Sat

• 28°C
• 17°C

Sun

• 29°C
• 17°C

Mon

• 30°C
• 18°C

Post festival updates:
I've learned not to trust the Environment Canada forecast even for 1 day in advance when it comes to Blue Skies. It rained for most of Friday until the late afternoon!
Some other artists who were at Blue Skies this year:

• Jonathan Byrd (the fantastic cowboy singer from North Cackalacky)
• Fred Penner (the 20-somethings went berzerk over him)
• Marky Weinstock (performed in children's area on Sunday at 10am)

Other social media on Blue Skies 2011

• Boffin + Wonk - Performers at Blue Skies 2011 - video collection
• Youtube - The Parade
• Flickr Group

What you missed at the Proms

This weekend the Maple Leaf Brass Band performed in two Last Night at the Proms concerts: Saturday in Perth, Sunday in Ottawa.

Unfortunately for the folks in Perth, the Sunday performance was a bigger and more action-packed evening. For example, it featured the British High Commissioner singing a delightful rendition of Burlington Bertie from Bow.

As charming as his excellency is, the ladies still seem to have more appreciation for Garth Hampson's powerful tenor voice. While the audiences in both Perth and Ottawa had the opportunity to hear Garth sing, it was only one lady who had the chance to sing the first verse to Ode to Newfoundland with him after Sunday's performance. [I believe she would have been up for singing all 4 verses, but it had been a long evening for Garth.]

[The Ottawa audience also got to hear the Harmonia Choir who made my eyes all watery with their beautiful renditions of the Ash Grove and All Through the Night.]

The Santa Parade

As you know, I think everyone should play in a brass band and this is because playing harmonic music once a week does something for your mind that is exceptionally good for your mental health and the breath control that comes with playing a wind instrument is exceptionally good for your physical health.

And if learning how to play a brass instrument is beyond you, I recommend you join a choir. You'll get the harmonic music and the breath control. You just won't be as cool.

For example, there were more than 50 floats in this year's Barrhaven Santa Claus parade and I doubt that any of them had choirs in them.

But every year, one of those floats holds the Maple Leaf Brass Band. It is a weird thing to be slowly rolling along Strandherd Drive passing throngs of friendly people while playing Wassail Song, Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas over and over again. A weird thing, but also a strangely fun thing.

Because I am in a brass band, when I go to work tomorrow and someone asks me "what did you do on the weekend?" I will say, "well, I was in a parade."

[Click the picture or here to go to a slideshow of parade photos]

Taking risks without flamethrowers

Last week, I took a little break from reading stories about space pirates to skim through a nonfiction book: Absinthe & flamethrowers: projects and ruminations on the art of living dangerously by William Gurstelle.

Gurstelle believes that most people would lead better lives if they took more risks. The book opens with chapters on why taking risks is a good thing and then moves to chapters on how to perform specific risky activities, like drinking absinthe, driving fast, using a bull whip and making flamethrowers. It was on the activity chapters that I started skimming. I bought into his idea that taking risks will enrich my life, but I suspect I can get that enrichment with activities that don't endanger to my health and the health of others.

For each of the risky activities there are detailed instructions about how to do the activity in the most safe way possible, for example, wear safety goggles if you're flicking a bull whip. Just the same, I'd be more comfortable if people I might come in contact with didn't find it necessary to drive fast or try out their homemade flamethrowers.

Since I don't like to point out a problem without proposing a solution, here are suggestions for anyone who would like to try something scary or risky that should actually make the world a better place.

1. Sing out loud in public
   • Women who are free on Tuesday nights: Did you know that Jody Benjamin is starting a new choir that is open to any woman who wants to join? No auditions, sight-reading ability not required, and those who think they cannot sing are especially encouraged to join.
   • Men and women who are free on Wednesday nights: I'm hearing good things about Folka Voca, the Ottawa Folklore Centre Choir)
   • Men: Except maybe for the Ottawa Gay Men's Chorus, every mixed choir in Ottawa is desperate for more male singers.
   • Everybody: There are a lot of choirs in this town.
2. Ride your bike on the street and not the sidewalk (Riding on the street is actually less risky, but it feels more risky. Read up on how to ride safely and then do it. It will make you feel tough.)
3. Try out a new art form
4. Talk to a stranger
5. Ask a dictator to stop torturing someone. (A starting point)
6. Learn something new Even if it's not that risky, it'll do you good.
7. Write a comment on a blog you've been lurking on (for example, you could comment here with other suggestions for things that people can do that feel risky but will actually make the world a better place.)

Of course, these things don't always work out the first time. Or the second time. I wrote a lot of letters to Botha in South Africa before Apartheid ended.

Here's a video that might inspire you to try a risky thing more than once:

If my ideas don't work for you, and you need to try something that is just plain dangerous, you might want to check out anvil launching. Just please don't do it around my house.

Astronaut Love Triangle: Avatar Love at Raw Sugar

I've started putting the video of Astronaut Love Triangle's performance at Raw Sugar up on Vimeo.

Astronaut Love Triangle: Avatar Love from David Scrimshaw on Vimeo.

Astronaut Love Triangle performing at a public venue on Friday

Those notorious space punk artists, Astronaut Love Triangle, will be performing at the opening party for Milan Ilnyckyj's photo opening at Raw Sugar, 7:00pm on Friday, September 4th (692 Somerset).

In addition to their paradigm-shifting and assumption-shattering performance, there will also be live music from Andrea Simms-Karp.

Want to win a Milan pic? Enter his photography for comments contest.

Facebook listing

The 2009 Unofficial Blue Skies Music Festival Page

The Blue Skies Music Festival has no web page.

I assume this is for some combination of the following reasons:

1. The Hats don't want more people to know about the festival because there are already too many people begging to buy tickets every year.
2. The internet runs on electricity that could be generated by nuclear reactors fueled by uranium that might be mined near Clarendon.
3. A majority of the Hats would like to have a website, but simply cannot agree on whether it should be a blog or wiki, never mind whether to go with Wordpress or Blogspot.

With this void, I have decided to step in and provide some handy reference material.

2009 Main Stage Performers

Friday

7:30 pm Goat Note

8:30 pm O'Darling

9:30 pm James Hill [MySpace Last.fm]

10:30 pm Delhi To Dublin [MySpace]

Saturday

3:00 pm The Abrams Brothers [MySpace]

7:00 pm Splash N'Boots [Last.fm]

8:00 pm evalyn parry [MySpace CBC3 Last.fm]

9:00 pm Notre Dame de Grass [MySpace]

10:00 pm De Temps Antan [MySpace Last.fm]

11:00 pm Jack De Keyzer

Sunday

7:45 pm Bill Staines [MySpace Last.fm]

8:45 pm Matt Andersen

9:45 pm Rant Maggie Rant [MySpace]

10:45 pm James Cohen

11:45 pm C.R. Avery [Myspace]

Tweeners

• Len Wallace
• Alise Marlane [MySpace]
• Joe Grass [MySpace]
• Gareth Pearson [MySpace]
• The Human Statues [MySpace]
• David Celia [MySpace]

Links:

• The Unofficial Blue Skies Music Festival Lineup 2011
• My 2009 Blue Skies Photos
• Guide to the Blue Skies Music Festival: Getting There
• Guide to the Blue Skies Music Festival: Jamming
• Guide to the Blue Skies Music Festival: Dancing
• Guide to the Blue Skies Music Festival: Things to Acquire and Bring

After word: Sally's Show

Sally Robinson's cd launch was an amazing show. More proof that if I tell you to go to something, you should go.

In addition to all the families in the audience, there were some nice family moments on stage. In the first half, Ann Downey and her son, Jonathan Werk, gave a beautiful bass viol and oboe accompaniment to House, a song about the old family house. In the second half, when Sally had to do a costume change, her sister came up and played Tammy on the piano while Sally changed behind it. Besides being a lovely moment, it demonstrated that knowing how to play just one song on the piano can come in handy.

Sally is excellent at passing on performing tips from the stage, for example:

I have to breathe in through my nostrils or I'll start bawling.

I've got a bunch of photos of the show up on Flickr.

[Also a ton of photos from the Propeller Dance show.]

Sally Robinson's S-Files Launch - Weds. June 17

Let me put it this way:

Do not miss Sally's CD launch

Sally has composed an album full of wonderful new songs (the S Files) and you get to hear them.

I've known Sally a long time and she's always been known to come up with fun songs, but something happened a couple of years ago. Like she started channelling Cole Porter and began pumping out remarkable combinations of music and lyrics.

I'm sure this won't be the only opportunity to hear her sing these songs, but it will be the only time they are "launched". All of the backup musicians will be there. They're an outstanding bunch. And the venue, the Fourth Stage, is the perfect intimate setting for this music.

Details:

National Arts Centre Fourth Stage Wed. June 17, 7:30pm the National Arts Centre Fourth Stage (map)

$15 adults, $10 students

Musicians include: Vince Halfhide, Kenny Kanwisher, Derek Loewen, Michael Ball, Ann Downey & Jody Benjamin.

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Kermit and Ladysmith Black Mambazo

If you need proof that the South Africans do amazing things with choral arrangements, check out Ladysmith Black Mambazo singing the alphabet with Kermit the Frog.

Soweto Gospel Choir and Dominion Chalmers

The Soweto Gospel Choir performed in Ottawa the Friday before Christmas and Manon and I managed to go. I have a series of disjointed comments.

• You can click one of the photos to get to my Flickr set that has larger versions and many more shots.
• Before they started, a voice said "photographs are not allowed". I like going along with reasonable requests, but unless a no-photograph policy is clearly identified when I buy a ticket to an event, I'm under no obligation to go along with the policy.
• There are two nations that produce choirs and choral music that is guaranteed to move me: Wales and South Africa.
• The Soweto Gospel Choir has terrific art direction. The costumes and dancing give the eyes as much pleasure as the music gives the ears.
• If I had to choose on a given night to see either the Cirque de Soleil or the Soweto Gospel Choir with no price difference, I'd go to the Soweto Gospel Choir show. It's just as awe-inspiring, plus you get all these skin-tingling moments.
• Dominion Chalmers is a good venue for a concert, if you don't have special tickets for one of the front rows, the balcony seats are the place to head. Arrive really early, because other people know this.
• Also, if a Dominion-Chalmers show is sold out, you can always score tickets by arriving early. This is because old people (like me and older) like going to concerts at D-C. Being old, they prudently buy tickets in advance, but being old, they get sick on concert days, or they don't go out in inclement weather. Because their friends are also old and prudent, they bring the unused tickets to the show and try to get the purchase price back. Because it is a general admission venue, you can buy single tickets from different people and sit together.
• If you ever find yourself in a position to choose the songs that a South African choir will sing in concert here in Ottawa, your audience will probably be entirely happy if you only go with South African pieces. Or at least with arrangements that have a heavy South African choral style. While you might want to show how well your choir can do North American and European musical styles, we hear that stuff all the time. Not as well as you do it, but it's the South African pieces that moisten our eyes and tingle our skin.

Try the Marriage of Figaro

Two weeks ago, we were out to see Ball and Chain at the Elmdale. They were promoting tonight's birthday party for Hank Williams at Irene's. "Are you coming?" They asked me because I was sitting right up front.

"Going to the opera," I said.

"Not the opry?"

Nope. It was the opera. Mozart's Il Nozze de Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro).

Odds are you are not an opera fan. Please keep reading anyway. I'm not going to go on about Mozart and how brilliant he is and I'm not going to go on about how incredible this opera is. You can read articles about that by people who know more and write better than me.

But I can tell you that I've seen about ten operas here in Ottawa and this production was the most moving one I've seen and that includes a different staging of The Marriage of Figaro.

If you'll try anything once and that extends to going to an opera, this is the one to try.

That is because if you don't like this staging of The Marriage of Figaro, you are never going to like opera, but you'll have given opera an honest shot.

Be forewarned, this is not the opera with the famous Figaro, Figaro, Figaro song. That song is in the Barber of Seville.

But it is an opera with genuine laughs and stunning performances of emotional depth. And for 1786, highly controversial, for both sexual and political content.

Le Nozze di Figaro«If, my dear count, you feel like dancing it’s I who’ll call the tune.» - Figaro A day of intrigue, mayhem and desire grips the household of Count Almaviva. Figaro, the Count’s valet, is to marry the Countess’ maid Susanna – but the unfaithful Count seeks to seduce her first and Figaro must act quickly to thwart his master’s plans. A parade of impetuous and scheming characters contributes to a comical day of seduction, trickery and a clash of the social classes!

Sung in Italian, with English and French Surtitles

September 13, 15, 17 & 20, 2008 [8:00 PM]

Southam Hall, National Arts Centre