BuzzCity.ca: Tim McCashin, Richard Groulx, and the Lemberg Jam Space
BuzzCity's Brian Ganong talks to singer/songwriter Tim McCashin about his music and his inaugural concert at Richard Groulx's new concert space in Lemberg, Saskatchewan - 'The Jam Space'. PLUS - a performance of a new song by Tim.
BuzzCity's Brian Ganong and the Buzz video crew went bowling with TheLonesome Weekends at the Glencairn Bolodrome recently. WARNING! this video contains graphic reference/discussion of 'Road Gotch', 'Country Karoake', 'Ripping off Hank Williams', and other material that may be offensive to viewers. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!
More info on the 'Songs From a Barstool' CD release on the EVENTS page
The Lazy MKs - 'You Don't Have To Go Home With Him'
Mike Dawson from the 'Library Voices' directed the latest video from Regina, SK's The Lazy MKs for "You Don't Have to Go Home with Him." The track comes from the band's 2011 album Where We Bin, and the video follows a love triangle from library stacks, through a trap door and into a jam space where the Lazy MKs are rocking out....
BuzzCity interviewed Mike Dawson and the Lazy MKs February 2011 at a Regina skating rink prior to the Video Release - February 22 @ Artesian on 13th:
Buzz Does: MK's on Ice!
BuzzCity's Brian Ganong laces up the skates and hits the ice with The Lazy MK's and director Mike Dawson(Library Voices) to chat about the video for 'You Don't Have To Go Home With Him'.
Buzz Does!: interview with Ryley Noble
Steve McDonnell of BuzzCity.ca chats with Regina roots/blues/Alt musician Ryley Noble about the 'black cat moan/dyed in the wool/nefarious goings on @ the cross roads' vibe of his music ... and more ...
The BuzzCity video crew was all over this years Mid-Winter Blues Festival! Buzz was on site with a video crew and information table at at the Casino Regina Show Lounge plus video coverage of both Blues Showcases - Bushwakkers and Smokin' Okies BBQ. Check out the videos below:
AND! Congratulations to Helen Bitter for entering and winning the draw for the DVD - 'Charlies Comin Down' - "Follow Filmmaker Donald List and his creative team as they document the events leading up to the “Last Bash” at Good Time Charlies Pub in the Plains Hotel."
We asked all entrants to state their favorite blues artist - Helen's was 'Downchild Blues Band'!
Buzz On the Blues!: Saturday Blues Festival @ BushWakkers
Host Jeff (Red Beard) Corbett celebrates Regina's Mid-Winter Blues Festival with an afternoon of the blues recorded at the Bushwakker featuring - Jeff Crowe, Ray Eberle, Mildenberger/Leggott, Evan Chambers & the Third Alarm and Scarth St. Blues Band.
Buzz On the Blues! @ Casino Regina Show Lounge
The BuzzCity.ca video crew was on site at the Casino Regina Show Lounge with Buzz host Brian Bowman and festival blues host Jeff (Redbeard) Corbett to capture the Buzz at the 1st night of the Regina Mid Winter Blues Festival February 23, 2012... and more to come from the blues showcases at Bushwakkers and Smokin' Okies BBQ ....
Buzz On the Blues! Ryley Noble LIVE @ Smokin' Okies BBQ
Ryley Noble @ The Regina Mid Winter Blues Festival @ Smokin' Okies BBQ Blues Showcase - performing 'The Ballad of Makinak'.
Buzz On the Blues! Justin Lacroix LIVE @ Smokin' Okies BBQ
Justin Lacroix - performing "Prairie Blues', at the Mid-Winter Blues Festival at Smokin' Okies, Regina, Saskatchewan; February 25, 2012.
Buzz Does: PILE OF BONES BRASS BAND In Depth
Welcome to a new feature here at Buzzcity.ca called IN DEPTH with interviewer/host Brian Ganong. These videos will feature more of what you love: hanging out and talking with the artists that make the arts and culture scene in our city so vibrant! First up is the Pile Of Bones Brass Band, who Buzz originally profiled in 2010 at the Regina Folk Festival. We talk brass, school band, all you can eat buffets, little known facts about
the band, and much more. Check it out, we hope you enjoy.
The band are playing a Mardi Gras themed show @ The German Club, February 19th - check out the EVENTS page for more details.
Talking with The Fortunate Isles: What's in a name?
In the short time The Fortunate Isles has been around, a little over 2 years, the band has already accomplished much, playing in venues around Regina and Saskatoon such as O'Hanlons, McNally's, The Fainting Goat, The Exchange, the University of Regina, the University of Saskatchewan, The King's Head Tavern, the Cathedral Village Arts Festival and the Taste of Saskatchewan. Last summer they were the winners of the RSO Symphony Under the Sky Band Contest in which the public voted online and chose The Fortunate Isles to open for the Regina Symphony Orchestra on August 21st, 2011 in Wascana Park. They are also setting (sailing) forth on their first cross country tour, kicking off with a show in Vancouver, BC, March 8th, 2012 at The Biltmore Cabaret.
Bacon and eggs, toast and coffee; the rattle of dishes, forks and spoons. Orders taken, orders given; a place to eat, a place to meet. Welcome, on a jumper-cable January morning, to the noisy warmth of the Mercury Café - an old-school, eggs-over-easy diner with an uptown presentation. Kind of like the neighbourhood. Kind of like Belle Plaine.
Belle Plaine is having breakfast and Buzzcity is with her in the booth. We’re here to discuss her soon to be released CD “Notes from a Waitress” which is also the name of the title track. Good name because that’s what it is. Belle Plaine has waitressed, here and abroad. She knows the biz and she knows the customers, any one of whom could feature in a Studs Turkel bio or a Tom Waits tune.
Check the video interview.
The CD Launch event is this Friday evening at the Artesian on 13th and Angus St. Featuring Belle Plaine’s original music and some old standards backed by Elizabeth Curry, Jeremy Sauer, Kris Craig, Anna Rose, Jody Mario, and Cheney Lambert from Regina's Pile of Bones Brass Band on trumpet. It’s bound to be a party. There’ll be some country, folk and old time, new time jazz.
BELLE PLAINE
"This Is A Big Deal" Party and CD Launch
with guest: Julia And Her Piano
Friday January 27
At the Artesian
doors and lounge open 7:30pm
showtime 8pm
In the vault with Glenn Sutter’s ‘Sweet Happiness’ By Brian Bowman 12/1/2012
Buzzcity recently had a coffee with Regina songwriter, singer, and versatile musician, Glenn Sutter, who has just released his third CD called “Sweet Happiness.” We met in the vault at Atlantis on Hamilton St. and Victoria Ave. The vault is literally a vault within the coffee shop, which used to be a bank. You can reserve it for stimulating beverages and small meetings which, because they’re held in a bank vault, are definitely going to be private.
Sutter’s appeal has been steadily growing for the past few years starting from the release of his first CD “All You Need” in 2008 which earned him critical acclaim, a fair amount of air time, and the Saskatchewan track on David Suzuki's Playlist for the Planet. He is also known for his 2010 release “Seeds” - a collaboration with Brett Dolter (B.D. Willoughby, Library Voices) to raise money for the North Central Community Gardens. Since then, he’s been performing more locally, he’s touring a bit, and he’s growing a fan base.
Sutter’s genre on this one is folk-rock (sort-of), and the CD was recorded, mixed and mastered by the best. Moreover, he is backed, on most tracks, by people of extraordinary talent who dwell among us and may even live in your neighbourhood. As for Sutter himself, he has been on the music scene for over 20 years in Ottawa and Winnipeg and has been settled here for some time. He backs other local artists and they back him. That’s the way it works and the liner notes (excerpted below) tell the story.
All of the songs written and arranged by Glenn Sutter, except: Insane - co-written with David j Taylor; Shifting Sand - co-written with Kim Fontaine, Laura Stewart, Trevor Ross, Jacqueline Germin, and Brian Baker; and Emma - co-written with Lyn McGinnis.
Produced/engineered/mixed by David j Taylor
All tracks recorded and mixed at Twisted Pair Productions, Regina, SK, except for 10,12, and 14, which were recorded and mixed at Hazelwood Farm, Milestone, SK
Mastered by Dave Horrocks Infinite Wave, Calgary, AB
Cover design by Michael Benoit with photos by Cal Fehr. Additional photos and artwork by Joyce and Ken Belcher, and Will and Owen Sutter.
An observer of nature, both human and otherwise, Sutter brings a keen awareness as an ecologist (he’s Doctor Glenn at the RSM) and as an artist to this album. As for his message? Sutter smiles. “I don’t like message songs,” he says.
Check out the interview video (above): he’s got lots to say there, plus a live performance of one of his original songs - 'Seems Like Yesterday'. And check out Atlantis. I had an Americano and it was excellent. So’s the street view, except from the vault.
Pachi Ruiz and the Cuban Jazz Breakdown By Brian Bowman
There’s American Jazz, which is familiar to everyone, and European Jazz, like Klezmer and Le Jazz Hot, which is sort of the same, but poignant, even when it’s happy, owing to it’s Gypsy, Jewish influence. And then there’s Cuban Jazz, which everyone likes but nobody really knows, unless you’re Cuban. It’s complex music, a fusion of Caribbean, African, Latin and American musical influences, which took root on the island in the wake of slavery and exploitation and grew to joyous maturity in an atmosphere of enforced isolation. Cuban Jazz is played in every club, café and corner of the country - brilliant, energetic, irrepressible music, much like the Cuban people.
And now, thanks to the tireless efforts of Reginians like Don List and Gary Robins, and Joanne Vollbrecht of Blue Sky Cultural Connection, the Cubans are in town, and so is their music. Buzzcity.ca recently caught up to Cuban singer/guitarist, Pachi Ruiz, who is visiting and performing here for the second time in the past few years. Pachi doesn’t speak a lot of English, so, another musician, Ramses Calderon, lately of El Salvador, conducted the interview in Spanish. The interview was recorded by Don List of Birdsong Communications and overdubbed, in English, by Buzzcity staff.
Pachi’s technique is typical of Cuban guitarists – a finger style informed by classical technique, augmented by jazz chords and phrasing, and delivered with the percussiveness of flamenco guitar (sort of like Jack Semple). But to play it takes more than prowess on the strings. If you’re playing solo, you need to use your feet to include the drums and your voice to simulate the other instruments that the music requires. In this interview, Pachi breaks it down for us, describes the various forms of Cuban dance and outlines the evolution of Cuban Jazz.
Listen to him demonstrate and explain it. Then, armed with your new awareness, hear it live when he performs with vocalist Lia Llorente as “Hecho en Cuba - Duo Cofradia” in performance this Saturday, November 5th at Gallery Muziek in Lumsden, and Thursday, November 10th at the Exchange here in Regina.
For more information contact: Alyce Hamon, Tour Manager at 306-591-3098
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