Bassic-ly me

While growing up, it seemed that at some point every December my house would be filled with the most amazing smell - my mom making her Acadian Meat Pie (Pâté). It was so good - heated up, cold, plain, with molasses, with ketchup, whatever... it was so so good.  She was so good at it that for a long time that's what she would give her sisters for Christmas each year - and it's all they wanted from her. I can remember many Christmases helping her with the preparation: cutting the meats, dicing the onions, etc, and then over the next few weeks sneaking into the fridge with a knife..sawing off another piece and drifting off to savory heaven.  Delicious. Fast forward to 2011 and my mom dies of cancer - the first Christmas afterwards was of course pretty difficult.  Seems selfish, seems petty but I sure did miss that meat pie...and um...yeah her too of course. :) Survived that first Christmas and then heading towards Christmas of 2012 I thought I would try to make her meat pie.  Went

This is a letter to the two fat chicks trying to run today at Odell Park in Fredericton, New Brunswick.... Whoa....before you think I'm a horrible person and call on the lynch mob...let me explain. I'm away from home at the Harvest Jazz and Blues festival this week and this week marks 4 months since I decided to take my health into my own hands. Thanks to help from Simply For Life I have an awesome new manageable lifestyle. I eat healthy. I eat smart. I eat sensible portions. And in general the food I eat is waaaaayyy better, way tastier, more enjoyable to eat and..bonus...I feel better and I've lost just about 30 pounds in 4 months. Thirty! I have probably another 30 or more to go but for the first time in my life that seems possible... attainable... Eventual. I'm a busy father of 5 awesome kids, I work full time at a desk job, I also teach music at a college and play bass professionally.  My life is busy. I always assumed I was too busy to take care of my h

Hi Deryl and friends.... ( yes I'm talking to myself..and maybe you? ) me...healthy I was going through some old files in Google drive and I found something... something I wrote when I was losing weight quite easily ( 30 pounds in 3 months ) at my former workplace during a Biggest Loser competetion... I was using a combination of the GI diet and exercise ( eat well and exercise... COMPLEX STUFF PEOPLE.....COM...PLEX... ) and well... knowing that I'd probably eventually slip up ( and I did ..gaining back at one point 25 of those 30 pounds, becoming a type II diabetic, etc, etc ) I wrote myself a  cheatsheet  of "how to do it again.." ....  there are books and books about this stuff... pages and pages devoted to it all... here's the coles notes of my past success..  Mind Literally the mind either makes you do it… or prevents you from doing it. This is the biggest struggle..the biggest hurdle. Idea You need an idea…. an idea of why you’re

Growing up I was often curious about Big Brothers, Big Sisters , but when I considered it I always assumed I wouldn’t have anything to offer. When I found out that a friend of mine, who was younger than I, was involved in BBBS I thought “If he can do it, why can’t I?” but still I put it off always saying “I’m too busy”. When I eventually came to my senses and contacted BBBS to go through the screening process I was struck by how much the people that worked there cared about what they were doing . I didn’t really understand then. I do now. I was matched to a little brother - 11 or 12 years old. They gave me a little bit about his background; he had taken some guitar lessons, which was good as I am a musician. Our first meeting - I panicked - I had no idea what we’d do . I wasn’t very good at entertaining kids. I think we sat in my living room and just talked. I showed him my electric bass and acoustic guitar. He strummed all strings wide open and made up songs. Cool. But still ov

Well... I've just received the Music PEI award for Musician of the Year. What an honour!  Sincere thanks for Music PEI for including this award for all current, past, and future nominees and winners.  For many music awards organizations, most of the well deserved focus goes to mainline artists and groups for their creative contribution to the music scene. Totally legit, totally great.  Music PEI is one of the few that has the musician of the year category.  Grammys, Junos, ECMAs - none of these have this specific category.  So in these larger music award organizations, many musicians like Chris Gauthier , Nathan Condon , Dan Currie , and myself don't even get the honour just to be nominated.... and they should... because these musicians and countless other musicians across Canada and around the world are responsible for creatively and professionally and passionately supporting artists in rehearsals, on stage, in the studio, etc, etc.  They really do help to make things

                                                                                                                         Jan 5 th , 1999             It's been a long time since I've delved into the world of written thought.  Sometimes breaks are good.  It's like when I don't play an instrument for a long time and then start again I find something new.  Well it's been an interesting Christmas.  It was the first Christmas without dad.  I write those words and feel sad.  It is written.  I miss him so much, it’s weird...like mom said we spent a lot of our time here w/o dad really there or involved.  He wasn't a huge part of everyday life!  But he was though. And I miss all those little things.  I'm glad that I got closer to him before he died.  I have to tell myself over and over that the day at Palliative care when he was really out of it on the morphine and I told him how much I loved him and how proud I was to be his son the he heard me.  I know he did