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Showing posts from July, 2005

Jim Morrison's Death and Me

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I had never owned an album by The Doors  until this month.  Of course I knew of their "hits" but I never got past that.  I liked the songs but never dug deeper.  Never felt the need to.  I find it amazing, yet uncoincidental, that Jim Morrison died on July 3rd 1971 when he was 27 and on this past July 3rd 2005, at the age of 27, I walked into a used book store with no predetermined purpose and bought " No One Here Gets Out Alive ", the biography of Jim Morrison, subsequently turning into a first time Doors fan, buying their first 5 CDs in the span of a couple weeks, watching all Doors concert DVDs I could find, buying two of Jim Morrison's books of poetry..or as he would have preferred, James Douglas Morrison's books of poetry, and I just finished watching Oliver Stone's movie The Doors...yes...for the first time.  There are no such thing as coincidences...there are only events that have meaning. The Lords. Events take place beyond our knowledge or co

Jive Kings Reunion

Well we had the Jive Kings reunion on Sunday July 10th as part of the PEI Jazz and Blues Festival and what a time it was! For us and seemingly for the audience.  I have to say I really missed the excitement of being onstage with our little ol' swing band from this little ol' sandbar.  And there's something to be said for receiving crowd appreciation like that...for those of you that were there...Thanks!  For those that weren't...it was a giant tent Smack Dab in the middle of Queen Street filled with 1500 people there to support our reunion...rockin!  There's just nothing like it!  It was exhilirating, emotional, and exhausting all at the same time.  Felt like that first big weekend we had at the 2000 ECMAs in Sydney ....we went not knowing if anyone had ever heard of us and turned out to be the Buzz band of the weekend.  All weekend we kept hearing 'You're in the Jive Kings!?! Man you guys are awesome!!! I got your CD and can't wait to see you play&#

Music...have you heard of it?

I'm a musician I have been since I was 14.  I learned Guns and Roses tunes by ear, went through the Colonel Grey band program.  I received my bachelor of music from UPEI while touring with the Jive Kings.  I've done a good amount of recordings I'm proud of.  I've been able to use my experience and knowledge to teach my skills to probably well over 100 private students in the past number of years.   I'm a bass player.  I get paid to play bass.  But... Except for phases ( like the one I'm going through now ) I have had a terrible CD collection and I hardly listen to music How weird is that? Sometimes I chaulk it up to 'Do you see a Doctor performing Surgery at Home just for fun?!!'  ( I can attest to this....I've yet to see my father-in-law come home and cut one of us open for kicks ) but.....it's not the same.  Doctors are constantly learning through reading and conferences etc... i.e. their 'music', their 'CDs'.  But I've rare

Screwing Anne

First off, get your mind out of the gutter!  Today was an off day.  Tonight I was playing in 'the pit' for Anne of Green Gables and I had one of those off nights!  That's an understatement! I screwed up just about every song tonight! It felt like it was the first time I played the bass and as my first test I was given the bass book to Anne of Green Gables and forced to learn on the spot.  It started when I woke up and couldn't figure out what time it was. I had forgotten to set the alarm and had to teach a lesson at 11am.  Luckily I hadn't overslept but I woke up in a panic and that feeling basically stayed all day. I spent way too long downtown doing really nothing today and it wore on me.  I hate being away from Elizabeth and hate not having a car.  I really don't mind walking at all, in fact I love it.  I've walked all of my life.  It's just that sometimes the convenience of a car is so great.  Like today, I had to teach the lesson at the confed ctr