Bassic-ly me

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 d...

When it comes down to it.. I owe the creation of my musical career to two people:  An old classmate/friend Chris Walsh and Jen Clement of Singing Strings . I had no inkling of desire to play the bass, let alone music.  None.  Zilch.  I wasn't really a music fan.  Though yes I did ask for a Vanilla Ice cassette tape the previous Christmas.   Ahem. Chris though....he wanted to learn the electric bass.  To play with his buddy Tarky Whitlock in a rock band. I knew nothing of the electric bass.   In order for his mother to buy him an electric bass, she convinced him to get lessons from the music teacher. I can't remember whether we were already in the class and I was oblivious before or we were just starting the class but it was grade 9 in October of 1991 and Chris told me about his mother's deal and said "hey.. you should play bass too". I was a follower. So I followed. Now this Birchwood junior high school class wasn't a class full of...

"Without music, life would be a mistake." - Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols I'm not a big Nietzsche person or pretend that I knew that quote before googling "what would life be like without music" but... I thought it summed it up nicely.  What would life be like without music...it would be a mistake.  It sounds cliche ...but...stop ( collaborate and listen )...for a second...and really do think about it.. music doesn't exist.... BAM!   Think about your day today.  Where did music enter?  Think about the last movie you saw ..imagine it without music.  Think of the last wedding or night out at a club you were at... would people still dance?  It's an interesting thought.. why is music so intertwined with our every day life?  My answer... and even if you don't notice it or even agree with me I think I'm still right... it's wordless emotion.  Most people are historically bad at expressing themselves.  We don't talk any...

My goal was to find someone deserving for my bass .  I did.  He's happy.  I'm happy.  Awesome. I published the blog on a Friday around 5pm. Around 7pm that night I had my first response. It was Sean's mother Kerry saying "I do know someone [that could use the bass], my son Sean" and she explained why. Sean "was in band at Birchwood for a while and played the trombone but because of his heart surgeries lately he had to sadly give it up cause he couldn't hold the breath long enough to play."  Born with CHD (Congenital Heart Disease), he's made several trips to the IWK  since he was an infant. Check out a couple of really nice online versions of his story. http://www.iwkstories.com/en/story/135 http://thetinylight-ourtinylights.blogspot.com/2011/12/seans-story.html I truly didn't expect this bass giveaway to balloon like it did - both in the response from people and from the media.   Jocelyne Lloyd from the Guardian said a great ...

This time of year, a little over 20 Years ago, my life changed forever.    I'm not guaranteeing this will do the same for someone else but ...I have a perfectly good electric bass that I want to give away - for free. This is why... 20 years ago I was handed an upright bass in my grade 9 general music class in Birchwood.   I didn’t want it.  I hadn’t thought of it previously.  It just happened.  But then music entered my life. If someone told me that day that “you will become a professional musician and eventually teach upright bass at a university level”, I would have exploded with laughter in that persons face.  If someone on that same day told me “If you stick with music and study it at a university level this is where you will eventually meet your beautiful wife that you will have 3 beautiful children with”, I probably would have listened, but still not believed.  You see, I hated myself.  I had zero self ...

This.................. is physically the absolute worse I've ever felt in my entire life... It was during a Groove Company gig the Friday after an over 135 hour-in-10-days-straight insane work week including 7 days of travel to Halifax ... it's funny the things we do to ourselves to stay afloat...to stay employed...to stay "normal" ...but it is what it is. I remember getting ready for this gig and Elizabeth said something to me...something I can't even remember now.. ( and neither can she because I just asked her ) ..it was probably nothing...and on any other day it probably would have been fine.. but on this day...on this day....I turned around...walked out of the house ...without a word...if anything came out of my mouth it probably would have been foul, it could have been tears, it may have lead to WWIII ...who knows...either way...whatever was going to come out of my mouth was going to be driven by insanity and unreasonabilityness ... so...I mad...