Tell Mama had a wonderful time at Bill Smyth’s going away party. We played one of our new tunes, Lanark County Love Song. (could I say resounding one more time?) Here is some video…
Well, not only did we have a great time at The Crown last night but the event was a resounding success as well. According to David Hauraney, the event organizer, $3400 was raised towards the initiative thanks to the tremendous generosity of this wonderful community. I managed to get one remote photo of Corkery Road posted to my facebook page and then my cell phone died - right before Mitch Smolkin and his Klezmer band stopped in for an unexpected visit (sorry, no pix )
These guys were just tremendous! Klezmer en Buenos Aires joined Mitch from Argentina, Paul Brody from Berlin played a trumpet / flugelhorn, Boris Sichon from British Columbia did a stellar job on percussion (what a tremendous xylophone solo - well, it wasn’t a xylophone but I don’t really know what it was) and Aviva Chernick from Toronto joined in on vocals. Anybody who caught their show tonight at the Studio Theatre would surely have been in for a treat. You can find Mitch online at: www.mitchsmolkin.com
Then, later, as we did our best to follow a kick-ass klezmer group and a beautiful lab pup that was in the silent auction (not easy to do, I’ll tell you!) didn’t Freddie Dixon come in to relax after his sold-out Johnny Cash tribute show at the Studio Theatre. We were honoured to have him join us on stage to sing “Summertime”.
Who knew all this would be happening in downtown Perth on a Saturday night! I did get some video footage of the performance which I haven’t looked at yet but will post anything that’s worth viewing on youtube soon.
Tell Mama just finished a short tour to Blue Mountain Resort in Collingwood, Ontario - what a beautiful place! The folks that own and run this resort are the same people behind Tremblant and Whistler so you know that they’ve got some experience. Georgian Bay is just a gorgeous blue and the mountain looks like it would make stupendous skiing. All of the staff treated us with so much appreciation and respect and the guests were all so friendly - we almost felt like we were in an alternate universe!
Sunday was beautiful and sunny but also very windy and cold - Kelly, the excellent sound man, had a hard time keeping up with the mic stands that were literally blowing across the stage. A couple times I thought for sure the wind was going to pick me right up off my own feet! Yet there were still people lounging and listening to the music and many who were hanging out on their balconies taking it all in. The whole rest of our stay was littered with people who recognized us on the elevator or in the hallways and who also took the time to thank us for the music - what a pleasant surprise.
We are looking forward to going back to Blue Mountain in August when there will hopefully be more sun and less wind!
)
