In the presence of greatness

Last night I was in the presence of greatness. Deep huh? My buddy Ed took me to the songwriters circle last night here in the city. It was hosted by Bruce Guthro with Raylene Rankin, Gordie Sampson and JP Cormier.

I had been to another Guthro circle before at the CBC with Marc Jordan and Tom Cochrane. It was a TV taping for his series and I was right behind Tom chewing gum and singing along. They even had to do a light meter check on the old chrome dome.

Anyway last night was wicked. They all shat on each other and had as much fun as the audience. JP is a guitar GOD. On a few of his solos I looked over at Ed as if to say "How is he..., what chord..., WTF!" I swear he could play a mop. The highlight of the night for me was when he started talking about John Allan Cameron and what he meant to him. He then went on to debut a new song "The minstrel" that he said came to him and it was sure he got it from John Allan.

He spoke at length about he John Allan made East Coast music real for people from away. He was a trailblazer and for me a very nice man. I met him first in Truro at a pub gig and introduced myself to him and told him about how Dad got me into Celtic music. He signed a show poster for Dad. Nice chat that he certainly could have forgotten. Well I ran into him at the ECMA's the year he got his lifetime achievement award in Sydney and he remembered me and that we met in Truro. Very nice.

Sorry about the sidetrack, it was a terrific show. Gordie Sampson is well on his way to being one of Canada's best songwiters. He was just nominated yesterday for two Grammies. they closed the show with "The 12 days of Christmas" with crowd participation to boot. I leaned over to Ed and told him about my version that I have from the summer. "Cool, cruel but cool", he said let's lay it down. His version of manland has a little studio in the basement. So look for a holiday MP3 to come rolling along. PARENTAL/TASTEFUL DISCRETION ADVISED!

Also ran into Dave Kerr who lived across from us in the hub. I would serenade him when he was coming in the odd late night with a donair chant. "Dabernie" as I knew him as first is a great player too and rocked Chateau Mac on more than a few occasions. Most notably my 30th Birthday party that will be very hard to top!

EVER FORWARD

Mood of the moment ~ Power tool time
Tune of the Moment ~ Hillbilly Highway- Steve Earle
What's for supper ~ Baked salmon, mashed potatoes and veggies