Tuesday, Sept 3, 5–8pm Blain, Davis & Gould at Gate 403, 403 Roncesvales, Toronto
Fri Sep 6, 2:00-3:00 pm The BLUESgrass BOYS at Grandparents Day, Cedarcroft Retirement Residence, 260 Church St., Stratford
Sept 19-Oct 2 – Allan Fraser & Brian Blain Homeroutes.ca tour: Winnipeg - Eriksdale - Polonia - Grandview - Gilbert Plains - Inglis - Regina - Lumsden - Montmartre - Brandon - Holland - Lockport
This is Allan and I (with my cousin Karo) 50 years ago and this is Allan and I today:
Oct 6, I’ll be playing not one but two memorial celebrations, one in the afternoon for that great Hamilton guitarist Alex MacDougall (Crowbar, King Biscuit Boy, Groove Corporation) and the other at Free Times in the evening celebrating the life of Daisy DeBolt (2nd anniversary of her passing)
...and stand by for a CD Launch in October or November
CD Update: Last month I did a call-out here for contributions to the CD fund for New Folk Blues 2.0, and thanks to three “renewing donors” we have made some significant upgradesbut we still have to master & manufacture and I need CDs in hand before I head out on tour on the 18th and any funds raised beyond that will be used for the promotion and marketing. Some would say that you should spend as much on that as making the record. Ooops, I’m starting to ramble again. You can stream the most recent mixes below and if you like what you hear and you want to contribute, do it now so I can put your name on the CD. And as before, any donation over $250 gets you a Brian Blain house concert.
Today I was googling myself – not being a narcissist, just looking for a link to a Blainettes video to send a prospective employer – and this is what I found (at the top of the search results, no less). A sweet young entertainment reporter collared me at the Afrofest media launch and started asking me stuff. I thought I had a pretty good soundbite in there about the evolution/devolution of music:
And for those Blainreaders who don’t have any idea of my other life as a desktop publisher, here’s a (not quite typical) day: Starts with a dead router and no internet or printing at the jazz festival office, submission deadline for the next Crescendo, preparing the presentation of a new website to our Corporate Client, and driving boxes of Mapleblues newsletters to the mail depot and dropping them off in clubs (and getting a parking ticket in the process). That was after a couple of very intense days putting it together. All with my able associate, Joel Blain (yes, we are related).
Like I said, I’m going to talk less and say more – if a picture is worth a thousand words how many words is a 15-sec video worth? I’ve been “vlogging” more than blogging lately. I’ve been posting 15-sec instagram clips on some memorable musical moments from some events I attended this month including Rita diGhent (with pianoman Bill Westcott), Jake Chisholm, The Harpoonist and the Axe Murderer, and the original (Not-So-Young) Rascals. Check it out at www.torontobluesdiary.com
You can give me a “like” at www.facebook.com/brianblain.musician
And follow me on twitter.com/brianblain and instagram.com/brianblain