Summerfolk interview

Jan Vanderhorst from CKPC 92.1 FM Brantford was kind enough to send me a copy of the interview we did last August at Summerfolk.

Jan is a wonderful guy - one of the very few commercial DJs who really gets behind folk music - and there's some neat stuff in here... including mention of The McFlies, who at that time, didn't even exist except in my mind!

If you're interested, check it out here.

<--! Imported from The Shed Out Back, 1/1/2009 -->

Lesley got her CD

"It was many nights after Christmas, and all thru the house
the Rabbit was running, he acts like a louse;

Neighbour's children were nestled all snug in their beds,
and I wore my headphones, atop of my head.

Wrapped with a 'kerchief;
in hand a night cap;
my eyelids so drowsy, nearly time for a nap.

When suddenly I heard my mailbox a'clatter,
I sprung from my computer desk to see what's the matter!

Down the staircase, I flew in a flash,
and of course my big toe I surely did smash.

The rabbit he gazed as I cursed, and I know
that any luster I may ere giv'n off... it dropped low.

When, what to my wondering eyes did appear,
but a Roll Away Cd, for my ears to hear!

It came in a casing so witty and slick,
I opened that tin, and I opened it quick.

more rapid than eagles, those choruses they came,
and I whistled along, please to finally know all their names;

On Inhuman race, now Breakin' Down, now This Camera and Eastbound Through Parry Sound,
On The End of the Rainbow,and Statue Made of Stone, now Shelter Valley Road, and St. Michael Told Me So;

To the top of the charts to the top of them all,
Now roll away, roll away, roll away all!

lol... I'd go on but after agonizing over that second to last part for far too long, realized I should probably get a hobby. ;)
Thanks again for the CD.
Les"

Roll Away rolling away

There's something I rarely say out loud, or even in writing.

But I can't avoid it this time, so here it is: I did it. I launched the new CD.

I can barely even talk about what the evening at Hugh's Room was to me, or did for me. I just want to share and to savour in this space what was surely one of the best nights I've ever had.

Thanks to all of you who made it, to all who sang and played and clapped and hollered, and to all the well-wishers, the silent watchers, the casual visitors, the first-timers, the all-the-timers, the lovers, the dreamers, and you.. Roll Away is now rolling away.

See you down the tracks a ways. Safe journeys!

David.

I listened to myself

Yesterday I did something I had been putting off doing for about 4 months: actually listening to the final master of "Roll Away" in its entirety, just one time for safety's sake before actually sending it out for production.

I put headphones on and laid down on the couch. Lightfoot the Cat came and sat on my chest. And I listened to the 16 tunes that took me a year and a half to record in four different old wooden buildings across Ontario and Nova Scotia - the ones that got picked for this final part of the journey. The sun set and the Christmas lights came on outside, and I listened to myself.

As a photographer, all my work was always about laying stuff bare. I learned to appreciate the lines in people's faces and the jagged edges of broken windows and the way that old paint peels.

That's what it's like to listen to myself now. I don't know why I am the way I am. But I have to accept that I'm like that, because I'm now 35 and there doesn't seem to be any going back.

I'm rough. I have jagged edges. I have lines in my face and I sometimes feel that I'm spending my life peeling away like old paint. And it seems the best my thinking self can do is to watch and to listen and to somehow appreciate what I'm doing when I do it without thinking.

My imperfection is my gift. It's an imperfect gift, but it's all I've got. I'm hoping that maybe by being honestly imperfect, I can somehow find a form of perfection that a human being can handle.

That's what I heard, when I listened to myself.