SUCH A NIGHT

As Elvis (and Johnny Ray before him) said:  "It was a night; oh, what a night it was..."
And as Richard Rodgers, prolific songwriter and composer of the tune "The Sweetest Sound", said when asked what was HIS sweetest sound:  "Standing Room Only".

And that's what we had.  The DecaDance CD launch night - finally come to fruition, with a sold-out, packed house at Hugh's Room in Toronto.
Amazing fun and music and love and audience.  Sooooo great.
And now I'm pretty much DAID.

Well, more like a zombie is it.

I will post lots more later, and have some pics. maybe even some video.
SUCH A NIGHT

HAIR TODAY; GONE TOMORROW

Well, it's been a week already since all the past, represented in my hair, has just been swept away on the salon floor.  here are some pics, including last Saturday's gig at Gate 403 in Toronto with Ron Johnston, bass, John Deehan, sax, Tony Quarrington, guitar, and John Sheard dropped in and played a few tunes with us on the piano.  Am I lucky?  What great musicians.  I have some movie bits, but will post them next time.

MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC

In any form.....
I found this poem, that I had taken from a very old copy of the British Punch Magazine (could date back to the 1800's, not sure).  I had it back in the seventies and saved these words; I love it:

Strike the strings and let there be

Little sounds that sing to me.

 

Flighting pigeons’ soft applause,

Unchecked moan of yawning jaws;

Thrusting needles pricking through

Nursery cotton stiff and new;

Whimpered ecstasy and grunt,

Sleeping spaniel dreams the hunt;

Taps that still the tuning notes,

Reedy songs in childish throats,

Country boots along the lane,

Wind-blown laughter in the rain.

 

Lift the pipe and softly blow

Music I shall always know.

 

can't read the copy, but it says (as in an epitaph) - The only proof he needed for the existence of God was MUSIC.

 

WHOOOSH!! ANOTHER TEN OR TWENTY YEARS GONE.

Just like that, they go.  And hey, I'm goin' with them; whooooshing my way through my life to that big noisy and fun gig in the sky.
But in the meantime, here's something from the first CD launch, 'way back in 2001 - Toronto's very first non-smoking blues night.  Kaf! kaf! I just couldn't take it any more, you know?
and then the rest of the world caught up.

and just in case people looking at this blog are not making it over to the official "decadance" one, here's the little promo I recently sent out for the ninth CD launch:
And I see that it's just a little empty box on the site.  I'll try facebook. Look for it there.  Technology. it just whoooshed by too.

DO JOIN US ALL FOR THE FUN
HUGH'S ROOM, TORONTO
www.hughsroom.com   for tickets and info

LOUNGING IN THE GRAVEYARD

Finally!! Summer weather! and a beautiful weekend with friends and music in the Haliburton Highlands. 
I got to sing with some former music pals and then I went and hung around at the lake and re-created an old photo in the graveyard - a lovely place, and the light was so beautiful.
Not only that, I got the tarp on the porch roof, eliminated some rodents and vermin, and got the water on.  oh, yes, and ate great. amazing grace.

here's the music gang:
Gord Kidd, guitar and with hat, Ian Pay on bass and Steve Main in the last shot, also guitar.

 

and then relaxing by the lake:

and the graveyard....

 

JULY 29, Hugh's Room, Toronto

www.hughsroom.com

"WOMEN!!"

here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loMWVIzK9Yo

it'll be on the 'DecaDance' CD - at the party:
July 29, 2015   Hugh's Room, Toronto
www.hughsroom.com

WHO COULD ASK FOR ANYTHING MORE?

Sometimes I wonder just how fortunate one can get. Oh, I haven't won the lottery, or been discovered by a record label - nothing so mundane. But I do have a small park near my house where I've taken to running in the mornings - not on the pavement - that's jarring,  - but on the grass, where the wet seeps into my poorly-made Payless shoes (you get what you pay for).  Today was abnormally beautiful. I jumped and skipped and waved my arms up and about - not a regulation style, but much more freeing - and I counted off the 400 right/lefts that I do.  and the wind blew; and the tiny new green leaves danced; and the clouds scudded (as they do); and the birds twittered.  And moi? I rejoiced in it all, thankful for the chance to be part of it.  HAHAHA. I think I sang out a couple of high notes too, just to complete the image of a crazy person.

Well, it's my antidote to the craziness of that other world - the one inhabited by ugly radical islamist murderers, by evil governments, by over-rich CEO's, by idiotic male morons who think they're funny when they ambush female reporters on air, and by the other journalists making a "story" when there is none.  That last bit is about the Canadian hooha over Elizabeth May's speech.  The only sane voice in Canadian politics and she swears - oh my God!! - in public.  Big effin deal, guys.  There's crap out of all the other ministers' mouths every day.

But enough of that.  i've gotta get back to the robin's-egg-blue sky of this morning, and the wind, blowing away all that blather.

Take me home. take me home.  Let me fly away with the boids.

Here's me in my red glasses.  Am I cool yet?  And then Lake Ontario with an amazing colour, from a walk the other day.

 

Don't forget le big gig:

July 29, 2015

Hugh's Room, Toronto

zoechilcodecadance2015.blogspot.com

and

www.hughsroom.com