Reconnecting with James Keelaghan – House of Cards

Photo:Mike Gifford

James Keelaghan is one of those artist whose music I love that often gets lost in the shuffle. His most recent album House of Cards was released way back in 2009 and for the longest time was not available on Rhapsody or Napster. Well the other day I found the album on Rhapsody and James has another winner!! Keelaghan is another of my many Canadian favorites. He was born in Calgery, but now calls Winnipeg home.  He is a Juno Award winner and many of his songs have an historical base.  “Kiri’s Piano” is about the internment of Japanese Canadians, while  “October 70” is about the FLQ crisis, are inspired by events and figures in Canadian history. But some like, “Cold Missouri Waters”, have a US locale, which is about the Mann Gulch fire of 1949  in Montana. For me Keelaghan is an all round artist with a  great baritone voice,  a good guitarist, and most of all a great  story-song writer. I love his soon “Number 37” a great song about a girl and her horse at a rodeo race. Read More

Blues: from Canada Soupbone!

So one of the albums that has been on the iPod for the last several weeks is a blues album titled Lead Me On by a five piece blues band hailing from Williams Lake, BC, Canada, Soupbone. The album is quickly becoming a favorite.  Dean Fulton fronts the band and provide lead vocals, great keyboards and harmonica.  His outstanding  keyboard work  is quickly displayed on the album as he takes the lead on the opening track. “Don’t Miss You at All.”  Throughout the album Dean trades leads with sizzling lead guitarist Joel Gyselink.  Gyselink’s guitar work throughout the album is right on, providing hot riffs on some tracks and burning soulful riffs on others. Garry ‘Blind Dog Guido’ Grosso provides rhythm guitar and is the band’s resident blues aficionado. Grosso is a big fan  of  Chicago blues and his dedication to those blues are a huge influence on Soupbone’s music. The rest of the rhythm section includes; Shane Boxeur on bass  and Brandon Fauteux (pronounced Photo) on drums. Read More

Running with Ben Prestage

Today I noticed that as I went up and down the stairs, my knee did not hurt! Then the rain stopped after work and I thought maybe I’ll try to run! So I cued up the iPod with some blues that I put on it today and took off, hoping to make 30 minutes. Well, I made my goal 33 minutes approximately around 3 miles at slightly over a 10 minute per mile pace. My knee’s not bad and the music One Crow Murder the new album by Ben Prestage was great Here’s what his website says about the album! Read More

From Graduation to Williamsburg and back!

So one of these weeks my life is gong to get back into its normal rut, unfortunately this was not the weekend! The weekend started with a full day of graduation festivities for son Andrew, who graduated from Rowan University!! Congratulations Andrew! These festivities were followed by a surprise birthday party Friday night for the daughter of a friend of my wife. Next came a trip to Williamsburg, VA to pick up daughter Elizabeth’s stuff at William & Mary on Saturday! Fun was added to the trip when I went out to move the car and discovered a nail embedded in the flat tire. Of coarse,  this was AFTER moving her microwave, refrigerator and several boxes down from her room on the third floor (in a building with no elevator),  over three dorms and up to the fourth floor storage area, in a building which had an elevator!  Subsequently, we went to Target to get a can of Fix-a-Flat, because trying to jacking Andrew car on a semi- un-level surface taught me that, that does not work and since there were no even remotely  level surfaces in the immediate vicinity of the car Fix-a-Flat was my best bet!! Anyway I was able to get the tire fixed just before the torrential  downpour and we were able to go eat! After eating, we got to load the car, again carrying her stuff down from the third floor. Oh, did I mention that while going up and down stairs it feels that someone’s sticking a knife in my knee!!!  We did, however,  manage to get everything in the car and get back to the motel. So this morning I took the car to Walmart to get the tire fixed. The nail was too close to the sidewall to patch the tire,  so I had to get a new tire. The clerk said that the tire was $ 67.00. When she rang it up  final she said that the total was $ 147.00 plus! Looking at the bill I could see that there were two charges for the tire. After questioning the clerk about the bill, she said I had to speak with the guy in the shop. He said, that yes there were two charges for the tire and I had to go to Customer Service to get a refund! Read More

Blues Wednesday – Matt Schofield – Live From The Archive

So the other night I was reading the albums reviews in Blues Revue and came across the following “Who needs a big band when an organ combo sounds just as good?”  Well I didn’t have to read any further, I just went to Napster and found the album Matt Schofield’s Live from the Archive. Yesterday I listened to the album and loved it and today I went to emusic and downloaded and listened to Schofield’s 2009 release Heads, Tails & Aces and who knows tomorrow I may go back for more!! Read More

Happy Trails versus Undead

So Friday morning I had the iPod on shuffle and “Who Do You Love” from Quicksilver Messenger Service’s (QMS) Happy Trails album came on. Well,  I decided to switch off shuffle and listen to the whole album! Then since I was in a live album mode,  I listened to Ten Years After’s album Undead. Now it’s Happy Trails vs. Undead. So now it’s John Cipollina’s guitar work versus Alvin Lee. Read More

Caleb Stine – I Wasn’t Built for a Life Like This

Ok so I was going to write a nice long post about a new folk artist that I discovered about a week ago Caleb Stine, then came the NFL Draft and somehow my night has slipped by and the Eagles still haven’t picked! Anyway Stine’s album I Wasn’t Built for this Life has been playing a lot on the iPod and each time I listen “I like the album more! Stine from Baltimore is a great crafter of song spinning tales of life. From his website:   Honest Tune Magazine says that Stine’s music lays, Read More

Joe Crookston – Darkling and the Bluebird Jumbilee

So Saturday night I listened to three albums I have already told you about one, Hot Tuna’s new album Stready As She Goes. The second one was Joe Crookston’s new album Darkling & the Bluebird Jubilee. I first listened to Crookston’s music last year and his great album Able, Baker, Charlie and Dog a strong collection of songs that in 2009 was given the “Album of the Year” award by the International Folk Alliance indicating that it received more radio airplay than any other folk album released in 2008! This new album may just receive the same award! Read More