Last Friday I played four of my songs at the musician’s showcase in Burk’s Falls and although the house was not as packed as it has been for previous showcases, there was a healthy crowd of 40 or 50 listeners, and I am told by Shauna that I did not suck. And she would tell me. Though I have played in public many times over the last thirty years, I am always a little more nervous when I know that people are actually listening. You know you’re in trouble when some drunk comes up while you are in the middle of a song and loudly asks if you know any Johnny Cash. I played four songs written over my songwriting “career” to date, and the last song I performed I wrote less than two weeks ago. It is always a challenge to play new songs in public, because I am still tweaking the lyrics, but sometimes I’ve got to leap before I look, with both oars out of the water. One of the great things about this showcase is that I have met some gifted local musicians and songwriters and have come to realize that I am not the only talented genius in the area.
One of my favorite open mics in Toronto, which no longer exists, was held at a sports bar in downtown Toronto called Grace O’Malley's. The reason it was so enjoyable for me was because of the host, a country singer/songwriter named Tim Hicks. Open mic hosts can sometimes be real jerks, largely because it’s not any musician’s first choice for work. As a host you are dealing with a lot of wannabe musicians, and some of the acts are simply atrocious. A good host must diplomatically weed out or abbreviate the worst acts while keeping everyone happy. In most cases open mics are not designed to foster new talent but rather to boost liquor sales on a slow night. If they are successful in this latter endeavor, then the performances often suffer. Tim ran a good open mic. He knew how to give someone the hook without really offending them, he was patient, and he is a very good artist as well. I was in touch with him recently and he seems to be doing well as a professional musician. That is something not many people can say. He’s had some success with several of his songs, won some regional country music awards, and is now getting some serious industry interest out of Nashville. His song and video Stronger Beer has received more than 250,000 hits on YouTube. You can Google it - it’s a tongue in cheek comparison between American and Canadian pop culture. His “new country” song Get By is an ITune top 160 right now for downloads, and I think a pretty good, radio friendly song. I never thought I’d see the day when artistic success was measured in hits and downloads, but that is the music business in the 21st century. Last night Shauna and I watched the Billboard Music Awards, and if that is the direction pop music is taking then heaven help us. Kids these days. I wish I was cute and nineteen, I’d be famous!
Final notes. There was an earthquake late last week in Quebec not far from the Ontario border, and people as far west as Toronto and Cleveland felt the rumble. We don’t usually think of the Northeast as prone to earthquakes, but I understand Western New York sits on or near a major fault line, and if memory serves me correctly (as it does less and less often), the University of Buffalo has an earthquake monitoring station. Saw an interesting 60 Minutes segment last night on advances is face recognition technology. I always thought face recognition was something that was only used for national security, but as it turns out, face recognition technology has become cheaper and more available, and it is now being used by big businesses to target potential customers. Privacy schmivacy, when it comes to selling jeans, anything goes.
Toronto mayor Rob Ford made CNN last week after allegations there was a cell phone video showing the mayor smoking crack with a drug dealer. Channeling with former DC mayor Marion Barry are we? No confirmations either way, but Toronto media is not giving the story a lot of airplay. Ford has a lot of enemies and bad press rolls off him like water off a duck's back. Speaking of Toronto, the Leafs broke our hearts (once again), losing Game 7 in Boston, in overtime, after they had dominated the entire game and were up by 3 points! Arrrgh!!! Finally, as I finish writing this report, an F4 tornado has just blown through Oklahoma near Oklahoma City and the damage is obviously severe. My heart goes out to all the victims of this latest natural disaster.
Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2013 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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