The Decade So Far
Greetings!  I hope your 2010 is off to a good start. Here are a few of my highlights and happenings in the decade so far:

 Cool Winter Highlights
* Spending most of January in Nashville writing some new tunes. Doing some recording and hearing dobro player Rob Ickes (8 time winner of the International Bluegrass Music Association Dobro Player of the Year) record on 2 songs for my upcoming CD.

* Enjoying the Scottish mayhem during Robbie Burns celebrations (4 recitations of "Address to the Haggis" in 3 days)

* Jamming with my pals doing a bluegrass version of Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls" with the Mullins Irish Pub Chorus singing along!

* Writing a school anthem with my buddy Debra Alexander and 40 students during our recent Songwriters Association of Canada songwriting workshop.

* Having another birthday on Monday, feeling older, and then on Wednesday, hearing that my niece had a little girl making me a GREAT UNCLE and feeling A LOT older!

 Cool Gigs Coming Up
 
* Sat. Feb. 13th - Winterfolk - VIII
I am playing 2 shows - 6pm @ The Willow - 193 Danforth Avenue, Front Room - solo; & @11pm I'm playing with some wonderfully talented Daves - Dave Newland and Dave Gillis at The Black Swan, 153 Danforth Avenue (downstairs)

* Feb. 17th, 9pm - City Roots Series at the Cameron House, 408 Queen St W. Toronto with The Brights & Ian Kelly

* Feb. 18th, 8pm - Lighthouse Theatre, Port Dover

* March 14th, 5pm - Mulligan Stew, playing some tunes with a great band at Mulligans, 2458 Dundas St. W., Mississauga

* March 19th, 7:30pm - Concert in Sudbury at Grumbler's Steakhouse, Regent St.

For more details, check out my website.
Thanks for reading and listening. Hope to see you soon.

Peace,

David

SONG FROM THE HEART -
Fall 2009
 
I was delighted to learn that a song I co-wrote with Bruce Madole, "While I Still Breathe" has won the Ontario Council Of Folk Festivals' Songs From The Heart Contest. Bruce had written the lyric and followed his instinct that I would be someone who could write the music and it proved to be a good idea as I immediately reacted to his evocative words and wrote and recorded the music very quickly. It turned out to be quite a haunting piece. I performed the tune at the Gala Dinner of the OCFF Conference in Ottawa on October 17th and will also perform it at the Canadian Folk Music Awards on November 20th.  Click here to listen to our song.
 
At the end of August, Debra Alexander and I had a great day at Metalworks Recording Studio conducting a songwriting workshop with children with physical disabilities in association with Friends of We Care and the Songwriters Association of Canada. We all had a terrific time both writing and recording a song all in one day - aptly named, "No Mountain Is Too High."
 
Thanks for stopping by.
Peace,
David

For those of you in Toronto, I've got some fun, free concerts happening this weekend and some other cool stuff. Now if it would just warm up and dry out...

Harbourfront and More
This Saturday, I'm part of the Canadian Voices Festival at the Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay West, for 3 different gigs, all to do with songwriting. Saturday at 4 pm I'm part of the the Bluebird North Songwriting Showcase on the Redpath Stage. I join Eddie (Hit Me With Your Best Shot) Schwartz, Ember Swift and Lucie Idlout. Sunday at 2 pm Lynn Harrison and I perform "The Toronto We Know" - our top Ten Finalist song in the Toronto Song Contest and then Sunday at 3 pm I do a 1 hour Songwriting Workshop for the public at the Brigantine Room sponsored by the Songwriters Association of Canada. A lovely place to be in the company of some great songwriters all weekend so come check it out - it's all FREE! Some of the other cool gigs coming up include Fergus Scottish Festival, Yorkville Village Park, and an assortment of Muskoka gigs for you cottage dwellers.

You can always visit the Live Dates page for more info. on all my gigs.

Toronto Song Contest Performance
As I mentioned already, Lynn Harrison and I will be performing our Toronto Song Contest entry on Sunday. There is also online voting now taking place and you can register your vote by following this link. Also the actual winner will be announced on August 21st following a live performance on the opening night at the CNE so put that on your calendar and come on down.

Thanks as always for following my music. I hope you have a great rest of the summer.

Peace,
David

T. S. Eliot began his poem, The Wasteland, with "April is the cruelest month". This spring seems to resonate with this thought more than usual. It feels like the entire world is in the brutal throws of rebirth with its strange mixture of pain, fear and hope. Desperation and inspiration. Impossiblities and possibilities. Here's some of the stuff that's managing to grow in my garden...

Expanding My Travels in the Social Networks
I've begun journeying beyond my cyber social life at MySpace and ventured into Facebook and Bebo. As my close friends will attest, I'm perhaps not the most frequent socializer in the real world, so this is not an all together natural step for me. But I am curious to explore the power of connection there. As an indie artist, it's obviously a great place to connect with people around my music, to get your feedback and let you know what's happening. Thanks as always for lending your word of mouth in the web world. If you're on any of these networks, please do come and say hi by following the Quicklinks to the right.

The Impossible and the Possible
Yes it happened - I've been acknowledged as a full-fledged rocker in my 40's by winning the Rock/Alternative category of the Unisong International Song Contest for the rock version of Freedom By The Barrel - along with my co-writer Alec Steinwall who's also in his 40's! Now that was a sweet victory. By the way, you can help us win another prize from Unisong - the Peoples' Choice Award - by following this link and voting as often as you can until April 14th (as many as 3 times a day).

You could also help us win the chance to compete in the grand final of the Festival4Stars Song Contest with the same song and fly to London, England to perform it in front of Robin "How Deep Is your Love" Gibb of the BeeGees, one of the main judges. If you love the song, or me and Alec, or both, just follow this link and vote as many times as you can over the next month until April 30th. Rock on!

By the way, as a wee thank you for your help, you can download the song by following this link. Enjoy.

April may have it's mixed blessings, but the trip is always brighter when we're traveling together. Thanks for coming along!

Peace,

David