Between The Rock And A Hard Place: Newfoundland, Great Big Sea, Alan Doyle, And Even Russell Crowe

"Walk A Little Further..." - Collaborative Delights And Singular Pleasures

Not surprisingly, I'd like to begin with the purest pleasure of all.

I've gotten a bit of a reprieve and won't need to be going offline till early tomorrow morning, which leaves me time enough for one more entry. This one is all about delight and pleasure - I'll confess my focus has been determined to some extent by the most recent exchange that took place in the comments on the last entry - specifically, those delights and pleasures that can come singularly or, at some of the most serendipitous times, in multiple combinations. As much as I love seeing Alan performing, as enjoyable as Great Big Sea shows are, it is so exciting and so special to be fortunate enough to be present at those magical moments when the stage is unexpectedly shared, those magical moments when the best finds a way to get even better.

In the spirit of sharing the pleasure of those shared pleasures...

Continuing right along with the Russell Crowe theme of the prior entry, this incendiary Folsom (note the blistering lead solo from the incandescent lead guitarist) ignited when Russell joined Great Big Sea on stage during their Shamrockfest show last March.

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Same event, this time a glorious Molly Malone singalong with Russell, GBS, and the fellows from Carbon Leaf.

Molly Malone again, this one of my favourite of all the videos, near the top of the list for favourite moments as well. Alan joins the members of Danu during their show at the Visemollen (Old Mill) at the Tonder Festival in Denmark. A lovely singalong with the crowd, but what I love the most about this one is Alan's intro, in which he talks about his Dad teaching him this first song on the guitar, and how he never looked back from there. Truly a treasure among bread crumbs.

Another from the same Tonder Danu show, Alan - himself rather far away from home - leads the crowd in singing River Driver.

Two videos made when other artists joined Great Big Sea on stage during their shows.

First, another from the 2007 Tonder Festival, this one shows Oysterband's John Jones joining Great Big Sea for a rousing version of the Oysters' own tune that has become so associated with GBS, When I'm Up.

Pat Boyle brings his sweet and sassy trumpet part to Penelope at the 2007 Grey Cup show at the MTCC in Toronto, where was Alan sporting a sweet and sassy (and now a much-missed) beard.

This is one of those blissfully sweet times when Alan joins his friends on stage, this time at Mile One last February when he absolutely delighted the local crowd (and got the folks in the bowl seats right up on their feet) when he came on to sing What Am I Doing Here with Blue Rodeo.

Finally, a video which continues the Blue Rodeo theme but shifts the focus back to the singular pleasure and delight of Alan Doyle. I finally got YouTube to accept an edited version of Alan's Falling Down Blue solo at the Hamilton GBS show, one which eliminates the intrusively loud chatter that took place during his intro to the song. This is all song, all Alan, and all wonderful.

And while back on the topic of singular delights, I have time for just a few more photos from that spectacular Great Big Sea Fortune's Favour show in Winnipeg a few months back.

There is no way I am going to be able to resist ending with a whole bunch of Alan, given how much I happen to love a whole bunch of Alan.

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Definitely a pure delight and an absolute pleasure, forever and always, singular and collaborative. I can't think of a better way to end. Or to begin.

"Now We're Back In Old St. John's" January Moments, Part Two - Russell Crowe Gives The Angels Thanks, The Face That Says It All, & A Deadline For Comments

Two ETAs:  First, if you missed it last night and can see it tonight (Saturday the 24th), be sure to catch CBC's The Montreal Canadiens: 100 Years documentary (11 pm Newfoundland Time, 9:30 Eastern). Not only will you  see a great show about the best damn hockey team of all time (subjectively speaking), you will also see one of that best damn hockey teams biggest fans.

Second, this video belongs with this entry just as much as all the rest:

Land Of The Second Chance, Russell Crowe (and Alan Doyle) & The Ordinary Fear Of God

I will never hear this song without seeing Alan's foot stomping out the beat as his guitar comes in.

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A quick "business" note: As of this Tuesday (January 27th), I'll be offline for a time, not sure exactly how long - at the most 15 days, but it could be a bit less. During that time, I'm going to shut down the Comments function here because the comments have a way of being gobbled up by the Blogmonster when too much time passes while awaiting approval. This also means those who use the blog instead of my (often full) email account can't get ahold of me here and also shouldn't try the email account because I won't be able to check either for some time. I'll open it all back up again as soon as I can get back online. But if you need to say anything to me now, do it before the morning of the 27th. Unless I am even more disorganised than usual, I should get one more entry up before then.

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For those short on time and long on imagination, this picture says as much as all the words - all my words, that is - that follow after it. And more.

When I can write the story this face tells, the book is done. And bonus points to those who understand this in no way means the book is all about Alan.

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Anyone familiar with Newfoundland and Newfoundlanders already knows that December here is all about Home, as so many of the Newfoundlanders who live Away - no further geographical designation needed to understand all that needs to be understood...Home and Away will suffice - find the means and fight the weather, making their annual Christmas migrations back again. Beginning some time around mid-December, the planes come in fully loaded, then head back out again nearly empty to pick up the next and the next and the next migratory flock...carrying them all Home - for a little while.  The Christmas tide rolls in with warmth in the face of the inevitable storm and laughter in the face of the impending departure. It is sweetness and sorrow, delight and heartache, pleasure and pain. It is December in St. John's.

What might be less known to some is that January here is just as much about Home, perhaps even more so, than is December. Where December is about Coming Back, January is about Leaving Again; most of all January is about Those Who Stay. It is thoughtful and wistful, quiet and grateful.  Those who stay give the angels thamks, and then they settle in for the long wait until cherised tide rolls in again.

It is January in St. John's, and the wind cuts like a knife. What Russell Crowe had to say in today's Sydney Daily Telegraph in honour of Austraila Day 2009 is as true here as it is beneath summer's sun on the other side of the world,

From the Daily Telegraph

What Australia means to Russell Crowe

By Russell Crowe

January 24, 2009 12:00am

IT WAS a couple of years ago now, but this is how I remember the story. I went to Bill & Toni's restaurant one day.

Ordered a latte and Vegemite and tomato on turkish bread. When I went outside the tables were all full. An elderly man at a table of aged gentlemen gestured to the empty chair beside him.

"Russell, please, come sit to Mario (below)," is how I remember the offer of a seat.

Special section: Australia Day 2009

I was working on a new record at the time. A morning or two previously I had sent to my songwriting partner, Alan Doyle, a photograph of a Charles Blackman painting that depicted a cane cutter, head bowed in the fields, a Florentine dome beyond the sugar cane and three women floating in the air. It was called The Dream Of The Cane Cutter: Passing Angels. For some reason, I thought there was a song in that painting.

"Let's write a song about cane cutters," was the note I attached to the picture.

Alan is from Newfoundland, a member of the Canadian band Great Big Sea.

"What is a cane cutter?" came the reply.

So, there I am at Bill & Toni's an hour or two later and I took up Mario's offer and sat down. We exchanged pleasantries for a while, coffee arrived.

Our conversation got a little deeper. I asked Mario when he had come to Australia.

That was the moment my morning disappeared and I was transported back in time. To the deprivation and lack of hope in post-war Italy, to a town called Luka, outside Firenze and a young man working temporarily in the emigration office who managed to slip his own name on to the list of travellers. Initially the plan was that he and his girlfriend would go together, but her parents got involved and she didn't make the journey.

Soon he found himself aboard a ship, hearing the tall tales about this country of snakes and spiders and heat called Australia; his destination. It was on that ship that he first heard that cutting cane in Queensland was the best-paid job for an unskilled migrant like himself.

He tried Sydney first, things didn't work out and he remembered that shipboard conversation about Queensland so he headed that way.

After his first season he was able to buy a car, he drove to all the places he'd heard Italian immigrants had settled, looking for a wife. He found himself back at the cane fields, alone.

At one point somebody in Rockhampton arranged the marriages of 12 Italian men to 12 Spanish women.

As he said to me, "Spanish is not Italian, but it's close".

He told me he knew the moment he saw the woman allocated to him that their union would be impossible. She was too beautiful to want the likes of him. She made some comments about the stains on his teeth from chewing sugar cane all day and asked how he would feel about her seeing other men socially when he was away working. He told her that this was a new world, that the ancient rules of their European homelands didn't count.

She was very sceptical, and told him his attitude was unworthy. He said to her he would prove his worth in the next harvesting season, working double shifts and he would bring back to her the money that he would make, to show he was good husband material.

When he got back to Rockhampton flush with wealth, he found she had moved on, with someone else.

"A handsome man," he told me.

It was then that Mario got taken up by two of his adopted homeland's favourite pastimes. Drinking heavily and gambling. One time he remembered getting drunk in Queensland and waking up in Sydney.

He took that as a sign, sobered up and got himself a job on a building site.

He made friends with the foreman on the basis that he had a car and could drive him to work every day.

There was a new product around then called aluminium windows. The foreman let Mario learn all about them because he couldn't see the use of them.

A little time later, though, with the advent of skyscrapers across the Sydney skyline, the man who knew all about aluminium windows was in great demand all over town. Mario pointed out to me a few of the buildings he worked on.

At some point he got married, had a child, who had children. The day I meet him, he'd just come back from the dentist with new dentures.

He visits Italy every now and then, but the life he has had, the experiences that made him a man, are Australian experiences. Mario is a product of, and has grown with, his environment.

Mario is Australian.

Once a week, at Bill & Toni's, he'll get together with the men he has known since the 1950s.

A lot of them former cane workers, it's casual, but it's formal enough to be weekly, they sit outside and tell the same stories, drink coffee and red wine out of the same small and sturdy glasses and to a man they thank God for the second chance at life that Australia gave them.

I walked home to Woolloomooloo, stared at the Blackman painting again.

You see, I'm an immigrant too. I understand the feeling and have experienced the gratitude of being blessed and accepted by a country that I wasn't born in.

I call Australia: "The land of the second chance", and that's what I called the song we wrote for Mario.

Russell Crowe wrote for The Daily Telegraph as part of the Australia Day Council's Australian Identity and Culture program.

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The song that Russell and Alan crafted from Mario's story:

Land Of The Second Chance (Crowe/Doyle 2005, My Hand My Heart CD)

He didn’t say her name; he described her with a tear
In 1952 he left that girl and made his way down here
And the ocean raged around him, cleansed his soul and sharpened his aim
He was coming down to Queensland to cut the Sugarcane

Chorus

Burning Field
Bow my head and bend my back and I will kneel
I’ll give the angels thanks
For bringing me here and guiding my hand in this land
The Land of the Second Chance

 In ’53 he bought a car with the proceeds of the season
He travelled three States, coast and bush wandering without a reason
He was driving away her memory, driving himself insane
Then he drove back up to Queensland to cut the Sugarcane

Chorus

Burning Field
Bow my head and bend my back and I will kneel
I’ll give the angels thanks
For bringing me here and guiding my hand in this land
The Land of the Second Chance

Troppo is not tropical it’s Italian for crazy in the heat
He got arranged to a Spanish girl but she didn’t like his canecutter’s teeth
That season he tripled his workload to prove he was worthy of her hand
When he got back up to Rockhampton, she’d taken off with a handsome man
Five or six years on a gambler’s drunk, he woke up in Sydney one morning
A thousand miles south of his last night out so he took it as the angels warning
That car got him a job fitting aluminium window frames
Floating above the big city, far away from the Sugarcane

Chorus

Burning Field
Bow my head and bend my back and I will kneel
I’ll give the angels thanks
For bringing me here and guiding my hand in this land
The Land of the Second Chance

Bridge

Forty-five years of married life,
Children and children’s children
He can still point to where he fitted the glass
And smiles when you recognise the buildings

Most of his mates have seen the pearly gates but there’s a few that have survived.
They sit here and drink espresso
Like it’s Florence – “Firenze, prima della guerra” (Florence, before the war)

Back in 1935
On a front table at Bill and Toni’s he told me his story on Stanley Street
A little hard to understand that day Mario got brand new teeth
Fifty-three years he’s been here and he says he’s never looked back
A fortunate find for a lucky guy
The Land of the Second Chance

Chorus

Burning Field
Bow my head and bend my back and I will kneel
I’ll give the angels thanks
For bringing me here and guiding my hand in this land
The Land of the Second Chance
The Land of the Second Chance
The Land of the Second Chance

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I remember Russell holding crowds spellbound with Mario's story on sultry January nights in a land where the moon consorted with unfamiliar companions. I remember Canberra on Australia Day in 2006, standing on the grounds in front of Parliament House with tens of thousands of Australians who were giving the angels thanks while Russell  and Alan and the rest of the band performed Land Of The Second Chance. It was the last show of the tour, the last show before the first show of the next tour; it was Alan's last show with Russell and his band.

The road had been hard and long and would soon become harder and longer. I was already weary and bruised and beset by doubt; I could wax poetic and say Canberra was an Act Of Hope, but it would be more honest to say that the only way I made it to Canberra that Australia Day Past was because of a purely stubborn refusal to leave the best part of my heart behind. Then again, perhaps that's an apt enough description of many if not most Acts Of Hope.

Canberra was amazing. Russell and Alan and the band were amazing. Alan was amazing; he made me weak in the knees. I held onto the best part of my heart, and I have never looked back, never regretted, never stopped giving the angels thanks for Australia Day in Canberra.

As well as for January in St. John's.

"Now We're Back In Old St. John's " - January Moments In St. John's, Part One

 No one is in much of a hurry around here in the post Christmas hangover - January is a slow month in St. John’s.  -  Bob Hallett, January 14th Soundrack Journal entry

For the most part, it has indeed been a quiet January here in St.John's. Quiet, reflective, more than a bit wistful...it's been this way each time I've been in St. John's in January. It's one of the reasons I like being in St. John's in January. I might not always get a whole lot done while starting out a New Year here, but I do get a whole lot of things thought through before the time comes to head out into the rest of that new year.

And every now and then, St. John's January-sombre grey skies are blissfully pierced by a serendipitous shaft of brilliant sunlight. In a good year, crystal-clear blue skies reign overhead several times during the month. This is clearly going to be a good year in Old St. John's, if the past few days are a reliable indicator. First, the announcement of the release of Alan's music on the Puffins: Island Adventure Nintendo DS game. Then, the hope and excitement of the Necessary Change taking place to the South connected locally when Great Big Sea's Ordinary Day was nominated for and then voted onto the Obama Playlist as one of the top 49 songs defining Canada, the only Newfoundland song so acknowledged.

Sunny moments both, but brightest of all was today's announcement that the 2010 Juno Awards will be held right here, back in the City Of Legends again for the first time since the "best Junos ever" of 2002:

From CBC online

2010 Junos set for St. John's 

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams, who participated in a news conference at The Rooms cultural complex on Thursday, welcomed "this fabulous event" and encouraged residents of the city to help prepare for it.

"I am confident the 2010 Junos will be an event that the national music industry, and people throughout the country, will remember and talk about for many years to come," Williams said. The Junos will be presented at a ceremony on April 18, 2010. CTV will broadcast the show nationally.

The ceremony will be the culmination of four days of events and concerts around St. John's.

Williams appointed a longtime business colleague — Ken Marshall, the Atlantic region president of Rogers Cable — to chair the city's host committee.

I'm not sure yet whether I'll be here in St. John's for next year's quiet, reflective, wistful January moments. But I do know for sure where I plan to be come April of that year. A St. John's April has pleasures all its own.

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This one is going to have to be done in several segments because there's a writing/editing deadline looming overhead, so more January In St. John's moments soon, along with more of the Winnipeg photos. I just couldn't wait on the Junos announcement. When I heard the news, the first thought that came to my mind was....where is the Juno Cup being held and is Alan going to be in goal? After that, comes all the great music.

 

"Way, Hey, Hey" - Great Big Sea On "Obama's Playlist": The Top 49 Songs From North Of The 49th Parallel & An Extraordinary Ordinary Day

ETA: Just watched the Oath Of Office and Inaugural Address, then logged on and found this. It's too cute not to include. From The Scope:

As Alan sometimes says, There's nothing ordinary about this day.

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GBS taking their much-deserved place in stellar company:

The top 49

From January 5th-16th, 2009, CBC Radio 2 invited Canadians to help select the top “49 songs from north of the 49th parallel” that would best define our country to the incoming U.S. President Barack Obama.
You submitted your nominations.
You came back and voted for the top 49 songs that help define Canada.
This is your top 49 Songs (all songs are listed by song title, then artist):

(click link for full list)

http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/obamasplaylist/index.html

Related aticle in today's National Post:

CBC reveals songs for Obama

Posted: January 20, 2009, 9:52 AM by Mark Medley

After two weeks and more than 130,000 votes, CBC Radio 2 has revealed their list of 49 songs for President Barack Obama, as chosen by listeners.

“I want to congratulate Radio 2 listeners for their heartfelt and well crafted nominations, and for their robust voting of the top-100 to reach the final 49 songs,” said Denise Donlon, executive director of English Radio, in a statement. “This is a unique and diverse list that represents a wide variety of artists and songs, both historic and current. It was an exciting process, and I think the results celebrate the great talent, artistic perspective and even humour of some of our finest musicians.

The songs, which are supposed to define our country for the soon-to-be sworn in president, feature a mix of old and new, English and Francophone. And for those of you worried that it would be all Neil Young and Tragically Hip, you'll be happy to know no artist was selected more than twice. The inclusion of the Barenaked Ladies classic If I Had $1,000,000 seems especially fitting.

The list:

Arcade Fire – Rebellion (Lies)
Barenaked Ladies - If I Had $1,000,000
Beau Dommage – La complainte du phoque en Alaska
Ben Heppner - We’ll Gather Lilacs
Bruce Cockburn - Wondering Where the Lions Are
Buffy Sainte-Marie - Universal Soldier
Daniel Bélanger - Rêver mieux
Daniel Lanois - Jolie Louise
Daniel Lavoie - J'ai quitté mon île
Diana Krall - Departure Bay
Gilles Vigneault - Mon pays 
Glenn Gould - Goldberg Variations
Gordon Lightfoot - Canadian Railroad Trilogy
Gordon Lightfoot – Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Great Big Sea - Ordinary Day
Harmonium - Pour un Instant
Ian & Sylvia - Four Strong Winds
James Ehnes - Barber Violin Concerto
Jesse Cook - Mario Takes a Walk
Joni Mitchell - Both Sides Now
Joni Mitchell – A Case of You
Karkwa - Oublie pas
k.d. lang - Hallelujah
Leonard Cohen - Democracy
Leonard Cohen - Suzanne
Malajube - Montréal -40°C
Marie-Jo Thério - Évangeline
Marjan Mozetich - Affairs of the Heart
Measha Brueggergosman - I’m Going Up a Yonder
Mes Aïeux - Dégénérations
Michael Bublé – Home
Moe Koffman - Swingin' Shepherd Blues
Neil Young - Rockin' In the Free World
Neil Young - Helpless
Oscar Peterson Trio - Hymn to Freedom 
Oscar Peterson – Place St. Henri (from Canadiana Suite)
Parachute Club - Rise Up
Raymond Lévesque - Quand Les Hommes Vivront D'amour
Rush - Closer to the Heart
Sam Roberts - The Canadian Dream 
Shad - Brother (Watching)
Stan Rogers - Northwest Passage
Stompin' Tom Connors - The Hockey Song
The Arrogant Worms - Canada's Really Big
The Guess Who - American Woman
The Tragically Hip - Wheat Kings
The Tragically Hip - Bobcaygeon
The Rankin Family - Rise Again
The Weakerthans - One Great City! 

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Ordinary Day voted in as one of the Top 49 songs that help define Canada. That sure puts a smile on my face. Yay, Great Big Sea.

"When Jack Comes Ashore" - Alan Doyle: Composer (Puffins: Island Adventure)

Might as well dive right into the amazing - face and eyes.

Alan Doyle: Songwriter, Lead Guitarist, Rock Star, Front Man, Entertainer, Author, Fundraiser, Love Bomb, Honey Glazed Ham, Petty Harbour Boy, Dear Sweet Man... and, of course, Composer.

I do like that face. I also like all that comes with that face, inside and out, but I'll save those photos for the next entry.

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Now, more about Alan wearing his Composer hat:

CNN Money Article On Release Of Nintendo DS "Puffins: Island Adventure," Scored By Alan Doyle

Majesco Entertainment Announces Puffins: Island Adventure for Nintendo DS(TM)

January 15, 2009: 10:00 AM ET

EDISON, N.J., Jan. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Dive into life as a Puffin as Majesco Entertainment Company (Nasdaq: COOL), an innovative provider of video games for the mass market, today announced Puffins: Island Adventure for Nintendo DS(TM). Developed by Other Ocean Interactive, Puffins: Island Adventure is an adventure simulation that lets players experience what it’s like to be one of Nature’s most unusual and endearing seabirds.

In Puffins: Island Adventure, players become part of a Puffin flock and experience their arduous, but rewarding, existence as they learn to fly, dive, start a family and more. While navigating through the island, they will interact with other Puffins, play games to earn the favor of their peers and raise a family to carry on their legacy. Puffins: Island Adventure features mini-games that relate to real-life Puffin activities underwater, in air and on land. By mastering the Puffin 500, Puffin Plummet and Tide Pool Fishing, players earn reputation points that unlock pictures and videos of real Puffins in their natural Canadian locales. If players make it far enough, they will unlock new levels and even their very own Puffin burrow. Gameplay through the untamed wilderness is accompanied by traditionally-styled Atlantic Canadian music composed of exotic instruments including the tin whistle, fiddle and bodhran. Music composition features the talent of one of Canada’s most popular artists, Alan Doyle, frontman for the world renowned band Great Big Sea. In addition, Puffins: Island Adventure also features 4 player local and 2 player Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection multiplayer modes.

Puffins: Island Adventure is expected to release this spring. For more information about Majesco’s exciting line of products, please visit www.majescoentertainment.com.

About Majesco Entertainment Company

Majesco Entertainment Company is a provider of video games for the mass market. Building on 20 years of operating history, the company is focused on developing and publishing a wide range of casual and family oriented video games on leading console and portable systems. Product highlights include COOKING Mama(TM) and Cake Mania(R)2 for Nintendo DS(TM), and Cooking Mama World Kitchen and Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Ultimatum 2009 for Wii(TM). The company’s shares are traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol: COOL. Majesco is headquartered in Edison, NJ and has an international office in Bristol, UK. More information about Majesco can be found online at www.majescoentertainment.com.

About Other Ocean

Other Ocean Group (OOG) is a Canadian owned and controlled company, with studios in Canada, and its head office in California. The company has developed games and conducted Quality Assurance for such established publishers as Konami, Sega, Midway, and Disney Interactive, among others. Currently its Canadian operations include two development studios under the Other Ocean brand, (one in Charlottetown, PE, and the other in St John’s, NL) and a Quality Assurance Company known as Sculpin QA (also in Charlottetown-PE).

The studios are best known for the development of Konami’s award winning Xbox LIVE(TM) Arcade download, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Midway’s Nintendo DS release of the popular franchise Ultimate(TM) Mortal Kombat(R) and most recently recognized as the developers of the highly popular Sega’s Super Monkey Ball(TM) for the Apple iPhone. Other Ocean’s development studios develop video games for multiple platforms, including (but not limited to) the Nintendo DS, Wii, Xbox Live Arcade, PC, and most recently, the Apple iPhone.

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There was recently a very good interview with Other Ocean executive Deirdre "Beep" Ayre on Jesse Stirling's Meetings With Remarkable People NTV program (same show where Alan did one of his best interviews ever a year or so ago). It's an interesting company, and they just opened a studio in St. John's. Here's hoping they find much success here and a continuing relationship with the same talented composer.

And, thanks to the   Kotaku site, a few images from Puffins: Island Adventure:

First and foremost...Yay, Alan! This is really cool - how often can one expect to be mentioned in CNN Money as one of Canada's most popular artists and front man for a world-renowned band? (All due admiration to the OOG - or perhaps Majesco - press-release writer.) I've got no clue how payment/royalty arrangements work for Nintendo scores, but I hope that Alan winds up earning a bundle on this and that it opens up any and all new doors he has the inclination to pass right through. He's given everyone who cares about him yet another excellent reason to be so proud of him.

Only one piddly little drop of rain on this parade, and it's landing smack dab on my own head. Unless there's some way to hear Alan's score in a music-only format, that means I am going to have to learn how to play my first-ever Nintendo game. And if he's written his score so that you hear new music as you progress to each level, that means I am going to have to learn how to play the darn game really well. to have any hope of making it all the way to my very own puffin burrow. Because, one way or another, I want to hear Alan's score. If that means I too have to learn how to score, so be it.

Nintendo. CNN. World renowned. Damn, this is so frigging cool. This calls for a proper celebration. Guinness and chocolate-covered peanut butter balls tonight, for sure.

One last note, a somewhat silly note, before getting supper on the go and then heading out for that proper celebration afterwards. I've been wondering when some official-release word was going to come out about the Puffins game. I was thinking about it while getting dressed yesterday morning, which is how I wound up wearing one of my favourite shirts yesterday: It's bright orange and has two saucy puffins on it; I love wearing it here in St. John's because everyone assumes it's a tourist shirt from Newfoundland - it is indeed a tourist shirt, but not from here...it's from a small local zoo back in my other "here," where one of my favourite places to hang out is in the puffin habitat.

So when I got the Puffins: Island Adventure release notification via email yesterday, all I had to do was glance up a bit from my laptop, and there was my puffin pair, nesting cosily on my tits, reading the email along with me. I was appropriately attired for the occasion. Timing is everything.

I suppose it's fitting that I take my puffins with me tonight for that proper celebration. Puffins, Guinness and balls.  LIfe is good. It could always be even better, but  it's still good.

One more time (for now, at least)...Yay, Alan!

Back to Winnipeg's pleasures of anatomical correctness next time, along with a few words about a very impressive Soundtrack piece from Bob and maybe what I've been thinking about last summer's Dakota show. Maybe.

And since I'm thinking it again, I might as well say it again: Yay, Alan! That ought to satisfy the urge for about 10 minutes. Maybe.

"Come And I Will Sing You" - On The Twelfth Day Of Christmas...Awestruck Wonder & Loving A Lack Of Subtlety (Winnipeg's Best Moments)

"Alan lacks the subtlety gene...I know that's what you love about him."

Even though I knew I wouldn't get all of the Winnipeg photos edited in time to finish up the gift within the 12 Days of Christmas, I thought I might get through one or two of the main-set-closing songs today, for sure Consequence Free, and perhaps Mari Mac as well. Then I began to edit, starting out with that indelibly endearing interlude between Drean To Live and Consequence Free, only a few fleeting moments out of a spectacular show, but in their own way the most unforgettable moments of all.

Alan was in the midst of the usual intro to Consequence Free, making his customary comments about the next song being one about acting completely irresponsibly. But then his attention was caught once again by his cool Rock Star monogrammed guitar strap, and off he went again, still giddy with unabashed delight over the gift and how it grand it was, swishing about and saying it made him feel like he was important, like he could prove to anyone and everyone that he was indeed "with the band".

He was gloriously over the top and the crowd was filled with delight in response, which was, of course filling him with delight. It was expert showmanship and it was absolute truth - it was absolute truth taken in capable hand and forged into expert showmanship. I looked up at him and saw the Master Performer, the Honey Glazed Ham, the Skilled Musician, the Gifted Songwriter, the Incendiary Rock Star...and the Awestruck Boy who was genuinely and thoroughly thrilled with the Cool Gift that makes him feel like he is with the band. That he can be all these things - most of all, that he can still be that awestruck and wonder-filled boy after so many years and such significant accomplishments - and that he is all these things with such passion and forthrightness and drive, with such a blessedly lovable lack of subtlety...this is what fills me with awestruck wonder; this is the heart and soul of what I loved about Winnipeg, of what I love about Great Big Sea shows in general. Fleeting as they may be, these are the moments that mean the most to me.

I took as many pictures of those Winnipeg moments as my little camera could handle, as well as I could take them with a giddy grin on my own face and an excited heart pounding away. When I started to edit those photos today, the grin returned and the heart kept pace. And that was when I remembered the comment made recently to me about a lack of subtlety and how it was chief cause for love, a comment made by soneone whose opinion has my unqualified respect (someone whom I think I'll considerately allow to remain anonymous). It's not often one brief comment manages to succinctly sum up two people, as this one inarguably did.

I can't think of a better way to complete the gift on the 12th Day of Christmas than with these moments.

"I'm with the band!"

Awestruck wonder, unabashed delight, and driving passion don't leave much room for subtlety. They do, however, leave all the room in the world for love.

With not-to-be-missed hockey tonight (at the pub with that gorgeous HD TV) and a busy day tomorrow, there might not be a "13th Day" of Christmas, and the likelihood of a 14th could be a bit sketchy too. The holidays are over now and it's time to get down to the not-so-much-fun stuff, so this is officially the final installment of the Christmas gift, but I will finish up Winnipeg as soon as I can. There's still plenty of that lovable lack of subtlety there for the loving.

"Come And I Will Sing You" - On The Eleventh Day Of Christmas...Dreaming To Live In A Sea Of Shining Lights

I've given up on trying to finish the Winnipeg photos by the 12th Day Of Christmas. Too many photos still to edit, and even if I did somehow get them all done in time, the entries would be so big that chances are the page wouldn't open anyway. This will just have to be the gift that keeps on giving. So only one song for Day 11, appropriately a song that stands beautifully well all on its own.

Dream To Live is quite a good song as it's done on the Fortune's Favour CD, one that effectively tells a moving story of long-ago loss and a lifetime of quiet longing; the arrangement and execution create a feeling of wistful resignation. There's a static quality to the recorded performance, a quality that, it could be argued, does well to depict the outcome of the speaker's lifetime, one in which he "did the best he could" and throughout which he keeps the ache of his lost love to himself. The two most dominant elements of this version are Sean's vocals and what are immediately recognisable as Hawksley's drums: Sean expresses muted pain in those vocals as the drums beat out a relentlessly staccato march of time inexorably passing. Then those beautiful, haunting, complex harmonies burst out like a sudden glimpse into all of the barely supressed desire and regret lurking beneath the surface, like the unchecked passion of a dream that comes in the restless night.

Dream To Live as it's curently being performed live - and as it was performed live at the Winnipeg show - is breathtaking. Now the drums - Kris's drums - sound more like the urgent pulse of a pounding heart, and Sean's vocals ache with a ragged edge of regret. Where the recorded version feels more like it represents the course of the speaker's entire lifetime (consistent with the tense changes in the verses), the live version comes across more as a story being told from the vantage point of the old man, which is also the vantage point of the least hope for ever finding a way back to those loving arms and bringing the dream to life again. As the events of the story move closer to the present, the song becomes more intense, creating the sense of a need that has grown more urgent with time, instead of mellowing into wistful resignation. Now the passiom of the soaring harmonies, as well as the instrumental passion of the drums and especially of Alan's guitar work, sounds much like an eager cry in the night in the midst of a ardent dream.

More often than not, Dream To Live is leaving many in the crowd breathless, literally so. When the song reaches its end, I can see people around me suddenly realising they have been holding their breath and then they inhale deeply, right before they start to cheer and clap. This is powerful stuff - such stuff as dreams are made on.

Every element of Drean To Live works together to give the song such power, but in the midst of it all, it's Alan's impassioned guitar work - his inimitable manner of playing his instrument with his entire body - that will always take my own breath away.

One final version of that picture, because more of the sexiest man of all is always an intense pleasure.

Final picture, technically the first moment after the song comes to its soaring climax, a view of the creator of Dream To Live (along with the always-excellent Chris Trapper - and the two of them would have been very good candidates for yet another SOCAN Songwriter Award for this joint effort). shot as the crowd takes a collective deep breath and begins to clap and cheer.

"Come And I Will Sing You" - On The Tenth Day Of Christmas...Feeling Like A Rock Star

Note before getting back to Winnipeg: I absolutely love all of those search-engine hits here on the blog from people searching for "World Juniors Canada Oh Yeah song". I wish I could see the looks on their faces when they find out who the Love Bomb is.

God bless the good folks at Winnipeg's MTS Centre for giving the band members those lovely momogrammed guitar straps; not only was it a cool gift in and of itself (even more so in that Great Big Sea were only the second artists so honoured by the MTS staffers...not too shabby to find yourself keeping company with the likes of Tom Petty) but, best of all, it also made Alan feel like the Rock Star he truly is. And when Alan feels like a Rock Star, the show is at its best.

Alan talking about how great the new guitar straps are.

I feel like a Rock Star!

I have to confess that I can't recall which song followed after; I was still distracted by how much I was enjoying Alan's delight in that guitar strap - so distracted that I only took these two photos - and now I can't remember what song it was for the life of me.

Even without the video, there would be no forgetting Sean's Winnipeg General Taylor.

Followed by a lively Scolding Wife.

 

Helmethead - really a brilliant turn by Bob on this Rink Rock night - beginning with Alan's "This is a hockey song...we need fist-pumping" intro.

My fist rang like a bell.

No way do I not put this sweet face up again.

Magnificent. No other word suffices.

Bob really did pull of a great Helmethead performance - it was a good show overall for him, a good tour leg as well. Next to Kris - who always comes out on top by this measure - Bob's performances were the most consistent of the lot of them.

As Helmethead comes to an end and the near-5000-strong crowd reaches the peak of its enthusiastic approval, Alan takes it all in. This is the expression - the wide-open wonder of the 14-year-old boy who finds himself standing in the midst of his dearest dream come true - that owns my heart.

Two more Days of Christmas left, and probably too many Winnipeg photos to fit into that many entries. I guess I could say the holidays don't officially end till the BCS championsbip game. That might give me time and space to finish up the most excellent Rink Rock show I've seen GBS do in quite some time. We'll see. For the "official" 11th Day of Christmas, the power of Dream To Live and the beginning of the end of the main set.

"Come And I Will Sing You" - On The Ninth Day Of Christmas.. .Finding The "How" and The "Why" In A Hard Case With A Soft Face

The most endearing Rock Star of all.

Short and as sweet as it gets for today. Yesterday I got caught up in one of those interminably moronic Fan Shit interactions - more of the same old petty, pointless viciousness that at periodic intervals leaves me wondering how in the world it is I wound up even tangentially connected to anyone so pitifully in need of a life of their own. Wondering why in the world it is I don't get as far away as it's possible to be from all such people.

I was still shaking my head and muttering and wondering about that How and Why when I started working on editing the Winnipeg photos for today's entry. Then I got to this photo and there it was - how and why right there, as plain as day...as plain as the sweet smile on your face.

And with that, perspective re-established. Sufficient unto the (Ninth) Day is the delight thereof.

"Come And I Will Sing You" - On The Eighth Day Of Christmas...The Rock Star Who Would Be King, Rovers Of High Degree, Chasing Grace & One Good Year

One Good Year

It's New Year's Day just like the day before
Same old skies of grey, same empty bottles on the floor
Another year's gone by, and I was thinking once again
How can I take this losing hand and somehow win

Just give me One Good Year. To get my feet back on the ground
I've been chasing grace. Grace ain't so easily found
One bad hand can devil a man, chase him and carry him down
I've got to get out of here, just give me One Good Year

I'm burning oil, engine's running rough
I drive from job to job, but it's never enough
I can't find the will to just up and get away
Some kind of chain is holding me down and making me stay

Just give me One Good Year. To get my feet back on the ground
I've been chasing grace. Grace ain't so easily found
One bad hand can devil a man, chase him and carry him down
I've got to get out of here, just give me One Good Year

It's a bitter wind in your face every day
It's the little sins that wear your soul away
When you start giving in, where do the promises all go
Will your darkest hour write a blank check on your soul

It's New Year's Day just like the day before
Same old skies of grey, same empty bottles on the floor
Another years gone by, and I was thinking once again
How can I take this losing hand and somehow win

Just give me One Good Year. To get my feet back on the ground
I've been chasing grace. Grace ain't so easily found
One bad hand can devil a man, chase him and carry him down
I've got to get out of here, just give me One Good Year. - Slaid Cleaves, Steve Brooks

And, on a somewhat lighter note for the New Year, a short video which shows GBS's Walk On The Moon finding itself keeping company with songs by the Stones, the Doors, and AC/DC during Newfoundland's first-ever synchonised music/fireworks display, ringing in the New Year at Quidi Vidi Lake in St. John's.

When I was around 8 or 9, I asked my Dad why grownups felt the need to party so hard while celebrating the New Year, an occasion which seemed to my childhood perspective rather like Christmas's Anticlimax. I didn't get a straight answer to my question from him because my Dad never gave a straight answer to any question; he was the Master of the ambivalent response, one that would relentlessly tickle your imagination and make you keep thinking and thinking and thinking, the kind of answer that invariably inspired more questions. Which must have been what I was looking for - if I'd wanted a straight answer, I'd have taken the question to my Mom instead.

True to his reputation, my Dad didn't explain the need for or the point of the frenzied New Year's Eve parties I'd curiously witnessed taking place in my own home each year. What he did tell me was that come each New Year's Eve, many grownups find themselves caught in the grip of two strong desires: The desire to celebrate all the great things they believed the brand new year would surely bring them and the desire to celebrate having survived all the shitty things that had happened to them in the year that was finally coming to an end. "Survival and hope, kiddo...That's what New Year's is all about."

And so I thought and thought and thought about it. I pondered all the questions that followed after. Survival and hope. It took me a very long time to understand just how right he was.

When Alan is King.

It could happen

Rink Rock means Rock Star Guitar God...which means the WIAK lead solo done as it should always be done - front and centre in the dazzling blaze of the spotlights. Drawn to the light and born to burn.

And then the sexiest move in all Rock God Guitardom.

The backlighting was still blinding for most of Rover when I tried to see Sean, nearly as bad with Bob too, though I did manage get a few pictures of them during colour transitions. But for the most part, I took my pleasure in the charms of the honey-glazed ham who roved his way all across the stage during this number.

Quite possibly the single most unforgettable expression of the evening, on a face that hosts a wealth of such expressions every evening. Sean is singing a Rover verse, and Alan is back behind him, shaded a bit toward Bob, watching the crowd. And his expression is fascinating. Yet another example of the irresistible face.

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"They lay as one...as one"

The marching-band version of Bohemian Rhapsody I just heard during halftime of the 'SC/Penn State game (Boo, Hiss! on the Trojans, said the ever-loyal - the futilely loyal - Bruin), had me wishing Alan were out there on the field, leading them all in playing it. Getting the crowd to sing right along too, I'd wager. I'd expect nothing less from Newfoundland's Freddie Mercury.

Four more days of Christmas to go. I'm not quite sure how to fit the remaining pictures into that count. Maybe it's high time we began to celebrate Christmas for two full weeks.