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The Summer Festivals
Festival season begins for me on Sunday in Ancaster. The beauty of playing outside. THey happen when winter is just some bitter dream that doesnt seem real now that you can wander outside in your bare feet and play music under the stars. The festivals for me are a way to play in front of people that dont know me and my music but also for me to hear great music and connect with artists I have known over the years. There is also something wonderful about being outside and playing music. How lucky you feel when the weather is good and how great it is to see people on blankets sitting on the grass. These festivals are run by volunteers and people who love music. So even though it is my first time to Music at Fieldcote I know I will be amoung friends. Keep your fingers crossed for one of those warm, sweet southern ontario evenings.
Heres a list of the other festivals this summer. Grab your blanket and come on down.
Festival D’ete de Quebec July 10, La montagne Secrete show Quebec City
Vancouver Folk Music Festival July 17.18. Vancouver
Discovery Coast Music festival July 24, 25 Bella Coola
Filburg Festival July 31,Comox
Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival August 7,8 Lunenburg NS
Shelter Valley Festival September 4, 5, Grafton On
Hopes for Island Santa
In the office here we have been talking about why we do what we do. After the standard, I cant help myself we have talked about music’s ability to make life better, or change something as strong as a heart. But how about add a new tradition in a part of the world that is looking at a huge disaster these days, the gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean I have a song called Island Santa, It is a Christmas song and if I had my wish answered it would be to have Jimmy Buffet or Ziggy Marley sing it and make it a tradition because the song talks about the cruise ships giving presents to the mermaids in boats for all the island girls and boys. Wouldn’t it be great if this became a tradition. If all the people on cruise ships bought food or toys for the children on the islands they floated past. I know that I don’t have the kind of fame to make a big enough splash down in that part of the world, or this one for that matter. So if any of you know how we can get this idea to them, drop me a line.
Live at the Segal Center
This January I had a show for Roots Montreal at the Segal Center in Montreal. It was wonderful to do a show so close to home. I had many original players from the album, Davy and Mia Gallant, Aleksi, Paul and Gabriel and Michelle Campagne as well as bringing in a wonderful drummer from Drummondville, Daniel Couture . (putting the drum in Drummondville) The recording is up on the CBC website. Here is the address: http://www.cbc.ca/montreal/features/routesmontreal/
THere is even some of the between song ramblings. I hope you like it. I have been preparing sheet music for some of my songs. We will be posting the regularly. Thanks.
Remembering Kate McGarrigle
In remembering Kate McGarrigle who died January 18th
I first met Kate Mcgarrigle when I was opening for them in Saskatoon. Needless to say I was thrilled to be on the bill. I was a huge fan of the McGarrigles and as a songwriter starting out, this was a big break. Both her and Anna were personable and charming and seemed to be bewildered by the attention. That tour had a terrible sound man that at the Winnipeg show turned up with the gear five minutes before the show began. There was a suggestion by Kate to do the show acoustically and just ask the audience up on stage. Sadly the band would not go for it. I was voting for Kate’s plan because the greatest magic of those shows was when most or all of the band disappeared and we were left with the pure sounds of great songs well sung. I loved opening for them because I got to hear them for five nights running and sit around and talk.
So it was with sadness that I heard of her passing. All of us thought that with a spirit that large cancer would never be able to hold sway for any length of time. Her death made me take stock in the debt all female musicians in this country owe a woman like Kate McGarrigle. There have been a few matriarchs of the scene. Women who were successful in a time where most musicians were male and women were often relegated to the pretty one in front while all the band wrote the songs and made the big decisions. But that was not them, they were there writing their own songs, singing in French and English, raising children, living where they pleased, and defining their own way. She dealt with all the things that women deal with, divorce, parenthood, and finding love when you are so very talented.
I was at her funeral at Basilique Notre Dame in Montreal this morning, which was everything you would wish for her. It was poignant, musical, filled with incense, tradition and music from every age, old friends and famous friends and a genuine sense that there was a community of people that cherished her. Her children sang and spoke with all the talent needed to make us feel the depth of their love for her.
But I was struck by how rarely we get to honour the women like her, who were Canadian trailblazers in this music life. The McGarrigles, Buffy St Marie, Sylvia Tyson, Joni Mitchell or Marie Michelle Desrosiers. There is a need to recognise what they did for other female songwriters and musicians that came after them. They let us all know that as a woman you can keep your own vision, that you can sing of things that women know, that you can , no matter how difficult, choose how you integrate your family and career and how to write music that matters. They opened the good doors. They changed how women in this industry were perceived. Her spirit, her great songs, the partnership that she had with her sister Anna that endured all those years, the children she raised to be artists in their own right and the wealth of the wonderful music that inspired us all are worthy of our acknowledgement. And as the crowd stood shivering on the steps of the basilica most of us felt the need for a wake, not wanting to let the thoughts of her disappear so quickly. So on the way home from old Montréal, I bought a bottle of the best margaux I could find, ironically by a female vintner. Just like her it starts out good and gets better with age. I will toast her brilliance and the good luck I had to cross paths with her, and I will sit down at the piano and learn Mendecino by heart.
Connie Kaldor
February is here!!
February is here. I’ve finished my touring for the time being. My promo tour for the CD Postcards from the Road has taken me on the Road from Vancouver Island to Montreal from November 7, 2009 to January 26, 2010. I’ve met some great people along the way. Hopefully we’ll see you out and about in 2010.
Connie
January 2010
Connie Kaldor releases Postcards from the Road
Connie Kaldor tours Canada
Postcards from the Road , the latest album from Connie Kaldor
is available for sale and download.
This is the fourteenth album from Connie Kaldor. She went into the studio with a great collection of new songs and some of the best musicians in Quebec. Like classic Connie Kaldor you will have to have a long line for the genre section. She is a writer with few limits. Her strength has always been her live show that demands a wide-open range of songwriting. These “postcards from the road” are vignettes as varied as the Canadian places she has played over the years. There’s songs with mountains, prairies, mining towns, cowboys, winning, losing and the unpredictable road of romance from “ all I ever needed in the world was someone like you coming on to me” to “ Welcome to Heartacheville”. If our country were a musical this would be the soundtrack. Read more
Touring Summer 2010
Postcards from the Road will be taking Connie to festivals on both coasts this summer . See you there!
Photography by ?
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Here are her tour dates
June 27 Ancaster Ontario
Music at Fieldcote
64 Sulpher Springs Road
July17,18 Vancouver BC
Vancouver Folk Festival
Jericho beach
www.vancouverfolkfestival.comv>
July 22 Penticton, BC
The Dream Cafe 67 Front Street.
www.thedreamcafe.com
July 24, 25 Bella Coola BC
Discover Coast Music Festival
Fair Grounds
Tickets call 250- 799-5744
July 31 Comox BC
Filberg Festival
61 Filberg Road , Comox
www.filbergfestival.com
August 7,8,9 Lunenburg NS
Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival
www.folkharbour.com
