Tag Archives: Music

Posts from Base Camp

Great Music Trips

Leave a comment

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Near the end of 2014, I went on a “musical pilgrimage” to southern England. Based mostly in Cambridge and London, highlights included Paul Carrack in Southend-on-Sea, Jools Holland at the Royal Albert Hall, the London production of “The Commitments”, Los Pacaminos (featuring Paul Young) in a Putney pub, and a bunch of Beatles sights (including crossing Abbey Road, in the above photo).

It’s been a while since I’ve done a trip like that, although I still attend a lot of concerts. So, where would I go now?

The first place that comes to mind is South Africa. Regular readers of this blog will know that I saw (and met!) the late Johnny Clegg many times. Paul Simon’s “Graceland” album remains one of my all-time favourites. “The Indestructible Beat of Soweto” is a great compilation of music from South Africa. I really enjoyed seeing Ladysmith Black Mambazo when they came to Kingston. And Ladysmith Black Mambazo recently collaborated with South African Jeremy Loops on a fun single called “This Town”. It would be great to see this live, in the country where it was made.

I enjoyed seeing a small tango orchestra in Buenos Aires, Argentina. But since then, I have discovered the music of Bajofondo. The band members are from both Argentina and Uruguay. They use local music, such as tango, as a starting point…but take it in some very interesting modern directions. Since poor weather stopped me from getting to Uruguay, wouldn’t it be cool to see something like this in Montevideo?

But it is not necessary to go halfway across the world. There are some American artists who could form the basis for a fun musical trip. I have great respect for Jon Batiste from New Orleans, Louisiana: I was singing the praises of his “We Are” album even before it received a bunch of Grammy nominations. A trip to New Orleans could also include Trombone Shorty, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band (who we recently saw in Kingston)…the list goes on.

I’ve already seen the Weeklings perform live…in Monmouth, New Jersey, of all places. However, they were so compelling that I’d love to see them again. Their cover versions (especially of Beatles songs) are amazing, but their original compositions are great too. And I recently discovered that they sometimes play live at Daryl’s House, in Pawling, New York. It’s a cozy venue, and is operated by none other than Daryl Hall (of Hall & Oates fame). Wouldn’t that be a fun part of a trip to New York City?

I shared some Weeklings videos in a music-related post from a couple of years ago…if you like the above two, you’ll probably find these ones even better.

And what about all those Canadian music trips I could do? Pagliaro in Montreal…trips like that could keep me occupied for years!

Posts from Base Camp

2021 (Re-) Discoveries, Part 2

2 Comments

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Following up on my Boxing Day post, here are some more things that I appreciated musically in 2021. Today’s focus is on music with a connection to this travel blog.

In 2018, I went to a music conference in New Jersey. We saw a great band called the Weeklings: you can read more about it here. A couple of the songs they debuted at that conference (see photo at the top of this post) have since made it onto their 3rd studio album (logically, called “3”). I think the above cover of “Baby You’re a Rich Man” improves considerably on the Beatles’ original version…which is not something I say very often!

But I also like the Weeklings’ original music. “In the Moment”, “Running Away”, and the title track from “3” may not sound like 21st century recordings: hearing them is like finding previously unreleased power pop gems from the last century. And what’s wrong with that?

Another vinyl compilation I picked up in 2021 was Stevie Wonder’s “Original Musiquarium I”. This double album collects some of his best 1970s tracks along with a handful of new recordings from the 1980s. It’s hard to imagine a better sequence of music than the beginning of side 3: “Higher Ground”, “Sir Duke”, “Master Blaster (Jammin’)”, and “Boogie on Reggae Woman”.

An urgent live version of “Higher Ground”

But Side 1’s opening comes close: “Superstition”, “You Haven’t Done Nothin'”, and “Living for the City”. Despite being quite a distance from the stage, seeing Stevie Wonder a few years ago in Toronto is one of our fondest concert memories. Here’s a link to that post.

…and an urgent live version of “Superstition”, from the same 1974 German TV appearance

2021 saw me listen to a lot of Marshall Crenshaw’s music again. We saw him perform in upstate New York in 2013, and I managed to get him to sign my copy of his self-titled 1982 debut album (the original vinyl pressing, of course). He was happy to hear that I played his music on my radio program at CFRC-FM.

My signed copy of Marshall Crenshaw’s debut album

That album remains a great blast of fresh air, but I also like playing his lesser-known 1996 Miracle of Science LP. It was recently reissued on vinyl, and included a bonus single with a Michel Pagliaro cover!

Someday, Someway is from Marshall’s debut album

Michel Pagliaro may not be well-remembered, but this Quebec singer wrote and performed “Lovin’ You Ain’t Easy”. The title is rubbish, but musically it has more hooks than almost any other single ever released. When we saw the Trans-Canada Highwaymen perform at the Grand Theatre in Kingston a few years ago, they performed this song as an encore. An absolute highlight! Pagliaro is still performing in Quebec to this day; maybe we’ll get a chance to see him soon.

Music has been an important part of our travels. While the pandemic is crushing any travel ideas right now, I’m hopeful that in a few months we’ll be journeying and listening to live music again.

Posts from Base Camp

2021 (Re-) Discoveries

Leave a comment

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

This post was going to be about the difficulty of planning travel during a pandemic. But my heart just wasn’t in it: we already read enough about isolation, quarantines, cancellations, and those dreaded words “tentatively scheduled”. I also appreciate that leisure travel cannot be prioritized over more serious concerns. Instead, I’ve decided to write about some of the music I discovered (or re-discovered) in 2021.

You’ll probably be seeing some of this at the 2022 Grammy awards

Music has continued to be a wonderful refuge from the pandemic. Most of my music purchases this year were on vinyl: at home, it is very easy to enjoy the ritual and warmer sound of vinyl records.

“I Need You”, by Jon Batiste

Some records were new to me. One of my favourites was “We Are”, by Jon Batiste. I first saw him as the bandleader for Stephen Colbert, but that is only a small part of his career. While loosely based on the music of New Orleans, “We Are” ranges from jazz, swing, and old-school R&B to hip-hop and gospel. And it is nice to see that it was released on the legendary Verve record label. I wasn’t surprised to see that it has just received a bunch of Grammy nominations. I’ve included a couple of video links – these are probably the most “commercial” of the tracks.

“Freedom”, by Jon Batiste

Another record that was “new” to me was actually released in 1978: Earth Wind & Fire’s “Greatest Hits, Volume 1”. I knew some of the songs beforehand, but I enjoyed practically everything on it. It seems to be from the sweet spot of vinyl: it sounded absolutely spectacular on my turntable. Sometimes these compilations would have a token new song that didn’t measure up to the rest. In this case, however, the token new song was “September”: it may well be their best song.

“September”, by Earth Wind & Fire

I took a chance on an LP called “Al Zman Saib”, by long-dead Moroccan singer Fadoul. The first track is called “Sid Redad”…but it is actually a startling Moroccan Arabic version of James Brown’s “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag”. While the LP contains a couple of other covers, even the original songs ae fascinating. Unpolished, to be sure, but the musicians do seem to be having a lot of fun.

Sid Redad (Paps’s Got A Brand New Bag)

The year also saw me rediscover some albums that I originally owned on CD. I’ll be mentioning some of those in a future post, but I’ll focus on one for now: The Beatles’ 1966 “Revolver” LP.

Tomorrow Never Knows – truly without precedent

Many people consider it the best album of the modern era, and the songs are of a uniformly high quality despite being incredibly diverse. It’s hard to believe that the Beatles recorded this LP less than 4 years after “Love Me Do”. But even though I’ve heard “Revolver” hundreds of times, listening to again on new vinyl was a revelation. I heard things I had never heard before. Whenever I want a quick jolt of the sound of innovation, nothing does the trick quite like “Revolver”.

Got to Get You Into My Life – by the Beatles
It’s hard to top the Beatles’ original version, but Earth Wind & Fire gave it a good shot!

If you enjoyed this post chronicling travel of a different sort, stay tuned. I’ll be posting some more music discoveries soon!

Posts from the road

Celebrities and the Jersey Shore

Leave a comment

(West Long Branch, New Jersey, U.S.A.)

One of the interesting parts of the New Jersey conference was interacting with people whose names I knew…but whom I had never actually seen or met.

As this was an academic conference, many of the attendees and presenters were authors.  I brought along a few books for signing, as it appeared that time would be available to meet the authors.  In each case, the authors were unfailingly polite and it was abundantly clear that they were also big fans of the music.

The Jersey Shore

There was another attendee who might be a little more famous (by work, if not by name) to those outside of the Beatles’ world.  He has a very significant Beatles connection, but he has also reached the pinnacle of his profession through his work with other musicians.  However, he rarely attends events like this…and I wondered if he might not be too thrilled to meet “fans”. 

Science Hall at Monmouth University

While I did obtain his autograph and briefly speak to him, I was most struck by his keen interest in the conference.  Although he was a featured guest, he did not just zip in and out of the conference for his assigned slot.  He arrived early and stayed for several days (and these were long days)…perhaps even longer than I did!   And it was evident that he was just as polite with, and considerate of, other “fans” as he was when I met him.  

Woodrow Wilson Hall, Monmouth University, Long Branch, New Jersey

This made me ponder the whole idea of celebrity.  If I were famous and pursuing one of my interests, my patience with being approached by strangers might eventually get worn down.  Imagine  having to deal with that all of the time!  And so, given the grace with which this person was handling things, I have decided not to name him or post a picture.

Bey Hall, Monmouth University

Almost exactly four years ago, I came across a similar issue when I visited the Abbey Road recording studio in London, England.  The building (and the pedestrian crossing outside of it) are, of course, iconic in the Beatles world.  I readily accepted a stranger’s offer to take my picture while I walked across Abbey Road.  However, one of the most famous musicians of all time also lives quite close to that studio…only a few minutes’ walk away.

I had to take a look, as I was curious about the style in which this musician lived.  I thought about taking a picture and posting it on this blog.  In the end, however, I decided that posting a photograph would just contribute to the “siege” that this musician must often feel.

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania…on the way back home

As a result, rather than posting “celebrity” photos, I have decided to illustrate this post with some more travel-oriented photos of the conference trip.  The final stop was a  brief visit to the nearby Jersey Shore (see photo at the very top of this post), which I had heard about but never actually seen.  After taking some final pictures and ceremonially touching the chilly Atlantic Ocean, it was time to begin the long journey back home.

Posts from the road

Return to Academia

Leave a comment

(West Long Branch, New Jersey, U.S.A.)

After the great concert on the first night at Monmouth University’s music symposium (see my previous post – and also photo above), it was time to get a little serious.

There were roughly 50 “elective” seminars spread out over 10 time slots, so it was impossible to see everything.  I decided to challenge myself and attend something that sounded really obscure…a seminar on “irregular hypermeters”.  As I was never able to fit any music electives into my university timetable, I braced myself for the worst.  I have a good grounding in the basics of music theory, and have always been intrigued by odd time signatures, but haven’t really studied music seriously for about 35 years.  Even with the conference’s underlying Beatles theme, perhaps this was taking things too far?

The back of Woodrow Wilson Hall (Monmouth University)

My fears were groundless.  Yes, some of the language was challenging, especially when the professor also incorporated a philosophy called “aesthetic realism”.  And irregular hypermeters weren’t actually odd time signatures, as I had originally thought.  But then something very cool happened:  the professor was so enthusiastic about the material that the required intellectual gymnastics suddenly became attainable.

The “OceanFist Bank Center” at Monmouth University

The basic idea was that the musical phrases in Beatles music are often captivating because they do not comply with the “rules” for popular music.  For example, instead of the expected lengths of 4, 8 or 12 bars, the phrases would be 5 bars (“Eleanor Rigby”) or 7 bars (“Yesterday”).  This is what you call an “irregular hypermeter”.  Sure enough, if you count out the beats and bars, these songs (and many others) do not fit the expected pattern.  The predictability so often found in blues and country music, and by extension much popular music, just isn’t there.  Is this why the Beatles’ music still sounds fresh and inventive today?

Front entrance to Woodrow Wilson Hall

The professor was a gifted musician…in fact, it turns out that he has won awards as a composer.  But instead of leaving us with just an interesting theory, he actually demonstrated on the piano what “Yesterday” would sound like if it contained “standard” verse phrases of 8 bars rather than 7 bars.  It was corny, and almost painful to hear.

After showing how (via the music of Burt Bacharach) the unusual phrasing and chord changes in “Eleanor Rigby” also surprise and delight, the professor took some questions from the class.  At one point, he erupted into a vocal passage from an opera (in German!) to demonstrate his point.

Side entrance to Woodrow Wilson Hall

Before we knew it, we had run way past the scheduled end of the seminar.  In a sign that the message got through, I later enthused about this previously unknown subject to my friend…and, over the next several days, anybody else who would listen.  I also found myself counting out the lengths of melodic phrases in every piece of music I encountered (note: don’t try this when you are driving).  Sure enough, the most cliched-sounding songs rigidly follow the same old patterns.

Just in case you missed it – another view of Woodrow Wilson Hall (with previously unnoticed pink glow)

While this topic continues to fascinate me, I think the key take-aways are a lot simpler.  First of all, being passionate about what you are teaching can break down a lot of barriers.  Secondly, learning out of pure interest is far more effective than learning out of necessity.  And finally, you’re never too old to learn.  If you can find something you’re passionate about, those rusty old learning skills will come rushing back!

Posts from the road

An awesome concert in New Jersey!

Leave a comment

(West Long Branch, New Jersey, U.S.A.)

On very short notice, I decided to join a friend on a road trip to a four-day academic music conference at Monmouth University in New Jersey.  This was purely for fun and had nothing to do with my employment.  I was free to attend whichever seminars and events caught my interest.

My previous exposure to New Jersey consisted only of passing through Newark Airport on my way to and from New York City.  Most of what I saw was concrete.  This time, however, I found myself at an idyllic college that seemed far removed from urban America.

Stop for gas in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains

The conference itself was scheduled to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ eponymous 1968 album (popularly known as the “White Album”).  While most of the seminars had some connection to that album, the topics ranged from the media in 1960s Germany to “irregular hypermeters” (more about that in a future post).

Yes. New Jersey’s Garden State Parkway passes through a place called Cheesequake!

In addition to the daytime seminars, there were “working” lunches with keynote speakers, dinners with live entertainment, evening presentations for all attendees, vast numbers of books for sale…and, on the first night, a concert by a band called “The Weeklings“.  They seemed to be fairly well known, so we decided to attend as the tickets were included with our conference fees.

I was so impressed with Cheesequake that I took another picture

I had no idea that this concert, by a band that was completely unknown to me,  would be one of the very best that I had ever attended.  The Weeklings are primarily a Beatles tribute band, meaning that they replicate the songs of the Beatles in concert.  I’ve seen plenty of these bands before, and many of them are quite good.  My brother-in-law even portrayed John Lennon in one of them. However, the Weeklings (see photo at the top of this post) don’t look anything like the Beatles, nor do they even try.

The interior of Monmouth University’s Woodrow Wilson Hall, where we ate our dinners and attended a number of presentations

The concert was a live recreation of (most of) the White Album.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with that double album, it is by far the most musically varied of any Beatles album.  The songs range from acoustic ballads to heavy metal, ska to music hall, and everything in between.  The songs are also full of musical tricks, including multiple time signature changes within the same song or even the same verse. Playing it live is an extreme test.  But the Weeklings were up to it…for this special event, they even had a 5-piece string section and a 6-piece horn section.

Descending the marble staircase into Woodrow Wilson Hall’s dining area

It was astonishing.  Even with Paul McCartney’s vast financial resources, the string and horn parts at his concerts are generally played by one guy with a fancy keyboard.  To hear these songs live, with the actual arrangements and instruments that appear on the record, was really something special.

The Weeklings on stage at Pollak Hall

But that wasn’t all – the Weeklings then proceeded to play a handful of their original compositions (with obvious Beatles influences)…and then play even more Beatles songs that are rarely performed live with full string and horn sections.  While their string-heavy and amped-up version of “I am the Walrus” was deeply impressive, it was “A Day in the Life” that really took things to the next level.

“A Day in the Life” is, in my opinion, the Beatles’ finest song.  The recording, with its unprecedented and seemingly random 24-bar orchestral crescendos, represents one of the highest points of 20th century popular music.  To hear it live, with that instrumentation, was like nothing I had ever heard.

The musicians acknowledge the crowd at the end of the show

It has been said that writing about music is like dancing about architecture:  it is very difficult to do well.  But If I haven’t conveyed it clearly enough, please just take my word for it…this was amazing, and you should definitely see these guys if you ever get the chance.  They don’t always have the strings and horns with them in concert, but even as a 4-piece band with a keyboard player on the side, they are still incredible.  What a great way to start the conference!

Posts from the road

The Final Journey

Leave a comment

(Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

Like most Canadians, I awoke on October 18 to the news that Gord Downie (the front man for Canadian music icons The Tragically Hip) had passed away from brain cancer.  Shortly after announcing his diagnosis, Downie and the Hip embarked on a 2016 farewell tour of Canada that featured sold-out concerts and an outpouring of emotion.  The final concert, in my hometown of Kingston, was an especially monumental event and was broadcast live on national television.

Many thousands of words have already been written about Downie in the days since his passing.  Rather than add to that total, I have decided to write about something else that also happened on October 18:  I attended Johnny Clegg’s concert at Koerner Hall at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.   Sadly, there is a tragic  parallel between Clegg and Downie.

I first wrote about Johnny Clegg in this post from late 2014.  He is one of South Africa’s greatest musicians and played an important role in the fight against Apartheid.   His songs were generally sung in both English and Zulu, he fully embraced Zulu culture, and he had racially integrated bands at a time when racial segregation was the law.

View from the back of Koerner Hall, prior to the concert

I wrote about Clegg again in the spring of 2016, when he unexpectedly performed a concert in Kingston.  At the time, nobody knew that he had recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

After his most recent course of chemotherapy earlier this year, Clegg announced that he was in remission and wanted to embark on one final tour called “The Final Journey”.  This brief and highly selective tour would take him to some of the places that had strongly supported him through his career.  In Canada, one of his biggest markets, concerts were scheduled in Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City.

Attending Clegg’s concert gave me an idea of what it must have been like to see The Tragically Hip on their final tour.  Knowing that this was his final tour added exceptional poignancy to the entire evening.  That feeling intensified when Clegg dedicated a song to Downie.  It became almost intolerable when Clegg sang songs such as Osiyeza (The Crossing).

Clegg wrote Osiyeza after the premature 1992 death of bandmate Mntowaziwaio Ndlovu.  it was extremely moving to hear Clegg sing it on this tour, as the lyrics comment on how a person can affect others even after that person is no longer alive.  During this song, as with several others, the woman seated beside me was wiping away tears.

View from my seat at Koerner Hall. No zoom lens – I had a great seat!

Another poignant moment was when Clegg performed Cruel, Crazy Beautiful World.  Clegg wrote this song in the late 1980s for his then-newborn son Jesse.  Jesse, who is also a musician and has had six Top Ten hits of his own in South Africa, was the opening act at this concert and joined his father onstage for a couple of songs.  It must now be hard for Jesse to hear lyrics such as “One day when you wake up, I will have to say goodbye”.

It certainly wasn’t all sad, though.  You could hear a pin drop when Clegg talked about the anthropological inspiration for Scatterlings of Africa:  as always, his stories were fascinating and didn’t insult the intelligence of his audience.  How many other musicians refer to mitochondria during their concerts?  And songs like Dela, always a live favourite, exploded with joy and excitement.

Clegg put a lot of energy into the concert.  It may have been energy that he didn’t really have.  I considered waiting around, as I had met him at the previous three concerts I had attended.  However, I then overheard that his post-show energy level made it unlikely that he would appear for a meet and greet.  At that point, I decided to leave the concert hall.  I reasoned that Johnny Clegg had already given enough.

O siyeza, o siyeza, sizofika webaba noma
O siyeza, o siyeza, siyagudla lomhlaba
Siyawela laphesheya lulezontaba ezimnyama
Lapha sobheka phansi konke ukuhlupheka

(From “Osiyeza (The Crossing)“, by Johnny Clegg)

Posts from Base Camp

Showtime in Kingston!

Leave a comment

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

While the sound wasn’t so great at the Los Lobos concert in Toronto, we have had a lot of great concert experiences this year in Kingston at the Grand Theatre.

Last fall, we saw Darlene Love…you know her voice, even if you think you don’t know the name. She sang on a bunch of the early 1960s records produced by Phil Spector but she was very rarely credited personally.  She also was a back-up singer for some artists you may recognize:  Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, Tom Jones, The Beach Boys and Dionne Warwick, to name just a few.

With Darlene Love at the Grand Theatre in Kingston
With Darlene Love at the Grand Theatre in Kingston

Recognition came later: being admitted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011, being named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 100 greatest vocalists, being invited onto Late Night with David Letterman every year to sing her signature song “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” and then more recently starring in the feature film “20 Feet from Stardom” (which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2013). She was in Kingston as part of her tour to promote her new album cleverly titled “Introducing Darlene Love”. But she also sang the songs that first made her voice famous…it really sends a chill down your spine to hear “Christmas” live!

One of the great things about shows at the Grand Theatre is that the performers generally come out afterwards to sign autographs and pose for pictures. Darlene was no exception and it was great to meet her. She has been singing for more than 50 years but still sounds great and loves what she’s doing.

With Holly Cole at the Grand Theatre in Kingston
With Holly Cole at the Grand Theatre in Kingston

We also saw Holly Cole, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Johnny Clegg this year at the Grand Theatre.  Each of them were inspiring in their own way…and we also had the privilege of meeting each of them and getting pictures and autographs from them.

Buffy Sainte-Marie on stage at the Grand Theatre in Kingston
Buffy Sainte-Marie on stage at the Grand Theatre in Kingston

It was especially cool to see Johnny Clegg (see photo at the top of this post) in Kingston.   I first wrote about Johnny Clegg in this post from late 2014.  We previously traveled to Ottawa and Niagara-on-the-Lake to see this South African legend perform but never thought that we would be able to see him in our hometown.

We were a little concerned that seeing him for the 3rd time in 5 years might not be as special. Happily, we were wrong.  His set list was quite different and he seemed even more energetic than before.  You get the whole experience at a Johnny Clegg concert – the incredibly joyous South African music that makes the crowd go wild…followed by reverent silence as the audience hangs on every word when he tells his fascinating stories.   And the stories were all new too!

Buffy Sainte-Marie and one of her fans
Buffy Sainte-Marie and one of her fans

We’re really fortunate to have this facility in Kingston…I’m sure we will be attending some great shows in the 2016-2017 season as well.

Stay tuned for some travel flashbacks…and the countdown to our mysterious summer adventure in the Southern Hemisphere!

 

Posts from the road

Showtime in Toronto

Leave a comment

(Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

We recently made a quick visit to Toronto for a concert. Los Lobos have been on my musical bucket list for a while and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to see them.  Before showtime, however, we had a couple of stops to make.

Toronto has a great transit pass offer on weekends: 2 adults (and up to 4 children) can ride all day for a total of $12.00.  With single rides costing $3.25 cash, the pass pays for itself if 2 adults take one return trip.   We did that…and much more.

The Hockey Hall of Fame in downtown Toronto
The Hockey Hall of Fame in downtown Toronto

Our first stop was a neighbourhood that used to be known as “Little India”.  Somehow, I had never visited this part of Gerrard Avenue East (between Greenwood and Coxwell) despite living in Toronto for 3 years.  It’s now known as the “Gerrard India Bazaar” but it still has several blocks of restaurants and shops featuring food and clothing from the Indian subcontinent.

We were hungry and slightly overwhelmed by the number of restaurants, so we went to the first one that looked a little different from Kingston’s Indian restaurants.  Karma’s Kitchen featured Indian, Nepalese and Tibetan cuisine; I settled on a sizzling plate called Chicken Tangra.

Chicken Tangra at Karma's Kitchen in Toronto
Chicken Tangra at Karma’s Kitchen in Toronto

After picking up some unusual food items (including a delicious Punjabi peanut brittle!) for home and dropping them off at our hotel, we did some music shopping in the Queen West/Spadina neighbourhood and then headed to The Annex.

I lived on the edge of The Annex many years ago and often visited this part of town for dinner and/or entertainment….and so it was on this night, as we visited the venerable Country Style Hungarian Restaurant on Bloor Street West.   As you can see from the photo, the size of the schnitzel did not disappoint!  There was lots of spätzle underneath and a cucumber salad besides.   It’s not fancy but you cannot possibly leave hungry.

Chicken Schnitzel at Country Style Hungarian Restaurant
Chicken Schnitzel at Country Style Hungarian Restaurant

We sauntered slowly from the restaurant to the concert venue.  It was all quite promising:  an acclaimed band, an acoustically renowned concert hall, a supposedly “unplugged” concert theme, and seats in the first row of the side balcony, right by the stage.  We looked forward to seeing and hearing with astonishing clarity.

Well, we did *see* Los Lobos up close.  Unfortunately, the concert was marred by unbalanced and muddy sound.  It was strange to be only a short distance from the saxophone player and yet not hear any of the notes he was obviously playing.  Same with the vocals; in fact, even the announcements (without music) at the start of the concert were unintelligible.  However, we did hear plenty of the wall of guitars.   Our ears rang for quite some time afterwards; this was certainly not an unplugged or acoustic performance.

Los Lobos at Koerner Hall in Toronto: this band has been together for more than 40 years!
Los Lobos in Toronto: this band has been together for more than 40 years!

I walked the length of the balcony, to see if we were in a sonic “dead zone”, but things didn’t seem to be any better.  Los Lobos finished their concert with a seamless medley of “La Bamba” and the Rascals’ “Good Lovin'”.  They clearly are accomplished and adventurous musicians – other songs wandered into portions of “Not Fade Away” and “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” before returning to the original Los Lobos song.

Despite the disappointing sound at the concert, our trip was still a success…particularly with some great finds the next morning at the antique market and spectacular gelato (as always) at “G is for Gelato” on Jarvis Street.   And we can listen to brilliant albums like “Kiko” at home anytime!

Posts from the road

A special evening in Cobourg

Leave a comment

(Cobourg, Ontario, Canada)

We went for a road trip this weekend and decided to stay overnight in Cobourg, Ontario…a town located almost 100 miles west of Kingston. This is just a bit too far to properly visit on a day-trip, but perhaps not far enough for a weekend trip. Beyond “it seemed like a nice place to explore, the last time we passed through”, not a lot of thought went into our choice.

We arrived to mid-afternoon rain and quickly visited the shops and indoor sights we wanted to see. We took a look at the historic Victoria Hall concert venue, located in a beautiful old stone building on Cobourg’s main street, and decided that it would be nice to attend a concert there some day.

Cobourg's Victoria Hall at night
Cobourg’s Victoria Hall at night

As the drizzly weather continued, we decided to drive on to the nearby town of Port Hope to do some more shopping and indoor sightseeing. Port Hope has a compact but attractive downtown core and we made a point of visiting its restored “golden age of cinema” Capitol Theatre.

Inside the Capitol, we discovered that Port Hope (and Cobourg) were hosting the Vintage Film Festival that very weekend. They were showing some seriously old movies, including one silent movie on Sunday morning from 1917 that would feature a live piano accompanist! We resolved to return in the morning for that unique experience, if at all possible.

Port Hope's historic Capitol Theatre
Port Hope’s historic Capitol Theatre

As we trudged on through the rain, I saw a poster for an upcoming concert:  “Tribute to The Last Waltz”.  I thought this would be interesting, as it featured a large band of well-known professional Canadian musicians recreating The Band’s legendary 1976 farewell concert.  That concert was made into a movie by Martin Scorsese and also received a triple-album release on vinyl.  In addition to music by The Band, that particular concert also featured performances by The Band with Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Dr. John, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and many others.

The Last Waltz in Cobourg
The Last Waltz in Cobourg

Curious, we looked a little closer at the poster.  The concert was going to be in Cobourg’s Victoria Hall!  Tonight!   Should we go?  Yes!  We raced back to Cobourg in search of tickets.  It was a wild goose chase, as stores were closing and the concert appeared to be sold out.  We actually tracked down the promoter himself and found out that two ticketholders *might* not be able to attend.  At one minute before showtime, it was confirmed that there would be exactly two unused tickets.  We were in!  Even better, there were two empty seats in the 3rd row, just a few feet from the stage!

Jerome Levon Avis' drum kit, including a picture of the drummer with Levon Helm
Jerome Levon Avis’ drum kit, including a picture of the drummer with Levon Helm

The concert featured a 9-piece house band (including a 4-piece horn section), plus various special guests…just like the original Last Waltz.  The band’s drummer, Jerome Levon Avis, was the godson of Levon Helm – who was the drummer for The Band!  Other musicians included members of famous bands such as Lighthouse and Blood, Sweat & Tears.

Writing about music is not an easy thing to do.  How do you convey the chill down your spine when a Van Morrison sound-alike has a swinging band and horn section behind him?  When that same band nails a soulful classic by The Band and the whole theatre is singing along like a gospel choir?   It was like that for almost the entire 3-hour concert.  Highlights for us included Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released” and “Like A Rolling Stone”, Van Morrison’s “Caravan”, Dr. John’s “Such A Night” and every one of our favourite songs by The Band:  “The Weight”, “Up on Cripple Creek”, and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”,  among others.

The Last Waltz in Cobourg
The Last Waltz in Cobourg

As we left the theatre, we had all of these classic songs (and more) replaying themselves over and over in our heads.  It was plainly obvious that we weren’t the only ones.  Thanks to the kindness of strangers in Cobourg, we had a completely unexpected and amazing experience (“Such A Night”, indeed!) on what was otherwise a dreary, rainy evening.

We didn’t make it to the piano-accompanied silent film screening in the morning…but the film festival is an annual event and we made a mental note to visit Port Hope and Cobourg again next fall.