The drummer centre stage (holds a hell of a lot of drama)

In the best possible way, this song is rude. Rude in that my day might have been fine and uninterrupted. Until this. Wow - what ever did they do? Go on and have created a little fire in my heart that maybe hadn’t been tended to in a while. Using restraint with the delivery of the question - unison on the selected questioning chorus, then returning to a bare emotive vocal, intimate recognitions revealed - back to unison. It speaks to a real conversation had between two - lovers? Yeah, I’d think so.

Am I a lover? Of Saburnia, yes I am.

It reads churchy - the smiles. I mean. But if I was placed inside this church I’d be smiling too. Not afraid to feature the players and build towards a good old-school climax. Nowadays bands tend to play it so safe, adhering to a strict MAX ROCKERY or working within a limited level of smash. It’s cool to watch these guys fulfil all the corners and balloons within the song. Blow up the track. Take it where it wants to go. Don’t be limited by sticking to a song structure or keeping within the boundaries of whatever fences modern ears are familiar with. Yes, Saburnia, keep taking it there.

A Pop of Emotion - Artists' Description

She writes in the description below her video: i wanted to make this video to show you the process of what it’s like making music when i’m alone, when nobody’s watching, when i’m in my own space, in my own world, rushing between machines and microphones, in this flow state where everything seems to make sense. perfect line between chaos and calm. i wanted to play each and every part and piece of THE CINEMA one by one. to build the song and reimagine it. i wanted to show the feeling of being confronted with myself on a screen, the feeling of imposter syndrome, of looking down on yourself whilst trying to do what you love.

And I can’t get enough of it. This 23 year old UK artist, records in her garden shed, writing, playing and producing her own music.

“I went to the cinema and I cry in the theatre
I wish that I made movies, good art, it makes me bitter
I turn on the radio and I grieve when I hear it
The song I wish I'd written and I could've, but I didn't
It goes on, it goes on, it goes on
It goes on, it goes on, it goes on”

The Paper Kites and these perfect harmonies

“Secret love, holy pain, it's all the same
What I did, I'd do again, over again
There's no secret in my name, none with me
I know you, you know me the same, in my veins”

Griff's perfect note of a person going thru it

“But it broke my heart in a million ways

then I fell apart in a foreign place.”

We might even miss some features of the madness - when the lucid dreams disappear. So gripping, so emotional they were; a pain with such deep roots it feels like your soul is being torn apart.

It’s not that you don’t want to be well. But the draw of that emotional mania (hating to say I been there) is that its presence is so intensely felt. Cause - hey - when the madness is gone, what is there left? Silence? Calm? Well that at first just isn’t as much fun.

You have to rebuild. Conscious this time, knowing that the bricks do matter, where you put them too. And who you let into the house you have made. Even if that means kicking a side of yourself out.

Griff - I identify. I feel this. I get what you’re saying. Love love.

Cool voice - Pining for the Carolinas

My moms name is Carol. I always hear her being called to when someone sings Carolina. I know it’s not referring to her but still my mind always gives her props. An inspiration, she is. Maybe it’s because I used to silently hear the association my dad put onto his favourite - James Taylor - who sings Gone to Carolina in my mind.

I think one of the greatest love stories I know - is my parents: not in how they met at Blakelock highschool, nor how my mom asked him to the Sadie Hawkins dance when it was uncool to do so, or that they agreed to get married at a restaurant called Shelley’s - which became my name…

Their love story is their friends. Lifelong they are. They keep busy. I used to think (stupidly) that one day I’d reach where they be at and we would celebrate. But now - I’m 40 and they’re still going too - 70 and nearly 70. What a cruel joke  that we never get to spend the same age on this planet together.

Regardless - they taught me to make a family of my own. Not just my man and kids, but friends that buffer the first - and I sure can make a mountain out of a mole hill.. but sometimes still feel that the realest friend I have is music.

How smooth and cool is James… I’m so grateful for the people in my life. Cultivate friendships you want to have, that lift you up. work on them.

An open book on what drove the song Heart of Gold by Shawn Mendes

Songs with a writers introduction are so important. Open the door to a deeper understanding. If you have lost someone too early, I'm sure you can relate to the pain Shawn experiences just trying to tell the story, and maybe also know that time delay - some things can be too upsetting for the mind to fully process right away.

Writing is both healing and transporting. When a writer is tackling material from personal loss, real experiences, it can feel overwhelming at first. It’s amazing how the body can store emotions for later, just sort of sets them aside hidden somewhere in the back of the brain, until that unexpected knock at the door. Then the flood. And the lyrics come.

I have found over time a song can start to feel less attached to the heartstrings, the more you sing it or listen, the further you get from the mournful fog in which the song was written. It feels like clarity first to put it down and say it; but in essence it works like an exorcism. It kind of heals the pain. It makes it easier to visit the material, and the song becomes more for the listeners. As if its purpose for the writer is then completed and detached.

Writing sometimes can feel selfish. Taking these moments and funnelling them through your eyes, your images, your life and way of expression. Sometimes it feels like we shouldn’t be wrapping our own ribbon around all these stories and wisdoms that the world is revealing. But if that song even helps just one person, if just one mind relates and appreciates or is helped to understand something by what you’ve written, then that’s all that matters. So keep writing about the hard stuff. Do it for you, and then let them listen. If it lands on one set of listening ears, it’s worth it. Songwriting is communication. More show than tell, it is one of the gentlest ways to pass along story. And for some artists - the only way they can.

Medium Build - lovely acoustic stories

I’m a sucker for acoustic performances. Medium Build’s YouTube page delivers in this regard (going back to 7 years ago). There is a fullness attained, even though it’s just a voice and a guitar. But that simple set up is effective enough, thanks to his emotive expression and sad boy style. Storytelling is easy business for this guy, and I appreciate the unique tangibles he uses in his songs, breathing life into the characters (himself included) as their relationships are analyzed and presented. He puts places, people, objects in his lyrics that transport the listener right into his world. He builds mini-dramas - 3 minute capsules of real life. I love it. Who else can put The Princess Bride and Croc charms into song and pull it off?

Can I really still complain, to be back here once again? Bon Iver 1 year ago

Bon Iver’s releases from a year ago (SABLE, fABLE) have been with me, for a year now. A couple songs travel really closely with me. When I turn on my car, the YouTube Music app serves it up as a mainstay. I turn it on for myself, and I turn it on hoping it will have the same effect on my daughter - calming - on her route to school.

There’s a natural cool and simple breakthrough saying these things, these concepts in these songs. Particularly the title even “There’s a Rhythm.” I mean, on it’s own it feels true. It’s truth feels calming. Where the world can force feed randomness and noise but after that, meaning and serenity maybe… there’s a rhythm to the cycles. But also as you go, a rhythm you can learn. A rhythm with which you can pace your day, your breath, your intention. I even imagine that practicing this rhythm makes you better at it.

But wait, make room in your heart for S P E Y S I D E. Such mournful poetry of what feels like both apology with an inevitable acceptance that you can’t go back. “as i fill my book, oh what a waste of wood.” Referencing his exact practice of writing which is bringing me so much joy, to mere reversal back to the material whose empty offering created such moments. Justin brings emotion alive, like no other.

Day One (feat. Dijon & Flock of Dimes) — church of positivity, managing to capture the revelation born of being pushed to the limit, that learning so hard you hate it until it finally shows up as the sunlight after so dark a storm you’d lost imagination that it would end. I love it, the pressure of relationships, especially with yourself. You think you’re so strong, then hell handles your everything, and you just go along for the ride. Come out the other side with the notion that this is exactly how everything always happens, isn’t it? Recovery, also is a Rhythm.

These are beautiful songs I will love, and true to the order Justin created, I won’t say “I’ll love them forever”… I’ll say, I will love them - From Now On.

Long blue light…long time coming…

Leif Vollebekk. Toronto 2025.

How can I encapsulate my level of inquiry into your flow, and into your ability to have drawn each work perfectly out from nothing and into the world unscathed by form or structure? I am both surprised and not at the two emergencies that happened during your show at Massey Hall - you deep in the throes of throwing sound around - I mean what most tamest show could two people pass out at? The first you stopped the music and waved your light “emergency” and the crowd over there separated - it was resolved. Then someone else passed out ahaha I couldn’t believe it. And it’s not funny, being unwell in a large crowd is scary. It happened to me when I was underage at a Ben folds show - I lost up from down and they shone a medical light in my face - - but I was not okay until this hippie came and parted the crew of care takers and locked eyes with me. She said “ you’re okay “. And something changed. And I was. Okay. I came back to balance.

that is the same effect your music has on my soul.

I can only guess that the depths of your giving, this story driven, soulful plucking music, went down too far into a mind who had not as strong a grip on their magic. You shifted someone’s gravity. Twice… it does make me laugh.

long blue light. A songwriters musician. You make me feel safe, everytime.

He is a musician that has created work that generates more truthful work. Describing the human condition, exposing vulnerability in such poetic ways that it inspires equal expression. I’m not sure how to describe exactly this magic touch, a playful use of instruments in jazzy and gentle ways, so muted then so building, to paint a spirit aurally, explaining through sound what lies between the lines - it says what the thoughtful vocal delivery of beautiful and tactile imagery leaves to mystery. Combined, the careful playing of guitar, pianos, this symphony of sound - with the layman’s profundity of his raw and emotional exposé lyrics - it is a triumph of songwriting - a feat of the sonic storyteller. we are not worthy xoxo

A few things to check out on this artist if you aren’t familiar, are the videos https://youtu.be/LjAqGhmlPNY?si=ygpyh_b3guM3YoUO

He is as good live as the recorded versions. If not better for the humour between, and occasional background story. Breaking out in I beleive a Shania Twain cover mid performance is not off the table - just an artist you’d kick it with.

This cover of Read My Mind by the killers. I swear he wrote a whole new version yet it’s the same skeleton and words. https://youtu.be/sjsnqO44IV0?si=YTx9nA9NnyafYpQg

And if you’re a nerd and totally into this _ it’s the musicianship and communication - even with no eye contact, it’s the subtle movements, it’s the strings so expertly synchronized with a vocal hum, a chorus that seems surprising even to the band, it’s the unit, performing as a breathing whole here - Leif in the centre is a force magnetic and soft, self-assured and promising - and these songs deliver…

https://youtu.be/T3KvINop46Q?si=pXXUsHxlu2dfBG9a

Has anyone been here before? Zach Bryan collabs with my fave evverrr, Watchouse!!

It isn’t often I am surprised by music these days. But I've been following the music of Watchhouse since they were Mandolin Orange, and they live in my top 5 most played whilst reminiscing on a long drive. We love them. Zach Bryan paired with them and how did I miss this release?

I used to play with a mandolinist - and i’d vote for that on every track. There was no getting sick of the emotional glue that held our rock and pop lyrics together, tapping light that gleans on the sentimental of our work, the yellow gold in an otherwise corny tapestry. Sonic releif.. In the echoes of Bon Iver and Tyler Childers’ major successes, I am happy to find this new collab and see Watchouse perhaps reaching a larger audience.. Certainly surprised me.

and holy - it does not disappoint, touching on loss and legacy, maybe even inviting the listener to forgive family, or themsleves - “were just taught different lessons”. Thers a real muscle flexed here, relating the mature perspective to it’s encouraging acceptance of youthful bliss, a gift granted from generational generosity.

“The kids are in town for a funeral
So pack the car and dry your eyes
I know they got plenty of young blood left in ‘em
And plenty nights under pink skies
You taught ‘em to enjoy.”

Thanks for this one.

Saturday February 22, 2025

I’m back baby!

@ the Gingerman Social Eatery

416 Kerr St, Oakville, ON

join in for a night of familiar covers and some originals - featuring as usual a few that are unrecorded/unreleased/unnamed or unwritten!

You know the name of the game, a little 90s alternative rock done in my style, with a sprinkling of pop and soul - plus a surprise special guest!

Starts 7:30pm and if you want to come chill and have some good eats, call 905-849-9898 for reservations (recommended). I recommend the wedge salad or bison burger as excellent options for your stomach!!

Bandshell Sunset Series - The Idea

When the pandemic first started, I would do my favourite thing I did as a kid and ride my bike through the local park, which hosts a bandshell facing Lake Ontario. I remembered one amazing summer when they used to run the Waterfront Festival there. I saw Kathleen Edwards. Hannah Georgas opened. There was a sudden lightening and thunder storm. Being on bike, I took some shelter in the park and eventually the weather passed and the music started again. The show was phenomenal, not only did these talented songwriters speak words to me, but the fresh post-rain summer air was wet with nourishment. This beautiful combination of nature and art completely encompasses the type of experience that I love getting out of life.

I started talking to the town about using our local parks and outdoor spaces for safe-zone entrainment. If social distancing was going to be with us for a while, there was a good argument that more limited numbers, and having pods for your family/group set up in proper distance from each other in front of these stages, would work! We could still enjoy performances - safely.

The Bandshell Sunset Series keeps in mind a way to bring life and culture back to our parks for everyone to enjoy.

This year the first iteration of this initiative is taking place in Oakville’s Lakeside Park, the gazebo style stage, hosting three sunset-hour shows - come enjoy the stunning vista that is our lakefront.

The first show is August 7th, featuring Dovetail Jig (parts of The Barrel Boys https://thebarrelboys.com), a bluegrass style band. These are two dynamic musicians that have been charming audiences with their original and traditional music, composed of fiddle, guitar, banjo, piano and even the odd trombone solo.

My own project with Brendan Seaton called Treasures Untold will follow - original songs and a couple covers like Killing me Softly, and The Scientist.

August 21st is going to be a fun rock covers band tuned to the natural acoustics of the park, guaranteed to get you singing along and grooving.

Sponsors include the Oakville BIA, Cindy Avis Real Estate Group, and more.

Let’s get the legs of this music machine moving, so outdoor shows become synonymous with life in Oakville! I want to engage the community, foster appreciation of local talent, and show off the beauty of experiences where nature and music collide. xoxo thanks for listening.

Just a song: southside of heaven- ryan bIngham

This Ryan Bingham, has what we call a soulful voice. The kind that can call to “th’ lord” but still be respected by a businessman, because it calls up that same longing that anybody might feel.

He calls out to be brought home, and the tambourine kept beat, Which posts that longing along, whether anyone knows anymore where that home is or not, he sure could tell ya whether he’s there or not.

Our song here opens with a wandering harmonica, one that abides by its own melody, and builds freefully into this southside of heaven song, which is plainly lovely.

When a cowboy writes a song, all he can hope for - my guess is - at the very least to feel a whiporwhill wind as it scoops up a few tumbleweeds, or maybe, at best, a cowgirl to understand.

It has got some cool tricks, the train trill, and the dynamic and unpredictable structure, all in a package that would be fine to listen to all of the time, not like a cheesy wannabe western. This song is thievish in its ability to gain your heart. And perfect in its admission of self inflicted lore. May the tune be played more.

xo

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A love letter to song…

The way it hits the ear when you’re at a certain moment in life, songs tend to encapsulate more than fleeting moments.

do you have a song where you remember exactly where you were at the exact first moment you heard it? Are you a person who becomes alert to the melody first, then listens to the words second? Or which? There is such a delicate balance of play between melodic catchiness and emotion when words manage to communicate without cliche. And when you least expect it, there it is back in your life like it never left - but this time with more nostalgia. What a gift - to be able to transport back to the emotions you were experiencing, but with more wisdom.

Goo goo dolls iris holds up for me a time in my life when so much was unsure. I was a youth, I had my Walkman with me all the time, I would tape the radio, and replay songs over and over and over again. I’m not sure what I was wearing that day or where we were going. But when I hear it, I swear I am looking out the same car window, turning at fourth line and lakeshore, and passing the high school that I would later attend. It struck a chord in me. It holds an emotional power that is only unlocked by those particular sounds and words put together and presented in that unique way. That song transports me.

I fall in love again with what i accepted and wanted to hear when the relationship with the song first began. It gives again!

if you can come back to a song like that, in a new way, and you still get all the feels, then it’s a song you should keep.

And in one note at the start of the song, I am in the backyard, standing alone. And listening. And in awe.

I love it. I loved it then, and I love it now. That love will never fade. It just may not come around as often.

To me the point of the song is to open up your vulnerability and challenge it. A good song tells you how you feel about something without directly asking. And a great song makes your mind figure out some pretty awesome shit! You can see things based on lyrics with images, you can be inspired to move your body in a certain way. You can gain confidence to do something or say something to people in your life. It teaches you to put aside mundanety and see something.

let a song guide you. If it is a good one - you’ll know.

Good Time Charlie - Danny O'Keefe - Shelley cover on acoustic

When covid first hit and the lockdown began, I had to quarantine for 14 days. I spent the days walking around the neighborhood, and cooking food. I hadn’t EVER been forced into my home for two weeks straight without work, as any hard earned naive young working woman had likely not been blessed with, the gift of time.

So I made me my own little version of this song …

BOOM, I had time, so I spend it looking around the library of music available - a scene as lush and varied as the rainforest floor.

Songs like this will live forever - and I want to know why.

The concept of being “down and out” is by no means unfamiliar. I kind of like the way this one sits in its chair, and holds a hand up gently fanning the hot southern air away, while almost shrugging, and taking a big long sip of cold fresh iced tea. There is a lite omen of humility, but generally the upbeat and simple melody makes a listener feel perhaps a little less bad that things have taken a turn for the worse.

A tale of fair weather friends, not unlike Eric Clapton sang in - nobody knows you when you’re down and out. A cheekily bluesy presentation of this oh so common affliction, the one that we know all too well, but that - when it happens to you - feels oh so lonely. It’s just one more affirmation that even when the whole world seems to be turned on you - take comfort in knowing when you get back on your feet again, everybody will want to be your long lost friend. More importantly, there’s always this library of music to turn to.

It’s the writers that make time and space in song for any mood that I’m grateful for. Writing their pain, or someone else’s, into notes and imagery, telling a story that is relatable.

Ahh, the sweet acoustic guitar, and abroad airy vocal saying, I’ve been there too — i’m already feeling better.

Tough girl - new song (raw)

Is struggling wrong?

Everyone around you, your neighbour, your coworker, your friend, your parents? Everyone! Everyone has something they are going through.

Measurement of success too often lies in tangibles, in redemption through currency. But what about the currency of love, the currency of soul? How can we balance such to obtain both? Is that the sweet spot?

Comfort is important. Drive takes us places that laziness cannot. But i ask you right now to look at what kind of comfort is around you - Do we appreciate it enough?

When I was a tween, I used to sit at the kitchen counter and look at the local newspaper classifieds for jobs and apartments - i would imagine myself in a “loft” apartment, with a fashionable job. Carrying coffee across the street in heels. Lol.

Why - and how - do you determine that what you have is finally enough?

This song is about that girl, who I used to be, and maybe you were too. The girl that hasn’t reached a point of resonance - who has not yet had the time to take inventory of her lifely possessions and taken count of the weight of her character, not yet strategized her ability to fill the world with positive space, in her own way.

The goal. These goals. They never turn off. That’s what we need to recognize. There are no closing credits on our mini triumphs. But they make up our lives. Only you can celebrate them. So do so.

#love

Tough Girl
Shelley Budd
Download
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What makes the heart of a gypsy tIck?

Surely none other than Stevie Nicks could woo us with the most heavenly retrospective tune, her souls-a-wanderin yet guided and heart quenching vocals, prescribe to the listener a kiss of je ne say croix towards the past. A Gypsy takes nothing but the things she can carry. So for a Gypsy to return, for a Gypsy to detail, it must be something heavily desirable, something that fills up the soul, more than just the cup. To live a life of wild and free, yet long to go back to somewhere and feed off a certain feeling, to want that familiarity, it MUST be reaaal good.

I have so much admiration for her style. She embodies a woman of strong spiritual connectedness, and shows love, sings of things that we care of, and for, and with. With that eloquent touch of black magic.

What makes the Gypsy heart tick? Sharing nostalgia. Even if it’s just within yourself. And this song rings true of that - as if the former shell of a person in the moment she recalls is telling her now based on what she’s learned, just how it was. Like a shadow follows you around, or a mirror holds two sides, two tales, one dependant on the first. It marks the passing of time. And when a Gypsy heart ticks, it’s because she’s found someone, however breif or fleeting, that she can share that moment with, who understands - like only she can - the significance of that relief, to be in the past place, to return again, and to find this new feeling of regression, as a loving obsession, with the truth that the spirit guides you to believe. How beautiful her journey to bring this emotion to light. We need more like her in this life.

#waxingwhitchcraft