Toronto, Tony, and Jolly Ol' St. Nick. . .

Played my first show in Toronto in 7 or 8 years. Thanks Nick and Steph for asking me along. The family came to the city and we hung with my awesome Aunt and Uncle (and don't forget cousin Tom!). The gig was at a little upstairs of a bar. The Peat Bros had a film crew there to try and capture their incredible live energy; made the performance a bit strange, with the audience back 10 feet while two bigs guys pointed cameras in our faces (alright, not so much in my face -- there's a reason the band is The Peat Brothers).

A very strange side note, and wearing my glasses for more than just the set could've helped here, but I managed not to recognize my good friend Anthony Addario, who was apparently playing drums for one of the other bands on the bill. 10 Years and we all look just different enough, I guess. So, Salut Tony! Glad to see you're still playing music. I'll catch up with you the next time we're randomly on a bill together in a city I nearly never visit -- or hopefully sooner!

Peja and Christopher recorded this song for Christopher's Grandparents' Christmas present. Enjoy!

Back to the Mansion. . .

Here's a pic from the Peat Brothers show on Thursday in the Living Room at the Mansion. Nobody told me it was vest night. Or that I shouldn't look like I'm reading music charts.

Hauled the littlest P.A. ever to the Mansion last night for a 40th birthday party for my friend Mark. It was an open mic thing -- I was too busy last week to put any cover tunes together, but The Trash Daddies let me sit in and play some rhythm guitar with their second set, and I through in a shortened version of Weezer's Undone. The crowd was a bit older than me, and Mark kept singing "pull this string as I walk away" instead of "pull this thread. . .", but it was still very fun. I also managed to steal a piece of cake for Sienna. Oh yeah.

Another Peat Bros gig. . .

Played some bass with The Peat Brothers last night at the Mansion. Once again they had some amazing fan support, and the sing-along on the last number was pretty awesome. I meant to take my camera and video-tape some of the set, but somewhere between finding a pair of jeans and a plaid shirt, and drinking a litre or so of black tea trying to wake up, I forgot.

Next time.

Thanks again to the Peat Bros for inviting me, Sienna for minding the herd, and Ladies of the Canyon for letting us open for them.

Stats, and a Request. . .

Blogger has a new feature, where you can look up the stats of your blog. Now, for a long time, thanks to my tech friend Adam Hewgill, I've been using google analytics to chart all your wonderful visits to this humble site. So, I had a pretty good idea (I thought) of the general traffic trends.

Now, google and blogger disagree as to the visitation patterns of y'all. By an order of magnitude.

We either have a very nice select number of visitors from Canada, mostly Ontario. Or, we have multitudes finding their way here from the US and UK (and a few from Canada). Now, I'll guess which one is more likely.

The real puzzle, of course, is that google owns and runs blogger.

I'll tell you what, if you're from the US or UK, please leave a comment and be counted!

Today I am 31. And Jimi Hendrix would've been 68.

Somehow I spent 31 years without realizing that I share my birthday with Jimi Hendrix. Of course, I spent 15 without hearing, really hearing, his music.

I remember the first time I heard Hey Joe. It was on a tape that my friend and then band-mate Tony Addario had made for me (Tony had the eq on his stereo set up so when he made a mix tape, it was like he was remastering it, and no matter where you played it, it sounded like his stereo), and I was in grade 11, walking down the hall on the science floor of my high school. I remember being immersed by the haunting voices of the back-up singers milking extra syllables, and the guitar solo after Hendrix sings "I gave her the gun, and I shot her!" That song is everything I love about music. It's a simple heartfelt lyric; it's fantastic guitar playing; but it's not at all showy or overdone, and it's catchy as hell. I remember waiting in front of my locker for the song to finish before getting my books.

I spent the morning with my boy Echo. He is getting more interesting. He can walk, carry a basketball, and eats like a starving horse. He dances to good music and ignores bad music.

Thanks everyone who sent along their best wishes today, I had a very typical day, which is exactly how I wanted it.

A little while ago I did some guitar work on an album by a friend of mine, Wendy Luella Perkins. The album, "Lucky Life", is out now. It was recorded in the amazing North of Princess Studios. You can check out her website here.