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Archives for August 2008

HUGE propane explosion in Toronto

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There has been a HUGE propane explosion in Toronto‘s North end had occurred around 03:25 and then 03:50. It has effected about 12,500 people in the immediate area. The injured ones have been taken to North York General Hospital. The shelters were sent to York University Campus.

Toronto has closed the busiest highway in North America – the 401. This has never been done before.

My sister in-law’s son and husband live around a football field length away from the blast. He said that when he woke up and went outside, all he saw was like a scene from a war documentary. There were blooded people running up and down the street obviously in a state of shook.

A fire fighter has just been confirmed without vital signs on City Pulse 24. My God have mercy on his soul and may his soul rest in peace if this is true.

The company is called Sunrise Propane, and what a sunrise it was for this company! At this link, look for the “A” symbol for the exact location. It’s fairly close to our home, but far away enough that it does not effect us immediately! There were confirmed stories of people who live in Niagara on the Lake have seen a mushroom like light seen coming from Toronto! That is quite a far distance from where the explosion took place!

More to come!




Canada’s own Ken Greer

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Ken Greer has to be the best Canadian guitarist/slide guitarist/keyboardist that has ever flown (for way too long in my eyes) under the radar that I know of! He certainly has to be the most underrated Canadian guitarist that I have ever heard. And I have my brother in-law to thank for this.

He has it all, he plays it all and he understands it ways we can only dream about. Ken Greer has that special something that we all strive for in our own playing approach. Seeing him play with Tom Cochrane was like seeing a wall of sound hit you right in the face. It was like going to a nice old church with an organ that has 75 foot pipes with all the stops out. We experienced what it must of been like for people when they were first exposed to Phil Spector’s revolutionary wall of sound.

They guy plays his slide like it is a freight train rolling through you head one moment, then he tickles the plastic ivory like my buddy Tony F. from my old Pylis days! He then will pick up his axe and then blast off with some back up rhythm guitar playing that makes you just shake your head … that’s what I did throughout his show with Tom Cochrane at the 2008 Canadian Open.

I’ve been trying with no real luck in finding some of his stuff on-line to show you so if you have anything on this guy then PLEASE send me a link! I just want to give you a little taste of what it was that we experienced that faithful night.

Keep on Jammin’

Tom Cochrane at the Canadian Open

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Tom Cochrane and Red Rider were out of this world at the 2008 Canadian Open. They rekindled my love and deep appreciation for this band not only for their song writing ability but the level of musicianship to boot!

My wife’s brother called us a while ago and asked us if we wanted free tickets to the 2008 Canadian Open in Oakville (God bless this man). At first we were a little bit luke warm on the idea of watching a golf tournament, with the weather that we’ve been having here in southern Ontario this summer, until we found out that Tom Cochrane was playing a free show at the Canadian Open!

This guy is hands down my wife’s favorite band of all time. So with these tickets my wife had just received the best free tickets/concert that she ever could have asked for this year!

We arrived there right at the end of play that Saturday night to find out that nobody was around the stage at all! To say that this was our lucky day would be an understatement. The show had a general seating arrangement so we brought along our two seater foldable lawn chair just in case we could use it. With this in tow, we RAN to the front of the stage. I still couldn’t believe my eyes, nobody was there except the security guys! The beer tent was even around 50 feet behind us, mind you they were quite pricey but at that point who cared.

We were about 20 feet away from Tom Cochrane at worst and 15 feet at best throughout the show. He just rocked from the get go and just kept getting better as the set progressed.

Tom started out by singing Victory Day, then followed up with Big League, then Sinking like a Sunset. After that he did a song dedicated to his daughter Cody which I believe was called Northern Star, after that they did a slowed down version of Good Times, followed by Human Race, White Hot and Life is a Highway. They came back for an Encore and did Lunatic Fringe and ended with Boy inside the man.

The part of the show that I just couldn’t keep my mind off was the guitarist/slide/keyboardist named Ken Greer. The only thing that I will say about this guy was OMG, this guy is one !@#$%^& hell of a GREAT MUSICIAN! More to follow on this guy.

Tom Cochrane and Red Rider(Ken Greer), keep on Jammin’ for the love of GOD!

The second coming of Jon

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Just got off the old blower, that’s what we use to call the phone, with my old buddy Jon and he says that he needs a fix of Toronto back into his blood! We’re looking forward to seeing his old mug around the homestead here. hopefully it won’t be as expensive as the last time he was here.

The first time he here at our newish home, it was a long weekend. We had a few beverages and started to get a little hungry. So off we went to the grocery store and we happened to come across this store that sold fire works, what a bad mistake on our wallets this venture was going to be! By the time we left the store, we were about $220.00 richer in fire works. Oh well, we had fun and no one lost an eye.

So here’s to more action packed adventure with big Jon(Johnnie), aka Pinhead, and this time let’s really get a guitar lesson in ok buddy? Stay tuned for more updates.

Keep on Jammin’

Our new neighbours

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Long gone are the ones who use to play passable karaoke and we now joyfully enter the era of The von Drats. We finally have really cool neighbors!

We ran into them the other day and they seem to be a great fit for the neighborhood. He plays lead guitar, a huge bonus for me, and they are into renovating their new home! They are around our age and she is into sprucing up her garden!

Looking forward to getting to know them better and the best of luck to them in the future!

Keep on Jammin’

Amos Lee live rocks

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First of all, Amos Lee is a guy who is a bit of an acquired taste, but when you get him, you really get him!

Second, I know I must apologize to my regular readers for not writing on this blog for ages, but it’s the summer time here folks!

The tickets we got for free and the added bonus were the seats. They were 1st balcony, 1st row center right above the sound board. It has been a while since we’ve both been out together and it couldn’t of been better.

His sound was that of many influences. Folk, Jazz, Dixie Land and Jazz were right there front from the start. The band that was with him complimented him perfectly. They seemed like they all were high school buddies, that just happened to stumble upon this thing called playing in a band and was enjoying every minute of it.

The drummer was simple but yet very tight. He also caught my wife’s musical eyes in that he plays the drums the other way from what she normally sees in other bands. The bass player reminded me of Billy Wyman in his stage presence. Great bassist, but seemed very, very relaxed on stage.

Now the keyboardist with Amos Lee was another story. He was the most colorful on stage. His sound was big and bouncy! His stage demeanor had the essence of Levon Helm, the drummer for The Band. He was just a grooving to everything and he knew when to fade in and out perfectly! Now for the man of the hour, Amos!

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The style he plays is quite simple, most of the time, but he shows how to pull out all the stops at the drop of a hat. His voice took some time getting use to, but in the end he made quite the impression on all of us! The song that stood out in my eyes was Sweet Pea. When I was first deciding which free show to go to, it was this song that drew me towards seeing him. The way he plays this one live is just plain and simply amazing! To see what I mean, I highly recommend going out and seeing this guy live … I know you’ll won’t be disappointed.

Keep on Jammin’

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