Massey Hall, November 26th - Women's Blues Revue

Women's Blues Revue 2005 (Nov. 26th): Way too busy to take more photos, but I managed to get these 3 backstage at Massey Hall. #1: L to R: Julie Hill (TBS vice pres. and our stage manager), Shelagh Rogers (from CBC's "Sounds Like Canada", me, and Suzie McNeil (of Rock Star:INXS fame); #2: Shelagh (our emcee) adding the finishing touches to her mascara. #3: Shelagh and Salome Bey.


This year's vocalists were Roxanne Potvin, Dione Taylor, Suzie McNeil), Shakura S'Aida, Lee Aaron, and Salome Bey. Band members included me on keys - yeah, I'm the bandleader, Colleen Allen on sax, Carrie Chesnutt on sax, Sarah McElcheran on trumpet, Marg Stowe on guitar, Michelle Josef on drums, and Brandi Disterheft on bass.

Here's more about the show on Brian Blain's blog. It's got a link to a lot more great pictures of the show itself, too.

The Jackie Washington Story documentary

On Sat. Nov 12th, Paul and I attended a screening of the new documentary about Jackie Washington (airing on Bravo on Nov 22nd). It was also Jackie's 86th birthday. After the screening, there was a performance by Ken Whiteley, Jackie, and Mose Scarlett (see picture), and birthday cake. Bumped into lots of old friends there, and the Movie Palace has been beautifully restored to its 1920s-30s glory. It was a nice afternoon.

New Orleans Voodoo Loungefest - Haunted Mansion Party

On October 29th, Groove Corporation played a really cool gig inside of a Victorian mansion in downtown Hamilton that is in the process of being renovated. It was essentially gutted, and made for an ideal setting for a private party with 300 guests. It was a fundraiser for Hurricane Katrina victims, and was organized by Jude Johnson along with John Greene and Sue Stewart-Greene.

It was great to see old friends, like Darcy Hepner, just moved back from NYC after playing with Earth Wind and Fire for quite some time, and another treat was Alex MacDougall (former Crowbar, Trailblazers) subbing for Dave on guitar. Plus it was our first night with our new bass player, Steve. We truly had a riot that night.

It was one of those "you had to be there" kind of nights. Oh yeah. And Les even made it into the newspaper. Check it out here. (483 KB pdf file)

Left: That's Les, our trumpet player in the cow suit. Right: Tom Wilson

Left: Tom Hogue, Darcy Hepner, Jude Johnson Right: Cueball

Left: That's me on the right as a "genetically modified bioluminescent musician", standing next to the quietest guest at the party (a mannequin). Right: the legendary Jackie Washington