mvyradio @ Canadian Music Week 2006
mvyradio was in Toronto for Canadian Music Week (March 1-5 '06), a four-day celebration of the best new Canadian talent. Now in its 24th year, CMW is the single longest running and premiere conference focusing on business of Music, bringing together Sound Recording, New Technology and Broadcast for one spectacular week of events. The real highlight, of course, was the performances of the bands -- more than 300. We recorded a dozen or so acoustic sets and interviews during the day and every night, we were posted at various venues capturing performances that we think will excite your senses. Also check our our mvyradio Archives page for all the performances, including some exclusive cover tunes the artists performed for us.
Thanks to The Martha's Vineyard Chamber of Commerce and friends of mvyradio for making our trip to CMW possible. Many thanks to Neill Dixon and Gary Taylor and all at CMW. Special thanks to Joe, Gary, PJ, Todd, Megan, Gary Trust and all at mvyradio. Thanks to Dave, the bellman, for his help with our equipment and his interest in our work.
Monday, March 6 7:30 A
I spent the day yesterday traveling back to the Vineyard. Dawn was breaking as I boarded the bus to the airport in Toronto, with a blue sky that beautifully matched the color of the glass building across from the side entrance of the Royal York Hotel. The experiences of the last several days were going through my head, accompanied by the music of all of the musicians we had met at CMW.
We were able to get a bird's eye view of the music scene in Canada and even though we were physically in Toronto I felt like we also traveled around a bit. Off to Ottawa with Lynn Miles, to Vancouver with Peppersands and The Town Pants, and to Halifax with Amelia Curran. They all talked of their homes and through them we were able to get a feeling for this wonderful country and what it's like to live and play music there. We met many musicians from Toronto - Mitch Willer, Tom Wilson, and Kevin Hearn and learned from them what a great city Toronto is for making music.
Overall there was a feeling of support-musician for musician, government for musician (many get monetary support from the government), cities and towns for musician. There was a feeling of pride for Canada and a multitude of feelings for the United States. Most of the artists that we talked to had not been to the US, although many of them had journeyed across the border. The ones that had just played in Canada seemed content to pursue their careers in their hometowns and the other music friendly cities in their country. They seemed to have an eye to the States but were not at the point in their careers to pursue an audience here. People like Lynn Miles, Tom Wilson, Mitch Willer, The Town Pants, Women in Docs and others had been to the US and were actively pursuing the market here.
Seymour Stein, the legendary owner and co-founder of Sire Records and the man who discovered Madonna, The Talking Heads, and the Ramones spoke at the conference and at one point when asked about coming to Canada, he said "It's just across the border". That simple statement sums up the sentiment on both sides. Whether the feeling is one of admiration, trepidation, inspiration, or appreciation, the connection between Canada and the United States is mostly full of affection.
We're all just people regardless of our national affiliation and the love of music is one of our common bonds. Hats off to Canadian musicians and musicians everywhere for their incredible hard work, devotion and determination in exploring their inner and outer lives and putting it all down in song. Thanks to all who played for us and joined us in our determined effort to spread the music all around the world. Until next year...
Saturday, March 4 2:30P
Mitch Willer [website][performance] was first up today in the sweet mvy recording "sweet". As the father of a five week old newborn, 11 Am was not early for him. He set up his keyboard and sang songs from his new cd "Sylvia Sydney... I Love Her Still" as well as a cover of Bowie's "Kooks" (check our Archives section for that one).
Women In Docs [website][performance] (Chanel and Roz from Brisbane, Australia) came in around noon and played and talked about their lives as musicians. Roz told us about her mom who calls after church every Sunday to check up on "the girls" to make sure they're okay out in the world. Peppersands [website][performance] showed up around 1 and Andrea and Ray did a stripped down set for us with other band members Adam and Derek, and some other friends standing by. They're playing tonight at Sneaky D's.
Martha Berner [website][performance] was our first American and she played a couple of tunes for us.
Kirsten Jones [website][performance] who is working at CMW and was very helpful to us, came up and played a couple of beautiful songs (including an interesting cover of Sade's "Sweetest Taboo") and Sarah Siddiqui [website] finished our in-suite recording day with her charm and warmth. Enjoy the music!Saturday March 4 10:30A
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It's sunny and cold today in Toronto. I haven't been outside yet but I can tell it's cold by the hats and gloves and postures of the people outside the Royal York. Nobody was at Starbucks today. All of those peppy Canadians that were here over the last few days are off to other things.
I'm putting together Uncharted Waters for Sunday night. You'll hear Tom Wilson, The Town Pants, Amelia Curran, Kevin Hearn, and an entire interview and acoustic performance with Lynn Miles. I hope you can listen Sunday at 9 and check out a lot of the CMW audio right here right now. Today we'll see Mitch Willer, Women In Docs, Martha Berner, and Peppersands and tonight we go to The Drake to record.
Saturday March 4, 130 A
Time is going by so quickly. We have been here since Tuesday and it's seems like we just got here. There is so much I still want to know about Toronto and the people that live here. When you spend time in another country, you really get the feeling for a whole other culture and way of life. It's very refreshing and certainly thought provoking. In the States we tend to be so focused on ourselves and our country, always seeing things from the point of view of an American. Well, there's not too much you can do about that if you ARE an American but it is nice for a few days to think about it all and to learn something about the people north of the border.
All of our interactions have been so positive. The bands show up and we greet each other for the first time and slowly but surely the relationship starts to develop and take hold and before we know it we settle in and together create something that we record, sharing the experience with anyone that wants to partake in it. "Nice work if you can get and you can get it if you try."Friday March 3, 8:30P
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Friday March 3, 6:30P
This place is hopping and swarming with music industry types. I'm having so many flashbacks to other music conventions that I've attended. Wonderful memories of times spent in San Francisco, New Orleans, San Diego, and many other cities. The business of music is very exciting and it's fun to a part of the Canadian industry and to get to know some of the people involved. Alan Parsons is speaking right now and talking about his experience as a musician and producer. Heavyweights Steve Lillywhite and Seymour Stein will speak tomorrow.
Friday March 3, 9:30 AM
On my way to the elevator to get some coffee, I had to remind myself what day it was. Okay, Friday. What a whirlwind! The guy that makes the Lattes at Starbucks has this big booming voice. "Grande Latte"! he says like he is announcing the Queen. It's my favorite part of going to Starbucks every morning. There is always a huge line that moves faster than any other coffee line I have ever seen and both the people behind and in front of the counter are way more awake than I am.
Our first interview today is with Tom Wilson an artist on True North. We called the other day to arrange an interview with Lynn Miles, who we will see later today, and Julian Tuck suggested that we talk to Tom. We'll also see The Town Pants, The United Steel Workers Of Montreal, Amelia Curran, and Junk TV . I"ll be talking to you from here on the air/web at 11A. Until then...
Friday, March 3, 2 AM
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Amelia Curran [website][performance] was great and the audience really responded to her. She sat down for a couple of minutes to talk with me. Once again most of our day was spent inside our hotel room recording music.
We had a really nice visit with Kevin Hearn [website][performance]. He lives in Toronto and showed up bright and early at 9:30. He was very entertaining and charming and I was struck by the attention to detail in his lyrics. We laughed about the line "she was addicted to lip balm". He is putting the finishing touches on a new album and, in fact, when he was leaving us he said he was off to the recording studio. He is a visual artist as well as a musician and he is waiting to see his artwork for the album to decide what the title should be. Interesting approach, don't you think? I asked him how he was feeling and he said great. In 1998 he discovered that he had leukemia and struggled to regain his health. He has been cancer-free for 8 years. It's an amazing experience, sitting down with artists in the intimate confines of a hotel room. The environment is very conducive to making warm and genuine connections with the artists. We have a full slate later today and I'll be sending my show from here so I'll talk to you between 11 A and 1P. We'll feature the Kevin Hearn interview at 12:20.
Thursday, March 2, 8:30 PM
8:30A to 8:30P... what a day! I'm sitting at The Cadillac Lounge and The Stray Cats are playing on the computer behind the bar. What a world... I'm on my laptop blogging, and instead of a jukebox, iTunes is sending the music out. The wings just arrived at the table and I better stop writing or I'm going to miss them... I'll be right back...
Okay. I'm back. Yum! We love this place! Great vibe, great music, GREAT FOOD!!! We must get revived and we have had some great food in Toronto. Utopia, Giovanni's, and now The Cadillac Lounge. The main course is here... I'll be right back...
Vegetable curry, ribs and spanakopita on the table and After All These Years [performance], a band from Winnipeg, is on stage. They sound great! We're here to capture once again. Capture the music... it's all around us.
Thursday, March 2, 8:30 AM KT Tunstall in Concert |
 KT Tunstall & BD |
I wanted to write something last night, but we didn't get back to the hotel until 1:30 and still had to set up for our recording sessions for today. You know how you have to make yourself go to bed sometimes? Well I did last night and I feel pretty rested this morning and ready to go. KT Tunstall was amazing! We had been at the Mod Club from 5 PM on and it's always fun to see a show get produced from start to finish. When we got there they were just starting and by 10:15 KT took the stage and started with one of my favorites from her new album "The Other Side Of The World". KT is an alternate spelling of her name Katie and she is from the university town of St. Andrews in Scotland.
Kat Burns & BD
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From the very first moments in sound check you could tell that she meant business. She's confident, joyful and very talented. You never really know until you see someone live if they have the goods or not. Well, she has the goods. I was impressed by the strength of her voice and her performing skills.
We talked with her after the show and gave her an mvy Blue Lobster t-shirt. She had just done some dates with fellow Vineyard'er Willy Mason and she was singing his praises.
Kevin Hearn of Bareneaked Ladies fame is on the bill for today. He should be arriving soon for an interview and then we'll meet Kat Burns [website][performance], Blou [website][performance], and The John Henrys [performance]. I'll be talking to you in a couple of hours on the air.Wednesday, March 1, 6 PM
The McMenamins [website][performance] were great! They're staying at The Royal York so it was an easy stroll for them to our door. Fleur had her guitar over her shoulder and her brother Simon had his mandolin and violin. They are from Sydney, Australia and it took them forty eight hours to get to Toronto. Yikes! They were tired but put on great acoustic performance for us. Listen tomorrow during The Lunch Hour to hear one of the songs they played and check it out the entire interview right here on this page. They said they came to Canada because they feel a connection to the Canadian musicians that the have met in Australia. They have just released a self titled album and are trying to get
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I prepared some music for my show tomorrow (11A-1P). We'll play some David Ford, Martha Berner, Lynn Miles, Lindi Ortega. All of these artists are in town to play at CMW. The rest of the afternoon was spent firming up interview times with other musicians and attending to all the details of our recording of the KT Tunstall show at The Mod Club Theater.
Then we headed out to the Mod Club and here I sit up on the second floor of the club next to the soundboard. Gary and Joe set up the mixer and laptop and after about two and a half hours of club set up the band is running through a song for sound check. The folks at EMI Canada have been so wonderful to work with.
Thank you Andres Mendoza and everyone at EMI! There is a big buzz for the KT show tonight and they expect a big crowd. We're in Little Italy again so soon we'll head out for dinner at another great restaurant before the show.Tuesday, February 28 11 PM
We all arrived in Toronto and are settling in at The Fairmount Royal York. After standing at the wrong luggage carousel for awhile watching all the same luggage go by, l finally got to the right one and found my bags. I went through immigration, got on the hotel shuttle bus and off I went into Toronto. For awhile the street signs were in English and French -- "exit/sortie", "north/nord", then just English and it felt like we were coming into any city in America. Then we turned onto Lake Shore Drive and WOW! What a view over Lake Ontario! A lake like the ocean with open water as far as the eye can see. The CN tower, which is the largest free standing building in the world, was in sight.
I stared out the window of the bus looking at the buildings and the lake and the people and I thought here I am coming into a city I've never been to before, instantly entering into the lives of people I've never met or seen before. All in the matter of a couple of hours! Okay! I'm ready to take it all in!
Joe drove up from Newport with all the equipment in 10 hours, and despite snow squalls in Buffalo, it was smooth sailing. One half of the population of the United States is within one day's drive of Toronto and now we know that Joe is one of those people! A living, driving statistic! It's that long northern border between the US and Canada. And true to form, Joe picked up another listener at the border crossing when he told the guard about mvy. The gentleman was saying that there was no good radio in Canada. We don't know about that but we love it when somebody new finds out about us and wants to check us out.
Gary came in this morning from Louisville with one whole bag of gear ready to record some shows and interviews. Joe and Gary got the room set up for recording and we're ready to start tomorrow. By the time I entered the mvyradio recording "sweet", we all had laptops in our laps, making contact with bands, organizing schedules, throwing out ideas and getting set for the next several days. We went out to check out one of the clubs that we'll be recording at and took a drive down University, a beautiful avenue where the embassies and hospitals are located. We eventually found ourselves in Little Italy and ate a great dinner at a place called Utopia. Quesadilla, souvlaki, and a burger. Then back to the hotel. I better get some rest.
Tuesday, February 28 2 PM
Our first mvyradio on the road trip of 2006 is about to begin and this time we go international!! I'm on my way to Air Canada at Logan airport to hop a plane to Toronto, the beautiful Canadian city on Lake Ontario and the site of Canadian Music Week 2006. Over 500 bands are set to descend on the city and take over the nightlife and convention hall for the next several days. Canada is the birthplace of many talented and beloved musicians... Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, k.d. lang, Jane Siberry, Robbie Robertson and many more. There are some outstanding emerging music makers that will be performing and we are going to bring you as much of the music as we possibly can. Keep checking the website for my blog and our schedule. Whether the music comes to us on the Vineyard or we go out to places like Toronto, Austin, North Carolina, Memphis, or Newport to get it, it's our thing to make it come alive and bring it your your ears wherever you are listening!
Audio: 
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Amelia Curran
- Interview, Canadian Music Week, 2006 
- Performance, Canadian Music Week, 2006
- Extra: Performance of "The Mistress"
Blou
- Interview w/ Performance, Canadian Music, 2006
- Extra: Performance of "Angeline Quand Tu Dors"
The John Henrys
- Interview w/ Performance, Canadian Music Week, 2006
- Extra: song
Junk TV
- Performance of "Deepest Blue," Canadian Music Week, 2006
Kat Burns
- Interview w/ Performance, Canadian Music Week, 2006
- Extra: "In Flight"
Kevin Hearn
- Interview w/ Performance, Canadian Music Week, 2006
- Extra: cover of Tom Waits song
- Extra: "Days Like These"
Kirsten Jones
- Interview w/ Performance, Canadian Music Week, 2006
- Extra: cover of Sade's "Sweetest Taboo"
Lynn Miles
- Interview w/ Performance, Canadian Music Week, 2006
- Extra: "1000 Lovers"
- Extra: cover of Gram Parsons' "Hickory Wind"
Martha Berner
- Interview w/ Performance, Canadian Music Week, 2006
- Extra: cover of Velvet Underground's, "Sunday Morning"
The McMenamins
- Interview w/ Performance, Canadian Music Week, 2006
Mitch Willer
- Interview w/ Performance, Canadian Music Week, 2006
- Extra: cover of David Bowie's "Kooks"
Peppersands
- Interview w/ Performance, Canadian Music Week, 2006
- Extra: cover of "Just Like Heaven"
Sarah Siddiqui
- Interview w/ Performance, Canadian Music Week, 2006
- Extra: "The Scientist"
Tom Wilson
- Interview w/ Performance, Canadian Music Week, 2006
- Extra: "Talk of the Town"
- Extra: Replacements' cover "I'll Be You"
The Town Pants
- Interview w/ Performance, Canadian Music Week, 2006
- Extra: Steve Earle cover "Galway Girl"
- Extra: "Bottle of Rain"
United Steel Workers of Montreal
- Interview w/ Performance, Canadian Music Week, 2006
- Extra: original song
Women In Docs
- Interview w/ Performance, Canadian Music Week, 2006
- Extra: cover of "Closer To Fine"