Remembering a friend · 2017
Aloha,
BradM.
Brad McFarlane helped make Jambands.ca a community. He was there for the music, and for the people who made it.
He was always there.
Friends remember Brad arriving early, setting up his recording gear, and finding the joy in a performance whether it was a big show or a small Ottawa room. He introduced people to musicians and to one another. He carried CDs in his backpack to give to friends and performers, sometimes recordings of nights they had shared.
For musicians, those tapes became more than souvenirs. They held songs, performances and moments that might otherwise have slipped away. Brad shared recordings widely, while taking care to seek a band’s permission before making its music public.
On the forum, BradM had a voice all his own: the avatar he chose in 2001, stories from shows, links to hear them again, and his familiar sign-off, “Aloha, Brad.”
“This is why I tape!”
A phrase friends remembered hearing from Brad at shows
The shows live on.
In the forum tribute, a friend turned to Brad’s archive and chose this nero show to remember him. It’s one doorway into the music he helped keep available.
nero · Bacchus LoungeDecember 21, 2002 · Shared on Archive.org by BradMExplore recordings credited to BradM on Archive.orgThe people remember.
When news of Brad’s death reached the board in November 2017, friends, fellow tapers and musicians filled three pages with memories. They wrote about his warmth, his hugs, his punctuality, his generous stacks of CDs, and the remarkable amount of live music he had saved. His brother Steve shared memories of growing up together and invited the community to remember him.
That December, friends gathered at Irene’s Pub for an evening of Ottawa music in his memory. This page carries a small part of what they shared forward.
Read the preserved forum tributeThe complete three-page thread is saved with this site, so these memories remain available after the old forum closes.
Aloha, Brad.