Swan

Anyone have any fav's. I've got a great one called Seven Gates by Ben Keith & Friends. It has Neil Young and Johnny Cash singing the Little Drummer Boy together. Neil also sings on Greensleves and plays pump organ on Silver Bells and Away in A Manger. Its worth checking out if you dig Christmas music.

Gordie Johnson's new project Grady is coming to Ontario over the Christmas holidays. Also in the band is Chris "the Whip" Layton from Double Trouble and BBig Ben Richardson from Jeff Healy's group. They play reworked Big Sugar tunes and it sounds as exciting as like the 500lbs days. I have the new album T U Shady and it is awesome. They are playing Toronto on Boxing Day at the Docks and continue to play Ottawa, Montreal and Kingston.

www.shadygrady.net

I had a great year for shows. I saw a wide variety of shows. Check out some of these shows - Van Halen, Madonna, Alice Cooper, Tragically Hip * 4, Merle Haggard, Phish (Saratoga/Coventry), DMB, The Dead, Prince * 2, BB King, Jack Johnson, Rush, Wilco, The Hives, Brian Wilson, Jazz Fest in New Orleans, Bob Dylan, 50 Cent, David Bowie, Gov't Mule's 10th Anniversary, Bridge School Benefits, Drive By Truckers, Grady, Beastie Boys, Moe., John Fogerty, Velvet Revolver. All of them were great for different reasons. I try to keep an open mind and take in different kinds of music.

Brothers in Arms is one of my favorite videos of all time.

I was at these shows. I remember Neil talking about practicing this song in the van on the way to the venue. It rained this night and I was on the lawn. It didn't bring anyones spirits down at all. Personally I thought the Red Hot Chilli Peppers were the highlight this night. They played the Looking Glass song Brandy (You're a Fine Girl), it was wonderful! Some of Flea's banter was some pretty funny stuff. Other highlights included Paul McCartney slow dancing with Tony Bennett. These benefits are some of the best shows going. It's cool to see some of the bands play acoustic sets. Who knew that you would see bands like Sonic Youth play an entire acoustic set. I will say that in the Toronto area we are lucky enough to have the Molson Amplitheatre. The Shoreline is a little bigger but I don't think as nice. It was cool that you could buy yards glasses of Marguritas and shots of Cabo Wabo but still not as nice of venue. Not even all of the 200 section was covered with by the tent. On the other hand I went to one of the coolest venues ever when I went to see the Drive By Truckers in the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco a couple of nights before. Anyways long story short Neil is the man and I've longed to hear this recording.

I saw the Black Keys open up for the Blues Exposion in Buffalo a couple of years ago. A two piece band. I remember them opening the set with She Said She Said and it blew me away.

I went to these shows. It was pretty awesome. The nights seemed to get better as it went on. Personally I thought some highlights of the weekend were the Chilli's set on the first night and Eddie Vedder's second performance. It's interesting to see so many artists together. It rained on the Saturday and we were on the lawns. It didn't seem to bring anyones spirits down. Everyone was just glad to be there. When Paul McCartney guested with Tony Bennett they slowed danced and it was kinda funny. A lot of jokes from the stage. So many different personality's but they agreed that Bush needs to go down and everyone needs to get out and vote. It wonderful to see them interact with the children on the stage. They get so involved and dedicate some pretty fun songs for the kids. I heard talk of this being the last Bridge School concert. Let's hope this is not the case.

RR's bass player right now is Gordie Johnson from Big Sugar

I went to the Brian Wilson show last night at Massey Hall. The crouwd was a lot more diverse than I would have guessed. The show itself was a lot of fun. It opened with a short acoustic set of Beach Boy hits. The first set included Sloop John B and God Only Knows (Brian stated that Paul McCartney once told him that it was his favorite song. The second set was the albulm Smile which BW wrote at 24. Smile includes the Beach Boys hit Good Vibrations. I felt the same about SMile as I did about Neil Young's Greendale the first time I saw it. I wasn't familiar with the music enough to walk away loving it. After the performance of Smile, BW performed an encore of more Beach Boy hits. The show it self was a lot of fun. I really wanted to hear Do You Wanna Dance or Here Today but I guess you can't play everything in only 3 hours. I hope some other made it out to enjoy the evening.

Looks like Neil played with the Boss last night.

This is very exciting for me. I just got Bridge tix on the weekend and I would love to see him play some rarities. I hope the rumours of Pearl Jam and the White Stripes are true. I'm really hoping to see Neil and Paul on the same stage.

On a whim I went to check out this band last night at the Phenoix in Toronto and let me tell you it was the best decision I made all week. Last week I went to see five concerts including Madonna, Alice Cooper, The Hip and the Blues Fest in London but the Hives is the one I'll always remember. I haven't seen a band perform with this much energy in a very long time. The show was only 50 minutes long but it was non stop the entire time. This Swedish band stated how much they loved Toronto and they would be back in a couple of months. If you like punk rock you should see The Hives.

I got an email from HOB that its 2 for 1 tix today, must buy before 10 pm

I saw Nirvana perform at Maple Leaf Gardens...when I saw he died 10 years ago today, it made me feel old.

http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/phish/artist.jhtml

check out both links

Buckethead is going on tour with Particle sometime in the next couple of months.

I have to agree with PEIPunk on this on, I too have always wanted to see a band cover Don't Let Me Down. David Bowie's Fame could easily turn any concert into a dance party. Michael Jackson's Wanna Be Starting Something and even the occasional Beach Boys tune could be a lot of fun.

I saw Lightfoot a couple years ago and I remember it being awesome. We had tickets front row center. Gord was so sick with a cold that night. We had to pass him tissues from the audience to keep him going. That recording would be exciting to hear, he is a living Canadian legend.