Well, it’s been awhile since I have updated anything news worthy on this site of mine.  Not cuz there hasn’t been any news, just that the news has been dark, so I’ve been keeping it to myself.  In brief, I have spent the past five months out west in stunning Vancouver, BC being with my Mom who was terminally diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer in September 2009.  She passed recently and while that fact leaves a residue of irremovable sadness, there have been some phenomenally beautiful things that have been created.  For example, new and renewed relationships with family members that I’ve barely ever known, the discovery that my siblings are truly funny and make me laugh my guts out!, spending time with my tremendously cool grandma, returning to Northern BC, the place I am from but have been estranged from for more than two decades now.  Dang, I’m getting old! And the list goes on.

Not going to lie – I’ve missed music, although as a result of not playing for all these months I’ve been able to assess if it’s still what I want to devote my time and energy to.  The answer is YES. So now the music/performance news . . .

Swell (formerly known as Taste This) has two upcoming shows. 
April 27th 2010, Toronto, ON @ Buddies In Bad Times
April 30th 2010, Ottawa, ON @ Club SAW

Bit of Info about Swell:
With numerous books, CDs, performance, and video works to their individual credit, “cultural agitator and fab femme (NOW)” Anna Camilleri, “natural-born storyteller (Globe and Mail)” Ivan E. Coyote, and “musical genius (Xtra)” Lyndell Montgomery recently started talking about resurrecting the magical collaboration that Taste This was. For the premiere of So The Story Goes—an original interdisciplinary performance—they’ll be joined by Leslie Peters whose video works have screened internationally from Buenos Aries to Australia.
A lot has changed since Taste This exploded onto the cultural scene, but the issues that the early collective inhabited continue to be relevant—questions of gender, sexuality, desire, culture, class, rural versus city life, and kinship. Home stories. Queer tales. True, except when they’re not. Stories that swell and implode the spaces between cultural institutions and queer landscapes; between female and male; between tightly produced performance and kitchen table talk.



So I can’t claim to have been working on the Captain Dirt album at all for the last many months as I’ve been out west.  What I can claim is that this summer it is my full intention to get cracking on it. My friend Jordan Kent who has done all the drawings for this very web site is still on board for working out the album graphics so that just leaves me getting the music part recorded I guess! I’m on it. You can find more work by Jordan at www.jordankent.ca

The Cliks . . . Looks like yours truly will be playing some bass for the Cliks in the months to come.  Stay tuned for show dates, locations and band info and check out www.thecliks.com for more info.

Lyndell Montgomery is no longer recording/playing with Ember Swift, but Ember Swift will be launching a new CD and touring some N.American venues late this spring. Check out www.emberswift.com for the album details and live show info.