the gig at the mix (referred to below) has been cancelled, due to personal crisis of bandleader; hopefully the band will be back on its feet soon.

in other music news, i tracked down an obscure band that gave me chills one summer day, in the late seventies/early eighties, at the winnipeg folk festival...called matante alys, they were a quebecois band with accordion and in french style using the voice as an effective instrument, singing maybe old acadien folk music or french folk/rock. since i heard them, i've been unable to find any trace- on amazon, ebay, or any music catalog- though i'd only been looking these last few years- and, perhaps they never made a cd. perhaps i'd spelled it wrong- but what you see at the link is a record now- a record that they at least existed, late seventies/early eighties, that they were from sherbrooke- that i was right.

the other band that gave me chills that summer was tannahill weavers, a scottish bagpipe band that really rocked. i'm talking about the feeling one gets when one's bones are stirred by music that touches a heritage one didn't know one had. i still don't know what kind of quebecois/french heritage would be in my bones, but the scottish lineage is at least a little more clear, me being a wallace and all. a lot of old british isles music gives me that feeling- but every once in a while a zydeco fiddler will do the same. as a musician that's something i'd like to do for someone sometime- that, if they weren't aware before they heard it- maybe they could hear something that would make them aware of times before their lifetime even....times in a faraway land, music that can connect us, way out here, to a wider world. music that stops you in your tracks.

i thank those quebecois lads. je me souvien...