Hey people, we did it again. Grateful We're Not Dead were back on the E-Lectic radio. Talk about getting our fifteen minutes of fame.
This time we appeared on the CBC Radio One show Bandwidth, hosted by Alan Neal. As loyal readers of this blog know (all tens and tens of you), an interview with Grateful We're Not Dead was broadcast on January 5, 2009 on the CBC Radio One show All In A Day, hosted by Adrian Harewood. Following that broadcast, CBC reporter Julie Ireton contacted us to say that Alan wanted to use Over Sixty Blues on a Bandwidth show he was preparing on Blues You Can Use. So Grateful We're Not Dead got out the beer and the Diet Pepsi, sat down around the dining room table, switched on the digital recorder and laid down a version to email to Alan.
Now we figured at most a portion of the song might be played during the show. Imagine our surprise when we heard Alan and Julie doing an introduction of the band including some of the original interview and another Grateful We're Not Dead song, At Least Once Every Minute. If you missed the broadcast you can hear the relevant part by clicking on the play button below.
We'd like to give a big Grateful We're Not Dead hug and thank you to Julie for the interest she's shown in the band and to Alan for including Over Sixty Blues on Bandwith. And to both of them for the great introduction on the show.
After this we'll be able to double our price: now it'll be two beers (or Diet Pepsi) each for doing a performance.
And as a bit of clarification, only Gord and Don have 60 in their rear view mirror. But I want Bruce and Al, the youngsters in the group, to remember this: If you think pushing 60 is hard, wait until you start pulling it.
Y'all stay tuned, eh!
We Now Have An Email Address
Grateful We're Not Dead has finally decided to face the threat of spam and make an email address available for anyone wishing to contact us. Instead of having to leave a comment on the blog in order to get in touch you can send an email to:
All offers of free beer gratefully accepted. And don't forget the diet Pepsi
We Were On The E-Lectric Radio
Grateful We're Not Dead have finally made it onto the E-lectric radio. Fame and fortune is just around the corner for sure.
On November 9 as we were preparing to perform at the Canadian Future Achievers awards banquet we were interviewed by CBC reporter, Julie Ireton. Late last week I received an email informing me that the interview would be aired this week on Adrian Harewood's All In A Day. Sure enough, on January 5, 2009 at 4:46PM EST there we were, the fabulous four in all our glory, coursing out over the airwaves and the Internet for the world to hear. For those of you unfortunate (or possibly, fortunate) enough to miss such a momentous event, we've made this historical broadcast available for eternity via Soundcloud. Just click on the play button below and enjoy.
A big thank you to Julie for tracking us down and preparing the material for broadcast. Thank you, also, to Adrian for using the material on his show. And I mustn't forget to thank my Plurk friends who gave up their precious plurking time to listen on the radio or via the net in real time. Finally, a thank you to everyone who found their way to this blog and then managed to sit through the entire interview. To you we raise a beer (or diet Pepsi) to salute you.
So if we're lucky we'll see y'all at the next Grateful We're Not Dead performance.
On November 9 as we were preparing to perform at the Canadian Future Achievers awards banquet we were interviewed by CBC reporter, Julie Ireton. Late last week I received an email informing me that the interview would be aired this week on Adrian Harewood's All In A Day. Sure enough, on January 5, 2009 at 4:46PM EST there we were, the fabulous four in all our glory, coursing out over the airwaves and the Internet for the world to hear. For those of you unfortunate (or possibly, fortunate) enough to miss such a momentous event, we've made this historical broadcast available for eternity via Soundcloud. Just click on the play button below and enjoy.
A big thank you to Julie for tracking us down and preparing the material for broadcast. Thank you, also, to Adrian for using the material on his show. And I mustn't forget to thank my Plurk friends who gave up their precious plurking time to listen on the radio or via the net in real time. Finally, a thank you to everyone who found their way to this blog and then managed to sit through the entire interview. To you we raise a beer (or diet Pepsi) to salute you.
So if we're lucky we'll see y'all at the next Grateful We're Not Dead performance.
2008 Wrapup
Well another year for Grateful We're Not Dead has come to an end and we're looking forward to the New Year with enthusiasm. So many people to entertain (or abuse depending upon their taste in music and humour) and so much more beer (and diet Pepsi) to drink.
Now to catch up with the end of 2008.
On November 9 we entertained at the Canadian Future Achievers awards banquet, held at the Parkdale United Church. This was an easy evening of providing some pre-dinner background music and later, some more background music as people were preparing to leave. However, it did give us a chance to try out the sound system that was given to Grateful We're Not Dead by Mike Shea. The equipment provides excellent sound. Thanks again, Mike. As an interesting aside, Grateful We're Not Dead were interviewed that evening by CBC reporter, Julie Ireton. The last we heard the interview is to be aired in January on CBC Radio One, Ottawa. (More info to follow).
On December 12 we entertained at the 14th Annual Music Night Christmas Party hosted by Gord Breedyk and Evelyn Voigt. This is an offshoot of the monthly sing-alongs held in Gord and Evelyn's condo. Music night participants, condo residents and friends are invited to the Christmas Party. The eats are potluck. The liquid refreshments are beer, wine, soft drinks and juices. Did I mention beer? The sing-along is lead mainly by Marg Penniston. Grateful We're Not Dead is the house band and pitch in vocally during the evening with some country Christmas songs such as Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy, Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer, Here Comes Santa Claus Again, Blue Christmas and Christmas In The Valley. This year we were pleased to have Vicky Streeter from Carleton Place sit in with us. She has a fantastic voice and Grateful We're Not Dead plan to work with her some more in the New Year. As usual, Marie Rakos was on the piano to help us through some of the convoluted chord structures one finds in the Christmas carols. Mel Sanshagrin sat in on acoustic guitar and vocals for the entire evening and John Hunt provided his baritone throughout the night. Many thanks to others unnamed who jumped in to help over the evening.
Guys: Bruce Penniston, Al Owler, Mel Sanshagrin,
Gord Breedyk, John Hunt, Don White
Gals: Vicky Streeter, Marie Rakos, Marg Penniston
On December 18 Grateful We're Not Dead did a Christmas show at a group residence on Merivale Road complete with our Christmas hats. Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures from that event. The evening seemed to be much appreciated by the residents and we hope we can return to entertain in the future.
Most other major events that we participated in have been reported elsewhere on the blog. However, there were numerous smaller events such as birthday parties and Peace Conference sessions that we also entertained at. These events, though small, keep us on our toes and prompt us to pick up our instruments occasionally to practice (although sometimes to hear us you wouldn't know it).
I mentioned earlier that we plan on working with Vicky Streeter this Spring. Vicky belongs to the Lanark County Western Horse Club and is responsible for some of the fund raising. She has asked us to record a garage CD of her original material and Grateful We're Not Dead original material to sell to club members, friends and relatives (with a lot of stress on relatives) to raise funds. So we'll be working on that over the next couple months.
Well, that's a wrap and at this time I'd like to wish y'all a Happy New Year and a successful 2009 to you and yours from Grateful We're Not Dead.
Keep watching and if you see us coming, hide your beer!
Now to catch up with the end of 2008.
On November 9 we entertained at the Canadian Future Achievers awards banquet, held at the Parkdale United Church. This was an easy evening of providing some pre-dinner background music and later, some more background music as people were preparing to leave. However, it did give us a chance to try out the sound system that was given to Grateful We're Not Dead by Mike Shea. The equipment provides excellent sound. Thanks again, Mike. As an interesting aside, Grateful We're Not Dead were interviewed that evening by CBC reporter, Julie Ireton. The last we heard the interview is to be aired in January on CBC Radio One, Ottawa. (More info to follow).
On December 12 we entertained at the 14th Annual Music Night Christmas Party hosted by Gord Breedyk and Evelyn Voigt. This is an offshoot of the monthly sing-alongs held in Gord and Evelyn's condo. Music night participants, condo residents and friends are invited to the Christmas Party. The eats are potluck. The liquid refreshments are beer, wine, soft drinks and juices. Did I mention beer? The sing-along is lead mainly by Marg Penniston. Grateful We're Not Dead is the house band and pitch in vocally during the evening with some country Christmas songs such as Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy, Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer, Here Comes Santa Claus Again, Blue Christmas and Christmas In The Valley. This year we were pleased to have Vicky Streeter from Carleton Place sit in with us. She has a fantastic voice and Grateful We're Not Dead plan to work with her some more in the New Year. As usual, Marie Rakos was on the piano to help us through some of the convoluted chord structures one finds in the Christmas carols. Mel Sanshagrin sat in on acoustic guitar and vocals for the entire evening and John Hunt provided his baritone throughout the night. Many thanks to others unnamed who jumped in to help over the evening.
Guys: Bruce Penniston, Al Owler, Mel Sanshagrin,
Gord Breedyk, John Hunt, Don White
Gals: Vicky Streeter, Marie Rakos, Marg Penniston
Most other major events that we participated in have been reported elsewhere on the blog. However, there were numerous smaller events such as birthday parties and Peace Conference sessions that we also entertained at. These events, though small, keep us on our toes and prompt us to pick up our instruments occasionally to practice (although sometimes to hear us you wouldn't know it).
I mentioned earlier that we plan on working with Vicky Streeter this Spring. Vicky belongs to the Lanark County Western Horse Club and is responsible for some of the fund raising. She has asked us to record a garage CD of her original material and Grateful We're Not Dead original material to sell to club members, friends and relatives (with a lot of stress on relatives) to raise funds. So we'll be working on that over the next couple months.
Well, that's a wrap and at this time I'd like to wish y'all a Happy New Year and a successful 2009 to you and yours from Grateful We're Not Dead.
Keep watching and if you see us coming, hide your beer!
We've Been Tagged
Well here's an interesting development. The Grateful We're Not Dead blog has been tagged by a Plurk friend, JimBob51, in Australia. The first thing I have to do in return is to shout his blog: AOEDE. As explained on his blog header, "Aoede is one of the three original Muses. She is the Muse of Song or Voice. It is also the name of one of the Moons of Jupiter". Jim's blog is his spot to muse on just about anything and it can be an interesting read. So drop by and have a look.
This tagging of the Grateful We're Not Dead blog resulted from my interaction with my friends on Plurk. Plurk has become my main vehicle for building up a social network of friends and acquaintances around the globe. Now as I understand the rules of tagging, I have three tasks to complete:
Since the Grateful We're Not Dead blog is dedicated to the music and the comings and goings of the band I guess I'll say a few things about my musical background pre-"Grateful We're Not Dead". You may not find these interesting, but I have to write something.
This tagging of the Grateful We're Not Dead blog resulted from my interaction with my friends on Plurk. Plurk has become my main vehicle for building up a social network of friends and acquaintances around the globe. Now as I understand the rules of tagging, I have three tasks to complete:
- Shout your taggers blog
- Write 5 Interesting facts about yourself
- Tag six more blogs
Since the Grateful We're Not Dead blog is dedicated to the music and the comings and goings of the band I guess I'll say a few things about my musical background pre-"Grateful We're Not Dead". You may not find these interesting, but I have to write something.
- I started playing guitar in 1956 when I was 13. The old guitar that I used to learn on had strings that were at least 1/4 inch above the fret board and the pain from playing was almost enough to bring tears to my eyes.
- The first time I ever played in a band was New Years Eve, 1958 in Lanark, Ontario. The band was the Mississippi River Boys, a country dance band that played throughout Lanark, Renfrew, Carleton and Frontenac counties in Ontario. My first job was as a drummer. If I remember correctly we were paid $40 each for that night. For regular dances we usually received $5 to $10 for the night.
- My first electric guitar was a H44 Stratotone by Harmony Guitar. I bought it and an amplifier in a pawn shop in the Byward Market in Ottawa in 1959.
- The most interesting place I ever played with the Mississippi River Boys was Rideau Hall, residence of the the Governor-General of Canada. This was for the staff Christmas Party in 1965. The Governor-General, Georges P. Vanier, and his wife were in attendance and appeared to enjoy the country music, especially the fiddle tunes..
- I played with the Mississippi River Boys from 1958 until 1988 when we disbanded.
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Mike Shea: Musician and Gentleman
We'd like to offer a big THANK YOU to Mike Shea. Mike, a well known Ottawa musician for many years, has been downsizing and donated his sound system to Grateful We're Not Dead. The equipment includes an AudioPro MicroMix SP8 mixer/amplifer, Elite Micron 160 speakers and an assortment of microphones, stands and cable.
Now a bit of information about Mike.So once again, Thank You, Mike. We do appreciate your generosity and will be proud to continue using this excellent sound system, hopefully for years to come.He started his musical career 47 years ago at the age of 16. He performed on a regular basis until 1993 when he stopped entertaining professionally. During his career as a musician he was a member of an Ottawa band, The Counts, for 8 years. He also entertained at the former Skyline Hotel with a band called The Beggarmen for 1-1/2 years. For 20 years Micheal entertained, on a volunteer basis, for the Children's Hospital Foundation of Ottawa. He received a Citation from the Children's Hospital in recognition of his volunteer contribution.
In addition to the above, Mike entertained in senior citizens homes throughout the Ottawa Valley for his whole career, also on a voluntary basis. For five years of this time, he joined forces with Bernie Carroll and entertained as Bernie and Mike.
And for the techies, some information about the MicroMix:
1987 marked the introduction of Micromix. Paul Ierymenko designed an advanced stereo mixer and a 250-Watt per-channel stereo amplifier then put them together. Voila - the Audiopro Micromix SP-8 (8 channels stereo, 250 wattsx2, fan-cooled), soon to be joined by the SP-12 (12 channels, same power). Both powered mixers were compact, console-style affairs with slick blue cosmetics, colour-coded knobs and loads of features. Each input channel had a gain control and clip LED, a monitor level control, 3 bands of EQ, an external effects level control and another for the internal effects system, a pan control and a slide control for main mix level. Masters included two ten-band graphic equalizers - stereo for the main PA and mono for the monitors - a stereo reverb/echo (a "first" for Yorkville), dual LED level meters and a pushbutton which enabled you to power the main speakers with one of the built-in amp channels and monitors with the other (another "first" for Yorkville). Naturally there were the usual master faders for sub 1 and sub 2 (left & right), one for monitors and another for the mono line-level output which resulted when the afore-mentioned pushbutton was depressed blending the sub 1 & 2 signals into one. Whew! Oh, and one more thing - a full-time stereo limiter in series with the power amp ensured that distortion would be minimal even under worst-case conditions.
Reference: Yorkville Sound History: 1963-1991 Published Feb 20,2002. Written by Mike Holman
Helga Voigt's 93rd Birthday Party
On September 6, Grateful We're Not Dead had the honour and pleasure of entertaining at the 93rd birthday party of Helga Voigt. It was standing room only for Helga's party with guests arriving from as far away as New Jersey, North Carolina and Germany. Helga's three surviving children, Peter, Evelyn and Veronika, were in attendance for the party as well. We have known Helga for a number of years and she is truly a remarkable woman and I hope we can entertain at quite few more of her birthday parties.
In conjunction with the Helga's birthday was the launch of her book, Letters From Helga: 1934 - 1937: A Teen Bride Writes Home From East Africa. The book is based on letters Helga wrote to her family and friends in Germany after she left for Africa at the tender age of eighteen to marry Werner Voigt, a man she had never met. The three years worth of letters give a detailed, exciting picture into her life in East Africa. The letters have been translated and annotated by her daughter, Evelyn Voigt.
Letters From Helga is available from:
General Store Publishing House
499 O'Brien Rd
Box 415
Renfrew, Ontario K7V 4A6
1-800-465-6072
and can be ordered online as well.
60 Years in East Africa by Werner Voigt, Helga's late husband, is available from the same publisher.
Al Makes It Onto The Sidebar
Last year, in an article, we listed some of the Friends of Grateful We're Not Dead. One of those, 'young' Al Owler was sitting in with the band on a regular basis and becoming quite familiar with our repertoire. Being the youngest and the strongest, Al was also extremely helpful during the 'load out' at the end of the evening seeing as he was the only one really capable of lifting the equipment, and the older members of the group, into the van.
Since then, at Bruce's suggestion, Al has taken up playing bass guitar and is providing a fuller sound to the performance. Because of his on-going interest, assistance and full participation, Al has become an honourary member of Grateful We're Not Dead. He's even allowed to wear a black hat and silver tie. So it's with great pleasure that we announce the addition of Al's photo to the side bar with the old farts.
Welcome aboard, 'young' Al.
Since then, at Bruce's suggestion, Al has taken up playing bass guitar and is providing a fuller sound to the performance. Because of his on-going interest, assistance and full participation, Al has become an honourary member of Grateful We're Not Dead. He's even allowed to wear a black hat and silver tie. So it's with great pleasure that we announce the addition of Al's photo to the side bar with the old farts.
Welcome aboard, 'young' Al.
Gord Goes Electric
As we indicate in the Over Sixty Blues, advancing age brings with it a variety of physical problems. For the past few months, Gord has not been able to play his full sized acoustic guitar because of discomfort in his right shoulder. Hoping that the problem would right itself he has been playing a Martin Back-Packer in the interim. Although the Martin is great for carrying with you on trips it doesn't provide a full sound. At the last Grateful We're Not Dead jam session we set Gord up with Al's solid body electric. Needless to say, this provided the fullness that we were looking for. Gord was so thrilled with the sound that the next week he went out and purchased a Fender Telecaster and a Fender amp and is now merrily whiling away the hours getting used to the action of his new toy. Way to go Gord. Ah, the sacrifices we make for Grateful We're Not Dead.
Bruce Goes Under The Knife
One of the hazards of a career in computing is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). Unfortunately, over the last year Bruce started to show the symptoms. These developed until he did not have any feeling in the end of his fingers on both hands. Now this is both bad news and good news for a finger-picking guitarist: he couldn't feel the strings when he played, but if he played too long he didn't feel the pain in the end of his fingers. After a bit of procrastinating, Bruce finally decided to have the required surgery, starting with his left hand. On July 22nd he went under the knife and is now waiting patiently to see if the surgery was successful. Once the left hand is healed he will have the right hand done as well. Needless to say, this has put Grateful We're Not Dead on the sidelines for the summer, but we're looking forward to getting back into the fray come the Fall.
Update 1: I talked to Bruce on July 29th and his only complaint was that he was having trouble forming the B7 chord. Now it was supposed to take six weeks for to heal after this surgery, but what can you expect from a guy who was out entertaining at a Christmas party a few years ago, ten days after a triple bypass!
Update 2: August 8 was the monthly Music Night at Gord's. Bruce was out and in fine form - pickin' and grinnin' like he'd never had his hand cut open. In fact, after Music Night finished at about 11PM we stayed around and played until after 1AM.
Update 1: I talked to Bruce on July 29th and his only complaint was that he was having trouble forming the B7 chord. Now it was supposed to take six weeks for to heal after this surgery, but what can you expect from a guy who was out entertaining at a Christmas party a few years ago, ten days after a triple bypass!
Update 2: August 8 was the monthly Music Night at Gord's. Bruce was out and in fine form - pickin' and grinnin' like he'd never had his hand cut open. In fact, after Music Night finished at about 11PM we stayed around and played until after 1AM.
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