Dec. 22nd, 2006

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On Tuesday night, Piet and I had tickets to go to Hamilton Place for Stuart McLean's annual recording of the Christmas edition of his radio show, the Vinyl Cafe. McLean's show includes stories of a family in small-town Canada, interspersed with musical numbers and guest stars. The stories are extremely funny - the roadkill in the Holt Renfrew bag was hysterical, as was the poultry, not pests - and the musical numbers are often people just getting their start in the music business.

The musicians included David Sheard, a pianist who has participated in the recording of more than two hundred albums. He played a piano solo that was a feast of references - three different motifs from Beethoven, two from Mozart, one from Debussy, the Harry Potter theme, half a dozen Christmas carols, and chopsticks, all played in a variety of styles that moved so fast, you'd barely identified one before he was on to the next. It was wonderful. Also there were the Beebop Cowboys (that just sounds backwards to me - I wonder why? :) They're a cowboy swing band with several really formidable musicians. The violinist played three parts at once, by unhooking the bow and latching it so the violin was between the bow and the bow hairs, allowing him to play three strings at once. I'm going onto iTunes soon to see if I can find anything to download - they were great. A young lady named Roxanne Potvin was the guest singer. She's 24, grew up in Regina but hails more recently from Gatineau, Quebec, and I really hope she makes it in the music business. McLean really can pick them.

The last musical guest was Murray McLaughlan (sp?) a Canadian icon of a similar calibre to Leonard Cohen or Anne Murray. He's clearly an old friend of Stuart - the joke he told when he showed up appeared to be unscripted, and it actually made McLean blush.

If you get CBC where you are, the show will air on Sunday morning, and it's worth listening to.
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My baby has discovered the Christmas tree.
*runs to rescue ornaments and gifts*

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