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Mikey’s Music Inside What’s Mag Eclectic Ethnomusicologist Canada’s Celtic Ambassadors The Blues - A Musical Journey The Paint Movement’s Eurythmy Enter
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Mikey's Music Mag

Mar 26, 2016

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MIKE JOHNSTON

Here is a music magazine that I created all by myself. I am proud of what I created. I believe it shows some of my best writing and layout skills. Please send feedback to [email protected]. Enjoy!
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Page 1: Mikey's Music Mag

Mikey’sMusic

InsideWhat’s

Mag

••

••

Eclectic Ethnomusicologist

Canada’s Celtic Ambassadors

The Blues - A Musical Journey

The Paint Movement’s Eurythmy

Enter

Page 2: Mikey's Music Mag

Evolu

tio

n o

f Sound

Editor........................Mike JohnstonWriter........................Mike JohnstonPhotographer..........Mike JohnstonLayout Editor..........Mike Johnston

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contentsThe Blues - A Musical Journey..........4-5The Paint Movement feature..............6-7Once: a unique musical movie................7The Barra MacNeils............................8-9Rob Bowman feature..............................9The art of novelty songs...............10-11Little known versions of songs.............12Letter from the editor............................13

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If you were searching for the ultimate lesson in how music evolves and affects culture, you would need not look past Martin Scorsese’s miraculous seven part series that aired on PBS in 2003, now available on

DVD.

Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues - A Musical Journey is a com-prehensive look at the history and progression of the Blues. It starts with the odyssey from Africa to the Mississippi Delta where the audience sees how Blues music is derived from slaves’ field hollers, work songs and spirituals. It examines how the Blues is one of few uniquely Ameri-can traditions and a right of passage for certain peo-ple. The series also looks at how the Blues progressed to Memphis and Chicago, and ultimately the entire United States with musicians and people throughout the world feeling its impact.

This series does not have any one message or a thesis, but instead it is a collage of opinions from some of the most influential artists of yesteryear and today. Not all opinions are the same, which makes the film that much more engrossing. For ex-ample most of the artists state that anyone can play the blues regardless of skin colour; the Blues has little to do with race, a lot to do with life. However, Eric Clapton says that no mat-ter how qualified he is to play the blues, he’ll never sound as good as if a black man were singing the Blues.

It is these dynamics that make this series unique. Each of the seven feature-length films is directed by a different director that captures the spirit of the Blues in his own per-sonalized style.

Part 1 – Feel Like Going Home is the only one of the seven directed by Scorsese. This film looks at the very core of where and how Blues began. Much of this film takes place in Africa. A fascinating interview takes place between Corey Harris, an American musician who studies the history of African music, and Ali Farka Toure, an inter-nationally well-known musician from Mali. Toure describes the essence of what he feels the Blues is, a global sound that

unites a people. “Whether in the United States or in Mali, I think that there are only cit-ies and distances separating us but our souls, our spirits are the same,” Toure said, wearing traditional African attire while jamming with Harris. “They are the same thing. There is no difference.” When the au-dience hears him speak, it’s like we are experiencing something profound, not just watching a music documentary.

Part 2 - The Soul of a Man was directed by German Wim Wenders. This episode is part history lesson, part biography of several of

Wenders’ favourite Blues artists including Blind Willie Johnson, Skip James, and J. B. Lenoir. A

variety of artists like Bonnie Raitt, T-Bone Burnett, John Mayall and Lou Reed among others are featured in inter-views, live performances and archive footage.

Part 3 - The Road to Memphis directed by Richard Pearce examines, through the eyes of B.B. King, Sam Phillips and many more, the journey that landed the Blues genre in Memphis, where a new style of Blues was formed. Pearce says, “The Blues is a chance to celebrate one of the last truly indigenous American art forms, before it all but disappears, swallowed whole by the rock and roll gen-

An Overview and Review By Mike Johnston

The Blues: A Musical Journey

In addition to the PBS series, there was a corre-sponding book and five-cd box set of The Blues.

Photo by Mike Johnston

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eration it spawned. Hopefully we’ll get there before it’s too late.”

Part 4 - Warming by the Devil’s Fire is a extraordinary look at the blurred line between Blues and Gospel music. This episode, more than any other, features performances by many of the finest female singers of the 20th century such as Mamie Smith, Bessie Smith, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Dinah Washington. Director Charles Burnett sure loves his women and archival footage. This episode is made up of mostly all archival footage with clear narration.

Part 5 - Godfathers and Sons brilliantly shows how the Blues’ influences today’s hip-hop artists and how public perception of rap stars is often misconstrued. The great spitters really know their stuff and appreciate the evolution of a genre that transformed into rap and hip-hop, genres that bombard the social conscience of today’s youth. Director Marc Levin, Chuck D, Common and the heirs to Chess Records are featured in interviews.

Part 6 - Red, White and Blues is argu-ably the most interesting and in-depth of the seven episodes. Leaving Las Vegas director Mike Figgis sits down with some of the most acclaimed and successful musicians to ever come out of the Britain, including Eric Clapton, Tom Jones, Van Morrison, Jeff Beck, John Mayall, Stevie Winwood, Mick Fleetwood and many more. It features old performances by the Beatles and Rolling Stones showing that the two biggest bands ever were directly influenced by early rock & roll - the Blues’ lovechild. Listening to these British Invasion artist speak about what inspired them is inspiring in and of itself.

A second side to this episode examines how the old, black blues pioneers like BB King and Howlin’ Wolf were blown away by the talents of these young white kids from Britain. If you are a fan of classic rock, this is the best episode to watch. It’s simply fantastic.

Part 7 - Piano Blues is the most low key of the series. Clint Eastwood directs and sits down with Ray Charles at the end of his life. You can hear in his withered voice that he passed away not too long after their interview was filmed. This episode has a connection to Jazz, a close cousin of the Blues and how the piano sound adds an entire-ly new element to the genre. Eastwood talks a bit too much about his life and movies, but it’s still interesting nonetheless.

In this episode the audience should find a new appreciation for the piano and some of the best pianists including Fats Waller, Nat King Cole, Pinetop Perkins and Jay McShann. The film talks a lot about Fats Domino as well. We learn that his music influenced many of the top musicians from the 60s and 70s, while producing possibly the first ever rock song in “The Fat Man” in 1950.

Take away all the music from Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues - A Musical Journey and it still is a fantastic and absorbing history lesson. But, with live performances and phenomenal archival footage, it becomes transcendent and an intrinsic series for music enthusiasts. The audience is introduced to nearly all the significant blues musicians from the early 20th century to present day Blues legends and music icons.

Two episodes from Martin Scorsese’s PBS series.Photo by Mike Johnston

:Recommended Listening:

Muddy Waters: Definitive Collection

••

••Robert Johnson: Complete Recordings

John Mayall: BLUESBREAKERS with Eric Clapton

Howlin’ Wolf: The London Sessions

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Mississauga natives Kevin Kralik, Jason Hab-erman, Jason Loftman and Glenn Candy are a quirky quartette. They are the mem-bers of the indie band The Paint Move-

ment, a mosaic of talent and personality.

They each describe their band as “a balance of eurythmy between the four of us. We are in a process of building musi-cal blueprints of the art we want to feel, hear, and see.”

All graduates and friends from Erindale Secondary School in Mississauga, they began collectively writing songs in early 2007 and playing in small, local gigs. As their sound came together and they discovered their identity as a group, they began playing bigger gigs more frequently.

In October of 2008, they released their first ever album, the consonant sounding Our Eurythmy, which is a fitting title. They recorded the album in Kralik’s basement turned re-cording studio. Each song has a unique vibe, but the balance between the beautiful yet chilling use of harmonically lay-

Mississauga’s quirky quartette

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By Mike Johnston

Photo Courtesy of The Paint Movement

The cover of The Paint movement’s first album, Our Eurythmy. The album is now avilable on iTunes.

A look at the indie band: the paint movement

We are in a process of building musical blueprints of the art we want to feel, hear,

and see.

“”

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ered melodies comes together to tell a story where the ending is only the beginning.

These guys aren’t your typical local indie band. They don’t perform catchy, three minute ditties that the crowd can enjoy but easily forget. Their songs on the other hand are a journey of sorts. You can get lost, and even a bit confused, in their lyrics and you can be taken aback, and at times over-whelmed, with all the different sounds that come from this band.

While listening to one of their songs, you can hear certain nuances that have you thinking it’s an homage to Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, Carey Brothers, Iron & Wine or even Coldplay, but then they shake it up on you and add in the sultry sounds of Loftman’s saxophone. The addition of various horns adds a mature, jazzy sound not too often heard among indie bands.

“Our sound came to be through each of our own influ-ences and styles blending together,” says Kralik. “We real-ized what we were capable of as a band, and we learned to feed off each other’s unique musical taste.”

Kralik (lead vocals and guitar), Haberman (bass/vocals), Loftman (sax/keyboard) and Candy (percussion) have each been influenced by too many artists to list. However they truly enjoy playing with and being inspired from other local musicians such as Sean Pinchin, Ryan Masters and Woah! Gordo.

Recently, Our Eurythmy was made available in some HMV stores in the GTA and is also available to purchase on iTunes.

Photo Courtesy of The Paint Movement

From left to right: Loftman, Candy, Kralik, Haberman.

A film that may change how people view musicals

Photo Courtesy of Fox Searchlight

By Mike Johnston

Once, an Irish independent film first released in 2006, is a memorable and moving musical masterpiece.

The film relies heavily on music and sound to guide it and drive it into the hearts and minds of audiences.

Once is somewhat a modern-day musical, but it is es-sentially a video album.

The story follows a heartbroken Irishman that per-forms music on the streets of Dublin. He meets a young immigrant girl and they form a unique friendship.

They write, rehearse and record songs that tell their life’s stories.

The film has a gentle pace and is a refreshing alter-native to mainstream Hollywood tripe.

You should seek out this movie and corresponding Grammy Award winning soundtrack.

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They are regarded as one of the greatest live acts in the world, have been recording music for over 20 years and performing live for nearly 30 years, yet very few Canadians are familiar with

the music of the Barra MacNeils.

Rich with Cape Breton tradition and strong Celtic roots, this multifarious musical mass of talent wows audiences around the world with captivating vocals, harmonies and a traditional Celtic sound.

The band is comprised of six MacNeil siblings: Kyle (vo-cals, guitar, violin, mandolin), Lucy (vocals, bodhran, Celtic harp, fiddle, step dancing), Sheumas (keyboards, piano, bodhran, fiddle, bouzouki, vocals), Stewart (vocals, accor-dion, tin whistle, flute, bouzouki, guitar, step dancing), Boyd (mandolin, fiddle, guitar, banjo, percussion, step dancing), and Ryan (keyboards, percussion, uillian pipes, tin whistle, bodhran, step dancing). Also in the group is Jamie Gatti (bass), the only none-MacNeil.

Andre Bourgeois, who works for Instinct Artist Manage-ment in Nova Scotia, manages the Barra MacNeils. Bour-geois says that he loves managing them and appreciates their

dynamic approach to tradition with their music. “They’re a great crew of people and I love them all dearly. They’re great friends of mine and I have the greatest respect for them,” said Bourgeois.

Last year, the Barra MacNeils released a 20th anniversary compilation album to celebrate two decades in the music in-dustry. “They were very happy to do that,” said Bourgeois. “It really shows the volume of quality music they’ve pro-duced in the last 20 years.”

Their songs are complex arrangements filled with nu-merous instruments being played simultaneously, but never conflicting with one another. Often, more than one person will be singing at one time but they remain perfectly harmo-nized. When listening to some of their tunes, close your eyes and be instantly taken to the 17th century somewhere in the Highlands. A lot of their music would fit nicely into most Celtic period piece films such as Braveheart or Rob Roy.

The Barra MacNeils typically play traditional Celtic music, but every so often they will record a cover version of a poplar hit. For example, on their immaculate 1993 al-bum Closer to Paradise, they put their own twist on the Lovin’

By Mike Johnston

Canada’s Celtic Ambassadors

TheBarraMacNeils

The six MacNeils siblings make up The Barra MacNeils: a Canadian Celtic music group popular worldwide.Photo Courtesy of The Barra MacNeils

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Spoonful song “Darling Be Home Soon.” Recordings like this and many others show the versatility and talent of this band.

They can take a hit song like “Darling Be Home Soon” and make it their own by implementing an earthy feel. There is absolutely nothing the matter with John Sebastian’s gentle voice or calm delivery in the original version. He stays consistent and mellow even when background music builds throughout the song and horn and string sections appear. It is a phenomenal song to begin with, but the Barra MacNeils make it completely different. They remain loyal to the origi-nal version by not changing every aspect of the song, but still making it theirs; they do the Spoonful justice, no question.

Many of the songs are sung by Lucy, the lone female in the group who possesses an angelic voice that far surpasses any pop-princess that tops the charts today. “Lucy has such a beautiful voice. It’s incredible,” marvels Bourgeois. “And, since she’s the only woman in the group, her voice is that much more important.”

Whether it’s Lucy, one of her brothers or the entire band singing, the Barra MacNeils continue to create gorgeous mu-sic not too often heard or talked about in mainstream media. Although nowhere close to being the most well-known or publicized group in Canada, the Barra MacNeils certainly remain one of Canada’s most genuinely talented musical groups.

9

:Recommended Listening:

The Barra MacNeils’ 1993 album Closer to Paradise.

Photo by Mike Johnston

If you want to have dinner with someone who could inform you of the intricate details of the history of cinema for hours on end, you could share a bowl of pasta with Martin Scorsese and Roger Ebert. If you

live in Ontario and want to speak with someone who has vast knowledge of music and all its glory, you need not look further than Rob Bowman, Professor in Ethnomusicology at York University.

An ethnomusicologist is someone who practices the sci-entific study of music, especially traditional or non-Western music, as an aspect of culture. In laymen’s terms, an eth-nomusicologist is someone who knows a heck of a lot about music!

The way Bowman can flow from genre to genre with seamless segues is quite impressive. A typical conversation with him can begin with discussing the legend of Blues icon Robert Johnson, transition to a conversation about Eric Clap-ton, segue to the guitar style of John Mayer and finish off

with talking about an artist’s influence on popular culture.

Bowman has pioneered popular music studies at York University where he lectures. He also publishes and broad-casts in many areas of popular music, from country, R&B and gospel to reggae, rap and funk. He has written liner notes for many recordings and regularly writes, produces and advises on major documentary and CD reissue projects for record companies in Europe and North America. His many broad-cast credits include a five-part radio series on the history of Canadian popular music and frequent guest spots on CBC Radio’s show, Definitely Not the Opera.

Bowman has worked as an interpreter and documentarian of historical recordings of popular music for several decades and has been recognized internationally for his thoroughness and detail. He has been nominated for five Grammy Award from 1988 through 2002. His nominations include four Best Album Notes nods and one Best Historical Reissue for The Otis Redding Story.

The Segueing sounds of Rob BowmanBy Mike Johnston

Story continued on page 11.

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Whether you sing along with Alvin and the Chipmunks at Christmas time or tip toe through tulips with Tiny Tim, everyone enjoys at least a few novelty songs.

Many critics dismiss the genre and frown upon the one-hit-wonder artists that get their 15 minutes by releasing an annoying song that unfathomably becomes popular and will undoubtedly become an unbearable ringtone one day.

However, there is another side to novelty songs, parody songs or comedic songs. Call them what you will, but there are many very clever comedians and musicians that have produced some fantastic farcical tunes.

Wonderfully witty and weird

“Weird Al” Yankovic is a prime example of a novelty artist. He takes popular songs, keeps the same sound and changes the lyrics while making fun of the artist or any topic of interest at the time of the song’s release.

Since “Weird Al” doesn’t have a pleasant sounding voice, many dismiss his musical ability. His real talent though is the songwriting. He can take a hit single and form the lyrics into genuinely funny material. A couple of his most popular song parodies are “Eat It,” a spoof on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” and “Amish Paradise” which poked fun at rapper Coolio in the mid-nineties. It also made fun of the Amish, but how are they going to find out?

Yankovic releases an album every few years, and for the foreseeable future his music will be making generations of prepubescent boys extremely happy and giggly with his pre-cisely crafted parodies of recent chart hits.

Putting the D in parody

Comedy rock duo Tenacious D put a heavy metal spin on comedy. Movie star

Jack Black and his comedy partner Kyle Gass create a blend of all original acoustic and heavy metal songs. Black and Gass are hefty fellows so many of their songs are about food, such as “Kielbasa” and “Karate Schnitzel.” But their piéce de resistance just might be “Classico.” In this song, Tena-cious D incorporates two of the most famous compositions in music history -Beethovan’s “Für Elise” and Bach’s “Bour-rée in E minor”- into a 59 second ditty that is an amusing homage to classical music.

Kiwi Komedy

Perhaps the most popular musical com-edy act today is also a duo of dudes, the hapless New Zealanders, the Flight of the Conchords. They write their own original sounding songs and use a mix of acous-tic rhythms and techno-funk beats. Their popularity grew so much that they were awarded with an HBO special and their own HBO series. Their act is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy acts on the scene today.

The Big Yin’s big talent

Billy Connolly is the biggest thing to come out of Scotland since sliced haggis. Clearly one of the most successful and ac-claimed stand-up comedians of all-time,

Connolly began his show business career as a folk singer. He is not simply some quirky comedian that made it big and happens to know how to play guitar and banjo. He has lived an incredible life with strife and triumph and a whole lot of anecdotes about life an all its glory and shortcomings, and all this can be heard in his songs.

There is a certain depth to Billy Connolly songs that is refreshing, unexpected and is what separates him from other comedic musicians.

Music’s guilty pleasures: the art of novelty songs and the artists behind themBy Mike Johnston

Images Courtesy of Amazon.ca

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Perhaps Bowman’s crowning achievement came in 1996 when he won a Grammy Award for Best Album Notes for his 47,000 word monograph accompanying the 10-CD boxed set of The Complete Stax/Volt Soul Singles, Vol. 3: 1972-1975, which he co-produced. “It happened a long time ago, but I’m very happy with that accomplishment,” says Bowman.

One year after that, he released a critically acclaimed book entitled Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records. On its back cover, Bowman received praise from some of music’s most influential names.

“This young man Rob Bowman down through the years has come to be one of my very, very special and clos-est friends. His writing gives you such a beautifully painted picture that you feel you were right there with all of these people,” stated Mavis Staples from the Staples Singers. “His honesty and his wit make you not want to put it down until you finish reading it.”

“From the sixties to now, Rob Bowman has put out the

energy to become the number one authority on Stax/Volt,” stated Booker T. Jones from Booker T and the MG’s.

Bowman remains humble, but acknowledges how much work he put into that project. “I began my research into that book in the mid-eighties and around a dozen years later I was still struggling to bring it to a conclusion,” said Bowman. “I devoted a lot of myself to the creation of that book.”

In addition to his career as a teacher, writer, critic and broad-caster, Bowman is a musician himself and continues to perform professionally from time to time. “I play the euphonium and viola da gamba and try to use my voice in interesting ways.” His musical style reflects his taste.

Rob Bowman: the eclectic ethnomusicologist.

An Enlightened, Eclectic Ethnomusicologist

:Recommended Listening:

Connolly has performed many different styles of songs from straight up parodies of songs like “In the Navy” by the Village People and Tammy Wynette’s song “D-I-V-O-R-C-E.” His parody version of the song actually did better on the pop charts than the original Wynette version.

He also sings original songs that are a mixture of comedy and heartwarming tales. Songs like “Yer Wellies” and “The Janny” will make you laugh hysterically and have you think-ing about life. He digs below the surface where many come-dians just stick with a safe, predictable punch line.

:Recommended Listening:

Billy Connolly’s Get Right Intae Him

It is an intrinsic comedy album for anyone who enjoys the Big Yin’s work. It is chalk full of comedy gold and an ideal example of his musi-cal style and talent.

Sam Cooke: Portrait of a LegendSam Cooke can sing gospel,

soul, R&B, blues, or pop

standards with utter ease.

He never hits a wrong note.

Otis Blue/ Otis Redding Sings SoulRedding’s raw and pleading

voice can be heard belting out

several covers of Sam Cooke

songs on this 1965 album.

Continued from page 9.

Images Courtesy of Amazon.ca

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The incomparable Willie Dixon once said, “the Blues is the roots, and everything else is the fruits.” No wiser words have ever been uttered in the music world. There have been hundreds of hit songs by a plethora of artists over the last fifty years that the general public hasn’t the slightest idea are the fruit from another artist’s root.

Here are several popular songs from the mid to late twen-tieth century that have roots dating back to the early 20th century:

The American rock band Ram Jam made a name for themselves with its hit “Black Betty” in 1977. The song is about a black woman from Alabama who has a wild child, so why would

Ram Jam, a bunch of east coast white guys, write such a racially controversial song? Well, they didn’t. Most people don’t know this, but the song is attributed the Folk-blues leg-end Leadbelly.

Leadbelly’s version is only 59 seconds long but Ram Jam transformed it into a catchy four minute pump up beat that is an essential track for North American sports arenas to have in their arsenal of songs such as Queen’s “We Will Rock You” and “.”

Elvis Presley has made many of the most suc-cessful and critically acclaimed songs of all time, many of which are from the 1950s. Two of those hits are “Hound Dog” in ’56 and “That’s All Right” in ’54.

“Hound Dog” was ranked as the 19th great-est song of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine in 2004. It is an upbeat song and one of rock and roll’s first hugely successful songs. Full marks for Elvis on this one…not so much. Although Elvis’ version is extremely well known and acclaimed, it does not belong to him. The song was written and recorded in 1953 by “Big Mamma” Thornton. Her ver-sion is slower, more bluesy and features a horn section.

Some consider 1954’s “That’s All Right” by Elvis to be the first official rock and roll song, along with Bill Haley’s “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock.” This song had an entire country going ‘wow, what’s this new sound?’ Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup was not one of those people because he wrote and recorded the song in 1947. Crudup’s version is an upbeat 12 bar blues song. However Elvis transformed it into straight up rock and roll.

“Respect” by Aretha Franklin is an anthem for women across America. She blasts each note as is it were her last. Rolling Stone Magazine says it’s the fifth greatest song of all-time. If Otis Redding were still alive, he might be saying “hey, what’s the deal?” Respect is and Otis Redding song. His

version isn’t a blues song; however the way he belts out the notes, one can see what inspired him. His version has the distinct Redding sound with trumpets blaring when Otis isn’t. His version is great, but Franklin’s surpasses it.

“Going Up the Country” by Canned Heat is a popular and acclaimed rock song from the late-sixties. However it is not an original. It be-gins with a distinct flute riff, it has been featured

in a plethora of television shows and feature films and it is one of the themes to the documentary Woodstock. Canned Heat, a band whose name is from an old Tommy Johnson Blues song, took the beat and pan flute tune from Henry Thomas’ 1928 song “Bulldoze Blues.” It is a unique sound-ing Blues song. Far from your basic 12 bar number. In fact, Mikey’s Music Mag has declared it as its favourite Blues song of all time.

:Recommended Listening:

12

By Mike Johnston

Have you heard this one?

18 original Blues recordings in-cluding Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup’s “That’s All Right” and Henry Thomas’ “Bulldoze Blues.”

Blues Masters Vol. 6 - Blues Originals

Little known versions of widely known songs

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Page 13: Mikey's Music Mag

Letter from the Editor

I hope you have enjoyed this issue of Mikey’s Music Mag. This week, as you probably noticed, there was a focus on the Blues.

In the past year, I have developed an affinity and apprecia-tion for the Blues. I grew up listening to my Dad’s records, but my interest in the genre and the evolution of music blossomed after I went to my first concert. I took my Dad to see Eric Clap-ton at the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto on May 27. 2008.

I bought the tickets for my Dad’s birthday, which was in early April, and the concert was held a day before my birthday; my Dad bought me a t-shirt and we had a couple beers to celebrate life as father and son.

It was an extremely cold night for late May, but when ‘Slowhand’ came out, the energy of the fans seemed to warm the peoples’ spirits. The set was a beautiful mix of Blues, Rock and Acoustic songs.

I know that I will always remember that night because the concert took place one day before my birthday and one day after my grandfather passed away. My Grandma told me that she would be upset if I missed going to the concert with my Dad because of my grandfather’s passing. So, we went and it was a wonderful experience.

I urge anyone who hasn’t listened to the Blues to do so. The impact it has had on popu-lar music and society is astounding.

Dear Reader,

Peace,MJ

Mike Johnston has a very eclectic taste when it comes to music. He grew up listening to his parents old records and cds. In the past year or so, he has developed a new found interest in how music has evolved over de-cades.

Mike tends to listen to older stuff because it is tried and true. But, it’s anything from Gangster Rap to Classical for this music buff. One day, Mike would love to help com-pile a Timelife musical box set.

Mike Johnston

Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Sam Cooke.

Favourite Artists

Favourite Albums

Van Morrison’s MoondanceBilly Joel’s River of DreamsEric Clapton’s UnpluggedFavourite Songs

Rod Stewart - “Maggie May”Otis Redding - “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”The Band - “The Weight”

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Images Courtesy of Amazon.ca

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