Teching for Michelle Titian's CD release party

I had a good time working as a tech person at Michelle Titian's CD release party. It reminded me of being a tech person in the 90's.. I worked at Festival of Friends, McMaster University frosh weeks, Mariposa, Church at the John, Hillside Festival (a little)
Here's a list of some band for whom i carried amps, set up microphones and worked sometimes 24 hours straight

The Watchmen
The Doughboys
Weeping Tile
Wild Strawberries
Spirit of the West
Crash Vegas
Lowest of the Low
Rhymes with Orange
The Walk
Moist



anyway there's more but I can't think of them all right now. I don't think I ever worked with Barenaked Ladies Skydiggers, Rheostatics, or Our Lady Peace but I certainly went to see them play a lot. It was a great time - very inspiring for me because that's when I started as a songwriter really.

Next time I'll tell you about my work at Copps Collisium In Hamilton with the WWF wrestlers and the Professional Figure Skaters.

me and Jeremy

Hi

Here's a photo of me and Jeremy Giesbrecht playing in dundas Ontario July 7.

Warmer summer days, one Cool night of music

I'm busy putting the word out on a great show I'm doing on July 7. I 'm stoked about it - playing some new songs that I've been working on in the studio these past couple of weeks. I'm busy trying to finish the tunes and pick some for an upcoming full length album. Given my schedule it may take a while to complete it though but I hope to have a good start this summer!





July 7 , 2006
Cool Summer Nights Coffeehouse Concerts
Centre for the Arts, Dundas, Ontario
8:00pm with Jamie Oakes, Grant Lyle and Rob Szabo
For seat reservations call MJ Russel@905 627 1774
$12 advance $15 door
All Ages
The Village Bakery serving non-alcoholic beverages and desserts
For more information go to “http://www.coolsummernights.ca”

I'm on drugs

Man this is a total bummer - 2 shows this weekend and I'm sick. Went to the doctor today. Apparently me and half of Dundas all went to the doctor at the same time - for the same symtoms and then we all trapsed through town to the Pharmacy where we all lined up to order our drugs - all the same drugs from the same doctor so we all waited forever.

While we waited I shopped for stuff like insoles for my other pair of doc martins that have been in the shed for 3 months cuz one day (when I was probably on drugs) I spilled diesel fuel all over them and my clothes. Now that the stink is almost worn off I can get back to wearing them around like when I"m feeling tough and punkish and like I'm bad and no one is going to push me around anymore. So back off - my boots have new insoles and a faint stink if fuel and if you bug me...well I ougta - I oughta thrown my bottle of pills at you!

Guess I'll see you at the show

Show at Chapters Bookstore in St Catherines

Hi

I played at Chapters in St Catherines last Friday. Jeremy Giesbrecht joined me on keyboard and so this was alot of fun.

We were late in getting there because of traffic and on the way I realized that I was missing a cable for the PA so had to make a quick trip to the music store in Burlington. I'm amazed that I remembered because I've had so much on my mind recently - I've been renovating my basement and that takes alot of my time these days.

So the show went off well and I'm looking forward to the next Chapters gigs - Ancaster, Barrie, and Burlington.

singing at school

last week my 7 year old son "volunteered" me to play guitar with his choir at school. He loves his choir and so I joined them for a quick rehearsal and performance at a school assembly. We did two songs - Rainbow World and Lucky Streak.

On the same day my son and I played at a fund raiser for a Homeschoolers drama club at St Cuthburts church. This is the same place that I debuted my new solo material back in Dec 04 so I attached a photo of that night here.

We did Lucky Streak with Sebastian solo vocal. We found out that we really should rehearse together before we do things like this because when you sing with a choir the group kind of carries the song along - when it's just the two of us, we have to make sure we can remember all the words!

My son and I have played together before too. This past Christmas we did "The Grinch" on Ric Taylor's Lullabyes in Razerland radio show on CFMU.


Also at the Homeschoolers event I jammed with celtic/folk singer Brian Kierstead and one of the kids from the drama club on percussion. It was cool and we saw lots of other good musicians too including an accordian player who's name I know is Brian - he was so good - I'm going to try to see if he can play with me on May 5 at FRWY cafe in Hamilton.

2nd show at Colborne

Played at Colborne on Lakeshore again yesterday. Big thanks to Scott Orr for the referral there.
It was alot easier getting ready for this show - I was organized and set up with time to spare. I made some changes to the set list -couple new songs - Big Rock Candy Mountain and Hard Times Come Again No More. I also played Smokescreen by Lost Dogs - a very short song but a nice way to get a set started.

I've realized that in a cafe setting you can play a lot of songs in a short period of time. I think with a band there's naturally more time in between songs - at the Colborne people are there having their lunch and coffee and are kind of forced to listen to me (or tune me out) So I did very little talking and moved from one song to the other rapidly

I met alot of nice people who came up to chat. Also young families would come in with kids - I'd start playing a Rheostatics tune from Harmelodia and that would go over pretty well.

Afterwards the staff gave me some cake and we talked about "old school" songs like Big Rock Candy and You are my Sunshine

On the way home I dropped off a poster at Chapters in Burlington - I'm playing there May 12!

Colborne on Lakeshore

Aside from a show at the Angel Cave Studio in November I haven't been playing live shows...until now. This past Sunday I played at a cool cafe called Colborne on Lakeshore in downtown Oakville. They had even put up a large sign in the window "Fred Magee Singer Songwriter". Okay they may have spelled my name wrong but it was still pretty cool.

I was supposed to play three 50 minute sets but I because there were quite a lot of people having there Sunday afternoon lunch and coffee I ended up playing 2 lengthy sets. Later on some of my friends came in as well so what started out as music for people having coffee turned into attentive listeners making requests to hear this song and that.

The reason why I haven't been playing live shows is my wrists were quite sore all last summer. I went to a massage therapist, chiropractor, and a specialist..I iced them, I wore these crazy wrist braces..all to do everything I possibly could so they'd heal. I was really afraid my guitar playing might have to come to an end - however it turns out it was something they called deep muscle fatigue...I was tired!

So the show on Sunday went well and my wrists don't hurt much at all - my fingers are sore though! ha

I played a couple new cover tunes - Settin the woods on fire by Hank Williams and Steal Your Love by Lucinda Williams. I also did a children's song written by Dave Bidini (Rheostatics) called the Sky Dreamed.

I'm back at Colbourne next Sunday...and then the tour of Chapters Bookstores starts in April

election day

Election day and the people on tv are saying Stephen Harper will be Prime Minister.
At the very same time I'm blogging for the very first time. Interesting start for both of us.