Toronto Blues Society | » Loose Blues News – November 2017

Loose Blues News – November 2017

Published November 1, 2017 in Loose Blues News, News

Blues Dance Parties and Classes

If you haven’t already heard of the dance-focused, Toronto-based organisation, TOBlues, check out their solid calendar featuring Weekly Blues Music & History classes, dance instruction with international teachers as well as socials at dance-friendly venues around town. Cut a rug at their monthly 3rd Friday Blues Dance featuring live music or a visiting DJ at the Dovercourt House in the Junction, or on the 1st Sunday of the month when “The Crossroads” Blues Party is held at the Imperial Pub at Yonge and Dundas. Their schedule is simple and practical; dance classes are held weekly and a no-wait policy allows you to join the all-level group at any time, whether it’s your first class or you’ve been dancing for years. To contact the self-described Blues fanatics at TO Blues, visit www.toblues.ca

Hamilton’s Mississippi Queen

On November 1st Sugar Brown will be singing Happy Birthday to the Mississippi Queen herself, at a Southern Supper in Hamilton. A cozy atmosphere and authentic down-south menu, Mississippi native Connie Rouble enriches Hamilton’s music scene by drawing fabulous Blues talent to her steeltown venue. If you just missed Suzie Vinnick and Lance Anderson, try catching the following performers who, in November and December alone, will be singing for their supper: Jack de Keyzer (Nov 9), Sinners Choir (Nov 22), Jerome Godboo & Eric Schenkman (Nov 24), Steve Marriner (Nov 30), Terry Gillespie (Dec 7), Chuck Jackson & Tyler Yarema (Dec 21) …just to name a few. www.mississippiqueenfoods.com

Student Song Contest: PeaceWorks is running their second annual Peace Song contest for Ontario for students in grades 6-12 and the deadline has been extended. Metalworks Studios is providing the grand prize of a full-day recording session with an engineer, and they also want to film portions of the recording session, and promote the winner on social media afterwards. It’s an amazing opportunity for a talented, aspiring student who really wants to pursue a music career! Details at peaceworks.tv/upcoming-events.html

Podcasting, Blogging and Vlogging:

The Blues Tribe continues to put out videos (performance and interview) with upcoming Canadian Blues artists. The October guest is Glenn Marais from Newmarket, Ontario. The discuss the release of two albums simultaneously, how he discovered Blues as “the story of life”, and the story behind his guitar “Stevie”. Songs performed include “Hurricane” and “That’s Where My Mojo’s At”. www.bluestribe.ca.

Mako Funasaka has been interviewing some interesting behind-the-scene players for his “Talkin Blues” podcast. The latest episode features Ian Gilchrist, London based proprietor of Divergent Media, formerly of Rounder Records and Rykodisc amongst others. There’s also episodes with the father of Madrid Blues, Tonky de la Peña and Roger Costa, Co-Administrator/Archivist of the Estate of Jeff Healey. http://talkinblues.podbean.com.
And while we’re in the blogosphere, it might be worth mentioning that your (barely)managing editor’s blog/vlog, torontobluesdiary.com, was just awarded Top 50 Toronto Music Blog.

More Blues on Video: And this one you can watch right away (at least for now). A documentary on Fred McDowell called Shake ‘Em On Down is available for screening on PBS. Produced by Scott Baretta and Joe York, it includes footage from his appearance at the Newport Folk Festival and the European tours plus many historical photos. With commentary from the likes of Bonnie Raitt, Jim O’Neal, Charlie Musselwhite and Dick Waterman, this is an hour well spent. The web site is: www.pbs.org/video/reel-south-shake-em-on-down.

 

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The Toronto Blues Society acknowledges the annual support of the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council and the Department of Canadian Heritage, and project support from FACTOR< and the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage (Canada Music Fund) and of Canada’s Private Broadcasters, The Canada Council for the Arts, the SOCAN Foundation, SOCAN, the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport.