Oh my oh my oh my!
Sometimes there is such joy living here in Halifax that I could seriously split my facial muscles smiling.
Yes, it’s all about the sea and the sand and the ships and the smell of the ocean and the fog and the skree of seagulls and all of that.
But it’s also about quaint shops and odd little spots like Plan B or Swoon and cafes and little pubs and all that…
And poetry readings and book launches and writers hanging out….
But I have to admit I love the easy access live music the very best.
I cannot believe, for example, that my hero and all time favourite musician, Matt Andersen, is bringing his glorious self to the Carleton, an intimate venue with the best sound system in any bar I’ve seen, anywhere. I am overwhelmed. And for the extreme cost of $25 a ticket!! I could perish with happiness. But not til after May 7th!!!!!!!
I’ve already seen James Hill, my ukulele hero, and Anne Davidson, his cello virtuoso partner, at the Carleton. I’ve been overwhelmed by Ashley McIsaac and his fiddle, so close I could watch each individual bow hair break as he played.
The Carleton is magnificent, but so are the smaller venues – the charming Cafe Brea with concerts now and again that bring the musician right to your table to drink a coffee with you. And the coffee is great.
The house concerts, too, where I first met PEI musicians Gordon Belcher and
And then the bigger venues, from whence I shall peer from the nosebleed section at the amazing Leonard Cohen in a few weeks. I don’t care how far away he is, in Halifax, even the nosebleed section is relatively intimate, and hey, that voice can transport me even if I heard it across a football field – as Nancy White once mourned, he’ll never bring my groceries in, but a girl can dream, can’t she?
Meanwhile, I feel like I can wallow in music all over the place here. It permeated the buildings, rocks the fog, makes my heart sing.
Sometimes I even accompany it on my ukulele, with about 50 other people. But that’s another story…
Tag Archives: song
Gordon Belsher, PEI, and seizing the day
I’m having a serious problem with delight.
PEI is figuring prominently and it’s odd because though I love PEI in its own way, it is far too tame for a wild soul like me. Give me the windswept shores of NS anytime, with their rocky beaches and spitting waves and preferably fog rolling in in a glutinous manner to enclose all in mystery and hidden rage.
Why, they don’t even have much wildlife in PEI – no rampant coyotes or wandering meese or whatevers. I like my pheasants stomping by outside, the occasional sound of a coyote-cat interaction, the feeling that nature red in tooth and claw lives, yea, verily, here in utter suburbia.
But I just spent a lovely restful, beautiful couple of days with my wonderful gal pals over in PEI and it was smashingly wonderful. We talked and examined our lives and ate fudge and altogether too much bad for us food and laughed and slept like dead things and wandered the beach (well, I sat on the beach as my MS-legs were uncooperative). Prior to that, the same pals and I attended a blissful house concert here in NS involving Gordon Belsher (guitar and many other thing player and a major source of warm thoughts for me – admit I have a crush!) and Richard Wood (fiddler extraordinaire and cutie pie). The coziness of the house concert made it seem like we were friends.
I had to buy a CD to recapture the feeling, and lately I’ve been listening to Gordon’s CD in the car and singing my fool heart out. I go through these phases where a certain CD just speaks to my heart, and I listen to it over and over like a teenager. For a while there it was James Hill’s Man With a Love Song…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlfrHelmX34&feature=related
but now that relationship is over (It’s a good thing overall, alas), I seem to be bonding on Gordon’s “I’m not old yet”, especially the song below, which unfortunately doesn’t have a recording online, but you can sample. It’s the words I love, and the way Gordon’s voice trills up on the chorus. It makes me happy. I don’t know what it is about his voice but I confess to a bad fantasy about grabbing him to sing a special song especially to me. In a field in PEI. With the polished Holsteins that are stood around there. And I wouldn’t mind that it was pristine and that he is married (for I don’t want him for that) and that eventually the song would be over, I’d just listen and soak it up with the sun and the grass and the smell of contented cows and the sea and then go forth and be a better person.
I want to be like the girl in the song. There are parallels, though I’ve never learned Latin.
So, unfortunately, stealing Gordon Belsher would likely land me in prison. I resorted to ordering another of his CDs. I love Richard, too, but Gordon’s voice reminds me of songs around the campfire back when I was young and sweet and lived for the moment. He even sings “Cockles and Mussels”, which my dad sung a lot. Right now I am wrapping him around me like a blanket and delighting. While I get right on with that seizing the day thing.
Seize the Day
©Carolyn Arends I know a girl who was schooled in Manhattan She reads dusty books and learns phrases in Latin She is an author or maybe a poet A genius, but it's just this world doesn't know it She works on her novel most every day If you laugh, she will say... Chorus: Seize the day, seize whatever you can 'Cause life slips away just like hourglass sand Seize the day, pray for Grace from God's hand And nothing can stand in your way Seize the day I know a man who's been doing some thinking He's as bitter and cold as the whiskey he's drinking He's talking 'bout fear, 'bout chances not taken If you listen to him, you can hear his heart breakin' He says "One day you're a boy, and the next day you're dead I wish way back when someone had said..." (Repeat Chorus) Well, one thing I've noticed wherever I wander Everyone's got a dream they can follow or squander You can do what you will with the days you are given I'm trying to spend mine on the business of living So we're playing our songs off of any old stage You can laugh if you want, I'll still say... (Repeat Chorus)
DA's Ephemera and Etceteras 