I was asked by singer Johnny Reid to join him on a tour to support the release of his latest CD entitled 'Dance With Me'. I've had the pleasure of accompanying Johnny on a few occasions in the past. For those of you unfamiliar with him, he is a fine Scottish lad (from Glasgow I believe) who moved to Canada with his family as a boy. He grew up in Brampton Ontario and paid his dues playing the '401 circuit' in Ontario. Fast forward several years - he has recorded two CDs which have sold exceedingly well. All evidence indicates the new CD will break all past records he has set. While his music is most likely heard on country radio, in my opinion his sound resembles the 'blue eyed soul' genre .... his voice resembles Rod Stewart, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding with a touch of Tony Bennett thrown in. My role in the band is the utilities player - guitar, keyboards, vocals and my precious saxophone. I get to hang my toes off the side of the stage and wail on a few solos - which is cool.
The band is pretty big and VERY good - longtime guitarist Yvan Petit, bassist Nick Czarnogorski, keyboardist Dave Cohen, fiddler Ben Rutz, drummer Chuck Fields (who plays with Terri Clark and in the past has worked with Paul Brandt, Chris Cummings and Martina Macbride) and singers Miku Graham and Saida Baba Talibah (both of whom work with Jully Black). The crew - FOH man Ken Turta, lighting tech George Gorton and monitor man Alex Livland are great as well. We have two buses and two great drivers - Mikey and Craig. And so the adventure begins in the Canadian province of Ontario:
March 5 - Brantford, Sanderson Centre Theatre - SOLD OUT!
The first gig was a complete success. The PA went up quickly and the monitors (thanks to Alex tweaking our in ear monitors during the rehearsals) were tremendous. The band played well and to my mind the audience was thoroughly entertained. We had a long day and sleep came quickly.
March 6 - Belleville, The Empire Theatre - SOLD OUT!
Delicious dinner, delicious theatre. The venue apparently sold out the show in a day ... demonstrating Johnny's popularity at this point in time. A second show was added. We'll be back here in a few days.
March 7 and 8 - Gravenhurst, The Opera House - both nights SOLD OUT!
A charming theatre - over 100 years old. The 8th was our first solid night's sleep on the tour. The band is rocking now .... the set is tight and it's a lot of fun.
March 10 - Toronto ON, Canada AM TV Show
The 6AM lobby call came far too early, however we mustered up the energy and at 8:51AM I struck the opening chords to 'A Woman Like You' - Johnny's new single. We played two more songs to the audience in studio off camera and then hopped on the bus and headed back to.....
March 10 - Belleville, The Empire Theatre - SOLD OUT!
Deja vu! They sold out the first show and so they set up another. Great crew BTW. Record time set up and load outs. Johnny's new album was released today as well. Apparently in Canada he sold more CD's this day than U2..... pretty good....
March 11 - Brampton, The Rose Theatre - SOLD OUT!
Home court advantage for Mr. John Reid. This is the town he grew up in. He received a big welcome. The theatre was AMAZING. Really nice people. The big news is we were joined by opening act One More Girl! Britt and Carly (along with Tom, Lynda and mandolin/ guitarist Denis Dufresne) will join us for the rest of the shows! Very exciting to hang with my favorite show biz family!
March 12 - Lindsay, The Academy Theatre - SOLD OUT!
And the sellouts continue! A prior engagement with Jully Black has us down one BG singer as Ms. Miku Graham could not make this show. As a result I step up to the plate to cover her BG vocals with lovely Ms. Saida..... A quick rehearsal and I'm good to go. The show goes well. The big news .... Johnny's new record... 48 hours after it's release was certified Canadian GOLD (50,000 copies sold!). This is an amazing feat and proof that I'm on a pretty great gig!
March 13 - London, Centennial Theatre
A sellout gig? No! Our first of the tour. 40 tickets shy of a sellout! A huge crowd nonetheless and an amazing gig. One More Girl were outstanding and we were pretty good too (if I do say so myself).....
I write this on our bus (we call it the 'Soul Bus' due to the enormous amount of soul music we listen to while riding on it). Everyone is asleep except Mikey the driver and myself. I sit in the front lounge and it is 1:30AM. I look out the window and the moon is big and beautiful. MASH reruns are on the TV. I have internet and gingerale. I again am reminded what a charmed life I lead.
March 14 - DAY OFF!! Go to the gym, get my haircut and comp some vocals for Ms. Sidney York's record....
2 comments:
I was at the show in Brampton, it was AWESOME!! To hear Johnny mention places that I had been to just two hours prior to the show made it a bit more personal for me. The show rocked, I couldn't sit still. By the time I got home my hands were still stinging from clapping along to the songs! Johnny's music came at a dark period in my life, inspired me to keep on going and I can honestly say it has made a big difference for me. You guys are great and I wish you much more success and sold out shows!
Hi Patricia-
Thanks for the nice comments. We had a great time there - beautiful theatre and people. So glad you could come to the show. All the best!
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