2009!

Hey there-

Another year has flown by. I had a wonderful Christmas with my family. I look forward to all the good that 2009 holds. As a Canuck it is nice to see optimism flowing in our southern neighbors. In my life - I'm working (producing I guess is the term) with a great singer / songwriter named Sidney York. In addition I seem to be taking up a residency of sorts at the Yale Hotel in Vancouver with various musicians including David Gogo, Norm Fisher, Shaun Verreualt, Jerry Adolphe, Tony Robertson and others. All the best to you and yours.

Holiday Train 2008

Hello again. Here are some excerpts from blogs I wrote for CP's Holiday Train blog ..... for more info on what the Holiday Train is - check out past entries on this blog. It was a great trip .....

DEC. 1 2008
So another year begins. I read of the adventures to date of the US train. It's no surprise that their train and performances are receiving rave reviews. The train is the star, but of course the talent is unsurpassed. Introducing your performers: Bass guitar virtuoso and resident 'handsome man' John Dymond. The thunderous drumming and smoky vocals of Ken Post. The soaring vocals and daunting presence of Marty Mctiernan The fiery axe slinging and soulful vocals of Wide Mouth Mason and acclaimed solo artist Shaun Verreault. Finally, a talented instrumentalist on violin, guitar or any other instrument she chooses, an amazing songwriter and vocalist whose sweet siren song captivates listeners and never lets go - the incomparable Melanie Doane. Those of you fortunate enough to see these performers are lucky indeed.
So here we are in Canada .... we gotta do our part and rock the North! Today we arrived at the train - drum legend Pat Steward, renowned for his work with Colin James, The Odds, Bryan Adams and many others. Yvan Petit - a terrific guitarist/ vocalist who works with many artists including Johnny Reid. Randall Prescott, Holiday Train producer (North and South) and multi instrumentalist second to none! He was nominated for a Grammy, people! Multi CCMA award winner and smoky voiced soul serenader Johnny Reid. Finally, truly one of the greatest voices on planet Earth today - Tracey Brown. She knows not the phrase "wrong note". We rehearsed for about two hours and put together our set. 

Due to the efforts of all of the wonderful CP employees who worked on prepping the train (I'm not gonna name names - I'll forget somebody) everything was in perfect working order. The stage car was amazing - organized, sounding good, clean, comfortable, warm. Awesome. 

The crowd at the first show was 1000 strong. Tracey opened the show - a rollicking shuffle medley of Mabel Scott's 'Boogie Woogie Santa Claus' and Brenda Lee's 'Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree'. Yvan and Tracey's bilingual duet on 'White Christmas' was a delight. Johnny was up next with his version of Tom Jones' 'Darlin''. He followed it up with his hit 'Love Sweet Love'. Yvan treated the crowd to a French version of 'Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer'. Randall wowed the crowd with his take on J. Geils' 'Whammer Jammer'. The finale featured Tracey and Johnny on 'Silent Night' and the oft covered 'Put A Little Love In Your Heart'. 

From a musician's standpoint - it was a success. No "train wrecks" (pardon the pun) ... the crowd was great and we're off to a rocking start. Can we match the thunder of the US train? Time will tell. We hope so.

Submitted - Nov. 30 2008 - 6:00AM

Mike Norman - musician


DEC. 4 2008

We are seven shows in. I sit in my room - enjoying some tea and toast as I'm sure people who rode this train in the past did. I consider myself fortunate in my day to day life. Without trying to sound cliche, this time of year makes me feel especially blessed. I mean, here I am, riding around on a piece of Canadian history .... seeing Canada by rail! I get to play music for appreciative crowds with unbelievable musicians. I meet great people. My living quarters on the trip are second to none. I can't imagine what it would cost to buy a trip like this. This is my fifth year as the "musical director" (hate that term - it sounds so pompous) of the Canadian Holiday Train. It's always a great way to cap off my year.
Watching all of the good this train brings is an uplifting experience. Everyone's face lights up as the train pulls in. As the big doors open, Santa Claus performs his opening song and revs the crowd up into a frenzy. The food bank reps are thrilled to get the big cheque from CP. Then the music - Tracey, Randall, Johnny are all show-stoppers. My old friend Pat and new friend Yvan are a tremendous musical force. What really blows my mind are the people who come out to the shows. I've heard so many times from food banks reps about the increases in non perishable goods they receive when the Holiday Train comes through their respective towns. That is entirely due to the support from their local communities. That, my friends, is the Christmas spirit. No matter what you believe in at this time of year - whether or not you think it's become to commercial etc etc - if anything - check out the good it does the less fortunate. I've never gone hungry and I count myself blessed for that fact alone. I hope people like me NEVER take that for granted.
The crowds have been awesome. The requests for the train to come and visit communities in Canada is overwhelming. I have no idea who does the logistics for the Holiday train tours. It ain't your average rock and roll tour. This has so many more factors - other trains, safety, protocols, time of arrival and departure, making sure the train arrives at a spot that can accommodate a large crowd etc etc.. It's amazing and a simple musician such as myself can't comprehend it. Even after their schedule is finalized, the CP logistics people get requests for the train. Even after everything has been mapped out, the T's crossed, the I's dotted and the ink is dry on the itinerary, they do their best to figure in these places. Sometimes a longer stop for a full show is just not possible. Thus the '10 minute off the back show' was born. If anything, the opportunity to stop, sing a couple of Christmas carols and show off the train for a short while is the best that can be done. It's not the full show, but I applaud the efforts and am more than happy to participate.
We partook in one one these stops recently in the town of Brighton, Ontario. A huge crowd came out which took everyone in the crowd by surprise. Brighton - FYI - you guys were the topic of conversation that night. Please understand if a full show could have been accommodated, we would have done it. However, circumstances dictated that the shorter stop was all that could be done this year. Your numbers spoke volumes to the people on the train and while I have no say in scheduling, if I were a betting man ..... don't be surprised if you get a full show next year (bear in mind the predictions in this blog are mine only...). What a town - Brighton Rocks (we caaammmee to roocck! Sometimes it's all you got.... from the 80's metal band of the same name)....
Finally - we had a cool thing happen in Smiths Falls Ontario. The US Holiday Train stopped and we had a brief visit from the cast and crew! What a great treat. So cool to see them all ... if you're reading this - hope you are doing well. We miss you all.

That's it for now - season's greetings everyone!

Your humble servant Mike Norman

DEC. 10 2008

We're about 10 days into our journey in the sovereign nation that is the Canadian Holiday Train. We have no concept of time, date or what is going on in the world around us. All we see are bright smiling faces of people enjoying a taste of the holiday spirit. The gigs have been great - we are currently on show number 5 of our 7 show day. In between shows, we enjoy the unbelievable scenery that is offered up by this great country. We wave at people in cars. Drummer Pat Steward and myself grind premium coffee and serve it up in abundance. Our lives on the train are the makings of perfection. We are blessed.
It is interesting to watch the evolution of our holiday train team. CP employees have become well oiled stage hands. Everybody has their tasks and we are working in tandem with flawless precision. We're a swiss watch up there! However, the repetition has not staled us yet. The crowds fuel the energy in a Celestine Prophecy type manner - I can almost see the green glow of energy.
Johnny Reid has caught the Holiday Train bug in a big way - so much so that he wrote a song on the train. 'Everyday People Making A Change' represents the entire spirit of the train. The lyric is entirely based around life on the train and what it stands for. We learned it and immediately incorporated it into the set.
Tracey Brown has taken to 'working' the crowd. Sing alongs have been the order of the day - during 'Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer' ,Tracey will offer the microphone to youngsters to sing lines from the song - much to the delight of the onlookers.
More later ..... support your local food bank!!!

Mike N. - musician and Christmas fan

The Tongue, the BCCMA and a session

So I've had this lesion growing on my tongue for the last few months. I had it removed at the advice of my doctor (I mean - of course....who wouldn't?). The lesion was about the size of a quarter. It was uncomfortable but not crippling. I went in on the 24th of October for day surgery. I had some general anesthetic administered and they went to work. I was home by 1:00PM that day. I had the rest of Friday and Saturday off to recover.
On Sunday it was time for the annual BCCMA awards show at the Red Robinson Show Theatre in Coquitlam BC. The Lyin' Bastards were called to order and we assembled for the performance. We were fortunate to perform with some of BC's best (as well as some great out of towners) - Deric Ruttan, Art Pruce, Ginette Genereaux, Jordan Doell, Sandra Wainwright, Kelly Brock, George Canyon, Fera, Ridley Bent, Aaron Pritchett, George Canyon, The Higgins and Jessie Farrell among others. The show went great. I went straight home and resume recovery. I had my Monday off which was nice.
It's Tuesday now and I'm feeling good. I'm at the Armoury Studios right now doing a bed track session for three artists - Sheila Deck, One More Girl and Fera.In the meantime the doctors are going to biopsy the growth to see if there are any other concerns .... I'm sure they'll find nothing out of the ordinary.

CP Spirit Train Sept. 21-Oct.-18

My wonderful association with producers Tracey and Randall Presto and Canadian Pacific Railways continued with the CP Spirit Train. The CP Spirit Train is a program put into place to promote the 2010 Winter Olympics across Canada and to get the "spirit" going. We (Tom Mckillip, Chris Meister, Dennis Marcenko and myself) were hired to backup artists across Canada. While the entire trip was presented over three weeks, we only did 12 shows which made for a reasonably easy trip. People we backed up included Duane Steele, Tracey Brown, Marty Mcteirnan, Matthew Mukash and Kayla and Kelly Prescott.
The featured acts who played on every stop were Dallas Arcand and Sierra Noble. Dallas is a tremendous performer. Along with his guitarist/ vocalist Curt Young, they combined hip hop, country and blues with traditional aboriginal rhythm and traditions. The set culminated with a hoop dance - which Dallas is renowned for. He has won a world championship twice. Sierra Noble is a wonderful singer/songwriter/fiddler. She combines Metis fiddling with great songs - very honest songwriting. In addition she's a beautiful person inside and out. We have become great friends.
The stars of the trip were the Olympic athletes. We heard many inspirational stories of Olympic triumph from them - especially from the Spirit Train Olympic Ambassador - Paul Rosen. Paul is a Paralympic Sledge Hockey Goalie. He won a gold medal in Torino. Listening to him speak is amazing. His presentation is down to earth and speaks to everyone - whether you are an athlete or not. He was a constant ray of light on the train and a huge music fan. He gave me an autographed picture and some great memories. I look forward to watching him and the rest of his team bring home the gold in 2010.
Colin James and his band were along for the ride as well. We had some great fun hanging with those guys as well.
The trip was not without controversy - protesters appeared at almost every stop. Without going into my views on this subject, this is what makes this country great. Free speech and peaceful protesting are a right we all have - it was good to be reminded of how great we have it in the Great White North,
We had a great time in Thunder Bay and Smith Falls jamming with some local bands as well - thanks to Mark Potvin and his band as well as 'The Roadies' for letting us thrash around on your gear and letting us get our musical rocks off.
I want to write more about this trip .... but deadlines loom...must get to work. Thanks to Randall, Tracey, Cathi, Brea, Mark, the King, Kevin, Jon, Jill, Rob, Rob, Marty, Orest, Doug, the village people.... the list goes on and I'm forgetting people..... sorry....THANKS!

Vancouver Comedy Fest 2008 - Sept. 18-20

Once again, my friend Will Davis had myself and a few of my friends to provide some music to accompany the fine comedians performing at the Vancouver Comedy Fest. Of course, I jump right in - I love this gig!

Sept. 18

Chris Meister and I (aka The World's Smallest Trio) do the first gig of the night at the Vogue Theatre - Scott Auckerman and BJ Porter's Comedy Death Ray - three hours of standup (which turned into four hours - a marathon of funny). A wealth of comedians including Janeane Garofolo, Matt Besser, Andy Richter took to the stage. BTW - Reggie Watts - check him out. One of the most talented unique individuals you will ever see. Amazing talent! Afterwards - we went to the Media Club for the first of three nights as the house band for Andy Kindler's Talk Show. Andy is great - super quick -excellent at dissecting people and situations. He has recently been doing correspondent work for Letterman. Andy's sidekick for the show was Eddie Brill. Eddie is a talent booker for Letterman and also does audience warmups for the show. Chris and I realized this may be as close as we'll ever get to being in the Letterman band! It was awesome ... guests included Tim and Eric.

Sept. 19

Chris, Bruce Morrison and I started at The Firehall Theatre with Match Game - as we did last year. Our ol' buddy Jimmy Pardo returned with the panel - Scott Auckerman, Brian Posehn, Chris Hardwick, Janeane Garofolo, Matt Walsh and Marcia Wallace (that's right - an original Match Game cast member...Carol from The Bob Newhart Show...Edna Krabapple from The Simpsons!) Awesome!
Next up - night two of the Kindler show with Tim Meadows, Janeane, and some music with David Gogo who of course charmed 'em with some great banter as well.

Sept. 20

Long day - a session at the Warehouse for Dean Maher .... then to the Firehall for Match Game. After that - upstairs at the Firehall for The Todd Glass show - also a lot of fun! Finished it up for night three of the Kindler show .... Jimmy Pardo, Marcia Wallace and Shaun Verreault! More great fun.... love these gigs. Thanks Will!

Canadian Country Music Awards - Sept. 4-9 2008

For the third year in a row my first week of September was occupied with rehearsals culminating in a the 2008 CCMAs on CBC, GAC and a bunch of other networks around the world. Our band (The Lyin' Bastards under the direction of Tom Mckillip) assembled in Winnipeg On Sept. 4. Incidentally , there's an explanation of the Lyin' Bastards:

More than a band, The "LB's" are more of an entity. Think back through history of famous session player groups - The Funk Brothers in Detroit, Muscle Shoals' Swampers, Booker T and the MG's with Stax, The Section and Wrecking Crew in LA, The Nashville Cats etc. - the "LB's" exist in the same way. We all have more or less been through Lisa Brokop's band and have spilled over into sessions and live gigs throughout many acts in Canada and beyond. Someday I'd love to do a record with the guys and document the discography of the selected players for posterity. As for the name "Lyin' Bastards"..... a bit of an inside story. Ask me in person.

This particular lineup of the Bastards was Jerry Adolphe, John Dymond, Steve O Connor, Robbie Steininger, Jay Buettner, Mike Sanyshyn, Jeff Bradshaw, Tom Mckillip and myself. In Tom's words, "If you're going in to battle, this is the band you wanna have.". I agree - with a band like this you do feel pretty bulletproof.

Sept. 4

We arrive in the 'Peg around 3:00PM. We check in to the hotel and arrive at the MTS Centre where the awards are being held. We get set up in a back room and begin the preliminary rehearsals. We had 11 musical performances on the show, 17 stingers (musical segments played during walk ons, walk offs etc.), 8 bumpers (music going and coming back from commercials) and other misc. pieces which would be dropped on us at the last minute). Our past experiences on the show helped us with this one. With some preparation ahead of time, we were able to blast through all of the acts, stingers and bumpers in four hours. We were able to get a nice dinner and good nights sleep.

Sept. 5

We came back to the MTS, ran everything again and then moved to the big stage. Everything ran quite smooth - the backline gear (Alien Backline - Ed Caron) was excellent and the individual monitor systems were an improvement over last year. Gerald Sawchuk, our monitor man, did an excellent job. For TV purposes, we recorded 18 20-second stingers (music played during people walking on and off the stage). As testament to the band's ability, we did it in 41 minutes which I think is pretty impressive. We rehearsed with Gord Bamford - the song, camera angles, etc..
After the rehearsal I played a showcase at McPhillips Street Station Casino with BC singer Amber Nicholson. She's a ball of energy and a good singer.

Sept. 6

The day started with rehearsals at the MTS Centre. Doc Walker (hometown boys - the big winners of the weekend) were first. Great band - really dig playing with these guys. Randy Bachman, Beverley Mahood and Deric Ruttan were next. It was fun for me - Randy and Deric were late getting to the rehearsal so I was elected to sing their parts. Randy was a complete gentleman and it's always cool to play with a legendary performer.
As Terri Clark had a prior commitment, I was elected to sing her song next for rehearsals as well. I peppered her melody with a few well placed Bruce Dickinson like screams to amuse the crew. All in good fun and with no disrespect intended to Ms. Clark's song. Paul Brandt was up next. After Paul, I slipped out of the MTS to go to a nightclub called Cowboy's where I played a 20 minute set with Aaron Pritchett for the Universal Music party. I arrived at 7:55PM, jumped onstage at 8:00PM and was back at the MTS Centre by 8:50PM to rehearse with Johnny Reid and his fine piano player Dave Cohen. I hit the Paquin Agency party after that for an hour - then went back to the hotel.

Sept. 7

9AM - dress rehearsal with Terri Clark. Bad news for us - Terri had elected to use taped music in lieu of the band. While it is understandable (using a band she's not familiar with, the stress of hosting a nationwide TV show, comfort level in general) I was disappointed as I quite liked her song and thought the band more than did it justice. However, this is sometimes the case. I remember seeing Paul Shaffer, Sid Mcginnis, Will Lee and Anton Fig (world class musicians in thier own right) lip syncing with Laura Branigan at the Atlantic Records 40th anniversary performance. Hey, if they have to do it, I guess we do too sometimes. Her fiddle player Janae is a sweet and talented young lady.
Next up was Jessie Farrell with bassist Ryland Haggis and guitarist Jesse Tucker. She did a great job as usual. George Canyon with keyboardist Mike Little and bassist Joe Butcher came next. Also a lot of fun to play with these guys.
After the rehearsal - we went to a soundcheck for Carly and Britt Mckillip's (AKA One More Girl, formerly known as Saving Grace) showcase at the Pyramid Club. The girls recently were signed to EMI Canada and was (or IS) being looked at by Capitol Nashville. We assembled a great band (most of the awards show band minus John Dymond, Steve O Connor and Jeff Bradshaw and adding bassist Dennis Marcenko). After the soundcheck Jay and I headed over to the Gala dinner for a 7:00PM performance with Aaron (2 songs). A quick dinner there and we headed over to the Pyramid Club and did the showcase. The girls rocked - I'm so proud...... I've known them both since they were very young and it was thrilling to see them do so well in their official debut performance. BEDTIME!

Sept. 8

Show day! 9AM - MTS Centre. We arrive and rehearse with Crystal Shawanda and her husband/ guitarist Dewayne (I'm sorry - I didn't get your last name,Dewayne...). WOW. She can sing. What a delivery. We're all blown away by what was (in my mind) one of the highlights of the night. After that, Kellie Pickler took to the stage. She (like Terri Clark) sang to a track. Apparently she had a bad experience with another house band at a theatre I won't mention .... let's say it was a very popular one in Nashville. This left her feeling cold about house bands. Oh well - can't win 'em all.
Lunch break and then - the DRESS REHEARSAL. This particular dress rehearsal couldn't have gone worse. The old showbiz cliche would dictate this is a good thing - however by the end of it we were pretty distraught. Missed cues, feedback, too long between direction.... all added up. We put our game faces on and, after a quick production meeting and some ironing out of our notes it was showtime. If I may be so modest, I thought we NAILED it. 99.5% - as good as one could get. The band was magnificent and I couldn't have been more proud to be a part of a band.
I attended a wonderful party afterwards thrown by RGK Music and Ole Publishing Company.
Overall - another great CCMA week - looking forward to the next one!

More AP, Ghost Brothers and Fireworks

On Aug. 8 I returned (for one gig) to the Aaron Pritchett organization to sub in on the bass guitar chair. I love playing bass. It's in my opinion the instrument in any pop based band that holds the most responsibility, If you make a mistake on the guitar, keyboards etc. you'll generally get away with it however not so on bass. It was a fun gig - the ol' Penticton Peach Festival. Nice to play some of the new songs from the upcoming record (which BTW is going to be released in Sept. 2008).

I've been doing some gigs with Vesou and Govinda Clayton aka The Ghost Brothers. This is a fun gig - a funky jammy combination of reggae, funk, rock and other flavors.

Also, the fireworks display which I scored was performed in Vancouver on Aug. 2 2008. The narrator is named David Nichols and works for the BC150 team. Musicians on the soundtrack are Jerry Adolphe, Dennis Marcenko, Jay Buettner, Tom Mckillip, Mike Sanyshyn, Chris Aiken, Gord Maxwell, Carly Mckillip and myself. Here's a YouTube link to the performance - thank you to the person who filmed it as I didn't get to see it live:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=manQ0VG--LI