Hi everyone,
This one is going to have to be quick.  I'm in England!  Using a pay by the minute internet connection so I'll just get to the good stuff. Everything is going great.  Just arrived.  Had a great couple days before taking off.  Played a really fun show in Saint John on June 30th. Joel Plaskett headlined and ripped it up.  And on Canada Day I made a really quick trip to Ottawa to play at our national capital's big bash.  It was great.  It rained and I had to cut my set short but the crowd was super nice and all the folks working the event made it worth it.  Hopefully I'll get to go back some time and play a little longer. Right now, I'm jetlegged and getting ready to play my first show in UK. This Saturday, I'm doing my first of three opening spots for Jools Holland.  I can't tell you how excited I am for this.  The band is over here with me and we are ready to rip.  Jools Holland has a really cool and very popular music programme here. Check him out on Youtube.  It's great stuff. the shows should be amazing.  Crowds of around 5 to 6 thousand people!! Holy smokes.  Not a bad way to start playing shows in the UK. I'm a lucky man.
I hope you're all doing well.  I'll include photos soon.
thanks for the visit.
David

June 23rd
 
Just got back from a wild weekend in Toronto. I played a few shows in the Toronto area. Had a great time playing with Peter Elkas at Centre in the Square in Kitchener. Also played a cool festival in Ayton, Ontario with the band, which was great.

The other remaining hours of my weekend were spent rocking the trumpet with Classified. On Sunday night, I played trumpet as part of his horn section on the Much Music Video Awards. It was insane. Kind of felt like I was on an episode of Entourage. Hilarious times. Classified kicked ass and won the award for Best Hip Hop Video. And, if I may say, I think his live performance came off looking wicked. You can watch it here. Check out the close up on the horn section!!

Other highlights of the evening included sharing an elevator with Lady Gaga's disco stick, having the Jonas Brothers wish us good luck as they walked by before we went on stage and seeing The Black Eyed Peas, Tila Tequila, Reggie Bush and Girlicious. However, for me the most exciting celebrity encounters were getting to meet Chris Bosh (4 time NBA All star) and Alexander Ovechkin (2 time NHL MVP). I'll attach some photos. It was hilarious and I felt like a tool for bothering them but I had to. I'm glad I got the photos. I thought I was a relatively tall dude until I saw how this Chris Bosh photo turned out. Wow. Enjoy.
Thanks for the visit.
Talk to you soon,
David

June 11, 2009

Hi everyone,
Well, the Classified show was definitely worth getting super pumped for. It was awesome.  The whole show was super well put together and to top it all off as a special guest, Maestro (or Maestro Fresh Wes to me) ripped it up! Unreal. He even came back at the end of the show and played what I recently listed in my top ten Canadian songs of all time, Let Your Backbone Slide.  A career highlight no doubt. That song was a huge part of my childhood.  Listened to it incessantly.  So when he came out and rocked it,  we (the horn and string players) figured out the hook and ripped it just before the tune ended.  That's right I played with Maestro on Let Your Backbone Slide!  All that aside, the show was great and Classified is a total dude and really fun guy to work with.  Looks like I'm heading to Toronto next week to play on the Much Music VIdeo Awards with him too! Other than that, this week has been mostly spent fooling around on Garage band.  I'm totally into it. Recording a bunch of my new tunes and having a blast. Some of the drum samples are really cool on there.  I can't seem to tear myself away.  But this weekend I will.  I'm playing down in Lunenburg at the Pearl Theatre on Saturday night.  Doing it as a duo show with my really good friend Alan Jeffries.  He and I play casually all the time and it's going to be nice to do a show together.  He's an amazing player and singer.  If you haven't seen this one, here's a video of us playing together in my living room. 


That's about it for now.  Stay tuned.  Come back again sometime.  Thanks
for the visit.
David

This week's music picks: 
1) JJ Cale - Really - It could be any of his records from the 70s actually.  I listened to his stuff almost non stop. But this week I've been listening to this one most.  I love everything about these recordings.  Crazy way of mixing stuff and the vibe is so great.  I'm hoping to borrow heavily from that vibe on my next outing.

2) Iron and Wine - The Shephard's Dog - Cool record.  Like a sonic collage. Tons of layers and stuff alongside quality lyrics.  Plus the third tune has the best upright bass sound ever.

3) Jenn Grant - Echoes - I was really excited to hear this when it came out and it didn't disappoint at all.  Again, great sounds going on all over the place.  Plus she's a pretty amazing singer.  Check it out.  She lives in Halifax and is a sweet lady.