Tales, Trails and Tunes in Full Swing!!!

Hey everyone, just checking in to say that Tales Trails and Tunes is off to a roaring start! If you're in range of Norris Point, Newfoundland and Labrador, I highly recommmend that you pack up the car/van/jeep/hot air balloon and get yourselves down here for a look before it all ends this weekend! Check out the festival schedule here!  Over the weekend we enjoyed wonderful music from musicians all over the island and Labrador, and there was music at the Old Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital (now a beautiful Hostel / Community Centre) till late in the morning.   Come down and say hello!  

Emile's Dream in the Air!!!

Hi All,

A couple of cool videos to share with you!  The first is from a couple of days ago, aboard our flight from Goose Bay to Labrador City.  We were itching to get the fiddles out and play; here we are in the middle of touring a show about Emile Benoit, who loved playing his fiddle on board planes, and we thought "we are telling this story every evening, we HAVE to get the fiddles out and actually DO it!"  Everyone on board was game, so sure enough we broke out the fiddles and in very tight quarters played an impromptu set of tunes to an appreciative audience.  How fun! We play Corner Brook tomorrow night, then Mainland and Black Duck Brook the next day, and finish in Stephenville, so it'll be great to finish the tour in Emile's own backyard!



The next post is from Juno week in St. John's, it's a couple of flute tunes, again tunes from Emile.  I'm playing my Windward flute, made by my good friends Forbes and Yola Christie.  Check out their site at www.windwardflutes.com.  I had fun playing this set, I've been messing around with singing while I play and I you can hear a bit of in the second tune, The Meech Lake Breakdown (which I play on guitar on my first album Chain - check it out in the Shop section!).  The first tune is the Reel de la Pistroli. Thanks to Justin Burnett for this video!

Emile's Dream Tour kicks off tonight!

Hi All!  We're touring Emile's Dream, a three man show recounting the life and music of Emile Benoit, one of Newfoundland and Labrador's best known and loved fiddlers.  Joining me onstage will be Kelly Russell and Phil Churchill of The Once.  Emile's Dream is directed by Jillian Keilley with a script transcribed directly from Emile's own words, sewn into a play by playwright Robert Chafe.  Hope you can make it as we tour the Arts and Culture Centres around the province!  Click the photo above for the tour schedule!

Home from the Olympics! Whew!

Hi all,

What a time!  It's good to be home, although I'm tired from the red eye flight and jetlagged.  The 2010 Vancouver Olympics were an amazing time right up to the very end.  I'm pleased to announce that Come On In! was a runaway success, with a perfect run of 45 shows to full houses, a gruelling schedule but so much fun and so rewarding.  A heartfelt thanks to everyone in the production crew and cast, as well as the technical staff of the Revue Stage, for all their hard work, talent and positivity.  I miss you all already guys and gals!

Thanks also to the great staff at Atlantic Canada House for setting up a venue that was the spot to be during the celebrations.  It was fitting to spend this Sunday afternoon at the Atlantic Canada House bar watching the Gold medal hockey game, and even more fitting that  it was Sid the Kid of Cole Harbour, NS, who scored the winning goal!   The bar exploded into celebration!  We jumped a water taxi and headed downtown immediately afterwards and the mood there was just electric; I was walking past throngs of people on the sidewalks, randomly putting my hand out in the air and getting high fived by total strangers all the way along!   The whole town was going crazy, in a good way, and it was a total thrill to be on the streets for it.

All that being said, I am super happy to be home!

Vancouver Olympics a Blast!

Hey everyone!

Having a great time here at the Vancouver Olympics, we've been playing to full houses of enthusiastic people,  and the general vibe on Granville Island is very very positive.  We are in between shows so I'm short on time right now, but I wanted to drop a line and thank everyone who's dropped in to see our show Come On In! For those of you in BC, we'll be making an appearance on Breakfast Television tomorrow morning bright and early, so all you early birds can tune in and check us out!

There's a constant buzz of people and action going on all day long and into the night, Atlantic Canada House has definitely been a hive of activity throughout the Games so far, everywhere you go here on Granville Island there's great music in the air, it's pretty wonderful really.  And the sun has been blazing down for most of the last week, which, I have to say, has been awesome.  Vancouver is truly a beautiful city.

The last couple of nights we've been lucky enough to get tickets for the medal ceremonies - here's a still from some video I shot last night during Maelle Ricker's gold medal presentation.  First woman to win gold on Canadian soil!  Pretty spectacular.  We had great seats (thanks Peter!); we're just to the left of the stage and about four rows back, so if you keep your eyes peeled you might even see us whooping it up!

Take care all and I'll check in again soon with more news from Vancouver!

Daniel