Name: Jacob Navarro

Birthplace: Fort Bragg, California

Currently residing: Anacortes & Seattle Washington

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: I grew up listening and watching my parents perform in a belly dance troupe, lots of middle eastern percussion in the house as a child; took violin lessons at age 5 and switched to guitar at age 10, added the mandolin in my mid twenties; have been working with William Cook (upright bass, singer, songwriter, bad ass) for almost two decades now in various projects, our current one being Spoonshine; met Adam Kasper (produced Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Cat Power, REM, Queens of the Stone Age, many more) a few years ago and have been working with him ever since; in addition to spending most of my time gigging, recording, writing, and collaborating musically as much as possible, I’ve had a handful of tunes used on a Spike TV show about midget wrestlers & played mandolin on Eddie Vedder’s solo song “Better Days” for the movie soundtrack “Eat Pray Love”!

Website: spoonshine.com

1. Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Mark Knopfler, Tony Rice, Greg Brown, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Manu Chao, Neil Young, Tinariwen, Ali Farke Toure, Frank Zappa, Creedance, Doc Watson, The Band, Bob Dylan, JJ Cale, Jacob De Bandolim, Old Crow Medicine Show, Salif Kieta, Nirvana, Ray Charles, Wilco, Fela Kuti, Norman Blake, Woody Guthrie, Rachmaninoff, David Lindley, Balkan Beat Box, Bill Frisell, Brian Eno, Calexico, Hazmat Modine, Peter Rowan, The Raconteurs, Jimi Hendrix, Sade, John Prine, Led Zeppelin, Martha Scanlan, Ry Cooder, Townes Van Zandt, The Pogues, The Grateful Dead, etc…

2. Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

So many to pick from! I think if I had to pick one, it would be “Walking In The West End” by Dire Straits. It’s not really the lyrics specifically, but that song makes me feel nostalgic, sentimental, and really good!

3. How would you describe your perfect day?

Honestly, here is my idea of a perfect day: Coffee and pancakes, followed by a long hike and a picnic in the woods.  Time spent with a really good book and a cup of tea. Eating a home cooked dinner and sharing a bottle of wine in the company of my family. Staying up all night playing music with good friends.

4. What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

He isn’t preoccupied by worrying about what others appreciate about him.

5. What is your most valued material possession?

I recently had quite a few of my instruments stolen, which made me rethink how much importance I put on my attachment to material possessions. However, my grandmother, Ida Abelman, was a remarkable artist during the 30’s and 40’s who’s work is part of the Smithsonian collection. She producing lithographs dealing with the social issues of her time, worker’s rights, child labor, women’s rights, immigration, industrialization, etc….. Our whole family has a very deep sense of pride in the art she contributed to the world. One of her prints that I have she wrote “for my dearest grandson, Jacob Navarro” on the bottom. The print is really dark, it’s called “my father reminisces”, and there is all this heavy imagery on it, there is a lot to it. It’s one of my most valued material possessions that is quite irreplaceable.

6. Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

I met & played a private show for Mark Knopfler and his band once, that was the first time I have ever really felt stage fright. I don’t usually get star struck, people are just people, I hate the idea that being involved in the arts somehow elevates you above the blue-collar working class. I’d like to think we are all made of the same stuff. But I really look up to Mark Knopfler! So I felt fairly giddy going into this little room and meeting the guy, then playing some of our songs for him. He and his band were all very nice, and having him pour us a shot of irish whiskey and make a toast to us remains one of my high points.

7. If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

Not fair, there are so many incredible places to be…. Camping up on a mountain in the Olympic Rain Forest; no, eating pain au chocolate in the south of France; no, getting lost walking along the canals in Venice; no, eating Aglio Olio at Brad’s Swingside Cafe in Seattle; no, sitting on a sand dune in the heat of the summer in Sag Harbor, New York; playing music around a campfire in the Skagit Valley; no, I can’t do this game, the world is too full of awesome to pick one favorite place to be!

8. Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Music, backpacking, cooking, reading, etc…

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Besides still being alive and well on the planet? Can’t be to picky, but I suppose I would like to find myself traveling a lot more in ten years.

Name: Chris Hamilton

Birthplace: Thunder Bay, ON

Currently residing: White Rock, BC

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: A musical journey that began with piano lessons that did not instill a life of piano-playing then guitar lessons that led me to quit guitar for a few years, but ultimately I tried again and since my early 20’s life has mostly revolved around music.

Website: facebook

1. Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Where to begin? I respect a lot of my colleagues and contemporaries in children’s music, but my favourites are all outside of that world. Bands: Ramones, Pogues, Beatles, Tragically Hip, Beatles, Clash, U2, REM, Supergrass, Gruesomes, Spirit of the West, Crystals, Ventures, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet…and 1000 more, all for different reasons. As far as individual musicians go….hmm…Bob Marley, Darlene Love, Buddy Holly, Django Reinhardt, Johnny Cash, Stompin’ Tom, Danny Elfman, Ray Charles….etc. etc.

2. Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

Redemption Song by Bob Marley, and Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by Darlene Love both get me every time.

3. How would you describe your perfect day?

Sunshine and relaxing with the people I love.

4. What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

Interesting perspectives? Humour? No idea. I’ll ask.

5. What is your most valued material possession?

For practical purposes, I suppose my computer but really it’s my stockpile of decades worth of my drawings and paintings.

6. Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

I was surprised at how nervous I was to meet author Judy Blume (Superfudge, Freckle Juice, Blubber etc.). I used to work at a downtown Vancouver bookstore that often had big name authors come through, and other celebrities promoting books. Heck, being downtown many celebrities would SHOP there too. But Judy Blume was the only one who I got “starstruck” around.

7. If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

On stage with my band in front of dancing kids & parents…or curled up on the couch watching a movie with Bev. Tie.

8. Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

More recording for sure, and more illustration.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Don’t want to go far from here, but I’d like to be able to count on my shows and art for a reliable full-time living.

Name: Caroline Keys

Birthplace: Bamberg, South Carolina, USA

Currently residing: Missoula, Montana

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence:

Bamberg, South Carolina
1975 – Hello, world!
Charlotte, North Carolina
1976 – First musical memory: my parents singing John Hartford’s “Don’t Leave Your Records in the Sun.”
1977 – Dad records he and I singing a song about moonshine to tape.
1978 – Learn to operate tape player myself, turn the page when the bell chimes.
1979 – Pick nose through preschool Christmas program while dressed as a red jingle bell.
Statesville, North Carolina
1980 – Learn to operate record player.  Use that power to play “Mickey Mouse Disco,” “Sgt Pepper(side A),” and “The Chipmunks go Hollywood.”
1981 – Class learns birthday song for our school principal.  Why I can still sing it today I do not know.
1982 – Parents buy piano (probably to get me to quit picking out tunes on the telephone), put me in lessons.
1983 – Suzuki violin lessons on full-sized violin my Great Great Great Uncle in West Virginia built.  His daughter refused to take it to Julliard because it was too heavy.  So it was, like, perfect for a seven-year-old, right?
Lynchburg, Virginia
1984 – Become obsessed with musical comedy “The Pirate Movie” starring Kristy McNichol and loosely based on “The Pirates of Penzance.”
1985 – Izzy Parker’s & my parody of “We Are the World” entitled “We Ate the World” is denied entry in school talent show.  “We ate the world / ’cause we were hungry /we’ll eat you too if you don’t give us some more money…”
1986 – When allowed to pick out one book from Sweet Briar University bookstore, choose “The Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan.”
1987 – Sing scales to the surnames of classmates in 7th grade chorus.  Favorite name to sing: Rumney.
1988 – Three words: “Endless Summer Nights” by Richard Marx.
1989 – First overnight choir trip w/ highschool Glee Club.  I learn a lot.  Like that upperclasswomen can lure upperclassmen into motel rooms by sweet-talking to them through the bathroom vents.
1990 – First rock concert: Crosby, Stills, and Nash at arena in Roanoke, Virginia.  The band thought they were in Cincinnatti.
1991 – See Paul Simon on “Born at the Right Time” Tour at DeanDome in Chapel Hill.  Do not faint and end up on his couch, per fantasy.
1992 – Check Yer Head, A Picture of Nectar, Automatic for the People, Body Count, Amused to Death, This One’s Gonna Hurt You, The Power of Pussy, Cereal Killers, Nothing’s Shocking, Breakfast Club Soundtrack, Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars, Gish, One From the Vault
Hertford Heath, United Kingdom
1993 – Sing Elgar’s “The Kingdom” in British prep school choir.  Sneak into boy’s dorm at night to listen to Alec Anderson play guitar.
Linville, North Carolina
1994 – Stay up too late singing duets with “Country Bob,” a dishwasher who is twice my age.
Jupiter Island, Florida
1995 – Go clubbing w/ fake ID. Buy Joe Montana a beer.
Chattanooga, Tennesee
1996 – Use tax return to buy first guitar.
1997 – Learn fancy chords from Grateful Dead & Indigo Girls songbooks
1998 – Send guitar (no case) to Montana sandwiched between a pillow and the ceiling of a Buick.  Follow behind it two weeks later on a Greyhound.
1999 – Wrap belongings in a maroon shower curtain, tie it to the roof of Kelli’s Subaru, and head West for good. Catch Phish play w/ Tim O’Brien, Bela Fleck, and Jerry Douglas in Nashville on the way out.
2000 – Decide that New Orleans is, indeed, on the way from Steamboat Springs, Colorado to Glacier National Park, Montana. So why not attend Jazzfest?!
Many Glacier, Montana
2001 – Live out John Hartford’s dream: “all I want to do in life is to pick and drive an old boat.”
Missoula, Montana
2002 – Enroll at University of Montana.  First week: attend Top Hat Picking circle without guitar.  Following weeks: learn a song a week to take to Top Hat Picking circle with guitar.
2003 – Join first band: Broken Valley Roadshow. Play guitar and sing.
2004 – Play first bluegrass festival.
2005 – Go to Weiser for the first time. Start writing music reviews for Missoula Independent and editing Montana Rockies Bluegrass Association Newsletter.
2006 – Marry lefthanded redheaded old time mando playing mountain man.
2007 – Broken Valley Roadshow represents USA at Nanning International Folk Festival in China.
2008 – Tour Holland with Whiskey Puppy.
2009 – Go to Mt Airy for the first time.
2010 – Take RPM (Record Production Month) Challenge. Write and record album in my living room.  Decide the RPM finish line is actually the starting line for a new project: Stellarondo.  Record Stellarondo album at Type Foundry in Portland with Adam Selzer.  Join New Hijackers. Start Top Hat’s Family Friendly Friday and Artist-in-Residence programs.
2011 – Play over 200 gigs with Broken Valley Roadshow, Him & Her, New Hijackers, The Tulis, Wise River Mercantile, Stellarondo, Whippletree, Big Kids Band.  Release Stellarondo record, take two tours of Pacific Northwest, artist residencies Seeley Lake (BVR) and Hobson, Montana, collaborate with Rick Bass scoring his short fiction, serve as Martha Scanlan’s back-up band.  Play first ever solo set.

Website: stellarondo.com

1. Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Past:
John Hartford, Gilbert & Sullivan, Uncle Dave Macon, Roger Miller, Stephane Grappelli, Edward Elgar, Shannon Hoon, Open Road, Jay Reatard, John Coltrane, Hazel Dickens, Frank Zappa, Harry Nilsson, Vic Chesnut, The Asylum Street Spankers, Bongwater, Mozart, Ollabelle Reed, Townes Van Zandt

Present:
The Heartless Bastards, Skerik, Bethany Joyce, Martha Scanlan, Richmond Fontaine, Grace Decker, Laura Viers, Gibson Hartwell, Wilco, Angie Biehl, Bobby Bare Jr, Lana Rebel, Nate Biehl, Graham Lindsey, Caleb Klauder, Travis Yost, Paul Brainard, Kelly Hogan, Amy Martin, Aaron Parrett, The Wilders, Brian Herbel, Charlie Parr, Yo La Tengo, Will Oldham, Chelle Terwilliger, Michael Hurley, Tom Catmull, Tuatara, The Magnetic Fields, Nick Jaina, Tyler Ramsey, Caliphone, Ivan Rosenberg, Sallie Ford, John Sporman, Leah Keys.
2. Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?: When Skerik comes in after Stanton Moore’s drum solo on “Angel Nemali” from the “All Kooked Out” CD.

“Tea in the Sahara” by The Police

When John Coltrane comes in towards the end of Miles Davis’ “Someday my Prince Will Come.”

“Fearless” by Pink Floyd

When “China Doll” finally arrives at the D.

“Seeds of the Pine” by Martha Scanlan.

Listening to “Rhythm of the Saints” in headphones.

The Red Hots.

Most all the sounds I am surrounded by in Stellarondo.

3. How would you describe your perfect day?

1. Take dog walk to swimming hole.
2. Eggs.
3. Write song.
4. Hot yoga.
5. Not have to talk until noon.
6. Play music with people.
7. Cuddle kitty.
8. Walk with a friend.
9. Spend time in canoe or soak in hot spring, depending on season.
10. Eat Cioppino at Scotty’s Table.
11. Talk to sister in Memphis on the phone.
12. Go for moonlit cross-country ski.
Most days I get do 3 or 4 of these things.  Grateful!

4. What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

Maybe listening?

5. What is your most valued material possession?

Right now I really love my banjo and Gibson GA-15 RV amp.

6. Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

I have a hard time recognizing faces, so I feel socially nervous a lot. I don’t think I would be able to say a thing to Gillian Welch.  Or maybe I wouldn’t recognize her and we could carry on a normal conversation?

7. If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

In a canoe at midnight at the outlet of Lake Josephine. In summer, on a full moon. With Robert Duvall.

8. Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

I would like to see more of my family. I would like to drop thumb. I would like to spend more time on boats. Get more experience recording. Go for longer tours with Stellarondo. Volunteer more.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

In ten years I hope I will have created something pretty. I would like to have made, and to continue to make good things. I would like to be doing my best work in 10 years. And even better work in 20, and so on. And I would like part of that best work to be in service of easing human suffering. The only way I would believe I’ve accomplished this if I were to open The New Yorker and find an Andy Friedman cartoon of Bono, Desmond Tutu, and me twisted up in some sort of yoga pose. Just kidding. The music community in Missoula amazes and inspires me today. I cannot wait to see where we all are 10 years from now.

Name: Brock Gleeson

Birthplace: Grand Junction, Colorado

Currently residing: Jackson, Wyoming

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: I’ve been a semi-pro musician for ten years, I’ve lived all over the US playing music in such cities as Nashville, Austin, Phoenix, and Denver.

Website: facebook reverbnation myspace

1. Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

My favorite musicians are typically the ones I grew up on, it’s their music that has really created me as a musician from childhood, ie. Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, James Taylor, Joan Baez, but recently I’m deeply into Justin Townes Earle, Josh Ritter, Joe Firstman, The Damnwells and Jason Isbell and the 400 unit.

2. Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

Ray LaMontagne’s line from the song ‘Empty’ always kills me, “She lifts her skirt up to her knees, walks through the garden of roses with her bare feet laughing”

3. How would you describe your perfect day?

I would say my perfect day starts and ends with coffee and my beautiful wife, doesn’t really matter where that is.

4. What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

I suppose you have to ask my friends that, but I’d hope it was loyalty and kindness.

5. What is your most valued material possession?

There are more than a few possessions I am extremely attached to (my uncles banjo, my 25 anniversary Gretsch, and my hummingbird) but unfortunately it’s probably my cell phone.

6. Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

I would be nervous to meet Bob Dylan, just to shake the hand of the man that wrote all of those amazing songs might be overwhelming.

7. If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

I’m pretty sure I haven’t been to my favorite place as of yet. But if I would blink my eyes and end up next to a warm ocean, well that’d be just fine.

8. Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

I would like to do some more writing in the future, whether that is music, movies or novels. I just hope to write more.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

In ten years I see my wife and I in Africa helping out in a medical clinic. That’s the plan anyways!

Name: Aran Buzzas

Birthplace: Helena, MT

Currently residing: Missoula, MT

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: I started playing guitar when I was 15, forming a classic rock cover band with my best friends that lasted just over two years.  After high school and the band’s end, I went in a more singer/songwriter oriented direction, playing acoustic guitar and hitting the open mike scene.  For years I played mostly for myself, producing a (very) rough cassette demo in the late 90’s that I gave to close friends and family.  It wasn’t until late 2007, at the end of a long musical dry spell that new inspiration struck.  I began writing and singing traditional country music, released a homemade CD, Just Bein’ Here, of mostly old songs I needed to get out of my system, and began practicing in earnest with the plan of forming a band and conquering the world. Or at least western Montana.  Unfortunately it was about this time that I developed recurring tendonitis in my forearms, and that has slowed my musical ambitions the past three years.  However it’s allowed me to focus on my vocals, and write a collection of new songs, more in the honky-tonk vein than my older stuff.  In summer of 2010 I released a four song demo, The Niki’s Closet Demo, which showcases my new direction.  Since fall of 2010 I have opened for several touring roots music bands, including two of my very favorites the Clumsy Lovers and Hellbound Glory.  My songs have been played extensively on underground country podcasts, and just in the last month I’ve begun work on a full length professionally recorded album.

Website: facebook  reverbnation

 1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

I am such a music nerd that you would really have to break it down by genre!  Since I’m a country musician, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams (Sr.), Willie Nelson, and Merle Haggard are huge influences on me.  The Dubliners, The Pogues, Flogging Molly’s early stuff, and Altan for the Irish trad.  CCR, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Steppenwolf, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson etc.  Contemporary artists include Hellbound Glory, Whitey Morgan & the 78s, Caleb Klauder, J.B. Beverley & the Wayward Drifters, Cutthroat Shamrock, Calamity Cubes, Clumsy Lovers, .357 String Band, McDougall, Rachel Brooke, Wayne Hancock, Dale Watson and too many more to list!

 2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

There are many of them, in many different musical genres.  “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” by Hank Williams comes to mind.  Certain Irish rebel songs stir things deep inside of me.  Soundtracks to certain movies, and so on…

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

This is a tough question, but it would involve a large home cooked breakfast, lots of guitar time, family, friends, sunshine and homemade beer.

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

You would really have to ask them this question!

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

Besides old journals and photo albums, it is without a doubt my guitar.  Predictable, but true.

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

I was nervous when I met Wayne “The Train” Hancock.  I would be really nervous meeting Willie Nelson.  Probably Merle Haggard as well.

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be? 

Since it’s cold weather out right now, I’d say Makena Beach on Maui.  If it were warmer it would be somewhere in the west of Ireland.

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

More music.  Always striving to play more.  Maybe more traveling as well.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

I would like to have a reasonably stable band unit that is well established in Missoula, and maybe tours occasionally around the northwest, west coast, or even to some of the more prominent roots music festivals in the U.S.  I can’t imagine living somewhere besides Missoula!

Name: Jeremy Sibson

Birthplace: Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Currently residing: Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: I started playing drums professionally in 1980 when I was 12 years old in theatre musicals and when I was 17 joined the Australian Army as a musician where I stayed for 8 ½ years and when I got out I started playing in an original Prog Rock band and then a succession of jazz, funk, and big bands all the while keeping on playing in pit orchestras and highland pipe bands until in 1999 I discovered my love of the Bodhrán which I have been playing in various Irish groups since and in 2008 I went back to University to gain my Bachelor of Music and Teaching.

Website: http://jeremysibson.com

1. Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Phillip Glass, Duke Ellington, Bill Whelan, Danny Elfman, Dr. John, Flook, Buddy Rich, Steve Gadd, Dave Weckl, Genesis, Solas, John Joe Kelly, Cormac Byrne, Martin O’Neill, Beethoven,

2. Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

“Bridge Attack” by Bill Whelan from the film “Some Mother’s Son”.

3. How would you describe your perfect day?

Waking up to my son and wife and then going and playing a session at the pub with good mates.

4. What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

My musical knowledge and accompanying skills.

5. What is your most valued material possession?

A toss-up between my wedding ring and my collection of family photos going back 7 generations.

6. Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

I was nervous meeting Dave Weckl for the first time.

7. If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

Inis Oirr at Craiceann.

8. Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Go to and play at festivals in Ireland.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

With my family living in Ireland (where my wife is from).

Name: John David Limbert Kirby

Birthplace: Burlington Ontario Canada

Currently residing: Borington (Burlington)

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: Starting, stopping, maintaining balance.

Website: kirbysings.com 

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Loaded questions, but off the top of my head, The Beatles, Zepplin, Corwin Fox, Lindy, The 80s Pop movement, the numerous musicians I’ve met on the road, Coldplay, Barry Manilow, Phil Collins, Motown…most music in general or anything that moves me.  

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

I swear to god…I Will Remember You by Sarah McLachlan. It really is a great song. Over played to the point of near irrelevance, but man…it gets you there.  

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

Wake up at 10, coffee,  compose a song for a movie or commercial or something, LLLLLUNCH, walk or hike or something, NNNNNNAP, rocking sold out show somewhere. Free Beer. Party. Bed, 4am.  

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

My beard. But most of my music friends say I’m funny, or at least I can make them laugh. So I like I can do that. They might say, “He’d never take your last beer unless you insisted on it.”  

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

There are 3. Guitar, Computer, Car. In that order.  

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

I would get gitty meeting Dave Grohl. Or physically paralyzed around Natalie Portman. 

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be? 

Asking myself that every day. But I’d say right now, on tour, somewhere in Europe or Australia or something.  

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Tour internationally more. I’ve really gotten to know Canada well travelling it so much. Love to do that around the world.  

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Somewhere where I’m happy, not worrying about money and able to play/make music.

Name: Sarah Burton

Birthplace: Ottawa, ON

Currently residing: Toronto, ON

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: piano student turned guitar grunge kid at 13, but didn’t perform til age 21 and now sings her heart out almost every night in alt-folk format but wishes she was a dance/rap star.

Website: sarahburton.ca

twitter facebook

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Elvis Costello, Aimee Mann, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Gram Parsons, Ryan Adams, The who, Sloan, Belle & Sebastian, Muse, Weezer

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

Too many to mention but the first that comes to mind right now is Billy Bragg – “I saw two shooting stars last night, I wished on them, but they were only satellites, It’s wrong to wish on space hardware, I wish, I wish, I wish you cared.“

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

Wake up from the sun shining through the window, drink a good coffee, eat some fruit, walk down to the beach, go swimming, take a ride in a boat, play some music, meet some funny strangers, ride bikes, laugh my ass off, try parasailing, eat spicy foods and take a ride in a helicopter. Or a unicorn

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

My sense of fun and adventure. And my rapping skillz.

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

I should say my guitar, but it’s probably my phone…

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

A shark or an octopus

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

Hawaii!

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Swim

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

On a boat, muthafucka!

Name: Richie Reinholdt

Birthplace: Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan

Currently residing: Missoula Montana

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: I played in a bunch of bands and recorded a bunch of albums

Website: richiereinholdt.com

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?  

uh…..Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Bill Monroe, Neko Case, The Band, Robbie Fulks, Buddy Miller, Bob Marley, Buck Owens, Marshall Crenshaw, Buffalo Springfield

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

wow…so many…Neko Case-Wish I Was The Moon Tonight……..Buffalo Springfield-Broken Arrow

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

A cold Sapporo and a sushi roll on the beach at Hanalei Kaua’i

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

I have no idea 

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

my 1945 Herringbone Martin D 28 

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

Bob Dylan 

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

Kaua’i 

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

play more shows were people actually listen 

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

alive

Name: Heather Lewin

Birthplace: Milwaukee, WI USA

Currently residing: West Allis, WI USA

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: Music was always a big part of our family gatherings…everyone sang & danced & played instruments (Hee-Haw and Lawrence Welk were always on at grandma’s house)…so around age 9, I started singing & dancing with a variety group called The Sunshine Kids, which inspired me to take vocal lessons…& about that same time, my parents bought an organ, which came with a half-year of free private lessons & my older sister refused to play it, so I took organ lessons… In summer of that year, I tried trombone & it was way too big for me (& tasted horrible), so I returned it and asked for something else, but the only instrument they had left was a viola (which I’d never actually heard of before, but I was just glad I didn’t have to blow into it)… so I played viola throughout middle school, then I went to High School of the Arts as a vocalist & I started playing cello while I was there (& loved it!) &  played in lots of orchestras (MYSO,  Central Wisconsin Symphony, Shorewood Players, Whitefish Bay Players, Concord Chamber Orchestra)  then went to college to study cello & music education & eventually started teaching music & began fiddling & started playing for dancers & joined lots of different bands (The O’Shyttes, the Consorte of Somesorte, Bounding Main, The Romaniax, Roberts Quartet, West of Ennis, The Mighty Lumberhorn, Athas, Slainte L’Chayim, Irish Fest Ceili Band, Astral Subastral, Andreas Transo’s Handful of Earth Band), some of which I still fiddle & sing with today.

Website: heatherlewinmusic.com

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Composers: Arbeau, Praetorius, Playford, Telemann, Vivaldi, Corelli, Bach

Fiddlers: Liz Carroll, Casey Driessen, Bruce Molsky, Ben Sollee, Trevor Exter, Chris Bain, Franklin George, Henry Reed

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

Bill Withers- Ain’t No Sunshine

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

Waking up in another country with a pocketful of cash, a fiddle and nowhere in particular to be. Going sightseeing, making music and sampling local cuisine. Stumbling upon a used bookstore, where I’d find a rare antique book that I’ve always wanted. Eventually meeting up with friends or family & going to a museum or festival. Ending the night in a cosy bed with my recently acquired book & some great tunes playing quietly in the background until I fall asleep.

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

My fearlessness?

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

Old family photos

6.  Who were you, or would you be, nervous to meet?

I love meeting new people. I’m completely fascinated by everyone.  Not nervous, just curious. That said, the highest profile people I’ve met & played for are the governor of Chiba, Japan & the President of Ireland. Both are great gals.

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

Ireland

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Sing more & play the blues.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Still fiddling.

Name: STEVE MITCHELL

Birthplace: North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Currently residing: Nashville, Tennessee

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: An ongoing experiment in musical chemistry, including The Wounded Cheesies, 1982-1983; The Tree Of Plenty, 1985-1987; Ernie’s Coffee Shop, 1987-1990; The Festive Eddies, 1990-1992; Travels With Charley, 1992-1995; Yardsale, 1995-2000; The Paperboys, 1999-2005; The Haphazards, present.

Website: the haphazards

 1. Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, Gram Parsons, The Grateful Dead, Emmy-Lou Harris, Neil Young, John Hiatt, The Staples Family, Willie Nelson, Andrew Bird, Taj Mahal, Death Cab For Cutie, Ry Cooder, Bob Dylan, Dave Brubeck, Doug Sahm, Talib Qweli, Kanye West, Sufjan Stevens, Miles Davis, NRBQ, Wilco, Ryan Adams, Steve Earle, Feist, U2, The Rolling Stones, Don Williams, Elton John (before 1975) and the Talking Heads.

2. Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” and “Surf’s Up”, The Grateful Dead’s “Stella Blue” and “Box Of Rain”, Lee Ann Womack’s “The Bees”, “Chicago” by Sufjan Stevens, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Paul Simon, “Hot Burrito #1” by Gram Parsons.

3. How would you describe your perfect day?

Finishing up a new song, charting it for the demo musicians, having a glass of red wine, and then playing the song for my wife.

4. What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

I do my best to really listen. And I provide healthy snacks.

5. What is your most valued material possession?

My Goldtone resophonic guitar.

6. Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

I met one of my musical heroes and biggest influences, Emmy Lou Harris, and we talked about homeless dogs. I can’t imagine that it would feel comfortable to meet Bob Dylan.

7. If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

In the Kendrick Cabin, next to Cameron Lake, Vancouver Island, on the patio, with my guitar and a hot coffee.

8. Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Learn how to use power tools and renovate old homes.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Anywhere, as long as I’m accompanied by my wife Leslie, my daughter Molly and our mellow long-haired chihuahua, Acorn.

Name: ray johnston

Birthplace: Montgomery, al

Currently residing: dallas Tx

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: college and early corporate career spurty cover musician then made NBA team then battled leukemia on and off thru 4 relapses then formed ray johnston band in sep 09′

Website: rayjohnstonband.com

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Bands: allman brothers, dave Matthews band, average white band, Stevie wonder, zac brown band.

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

“Don’t you think life would be awfully boring, if the good times were all we had” (pat green – Crazy)

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

Early morning duck hunt, mid morning quiet time writing or praising God, darn good lunch, hour siesta, afternoon quail or pheasant hunt, date with a cool cute girl, then our band has a show at red rocks.

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

Enthusiasm

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

A Rolex that my dad’s men in Vietnam gave to him then he passed it down to me.

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

Jennifer Anniston

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be? 

Snow skiing in park city

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Dougie

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

As a humble giving man who has a band that plays 100 fun shows to (5000-7500 capacity) venues a year and still stands for what’s right and for the Lord above

photo: elmo tham

Name: Terry Clark

Birthplace: Honolulu, HI

Currently residing: Richmond, VA

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: After being in this band for the last 18 years, I can safely say that Carbon Leaf represents my musical past, present and future.

Website: carbonleaf.com  facebook

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present? 

Neil Young, Cream, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Rush, Marillion, Uncle Tupelo, Ray Lamontagne, The Decemberists

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally? 

The second half of the guitar solo in Hells Bells by AC/DC and the third chorus of The Pogues version of An The Band Played Waltzing Matilda.  Also, when Mariah Carey hits “that high note”

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

A day spent with my family… with no chores, email, or deadlines of any sort!

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

My general good nature and my work ethic.

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

My 1975 Gibson ES335

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

Neil Young or Angus Young

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be? 

My family’s summer cottage on the Chesapeake Bay. Or St. Barts.

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Create more music!

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

The big house on the hill! (not big house as in prison)

Name: Leslie Alexander 

Birthplace: Calgary AB 

Currently residing: Ashcroft BC  

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: I grew up on a sheep farm and couldn’t wait to hit the road, make mistakes and writing songs about them, which turned into four independent records and international touring with the likes of Jane Siberry, Barney Bentall and my own band the Wild Rose Hippies. 

Website: lesliealexander.com 

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Bruce, Joni, Bob, Wilco, Ray LaMontagne, Tom Waits, Steve Earle, Lynn Miles, Corb Lund 

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally? 

Born to Run 

3.  How would you describe your perfect day? 

Friends, food, sun, music, and no agenda. 

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you? 

My endless supply of fodder for speculation and gossip. 

5.  What is your most valued material possession? 

My guitar, followed closely by my computer. My phone doesn’t rate! 

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet? 

Nobody, unless they were going to hurt me. 

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?  

Carthew Ridge, Waterton Park, AB 

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future? 

Play big shows 

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years? 

In a cabin by a creek unless I’m on the road playing big shows.

Name: Jeremy Breaks

Birthplace: Prince George, BC Canada

Currently residing: Vancouver, BC

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: I was born into a musical family and had a father that built a shack dedicated to playing music in our back yard, he later opened a music store in Prince George and I worked and networked out of there for 5 years while I was still playing Disco Punk music, but eventually decided that I had out grown my home town and needed to move to Vancouver to pursue music further and distance myself from “bad influences”, after tree planting for 1 season I developed a love for roots/rock bluegrass and folk music and picked up the banjo which redirected me musically, also I met Scott Perrie “the other half of Redgy Blackout” and have been writing and playing music with him for 6 years now and we have made 1 record and 3 EP’s.

Website: redgyblackout.com

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Ryan Adams, Crooked Still, The Avett Brothers, Waylon Jennings, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Devotchka, The Beatles, Pink Floyd…I will stop now

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

The score in the movie “Gladiator” always makes me cry

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

Finishing a song that your really happy with and then going for a swim in a Kootenay Lake with my lovely…

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

Apparently I am a very sweet man…lol

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

Probably my 80’s Squier tele that my dad gave me and my cat “Doug”

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

David Suzuki

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

Sitting on a beach on the Oregon coast.

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Travelling, All over………

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Healthy and living in a small town in the Kootenay’s writing music professionally and raising a family;)

—

photo: belinda bruce

Name: Jane Gowan

Birthplace: Vancouver, BC

Currently residing: Toronto, ON

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence:

I was lucky to be born into a house with 2 pianos, so I learned piano before dropping it as a teen, then taking it up again and going to music school where I met many marvelous people and learned about jazz, world music, new music, improvisation and got my mind blown at the Glass Slipper, took up the trumpet, then got sidetracked by folk, and took up the accordion and joined a band called Fear of Drinking and had some great times but eventually got fired (oops), but by this time had met the lovely and talented Koralee Tonack at school who loved the same songs as me, and we formed Time Waits which became Spygirl which is a wonderful warm messed-up musical family of the dearest friends and most talented souls, but everyone’s having beautiful babies and doing their lives and I’m in Toronto now and I’m a happily married stepmom of 4, and I miss my Spygirls and also my bandmates from other Vancouver bands I inhabited (such as Belinda Bruce and the Tawny Stars, and The Neins Circa) and good people from places I’ve worked along the way (Coastal Jazz & Blues, The Vancouver Int’l Film Festival for example), but luckily out here in the humid summers and frigid winters the songs keep knocking on my door and wanting in, so to humour them I took up electric guitar and formed Shade (a pop/rock quartet); we recorded an album in 2010 called Highway, and then I made a new Shade EP (One Last Show of Hearts) with just me and my friend Tim Vesely, which will be released with minimal fanfare on Nov 22, and in the meantime I’ve formed a duo with my pal Llynn Kellman who is awesomely creative and gifted, and we’re called The Llynn and Jane Show and I consider myself very fortunate indeed to be able to do what I love.

Website: shademusic.com

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Elliott Smith, Tom Waits, M Ward, Gillian Welch, Calexico, Los Lobos, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, The Pretenders, The Kinks, Lucinda Williams, Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Beethoven, Schubert, Glenn Gould, Nick Drake, Lyle Lovett, Jimmy Cliff, Bob Marley, Karen Dalton, Johnny Cash, Paul Weller, Billy Bragg, Flight of the Conchords, Elvis Costello, Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, Amy Winehouse, Otis Redding, Beck, Marc Ribot, Francoise Hardy, The Lonely Island.

2. Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

“Holy Man and Holy Priest, 

this love of life makes me weak in my knees, 

so when we get there make your play, 

’cause soon I fear it’s gonna carry us away 

to a promised lie you made us believe, 

for so many men there is so much grief, 

and my mind is proud but it aches with rage, 

and if I live too long I’m afraid I’ll die. 

Strangers on this road we are on, we are not two, we are one”

from the song  “Strangers”, by Ray Davies and The Kinks

3. How would you describe your perfect day?

It would start with strong coffee and acoustic guitar in the kitchen; it would contain no deadlines, and would involve a lot of aimless puttering and abstract musing. A friend would drop by late morning and we’d laugh a lot. Then just as the friend departs, there would be a knock at the front door, and a man dressed smartly in a 3-piece suit with a wool cap tucked under his arm would hand me a letter, which would turn out to be an invitation from Tom Waits to open for him on his next tour. I’d hug the man, tip him $100, then watch him ride away on his bicycle. I’d go back into the house and resume puttering, but now with intent.

 4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

my baking

 5. What is your most valued material possession?

A piece of jewellery that my Dad made for me.

 6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

The Dalai Lama

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

On a bike, in the sun, on a flat dry road.

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

sing

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Writing songs for the next Clint Eastwood or Wes Anderson film.

Name: Christina Maria

Birthplace: Vancouver

Currently residing: Zurich/Vancouver

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: Acoustic guitar songwriter turned electric guitar, keyboard beat face.

Website

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Three from before and three from now. Steve Miller, Indigo Girls, CSN&Y, St.Vincent, The Dirty Projectors, Tune-Yards.

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

A good example would be a whole album. The Cinematic Movie Orchestra album, “Ma Fleur,” while I’m driving, always moves and relaxes me.  

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

 A day spent in nature, with good food and wine. I like to climb mountains, looking for crystals.

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

 Themselves. I love my friends 🙂 Though I travel a lot and leave them constantly… I meet the most wonderful people everywhere I go and I’m very thankful for them. Also maybe my friends would say that they appreciate that they could probably always beat me in an arm wrestle.

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

 Slippers that my gramma made, I bring them everywhere.

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

Myself in 20 years. Holy caca, I would be nervous. But I’m sure everything would be fine, I should have my own waterslides/theme parks by then so it would probably be a lot of fun. 

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be? 

Flying in the sky. I dream about it all the time. I can go anywhere and see everything. I love it. I also must say that where I am is pretty great too (living in an old farmhouse near Zurich in Switzerland). Zurich, Vancouver and Bali are the most beautiful places I’ve ever been in real life.

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

 Always more art. Maybe high-fiving, because I always miss and its so awkward when I do.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Self sufficient on an island off British Columbia. I think its important to know how to do- be self sufficient.

Name: Britt Kristine Arnesen aka 907Britt

Birthplace: Anchorage, Alaska

Currently residing: Missoula, Montana

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: I like to write music, be a good mom, play guitar and piano, pick berries, play shows and make records with Richie Reinholdt, make YouTube videos, and share original songs, though I didn’t always understand that was my calling, so before I released my first album Continental Divide in 2010 I had spent six years in a natural resource management career in Alaska where I walked away from a great job and financial security to write, record, and perform music for an (ever-frugal) living, which means we eat a lot of lentils, and although being a (too) young single mom poses huge challenges for me as a musician, having all the free time to spend with Canyon has been absolutely worth it, because I took that boy to Yellowstone, even if Mama never took ME to Yellowstone.

Website: 907Britt.com and facebook

1. Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Richie Reinholdt, the Acousticals, Gordon Bok, Patty Griffin, David Gray, James McMurtry, Simon & Garfunkel, Tom Waits, Gillian Welch, Neil Young, Eva Cassidy, Jackson Browne, Yukon Ryder, Ben Harper…now you said “favorite” so I am only going by emotional preference here. Of course I respect, learn from, and revere many others. But each of these artists has many songs I can put on repeat endlessly. And then there’s Sarah C. Hanson, local hero to a young teenager in Juneau and Fairbanks.

2. Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

“Song for Adam” from Jackson Browne’s first record.

3. How would you describe your perfect day?

Run-on sentence #2. I would wake up early on the wings of an exhilarating dream feeling well-rested, drink coffee, do dishes from last night’s dinner while I cook hot breakfast, wake up my son Canyon to great smells, get him to the bus stop on time, play morning music at the Wheat Montana with my favorite banjo player, go out berry picking, cut a couple tracks in the studio, chat with my mom on the phone, kiddo arrives at bus stop on time, build Legos, cook dinner, pet Panther the kitty cat, play guitar while Canyon builds Lego, receive good news on email, work on a purdy fingerpickin’ love song while he reads until lights out, then snuggle up while he falls asleep, then… well, uh…I guess I would go to sleep too, unless there was a moonlight beach nearby. Hey, that sounds a lot like many of my days.

4. What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

I would hope it’s my heart.

5. What is your most valued material possession?

My 1957 Gibson J-50 guitar. We met at Greg Boyd’s House of Fine Instruments when I traveled through Missoula last January and it was love at first note (low G). I’ve never been the same since.

6. Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

The principal?

7. If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

Midnight sun berry picking tundra on Murphy Dome west of Fairbanks, Alaska with my favorite people.

8. Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Play original music and make records with Richie Reinholdt!

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

More of the best, less of the worst, and me wiser and better at managing all of it. I hope to have a few more (and ever awesomer) records, and deepening musical and personal relationships. In ten years my son Canyon will be ready to move out of the house. That will be a huge change. We’ll just have to see how the gypsy in me handles it. Ten years ago I never would have guessed I would end up in Missoula, Montana playing music full time. Prediction fails. Hopes and dreams are cool. I keep re-reading The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (no relation to the recent movie of the same name).

Name: Tim Easton

Birthplace: Lewiston, NY

Currently residing: Joshua Tree, CA

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence:  My brothers taught me to play guitar and when I started writing poetry they said I could write songs so next thing you know I’m a street musician in Europe for around 7 years just to live life and experience things and read and learn to write and then I came back to America to start making records.

Website: timeaston.com

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?
With composers I guess I’m a traditional Mozart kind of guy. I do like some of the modern stuff like Phillip Glass, but mostly I’m a folk musician and I love Doc Watson and Mississippi John Hurt and Sonny Terry/Brownie Maghee and folks like that. I will put them on the record player around the house most of the time. The Kinks have been getting some airplay around here as well lately. Same with Lightning Hopkins, songwriters like M. Ward and Connor Oberst move me, and I’m always blown away with the amount of work that Jack White kicks out every year.

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?
The first song on Joni Mitchell’s BLUE album when she sings “I am on the road and I am traveling traveling traveling….” and then basically that whole album from there on out.  A lot of times, when I get misty during a tune, I’ll find it’s a woman singing.

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?
It definitely starts with a hassle free morning where I can lay in bed a while and read something.  Poetry, fiction, The New Yorker or The Week…and then I’d get up, have some coffee and toast and juice and get right to work on writing or making music.  I’m not a morning person, per se, but I like to do creative stuff right after getting up, before the news of the day or whatever distraction happens.  Now that I have a daughter, all of this has changed, and I’m learning that a perfect day involves playing with her and teaching.  A good meal with family and maybe friends, lots of laughter,  a nice walk… these all factor in there somewhere.

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?
Sense of humour, energy, and that they cannot predict what I am going to do or say.

5.  What is your most valued material possession?
Probably my Gibson J-45 that I used as a street musician all those years ago.

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?
I was appropriately nervous to meet Paul McCartney, and I managed to tell him that I had a four track. I guess being around Bob Dylan might throw you off your game a bit, but really, he’s just another dude who writes, paints, and plays.

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?
Alaska comes to mind first.  Some amazing hangs there….but, it’s getting kind of cold at this moment, so I’d have to say on the beach in the tropics in one of those Gauguin paintings.

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?
Write write write. Take the Trans-Siberian Express across Russia through Mongolia.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?
Happy with family and friends and animals living in the country, but that’s where I am today.  So maybe it will be the city for a spell.

Name:  Marvin Lee Reininger

Birthplace:  Clarkston, Wa.

Currently residing: Lewiston, Id.

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: I have been a part of or played in 7 bands.  MASTER PO, THE RUMMIES, THE ELECTRO-MAGNETS, THE BAD BATS, thE burpieS, bum notes, and HEARTS FALL LIKE LEAVES.

Website: Marvin Lee Reininger

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present? 

The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Billy Childish, Jarvis Cocker, Black Flag, Ian MacKaye, MF DOOM aka DOOM, and Mike Patton. 

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally? 

The tail-end of CAN’T YOU HEAR ME KNOCKIN’ by The rolling Stones. 

3.  How would you describe your perfect day? 

Coffee, tunes (whether playing music or listening to music), good food, a couple beers in the evening, and a full nights rest.  Yep, I’m a simple man. 

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you? 

I have no idea.  Ask them! 

5.  What is your most valued material possession? 

Fender Mustang 

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet? 

I was super nervous when I met Mike Patton and Sherman Alexie. 

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be? 

I’m already there. 

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future? 

Play more music, write more, read more, more more more more. 

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years? 

In the same position I am in now.  Happy to be back home!

Name: Larry Hirshberg

Birthplace:  Boston, Massachusetts

Currently residing: Missoula, Montana

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: Saw The Beatles on Ed Sullivan and didn’t care. Was petrified by Led Zeppelin’s Dazed and Confused coming from my tiny transistor radio. Loved Cecilia. Loved Suite: Judy Blue Eyes. Loved Southern Man. Loved Roundabout. Loved Killer Queen. Loved The Piano Has Been Drinking. Loved Mud Shark. Loved The Grand Illusion. Went to college. Was turned on to The Grateful Dead. (Thanks Chris C.) Saw some shows in ’77-’78. Started playing guitar and writing songs in late 1978, after seeing a Jerry Garcia Band show in Cheney, WA. Saw some more Dead shows. Saw John Fahey. Saw Bob Marley. Saw Joni Mitchell. Got first electric guitar and Ibanez TS-808. Still have the 808. Formed The Porcupines in Santa Fe in late 1981. Saw some more Dead shows. Porcupines broke up in Eugene in 1984. Wrote a lot of songs. Played in Boston a lot between ’86 and ’94. Saw some more Dead shows, as well as some Sun Ra, some Lucinda Williams, Tom Waits and The Church. Wrote a lot of songs. Played in Strunk and White. Played in The Bagboys. Formed Th’ Spectacles in 1994. Returned to Missoula. Wrote a lot of songs. Played bass with Tom Catmull 1999-2003. Played some blues bass after that. Got paid. Wrote a lot of songs. Fronted The Trillionaires 2004-2006. Did not get paid. Now – Solo artist who wishes he had time to be in a band phase. I know there are a lot of periods in this “sentence,” but it sure runs on and rambles, doesn’t it?

Website: larry hirshberg 

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter, Peter Case, Terje Rypdal, Sun Ra, James McMurtry, Steve Kilbey, Tom Waits, John Fahey, Aimee Mann, Son Seals, etc. 

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

“Polegnala e Todora,” by The Bulgarian State Radio and Television Female Vocal Choir. No shit! 

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

It has a bird in it that I’ve never seen before. 

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

A.)When I’m quiet. B.) My wife. 

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

2004 ALCS game 4 ticket stub….* 

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet? The dentist. 

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be? 

The place the words come from.

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Dream. Breathe. See Iceland. Eat lobster in Maine. My wife. Walk. Canoe. Play chess with my daughter. Model railroading. Listen to Dark Star. Good gigs.

 9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Having lunch in Rarotonga with my wife, daughter AND the person who discovered the cure for Type 1 diabetes, whom we invited on our vacation because we love that person and because we just won the lottery.

*(and regarding that 2004 ALCS game 4 ticket stub, that is total bullshit. Of course I didn’t go to that game.)

Name: Rich Hope     

Birthplace: Edmonton, AB

Currently residing: Vancouver, BC

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: Made first record in 1998 called “Good To Go” followed by 5 yrs in John Ford, who were a band ahead of it’s time or behind it’s time depending on how you look at it we made a self-titled album in 1999 and got signed to EMI and wasted their money while they wasted our time and we put out 2003’s Bullets For Dreamers and then i went back to my own thing and put out Rich Hope and His Evil Doers (Maximum Music) in 2005 and lots of people liked it and then i put out Rich Hope is Gonna Whip It on Ya (Sandbag Records, 2009) as a two-piece trashy boogie blues machine and played the Olympics and did some big shows with some big acts and even more people dug us and then we put out a single last year called I See Trouble (Sandbag, 2010) and made a great video with the Zenga Brothers and even more people dug that and I’m working on a new album that’ll probably be country like they used to make when country didn’t suck.

Website: richhope.com

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

The Clash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, The ROlling Stones, Jr. Kimbrough, Son House, RL Burnside, The Dirtbombs, Doug Sahm/Sir Douglas Quintet

 2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

2nd verse of The Clash’s “Tommy Gun” Love Mick Jones guitar part.

 3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

I would describe it as a “perfect day”

 4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

Ask them.   

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

Don’t have one.  Stuff is just stuff. But I do love my guitars and bicycles.    

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

Bruce Springsteen.  

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

On my bicycle.

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Make more music 

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Hanging out with my kids

Name: Dustin Bentall

Birthplace: Vancouver, BC

Currently residing: North Vancouver, BC

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: Dad was a rock star so I’m just taking over the family business, same old story.

Website: dustinbentall.com

1. Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

The Band

The Beatles

Neil Young

Tom Petty

Bruce Springsteen

Eliott Smith

Wilco

2. Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

The piano outro of Layla after the guitar wankfest  ends. I was quite young when I watched Goodfellas for the first time and that music played when all the bodies of the dead gangsters started showing up after a night of some serious mob killings. Epic scene. Loved it.

3. How would you describe your perfect day?

waking up to breakfast in bed and then coming downstairs to find an endless supply of cocaine.

4. What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

The fact that my dad was famous

5. What is your most valued material possession?

my guitars, ’73 Martin D-18 and ’90 Gibson ES335. actually, probably my iPhone.

6. Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

Wayne Gretzky. Great guy

7. If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be? 

On stage. anywhere.

8. Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

riding horses and shootin’ guns on my ranch. when i get my ranch.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

my own island in the caribbean.

Name: Larry Kirwan

Birthplace: Wexford, Ireland

Currently residing: New York City

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence:  Bought guitar, left home, still going….

Website: black47.com

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Everyone from the Johnny Reck Showband through Dylan (Thomas and Bobby) to Miles… and on it goes…

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

Ave Maria

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

Begins with tea, ends with booze, with a little creation in between.

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

You better ask them, they’ve never told me.

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

My eyesight

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

The Iceman.

 7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

One step ahead of the hounds.

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Create.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Above ground.

Name: Raphael Geronimo

Birthplace: Manila, Philippines

Currently residing: Richmond, B.C.

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: My father was musician and loved Latin music, so as a kid, I grew up listening to: Tito Puente, Fania All Stars, Eddie Palmieri, Batacumbelle and Poncho Sanchez. – And I really hated it! I liked Rock music: Rush, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Rolling Stones and the Who. So, as a teen my father introduced me to Santana and I was able to see the relation between Latin and Rock music. So I started to slowly appreciate Latin music. Within a few years, I fell in love with Latin music and now playing latin jazz and afro cuban music in my band Rumba Calzada is what I do for a living. So, my early years of having to listen to Latin music has proven to be the best education a father could give a son.

Website: rumbacalzada.com

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

My favorite bands and musicians include:  Tito Puente, Batacumbelle, Eddie Palmieri, Celia Cruz, Fania All Stars and Poncho Sanchez. Although, I am a fan of Mozart and Beethoven and I do enjoy Rock, Jazz, and Bluegrass music.

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

Mi bajo con tumbao rico y sabrociao.

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

A sunny day….. light breeze…..running…… playing music ………. going for swim……..eating ……… having a beer………..There are too many perfect days to describe!

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

Being lucky that I get to play music for a living.

 5.  What is your most valued material possession?

A wrench

 6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

An extraterrestrial

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

In my bed…….. sleeping well.

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

See places in the world that I would like to see, like Paris, France and the pyramids in Egypt.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Still playing music, running, travelling, eating well, spending time with family, friends and the people I want to be around.

Name:

Birthplace: Winnipeg

Currently residing:  Torontopeg

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence: born playing piano still doing that but along the way learned to use a dehydrator too so there are now fruit leathers in my piano playing life,

Website: bobwiseman.com

1. Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

freddie rzewski

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

the hungarian rhapsody #6 by liszt, i want you (she’s so heavy) beatles, the music in the fellini film 8 & ½ when the young boys pay the older woman to dance for them by the beach

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

opening the morning paper reading headline “stephen harper jailed with no parole for crimes against canadians”

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

i remember their names

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

my pagani zonda clinique roadster

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

nervous to meet very evil people.

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

1979

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

learn french

9.  Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

je pence quebec

Name: Winston Hauschild

Birthplace: The Okanagan

Currently residing: Bowen Island

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence:

My first birthday cake was a giant guitar and my parents were both singers so I knew for sure that was a profession I was going to avoid at all costs and then when I became a teenager and got my hands on an electric guitar that all changed so here I am following diligently in my parents’ footsteps.

Website:

winstonhauschild.com

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Old: John, Paul, George and Ringo.

New: Tweedy.

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

The guitar solo in Achilles Last Stand.

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

Working in the garden with my family.

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

Hopefully my sense of humour.

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

My Gibson J45

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

Mr. McCartney

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

Right where I am.

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Cooking and gardening.

9.  Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Alive and well.

Name: Calvin Reynold (yes, that’s my middle name) Koat

Birthplace: Vernon, British Columbia

Currently residing: Vancouver

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence:

I always loved bass guitar, ever since I saw Paul’s Hofner, and again, when I saw the Rickenbacker headstock on the sleeve of Deep Purple’s Machine Head, which is when I discovered that I really liked the sound of a Ricky bass as well (coincidentally, Paul started playing a Ricky when they made him a left-hander but I digress), and I always wanted to play one, but never got around to it until I graduated from BCIT Radio Production Technology in 1980 and went to Chilliwack to work all-nights at CHWK, where there is little to do but maybe, let’s see … take up the bass, which I rented and learned to play, which came in handy when I started my first band called Custer’s Last Bandstand, who came around at just the right point in history when another radio station, Coast Radio was giving tons of airplay to independent bands, which we were in spades and consequentially, because I started working as a second in a basement studio and recorded our first cassette called Pull For Boost, got us tons of airplay for a stupid song I wrote called The Final Frontier that we don’t play any more but we’re still together, and I’m playing with another cover combo called Duck and Cover and, I have a Chris Squire signature edition Rickenbacker bass, which I love dearly.

Website: worldbeatcanada.com

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present

I read an interesting article recently which stated that the sounds you’re exposed to when you’re fourteen stick with you for life. So, here is a chronological list of the artists that have shaped my musical present, in order from fourteen onward: The Beatles, Elton John, Pink Floyd, Genesis, 10cc, REM, Husker Du, The Church, Bob Mould, The Smithereens, Afro Celt Sound System.

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

An English hymn done a capella by Oysterband, called Bright Morning Star. I want it played at my funeral.

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

Making love, a great breakfast, a long walk, a steak with onion rings, a martini, a movie and a soundtrack to it all.

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

I hope they say my loyalty. I’ve always had a division between friends and family. Friends win out in my books.

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

I have two: my cherry ’71 Pontiac Firebird and my Chris Squire signature edition Rickenbacker bass (oh, did I mention that earlier?). Sufficient to say, I’m woefully attached to my material possessions.

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

Peter Gabriel, but I will interview him one of these days. He’s the guru of everything I believe to be true about contemporary global music.

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

Tahiti, Hawaii, Rio … some place warm and exotic with women the colour of caramel.

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Make money.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

I really enjoy what I’m doing now and I hope I have the opportunity to keep doing it for ten, twenty, thirty years. But, the work I do in contemporary global music, commercial production and voice-overs has to start showing more tangible results. I don’t mean to sound materialistic. I’ve always given freely of my talents, but I would like to start being better compensated for my efforts.

photo-karen skaret

Name: Sarah Wheeler

Birthplace: Vancouver B.C.

Currently residing: Vancouver B.C.

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence:

Grew up in a musical family, Mum sang, grandfather played piano with Nat King Cole and Sammy Davis Jr. so I grew up singing and started to play guitar and write songs, was a total Beatles freak, took a few guitar lessons when I was really young from a guitar player who my grandmother had nursed back to health after a motorcycle accident that mangled his arm forcing him to relearn guitar left-handed, learned one main thing from him… never stop.

Website: sarahwheeler.com

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Beatles, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Emmy Lou Harris, Jayhawks, Alice Coletrane, the Rachels, Debussy, Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, Fleetwood Mac, Chrissie Hynde, Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny, Cat Stevens, Bob Dylan, Bon Iver, Ray Lamontagne, Lucinda Williams

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

Anything from the AC/DC oeuvre.  The word oeuvre makes me feel funny…

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

Starting with two oeuvres sunny side up….

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

My ability to sleep in.

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

Having grown up on the west coast as a third generation Vancouverite, which is pretty much unheard of, Vancouver is a very transient city, I have inherited quite an amazingly impressive collection of healing crystals that I like to dangle over my grocery store purchases before I decide which items to buy, regardless of how many people may be waiting behind me in line.

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

Seal.  I’m not joking, he’s very tall.

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be? 

Hogwarts.

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Eat.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

I hope it doesn’t take that long.

Name: Reid Jamieson

Birthplace: North York, ON

Currently residing: Vancouver BC – west end

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence:

Dad sang me to sleep, mom died young and so became obsessed with guitar and old tunes, spent teens early 20s hidden in bedroom recording hundreds of songs nobody would ever hear, started rock band Alvy and made a move to the big city from the burbs, realized band was probably not best outlet for creativity and released first solo album Cowlick Bravado, met CVM who became lover, co-writer and manager, released Unavoidable Truth with Josh Finlayson, Sarah Harmer and other musical heroes, got ‘discovered by Stuart Mclean and the fine folks at CBCs Vinyl Cafe and enjoyed much quality airplay and only real touring, moved to BC to blow fresh air into songs, accidentally released 50s era tribute to Elvis, finally released original album Staring Contest, married muse, bought wee home studio and started writing for film and tv in hopes of being heard all over the world one fine day.

Website:  reidjamieson.com

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Neil Finn, Willie Nelson, Wilco, Sarah Harmer, Laura Veirs, The Kinks, Nick Lowe, Neil Young, Mia Sheard, The Beatles (and most associated solo projects),  Elvis, Patsy Cline, Two Minute Miracles, Iron and Wine, Sloan, Susie Arioli and many more.

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

VINCENT “And when no hope was left in sight…on that starry starry night…you took your life as lovers often do…”*sniff*

Click here to listen!

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

Waking up with my love, cuppas by the sea, writing songs in bed, bike ride in the woods, late afternoon glass of wine that turns into a tasty homemade dinner with friends, watching Star Trek with the wife, going to bed early with a clear conscience.

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

My cooking? General gentleness?

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

My Canadian made La Patrie nylon string guitar bought from Rufus Stewart has been good to me, but trumped by my wedding ring.

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

Was: Neil Finn. Would be: Paul McCartney

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be? 

Kauai, HI. the pine forest on the southern tip.

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Extended camping trips.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Making music full-time for a decent living, healthy and in love. Hope that’s not too much to ask.

Name: Brian Hogan

Birthplace: Limerick, Ireland

Currently residing: Dublin city Ireland

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence:

He has been playing in bands since the age of ten. In the early nineties he co-founded bands: Wild Cherry Tonic, Illywhacker, The Galloping Hogans and seminal Dublin band PAMF. 
With the group Illywhacker he toured europe on and off for two years. He also played bass with firework and theatre company “Theatre of Fire” (with whom he was chief designer and artist).

In 1996 he returned to Dublin and joined contemporary Irish group KíLA (kila.ie), with whom he co-composes and travels the world. With KíLA he has won a Meteor award, earned a platinum, several gold discs and achieved a number-one-hit alongside U2, The Dubliners and the Band of Bowsies with the single The Ballad Of Ronnie Drew.

Since 2004 he has played bass for theatre show Mama Cass produced by Bill Hughes and for Irish reality TV show” You’re A Star” (2005-2007). He continues to play as a session bass player, freelance (Paul Brady, Túcan, The Jades, Catherine Lynch Show) and for Audio Networks band Jungle Boogie. He has enjoyed playing with George Hamilton IV, Bono, U2, Sinéad O Connor, The Dubliners, Paul Brady, Donal Lunny, Liam O Maonlaoí, Glenn Hansard, George Hook, The Cheeky Girls and John Aldridge (We kid you not). He now has his own band Preachers son which is very rock and roll and is touring the world and elsewhere “knocking them dead”!

Website: preachersson.com

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni, The Doors, John Martyn, ABBA, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Screaming Jay Hawkins, Blind Lemon Jefferson, The Police, The Bothy Band, Motorhead, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zep………………….

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

Albinoni, Adagio in G min, kills me every time!

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

Up at the crack of 11ish, brekkie-bonk, nice Coffee, Toast, straight to recording a song that’s really buzzing me, back home, pizza, beer (polish), my girls, my sofa, the cat (also a girl) and a good movie.

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

I make them laugh.

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

A 1947 0017 Martin guitar.

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

Nick Cave (he was a gent but I didn’t know what to say to him, so I made a joke)

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

On a beach in Curacao (Caribbean), sipping a beer.

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

I would like to and will make more albums and tour the world again.

 9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Alive, happy and working!

Name: Keith Rose

Birthplace: St. Boniface, Manitoba, Canada

Currently residing: Barlassina, Monza Brianza, Italia

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence:

Anything anyone would let me be involved in starting on trumpet at age 8, baritone euphonium age 10, electric bass age 11 until present with guitar, upright bass and ukulele thrown in there… I played with some cool folks too.

Website or online network: 

Showbusinessgiants

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Jazz- Mingus (freakin genius bassist and composer, no doubt about it… could also be in the classical composer category)

Folk- Martin Carthy (just pure class and talent… and he remembered my name three years after we met and I kissed his daughter.)

Rock- ACDC (doesn’t get more straight up than that…  it’s rock!)

Punk- Ramones (if I had to pick one… I realize I don’t but I get bored if I don’t give myself boundaries… again totally straight and pop)

Pop- Lily Allen (makes me laugh every time)

Punk/Alternative- Alice Donut (anything from that era Alternative Tentacles is kickin… could mention NoMeansNo… but the Donut makes me feel dirty and glad to be, all at once)

Something Else Soundtrack? Nele  Karajli_ć (rent and watch Black Cat White Cat and listen….that’s enough)

Ethnic- Daniele Sepe (italian genius my favourite album is Anime Candide… check it out)

Musicians/Bands- Mike Watt, Ford Pier, Paul Rigby, Barry Mirochnyk, Iggy Pop, Cab Calloway, Dizzy Gilespie, Calexico, Neko Case, Cracker, Daniel Johnston, Devo, Shane MacGowan, Louis Armstrong, Ennio Morricone, Gene Vincent, Girl Talk, Glenn Gould, Harry Nilson, Ivo Papasov, Johnny Cash, Kinks, The lounge Lizards, Lucinda Williams, The Meters, Beatnigs, Spearhead, Micheal Franti, Ministry, Minutemen, Modernettes, NoMeansNo, Randy Newman, Squeeze, Steve Earl, Monk, Carolyn Mark, Toy Dolls, and Townes Van Zandt…. there are others but it’s getting late.

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

Anything James Jamerson played on bass.

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

Being with my family without any time constraints.

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

You would have to ask them.

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

My brain.

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

I was nervous when I met Mike Watt…. no reason to be… hell of a nice guy.

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

I’m there, right here with my family.

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Play music!

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Playing music with a bunch of friends. Having a good time and not thinking of how stupid I look…. hasn’t stopped me so far!

Name: Jani Vilis Bers

Birthplace: Ennistymon, Republic of Ireland

Currently residing: Spokane, Washington

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence:

Beginning by driving my parents nuts with a toy “Ringo Drum” they regret having bought me as a kid, to creating awful noises on violin in my school orchestra (still driving my parents nuts!), to playing bass in teen garage bands (see above!), to buying my first synthesizer and 4 track portastudio to record songs & jingles, to music production for the BBC in England and then doing the same in America, to attending countless astonishing live concerts locally, nationally and worldwide.

Website or online network: facebook

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

The Beatles (naturally!), John Barry, Stephen Hackett, Roy Rogers & Norton Buffalo, Francis Dunnery, Rick Wakeman, Dixie Dregs, Fairport Convention, David Gilmore, Mark King, Pat Coast, Pat Barclay, Neil Peart.

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

Matt Monro – “Walk Away”.

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

A full English breakfast with HP sauce (mandatory!) to start the day followed by a long motorcycle ride under warm sunshine to a far away lake for a dip before champagne at sunset and making love to my sweetheart.

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

Generosity & well intended mischievous humor whilst encouraging social gluttony!

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

A beautiful framed portrait of my late father – also named Jani.

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

Her Majesty The Queen Of England (still waiting for my knighthood invitation!).

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

The beautiful and historic City of York, Yorkshire, England.

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

I’ve always been excessive, but then I’m always up for a bit more fun, games, wine, women & song!

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Alive & in good health would be a good start, in any part of the world that isn’t being bombed, nor hated, is reasonably stable and has zero tectonic plate movement! But I can still dream can’t I?

Name: Devin Rice

Birthplace: Vancouver, BC

Currently residing: Port Moody, BC

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence:

Drumming hundreds of gigs with many talented musicians and songwriters.

Website or Social Network: facebook

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

I think it all begins and ends with The Beatles for me.  I’m a huge classic rock fan and am a sucker for just about any well-written pop song.

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

“Dear Prudence”

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

Anything that involves the beautiful summer sun.

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

Affability?

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

Maybe my car right now because I’d be hooped without it!

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

Ronald McDonald when I was about 5.

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

Galiano Island in the summertime.

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future? 

Songwriting and just getting better as a musician.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Continuing to play music that moves me and, hopefully, creating some myself!

Name: Rachael Chatoor and sometimes I’m known as Rachael Pachel, though I am contemplating going back to using my first and second name, Rachael Anne.

Birthplace: Richmond BC

Currently residing: Richmond BC, which does make it appear as if I have been here all my life but…..I’ve lived in Vernon,  Los Angeles, Whistler, downtown Van, Kits (with old roomie Trevor Rogers when he played in the Road!), White Rock, Vancouver, Abu Dhabi, London, Nigeria, Houston, Richmond again, and soon I will be moving to South Delta.

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence:

I took up music in my 20′s and found myself singing and performing in bands and duos all over BC, eventually travelling overseas with a band where I met my now-ex husband and took a hiatus for about 10 years to travel and have kids which rocked until my situation changed and I found myself  back in Canada and looking for work again which eventually led to my current gig performing solo or in corporate bands and quite frankly my life rocks again especially now that I have a bit of growth behind me which helps with the songwriting I do, so I  do that and I record and perform the material and all the while I use hobbies like videography, blogging and social networking to gain work in the industry and connect with fans around the world who appreciate my original music.  Phew.

Website or online network: rachaelpachel.com

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

Impossible question to answer……….in no particular order and really just scratching the surface………..Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, Fleetwood Mac, Eagles, Marvin Gaye, Eric Clapton, Guess Who, The Who, Pink Floyd, Anne Murray, Dawn Langstroth, Heart, Tal Bachman, Jann Arden, Melissa Etheridge, Phil Collins, Queen, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Led Zeppelin, CSNY, Police, Beatles, Elvis, Lenny Kravitz, Billy Joel, Blondie, Steely Dan, Cat Stevens, Jim Croce…….more of the same….

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

Lindsay Buckingham singing and playing Big Love solo on acoustic guitar is something I could watch time and time again.

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

Well it’s not a realistic day but it would be a dream day…….my children make me breakfast and clean up all the dishes, then we would ride horses up a mountain and river raft back down it,  nap, eat, then play music either around a campfire or in a concert, it doesn’t matter which, so long as there is music.

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

Easy to get along with I suppose, oh, and I don’t drool or spit when I talk.

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

The guitar I bought with the money gift received after my Dad passed away.

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

Oh gosh lots of people, plenty of people all the time make me nervous. For whatever reason I am and always have been especially shy around people whose talents and abilities I value and greatly admire.  I’m sure the most twisted up, nervous I ever got when meeting someone like that was Tal Bachman (huge talent to admire plus, he’s gorgeous, I was a mindless mess).

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

I can’t even imagine what is my favorite place right now, maybe I’m still looking for it.

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Yeah, I enjoy singing demo’s or putting down vocal tracks for others so would love to get more studio gigs.  Write for children, or put together music productions for schools, seems a good creative outlet to me. More horseback riding would be great too.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Just healthy and happy, with healthy, happy children, and maybe even in love.

sketch by taylor ashton

Name: Zoe Nicole Guigueno

Birthplace: Vancouver, BC

Currently residing: Toronto or in the Fish & Bird van

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence:

Mayne Island, penny whistle red&green Brachiosaurus, Pete Seeger, recorder consort, piano lessons theory lessons practising drawing treble clefs, identifying the sound of an upright bass for the first time in the cob-recording studio where Roaring Jelly was making plaid pants and learning to juggle rocks and then to blushing hard playing clarinet in grade 8 and losing my vest, the taste of bamboo, an electric bass in the back of the toyota tercel after a day of work at a bakery, wrapping up the day olds, bmmsking with shelder wearing deflated soccer balls on our heads and playing saxophone and piano duets from beginner duet books, singing playing with Marley and Adam, Bell Jar, tape recorder, highschool choir, late slips, Howard Shore malfunction concert band performance and off to Toronto with advice and two pairs of shoes, beginning to write songs and go to shows and discover Jeff Buckley and Brad Mehldau and access to falafels and 24 hr stores, the first callous on my thumb from playing in regions of the bass i never braved, the dingy practise rooms at humber the light fading on dirty carpets the crappy caf food the influential performance in the student lounge where the fourth year kids were improvising based on flash cards and reading out loud from far-out books and the girl with the silver saxophone and black mark on her eyeball, now currently playing with Fish & Bird and touring canada while my lover Words Around the Waist is in toronto and i still haven’t passed my road test.

Website or online network:

fishandbird.ca

myspace

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

joni mitchell, carla bley, wayne shorter, elvis costello, robert starer, the beatles, nina simone, of montreal, mary margaret o’hara, maurice ravel, nick teehan, beck, neil young, james jamerson, neil swainson, oscar peterson, the bad plus, john coltrane, chet baker, buena vista social club, billie holiday, burt bacharach, the o darling, gary wilson, lauryn hill.

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

Dvjorak’s Humoresque

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

Walking in the pounding rain on Mayne Island with my dog Mooky smelling the dirt and cedar trees and ocean upturning rocks on the beach and watching crabs scuttle away.

 4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

Christian appreciates my strong hugs.

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

My address book and my copy of Alden Nowlan Selected Poems.

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

I was always nervous to meet the neighbours whose orchard we used to raid on Mayne and whose locked barn we’d sneak into.  We never did.

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

With my dad driving around the Ring of Kerry.

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

I’d like to have a garden one day and can stuff for the winter. I’d like to be better at sewing and learn to make clothes.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

Singing to my sleeping child.

Name: Tim Readman [pronounced Redman  ]

Birthplace: Seaham, County Durham, England

Currently residing: Vancouver BC (East Side)

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence:

First paid gig at 15 years old in the brutal working men’s club circuit back home, then on the North-Eastern English folk club scene, then Hawkwind-style space rock then prog-folk and on to new-wave then up to Newcastle upon Tyne for northern soul/ska and political world pop and a quick burst with 80’s hitmakers The Kane Gang…to Vancouver BC all sorts of music including funk and dance leading me back to folk roots and Celtic/folk …Got Fear of Drinking twice in my beloved East Side haunts on Main Street…played with The Arrogant Worms…did some producing…released 2 CDs of songs about Newcastle United Football Club …Artistic Director at Vancouver CelticFest…writer for Penguin Eggs…recorded a few Beatles tribute songs and now on to 2 theme songs for Geordie charity runner Mark Allison’s historic sponsored run which will take him across the whole of the USA in 2011…with a bit of other random shit in between for good measure.

Website: timreadman.com

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

The Beatles, Steely Dan, Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Iris Dement, Bjork, Bob Fox, Jez Lowe, Vin Garbutt, Chick Corea and Return to Forever , Mahavishnu Orchestra, Chumbawamba (Acoustic), Dexy’s Midnight Runners, Elvis Costello, Free, Frank Zappa, Lunasa, Gentle Giant, Gil Scott Heron, Lindisfarne, Liz Carroll and John Doyle, Los Lobos, Massive Attack, Madonna, Was Not Was, The Streets, The Unthanks, Led Zeppelin, Sandy Denny, Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick, Wishbone Ash, Hatfield and the North…it goes on forever!

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

The Blaydon Races – by Geordie Ridley – The National Anthem of the Geordie Nation

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

Newcastle United 5 Sunderland 0

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

Not drinking them under the table and then keeping them up all night anymore

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

My Larivée acoustic guitar

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

The devil at the crossroads

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

St. James Park, Newcastle upon Tyne (when we are 5-0 up against Sunderland)

8. Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Co-write songs with rich and famous pop stars

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

In my own private box with my rich and famous pop star friends at St. James Park, Newcastle upon Tyne (when we are 5-0 up against Sunderland)

Name: Vince Herman

Currently residing: nederland colorado

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence:

i learned to play in a church, now i play in bars, i write a couple songs, i drive around in cars, i’m gonna buy a farm and learn to stay at home, throw a couple festivals some day when I’m grown.

Website:

greatamericantaxi.com

leftoversalmon.com

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands  from the past and present?

john hartford was the best writer of the 20th century in my mind. deeply rooted, he took traditional forms to new levels with his writing, perfectly bridging past and present. new grass revival, hot rize and david bromberg are huge in my pantheon of musical super heroes.

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

jackson brown  the pretender the whole damn album never fails.

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

waking up at home on a fine summer day, picking tunes before breakfast with my kids out on the porch,  a hike, some fishing, cooking a big meal for friends and family, picking more tunes until falling over, and then getting a late night booty call from….

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

probably the food!

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

my toothbrush

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

richard nixons ghost

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right  now, where would that place be?

crows nest, gold hill colorado

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

more time in living near water would be nice. i’ve been in the mountains a long time. i’d also like to do more political activities.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

on my festival ground waiting for the saturday midnite show to start.

photo: iztok vidmar

Name: Paul McKenzie

Currently residing: Germany

Musical past and present in one rambling run-on sentence:

The boneapparts, Tartan Haggis, The enigmas, The Guttersnipes, Grimm Bros.Blues Inc., T.T.Racer, Sparky Magnito, The Real McKenzies. These are a few of the bands I have made over the years, I also like most types of music and listen often.

Website: RealMcKenzies.com

1.  Who are some of your favourite composers, musicians and bands from the past and present?

This is a trick question, isn’t it? If I were to name ALL the music I like and why, I would have to write a book. As stated in the previous answer to question number one, I enjoy most music past and present.

2.  Is there a particular song or musical passage that never fails to move you emotionally?

All songs by Turbo Negro.

3.  How would you describe your perfect day?

Sitting at home with a good book, with a pot of tea and a cat.

4.  What would your friends say they appreciate the most about you?

Nothing at all…I have no friends.

5.  What is your most valued material possession?

I live out of a suitcase, so I suppose it would have to be that, my suitcase.

6.  Who were you, or would you be nervous to meet?

God or Satan

7.  If you could blink your eyes and be in a favourite place right now, where would that place be?

On stage with the band.

8.  Is there something you would like to do more of in the future?

Yes, mix more martinis.

9. Where would you like to find yourself in ten years?

On a sailboat somewhere.