06/10/2011

Mat Martin in Canada

Long time friend and contributor to Spiral Earth, Mat Martin, is currently in Canada, sampling the music scene. He will be sending us blogs, interviews and reviews so we can get a glimpse of the folk scene over the Atlantic. Mat is an accomplished musician, songwriter, producer and artist so it's exciting to have him on board.

We will update this page as a central reference point for his missives...

Letters from Canada - Snowdrift
Shackleton famously took a banjo player on his Antarctic voyages, to keep up the morale of the explorers in his crew. Apparently his banjo player once kept a group of stranded sailors (who were living in a tent and eating penguins for a month) from killing one another (perhaps their collective anger was given an easy target by the banjo).

David Francey - 'Late Edition' album launch
Hugh’s Room, one of the bigger small listening rooms in Toronto, is packed tonight - and will be again tomorrow - for this two night album launch event that kicks off a 45-date Canadian tour for Francey and accompanists Chris Coole and Mark Westberg. Francey will be touring the UK in 2012

David Francey Interview
Since leaving a life of working in construction and recording Torn Screen Door in 1999, Scottish-born Canadian David Francey is recognized as one of today’s finest singer-songwriters. He has won JUNO and SOCAN awards in his home country and has just released his new album Late Edition. I caught up with him between the launch show in Toronto and the start of his tour to promote the record to ask him a few quick questions for Spiral Earth.

Letter From Canada - (Haunted) House Concerts
By way of prelude, warm-up and fundraiser for the tour of Western Canada I am about to embark upon with Joanna Chapman-Smith we recently played a house concert in Toronto to a very warm, tiny and perfectly formed crowd in a Cabbage Town living room. I have found myself thinking again about this humblest of show formats as rehearsals have wound up and we have headed out for a tour which is to begin with a run of shows that take this idea to a new extreme.