PuttPutz:

Wow - thank you Eniko ... that is very kind of you to offer to do that.  The wait is gonna kill me, but what choice do I have :)

Do you know if I just need to enter an email address in my profile, so that you can PM an address of where to send you a cheque?  (I think a cheque is better than cash in the mail, and I'll include extra for the return postage.)

Thank you again!  If you ever need anything from Calgary, I'm your girl :)

PuttPutz, to send a PM, just click on Eniiko76 above Eniko's avartar. That takes you to her Profile & then click on Send Private Message.

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Keep it simple

In the middle of the night
We keep sending little kites
Until a little light gets through ~ Patty Griffin

F*ck it, I'm off to the river
Just get me outta here ~ D. Bentall

The Englishes picked up Bazil's cd for me at the London show and it arrived yesterday.  I really wasn't sure I would like it as I don't consider myself a big country fan but boy was I surprised.  It is old country and it is all country and I love it.   In the last 24 hour hours I have listned to it five or six times.  Nobody is more surprised by this than me.  Well worth the $20 in my opinion. 

I really enjoyed the stories shared in the liner notes.  The home he grew up in sounds like it would have been a wonderful place to hang out and listen to great music. 

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Greg Keelor met Jim Cuddy and then I met you people. Serendipity is a marvellous thing.


"I guess I don't know if I believe in God but
I know a song can make you feel good once
in a while." ~Greg Keelor~

Thank you for the info Sammie - this is all very new for me  :)

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No way that I can fake it
this times got to be real - JC

Don't worry about it, PuttPutz. My return address will be on the envelope you get the cd in. :o) DOn't send anything yet because what if - Heaven forbid! ;) - they run out of cd's. :p

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Love and understanding are the best answers I've heard yet.


"I love winter, I love snow. I can't get enough of the stuff. For me there's sort of a serenity to it. I like the silence of winter, the way it's just hushed." -GK

Yikes!  Bite your tongue!  Ok, well thank you again, and if this works, I totally promise I will send you the money right away.  And also, perhaps the CD will become available soon on the website, which would probably make life simpler for many.

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No way that I can fake it
this times got to be real - JC

PuttPutz is correct: our first shipment of Bazil's CD has been ordered and we're just waiting for them to arrive at the warehouse before we put it on sale. Should be available very soon!

PuttPutz:

Yikes!  Bite your tongue!  Ok, well thank you again, and if this works, I totally promise I will send you the money right away.  And also, perhaps the CD will become available soon on the website, which would probably make life simpler for many.

I know it's a terrible thought, but what if it's a limited edition like Blue Movies? lmao

If you don't know what I am refering to, then go watch our beloved Mr. Keelor's introduction to above-mentioned VHS. ;)

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Love and understanding are the best answers I've heard yet.


"I love winter, I love snow. I can't get enough of the stuff. For me there's sort of a serenity to it. I like the silence of winter, the way it's just hushed." -GK

Aaron:

PuttPutz is correct: our first shipment of Bazil's CD has been ordered and we're just waiting for them to arrive at the warehouse before we put it on sale. Should be available very soon!

Well that's good news, Aaron! Thanks for letting us know.

PuttPutz: I would just say wait and see how much it costs on the web site. I actually wanted to order a hoodie because I regret not getting one at the Ottawa show, but it is more expensive on the site, and if you factor in shipping, I'm better off waiting for the Belleville show. But it's up to you. You may not want to wait if you can get the cd faster online. My offer still stands, either way. :o)

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Love and understanding are the best answers I've heard yet.


"I love winter, I love snow. I can't get enough of the stuff. For me there's sort of a serenity to it. I like the silence of winter, the way it's just hushed." -GK

Will do.  Thanks again for your kindness.  Ok, now I'm off to investigate the Blue Movie (??) reference!

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No way that I can fake it
this times got to be real - JC

LOL Enjoy it, my new friend! :o)

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Love and understanding are the best answers I've heard yet.


"I love winter, I love snow. I can't get enough of the stuff. For me there's sort of a serenity to it. I like the silence of winter, the way it's just hushed." -GK

Photo/ERIN HATFIELD

Bazil Donovan, known for playing bass wih Canadian greats Blue Rodeo, has recently released his first solo recording.Blue Rodeo bassist's memories of mid-day country music gives rise to his first solo recording

BY ERIN HATFIELD
February 21, 2008 12:56 PM
 

Bazil Donovan picks up his 1930s Gibson guitar, presses his fingers down and starts to strum.

"From singing sweet love songs to cryin' the blues, it goes from so good... to so bad... so soon," he sings.

The bass in his voice, much like that of the instrument this Toronto musician has been made famous for, resonates through the floor of his crimson kitchen in Queen West.

During the years Donovan, 52, the bass player for Canadian greats Blue Rodeo, has lent his talents to countless artists like Justin Rutledge, Oh Susanna, Jim Bryson and Luke Doucet.

But, Matinee is his first solo album and it's a treasury of country standards - songs of lost love and heartache like 'Fifteen Years Ago' and 'Streets of Baltimore' - that made their roots in Dovovan's heart years ago.

The eldest of two sons in a traditional East Coast family living in Parkdale, music was more then background noise, in Donovan's world.

"All my uncles played guitar and we used to have big kitchen parties," he said. "Every weekend, when they finished work they would get together and the sing-along would begin."

It wasn't East Coast Celtic music, but Elvis Presley, Fats Domino and Chuck Berry.

"My uncle would sing, 'I found my thrill on Blueberry Hill,' every weekend," Donovan said. "But they mainly played country music, like Hank Williams, because my dad loved it so much."

In his three uncles on his mother's side Donovan had his musical education covered. The youngest, Hermie, was into rock 'n' roll and sang Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers. Victor was into the old-time songs like 'Beautiful Brown Eyes' while George was more into the country music of Hank Snow and George Jones.

When Donovan was old enough and sufficiently interested in joining the family carouse he learned to play his uncles' brand of music, even though he preferred The Beatles' 'Norwegian Wood'.

Learning to play those three-chord country songs with his uncles provided the footing for a long and distinguished career in music.

He fell into bass playing, quite consequentially, when his high school band couldn't find a steady player.

"My friend Andre said to me one day, 'Why don't you just play the bass, it would be so much easier because then we could have a band'," Donovan said, adding that is just what he did.

Around this time he had a girlfriend who was a singer and played country gigs downtown and one night he ended up getting tossed on stage with her. The regular bass player was a paramedic and got called away, so Dononvan filled in. This set of circumstances led him into country music and because he had heard enough of it growing up he knew exactly how to play it.

"When I started to play country music Toronto had a huge country music scene," he said. "All the bars along Queen Street, including the Drake and the Gladstone, most of the ones that are still there and some that aren't - the Parkdale Tavern, The Elmgrove and the Edgewater, basically from one end of Queen Street to the other."

He played with different country combos of the day like Cliff Carroll and the Hitchhikers, Chef Adams Band and Artie McLaren. Everyone played more or less the same songs, he said.

"The years that I played there I don't think I missed playing with anyone. There wasn't a musician on the circuit that I didn't end up playing a couple of weeks with."

It was the early 1970s and Toronto was a very Presbyterian town at the time, Donovan recalled, and Sunday's were dry. Bars had bands six nights a week, Monday to Friday, and on Saturday they had a matinee.

"People would go out shopping in the afternoon and then they would stop in and catch the matinee," Donovan said.

It was also the show that the regular singer sometimes skipped or weren't willing to play.

"The guy who sang six nights a week, he'd get tired of singing those songs and he'd say why don't you sing one," Donovan said. "Those matinees forced me to be a singer, otherwise I don't know if I ever would have learned to sing."

The songs he learned kept resurfacing during the years, whether it be on stage with Blue Rodeo or on a bus. People started to encourage him to make a record of them.

"This album is a bass player making his own record," he said. "I'm a novice when it comes to singing."

The making of Matinee began in 2004 with Donovan's good friends who are also very good country musicians - guitarist David Baxter, Michelle Joseph on drums, Burke Carroll on pedal steel guitar and Bob Packwood on piano.

"We basically recorded the album in three days and then I started bringing in guest vocalists like Justin Rutledge, Damhnait Doyle, Lori Yates, guitarist Travis Good, one of the best guitarists in the city," Donovan said. "I brought in Greg Keelor on acoustic guitar and Jim Cuddy in to sing all the harmony because Jim has the best harmony voice of anyone I know."

By 2005 he left it to sit. He would go into the Woodshed Studio in Toronto's east end, once in a while and work on vocals.

"I kind of lost interest for a while because I hated my voice," he said. "I would listen back and think, 'it's a good thing I learned to play the bass.' But, everyone said I was obligated to finish it. So I finished it."

The songs chosen for the album span four decades. They are all songs he said he's known for or songs that have moved him in some way.

Then there are the songs that Donovan had little choice in including, like 'Little Old Wine Drinker Me', 'I Got Stoned and I Missed It' and 'Stage Door', all tunes he's been know to sing with Blue Rodeo.

"The people who are going to buy my record and the people who are going to listen to my record, 99.9 per cent of them are going to be Blue Rodeo fans... I couldn't ignore that," he said. "I wanted to show my roots and where I came from, but I knew there would be expectations for certain songs."

Donovan's album is available at www.bluerodeo.com.

http://www.insidetoronto.ca/parkdale/article/41976

That was cool!!  Something about good ol Baz and where he came from.

Thanks for that article, Lori!

If Jim ever puts out an ad for an assistant to help him manage the Blue Rodeo Archives, I'll give you a letter of reference. You really have a knack for finding this stuff!

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Love and understanding are the best answers I've heard yet.


"I love winter, I love snow. I can't get enough of the stuff. For me there's sort of a serenity to it. I like the silence of winter, the way it's just hushed." -GK

btw, for those of you who haven't had a chance to see the album cover, it's in the picture, on the piano behind Bazil. :)

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Love and understanding are the best answers I've heard yet.


"I love winter, I love snow. I can't get enough of the stuff. For me there's sort of a serenity to it. I like the silence of winter, the way it's just hushed." -GK

 Thanks lori, Thats an interesting article. He looks so casual in that picture!

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Summer Girls they sure are fun, get so Golden in the sun that they could block out any other thought.