Category Archives: geoff arsenault

Saturday 13th September 2014 – DAY FOUR OF THE HARVEST JAZZ AND BLUES FESTIVAL

Little did I know it last night, with everything being so quiet and peaceful where I had parked last night, that the tents around me were packed full of infants.

When I’m in Canada, I’m usually up quite early – the alarm goes off at 06:30 and I’m usually awake long before that, but these kids beat me easily to the draw. It’s a good job that I wasn’t planning on a lie-in this morning.

I dashed through the photos and the texts and then set off for the Tim Hortons on the edge of Fredericton to upload everything to the web, stopping off at the petrol station at Keswick where fuel is just 122.9 cents per litre.

I wandered up to Value Village to see whether they had anything in the line of a new tote bag to replace the one where the zip has broken and sure enough, the place did me proud. There was a new $50 rucksack in there at just $12.99. Not quite the cavernous one that I was hoping to find but it’s certainly bigger than anything else that I might find at that price.

Parking at Fredericton was horrendous today. It took me ages to find somewhere that was near the city centre, and there was still a long walk into town. Still, needs must when the devil drives, I suppose.

mike peters busker harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canada september 2014First person whom I stumble upon is Mike Peters. He’s had a promotion this year, playing at the CBC busking spot in the centre of town. You may well recall that last year he was playing stuck around the back of everywhere by the footbridge over the by-pass.

I’m not quite sure where he will go from here, but it’s a shame, if not a tragedy, that he can’t be given a place as a support act at one of the more formal venues. He’s streets better than some of the performers we’ve seen on there.

double dutch hutch officers square harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canada september 2014Here at the Officers Square, this is Double Dutch Hutch whom we have seen before. I’m not sure when but it might have been 2011, I reckon. I just caught the tail-end of their show and saw them perform Londa Ronstadt’s "You’re No Good" and Bob Dylan’s "Mr Tambourine Man" and I wish that I had caught some more of them too because I really enjoyed their music.

And as for his team of go-go dancers, then good luck to them, and good luck to him too.

morgan davis rick fines harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canada september 2014Carrying on into the Mojo Tent, we have Morgan Davis on stage. He was at the Officers Square – was it yesterday? He had Rick Fines with him today and we met him too in 2011 – I remember speaking to him and the bassist whom he had with him at the time, a female bassist whose name I have also forgotten but who I remember was pretty good.

Bassist tonight is Alex Fraser, and we have of course the famous Jeff Arsenault on drums.

morgan davis rick fines harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canada september 2014With Morgan Davis and Rick Fines together on stage you don’t need to say too much about their performance do you? Traditional simple home-spun blues, and played to perfection too, especially when it’s backed by Alex and Jeff.

It’s a shame that many of the performers here can’t keep things simple and basic. There’s quite a place for this kind of simplicity here at the Festival

revivalists harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canada september 2014These are the Revivalists and it’s much easier sitting on top of the bleachers at the back of the marquee with the big telephoto lens. And another Gibson bass as well.

and all that I can say is that I’m really sorry that I missed most of their set because I was quite enjoying what I heard. They finished with the old Blues Brothers standard “Somebody to Love” and did quite a good job of it too.

chris robinson brotherhood harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canada september 2014The Chris Robinson Brotherhood is another Southern Rock band. The musicians are somewhat under-rehearsed but they have the crowd bouncing around as well and this is going to be a good concert if they can keep going like this

So as well as a very competent moog synthesizer player we had a duelling guitar solo right at the end just like most Southern bands and it was really good. The drummer is excellent too but I did notice that he was counting the bars as he was playing.

But the sad thing about all of this is that with not having been to bed until long after midnight, and waking up at 06:00 to do the photos and the notes, I’m crashing out here, even in the middle of a rock concert and so in the end it’s all too much and I head back to the car to crash out there.

harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick government offices canada september 2014I’d parked the car near to the Government Offices in Fredericton and as I passed, I noticed a woman setting up a tripod to photograph the floodlit building. I fell in with her and we had quite a chat about all kinds of things.

I realised that I don’t actually have a decent night photograph of the building and so while I was talking, I added one to my collection.

And then I hit the road

And I’ve been spending more of my money today, more of which anon

Friday 12th September 2014 – DAY THREE OF THE HARVEST JAZZ AND BLUES FESTIVAL

Mind you, it might not have been, for I’d been on my travels again during the night.

I’d been working for years in an office and was to retire in a couple of days. I’d several files on a shelf behind me where they had been for several years, files that I hadn’t been able to deal with. I was planning to surreptitiously shred them so that no-one would find them. It did occur to me that I could simply leave them and it wouldn’t make any difference as I wouldn’t be there to face the consequences, but my pride wouldn’t let me do that.

There were also some items hanging on a chain link fence and they needed to be removed too, and Nerina put in an appearance to lend me a hand.

On that note, I awoke to something of a chill, but also to a little sunshine. The weather had improved considerably during the night, but there was quite a strong wind blowing.

There was so much work to do from yesterday so I had to press on without stopping to make a coffee – I could fuel up at a Tim Horton’s when I upload everything to the internet. However it took a while to make it to Tim Horton’s as I came across a Salvation Army thrift shop (but no books or CDs for me) and then went shopping in the Atlantic Superstore.

Once I’d had the coffee and done the work, it was into town as things were starting early today.

Alex Bailey Swing Band harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canada september 2014This is the Alex Bailey Swing Band apparently, although there wasn’t a swing in sight, no matter how much all of the children here would have loved to have been on it. Playing in the fine weather on the free stage at Officers Square to a contented crowd sitting in the sunshine.

For me though, the music didn’t do much to warm me up as Jazz isn’t really my thing and so I wandered off to see whatever else I could find.

kill chicago harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canada september 2014This is a group called Kill Chicago. They were featuring at the Barracks Tent, taking part in the Galaxie Rising Stars Showcase.

They were another group that blew hot and cold as well – sometimes some of their stuff was quite enjoyable and at other times it didn’t appeal to me. Still, I have to admit that i’m getting old and it’s going to be very rare that a group of musicians 30 and 40 years younger than me would play music that would keep me riveted in my seat.

Technically though, there wasn’t much wrong with them, and that’s the kind of thing that is always worth admiring.

morgan davis harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canada september 2014Back on the Free Stage at Officers Square we had Morgan Davis and his long-time drummer Jeff Arsenault. They are Festival regulars although it’s a shame to see them relegated to a Free Stage in an early afternoon rather than as a support act in a marquee venue. Sign of the times, I suppose. And shame as it is to say it, I can’t remember the name of the bassist, whom I have met before.

His set was exactly what you would expect it to be – a very competent and talented set of home-spun blues. And I did like his reference to the “United Snakes of America”.

Gord Downie, The Sadies and The Conquering Sun harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canada september 2014First up this evening in the Blues Tent was, at long last, a real Blues performer. Gord Downie, The Sadies and The Conquering Sun. And that was a belting, powerhouse performance, well worth the wait for this. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this performance.

He had the correct number of musicians on the stage too – with no keyboards, no horns and no harmonica either, and his lead guitarist was one of the best that I have heard in years as well. During one track he played a lengthy solo right up at the top end of the scale of his guitar and that somehow found its way into my bones.

Gord Downie, The Sadies and The Conquering Sun harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canada september 2014Downie was a showman and a performer if ever there was one too, and he was also a few other things besides, but we won’t go into them on these pages.

If I had been writing these notes 30 years or so ago I would have described this as an outrageously camp performance, but I’m not so sure that these terms are acceptable these days. I will have to think of another way to express exactly what I mean.

Gord Downie, The Sadies and The Conquering Sun harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canada september 2014Their performance finished with a high-energy punk number, and having seen a few of these here this last couple of days, all I can say is that Downie and his bands put these other punk musicians to shame and if punk music had been played as he and his band played it, it would never have been classed as the nadir of performing music.

What an amazing concert. I really enjoyed this set, so it’s “hats off” to Gord Downie, who cheered me up immensely and restored my faith in the festival. But it was sad to see so few people enjoying this concert with me.

arlens harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canada september 2014This is a busking group out there on the free stage at the Fredericton Tourist Information Office and I’ve heard worse than these too. They are called the Arlens, I think.

I can think of many worse ways to pass a free half-hour of my time. The audience enjoyed it anyway, boogie-ing about even if the music was a little hit-and-miss. As for the singer though, well, he must have been having an off-day I reckon.

blackberry smoke harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canada september 2014Shame as it is to say it, I was somewhat disappointed by Blackberry Smoke.

However this was entirely due to the video that I had seen of one of their live performances, and that was something quite extraordinary, but then as a promotional item they would always use the best publicity available and I’m fully aware of that kind of thing, so I was expecting it.

So perhaps I wasn’t really disappointed after all.

blackberry smoke harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canada september 2014What I wasn’t expecting though was the tirade launched from the stage about the Canadian Customs and Border Control. It seems that they have had the same issues with them that I have been having.

Had I caught the group unawares, I would have been enthralled by what I had seen because as a Southern Rock jam-band (from Atlanta in Georgia apparently, which should come as no surprise to anyone), they might not have been in the same class as The Outlaws or Widespread Panic, but they would be by far and away the best band that I would ever likely to catch a l’improviste.

gibson bass guitar blackberry smoke harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canada september 2014And a Gibson bass too. What bliss! I was beginning to think that I was the only bassist in the world still to be playing one.

They did the track about “One More Silver Dollar” – the Allman Brothers one – and that involved a jam that went on for about three hours (and quite right too – my only complaint being that it didn’t go on for four hours). And somewhere along the line the managed to fit in a sample of “When the Levee Breaks” – the old Led Zeppelin show-closer.

blackberry smoke harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canada september 2014All in all, I enjoyed this show too. It did drag a little in the middle but when they did break out into a jam solo here and there it lifted my spirits again. “Naked self-indulgence” I hear you say, and even if it might be, ask me if I care. I’d go along to see these again.

One thing that I will be doing as soon as I return home, whenever that might be, will be to try to track down a live performance somewhere to use on the radio.

blues traveler harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canada september 2014If you have read my remarks on harmonicas, you would be forgiven for thinking that I hate the instrument. But that’s not really so. What I hate about it is
1) Almost every Blues musician thinks that it’s an essential part of the blues, and no blues can ever be performed without it.
2) Most harmonica players don’t know how to play the instrument.

So how will we get on with Blues Traveler, who is really a harmonica soloist with a few vocals here and there and a backing band?

blues traveler harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canada september 2014The answer to that is that he’s the only blues musician who knows how to play it properly, and when I noticed that his bassist had a collection of 5-string basses on stage (unfortunately, all Fenders but you can’t legislate for that) I suspected that this could be an excellent performance with much more to the music than just the harmonica.

And I was right too. This was a stunning performance. We did, of course, have “Canadian Rose” – that was odds-on, wasn’t it? And we had a magnificent keyboards solo during one of the tracks. But as for the harmonica playing, well everyone else might just simply throw away their harmonicas for they will never ever be able to reproduce the sounds that came out of this one. It’s a waste of time trying.

blues traveler harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canada september 2014The net result of all of this is that with Gord Downie and His Mates, Blackberry Smoke and Blues Traveler, I’ve had one of the best night’s entertainments that I have ever had, and I was walking on air on the way back to the Dodge, long after my usual bedtime.

Only downside of the day was that when I returned to the camp site I discovered that someone has pinched my spec and was having a barbecue there. I wasn’t in the mood for confrontation and so I cleared off and found another pitch somewhere else.

Friday 13th September 2013 – IT WAS THE DRIVING, POUNDING RAIN …

… that awoke me this morning. Things aren’t looking so good for the Festival. Still, the show must go on I suppose.

And no, this isn’t a misprint with me copying from yesterday or the day before either – it’s just an exact replica of what has happened this morning. The same as yesterday, and the day before.

deer mactaquac provincial parkAfter coffee and breakfast and updating the notes and images etc, I set off through the driving rainstorm for town. We didn’t get far though because there was a deputation at the gate. It seems that Strawberry Moose is in great demand again – not for his charm, wit and eloquence, but the first of this year’s paternity orders has arrived

I told him that this year he will have to take precautions, but he told me that he always checks to see if her parents are asleep, and he puts vaseline on the living room door knob.

flooding Saint John River near Fredericton New BrunswickThis weather though is completely out of hand. One of the ways into town follows the nothern shore of the Saint John River and there are several opportunities to stop and take a look at how things are doing. As you can see, they aren’t doing so well right now.

The river has burst its banks in several places, which is hardly a surprise given all of the rain that we’ve been having and if the rain carries on it can only get worse, and that’s a depressing thought. Luckily I’m quite happy in my Dodge. This is a splendid way to have a holiday, all happily installed in here

Into town and shopping, and running a few errands as I have plenty to do, and then off for the music. Today opened at the Barracks tent and the first artist was one of these rap artists. Not my thing at all of course – in fact I reckon that this is another spelling mistake and there’s a letter missing off the front of that name.

I went off to eat some food instead because I was in a rush. The legendary Canned Heat are playing in an hour or so and guess what?

Our Hero has been granted a photography permit for the show!

Thom Swift Playhouse Theatre harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton september 13 2013First onstage was Thom Swift from Halifax and I’m sure that he was the opening act when I saw Taj Mahal here two years ago. There was him, Geoff Arsenault on drums (and what a magnificent drummer he is) and Brian Bourne playing a weird machine that I later worked out seemed to be the modern equivalent of a double-neck guitar – bass and lead in the same instrument. Anyway he certainly knew how to play it.

Thom Swift was in a different class completely than anyone else that we have seen before – not a rockin’ blues performer like The Record Company but nevertheless extremely competent. No wonder that he was chosen to open up for Canned Heat.

canned heat playhouse theatre harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton september 13 2013However, onto the stage came the legendary Canned Heat – opening act for Woodstock 1969 so we are told although this isn’t strictly true as Richie Havens was first on stage.

Nevertheless, nit-picking apart, their performance was a stunning one. Considering how old they are, they gave it everything they had got and that was plenty. Everyone in the audience was up on their feet by the time the curtain came down.

Canned Heat are definitely the stars of the Festival so far although I was puzzled to see why they only have fourth place on the list of artists. Probably because many people have short memories and can’t recall the good-yime days of the late 60s and early70s

canned heat playhouse theatre harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton september 13 2013But never mind the stars of the Festival. The highlight for me was being awarded a photography permit – one of only 5 issued – to photograph the band and I shall wear the permit to bed every night.

I just hope that, given the primitive equipment that I have compared to many other photographers, my photos have done justice to the performance. The permits were only for the first three songs and so I only have about 50 photos of the band and if you would like to see them, then you need to look at my web page of the event, whichis now on line

garrett mason keith hallett harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton september 13 2013I’d missed most of Garrett Mason and Keith Hallett’s show at the Hoodoo House but they are playing again tomorrow night and so, unless the dam upriver from the city overflows and we are all swept away in a tidal carnage, I’ll be there to see them again.

What I caught of their show was excellent and of the “ordinary” bands here, they have now moved into first place on my preferred list of artists, overtaking The Record Company and Steve Strongman.

Anyway, back to the campsite in the driving rain just like last night, and now I find myself caked in mud just like back home

. This is starting to become depressing. It’s a good job that I have the music.

Saturday 17th September 2011 – I HAVE SAID …

“on many occasions too” – ed … that if I were to live around here, the vehicle that I would choose would be an old Land Rover.

old series land rover keswick new brunswick canadaAnd not just any old Land Rover either. Not a Defender and not a 90 or 110 either but a “series” Land Rover with leaf springs and other prehistoric fittings that I find so attractive.

And sure enough, here we are. A Series Land Rover (I can’t tell if it’s a 2A or a 3 but at a guess I would say that it’s a Series 3) complete with snowplough parked up at the back of someone’s house. A new galvanised chassis underneath that and a little tidying-up of the bodywork and you would have something that would last for 100 years.

burpee drilling keswick new brunswick canadaHere’s an interesting sign. I’ve also found a Burpee Drive and a few other Burpee things, so it might be a common local surname.

My interest in this name is that there was a “Burpee” – in fact, a Pilot Officer Lewis Burpee of the Royal Canadian Air Force who flew Lancaster ED-865 “AJ-S” on Operation Chastise “the Dambusters Raid” and was lost with all of his crew near the Gilze-Rijen night-fighter airfield in the Netherlands

But I’m getting ahead of myself here. There are a couple of garage sales around here and I’ve stocked up on a couple of tools and a couple of books, including one on how to build a typical Canadian wooden building. I’m really making progress here

old burial ground fredericton new brunswick canadaParking is difficult here on Saturdays but I find a place near the Historic Burial Ground of Fredericton. This is where you will find the early pioneer settlers, United Empire Loyalists, civic leaders, visiting provincial dignitaries and the like.

And also the unmarked graves, just in front of me, of British soldiers who died while serving at the barracks in the city between 1784 and 1869

skateboarder queen street fredericton new brunswick canadaI went off into the town to see what was happening. And with Queen Street being closed off to traffic, we have a pile of street entertainers – all kinds of things happening.

One thing was some kind of informal skateboarding competition with teenagers leaping over a few jumps and, a little further down the street, an old car. You can see that there was quite a crowd watching the entertainment, and it certainly was entertaining.

I had a chat with a couple of the skateboarders later and, unfortunately, I can’t find the notes that I took. Did I mention that the batteries went flat in my dictaphone and I had left the spares in the Dodge?

And going all the way back to the Dodge to pick up my spare batteries, I had the shock of my life.

citroen 2CV fredericton new brunswick canadaDespite being the symbol of the trendy hippy-set of Europe in the 1970s and 80s, the 2CV had a dreadful reputation for exhaust emissions and I never expected to see one on the roads in North America.

However a few were actually sold in North America and whatever reached Canada didn’t last long due to the wafer-thin bodywork being destroyed by the amount of salt on the roads in winter. So this is quite a rarity.

stakeboarders queen street fredericton new brunswick canadaI can now carry on with my wandering around the street entertainers down Queen Street and end up with the skateboarders again who seem to have moved on to have a go at leaping over the car that I mentioned earlier.

Many of the skateboarders don’t seem to be able to manage the leap, but credit to them because I wouldn’t want to do it, but this guy here does it in spades, so chapeau to him.

double dutch hutch harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canadaBy now the music has started and I’m drawn to the marquee un the Barracks Square to see what’s going on.

This is someone, or someones, by the name of Double Dutch Hutch who are competing in the Galaxie Rising Stars competition with the prize of playing at an international blues competition in Memphis, Tennessee in the New Year.

george street blues project harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canadaAnother band that is competing in this Galaxie Rising Stars competition is the George Street Blues Project, whom we met the other day … “yesterday, in fact” – ed … in the open air at Officers Square.

Highlight of their show was definitely a spirited rendition of the old William Bell number “Born Under A Bad Sign”, which echoed many of the lyrics written by Lightnin’ Slim in 1954 in “Bad Luck Blues” and made famous by Cream on Wheels Of Fire and which went down well with the crowd.

snooty fox morgan davis geoff arsenault drummer harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canadaHaving seen these before I went off for a wander and there at the back of a dimly-lit “Snooty Fox” I encountered Morgan Davis and Geoff Arsenault.

I had a chat to Morgan afterwards. It appears that he’s originally from Detroit and came to Canada in 1968. Probably too young to have been one of the people who found peace on Canadian rather than Swedish ground, and now he lives in Nova Scotia. And quite right too.

On my way to catch Taj Mahal I ended up chatting to quite a few different people, including a guy who was a sales rep for a Fibre-Optic system. He had quite a keen interest in all kinds of Renewable Energy and in the social situation in the UK – such as it is.

taj mahal harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canadaThis time, armed with a media pass, I could take photos of Taj Mahal, and so I did, much to the chagrin of a security guard who made a spirited grab for my camera until he saw my media pass.

I’ve never seen anyone go so quickly into reverse than I did just then. It was all rather amusing.

taj mahal harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canadaI enjoyed the concert, especially as they played “Good Morning Miss Brown” – an old blues staple that was part of our playlist with “Jack the Ripper” and “Orient Express” in the early 70s.

And I enjoyed his sense of humour too. He played some of his own compositions as well asa few old standards and generally took the mickey out of the audience “I recorded this song when ‘it’s squid-dipping time in Nova Scotia’ was top of the Canadian hit parade”.

7 string acoustic guitar t j wheeler harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canadaNow what do you notice about this acoustic guitar?

That’s right – it’s a seven-string guitar made by Eastman and I’ve never seen one of these before so I went off to have a chat with the musician, TJ Wheeler, after the concert. Apparently most musicians string it to A to use it as a seventh string for chords, but he has it strung to B and uses it to play walking bass notes while he’s playing a “normal” chord.

Not content with playing acoustic guitar and bass at the same time, he can play the kazoo too. I would have been confused a long while before this.

Still, they are all bizarre in New Hampshire, which is where he comes from. And his gob-iron player is Dan Robichaud who tells me that in his day job he’s an educator attached to the First Nation communities in New Brunswick.

thom swift harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canadaNext up was a guitarist called Thom Swift. He played a variety of different guitars, including this interesting 1930 National Steel guitar – and steel is the right word to use, because it is.

It has a built-in speaker in the front that resonates backwards into the body and the sound reverberates around and escapes out of the holes in the front. They were made for public performance in the days before electricity

thom swift harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canadaI quite enjoyed his act, as did the large crowd here in the Hoodoo House, even if he did spend a great deal of his time singing maudlin songs about his mother and his dog.

But isn’t that what the blues is all about? As for me, I regret very much going on the Prozac because I haven’t had the blues for years. I’m going to have to sort out my bass guitar and take up the music again.

rick fines female bassist harvest jazz and blues festival fredericton new brunswick canadaFinal act up on stage at the Hoodoo House tonight was Rick Fines, complete with a lady bassist and I’ll try to track them down too to find out her name, as I missed it (out getting a bag of chips at the Lebanese takeaway down the road) when they came on stage.

I quite enjoyed their act too – quite simple basic blues, but then what do you need more than that as entertainment? It’s possible to overcomplicate your music and play ten notes when one note is much more effective, isn’t it, Chris Squire and Jimi Hendrix?

And so having had a really good day out, and now that I’m thoroughly exhausted, having walked about 100 miles today, I’m off to bed.