Rich Brown Sounding Out For Freedom and Linda McRae Making Happy Trails

• Rich Brown will be releasing his third CD, Abeng, this coming Wednesday, October 21 at 8:30 pm  at the Lula Lounge 1585 Dundas West  with Rich Brown - bass/composition Luis Deniz - alto saxophone Kevin Turcotte - trumpet Stan Fomin - piano & keys Larnell Lewis - drums http://www.lula.ca/events/2015/oct/rich-brown-abeng.html He will be playing tracks and talking about this musical watershed at 5:30 in the Orbital Airspace

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  ``Abeng is a Twi word of the Akan people. It, the word and the concept, came from the area now known as Ghana on slave ships to Jamaica. When Africans/Akans ran off plantations, boats, or were left by Spaniard slave masters (defeated by the English) and headed for the hills, they carried the abeng in their hearts and minds. These Africans were now Maroons and fought a series of wars against the English to maintain their freedom. The Maroons sounded the abeng as a means of communicating between Maroon villages. It was like sounding off  "the British are coming, the British are coming." Because of this, the abeng (in the form of an animal horn or a conch shell), still represents Freedom." `Definition courtesy of http://consciouspen.blogspot.ca/

  
  

  Linda McRae is in town with a brand new disk, Shadow Trails, highlighting her clear-sighted songwriting and action-packed soloing by producer Steve Dawson. Drummer Gary Craig makes every tune a heart-rocker. 
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• Around 6:00. I will be playing a few tracks and talking to her live from the Folk Music Ontario conference, which is currently raging in the west end of Toronto.
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Winterfolk Cascades Through The Downtown Danforth In Toronto

Alfie Smith's solid blue kickoff ignited Toronto's 13th annual Winterfolk frolic Friday at Danforth and Broadview

The Heavyweights Brass Band stirred up a profound crisis of stomp and holler and then marched away into the night.

 

West coast roots hero David Essig applied a deft slide to his 12-string guitar, which he calls "the steam locomotive of the blues", educating and rousing a rapt audience.

The Jessica Stuart Few unpacked their jazz / folk / manga repertoire at Terrio's with a tight and trippy performance.

Rae Billing and Lynn Miles shared wisdom, wit and harmony yodelling with an afternoon audience at The Black Swan and Linda McRae provided a country quilt of stories and songs, ending with a singalong on "Be Your Own Light".

Noah Zacharin's fingerstyle embroidery decorated the afternoon for an amiable crowd at Dora Keough.

Kristine Schmitt busted homestyle rambles at Dora's evening showcase as Hotcha's Beverley and Howard, and chantistas Isabel Fryszberg and Clela Errington gave full frontal support.

 The O`Pears enchanted a room that was just about ready to hoot with elaborate harmonic ideas and original melodies of persuasive distinction.

Whoa Nelly popped fuses with their highly charged country swing and ballads.

And The Wanted gave us a hot chance for a Saturday night wail-along with 

These Boots Are Made For Walkin`, amongst other classics.

Photos by Paul & Kim Corby