BLUECiRASS CANADA THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE BLUEGRASS MUSIC ASSOCIATION OF CANADA Volume 5 Issue 4 October 2011 FEATURE ARTICLE RAV LEGERE AND ACOUSTIC HORIZON Page 1 WHAT"S INSIDE President's Message-Pg 3 Feature Article-Ray Legere and Acoustic Horizons Pg 4, to 7 Bands Information-Pages 8-13 Sally Creek Music Festival Notice-Page 14 Music Biz Article Page 16 Notice of Annual General Meeting-Page 17 Divorced From Reality Article-Page 19 Editor's Message-Page 19 Just a Bluegrass Wife-Pages 20 & 21 Manitoulin Festival & Special Olympics-Page 22 Advertising Rates Pg 24 Organizational Memberships -Pg 25 & 26 Website Enhancement Announcement-Pg 27 Membership Renewal Form Pg 27 Editor's Message - Leann Chadbourn In this issue I would like to welcome back our familiar writers, Gord DeVries, Gary Hubbard and Diana van Holten with their very interesting articles that I know you will enjoy. Also, I would bring to your attention a couple of new writers. Mike Page 2 Kirley, who has sent in an arti- cle entitled 'Divorced from Re- ality' and Wilson Moore who has provided two articles on Bluegrass News from the Eastern Provinces. BMAC welcomes any interest- ing articles or information rele- vant to Bluegrass and are hopeful to start receiving arti- cles from Coast to Coast. President Denis Chadbourn 705-776-7754 Vice-president Larry Johnston 519-576-9768 Secretary Leann Chadbourn 705-776-7754 Treasurer Roland Aucoin 905-635-1818 Directors at Large Gord deVries 519-668-0418 Donald Tarte 877-876-3369 Bill Blance 905-451-9077 Murray Hale 705-474-2217 With so many Bluegrass Associations and Clubs across Can- ada there truly is no shortage of news. Anyone willing to sub- mit an article, please contact me at lschadbourn@gmail.com . If you have a special cause that is near and dear to your heart, send us in a photo; let us know about it. And remem- ber, you can have your event posted for free at WWW BLU EGRASSCANADA. CA PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE Bluegrass Revolution In a world festering with corporate greed, and govern- ments selling out the environment for the sake of a buck, the grassroots music community is a beacon of light in these dark times . I am proud to be associated with blue- grass and the values it stands for. Perhaps it is time to start our own political movement. Vive la bluegrass re- volution! Opening my emails today, I received notification of a couple of bluegrass events . Both of therm were benefit concerts for very worthy causes. I am always amazed at the vast number of these invitations I receive. But why should I be surprised? I grew-up in the bluegrass com- munity, and know well the values it holds. What a ca- ring, sharing , giving community it is! There are many examples of this, and here are but a few. Artscan , under the direction of Carol Teal, collects instruments, and delivers them to first nation youth at risk, in remote communities. At the Eastern Canada Bluegrass Awards, various blue- grass associations present cheques to the Children's Wish Foundation, and the IWK Children's Telethon. Bluegrass festivals like Gerry & Fran Morgan's Conesto- ga Trail raise money for the Brantford General Hospital and Willett Hospital Foundation. The Manitoulin Blue- grass' inspiration is to raise money for the special olym- pic athletes. (Read more in this issue) When our band released it's debut CD, we didn't want it to be just all about us ... we wanted to get behind a good cause. When one DJ , (who shall remain nameless), complained to me that he was tired of bands riding the "I'm doing it for a good cause" bandwagon ... I took extreme umbrage with it. My email response consisted of only one question. "Would you prefer bands do it for vain, selfish, reasons???" Consequently, adopting a higher cause (above our own vanity and self-interest), gave us the drive and determina- tion to raise over $13 thousand dollars for cancer charity, with the sales from that album. We have helped numerous people and organizations with it. My two daughters, Emily and Juleann, who are in the band, were pre-teens at the time, and they understood that it was not about us. It is my profound belief that we lead by example, and perhaps one day, they will too. Whether it is raising money for victims of a house fire, or for a church fundraiser, or helping a friend with health issues .. . or even for political events ... the list of causes, that bluegrassers raise money for, is endless. Getting together to play music, not for vanity or for fame, but ra- ther for loftier reasons, gives deeper meaning to our mu- sic. Using music as an (forgive the pun) instrument to effect change, has been popular throughout the ages. The pay-off we receive, although often intangible, is im- mensly gratifying. Most Canadians generally have the ability to put oursel- ves in the proverbial shoes of others. By picturing our- selves in that person's situaton, we thereby find com- passion for others,. This attitude of sharing and caring, reaches across our country, and around the world. That is why Canadians maintain a moderately good internatio- nal image. We have endeared ourselves to the world at large, by virtue of our generosity. It all starts on a gras- sroots level. So hey, step-up and just do it! Join our grassroots politi- cal movement. Unite, and give of your talents, whatever they may be. What kind of a difference can you make? Together, we can heal this broken world. Vive la blue- grass revolution! Yours from Bluegrass Central, Denis Chadbourn Page 3 Ray Legere and Acoustic Horizon By Gord De Vries never be able to play the fiddle, I'll have to French, but when he learned an English be satisfied with the mandolin. so after the bluegrass song, he was word for word, pro- mandolin, I took up the guitar, and the bass, nunciation was perfect, because he didn't and eventually, when five years later, I was want to be embarrassed about pronouncing fifteen, I learned to play the fiddle a little bit, incorrectly. Yeah, we had a great band, but that was after my grandmother passed Roger Vautour as well, he was a nice away. I'd made the promise, when she Scruggs style banjo player, he moved out passed away, I'd pick up the fiddle and learn west shortly after that, and then Frank how to play it, (a little bit) .. It is my favorite Doody took his spot. That's when I started instrument, the fiddle, it's what I've been making a living with, so I guess I'd better keep it as my main instrument for now. And that's how I got into music, except that I caught up with Ray Legere in June 2011, at my mother did give me some piano lessons the Tottenham Bluegrass Festival in Totten- picking a lot with Frank; we would be the last ones up at the jam sessions at the festi- vals, you know, buy Kentucky Fried Chicken, that would last us a weekend, there was no ecoli back then (laughs), so we got a lot of playing in and that's when I met Carl ham, Ontario. His band "Acoustic Horizon" was one of the featured groups this year. With his regular sidekick, Frank Doody on banjo and soulful vocals, guests Richard Bourque on guitar and Andy Ball (of Lone- some River Band fame) on bass, the band when I was nine, and showed me what notes were. Forever, I was in the car, singing along with Merle Haggard songs that Dad listened to and Flatt & Scruggs and we made a lot of trips to Cape Breton and Hali- fax, with his work and so, that's how I got into the music business. Really, I just loved it and I knew I was going to play music for a was "hotter than one of June Carter's pepper sprouts!'. I managed to comer Ray for this living. After high school, I was going to go interview just a short time before he was due down to the States, meet all my idols, play to get back on stage for a set. music for a living, but my father said I should probably get an education first, so I Goodman. I was at one of these house par- ties and he would come out to this "Red Lion Tavern" where we would play every weekend and Saturday afternoon,. He was learning to play the banjo and we got to play some. He was actually not as serious about it as I was, cause I knew I wanted to make my living at playing music, even at that young age, and Carl said "This is a hobby, this is a release from my day job, I just want to have fun, have a few beers, you know .. ". Some of those parties, of course, they got a little ob- Gord: To start this interview, Ray, would you just recount some of your past history, how you got into playing music and so on? went to community college and took a two noxious with the drinking and stuff and I year course in electronics, which did eventu- would get a little upset at that, but later on, ally help, in putting together my studio, un- Ray: Well my past history, getting into mu- derstanding the electronic part of signal sic. was always from my father's playing. He paths and things. played everything in the book, including the when he moved to Ontario, he was taking it really serious, trying to put together a nice group, which he did, he put together a bunch electric instruments, drums and saxophone, Gord: So here you are, the young, budding of different bluegrass groups, performed a but besides those instruments, he was the electronics technician. Carl ( ed note: Carl lot, recorded a lot, got heavy into the song- first 5-string banjo player in the Maritimes Goodman) had mentioned, he met you first writing, which he did very well. I know and played mandolin and fiddle and he was the hit at the parties. When he had us kids (he had 5) he had to stop playing music and start making a living, so he worked at CN (the CNR hump yard) , but he got me on mandolin when I was 10 years old and his mother said if I learned a tune on the man do- lin she'd buy me a mandolin, so that's how I got my first mandolin. I learned a tune, bor- rowed a mandolin from a friend, Dad's friend, and learned a mandolin tune; she bought me a mandolin. She said the same thing, if you learn a tune on the fiddle, in Moncton and you were playing with a band called "Mountain ..... Ray: Yeah, "Mountain Meadow". This fel- low I knew, Lee Allward, he was putting together a bluegrass band and I was only, I believe 15, maybe 14, when he approached me, approached my Dad first, you know, said "Do you think it would be OK? We love his playing, he plays great for his age and I think it would be good for him to get into a band situation, learn to sing some and learn about harmonies and all that", so Lee All ward recruited myself and another which was her favorite instrument, she'd buy youngster from down around Rogersville me a fiddle. And every time I'd pick up the fiddle, it was just too hard. I just figured I'd Page 4 way Jean-Marc Doiron, who couldn't speak one phrase of English. He was totally Ralph Stanley and Doyle Lawson recorded one. Carl was a good talent, really good solid banjo playing, so when he approached me about these Kitchen Parties, it reminded us both about back then, when we were do- ing the kitchen parties in the Maritimes, about how nice the people were and appre- ciative of the music and so that's what he wanted to bring onto the stage, was a kitchen party, not totally bluegrass oriented, but he knew the musicians that he wanted to get that would be able to back up the main cen- ter, in their style of music and that's what we tried to bring to the stage. Not necessarily a bluegrass show but a nice show with a home kitchen party atmosphere. Gord: Well, we're going to see if that con - than the bluegrass world that I was part of our fiddle, I know Tony will let you play cept will work again, later this September. and I knew that if I was going to make a with him as soon as he hears one lick" . Now the group "Acoustic Horizon'~ is that living at it, that I would have to progress Jimmie told Tony about me and I drove the first group you have headed? and learn other music than just bluegrass. through a snowstorm to get there . It was Ray: I moved down to the States, after I went to the tech, and I did meet up with all my idols, like David Grisman, Tony Rice, Jerry Douglas, I met them all and got to play with some really nice groups, Dan and Stan Tyminski, a brother team with "The Green Mountain Bluegrass", (Dan went on to play Ray Legere And Acoustic Horizon with "Lonesome River Band", now he's with At that time I idolized Mark O'Connor, eve- Alison Krauss), that was a great band to be rything Mark did, I wanted to just like Mark, in . Everyone was young, hot pickers, and but as soon as I met Jim Buchanan, he said January, and after the first show, Tony came up to me and said" Listen, I have this tour-it' s a five week tour, but I have an- other fiddler joining me in weeks, do you want to do the first two weeks?" I said "for sure". He hired me for the two weeks, and if it wasn 't for Alison Krauss being asked to do the last three weeks, I would have had the five week tour. But, I got to meet up with Alison, and actually, it was at that time I got to play her fiddle and I fell in love with dedicated - we drove all over the country. "Well you know, there's other players out it. I told her, " if you ever need to get rid of there, other than Mark O'Connor" . He was- this fiddle, I'd appreciate it if you would Gr"" Mount.i n aov•, US6 D.-v• &evln•, o.-n fymlr1•~j . Scott Gr•• n•, Sun: Tymln•ll 1nd "ay L•911r• n't downgrading Mark, he just wanted in- troduce me to others like the Stephane Greppellis' s of the world, all the classical players of the world. He introduced me to Jascha Heifetz, I think the most amazing, incredible classical violinist in the world. So, from then, I just started watching and listening to as many videos as I could get a hold of and started learning as much as I "White Mountain Bluegrass", they were could, in the sing world, int helrish world-I the first band to 'invite' me down , I stayed love the Irish music and I love the Scottish at Roger Williams' (the dobro player) Cape Breton fiddling and there's no one house, they took me to Europe, and we style that I like better, other than I just t ruly toured Holland, Germany, just all over the love bluegrass music. That in my heart and place, so I got an education there . So I sould, I guess. The Kenny Baker stuff, the moved, through Green Mountain, I met up Benny Ma rtin music, that what I love, that with Lonesome River Band at some con- kind of fiddling. certs and they hired me to go down and play with their group. I was already a fan of So from there, when I was in the States, I · their music anyway. So I was part of the got the chance to meet all my idols. The Lonesome River Band for a short stint, and one band I really wanted to join was Tony from there, I had met David Grisman at one Rice, the Tony Rice unit and Jimmy of his concerts and his fidd le player was Jim Gaudreau. I became good friends with Buchanan. I remember him from Jim & Jimmy. He was producing a CD called Jesse days and recordings and he played "Young Mandolin Monsters" and he asked with David Grisman at that time, but he me to do two cuts on it. He also involved also played country music with George Dan Tyminski, Adam Steffey, Wayne Ben- Jones and Mel Tillis and he did all the son, Alan Bibey, and Ronnie McCoury, a backup stuff in Nashville. He was the ses- bunch of the youngers at the time. I was sion man in Nashville and they were playing glad to be a part of that. When Jimmie with Charlie Pride. He started telling me all knew Tony was doing a tour, starting in the songs and what he did differently to Maine, going into Massachusetts and the make it sound unique. He did a lot of New England states, he gave me a call and 'bouncing bow' things, it was very different said "If you want to come down, bring hy- give me a call". It's just one of those things, when you play an instrument and you feel this is just right for me, this is exactly what I want, I knew that fiddle was what I wanted . Years later, after I got married and we had just bought our house, in 1998, my Dad gets this call on his phone, it was on the answering machine, "This is Alison Krauss, Ray, I know you really want this fiddle, I got the fiddle that I really wanted and I know you really want this one, so it's for sale, if you ' d like to buy it from me, I won't adver- tise it or anything, because I know you really want it" . Anyway, to make a long story short, I ended up with that fiddle and that' s the fiddle I still play, since 1998. It's just such a treat to be able to pick up the fiddle and be happy with it. Fiddles usually fight back once you play them . They're a hard instrument to master, I don't think you ' ll ever master it, there's always more techniques and sounds and smoothness that you can strive for. To get back to what I was originally talking about, I was in the States pursuing my dream and imm igration caught up with me. They warned me that they knew I was working under the table. I tried to go through the legal process applying five times. I had millionai re friends vouching for me, friends like Mel Tillis. Still they turned me down, so I had to move back home. Page 5 ter sang, (Amanda) and I just love Andy's playing and attitude towards bluegrass music. He was the first one I called when our bass play Jean-Marc Boucher, he just got a new job back home, it's hard to play bluegrass for a living and I knew he couldn't get the Friday off, we were driving up and for him to fly in, especially right now, part of the Air Canada staff is on strike. I didn't him. It's great to have a talent like that on stage beside you. And the bass player ,Tim McDonald, he's a great bass singer and banjo player but now that Carl's playing banjo in the Kitchen party, Tim gets to play some bass. Gord: You know, it's a great concept for a show, and I'm hoping that it serves its purpose of broadening the experience for bluegrass people and lovers of folk and acoustic music cause honestly, I've never met anyone who liked folk music That's when I started Acoustic Horizon. If it wasn't for Frank Doody, saying "Welcome back home, I think you should start a bluegrass band, you know, we'll just have some fun." and that's when we started Acoustic Hori- zon, with Frank and myself, and I had another friend, he had two sons and a daughter, but the two sons played mu- sic too, Daniel and Norm Maillet their want any complications there, to bring up a bass, and all that, so I'm thankful to Andy that he was free and he's thanking us too , cause he misses it too or acoustic music and heard a well after having to leave the Lonesome done bluegrass piece and didn't like it .... River Band after four great years.... Ray: and that's Carl's number one ob- Gord: Yeah, they had a great sound, jective, is to make this show not a blue- particularly a great vocal sound . . grass show, to bring out the people to a good concert and introduce them to the father Fern Maillet, he played bas~ with Ray : So that's sort of how my band got us and Ron Savoie ended up playing together. We should get back to when guitar/mandolin. so that's what we we met Carl and when Carl had the have. Today, we got a guy like Richard idea to do these Kitchen Parties. He Bourque, he can play guitar as well as just wanted to bring that, I don't know, the mandolin and we can switch off the bluegrass musicians just seem to allows me to play the guitar once i~ have ~ ha~piness about them I guess, awhile, or whatever. It's great to have ~nd fnen_dhne_ss and people enjoy com- guys like that and of course Frank's al- ing out, listening to the sofa music and I ways been with me. was totally in, when Carl asked me to Gord: And you've got Andy Ball on bass ... was that just a happenstance that he was available? ... do it. He mentioned that he was going to have this other mandolin player, do- ing some mandolin and guitar work, I said "Gee, who would that be?" and he said "A guy named Joe Clark". I had Ray: Yes, through my connections in heard of Joe Clark, never met him, but the States, Andy had just left the Lone- had heard how great he was , on all the some River Band (mandolin, tenor vo- cals) to finish off his studies. He's mov- ing to Edmonton to finish off his philoso- phy course , to get his masters in that. He's from Warren , Michigan and was living in Windsor, taking a course there. I met him through Pete Goble actually, I did a recording with Pete Goble and Andy lived right around the corner from him and was helping Pete do the sound engineering. So I met Andy and he said "Yeah , my family's doing a recording and my Dad would really love to have you on it", so I got to meet the fami ly and played on the Richard Ball Family Band Album, with Andy, and the daugh- Page 6 instruments and we got along really fine. We even did a mandolin duo. It's so great, just to better yourself, each one will do a new lick and it's just an admiration of the other fellow's playing . "Oh yeah , that's a great idea" .. we all know all the mandolin players in the States, that's what we have in common - he's from the heart of Virginia, I be- lieve. - I'm from the East Coast of Can- ada, but I listen to all that music on LPs and cassettes, CDs and all the DVDs I could get hold of, that's the music I studied, but he was there , he lived it, he played with Larry Sparks, he played with all these players and he was play- ing with Honi Deaton when I first saw bluegrass. I know its getting a little bet- ter now, with the emergence of bands like Alison Krauss and Union Station, Chris Thile and all these bands are bringing in influences of other music and making it more enjoyable to the people who didn't like the hard-core bluegrass, but now they're realizing what true bluegrass is and now they're going back and saying "Gee, I really do like that Bill Monroe music and the Flatt & Scruggs and gee, look at this guy Jimmy Martin, where, wow! boy he's an incredible talent!". Then they do their history, start hearing about the Osborne Brothers, people like the Osborne Brothers, they introduced electric instru- ments, even electrifying the banjo and the mandolin . They were in Nashville pushing that, they heard those songs on the radio, Wheeling, West Virginia, saying "Oh, they're a bluegrass band. OK!" Gord: The thing I like about the Osbor- nes, they were doing harmony before Daily & Vincent .. Ray: That's for sure! And very well! With a little research, you'll find it's all been done. I go back and listen to Benny Martin, the stuff he was doing on the fiddle , you can re-learn it and it sounds new. He was a genius. The Louvin Brothers harmony, it was differ- songs with everybody playing and moving ent again, because they kept switching har- around and jumping around and dancing, mony parts. That's not common. Usually and so it's a great show. That group's called you just find a lead and a direct harmony Bowfire. So those are your stepping stones and you just do it in parallel all the time, well in making a living at music, you do some- the Louvin Brothers, they would switch from thing with one person, then someone hears lead to tenor and jump up to a bigger gap you, gets you doing something else with that between the voices and it was just magical. person, that's really the way. I had a reputa- tion and the personality, I guess. I've been Gord: So, what's in the future for Acoustic able to make a living at it. Horizon? Gord: Well, I guess we can wrap this inter- Ray: Well, Acoustic Horizon is my 'hobby' view up. I know you have a set coming up in band, I guess. This is what I enjoy to do and in the summer months I try to play as much about 45 minutes, so I have to let you go. I will just append this by saying, anyone who bluegrass as I can and I'd love to tour Acous- tic Horizon around but to make a living at bluegrass, or as a musician I had to pursue hasn 't heard Ray Legere play Kenny Bakers great tune, "Bluegrass in the Backwoods", hasn't heard a great fiddle talent at work. It's available from Ray at http:// other avenues like, John McDermott, he's an Irish tenor and he's done very well for him- www.raylegere.com/ and the CD is titled self, so he's heard of me on the East Coast, "Ray Legere - Bluegrass in the Backwoods". that I can back up a singer, so I play mando- lin and fiddle with him. One of his session I highly recommend this album! It is and has been one of my all time favorite albums players, Lenny Solomon, a classically trained jazz musician, he was putting together a fiddle group of all different styles of music and he wanted ten fiddle players on stage playing jazz, bluegrass, Celtic, whatever style of music we play, and bring it on one stage, a theatre stage at that, a big light show, eve- ryone moving around on stage. It was quite an endeavor, because we had to put mikes with wireless unit on the fiddles so we could walk around and then for us to have moni- tors wherever we walked we had to have a sound man on stage moving our monitor sound around the stage to different speak- ers - so the monitor guy on stage is more important to the show then the guy doing the house sound, because the house really only has two speakers, left and right, there's obviously more speakers there, but basically it's a left and a right. For the most part, a live show is in mono, so really, he's only project- ing that, but on stage, if I move from stage right to stage left, he has to move my moni- tor mix to the other side of the stage, so he's hands on throughout the entire show. Not just myself, but all the other fiddlers. We do since I purchased it at the Nova Scotia festi- val in about 2004. Ray Legere and Acoustic Horizon Jean-Marc Boucher (hidden), Richard Bourque, Ray Legere, Frank Doody and Spe- cial guest Kelsey Maccallum . (picture taken by Irene Doyle in New Rich- mond Quebec.) Pour L'Amour Du Country Jean Guy Grenier, Ray Legere and Marty Melanson John McDermott concert with Mark O'Connor George Koller, Mark O'Connor, Ray Legere and Jason Fowler Gord DeVries is an active director of BMAC and an occasional interviewer/writer for this magazine. Page 7 BANDS INFO-PROVIDED BY INDVIDUAL BANDS THE BACKWOODSMEN Contact; Lorne Buck-Telephone: 613-475-3740 191 Goodrich Rd., R.R. #2, Codrington, ON KOK lRO http://backwoodsmen.tripod.com Lorne Buck-Guit ar, vocals - Jimmy Ellis-Guit ar, voca ls BLUEGRASS EDITION Contact: Campbellsbreakdown@hotmail.com Dan Campbell - Banjo & Vocals, Doug Van Den Kieboom - Guitar, Dobro & Vocals, Peter Harrison - Bass & Vocals, Tim Bellamy - Mandolin, Guitar & Vocals Page 8 The Peace River Band Mary Lou Fitzgerald - Guitar, Vocals Danny Morreti - Bass Jimmy Young - Fiddle Pete Atkins - Banjo Bill Vickers - Mandolin, Vocals Marcel Blais - Guitar, Vocals Contact: Marcel Blais 905-650-3738 mblais6@gmail .com FOGGY HOGTOWN BOYS As pictured left to right in the attached photo: Andrew Collins- mandolin, fiddle Max Heineman - acoustic bass Chris Quinn- banjo, guitar, mandolin ..------------------iii CON- The C-DENNY BAND Contact: Leann Chadbourn-Telephone 705-776-7754 339 Fichault Rd., Rutherglen, ON POH 2EO E-mail-Lea@thot.net Website-cdennymusic.ca Denis Chadbourn-Guitar Juleann Chadbourn-Fiddle Emily Ann Chadbourn - Mandolin Gord Grasser- Banjo THE DUCHARME FAMILY BLUEGRASS Mitch Ducharme, fiddle and mando,vocal Mike Ducharme, guitar,vocal Joey Ducharme, bass,vocal Ray Winterstein, banjo Contact; Nicole Ducharme 705 758 9589 www.ducharmefamilybluegrass.com ducharmefamilybluegrass@live.ca CESSION 23 General Store Brian Riseborough - guitar and vocals Helen Lewis - Autoharp and vocals Norm Tellier - Mondolin and vocals Bill Blance - banjo & guitar and vocals John Perkins - bass and vocals Contact: N orm-519-621-1160 Bill-905-451-9077 Page 9 Next >