Lilypad link

here is info about the gig in Cambridge, MA next week. There’s another show after ours that looks interesting. I guess I won’t be going back to the Travelodge to watch my 77 Doobie Brothers bootleg DVD.

gear report

Here’s what I’m using these days.

11×22 Tempus gold sparkle bass drum (Evans EQ 1 heads, w/ and w/out a small towel folded in the drum)
10×15 Tempus orange sparkle floor tom (Evans coated G2 on top, clear G1 on bottom, 3 cotton balls rolling around inside and one rectangle of Moongel about 2 inches from the edge)
7×12 Tempus blue sparkle rack tom (Evans coated G1 on top, clear G1 on bottom, no muffling)
6.15×14 SONOR Phonic ferro-manganese snare drum (Evans coated G1 or G2 on top)

hardware:

DW 6000 series hihat and boom stand, crappy Chinese SONOR straight cymbal stand with Gibraltar tom mount, ancient Pearl snare stand, ancient Yamaha strap-drive pedal, Pearl Roadster ultra-luxe throne

cymbals: all PAISTE
setup 1 (general jobbing gigs, outdoor gigs): 14″ Alpha hihats (SE top, POWER bottom), 16″ Alpha crystal crash, 18″ Innovations crash/ride

Other gigs (CPZ, etc.) usually have a variable setup that can include Dimensions Crunch hats, Dark Energy Mark 1 ride, Giant Beats, vintage 2002 heavy hihats, extra-thin Traditionals, and more….

the bare minimum

I have re-done chriscawthray.com. I hope you’re underwhelmed. I want to strip it all back; I have no real webskills, and so any attempts may serve to confuse more than infuse.

Free downloads will now be found here at the blog. You can choose DOWNLOADS from the sidebar to see posts that contain free stuff. Here’s a list of the downloads that were at the old download page:

5.17.06 CPZ – “japan”
5.17.06 CPZ – “mango”
2.27.06 wHitE hEAt – “Hunter (Bjork cover)”
cc3 demo medley

catching up…

Sunday with Michael Bettine was much fun. It was a day of PAISTE-talk and some great music. The turnout at the NOW Lounge was lighter than I had hoped, but there were many folks who made the trip out specifically to see MB, so the word did get out there about it.

I spent Monday returning various drums and equipment that had been borrowed and rented for last week’s various gigs. In the course of returning items, a used set of PAISTE Dimensions 14″ Crunch hats found their way home with me. These are very cool cymbals that are now available in the 2002 line, since Dimensions was phased out last year. They are dark sounding, yet quite strong and crisp. I plan on using the bottom cymbal from the set to pair with a 14″ Traditional extra-thin for acoustic/jazz gigs (like this Friday at Orleans with the Starry Nights Band)

Gigs this week started tonight with Hot Buttered Soul @ Canyon Creek in Scarborough. We played really great tonight, and ended up being hired for a 4th set, so everyone was happy to get more money than they had expected. HBS plays again on Saturday night at a private event in Oakville, so I’ll get my backbeat quota in for the week. I have a rare Wednesday off, but have discovered a slow leak/flat tire in our SMART car today, so I will spend the day dealing with that (The SMART does not have a spare tire, nor a jack to remove the wheel, so after the SMART tire-sealant didn’t fix it, I’ve had to arrange for Roadside Assistance to come and tow the car to the dealership. The towing is free, but the tire service will probably be expensive since it’s being done at a Mercedes/SMART dealership.), and then the rest of my family goes on vacation for 3 days while I stay in town and work. I’ll miss them, but as any freelance musician will tell you, you have to take the work when it comes, and I know it will slow down this fall/winter, so I’ll vacation then.

Thursday, gigs resume with my last day at the Toronto Dance Theatre Summer School, and then a cc3 hit in Burlington, with Nikku Nayar on bass and ?????? on piano. It was supposed to be EB, but late-night messages on my cell phone indicate that there are people out there trying to sabotage the sanctity of cc3. I’m quite certain I shouldn’t have to put up with this crud, but I’ve maintained for years that the worst enemy of the music business are musicians themselves. We find ways to screw up good gigs, always.

Friday I’m back at Orleans in Newmarket, and then Saturday is the HBS gig in Oakville, and then Sunday is a family day. Next week ends with CPZ in Cambridge, MA. I can’t wait, it’ll be SO GOOD to play with Ed and Rob again.

Hot Buttered Bettine

I just got in from a 5-set Hot Buttered Soul gig. Wow. We basically played like maniacs for almost 5 hours from 8:30pm to 1:30am. I sang a bunch of tunes that our singer couldn’t/wouldn’t (sometimes the clients ask for rock songs that aren’t in our repertoire), including hits by Zeppelin, the Eagles, and (this may be the worst song I’ve ever had to sing or play) “Picture” by Kid Rock. Holy Sh*t! That’s a bad song. Otherwise it was a fun (but exhausting) gig for a great crowd.

Anyway, it’s all behind me and the money’s in the bank, and now I go to Buffalo, NY in a few hours to pick up Michael Bettine and bring him up to Toronto for his drumLAB show. I spent an hour this afternoon assembling some gong stands out of borrowed bits of drum rack parts from Long & McQuade Music here in Toronto, and the boys at Steve’s Music supplied the gongs (a PAISTE Peace gong and a big 28″ UFIP). I’m really excited to get to spend the day with such a unique and talented musician as Michael Bettine; this is one of the perks of this job, without a doubt.

why videos did and always will, suck.

I’m all for concert videos; you can’t make it to every show and there is much to be absorbed from watching how musicians make music together, in addition to listening to it. But, the entire “concept video” genre (i.e. any video that is something other than a band playing their song) is so ridiculous and always does more harm than good.

Case in point; this is a great song off Michael McDonald’s first solo album (well, he did some recordings pre-Dan and pre-Doobies, but this was the first major album) featuring a RELENTLESS groove by Jeff Porcaro. The video is so dumb, and so bad, why would they have thought this would make people buy the record?

I dig this.

One of the great tragedies of the last 10 years is the wasting away of good “soft rock”. I think it’s a really important and musically valid genre. The Yacht Rock movie series is the love-letter to soft rock I always wanted to write, but never did. Here’s a great Gino Vanelli video featuring the late, really really great Mark Craney on drums. Enjoy.

recent developments

I played a very fun gig on Friday night in Newmarket, ON with the Starry Nights Band. This is a jazz standards project featuring my old HEARSAY bandmate Jeff Simard (he played electric mandolin in HEARSAY, but plays guitar in SNB), and his wife, Dagmar Morgan on vocals. The bassist on the gig was a guy named Keane (I don’t have the spelling of his last name so I won’t attempt) whom I last played with probably 15 years ago in the Norge Union, a great band led by Jon Brooks. Anyway, the gig went over really well to an enthusiastic and large audience at Orleans in Newmarket (they actually like jazz up there, who knew?). And, we got a repeat booking for two weeks from now on July28. How cool is that?

At the gig I ran into an old friend and colleague, Ashley Newall, who sings and plays guitar himself. He is based in Ottawa, and it looks like he’ll be able to hook Cawthray/Price/Zankowski up with a cool “house concert” in Ottawa on September 29. This gig would push CPZ into what would be their first real tour. The last week of September we’re doing Hamilton, Toronto, (tbc) Ottawa and (tbc) New York. I can’t wait!

On Saturday, HBS hit at one the Canyon Creeks and another dear old friend showed up. When we were much younger, Mike Pelletier and I played in a band called Blue Hippo that featured a teenage (like us, then) signer named Tanya Smith. T’s currently based in Paris, FR but was passing through Toronto on her way to a gig in St. Barts (tough life, eh?). She sat in with HBS and KNOCKED our socks off. Too much fun. She even gave HBS frontman a run for his money in the raunch department…

So, this week is busy. 2 cc3s and 2 HBSs, plus a full day at TDT and the special Michael Bettine drumLAB presentation at the NOW Lounge. Mucho thanks go out to Steve’s Music here in Toronto for hooking me up with some gongs for the gig.

Ok, see you at the gigs I hope!

I have the weekend off from gigs, and then the next two weeks are very busy, with lots of variety too. So, this weekend off I’m doing nothing particularly productive, and loving it.

Coming up, there’s the usual run of cc3 gigs, but on 7/18,19,20 my old friend Nikku Nayar subs in the trio for 3 days while MP is on vacation (or gardening duty, not sure which); there’s some Hot Buttered Soul dates, a jazz gig with my old HEARSAY bandmate Jeff Simard (Jeff used to play mandolin in HEARSAY, but he’s playing guitar mostly these days) on 7/14, and I’m really excited about the drumLAB presentation of Michael Bettine on July 23 @ the NOW Lounge. Gong-tastic!