CC TV

The Fathead commercial is now up on YouTube. Enjoy!

it’s been a month since I posted…

hello.

I’m blaming it all on Facebook. I signed up a few weeks ago and it sucked me in. So, if you think I’ve dropped off the face of the earth, nope. Find me on Facebook, there’s a “chris cawthray” group you can join and find out about gigs, releases, etc. Those crafty FB folks make it so easy to use that it’s hard to resist.

Anyway, the gig-front slowed this fall to a frightening pace. The Somewhere There CPZ show came and went and blew away a crowd that numbered in the single digits. Despite that, we recorded the gig and got some good stuff, which may make its way to the first-ever CPZ CD release. The performances were impeccable, but the recording quality was questionable at times. I’ve been receiving some “audio massage” for the tracks over at HiLo Studio to clean them up for release. Stay tuned…

My days have been filled with dance classes for the most part, with a smattering of evening gigs thrown in. The evening schedule gets busy in December with a bunch of private party gigs with trusty ol’ Hot Buttered Soul and two very special trio dates coming up:

Thursday December 6 – 169 Bar, New York City 8pm

Thanks to my foray into Sonicbids I found myself with a date at the above venue. I knew that this place was a “quiet” room, so CPZ was not an option; so cc3 is making it’s NYC debut, and not only that, a cc3 with NYC players: Rob Price on guitar and Rob Jost on bass. I may even sing a tune at this gig.

Thursday December 20 – The Melody Bar @ The Gladstone Hotel, Toronto 6pm-9pm

Another cc3 gig, with Colin Campbell on guitar and Niku Nayar on bass. This will be somewhat business-as-usual as these guys were regular contributors to the cc3 shows in the Canyon Creek empire. The main difference will be that since the Gladstone is a bit more art-y and loose (and the pay is commensurate with that vibe, if you know what I mean…), we’ll play whatever we want. Expect a more freewheeling cc3, and expect to be satisfied.

Friday January 4 – Leftover Daylight, Toronto 10pm

I’m playing a duo set with keyboardist Simeon Abbott, whom I met and played with by chance at the Tranzac last spring. I’m not sure what we’ll play just yet, but I’m definitely looking forward to this new setting.

The revelation of late is that I have to be even more self-sufficient in terms of presentation and repertoire. Meaning: I am working on streamlining my “book” (one’s repertoire for live performance, embodied in a folder, or book, of sheet music for your fellow musicians to play from) so that I can, with varying degrees of preparation, do my thing with whichever musicians are available at that time in that city.

Perhaps the most challenging part of that is not the actual creation of said “book”, but keeping my own playing at a level where it is consistently original and self-representational that whichever “Chris Cawthray + musicians” lineup gets together still achieves the goal of presenting whatever my musical voice is. This is easier for traditional melody players to do, drummers have to get up a bit earlier to make this work. Hence, why I’ll be singing a tune or two, and hopefully playing tunes you may know, with unique rhythmic perspective.

Wish me luck, and better yet, join me at the gigs.

cc