Hello!
 
Just a quick note to let you know what’s happening this Summer.
 
We did our last Cameron House Matinee of the season on June 26th. Thanks so much to those of you who braved the G20 mayhem to join us! Had some fun busking at outdoor Farmer’s Markets around town last month. I’d just booked us for June because we weren’t sure how it was going to be, but loved it, so now wish we were doing it through the Summer. We had a wonderful time at the House Concert we played in Waterloo. We were treated royally and met a lot of great people. We continue sharing the love in the subway I frequently report my underground observations as status updates on Facebook so if we aren’t already FB Friends, let’s hook up there!
 
With the exception of a few shows, we are taking much of the Summer off, but here is what we do have booked…
 
Upcoming Shows
 
Wed., July 28th, 8:30 pm - Moonshine Cafe in Oakville, 137 Kerr St. Oakville, ON,  905-844-2655 www.themoonshinecafe.com
Come join us for a fabulous night of ‘Women In Song’ hosted by Julie Cutler and also featuring Sara Kamin. This series just celebrated its 50th show in June! The evening starts at 8:30pm with the host and featured performers and is followed by an open stage from 11pm till close. The Moonshine is one of those really great music listening venues. If you haven’t been yet, check it out. It’s a gem! If we had a rec room, we’d set it up just like The Moonshine.
 
Sat., August 21st, 12noon - House Concert / BBQ in Downsview (by invitation)
We will be on the bill with The Rizdales at this wonderful outdoor event. We go on at 12:30pm. We played a concert there last year and it was great. Beautiful venue and amazing hosts.
 
Shameless plug alert…if you haven’t yet got a copy of our CD ‘Little Child Big World’, there are several ways you can get it…on our website www.sueanddwight.com/music. Or, if you kids are into digital downloads you can download individual songs or the whole CD at CDBaby www.cdbaby.com/Artist/SueAndDwight and at iTunes http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/little-child-big-world/id343150860. 
 
Songs from the CD are continuing to pop up on folk radio shows across North America (yay!). We even had a tune spun on a show in Australia last month! Don’t forget to request songs from ‘Little Child Big World’ on your favourite music stations For those of you interested in stats…currently the top 2 songs being played are ‘One Song’ and ‘Mercury Rising’, followed closely by ‘Ain’t No Passenger’ and ‘Little Child Big World’. But happily, all of the songs have received airplay, which is quite exciting. One of our greatest supporters has been a show from Yellow Springs, Ohio called ‘Detours’ hosted by Norm Whitman. The show airs on Sat. afternoons from 1-3pm. You can listen live at http://www.wyso.org/
 
We’ve got a couple of new songs in the works. I’m just putting the final touches on one that I’ve put aside in frustration a few times over the past year. But last weekend while sitting on the sand at Cherry Beach and looking out over the water, it came together!
 
Well, I think that’s it. I know once I press Send, I’ll think of something else I want to tell you but that’s the way it goes
 
Have a WONDERFUL Summer. Hope to see or hear from you soon!
 
Sue and Dwight

It’s a bit dreary outside this morning but because yesterday was such an amazing day/night at The Cameron House, I’m basking in an amazing glow of wonderful music and friendship. What a great time we had.

Our matinee was packed right from the start…albeit most folks were there to secure their seats for the evening festivities. Nonetheless they were an appreciative, responsive audience. A few regulars of ours, unaware of the upcoming gala send-off for Cindy (longtime co-owner/manager of the bar) featuring The Cameron Family Singers, wandered in looking a bit stunned that available seats were so few. Our first S.R.O. matinee There was a palpable feeling of excitement in the room all day.

Anticipating the crowds, a live video feed of the action in the front room was beamed to the back room. Dwight and I moved between the two rooms over the course of the evening. While it was fun to be in the front room where the live action was, the back room had it’s definite advantages…much cooler and seating!

The Cameron Family Singers were in great form! The latest “regular” line-up of Cousins Cindy Matthews, Jack Nicholsen, Tony Benattar, Shelley Coopersmith, and Sam Ferrara, were augmented with returning Cousins Kevin Quain, Rod Booth, and Chip Yarwood, as well as honorary Cousins Col. Tom Parker and Burke Carroll. Cindy looking beautiful as always was glowing in a room full of admirers, all there to wish her well as she moves on to her next adventures. A gang of other performers including Justin Rutledge, Corin Raymond, Joanne Mackell, Michael Laderoute, The Ferraros, and Run With The Kittens were each invited on stage to perform during the second set. Dwight and I were honoured to be included among them. All of us feel and expressed gratitude to Cindy for her tremendous support over the years.

So many people we love, we’ve met at The Cameron House in the almost 20 years we have been going there. A lot of them were there yesterday so it couldn’t help but be magical day.

“The room is an oasis, the desert beats at the door. We head out to it’s fury, can’t wait to come back for more.”

Hiya

April came and went in a blink and it’s May!

Here’s where you can find us this month if you want to catch a show…

3:30-5:30pm EVERY SATURDAY IN MAY at The Cameron House, 408 Queen Street West (Toronto)
We play two sets in the Front Room. It’s laid back and hanging out at this great little club, listening to tunes, is the perfect break in your hectic Saturday.

There has been some confusion about the future of this wonderful music venue so here’s the scoop on what’s happening. As you know, The Cameron House was listed for sale awhile ago. It was owned by three separate owners and two of them wanted to pursue other ventures. Long story short, the other owner decided to buy them out. So the “new” owner is really an old owner who loves The Cameron House and it will live on. There are plans to do some renos…bathrooms are on the list …so there may be a short closure to get that work done but the timing hasn’t been decided so it’s business as usual. Please keep supporting The Cameron House…there’s so much great music there!

Here’s some other stuff…

RADIO PLAY: We are continuing to send our new CD to radio stations across North America and have been very happy with the response! A variety of songs have been played on folk shows all across Canada and the US. “Imagine my surprise” to learn that ‘Diamonds On Velvet’ was played last week on a Jazz show!

One folk music show in particular, from Ohio called ‘Detours’, has been a great supporter, and have had us on their playlist for (knock wood, hope I don’t jinx it) 7 straight weeks!! And ‘Mercury Rising’ made a respectable showing on programs with an Earth Day focus this month. Thanks to the Internet you can listen to shows from all over the world either live or in some cases by podcast, so I try to catch as many as I can, particularly those ones supporting our music. As a result, I have been exposed to a lot of great new music I might not otherwise have heard.

We still haven’t cracked the CBC beyond the one play back in December. If you have any ideas how to make that happen, let me know!

SOMETHING VERY COOL: As some of you know, ‘One Song’ from our new CD pays tribute to singer-songwriters with a social conscience and mention a couple of Pete Seeger songs in one of the verses. So, I sent a copy of the CD to Mr. Seeger a little while ago as a thank you for his inspiration. You can imagine my excitement when we received a reply in the mail a few days ago. While most of the letter was a form letter there was a personal note for us added in, so I am very very excited about that! He’s not only a folk icon, but a very nice man as well…and he turns 91 this week!

BUSKING: Continues to be fun and a great way to get our music out there. And you can meet some really NICE people. One day my friend Kim and I were busking together up at Finch and this young woman stopped to look at our CDs. When she saw ours, she said “You’re part of Sue and Dwight? I’ve been wanting to see them for ages.”…seriously, she really said that!! Of course I looked around expecting Ashton Kutcher to pop out from around the corner telling me I was punk’d. It was all quite surreal. 

RECENT REVIEW OF ‘LITTLE CHILD BIG WORLD’ CD POSTED ON MY FACEBOOK WALL THAT MADE OUR DAY…WEEK…MONTH…YEAR: “Just thought I’d let you know, I am sent many albums each week, most have only one or two really good songs on them. Yours, however, is one of the best all around albums I’ve gotten this year. There are no filler songs, songs that were added just to fill up album space, you know, B rated songs. You and Dwight should be very proud of this album, it’s first class al the way!”…Norm Whitman, DETOURS, WYSO FM, Yellow Springs, OH

Well, enough about us. How are things with you? We’d love to see or hear from you so don’t be a stranger…ha ha, accidentally typed strangler but corrected it. Don’t be one of those either.

Sue (and Dwight)

Hi Everyone
 
Spring is definitely in the air!
 
So here’s the GIG NEWS for April if you happen to be in the Toronto area…

Every Saturday - Matinee at The Cameron House - 3:30-5:30pm - 408 Queen Street West
We want lots of bums in the seats this month…well, not bums in the hobo sense of the word, but you know what I mean! 
 
And, for those of you who used to like to straddle ours and The Cameron Family Singers show at 6pm, here’s some great news. They will be back for three Saturdays this month…April 3, 10, and 17. Oh, and according to a fiddle playing source in the band, Kevin Quain will be joining them. Yahoo, just like old times!

Other News…
 
~ RADIO AIRPLAY: I continue to listen to and scour the playlists from folks stations in Canada and the U.S. where we’ve sent our new CD and get a huge thrill each time one of our songs is played.
 
A couple of weeks ago I was listening to a show online (’Detours’ from Ohio) and heard  ‘One Song’ followed immediately by a Pete Seeger tune. Wow, that was cool. So, now I’m telling everyone that we’ve opened for him
 
‘Gulu’ received it’s first airplay this month on a show called Music Of The People in Massachusetts.
 
March 8th was International Women’s Day and March was Women’s History Month in the U.S. ‘Marching’ (our tribute to women) received airplay on some folk radio shows including Folk Oasis in Vancouver and Grass Roots Revival in Colorado Springs.
 
We happened to be listening to the Sunday Coffee House from Bellville the other night and were pretty excited to hear two of our songs played in a row.
 
 
~ BUSKING: I’ve been a busking machine…still loving it. Even after a little incident the other day where a ‘yout’ tried to loot my coinage. My stern “DO NOT DO THAT, I WILL CALL THE COPS” must have caught him off guard and he dashed off without the spoils, but it did remind me one has to be on guard at all times.
 
I think what’s making busking even more fun this year is the variety of folks I’ve been playing with…me and me, me and Dwight, me and Kim Cole, me and Shelley Coopersmith…each combo is a unique experience. Kim and I do a killer version of Gillian Welch’s ‘Orphan Girl’ and Shelley has introduced me to the high-brow music world with ‘Pachabel’s Canon’.
 
~ SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT…our CDs are both available for sale on-line at http://www.sueanddwight.com/ and/or download at CDBaby www.cdbaby.com/Artist/SueAndDwight and iTunes.
 
We hope to see you out at The Cameron House this month….and, if I may impose on you to please spread the word among any friends who you think might enjoy our music
 
Thanks and Happy Spring!
 
Sue (and Dwight)

Hi Everyone

All of a sudden March is here and the days are getting longer. Thank goodness, because I never seem to be able to cram everything into a day that I need to

February was a fun music month between our Cameron House and Winterfolk shows, our busking profile on blogTO, and more radio play (including a very cool radio show in Ohio called ‘Detours’ that asked to use our CD in their Spring fundraising drive).

March is shaping up to be a great one too. Here’s what we have lined up so far…

EVERY SATURDAY IN MARCH at THE CAMERON HOUSE, 3:30pm, 408 Queen St W, Toronto, ON; We play 2 sets in the Front Room

Wed., Mar. 10th at The Fox and Fiddle, 1085 St. Clair W, (at Lauder, 2 blocks east of Dufferin St.) Toronto, ON; This is an Open Mic hosted by ‘Uncle’ Herb Dale and Fran McCann. The Open Mic starts at 9pm. We have been invited to be the week’s ”Feature” and will go on at 10pm and do a full set.

Thu., Mar. 25, at The Moonshine Cafe, 137 Kerr St,, Oakville, ON - I’ll be getting back to you with more detail on this one, but I hope all our west TO and other friends in the Oakville area will mark this one in their calendars. Pssst…it’s Dwight’s birthday!

In other news…

• I’m thinking of joining Facebookers Anonymous after spending entirely too much time on there last month. But I haven’t yet so get on their and ‘Friend Me’. It’s very fun!
• Our CD is still available for sale on-line at http://www.sueanddwight.com/ and/or download at CDBaby www.cdbaby.com/Artist/SueAndDwight and iTunes
• Thanks to those of you who passed along last months newsletter to your friends, we got a couple of new sign ups as a result! xo xo
• How do you make a million dollars in folk music? Start with two million dollars
• If you are listening to the radio sometime and you think…hmmmm, I’d like to hear a Sue and Dwight song…call or email in a request to the show okay?! I can only disguise my voice in so many ways. Ha ha, just kidding…haven’t had the guts to try that

Here are some radio shows across Canada and the US that have played our new CD so far. Pretty much all of them can be listened to online. We appreciate their support. Check them out, they are all good shows…

Acoustic Planet - Erin Radio CHES 101.5 FM http://www.erinradio.ca/ ; CHRW Radio 94.9 FM ; Freewheeling 93.3 CFMU http://www.cfmu.mcmaster.ca/ ; Just Us Folk - CKPC-CKPC-AM 1380  http://www.ckpcam.com/ ; FOLK DIRECTIONS CKUT 90.3 FM http://www.ckutfolk.com/ ; REGINA’S MIGHTY SHORES CJTR 91.3 FM http://www.cjtr.ca/ ; TGIFolk WDBX FM 91.1 http://www.wdbx.org/ ; Sunday Morning Coffeehouse KOPN, 89.5 FM http://www.sundaymorningcoffeehouse.org/ ; A VARIETY OF FOLK  WRUR  88.5 FM  http://www.wrur.org/ ; DETOURS 91.3 WYSO FM http://www.wyso.org/ ; Folk Fury KTEP-FM http://www.ktep.org/ ; Acoustic Harmony http://www.acoustic-harmony.com/ ; The Weekend Morning Show (CBC MB) www.cbc.ca/weekendmorning/

Bye for now! Sue (and Dwight)

~ We played more than 60 shows this year including The Cameron House, Mambo Lounge and Black Swan as part of Winterfolk, The Spill in Peterborough, Chapters, McNally Robinson’s in Toronto, Winnipeg and Saskatoon, Lady of The Lake in Brandon, Michelle’s Brasserie and others.

~ We continued our residency at The Cameron House. Can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

~ We made the cover of the Winter 2009 Ontario Council Of Folk Festivals Folk Prints Magazine! There’s a scan of it in the ‘Stuff’ Tab.

~ We played our first House Concert in May. We have to do more of those…they are perfect for our kind of music. I blogged about it (scroll down) if you want to read all about it.

~ We did a ‘Mini Tour’ of Saskatchewan and Manitoba in June…always great to return to the homeland.

~ We took a travel guitar with us to Uganda, Tanzania, and Malawi in July/August and had the opportunity to play for people in various villages we visited. I blogged about the trip (see link under Archive at right) if you have some free time to kill. Also, in the ‘Stuff’ Tab there are a couple of links to videos of us singing there.

~ We finished recording our new CD ‘Little Child Big World’. It took quite a bit longer than we expected because new ideas kept emerging during the process, but it was well worth it in the end. We had a great time working with Kevin Quain again on this one. In addition to engineering and co-producing, he contributed some wonderful piano, bass and accordion performances. We were also excited to have Adam Warner (percussion), Shelley Coopersmith (violin), Kim Cole and Michelle Rumball (back-up vocals) perform on the CD.

~ It was a bonus that the whole gang (Kevin, Adam, Shelley, Kim and Michelle) were able to join us on stage for our Toronto CD Release Party in September. The backroom of The Cameron House was packed and the night felt magical. We performed the songs in the order they appear on the CD.

~ In October, we sent our new CD off to radio show hosts across Canada who we thought might be interested in playing our music and were really happy with the response. So in November, we did the same with radio show hosts in the U.S. and again received a very positive response. It’s so exciting that, thanks to the Internet, we can listen these shows either live or as a podcast…in the “old days” we’d have had to be in the same province or state.

~ Since it’s our hometown, we had a second CD Release Party for ‘Little Child Big World’ in Winnipeg in December. We tried out a new venue, a used bookstore/cafe, called Sam’s Place. It was another great night with an awesome turnout. Our nephew Brock, a bass whiz and Dwight’s Dad Ken, a violin player joined us on stage.

~ We were fortunate to do well at this year’s auditions for the TTC Subway Musicians Program, and in October began our 5th season. In addition to busking together, I also busk a lot on my own, occasionally with Shelley, and most recently with Kim. It’s so much fun.

~ Although I’m not quite at the seeking treatment stage, I have become quite addicted to Facebook over the past year. I have actually made some new real-life friends from it!

There you have it. Those are some of the bigger things but there have been many other highlights…you know, those small things that keep you going. Like when someone tells you a song you wrote helped them get through a tough time. Or the many new friends we’ve made through our music. Wishing you all the best in 2010!

I had an interesting experience while busking today at Queen Station. I was singing ‘Time With You’ and a young man was listening intently. When I finished, he came up and asked if I could repeat the chorus into his cellphone after he dialed his girlfriend in India. Aww…so romantic!

P.S. She liked it

There’s been so much going on lately I haven’t had a chance to update you on our standing in the TTC Subway Musicians Program this year. We auditioned in August and then had to wait til almost the end of September for the results. We felt like the audition went well, but as we’ve learned over the years, it could go either way so didn’t want to speculate too much.

I’m happy to report that this year it went in our favour. We scored 9th out of 75! So that means we are part of the regular roster and will have scheduled spots throughout the coming year. Although I  must say, we found the Auxiliiary License we had last year worked out fine.

Oh, I should also mention that Dwight brought the accordion to the audition this year as well as his guitar so we’ll be taking that down with us too! I’ll blog about any interesting experiences that come up.

It had all the trappings of a wedding…on a shoestring budget. Venue booked, invitations sent out, replies received, food, drink, lots of hugging and kissing, a room full of friends wishing you well! And, just like at our real wedding, we were having so much fun, the evening flew by.

Although this is our second CD, it was our first CD Release Party. If we had known how much fun they are we definitely would have had one for ‘Darlings Of The Open Stage’.

The ‘Little Child Big World’ CD has been a full year in the making. We started recording it at Kevin Quain’s studio in September 2008 and picked up the finished product from the manufacturer in September 2009. All thirteen songs on it were written in 2007 and 2008, following a trip we took to Ethiopia, Uganda, and Malawi. They represent an important moment in time for us, both personally and musically. Although Dwight had previously been to Uganda and Tanzania, it was my first time on the continent and the trip was truly life changing, both in the way I view the world and because I had never written a song before then.

Releasing a CD that is so personal and filled with songs of a social justice nature, comes with a certain amount of risk. If the response of the audience at the party is any indication, it was well worth the risk.

It was the first time we’ve played with a full band AND back-up singers! And that is quite a different experience. I am used to just the two of us, occasionally joined by either a bass or violin. We were so pleased to have Kevin Quain, Adam Warner, Shelley Coopersmith, Kim Cole, and Michelle Rumball, who all performed on the CD join us last night. An all star cast! Myself and the girls all wore brightly patterned African kangas, wrapped around our waists.  With no pins or clasps, we all had some advance concerns about whether our wrapping technique was sufficient to keep them from falling off mid show. Thankfully we have retained our G rating as a family friendly act!

We played the songs in the order they appear on the CD. In this time of the iPod Shuffle and individual track downloads, the order of songs may not have the importance it did in the “old days”. However, for those people who like to listen to a CD from beginning to end, the flow is paramount in creating the mood and taking the listener on a journey.

Looking out from the stage at the packed room was a huge thrill. The seating in the back room of The Cameron House is tiered, so the view is pretty much great from every seat. We had set the tables with Ethiopian woven mats, small bark snack boats, and little red votive candles that cast a beautiful glow on the faces of the audience members. To see everyone listening and watching so intently was wonderful, though it did cause me to mist up a few times.

Here was the pièce de résistance…we got a standing ovation at the end of the show! How exciting is that!?! Right now we’re on a real high. Just to illustrate how high…we got home at about 11 last night and realized we hadn’t eaten since lunch so Dwight said “Let’s order a pizza”. And here’s the funny part…I readily agreed without reservation. Normally I would have put forward all the health reasons why eating such heavy food late at such a late hour would not be wise. But look at me…livin’ on the edge. What kind of crazy rock and rollers order pizza at 11 o’clock at night?