Tuesday, January 19, 2010

singing, recording and performing oh my!

Last December I told you about the Up Your Watershed show I was performing in with Holly Arntzen and the Dream Band at the Bell Centre (a beautiful soft seat theatre venue in Surrey BC).

Yay! We have a video and I thought I would share a clip of one of the songs.........




It really was a wonderful show and I was proud to be a part of it. We do have other schools scheduled to participate in the future and plans are to bring more of these great events to many more schools so if you think you would like your local school to be a part of this sort of inspiring event please do contact Holly through her website to find out how.

This Thursday we will be at the Norman Rothstien theatre to perform the concert with a choir of 100 kids from David Lloyd George School. The last two weeks have been spent rehearsing with the children and things are looking fantastic already. The school is preparing to launch a book that the children wrote about diversity so this show is partly a celebration of the launch of this book and partly an event to support  Project Blue Sky, a program/website dedicated to helping children and their families track the ways in which they personally are reducing their carbon footprint by walking, bike riding and/or taking the bus rather than driving. The project was created by Olympic Rowing silver medalist David Calder.
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For the first time ever, this Thursday at the show we will be performing the song Blue Sky (written by Holly Arntzen and Kevin Wright), a song which was requested by Vanoc to bring awareness to Project Blue Sky,

Yesterday I was at the Factory studios with Holly and Kevin who were recording  Blue Sky with some truly talented musicians also known as the Dream Band, These fellas are among the same players that do the live theatre shows with the childrens choirs.




For me it was quite an outstanding day, to be there hanging around in such a rich creative environment with so many well respected musicians. These guys and gals are some of the nicest most down to earth people you will meet and I always love having the opportunity to work with them all and share in the laughter. As of yet I don't have a recording of the song to share with you seeing as the mixing is still in process, but I thought that what I would do is share some photos from the day and give you the links to the players so that you can go and check out their work for yourself.



Holly Arntzen is just so impressive to watch perform. I love witnessing her mastery of her instruments and seeing her fearlessness in the studio and on stage. I feel as if I am learning a world of good just by being around her and working with her and I am very grateful she has made me a part of her team.


Kevin Wright is a bundle of energy and a bold performer. His gravelly rock voice brings an excitement to the songs that the kids pick up on and really gravitate towards..

Shawn Soucy is a longtime dear and trusted friend. As I have said many times before, I am always delighted to be onstage when I know Shawn is at the kit (which is fairly often seeing as he is the drummer for the Hitmen, a band I am so very lucky to be able to perform with).


Michael Creber was playing keys on this session and it was the first time I have met him  but right away I noticed how tasty his playing is and I just sat and watched his fingers tickle the ivories for a while as the band rehearsed. It was very nice to meet him and I look forward to working with him again in future.


Brian Newcombe I have been lucky enough to play live with in another band that I sub in for so I've had the chance to get to know him on a number of occassions and I adore him completely.  Brian has an impressive list of credits to his name and has played bass on so many tracks for so many artists that I would be very surprised if you yourself have not heard his low notes being played on some album somewhere in your collection.


David Sinclair , Sarah McLachlan says David is a beautiful and gifted guitar player and I couldn't agree more. Every time I see him work his magic with a guitar my eyes are simply glued to his fingers dancing on the fretboard. I was in the studio the day he laid the guitar solo to the track of Up Your Watershed and I seriously felt goosebumps while he was taking the pass that actually went on the record.  Watch the guitar solo in the video above you will see what I mean. Every time I see it, I give a little cheer of delight. ~woot~ David!!



                                                                             
Me, adding my background vocals to the mix.




Listening.


                                                                           

It was a fun day, the kind that I would like to remember happened this January day in 2010 so here it is, my memories. What a great way to start the year if you ask me. Thank you to all of you for once again sharing your time and energy with me.

And to you all who are reading, thank you, I hope your year is going well so far.

Rach xo

1 comment:

Jac said...

Really really good! Must be so rewarding to pull something like this off.