The Six String Nation is a movement to connect people from all regions of Canada through music and by sharing our icons, images and stories.
The Six String Nation guitar is at the heart of the movement. The guitar is made of more than 60 pieces that are significant aspects of history or culture from across the country.
Visit iTunes and search for BARK PODCAST 1 and 2. More episodes to come, stay tuned. Featuring the music of Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, their influences and material from the solo albums ofStephen Fearing, Tom Wilson and Colin Linden. Hosted by Growlin' Smokin' Tom Wilson. Go ahead,subscribe.You know you wanna!
It's been far too long since my last missive. What can I say... too many broths, not enough cook!
So I'm writing to let you know what my schedule over the next few months looks like, both as a solo entity and with my pals Colin and Tom in Blackie and The Rodeo Kings. Speaking of B&RK, we've just released Let's Frolic Again and some great reviews are just starting to trickle in - check out our web site www.rodeokings.com for more info on the latest release, shows etc. It's certainly going to be a busy summer.
Oh and for those of you outside of Canada, Halle-freakin'-lujah... I picked up a Juno for Yellowjacket in Saskatoon at the beginning of April... I've been nominated in the solo/Roots Traditional category many times over the years, so it was very gratifying to finally get the cake... especially so, for a record that I produced myself. OK... enough horn tooting.
The upcoming May/June dates are solo shows in The UK, Ireland + a little gig in Paris - France. I return from The UK June 11th. After that, there are a few scattered B&RK shows in June, before the Summer festival season starts in earnest.
Hope to see you either across the pond, back in Canada or down in The US.
So check out the dates on the gig page, and as always, thanks for listening.
Stephen won a Juno for solo effort Yellowjacket in the Roots & Traditional Category - Solo at this year's Junos in beautiful downtown Saskatoon!
Here you see Rodeo King brothers Tom and Colin congratulating Stephen in front of the world as they presented the award for R&B/Soul recording to winner Jacksoul!
Let's see some love for Stephen's much - deserved award on that bulletin board in the Community Area and on Stephen's MySpace! FEEL THE LOVE!
Yellowjacket is up for a Juno! Check it out, April 1st in Saskatoon. Send good thoughts!
Also, check out the gig page for my tour with B&RK in March (we're going to Europe) and my solo tour to the UK in the spring. I'm even playing a few gigs in April with my pals Andy White, and Colleen Hodgson on bass.
I've been working with Andy White, a great songwriter and friend from Belfast, for the past 5+ years. We first met at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, where I initiated Andy into the ancient Canadian-musician traditions of T. Hortons. Since that first encounter and whenever Andy comes over from Australia (his current home) we work together writing and performing . In the past, the "Tall Friends" have worked together as a quintet, quartet and now as a trio with Colleen Hodgson on bass and harmony vocals, Andy on lead vocals, acoustic + electric 12 string and Hammertone and yours truly on electric guitars and harmony vocals. Together we have written several songs for Blackie and The Rodeo Kings and are currently working towards recording all our original material.
Also looking forward to the release of the Blackie and the Rodeo Kings album, Let's Frolic Again, due in May 2007.
As always, I would like to point out the Community Pages are always open, click on the slide show above left to hit the photo galleries, leave me a message on the bulletin board, and here's hoping you can make it to one of the many shows.
See ya! Stephen
Stephen has joined Artists for World Vision.You can make a difference in this world by sponsoring a child in need. When you go to one of Stephen's shows (or a Blackie and the Rodeo Kings show, or a Colin Linden show), look for the display by the CD's. If you sign on at the show, you receive one of Stephen's CD's as a thank you. Alternately, you can sign up at the World Vision website.
World Vision child sponsorship is a proven long-term solution to the kind of poverty that cripples families and steals hope from children. Your monthly pledge is combined with more than 325,000 other Canadian child sponsors. Pooling financial resources enables World Vision to maximize the productivity of every dollar.
Working together with local staff and community leaders helps create healthy environments and hopeful futures for children and their families with things like education, skills training, nutritious food, agricultural assistance, safe water, and health care.
The long-term goal of each child sponsorship project is to empower a community to become self-sufficient. Once that happens, usually in the span of 10 to 15 years, the project closes.
Of the funds given to World Vision in 2005, 84.3 per cent went directly into programs that help children, 10.6 per cent went to fundraising services, 5 per cent was allocated to administration, and 0.1 per cent was retained for future use. Audits are conducted regularly by external firms to verify the accuracy of World Vision's financial reporting.
We would like to call attention to the fact that Stephen won Best Songwriter – English (for Yellowjacket, in stores NOW) at the 2nd annual Canadian Folk Music Awardswww.canadianfolkmusicawards.ca/2006nominees.htm on December 10th, 2006 held in beautiful downtown Edmonton! Many congratulations, Stephen!
Competition was tough, with Lennie Gallant (Halifax, NS), Ron Hynes (St. John's, NF), Romi Mayes ( Winnipeg, MB), and Sarah Noni Metzner (Vancouver, BC) in the running alongside Stephen.
And if you can’t get enough of Stephen live, check out his gig guide at www.stephenfearing.com/gigs.php for his late January/February swing through Western Canada.
RADIO BROADCAST ALERT! We Shall Be Released - A Celebration of Song on the 30th anniversary of The Last Waltz by The Band will be re-broadcast on CBC Radio One on Monday, December 18th on Sounds Like Canada with Shelagh Rogers. It will air between 10:00 am and noon. Check local listings! The performance was recorded live on Thursday, November 23 - 8:00 pm at Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto.
Anchoring the event was Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, with Colin Linden, Tom Wilson and Stephen Fearing. They were ably backed by the amazing Garth Hudson AND John Whynot on keyboards, Bryan Owings on drums and John Dymond on bass. Joining B&RK OnStage was Kathleen Edwards, Jason Collett, Oh Susanna, Tony Dekker, Dione Taylor, Luke Doucet and Paul Reddick.
Hey! Did you know B&RK won Record of the Year for Let’s Frolic at the Hamilton Music Awards? www.hamiltonmusicawards.com. Well, they did! Stop by the website or the MySpace site (you can find the link at www.rodeokings.com, on every page) and leave a note of congrats, why don’t you?
All the best!
The Reverend, Sunny Schrubbe (Mrs.)`webmaster and list mom
