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Welcome to 'Off-cuts', an ever-expanding collection of demos, side projects and orphaned recordings. Some of this stuff has been laying around in the archives(!) for yonks and I thought it was time to let you curious listeners have a boo at it. In the future, I hope to add to this collection, so come back from time to time for further updates.

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That's How I Walk and Town Called Jesus - are demos from my last solo recording. Before heading into the studio to record, I'll often make demo recordings (think rough sketches) of the tunes that I'm considering for the next album. These demos are a way for me to let my record company hear what I'm up to, and for me to listen objectively (HAH!) to the new stuff so's I can start thinking about possible arrangements etc.

One thing they were never intended for is public consumption... so why are they here you might ask. Well, Andrew McPherson my neighbour and the kind gent who's studio (The Monastereo) these demos were recorded in, suggested that some of them might be of interest to you all, I'll let you be the judge of that. Of course there are other demo's from the same session, but these are the only ones that my ego will allow me to play for you..

 
 
 
 
On the Great Divide - this version (a different version exists on That's How I Walk) was recorded for a compilation recording called Farm Tracks organised by my pal Tammi Greer. The compilation included cuts by Sue Foley, Ralph Boyd Johnson, Tim Williams, Linda McRae and others, as far as I know, the disc has not beeen released yet. The players on this recording are:

Kit Johnson - bass
Glen Stace (my co-writer on this tune) - electric guitar, organ and harmony vocals
Ross Watson - drums
 
 
Whoville - was written and recorded for a compilation CD called Sixty Second Songs. This recording is still available through DROG (Dave's Record's of Guelph) and includes many brief little dittyd written and performed by Guelph artists, all proceeds go to charity. For further info, click here...

Special thanks to my wife Chris who suggested that the proposed title for this piece (Teddy Bear's Christmas...) sucked badly, thus forcing me back to the drawing board. I think Whoville is a much better title... with apologies to Dr. Seuss.
 
Gwai Haanas - I've been sitting on this oddity since the turn of the century! Late in 1999 Kevin O'Leary commissioned me to write a piece of music for CBC's millenium broadcast. Other artists involved in the project were Jane Bunnet (Algonquin Park in Ontario), and Mary Jane Lamond (Highlands National Park in Cape Breton). The idea was to create a piece of music using sounds recorded by Kevin in some of Canada's most beautiful National Parks. I've spent a little time in The Queen Charlotte Islands and loved the idea of creating a piece of music that might capture some of the drama and beauty of Haida Gwaii. I also went into the CBC archives to find some news story segments for my piece as I couldn't imagine creating a collage about the area without touching on the politics of logging and the sovereignty of The Haida Nation.

The MP3 format doesn't really do justice to this piece, but Kevin has said that he hopes to release a recording with this piece plus several others in the future.

Once again, I turned to my friend and neighbour Andrew McPherson (click for his site here) for help with this project. We ended up doing all the tracking at the Monastereo and Andrew contributed samples, keyboards and flute parts... he's a horribly talented dude for sure.

So there you have it, enjoy, I'll post more stuff when I can.

=SF=
 
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