Fond farewell

Last Saturday there were a couple of potential shows I could have gone to, but only one that really demanded my attendance: The memorial for Mark Valcour at the Dominion Tavern. Mark was the soundman for countless Dom shows that I attended since well before I got the blog up and running, and his students and colleagues will testify to his efforts at Algonquin, Carleton and CKCU. For the occasion Steve Fai of Black Boot Trio, Lonesome Paul and The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol paid tribute.

Here's Lonesome Paul; I'm embarrassed to say this is the first time I've seen the local legend in action.



And here are his Valley Ramblers, starting with bassman James Stevens (not Ian Cook as I said in an earlier version of the post).



Michael Ball, also of Ball & Chain (of course).



Dave Bignell on telecaster.



More Paul!



And so on, with Peter Von Althen on drums. Been a while since I've caught him with Trevor Alguire or the Jupiter Ray Project.



Singalong action!



Next up, Steve Fai, who I almost didn't recognize with puffy hair.



He started with a Rev. Gary Davis tune.



Steve's other side.



On to The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol, starting with a few heartfelt comments from John Westhaver on Mark Valcour's considerable legacy.



And now to increase the volume!



Guitar action with Dave and Bill!



John hits!



More volume with Nate and Miche, who is now hanging out officially.



Even more guitar!



Jason adjusts!



John hits!



Extra Nate!



A well-deserved tribute to a guy who was a huge contributor to music and radio in the city.

Black love

Happy Valentine's Day! And what could be more romantic than taking in the sweet sounds of woo courtesy of Shanker and Romps, along with obsessive law turned into hostage-taking courtesy of Black Boot Trio at the Rainbow tonight? Personally I'm still thinking it over. Come to think of it, I'm working that night. Oh well.


Black Boot Trio, The Rainbow, April 15, 2005

Also treading the boards tonight are Kathleen Edwards and The Hunting Horns at Bronson Centre Theatre; The Castevets, Picked On, Vile Intent, Four Stroke, The Dirty Nuns and Harsh Supplement will be punking it up at 62 Bell St. N - just down the street from where I used to live. The Bible All Stars and The Cutmen will be celebrating Valentine's Day with odes to puppy love (it's a benefit show for the humane society) at the Elmdale Tavern. Lonesome Paul and Uncle Sean will be playing at Irene's.

Return from the Dead

Continuing our Birdman Sound festive party coverage ... Steve Fai of Black Boot Trio stepped up to the plate to play a few solo songs, ending with the ever-popular You Don't Have To Drink To Have Fun. He also played Room 152 and a couple of others. Someone yelled out a request for Many Young Men Consider Themselves Cowboys, but as Steve pointed out it's not really an acoustic tune ...



As John declared, most in attendance could have listened to Fai all night, but there was a noisier bunch waiting in the wings: The Fortunate Sons! I've seen them play at a previous Birdman Sound party, at a New Year's show at the Bronson St. house occupied by The Four Frames, and at gigs at The Dominion (opening for Tricky Woo - an incredibly explosive show that was) and at Zaphod's (with Space Elevator). Four of them used to be in The Dead City Rebels, one of Oattawa's premier rock'n'roll outfits of yore. They almost had a record out on the infamous Man's Ruin label, but it went bumps up before the platter could be released. They kicked things off with the touching family tribute Motherfucker In Law - so appropriate to the season! - and detonated onward from there ...

Austen Morrow comes up from Toronto.



As you can probably tell, most of these pictures - like this one of Nate Hurlow -were taken at close range ...



At least there was a drum kit between me and J.P. Sadek ...



Ben Hurlow and Chris Anderson round out the band. You can just make out another former Dead City Rebel, Rene LeClair, there in back.



Faceoff action!



Guitar headbutting action!



And that's it because I ran out of film.

• Show reminder: Place, Akisakila and Liar's Rosebush perform at Club SAW.

Over The Rainbow

The Black Boot Trio had the CD release show for "Eternal Return" at The Rainbow April 15. I got out of work late (again); so I chugged down a carrot muffin I had in place of dinner and ran down Elgin St. - destination, Murray St. I actually have no idea where Murray St. is, but fortunately bumped into Casey Comeau on the way. A quick stop at a Rideau Centre Shopper's drug store for earplugs and to pick up And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead pictures, and we made it through the door just as the trio were making their way through their first song Many Young Men Consider Themselves Cowboys. The Rainbow's an interesting place, with an upper half-storey. You can look down, and see the band kind of like this:



Look, it's Geoff "Big Daddy" Taylor's on bass ... he even looks big from up here ...



People were lining the staircase up to the 2nd floor (really the third - a restaurant occupies the building's bottom floor). The view is a bit like this:



Of course, you want to check out Stef Bennett's killer drumming ...



A quick peek as you hit the landing ...



The stage is a good three or four feet above the dance floor (incidentally, can you guess the name of the record station that sponsored this shindig?).



All that going up and down stairs can do strange things to one's shutter speed. Must be the altitude fluctuation.



The club packs out pretty quickly.



For the encore they played Hank Williams' My Bucket's Got a Hole In It and George Jones' Out of Control, and reprised their own Four Horsemen. Is This All There Is figured in there somewhere, too.

• Spiky hair reminder: The Casualties, The Briggs and The Sewer Rats play Babylon; doors open at 5 p.m. so no way in heck I'm making that show ...
  

Eternal Return

More Black Boot Trio photos, in preparation for their upcoming gig at The Rainbow April 15. These are pictures from their Bluesfest 2004 show.

Steffany Bennett, in one of the few pictures of her when you can see more than a lot of swirling hair and drumsticks ...



Steve Fai models the man in black look.



Geoff "Big Daddy" Taylor walks the walk.



I, for one, feel very prepared.

• Show reminders: Tonight The High Dials, The Glads and The Hitmakers play Zaphods, while BigJeezusTruck has a CD release party with Toronto's Red Light Rippers at Barrymore's. Those with more upscale tastes (and transportation) can go to Wakefield and catch Rock Plaza Central, Nathan Coles Outfit and Mike Feuerstack's Snailhouse at the Black Sheep Inn.

Three horsemen, and one horsewoman

Black Boot Trio are the kingpins of Ottawa's thriving country rock scene, having released few albums back in the 20th century to wide acclaim.
They never really went away, as far as I can tell, but decided to come back anyway. In addition to their many musical accomplishments - mostly hard-hitting tunes about drunkards, damnation and love gone bad - singer and guitarist Steve Fai is director of Carleton's school of architecture, and drummer Steffany Bennett runs an Alzheimer's research lab at Ottawa U. I don't know what bassist Geoff "Big Daddy" Taylor does in his spare time, but he does have an apropos nickname.
They have a new album out, Eternal Return, and it's a fine one.
These photos were taken at Babylon June 21, 2003 - a month or so before they headed into Hassan's Rumpus Room to record the songs on the album (yes, it's been a while in the works).

Here's Fai and Bennett.



Here's Bennett and Taylor.



And lastly a group shot ... wait a minute ... one ... two .. three. Darn it, there's four people in this here trio! Yes, it's South of 78/Pirate man Bryan "Catfish" Curry, honorary Black Boot, doing some of that lead and rhythm guitar playing he does so well.



Naturally, there are more pictures of all these folks at the Birdman Sound website. I'm republishing this post because (a) I grabbed it off the blog and forgot to repost it after some minor editing chores and (b) The Black Boot Trio finally have a semisolid date for their CD release party. It's at The Rainbow, and goes down April 15.