Here’s a link to a show review from Dunville Ontario, from the Dunville Chronicle…

http://dunnvillechronicle.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2677611

This here has been shown on Eastlink Magazine during 2 separate weeks in 2009

ELMAG – Feature – TAB.mov

Dale Leckie produced a little Folk-u-mentary for East Link Magazine….

It’s been brewing for a few months now. Initially I heard only whisperings. Then I met Ian Sherwood, “Up on the Ridge”, at the Hupman‘s Place. He was there to lay down some saxophone tracks. I heard, for the first time, a few tracks of their upcoming new CD: “Countin’ Quarters”. There are Hammond and fiddle sounds, double bass and some (un)real electricity. Now the disc is all that’s a-playin’ at our house.

A couple of years ago, when their first CD came out, I said to myself: “It just ain’t gonna get much better than that!”. Of course I was wrong. Since then I learned that Scott plays electric and upright bass, that he is a recording engineer and sound guy. Ryan is a visual artist and lyricist, and together with drummer Mike Carroll the brothers keep a groove that can be felt all the way to Chicago and Detroit. I am still amazed at how accurately this new CD represents the Hupman Brothers: The sounds are straight forward. The mood of the songs reached my heart before my mind caught on, and the space that the band creates allows them to be joined by musical fellows, listeners and dancers before the first verse is done.

Man! I stuck the thing into my computer and the thing went from zero to sixty in just a few seconds. The first song is called “Repeat” and features the classic trio sound with drums, bass and strat. Halfway through, Ian Sherwood kicks in with a few horns. I took the hint and switched my player program to “Repeat”. Gimme some more!

The Album mixes a laid back sense of home with melancholy. It oozes heart and hope. These are the guys everybody wants to play with. They make fast, driving R’n'B sound like a piece of cake and they draw fellow virtuosos like moths to the flame. On this record you’ll hear Caleb Miles playing his electric guitar, you’ll hear Bob Federer playing keyboard like nobody else in the Valley and Ian’s Saxophones are on six of the twelve tracks.

“Countin’ Quarters”, the CD, and “Countin’ Quarters”, the title track, both, conjure up an image of taking stock, choices made and dues paid, hands extended to friends, joy and sorrow shared. I tip my hat to Scott and Ryan, to the trials and tribulations of brotherhood. They keep setting the example, the standard and the bar of musicianship, of inclusion and of support.

The band met at the Frizzelizer's Place

I will make sure to be in attendance when the Hupman Brothers celebrate the completion of their latest recording with a concert at the Al Whittle Theatre in Wolfville, on Saturday, the 30th of May, Apple Blossom weekend. The preparations for this show are running at full steam. Most of the participating musicians met last Monday at Brian Frizzle’s Dungaree Lair for a rehearsal. I was lucky enough to listen in, and I heard a world class blues band, having fun, groovin’ out, tradin’ licks. There’s a buzz out there. It’s coming. My number one CD of the Year.

Kimberly Smith and his fellow travelers from www.moviegames.ca made the best of the AMP Festival by assisting as event reporters…

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that somebody was spreading rumours about the front page of the Grapevine being written by somebody new. There was also an unsubstantiated claim that this person would be carefully selected by Ariana and myself. All these statements, in hindsight, seem a tiny bit inaccurate. I shall devote this, one of my last two front pages, to an effort of making better sense.

As far as the front page is concerned: We did not choose a new writer. We chose a new management. A few months back, we started looking for someone to take over this community newsletter. Two of the most community oriented individuals we know had expressed an interest: Jeremy Novak and Jocelyn Hatt.

Jocelyn Hatt has been participating in Wolfville and the Valley for a while now. With Michelle Kulyk she brought “Hatt & Kül” to Main Street, the ethically sourced clothing and accessories store. Jocelyn can sometimes be seen at Paddy’s Pub, where she provides music lovers and others (music non-lovers?) with beverages and good humour. She is the graphic artist who created the logo for the Wolfville Farmers Market. Jocelyn also designed all the graphics for the latest CD of Caleb Miles: “Memory Well”.

Jeremy Novak, too, is no stranger to the Wolfville community. He finished studying business administration at Acadia last year (2008) and participated in Edaline Theatre’s musical productions, including “The Newsies”.  He frequently helps out at town events and is perhaps best known as “Tour Guide Extraordinaire”. Jeremy ran “Wolfville Walking Tours” during the summer of 2008 and then created an overnight success with “Wolfville’s Gravely Ghost Walk”, an extremely entertaining walking tour, which employs “street theatre in the darkness” to embed local history and lore in the minds of visitors and audience.

Both Jeremy and Jocelyn are well connected with business and arts community. Both are creative entrepreneurs with a very pragmatic streak. With respect to the Grapevine, they conducted surveys, questioned suppliers, chatted up readers and examined advertising issues. They consulted with Adam Barnet, the founder of this publication and learned everything they could before accepting the Grapevine as a challenge.

The coming months promise to be a very exciting time for all of us who have been and will be involved in the Grapevine. With new stewardship is seems we might see all three generations of Grapevine operators cooperating, from Adam Barnett to Jeremy and Jocelyn. All of a sudden it is conceivable to have a paper with more depth, more contributions and more integrity.

We are thrilled to pass the Grapevine into such capable hands. We want to thank all of you: Readers, supporters, advertisers, past and future publishers. It’s becoming an institution, this Grapevine of Wolfville. We learned many things. About this town, about the people, about how things are and could be. We learned stuff about life, love, community and ourselves. We’ll stick around and learn some more. This is, after all, the best place in the world for us to learn in. Thanks guys!

Thugs at Bay on Eastlink Television | t@b Music.

Shannon Lynch performed as "Frodo" in the Lord of the Rings in Toronto

In less than two months, the front page of the Grapevine will be written by somebody new, somebody who has been carefully selected by Ariana and myself, somebody who we know will do a wonderful job.  More about that on another of my remaining front pages. We will focus a little more on music.

Everybody in my household is a musician. All of us are quite passionate about noise that sounds pretty. We’re into sounds that gently touch people, and we’re into people who love music, which brings this diatribe right back to Wolfville. In the course of the last three years, people of this town and it’s surroundings have taught us more about music than we learned in the 8 years prior to coming (back) here.

Since April 2007 we had the privilege of continuing a Wolfville tradition called Night Kitchen. This event takes place on the first Saturday of every month, from September to April. It was started (under a different name) by Ken Shorley and continued by Valley Arts Award winner Jack McDonald and later by the fabulous Mud Creek Boys. We saw shows of Ken, Jack, the Boys and countless other performers, and we experienced the most incredible phenomenon of all: the Wolfville audience. While we learned from the Hupmans, while we sang songs by Adam Bazinet and other Wolf-villains, while we worked with visual artists and organizers, we were overwhelmed by the Wolfville audience. Where else do three percent (!!!) of the population fill up the local (Al Whittle) theatre and sing, as an audience, three part harmonies to a song they never heard before? Just search YouTube for “Ian Sherwood Shot Our Love @ Night Kitchen” and you’ll know what I mean. These days, if you want to get a musician to play at the Al Whittle in Wolfville, you just need to mention the audience. Ian Sherwood, decorated with awards and ECMA nominations didn’t need much convincing to return to Wolfville for the AMP Festival on May 8,9 and 10. That is this weeks story. continue…

The trumpet player Caleb Hamilton, who will share the AMP Festival stage with several performers, must have mentioned the audience, when he told the eclectic songstress Ronley Teper about the AMP Festival. She will fill her trunk with friends and instruments, drive some 2000 klicks from Toronto and back, just to play the Whittle in Wolfville. She told me about her plans to get Acadia’s own percussionist Mark Adam to sit in with her on her May 9 performance here. Ryan Cook, “Best Country Recording of the Year 2009″ ECMA nominee, must have felt the same. Haligonian Shannon Lynch, who performed as “Frodo” in Toronto’s Lord of the Rings musical, of course already knew. He will be the Master of Ceremonies in the Saturday night show and perform at the Sunday Night Mothers Day Gala. In fact, more than thirty single performers and groups will come to Wolfville on Mothers Day (Convocation) weekend to play for this, the most wonderful audience north of the south pole.

Tickets for each AMP Festival show cost $12. All four shows can be seen for $36. They are available at the Box of Delights Bookshop in Wolfville or from t@b at the Wolfville Farmers Market.

What’s this REALLY about? Air waves, like water and air, belong to our planetary karmic collective. I don’t want broadcasting totally controlled by the likes of monsanto, coca cola and noranda….

For me, it’s not necessarily about jobs. The folks at CBC, of course, deserve to keep theirs. They’ve done a much better job at providing access to the air waves than many of the private broadcasting outfits.

I Think, Néstlé sees it like this: “If most of the planets water ain’t polluted, how can you sell “clean” water?”. We aught to kick the advertisers out of CBC and the public air waves and fund, via taxes, a national broadcasting system which gives equitable access to people. That costs way less than waging war with the same money.

Please sign the petition below. It may help.

Save Canada’s Public Broadcasting.