Hi all,

What a time!  It’s good to be home, although I’m tired from the red eye flight and jetlagged.  The 2010 Vancouver Olympics were an amazing time right up to the very end.  I’m pleased to announce that Come On In! was a runaway success, with a perfect run of 45 shows to full houses, a gruelling schedule but so much fun and so rewarding.  A heartfelt thanks to everyone in the production crew and cast, as well as the technical staff of the Revue Stage, for all their hard work, talent and positivity.  I miss you all already guys and gals!

Thanks also to the great staff at Atlantic Canada House for setting up a venue that was the spot to be during the celebrations.  It was fitting to spend this Sunday afternoon at the Atlantic Canada House bar watching the Gold medal hockey game, and even more fitting that  it was Sid the Kid of Cole Harbour, NS, who scored the winning goal!   The bar exploded into celebration!  We jumped a water taxi and headed downtown immediately afterwards and the mood there was just electric; I was walking past throngs of people on the sidewalks, randomly putting my hand out in the air and getting high fived by total strangers all the way along!   The whole town was going crazy, in a good way, and it was a total thrill to be on the streets for it.

All that being said, I am super happy to be home!

Hey everyone!

Having a great time here at the Vancouver Olympics, we’ve been playing to full houses of enthusiastic people,  and the general vibe on Granville Island is very very positive.  We are in between shows so I’m short on time right now, but I wanted to drop a line and thank everyone who’s dropped in to see our show Come On In! For those of you in BC, we’ll be making an appearance on Breakfast Television tomorrow morning bright and early, so all you early birds can tune in and check us out!

There’s a constant buzz of people and action going on all day long and into the night, Atlantic Canada House has definitely been a hive of activity throughout the Games so far, everywhere you go here on Granville Island there’s great music in the air, it’s pretty wonderful really.  And the sun has been blazing down for most of the last week, which, I have to say, has been awesome.  Vancouver is truly a beautiful city.

The last couple of nights we’ve been lucky enough to get tickets for the medal ceremonies – here’s a still from some video I shot last night during Maelle Ricker’s gold medal presentation.  First woman to win gold on Canadian soil!  Pretty spectacular.  We had great seats (thanks Peter!); we’re just to the left of the stage and about four rows back, so if you keep your eyes peeled you might even see us whooping it up!

Take care all and I’ll check in again soon with more news from Vancouver!

Daniel

Hi all!

I’m writing from Toronto airport, on my way to Vancouver where I’ll be performing for the next two weeks at the 2010 Winter Olympics!  I’ll be part of a show called Come On In!, which will showcase artists from Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick.  Joining me will be David Myles (NS), Meaghan Blanchard (PEI), and Monique Poirier (NB).  Come On In!, plays three times daily (12:30 p.m., 3 p.m., 6 p.m.) from February 13 to 27, 2010, at Atlantic Canada House on the transformed Revue Stage at the Arts Club Theatre on Granville Island.  It’s going to be a blast – if you’re in the area come on down to Granville Island and say hello!

I’ve had my nose to the grindstone recently working hard to finish Learning the Newfoundland Button Accordion Volume 2, and I’m very happy to say that it’s very very close to completion!  Volume 2 of the series will focus on more advanced aspects of playing Newfoundland and Labrador’s music on the button accordion; we’ll look at playing the basses, using ornaments and harmony, playing across the rows, and playing in different keys.  Volume 2 will also include a supplemental booklet with lots of extra information, so combined with Volume 1, it will be a very thorough package for someone wanting to master the accordion music of Newfoundland and Labrador.

I’ll be updating the events page very soon as well so stay posted there – it’s shaping up to be a busy year: an Arts and Culture Centre tour of Emile’s Dream; ten more amazing days with the Tales, Trails, and Tunes Festival; performances at The March Hare; a long-overdue collaboration with Gros Morne Summer Music (which I’m really looking forward to); our tenth Vinland Music Camp in beautiful Killdevil, Bonne Bay; and lots more!

Just a note wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a healthy and happy New Year.  Enjoy your holiday!

Hi all,

Just following up on a radio interview I did earlier this week with Angela Antle of Weekend Arts Magazine.  We talked about the summer tour I did with Aaron Collis and Matthew Byrne and about sheds!  For those of you who didn’t get a chance to pick up a copy of Shed No Tears, Fred’s Music has a limited amount of copies, or you can track any one of us down and we may be able to hook you up.  Act fast as it’s a limited second run!  Here’s a link to a couple of the tunes from the album!

In other news, Learning the Newfoundland Button Accordion Volume 2 is nearly finished and will soon be sent off to the manufacturer!  Keep an eye on the SHOP section of the website – it’ll be available there soon!

Hi all,

Just recently arrived home from my travels in the Arctic. What a time! I was working aboard the Clipper Adventurer, with the great adventure tourism company Adventure Canada. We visited Greenland, Baffin Island, Labrador, Newfoundland and ended up in Halifax. I’ll post some pictures soon, but for now, this me playing fiddle for the wedding of Cedar Bradley-Swan and Michael Kuenzl on the back deck of the Clipper Adventurer, Nachvak Fjord, Labrador. Thanks to Lisa Making for the photo! And to everyone I travelled with, it was a pleasure! Keep in touch!

T'was Chilly.

Phew! I’m home finally! We finished our 2 week tour with a show in Tors Cove last night, at the lovely Five Islands Art Gallery – thanks Bill, Frances and Laura! It was a great time, but it’s also awesome to be home for a couple of days! Thanks to everyone who came out and supported us during the tour – we sold out of our run of our shed album, Shed No Tears. It’s been a long day of driving, so I’ll sign off here and say good night!

Hi all!  We finished the West Coast portion of our tour last night, playing to a lovely crowd at the Oceanview Hotel in Rocky Harbour, after great nights at the Black Thorn Stick in Corner Brook and the Woody Point Heritage Theatre, as well as the Gros Morne Theatre Festival in Cow Head!  Packing up the car now to head east, for Appleton, where we’re playing the town hall tonight!  Should be a great one!  Thanks to everyone who came out to our shows in Cow Head, Corner Brook, Woody Point and Rocky Harbour!  Check out the events page to see if we’re hitting your town on our tour!

Fighting off the zombies hordes just outside Wiltondale.

Hey all!

Just arrived in Cow Head to kick off a two week tour with Matthew Byrne and Aaron Collis! Should be a great time, we’re playing the Gros Morne Theatre Festival (here in Cow Head) tonight, then heading to Corner Brook to play the Black Thorn Stick Cafe on Broadway. Wednesday has us at Charlie Payne’s wonderful Heritage Theatre in Woody Point, then Thursday has us in Rocky Harbour at the Oceanview Hotel! After that we’re heading to Appleton in Central Newfoundland to round out our first week. Week two has us zigzagging Eastern Newfoundland – see the Events page for more details. Check the post below for an mp3 from our shed album, fresh off the presses! Come out and say hi, hope to see you!

Hi all!  Whew been busy lately!  Visited Gander last weekend to make a “shed recording” with Matthew Byrne and Aaron Collis, two talented fellows I’ll be touring with this July!  We spent a long and very enjoyable evening recording in Austin Sheppard’s shed – thanks Austin -awesome shed!  Also big thanks to Louis McDonald who loaned us the microphone and Tony Norman, our man in Gander, who introduced us to Austin and took the photo below just after, also who called the cab when recording was wrapped and it was time to go for breakfast at 6 am.  The result is a fun and loose recording that will be available only on our tour this July!  Here’s one of the tracks, Dianne’s Happiness, composed by Emile Benoit, sandwiched between two tunes (Aaron what are these called?) from Boyd’s Cove.

Dianne’s Happiness

Click here to download a PDF of our summer poster, including tour dates!  Feel free to put one up in your area or to forward to friends!

Right now I’m in the St. Anthony area, attending the 1st Annual Iceberg Festival!  It’s a great time so far, last night I was out on the water for fiddle tunes at sea, and there are lots of icebergs on the go!  Tomorrow I’ll be performing a concert in Griquet, at a gorgeous old parish hall there, the oldest building in the community, I was in there today to check it out for the first time and the acoustics are fantastic, with wood everywhere, so that will be a real treat!  To find out more about the festival, visit their site here!

I’ve finally updated my summer schedule!  Been really busy lately finishing editing on Volume 2 of Learning the Newfoundland Button Accordion – and good news!  Preliminary editing is finally done!  Volume 2 will explore the bass, ornaments, and playing in different keys!  Just received my second run of Volume 1, which means that my first run of a thousand is now out there making its mark, in addition to people around the island using it to learn accordion I’ve had people across Canada working with it as well as people as far away as Spain, Australia, and Taiwan!  Pretty cool!

Ok that’s all for now folks!  Take care and enjoy the warm weather now that it’s here! Daniel