Hi all!

Hope the summer is treating you all great!  Was in Cow Head over the weekend enjoying the annual Lobster Festival, where my father performed for the first time in 37 years with his band Rock Cut.  It was a very special evening, beautiful music and passionately played.

I’ll be in St. John’s from the 6th to the 10th enjoying and participating in the Sound Symposium!  See EVENTS to see when I’m playing!  Hope to see you out!  Have a safe and fun week!

Hey everyone, just checking in to say that Tales Trails and Tunes is off to a roaring start! If you’re in range of Norris Point, Newfoundland and Labrador, I highly recommmend that you pack up the car/van/jeep/hot air balloon and get yourselves down here for a look before it all ends this weekend! Check out the festival schedule here!  Over the weekend we enjoyed wonderful music from musicians all over the island and Labrador, and there was music at the Old Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital (now a beautiful Hostel / Community Centre) till late in the morning.   Come down and say hello!  

Hi All,

A couple of cool videos to share with you!  The first is from a couple of days ago, aboard our flight from Goose Bay to Labrador City.  We were itching to get the fiddles out and play; here we are in the middle of touring a show about Emile Benoit, who loved playing his fiddle on board planes, and we thought “we are telling this story every evening, we HAVE to get the fiddles out and actually DO it!”  Everyone on board was game, so sure enough we broke out the fiddles and in very tight quarters played an impromptu set of tunes to an appreciative audience.  How fun! We play Corner Brook tomorrow night, then Mainland and Black Duck Brook the next day, and finish in Stephenville, so it’ll be great to finish the tour in Emile’s own backyard!

The next post is from Juno week in St. John’s, it’s a couple of flute tunes, again tunes from Emile.  I’m playing my Windward flute, made by my good friends Forbes and Yola Christie.  Check out their site at www.windwardflutes.com.  I had fun playing this set, I’ve been messing around with singing while I play and I you can hear a bit of in the second tune, The Meech Lake Breakdown (which I play on guitar on my first album Chain – check it out in the Shop section!).  The first tune is the Reel de la Pistroli. Thanks to Justin Burnett for this video!

Hi All!  We’re touring Emile’s Dream, a three man show recounting the life and music of Emile Benoit, one of Newfoundland and Labrador’s best known and loved fiddlers.  Joining me onstage will be Kelly Russell and Phil Churchill of The Once.  Emile’s Dream is directed by Jillian Keilley with a script transcribed directly from Emile’s own words, sewn into a play by playwright Robert Chafe.  Hope you can make it as we tour the Arts and Culture Centres around the province!  Click the photo above for the tour schedule!

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.