Courage and Patience and Grit hit the stores a few days ago.  I feel I can brag about this DVD more than any of our CD’s because I had so little to do with the making of it.  I know your thinking I’m being falsely modest as I sing, play, or talk, or all three, in just about every moment of the DVD, but trust me that’ all I did.   We’ve done TV shows and DVDs and live CDs in the past and in invariably our performance was somehow altered or compromised or compressed or edited in some unnatural fashion. 

You would not believe how many times I’ve stood a mic for a TV shoot when some production assistant or director would ask me if I could lower the stand for the sake of the camera angle or lighting.  I always protest explaining that if the mic is lower than usual, I will have to stand and sing differently and politely ask if they couldn’t just move the camera or light instead.  Or, my particular favorite; when taping an episode of Rita for CBC TV, a floor director asked if I had to use my usual orange guitar picks and if I would mind if they had the props department die them black so they would not clash with the set.  On the same day,  another man, who shall remain nameless, asked me if I could look in to camera 3 while singing verse 2. 

In my Newfoundland accent, I remember saying;

“Man, you must think playing in this band in some friggin easy.   I can barely remember the words to verse two and it use every inch of my brain just to sing on time and in key, while playing an eight string bouzouki that I just bought.  So, no, I don’t think I’ll be able to find camera 3 and address it with a wink and a nod and a quarter turn during verse two.”

He hates me to this day.

No such trauma with the making of Courage and Patience and Grit.

Pierre and Francois from Fogo (the company, not the Island where Gideon lived; coincidence eh?), captured the sights and sounds of a GBS show without asking us to do so much as iron our shirts.  We had one production meeting, over pints I might add, where they explained that they wanted us to alter nothing, and that they would be as invisible as possible during the shooting days.  The result is the most honest portrait of a night out with GBS that I have ever seen.  Full of foolish banter and more mistakes than I care to confess, C&P&G could have been filmed on any one of the zillion dates on the Hard and the Easy Tour.  Well done Gents.

I will take a moment to smell the Roses and pat myself and the GBS cast on the back for another major release; our third in as many years, I believe.   I think that means we have released ten major projects in 13 years.

Does that sound like a lot?  It sure didn’t feel like it.

Home for a few weeks to finish producing the Irish Descendants CD then a welcome Christmas break that includes a big charity concert in December.  Great Big Christmas is back and this year it is all for the Janeway Children’s Hospital.  Every song and drink helps a sick kid.

 Guilt free celebration.  Gotta like it.

Cheers
Alan