ECMA news, day 3

I wrote this post on Saturday April 16, but did not get in on-line last night.  That means that all of the “today, tomorrow and yesterday” statements are one day off.  I am back in Harvey today and will be teaching very soon.

Kim and I did not end up going out last night.  We had hoped to go to the Old Triangle to catch up with the Colin Grant Band again but I started nodding off around 11:30pm.  I must be getting old! 

Today was my last day at the ECMAs for 2011.  We had to come home today as I will be returning to my private teaching tomorrow.  We had a very relaxed morning of breakfast and checking out of the hotel.

Kim dropped me off at the Delta in the early afternoon so I could take in some workshops.  I started off with a workshop on Social Media with Ariel Hyatt and Tom Jackson.  I had actually debated whether or not to attend as I did a 9-week on-line course with Ariel last year.  The course last year was very good and I figured I would go in to see if there was anything new.  The workshop this year was also good, although it was hard for Ariel and Tom to fit much in since it was only an hour and a half long.  I did pick up a couple of Ariel’s books so I can go over the material on my own time.  There is a lot of information, and it is hard to absorb it all in a short amount of time.

Next on my agenda was a workshop on Factor funding.  This workshop was not as useful for me at this point in time.  I will be looking into their funding programs for marketing my 3^rd CD though.

As I was coming out of the Factor workshop I heard a familiar fiddle tune.  Mac Day was playing a track from my second CD on the EMCA live radio station in the lobby of the Delta.  I stopped by to chat a bit.  We met last year at Ariel Hyatt’s workshop.  He had just started an internet radio station last year. 

My last event at the ECMAs this year was on improving stage performance.  This workshop was with Tom Jackson.  I attended his workshop last year in Sidney, Cape Breton.  It was fantastic, so I decided to see him in action again.   Tom was working with a band called Slow Coaster.  I was yet again impressed with the changes that Tom made.  I understand the changes that he made, and why he made them, but I have yet to figure out how to apply these principals to my own performances.

All in all I had a good weekend at the EMCAs.  I wish I could have stayed longer.  Next year the ECMAs will be held in Moncton, NB in April.

EMCA news, day 2

Today was the day of my showcase at the ECMAs!  Skip Holmes and I showed up at Murphy’s Community Centre just before 10am for our 11am showcase.  I was greeted by the volunteer saying “Welcome Christine, I recognize you from your Sonicbids.  There was no bio though.  My name is Laura.”  I replied, “Hi, my name is Katherine.”  “Katherine????”  After searching through her paperwork she then continued “Hi Katherine, I recognize you from your Sonicbids site, and there was a bio there.”  Christine was the person who was playing at 10am.

Before us was Jason MacDonald who was accompanied by Colin Grant, the fiddler I heard last night.  Jason was a good singer, and it was nice to hear Colin play again. 

Our show went very well.  We played 5 sets of tunes including two sets of originals.  I had fully expected to be playing for about 10 people since our time was 11am.  There was a really good crowd though, which was really nice!  It was especially great to see a group of people from NB who came out to hear me.  I wore a new black shirt which a friend of mine said looked great…  va-va-va-voom.  Colin Grant told me that my tunes were great and that it was very classy fiddling.  I guess this means that I am a “va-va-va-voom classy fiddler”, or maybe a “classy fiddler, va-va-va-voom.”   I am trying to figure out how to include this in pitching my show.

Skip had to head back home, so we had lunch together and then he hit the road.  I went to the Delta for the Music NB meet and greet.  Kim came down to the Delta to meet me for the MIAfest performance.  The first artist was Mike Biggar, a singer/songwirter from Rothesay NB.  He and Kim went to college together, so it was nice to meet up with him.  He stopped by to chat a bit after his gig before having to dash off to his next gig.

We stayed at the Delta to watch the rest of the performers at MIAfest.  The final performer of the evening was Kathleen Gorey-McSorley, a fiddler from Fredericton.  She did and excellent job in her showcase both playing the fiddle and playing the mandolin while singing.  I think this was on of the best shows I have seen by her.

Kim and I purchased hats as memorabilia from the ECMAs.   We now match.  Isn’t that sweet?

The day is not yet done.  We are considering going out again later, but this is the update for now.

ECMA news, day 1

Kim and I arrived in Charlottetown at about 1pm today.  We signed into our hotel and I went down to the Delta to sign in to the ECMAs.  Registration was quite smooth, although I did end up with a conference pass instead of an artist pass.  Right after signing in, I ran into Kathleen Gorey-McSorley, Roly McSorley, Carolyn Holyoke and Derrick Miller, all people from home.

There is a lot of material to sift through with numerous shows and workshops going on in various venues at all times of the day.  I think that I have worked out my schedule for the next couple of days.

Skip Holmes arrived around 5:30pm came over for a rehearsal.  We prepped our material for our showcase tomorrow and then jammed on some new tunes and old favourites.  Thinking about CD #4, although that will have to wait for a year or two.

Kim, Skip and I headed out for dinner.  We tried downtown Charlottetown, but it is impossible to find parking, so ended up back at the hotel and walked across the street to the Old Triangle pub.  We lucked into some excellent music as the Rollo Bay Fiddle Festival was sponsoring a show there.  J.J. Chaisson opened the show.  What an excellent fiddler!

We had intended on going to the Roots Room in the evening, but ended up hanging around the Old Triangle for a while enjoying the music there.  We then went over to MIAfest at Murphy’s Community Centre.  One of the things that I love about events like the ECMAs is that you hear new bands you would likely never had heard of otherwise.  A great example is the Colin Grant Band.  Colin Grant is an excellent fiddler from Cape Breton and his show was excellent.  Check him out on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz9tP-vLNEY. 

We also enjoyed a performance by The Once, and excellent band from NFLD that we met last summer at the NB Highland Games.  Their three part harmonies are fabulous!

All in all, this was a great first day to the ECMAs.