LYLE ODJICK & NORTHERN STEAM @ ATOMIC ROOSTER
(OTTAWA, ON - OCTOBER 28, 2017)
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Saturday, April 14, 2018
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Thursday, February 15, 2018
WINTERFOLK BLUES AND ROOTS MUSIC FESTIVAL (TORONTO, ON)
The Winterfolk Blues and Roots Music Festival takes place in Toronto on the Danforth, Feb. 16-18, 2018.
It's an all-ages, mid-winter, weatherproof event, where you'll find the best of urban, blues, rock, jazz, country, folk and roots music, emulating a multi-stage rural summer festival.
More than 150 artists will be performing at five venues over three days. The festival community stages and various themed musical workshops with something for everyone to enjoy.
For more information, visit www.winterfolk.com.
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THE BACK BEAT - UPCOMING GIG
The Back Beat will be playing Saturday, February 24, at the Barley Mow, 1541 Merivale Road, Ottawa, ON, getting underway at 9:00 PM.
We will be celebrating our lead singer Anna Woods' birthday, so the evening promises to be a blast. The theme is "50 and Fabulous !" It is our first time in this venue, so we are hoping to make a good impression and would appreciate your support.
Thanks,
Tom Rowe
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ACCEPTABLE DISCRIMINATION IN HUMAN RESOURCING?
How much longer are both private and public sector employers in Canada going to get away with skirting enshrined human rights discrimination laws on the prohibited basis of age by demanding potential applicants provide the date they graduated from high school? It's not rocket science to determine at least the approximate age of someone who graduated in the '70s, '80s or '90s and, through today's ubiquitous online human resourcing systems, automatically eliminate applicants of a certain age even before their actual employment history and experience is considered.
It's difficult enough, particularly in the National Capital Region (where I was born and raised in a military family), to secure employment in any way, shape or form, without having to deal with other barriers such as the ever-growing requirement for fluent bilingualism, job ads targeted at special interest groups, geographic restrictions, and nepotism, without this sneaky way of discriminating against older people.
With more than 20 years of administrative experience to my credit, and having been 'included' in more than a dozen public service human resource inventories, and applying to numerous temporary employment agencies, as well as private sector positions, since moving back to Ottawa in July, I can only conclude that my continuing lack of employment (or even interviews for same) lies in the mandatory provision of the date I graduated from high school (and/or university and college), which gives a clear indication that I am no longer a young person (but not quite dead yet).
It's time for Canadian (and U.S.) governments at all levels to lead the way in practicing what they preach, where discriminatory and preferential applicant screening (never mind actually hiring) is concerned.
Diane M. Wells
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ROCK AND ROLL IS INDEED A VICIOUS GAME (with credit to Myles Goodwyn)
When it was announced by a local live music venue (The Brass Monkey) in November 2017 that British classic rock band Uriah Heep would be doing a live performance there on February 8/18, a friend of mine happily purchased (through ticketZone) two online tickets for this event, which quickly 'sold out' to the point where an additional appearance was announced for February 6.
Eagerly anticipating an excellent performance that night (particularly after hearing rave reviews of the previous show), we headed over to the nightclub and arrived just before 8 p.m. (an hour after the doors were slated to open at 7). Surprising enough, there was a line-up of people stretching towards the back of the building (we had not witnessed a line-up when attending packed shows there by The Blushing Brides and Lee Aaron on previous occasions). We didn't mind waiting in line at first, despite the cold weather and my own somewhat ill-health, but we were wondering what the delay was. An hour later (and after the opening band was already playing), we finally got inside the packed tiny foyer, which leads to the stairs going down into the bar. It was plainly a chaotic scene, with no clear direction where to stand. My friend handed me over print-outs of the online tickets and receipt, as I was closer to one of the people who was checking them.
Apparently, there was no device on-hand to actually scan them, so they were manually checking the e-tickets against photo IDs. I have no idea why they were doing this, as it could have been an instance where a third friend (not attending the show) had bought the tickets on our behalf, and their name would have been on the receipt, not ours. In this case, however, the friend attending with me had bought the tickets, and her name was displayed on the receipt as the purchaser. When the ticket-taker asked me for photo ID, I produced my driver's licence. Then he asked me if I was the one who had bought the tickets. I said, 'No, my friend here did.” She then showed him the credit card with which she purchased the tickets, but that was not accepted. She was asked for her driver's licence, but, as she does not own a vehicle and does not drive, it had been left at her home in Beacon Hill. She was told by the owner that she would have to go back home and get it. She then mentioned that she had a photo ID card from her federal government employer in my car. Again, she was told that was not acceptable, and we were both told to leave 'to allow the people waiting to come in'. My friend suggested that the police should be called since they were not going to honour our ticket purchase. The owner told us to 'go ahead and call them' and proceeded to force her towards the door, using his physical bulk (he's much bigger than either of us). We left the premises, and I convinced my friend to get her photo ID out of my car to bring back and show it to the owner, but she was too badly shaken by his threatening demeanour, while I was feeling angry (but too physically ill) to get back in line and try to get in again, so we just went home, minus $100+ and not having seen the show we paid for.
I would like to add that my friend and I (as were the majority of the people in attendance) are well over 50 years of age. This was not a case of possible 'under the legal drinking age' scenario, and we were not in any way, shape or form, intoxicated or belligerent in our demeanour.
I am well aware that owners of drinking establishments in Canada are within their rights to ask for ID, from anyone and everyone. In fact, it is routine procedure in the U.S., as I was asked for it at a bar in Seattle, WA, in 2009, when I was in my early 50s. However, not everyone was asked for proof of age identity cards at the club that night; the owner was simply using this ridiculous method to check the online ticket print-outs, as they couldn't actually scan them. Neither my friend nor I has ever been asked to prove we were the actual purchaser of tickets bought online and then printed out to present at any event, here in Canada or elsewhere.
It's a lesson learned for my friend to always bring some form of ID proving she is old enough to enter a bar, but I was not even granted entrance to this show myself, and I DID produce my driver's licence AND the ticket that I bought (however indirectly), which was not returned to me by the bar.
Two other people, who had driven in from Constance Bay, showed up at the event with tickets bought online but had to forego their entry, as one of them was physically incapable of standing in line for an extended period of time. They, too, were out the money they had spent for this concert. ticketZone offers no refunds whatsoever, nor does the Brass Monkey.
Diane M. Wells
Diane M. Wells
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TANTRAMARSH BLUES SOCIETY
(SACKVILLE, NB, CANADA)
UPCOMING EVENTS
The Alexis P Suter Band (Brooklyn, NY) - George’s Roadhouse, 9 PM - Saturday, March 3/18
Alexis P. Suter is the owner of that big, booming voice you can hear roaring out of Brooklyn into the heart of North America and beyond. Alexis burst on to the music scene as a regular performer at Levon Helm’s legendary Midnight Rambles held in Woodstock, NY. Levon was captured by what he called Alexis’ wonderful spirit and had her and the band open for him nearly 100 times. Levon says, "She is one of those wonderful spirits, she's got her arms around you; you can feel that.” Alexis has 8 full length releases to date and is currently touring on the back of a just-released retrospective entitled ‘Hat Trick.’ Here she is doing the classic ‘Let it Be’ ; here she is with one of our recent favourites, Victor Wainwright; and here she in a mashup.
The Peter Karp Band (NJ, USA), Saturday, May 5/18
(as part of the 2018 version of the Bordertown Festival (details, TBA)
Songwriter. Guitarist. Singer. Pianist. Bandleader. Operating within the fiery brand of roots/blues music that Karp calls "Soul-influenced Americana-Blues-Rock." The music is crackling with smart and witty lyrics. His ability to give the audience such a great time while doing it is refreshing. Karp first saw national attention when guitarist Mick Taylor of the Rolling Stones recorded and toured with Karp on his third indie release. Says Mick, “Guys like Peter Karp, James Taylor and Bob Dylan embody Americana Blues, and us English guys are inspired by it.”
Here he is with the title track from his brand-new album released last week; and here is on tour with Mick.
Please visit our website for more on the bands in the upcoming weeks at www.tbsblues.com.
We will likely have a show in early to mid-July…please stay tuned for the details. Apologies for the delay in getting the details of the winter lineup; sometimes these things are simply beyond our control. We hope to see you at the shows, and thank you again for your warm support.
Thanks,
The TBS Gang
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Thursday, October 26, 2017
NOTICE RE PRIOR POSTINGS ON THIS BLOG
Over the years since I started this (free promotional) blog, I have received several compliments from various people who were pleased I had cared enough to include a mention of them. However, I have also received requests for various reasons from a couple of people wanting me to delete any and all mention of them. If I have personally or legally offended anyone else, and you would also like any posts pertaining to you and/or a specific band deleted, please feel free to contact me, and I will do so.
D.D. Rocker (a.k.a. MistyBlue1955)
(mistyblue1955@hotmail.com)
October 26/17
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
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