Ye Ole Hometown Concert

DANIEL AND MICAH BARNES IN CONCERT AT THE AL GREEN THEATRE WITH SPECIAL GUEST LORRAINE SEGATO!

So way back in the spring when program director of the Jewish Y Harriet Wichin asked if my Jazz band leading brother Daniel and I wanted to do a concert at the brand spanking new Al Green Theatre in our home neighborhood of The Annex downtown Toronto we jumped at the chance. After all the tribute show to our father composer Milton Barnes had been a sold out success at that venue. Indeed Harriet Wichin is an intelligent producer who knows how to treat artists well.

Our first job was to find a suitable guest to round out the evening that would open with Daniel's Jazz Quartet and end with my more Alternative Pop-oriented trio. Of course our good friend from the Queen Street West days Lorraine Segato was the top of our list and we were thrilled she said yes.

We were also thrilled to have videographer Andy Frank and co. on board to provide live streaming footage of the concert to our friends and fans near and far.

The highlights of the whole event for me were rehearsing the duet of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" with Lorraine at my apartment, joining Daniel's top notch quartet on stage for a couple of songs including the self penned "After The Sun Goes Down" and performing the Nylons cover "Up On The Roof" for the audience that included The Nylons producer/arranger Peter Mann along with other notables including good pal Molly Johnson and her whole family.

A Yummy night of family and music all around.Thanks to those who attended or watched from home! FYI for the local folks Next Toronto Concert event will be June 11th at Hugh's Room.

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

WHAT I DID ON MY SUMMER VACATION"
So my team of collaborators suggested there might be a missing song for this new batch of recordings we are making this fall. Always the kind of challenge I secretly love even though the pressure to come up with "the right material" can make for a lot of inner anxiety and drama don't you know. The timing for the suggestion was perfect though, as I had a few summer months where I could book off coaching in the city and work at the family cottage. Perfect, I've always found North Ontario a dreamy, intense place to write.Perfect also because my mom author Lilly Barnes was doing the final editing on her novel "Mara" (which will be published in the New Year) so our little family cottage functioned as a kind of a writer's retreat all season.

I remembered back when touring with The Nylons the way the audiences responded to our biggest hits, (Like The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Kiss Him Goodbye etc), standing and singing along and sending this huge wave of love and energy back to us on stage.
This summer I found that I was able to tap into that more joyous feeling in the new melodies and rhythms by getting out of my head and getting out of the way and just letting the universe guide me to the songs.

Starting my day in meditation before anyone was awake, I worked during the morning down in the boat house with a view of the moody, intense lake all of July and August. And gradually something special started to happen. Whereas the material from my last solo release "Micah Barnes" is all very dramatic and intense, mapping my experience of becoming lost in Los Angeles far away from home, the new songs that started to emerge this summer were much happier in their emotional vibration. Hmmmm.

MONTREAL CITY OF MY DREAMING.
By the end of the summer I had a batch of tunes that felt strong enough to want to demo and present to my team. But they sat in various states of unfinishedness. A missing bridge or second verse here and there kept them from being presentable. As luck would have it by dear friend Kathy and I had been talking about sharing an apt in Montreal where she goes for business. I have been having trouble focusing on the writing amidst my busy coaching life in Toronto and wanted a little "get away" place. No sooner had I put the word out to my Montreal singer pal Bil Ringenberg than he got back to us with the perfect suggestion. His friend Patti was starting an artists B&B above her Art Gallery Pink Espace in the Little Burgundy area downtown Montreal. So off I went for a concentrated week of hard work finishing the tunes while the end of summer heat beat down on sexy swinging Montreal. Yummy.
Coming home to Toronto in Sept I used the deadline of studio time to help me stay focused and booked myself a couple of sessions at JP's Rogue Studio's down where I live on Queen Street West. Engineer JP and I cut demo's of six songs
My Teenage Heart, First Steps, Everything, Domesticated, One Last Hurrah, Falling (Now I Know). You can hear the demo's up on MySpace (just click the button from this sites home page).
At this point of the fall brother Daniel and I are putting the new material up on it's feel for shows and working them into the concert set list. Let me know what tunes are speaking" to you! It's all about communication don't you know! 

On The Road

Looking back at our spring tour dates from the lazy hazy days of summer
it all feels like a big blur of motion and excitement.
Jazz vocalist Shannon Butcher and I began making preparations while it was still freezing in Toronto and so named the tour "Up Jumped Spring" with hope in our heart. The idea was to share a band (Micheal Shand on keys, Ross MacIntyre and Daniel Barnes on drums), and duet on a few tunes at the end of the night. Turns out Shannon and I made a great team, she's logical and professional, I'm moody and impulsive..perfect. The clip included on this blog of us trying out different "duet requests"from the fans captures the fun.
Hamilton's historic Corktown was the perfect start. Everyone remembers getting drunk there back when it was Steeltown's only punk venue. The Donefors opened the show which was a lovely thing for us since we love their music and Janine had designed our classy tour poster.
Traveling in Daniel's Van was always exciting being that masking tape holding several important parts of the vehicle together. Losing a windshield wiper in the rain on the way to London sorta increased the whole excitement of being out on the road. Nothing like an emergency to bring folks together.
So our second show was at The London Music Club a real "music first" kind of venue that helps builds acts to local audiences in London Ontario. Crazily Shannon had just flown in from a performance in London, England for tourism Ontario the night before. Very international indeed.
By the time our little tour headed east to Ottawa's Mercury Lounge our show had been very nearly cancelled due to gun violence near the club the week before. In our nation's sleepy capital! Luckily everything was back to normal by the time we arrived and our hostess Sara Ainslie made us feel deliriously happy as always. The Mercury Lounge turns into an excellent dance club after and it was fun for us to hang out and "part-ee".

The next show was in Kingston at the downtown public library and my good pals Kathy and Rose fed and boarded the band in their century old homes, giving us that homecookin' feeling and full tummies before we headed off the next day to Montreal.
The Upstairs in Montreal was certainly my favorite show of the tour. Audiences in Quebec are always eager and the new fans I met while opening concerts for pal Molly Johnson came out to see us. We played encores till we ran out of material. After the audience left, bassist Ross and pianist Micheal Shand started playing old funk favorites and kept us singing and grooving until the wee hours. My favorite moments of the whole tour!

The last show at Toronto's Lula Lounge was filmed by our new pal Andy Frank and we've posted the first clip on You Tube ("I Came Back"). I have to say dueting with Shannon on The Beatles "The Two Of Us" and "Centerpiece" was a thrill for me. Ms. Butcher, who was also a member of a vocal group, (Swing Rosie),and knows harmony well has impeccable intonation and tone. Plus she knows all the words to 90's grunge songs. Now thats a jazz diva who is fun in the van!

Hey Folks.
Last week was CRAZEE with my musical direction gig on "The Ecstacy Of Rita Joe" opening in Ottawa at The National Arts Centre AND the kick off of our Spring Tour in Hamilton. BUT working with the cast and creative team on "Rita Joe" was very interesting and enjoyable.
The new score really recasts the whole tale as a spiritual journey that Rita is on so she's less of a victim and more of a seeker.
Given the unreported and unpunished rape and murder rates for native women I think thats an important change in this historical work which opened the National Arts Centre in the 70's. The current cast is strong indeed and the story is sadly still topical.

So, the very next night after opening I flew back to Toronto and Shannon and I kicked off the tour at The Corktown in Hamilton! A perfect night to start things rolling with a full house and a strong opening set by Janine Stoll and her group The Donefors! (Janine designed our excellent tour poster which really gives us class and swank).
Shannon and I tried the Beatles "The Two Of Us" (from the Let It Be album) as a duet and it worked like a dream...
The picture above is us at the stage door before loading up on greasy fries. Looking forward to London Ontario tomorrow!

Up Jumped Micah

Queen Street West is so nice and quiet first thing in the morning. No shoppers yet. No clubbers left from the night before. Only the birds and the sun peeking up over the buildings. Different from Venice Beach where I ran on the beach all those years in the morning...ah but Trinity Bellwoods park is the reason I held out for this apt!!

OK. This whole getting ready to tour thing is a lot more details that you ever think of right? Like where does the band stay in Montreal? And what duet are Shannon and I going to sing? AND AND AND..but I am reminded that this whole idea is about being able to play the music and bring it to the people man! So we're out talking to the press and updating our You Tube with new clips and making sure that the folks know we're coming to their town on Facebook etc and in all of this I am trying to stay focused on the reason ...by playing over the new songs Daniel and I are arranging for the upcoming disc every morning (driving my hard working neighbors crazy I'm sure). The Gypsy Heart tune might be a good title for the collection. We'll see.

"Up Jumped Spring"!

So, today my partner in crime Shannon Butcher and I filmed and posted our first You Tube Video Clip announcing the SPRING TOUR DATES! The whole thing was fun and breezy. (We are holding back the outtakes because they are just so damn cute and really we dont want to swamp the internet with too much charm all at once).

The whole reaching out to "new audiences thing" (which is what this spring tour is all about ),is feeling really exiting. For the past year or so my brother Daniel Barnes (drummer-composer extraordinaire) and I have been creating the material and arrangements for a new collection of songs. But of course that means lots and lots of time down in the rehearsal studio.

Joining forces with Shannon Butcher for tour dates is an opportunity to bring this music to a whole bunch of new faces who might remember me from my years singing as a member of The Nylons. Hope to see you out at the shows.