PrettyInScarlett

After Vinyl Tap Stories, the exciting mix of music and words at this autumn's Writers Festival kept the audience enthralled. I didn't see the Marshall McLuhan Centenary event on Friday 21st October, but heard some of the accompanying music by Hilotrons ' Mike Dubue. The Marshall McLuhan Concerto , performed on cello, electric guitar, vibraphone with effects, was indeed captivating.  Moving straight into the following event, Musical Language: The Songwriting Circle (presented by CBC's Alan Neal ) proved very popular; Louise Burns , Ann Vriend , Matthew Barber and Emm Gryner together supplied first-class entertainment; Ambre Mclean was also there to perform 'So Over', the winning song from the All In A Day competition . Fitting in with the theme, they are all singer-songwriters, but within that the songs showcased on Friday encompassed indie-folk-alt country, different styles of guitar accompaniment and piano-based songs. Out of all 4, I most enjoyed Ann ...

In anticipation of this autumn's Writers' Festival M and I headed out to Southminster United Church for ' Vinyl Tap Storie s' with the legendary Randy Bachman . Known to me by reputation through songs such as 'You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet' but without having heard his Vinyl Tap radio programme, it was interesting to see and hear the man behind the hits. Southminster United Church looked pretty much full as 7pm came and host Laurence Wall came onstage. The evening started by scene setting in 1960s Winnipeg and covered Bachman's early musical life with plenty of humourous 'on the road' stories. Most of the remaining time was spent discussing the origins of songs such as 'American Woman' and 'Taking Care of Business'. A very appreciative audience warmly applauded anecdotes and snippets of music. The 'B.B. King story' was one of my particular favourites, as well as the 'piano man' story related to 'Taking Care...