Canadian Showcase At The Texas Songwriters Symposium

Canadian Showcase

Ron Beer hosts a Canadian showcase at the Texas Songwriters Symposium each year. This year he reached out and invited me to be part of it.  What an honour to be in Austin Texas for this symposium and represent Canada here. There were six Canadians in the official showcase and my friend and fellow songwriter Denis Bastarache, who drove all the way from Windsor, played guitar and sang with me on my tunes.  I sang “I Soldier On” and, a new one, called “Mommas Always Chase Bad Dreams Away” to a very warm and receptive audience.  I also met with every publisher that was there including one of my idols Bobby Rymer.  I learned a lot from each one.  The days were filled with workshops on looping with Chuck Jones (awesome!), performance with Debby Throckmorton, Radio 101 with Robert Josef Cross and many others.

Did I mention that the Texas Music Legends Hall of Fame awards were part of the program, which also included a concert from the Lost Austin Band? I knew almost every cowboy campfire song they sang!

The best part for me was the picking circles at night.  Debby Throckmorton and Chuck Jones hosted amazing circles till the wee hours of the morning.  If only I could put the essence of these circles in words.  They are mesmerizing.  Each person plays an original song in the circle and we all sing harmony and put in our own parts when asked. You just cannot take yourself away because you do not want to miss one moment of the magic that happens.

Many thanks to Ron Beer, Lee Duffy and Rick Busby who organized the event.  I’ll definitely be back next year.

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