Hillside Review I

Saturday July 26, 3pm-7pm

I couldn't get out of the big city for the Friday, July 25, start of the Hillside Festival near Guelph, ON. I arrived on Saturday just as Kelly Joe Phelps took the main stage. Phelps wailed the acoustic blues in his solo set, drawing from blues standards as well as original material. The godfathers of Canadian bluegrass, The Good Brothers, followed. The Good Brothers have been performing and recording since the early 1970s. Larry (banjo), Brian (guitar), and Bruce (autoharp) entertained the very bluegrass-knowledgeable crowd with classic originals such as "Fox on the Run" and a bluegrass cover of "Come a Little Bit Closer" originally by Jay and the Americans.

I next wandered over to the Lake Stage, the second of four music stages at the festival. On the way there, I stopped by the Sun Stage and listened to Harry Manx perform during the workshop "Mother Earth." Manx and the other musicians were playing Hindustati classical harmonies mixed with traditional American blues. Very interesting music. At the Lake Stage I caught the Brothers Creeggan, two brothers who used to be the rhythm section for the Barenaked Ladies in their early years. Brothers Andy (upright bass) and Jim (keyboards) and their band played an enjoyable set that had a very-Ben Folds-ish vibe.

Next I hit the Sun Stage for the workshop "Guitar Dreams." This workshop featured performer/producer Danny Michel, local musician Liz Powell (sorry, can't find her web site), blues guitarist Sue Foley, and multi-instrumentalist David Woodhead. I had not heard of any of these musicians before (yeah, I'm slightly ignorant), and all four of them blew me away. Michel started out with electric guitar doing a very stripped-down version of Peter Gabriel's "Games Without Frontiers" and got the crowd to whistle along. He followed that with a slow version of "I Will Love You For Miles," off of his 2007 release Valhalla. Liz Powell did two lovely originals on acoustic guitar. Sue Foley, an accomplished blues guitarist, gave a demonstration on the Piedmont style of blues, then showed some of her recent interest in Flamenco-style guitar. Finally, David Woodhead blew everyone away with his fretless bass. The other musicians on stage had the "wow!" look on their faces too. Truly a magical session of music!

Since I am not that familiar with most these artists, I have no MP3s to share. The last few days I have been running up my credit card bill by purchasing CDs from their web sites. Most of them have tracks on iTunes and eMusic too. Check them all out.

Photos from the weekend.

Lucky 14

(Note: I meant to post this yesterday, but I was so wiped out from an amazing weekend at the Hillside Festival. Stayed tuned for multiple reviews and comments from the festival.)

Fourteen years ago today I was in an operating room at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago receiving a life-saving kidney transplant selflessly donated to me by my mother.

It started early in Jan. 1994, when I was a 21-year-old college student. I was having severe breathing problems when my friend took me to the student health center on campus. My blood pressure was so high that the nurse could not get a proper reading, so I got a police escort to the hospital. After several tests and long hospital visits, it was determined that I had kidney failure of unknown origin (25% of all kidney failure is of unknown etiology). No one in my family had any history of kidney problems. My left kidney was a stub (completely atrophied), and my right kidney was functioning at only 20%. By the end of 1994 I would be on dialysis. I was put on a very restrictive diet to help slow the kidney failure (low sodium, low protein, low potassium, low phosphorus, low taste). I lost a ton of weight, and I was sleeping 14-16 hours a day.

Thanks to a very proactive nephrologist named Dr. Norm (can’t remember his last name), we decided to look for a family member who may be compatible as a kidney donor so I could be transplanted and avoid dialysis all together. My brother was ruled out as at the time he was too young. My dad really wanted to do it, but he had the wrong blood type. My mom turned out to be a perfect match. You can imagine my dad’s stress when both his wife and daughter were undergoing surgery. Fortunately, my aunt (my mom’s sister) took my dad out for beer and pizza between the two surgeries. When I came out of the anesthesia, other than the nurses, he is the first one I remember seeing, with tears in his eyes.

The surgery went off without a hitch, and other than a few bumps in the road here and there, I have had excellent filtration ever since.

None of this would have been possible had it not been for the generosity of my mother. She literally gave birth to me twice! I do a lot of advocacy work to promote organ and tissue donation in the US and Canada. I have a friend here in Toronto who has been waiting for a kidney for 7 years. He has completely lost the ability to urinate and has to undergo about 20 hours of dialysis a week. He can’t work and is extremely limited in what he can eat and drink. Unfortunately, he is not alone. As of today, there are over 100,000 people in the US and over 5000 people in Canada waiting for organ transplants, the vast majority of them kidneys.

What got me through this terrible period in my life (asides from my friends and family)? Music, of course. I just dug out this tape I made in 1994 called “Hospital Music.” You can imagine that as a student I had no money to buy music, and Napster didn’t yet exist. My insurance company would make me pay for a lot of things up front, and then reimburse me 6-8 weeks later. I bummed a lot of CDs off of a few friends who were really into classic rock. According to this tape (which I can’t believe that I found!), I was really into Elton John, Bob Dylan, and Crosby, Stills and Nash. The only CDs I purchased during this period were the Counting Crows August and Everything After, which will always remain one of my favorites mainly due to the timing, Peter Gabriel Us, and my brother gave me Soul Asylum Grave Dancers Union.

Organ donation is truly one of the major success stories of modern medicine. If you haven’t already, please discuss organ donation with your family!

Here is a short mix of what I was listening to in the summer of 1994, from the "Hospital Music" tape and a few other tapes that friends made for me.

1. Einstein on the Beach - Counting Crows
2. You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet - Bachman-Turner Overdrive
3. Runaway Train - Soul Asylum
4. Southern Cross - Crosby, Stills & Nash
5. Plush - Stone Temple Pilots
6. Up On Cripple Creek - The Band
7. Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town - Pearl Jam
8. Secret World - Peter Gabriel
9. Going to California - Led Zeppelin
10. Mr. Jones - Counting Crows
11. Like a Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
12. Lithium - Nirvana
13. Mad About You - Sting
14. Leaving Las Vegas - Sheryl Crow

Zip-ity do dah!

Hillside

I will be in the thriving metropolis of Geulph, Ontario, this weekend to get in touch with my inner hippie while attending the Hillside Festival. Hillside is a festival of music and community, featuring Canadian and international artists, up-and-coming artists, and local talent. There are also activities for children and families, aboriginal arts, workshops, and craft vendors. The festival takes environmentalism so seriously that you have to bring your own bottle if you want water, you have to purchase a souvenir mug if you want beer, and all of the food is served on dishes that are washed and reused.

The musical lineup looks amazing. Here are some tracks from a few of the many artists that I am looking forward to seeing.

Joseph Arthur: Honey And The Moon.mp3
Buy: Redemption's Son (2002)

Broken Social Scene: Stars and Sons.mp3
Buy: You Forgot It In People (2003)

Hayden: Message from London.wma
Buy: Folk Music for the End of the World (2007)

Kelly Joe Phelps: Beggar's Oil.wma
Buy: Sky Like a Broken Clock (2001)

The Sadies: Anna Leigh.mp3
Buy: New Seasons (2007)

My First, My Last, My Hotel Yorba

This dude I know runs a blog called Photocrap. I saw this today and nearly peed my pants. I think Jack White may frown on this. Too bad!

Hotel Yorba.wma
Buy: White Blood Cells (2001)

You're the First, the Last, My Everything.mp3

Originally released in 1974 on Can't Get Enough, but available on just about every "best of" out there. Barrence Eugene Carter, aka "Barry White," 1944-2003. RIP lover boy.

Sorry about the WMA format, but I ripped White Blood Cells years ago when I was ignorant in the ways of digital music, and I don't feel like re-ripping it. Just buy the album! In my opinion it is that best of the Stripes six albums. Plus, they have a nice photo of a megakaryocyte on the inside cover.