A huge thanks to KJAZZ Radio UK for their continued support and for making The First Noël their highest ranking festive song! I’d also like to again thank Wendy Irvine for her outstanding vocals and Sonya Mitlewski for her beautiful keyboards… The song wouldn’t have been nearly as good without them on it!
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Bill Binkelman’s Review of “The First Noël”!
One of my favorite guitarists, Jamie Bonk, told me he intended to have a holiday music album out this year, but life intruded and he only got one track done. That’s a shame because it’s a great track (no surprise since it is Jamie Bonk we’re talkin ’bout here). The carol is “Noel” and features Bonk, his wife Sonya Mitlewski on keyboards and vocalist Wendy Irvine-Patel. For all intents and purposes, it’s really more of an instrumental as Irvine-Patel’s vocals are only heard singing the refrain. Bonk’s trademark breezy, jazz-inflected guitar flows through the 3:16 duration and wife Sonya’s keyboards flesh out the song nicely. The rendition fuses a touch of rock and jazz into the carol’s melody, but only strict purists would object to the variation. What we’re left with is the desire to hear much more from the Canadian guitarist. Come on, Jamie…give us a whole album next year, huh? The track is up on Bandcamp: http://jamiebonk.bandcamp.com/track/the-first-no-l
– reviewed by Bill Binkelman on 12/6/2013
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Great review of “The First Noël” by RJ Lannan (Zone Music Reporter)!
“Toronto based master guitarist Jamie Bonk offers his very own version of The First Noel as a download. The song opens with a dulcet chorus and transforms brightly with the first strains of Jamie’s guitar. Flute and voice mix seamlessly to form a superb rendition with which you find yourself singing along. I am surprised he does not have a Christmas album out. It would be remarkable.” – RJ Lannan (Zone Music Reporter)
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Challenging The Oracle (by Alan Shoesmith)
A big thanks to Alan Shoesmith for asking me to play mandolin on his new piece Challenging The Oracle! This was my first ever mandolin-only session and recording the tune helped me to become a better player. I think the piece turned out great!
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The First Noël
Christmas/Holiday music in October? Why, yes indeed! Here’s my first Christmas/Holiday single, The First Noël. The track features Wendy Irvine on vocals and Sonya Mitlewski on keyboards and is part of a Christmas album I’m working on for release in 2014. Hope you like the music!!
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Metalworks
Tomorrow I’m back at Metalworks. This semester, in addition to teaching Desktop Music Production, I’ve been given the opportunity to teach a couple Guitar Musicianship classes. Guitar and production — two of my favourite things!
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“True North” by Bernie Finkelstein
“Time it was and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences” – Simon & GarfunkelWhen reading True North, I had the overwhelming sense that Bernie Finkelstein was way ahead of the curve. He was, in fact, so ahead of the curve that in many cases he invented the curve. Finkelstein played a role in many things that are now part of the Canadian music industry landscape. Things like: CanCon, MuchFACT/VideoFACT and FACTOR. But the curve I’m referring to also includes how he did business. There’s a lot of talk these days about 360 deals and the Terry McBride income-through-music model. Finkelstein was doing this sort of thing way back. He was/is a manager, a label owner, a producer, a concert promoter and a publisher. Maybe back in the day that’s just what you had to do in order to survive or maybe he saw how all of the pieces of the music industry puzzle fit together. Either way, it’s impressive.
What’s also impressive is quality of the artists he chose to work with and that many of those artists dealt with challenging subject matter. Bruce Cockburn has throughout his career written socially and politically charged material. Likewise Rough Trade’s lyrical content was beyond risqué for its time. I’m sure Finkelstein had the opportunity to work with “tamer” artists but he didn’t. And he still had hits!
True North is a terrific book. If you’re a music business student like myself, I think you’ll absolutely love the inside look into early days of the Canadian music industry. Even if you couldn’t care less about record companies, concert promotion, management etc. the technicolor stories of copious drug use and snapshots of the glory days of Yorkville make this autobiography a real page turner.
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LR Baggs – Lyric Acoustic Guitar Microphone
I was so impressed by the LR Baggs Lyric Acoustic Guitar Microphone demos I heard on the LR Baggs site that I made the leap and had one installed in my Seagull Artist Studio CW. I think I made the exact right decision. I’ve never been a huge fan of under saddle pickups (or internal mics) — the sonic compromise has always been too great. Yes, you can get a good tone from under saddle pickups, but it takes work. Lots of work. I have a Fishman Spectrum that truly helps get a “better” more realistic sounding (read miked) tone, but I never found it completely satisfying. And internal mics always seem to be less than ideal too. You get some “air” in the sound, but you also get a boxy tone along for the deal.
Now the Lyric is an internal mic — LR Baggs calls it a bridge plate microphone. The Lyric behaves much like an external mic in that your guitar feels and sounds like it’s being miked by a mic sitting a foot off your guitar. You get all of the good stuff that a mic brings to the game and none of the boxiness that internal mics usually have. Basically, it sounds fantastic! Well, it sounded fantastic after I adjusted the Mic Presence Control. When LR Baggs say the Mic Presence Control is “responsive” they’re not kidding. I spent a bunch of time recording different parts into Logic and then adjusting the control. Once I got it set right, the Lyric really did a great job of representing the sound of my guitar.
Of course, feedback can be an issue for acoustic instruments and the Lyric is a mic. I haven’t had a chance to gig with the Lyric yet, but I did crank my studio monitors (Yamaha HS80Ms) and play directly facing the speakers with no feedback issues.
The Lyric has impressed me. I’m definitely going to be using it live and I’m sure it’s going to end up on one of my future albums.
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The Jackass-Penguin Show – Episode 86
Thank you Jackass-Penguin Show for programming “Backbone” on your latest episode!
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EZ Drummer – Indie Folk
There’s nothing like a great drummer and I’m lucky enough to work with one of Canada’s finest, Dave Patel. But for writing, EZ Drummer has been an amazing tool. I just picked up the new Indie Folk add-on and it sounds incredible. I particularly like the Slingerland kit in the 4 mic configuration — truly massive tones. Getting lots of ideas for the next Sixteen Different Minds record!
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Album #8
I was looking through my new tunes and I have 11 that sit really well together. I may end up writing a couple additional tracks, but I think I have the core of a new record. Time to start working on album #8!
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Metalworks
Gearing up for tomorrow’s start of a new semester at Metalworks. I’m doing quite of bit of teaching this semester — nine MIDI/Synthesis labs and one Songwriting Analysis class. It sure is great to be able to do what I love!
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Mandolin Practicing
Did some mandolin practicing this morning. Jigs, reels, some of my own stuff. And read through Bach’s Prelude from Cello Suite #1. I think I’m (finally!) starting to get the hang of the mandolin’s fifths tuning!
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La Otra Orilla
A great big thanks to Barcelona-based radio show La Otra Orilla for including “Lift” in their Apr.8 podcast (episode #774)!
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Jackass-Penguin Show
Thanks to the Jackass-Penguin Show for programming “One Foot Forward” on this week’s edition (episode 82) of their podcast!
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StrapKeeper
I love it when a piece of gear does what it says it’ll do. Yesterday, I came home from teaching and the StrapKeeper I ordered from Tapastring Guitar Care was here. For those of you who don’t know what a StrapKeeper is, basically, it’s a little add on device that helps keep your strap on your acoustic guitar. Other than getting the little nylon retainer on the end pin, installation (if you even want to call it that) was a breeze. With the StrapKeeper on my guitar, I think it would take A LOT to get the strap to fall off. Terrific solution for not much money!
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“Necessity” Available Now On Bandcamp!
My new album, Necessity, can now be streamed in its entirety on Bandcamp!
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Ron Scott
I just started doing some co-writing with singer/songwriter Ron Scott. We’re just finishing off our first tune and I think it sounds fantastic! Hopefully, we’ll write a whole bunch more tunes! Ron and I have known each other for over twenty years and we’ve played in quite a few different bands together, so there’s certainly a musical simpatico. Here’s a blast from my (and Ron’s) musical past… This is “If This Is Love” from my My World album (which Ron sang on and wrote).
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mwe3.com Interview
Please check out the terrific interview I did with mwe3.com’s Robert Silverstein!
