Oh Marie dates back to a bygone era that portrays a colourful view of the union dance. All the characters mentioned here are real life personalities, and my father and mother are the main protagonists . My father was an…
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Week Twenty-Five - Billie
Billie was written as a homage to one of the greatest jazz vocalists of all time. The first time I heard “what a little moonlight can do,” I was hooked. The way she manipulated the phrasing and groove of the…
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Week Twenty-Four - One More Time
Version 1 - Brookfield North
Version 2 - Sid Torrant (aka John Cini) covered on his new album Plain Folk
One More Time is an observational piece I wrote about two star crossed lovers whose relationship was flawed and doomed…
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Week Twenty-Three - Blue Haven
The title and text for Blue Haven came from a eulogy I wrote for my Uncle Walter. I loved him. To this day I think of him often, his quiet reserve and how he passed on so many life skills…
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Week Twenty-Two - Traitor's Moon
Traitor’s Moon came from the depth of night, when I laid in bed listening to the shunting of box cars and trains passing through my home town from far off places. The punctuation of their whistle, long and short filled…
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Week Twenty-One - Evening From Hillcrest
The root of Evening From Hillcrest extends back to when I was a little boy doing my nightly paper route. The last part of of my evening delivery was along Hillcrest Drive (where I now live) and from this vantage…
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Week Twenty - The Lights Went Out
I wrote this song with the intent of revisiting my dysfunctional school years and the trickle down effect it had on me and so many of my classmates.
School yard decorum, strict dress codes, silence in the halls, detentions and…
Week Nineteen - So Near So Far
Joy always wanted me to write a song in the style of one of her favourite artists, the great Brazilian jazz singer Flora Purim, who became prominent for her work on Return to Forever with Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke,…
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Week Eighteen - Winter
Here it is March and we’ve had a long traditional winter. Frigid temperatures and endless snow, still, I love this season but I’m looking forward to Spring.
I don’t wish time away but a robin at my door or fleshy…
Week Seventeen - Three Seasons
I wrote this piece to bring focus to the loss of our clear seasonal divisions of the year. The musical sections are divided into an A - B - A - C format. Each one represents a season with one…
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Week Sixteen - Nine Empty Rooms
On our camping trips to northern Quebec we would pass an old farmhouse nestled in the Laurentian’s foothills. Each time in passing we would be drawn to this nine empty room home, long deserted, left to it’s own demise. It…
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Week Fifteen - Strangers - 1997
Strangers is a song about the complexity of love and relationships; love being one of life’s greatest mysteries.
Stellar playing by Jeff, Mark and Alex, with Joy’s beautiful scat on the outro, colour this song in a beautiful light.
This…
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Week Fourteen - Leave This Blue
This song was written to address the on-line epidemic of false news and misinformation we live with daily. How we can collectively change this false narrative, burn the plan and join the rising tide against the right wing and Leave…
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Week Thirteen - I See Blue - 1996
I See Blue is like a two sided coin, the weight and chaos of raising a family, living in a world that’s getting loud and difficult to understand.
Through it all is the love you have inside your home, your…
Week Twelve - Never Far - written in 2004, recorded 2025
Never Far is dedicated to our neighbours Jack and Lorraine. From the moment we moved into our home they were there for us and all of our neighbours. Jack and Lorraine had a pool that everyone swam in, generous, kind…
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Week Eleven - John Francis - 1988 (recorded 2022)
John Francis Anthony “Jaco” Pastorius III was a bassist, composer and producer. He was known for his work with Pat Metheny, Michael Brecker, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Weather Report, and Joni Mitchell among others.
I wrote John Francis shortly after…
Week Ten - I'll Find You - 1984
In Dec 1984 we took a belated honeymoon trip to Madeira Beach that was gifted to us by my mom who had won it in a lottery. Joy and I co-wrote I’ll Find You - the genesis of it was…
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Week Nine - For The Dream You Are
I wrote this for Joy - a celebration of our amazing journey together. I had planned on singing this but decided to give it to Joy. This is written in the jazz standard style. It has been around for some…
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Week Eight - Medicine Lands - 1997
This was the title song of our first album Medicine Lands.
When I wrote this tune I’d just read Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring and Whatever Happened to Ecology by Stephanie Mills and what I took from these titles was…
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Week Seven - I Keep Good Watch
Another song from the deep well. It has evolved since the late nineties when we jammed it in practice. Still, we kept revisiting it… just couldn’t let it go.
We loved the song, Joy added an extra verse and here…