From Montreal band Little Scream, have a listen to The Heron and the Fox, a gentle tune sung with smoky voiced longing.

My friend Alan Stewart reports on a meeting he had with Pete Seeger:  An Encounter With a Guy With a Big and Bobbing Adam’s Apple.  Included in the article is a new verse for Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now.”

Spent a lovely evening last night playing tunes with friends new and old at The Snug Coffeehouse on Bowen Island.  Every so often, a couple of times a month or so, we gather there on a Saturday night to play Irish and Scottish tunes.  Last night my old friend Dave Marshall showed up, which was lovely.  He and I were regulars at the famous Tuesday night session  at the Irish Heather in Vancouver in the mid to late 1990s.

Last night though was the first time I have ever played with  Jocelyn Pettit.  Jocelyn, who is all of 16 years old, is a phenomenal talent.  A beautiful fiddle player, who has crafted a marvelous CD of tunes both traditional and recently composed, Jocelyn lives in Squamish, the town up at the end of our inlet.

Today, on my way to Kuujuaq in northern Quebec, Jocelyn’s music is filling my ears.  Click through and listen to her music…

via YouTube – Amazing WWII Story.

From the Ontario trip, three new musicians:

I saw Michael Ketemer playing a beaten up old Larrivee at the Peterborough Farmer’s Market on Saturday.  He bore a little resemblance to Neil Young, with long stringy hair under a ball cap, but he is a much different kind of guitarist.  Lovely virtuoso finger picking Celtic guy.  He played a few very unusual set dances and some jigs and reels for me and we talked a little.  I asked him which of his albums he was most proud of and he handed me “Yellow Stockings” which I bought.  You can listen to some it here.  Michael really made me regret that had not started playing Irish music when I lived in Peterborough 20 years ago.

The previous weekend, in Thornbury we partied at Bridges, which is a bar right on the Beaver River.  Pat Robitaille is the house guitarist there, a very soulful singer who plays a lot of big chord melodies and has a very heartfelt indy vibe about him.  He plays the gamut of music contemporary and classic and is a fine interpreter of folk rock and acoustic indy music.   Pat moved to Thornbury from Windsor, and if you are ever in the Collingwood area it’s worth a drive to see him and to drink fine beer and eat good food at Bridges.

Oh and I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention that my almost cousin Keith Shiner has a new album out too.  He’s gonna put one in the mail for me.  In the meantime, you can stream him at his myspace page.