Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Pictures From The Vinyl Cafe

Last night Stuart McLean's final stop on the 2010 Vinyl Cafe Christmas Tour took place in Hamilton.  Francine and I were there (it has become a tradition not just to listen to Stuart's CBC show on Sunday afternoons, but also to attend the annual show)

Stuart's guests were Matt Anderson and Jackie Richardson -- two amazingly talented performers with incredible voices and stage presence. Also touring with Stuart, providing music to backup Matt & Jackie as well as various bits for Stuart, were the delightful and talented team of John Sheard on piano Dennis Pendrith on standup bass.

As always, it was a great show; a wonderful mixture of music, Dave & Morley stories and audience participation.

During intermission, Francine and I were fortunate to be among the folks invited backstage to meet Stuart. This gave me a chance to thank him in person for a recent show in which he focused on the unique appeal of the local community bookstore and spoke to three different booksellers from across Canada.

Even though we have several signed copies of Stuart's books, we couldn't resist the temptation of bringing a copy of his latest book, The Vinyl Cafe Notebooks, and getting him to sign it.If you're looking for a last minute Christmas gift, this book (or one of almost a dozen of Stuart's other books, or the many CD's of his stories) make a great gift.

Yes, more evidence that I'm a writer, NOT a photographer


The concert was the perfect lead-in to Christmas and a family tradition that we plan on continuing. Alexander is now getting old enough to be able to sit through a show, and we're planning on bringing him along with us next year. (He has already heard a few of Stuart's stories -- he loved "Waterslide" -- and over the holiday's we'll likely treat him with "Polly Anderson's Christmas Party" and "Dave Cooks a Turkey" -- two classics. (Follow this link to listen to quick excerpts from these stories)

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