Mes amis… I played 2 shows in Quebec City this past weekend. And I had such a good time.
I was held up in traffic a number of times on the road from Arnprior, ON, where I was recording with Craig Cardiff.
But I made it to the Cafe Babylone in the Ste-Roch neighborhood of Quebec in time to test out the piano (a beautiful sounding Yamaha upright) and have a tasty veggie chili complements of the cafe with the members of Jane Ehrhardt’s band, who I was sharing the bill with.
The Cafe Babylone show was great. I played about an hour-long set. Some great singers in the audience. Ended up doing an impromptu version of AC/DC’s “Shook Me All Night Long” with Pico, the banjo player in Jane’s band. Tenor banjo!
We ended with a great version of “Sweet Emma’s Group”.
That night a bunch of musicians went to Jane’s apartment, where I was staying, and we were up until 4 in the morning jamming. I’ve never seen a jam like that. So much passion, a lot of improvised spoken word. just wonderful. Washboard, air organ, banjos, accordions, spoons, and a lot of group singing. At around 3, we broke into a medley of a bunch of Doors songs over just 2 chords. I was playing tenor banjo for that!
The next day I went for a jog up to the Plains of Abraham and into the old city. Very busy. A lot of tourists. I have good memories of visiting the old city with my parents when I was young (Our Sweet Family Outings), but it was mostly in the fall and winter… so I have no recollection of how crowded it can get.
That evening Jane’s band and I were set to play Foubar, a funky bar in the St-Jean neighborhood run by a passionate and special woman named Lily since 1983. She’s got great pipes and I like to get her to sing during my sets.
Jane’s band played a great set.
I did 2 sets that night… and everything was a lot looser than the night before, which can happen when you’re playing a bar. Once again, I invited Pico for an impromptu banjo (finally!) version of “Sweet City Woman” during the 1st set. During “Great Pop Song”, which closed the set, Lily started singing as she was serving folks and before you knew it the whole bar was singing.
The 2nd set was even crazier. “We Should Dance” was nuts! I ended up having about 20 people standing in front of the keyboard and by the end I wasn’t doing anything… playing nor singing… and everyone was still going on and on. I went right into “My Girl” and set up a microphone for the audience to sing into and people didn’t stop singing and dancing until the end of the set (save for a brief cooldown during “Takin’ You With Me”). We did an impromptu version of “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On”, and I felt great closing the set with “We’ll Meet Again” and getting everyone to sing the parts at the end.
Once again, Lily was singing her heart out during this set. And Jane was up with some other girls too at the audience mic doing dance moves and singing. A lot of the times I was just looking at the audience in awe as if they were crazy and letting them continue singing! Very cool!
It was great to meet Butch, Mikael and other wonderfully talented musicians too. They made that late jam such an experience!!
Quebec – je me souviens et je retours bientot!
Merci pour tout.
Mike
