GMA Calgary

Just woke up. Good sleep. Silly that a two hour time zone change would give me jet lag. Maybe not. Maybe I'm just plain tired.

Spend three days in Calgary at GMA Canada - gospel music association - hooking up with Canadian artists and radio peeps. Schmoozing is the main activity, although some seminars were also good!

While radio is my job and my hobby, my other hobby is working with artists. I'm not sure what my position might be; perhaps Professional Encourager. In a previous lifetime, I managed artists and I think I have a good sense of performance observation. Some people seem to agree and came to my seminar at GMA called "Why Some Artists Make It And Others Don't". I love giving that message and didn't get off stage without 20 questions.

Steve Taylor gave a session about the production of Sixpence's song "Kiss Me". He is a very colourful, animated, clever artist but unfortunately, after viewing the new movie "Blue Like Jazz", I wouldn't recommend it to a Christian audience. Way over the line of good taste for me.

My hero and first artist I heard playing Christian music, and thus my journey into the Christian radio industry - Geoff Moore - hosted a luncheon and sharing his experience as an artist. Geoff is ALWAYS great and an American who understands Canada and encourages us.

Hanging with my good friends Chris Bray, Dan Bremnes, Sean Dayton and Zach Havens was awesome. All of these guys are class acts. Then meeting new friends was cool - including Ash Militsala in "From Love To Forfeit" from Edmonton and David Millar from Cities Under Fire from North Battleford.

Friday night was the Covenant Awards - our version of the Grammy's. Most winning artists were not there to accept their award. Sidebar - most of my favourites did not evan win, despite substantial radio airplay. Zach Havens from To Tell dined with me and performed "Safe To Say" with the house band. Evan Duran from LIFE 100.3 presented an award at the Covenant Awards.

I took a side trip to CJAY and Virgin Radio (secular) and brought back some new radio ideas for LIFE 100.3. CJAY is owned by Astral with a great radio history in the market.

Gleaning ideas from their operation will certainly make LIFE back home a slicker product. After CJAY, my buddy Ryan took Evan and me to a burger joint, that is a walk-up/drive-thru, with NO INDOOR TABLES! So we sat outside at the picnic table, freezing and eating! Haha! Great time!

I suppose I've left out some of the best parts of the trip - thanks everyone who I connected with and chaffeured me around town!

Stellar Kart - To Tell - rockin' Queensway!

Stellar Kart - pop-punk band with a slew of great songs! Friday night they performed at Change Conference in Toronto. The conference age was pretty young - 13-17 age, maybe? So, I posed as a youth leader in order to fit in and enjoy the music. (Enjoying the music is easy - fitting in is more of a challenge.)

(right - Adam Agee singing "Me and Jesus")

Stellar Kart surprised me. Adam Agee was the only original guy in the trio. Whaaat? A trio? When they played in Barrie there was four of 'em. Where's Cody? (ripped guitarist),Jordan (in photos he usually has a finger up his nose) and Bryan (geeky but master of the stratocaster). Those boys are gone? Who are these two replacements?

The trio played ok and the recorded tracks kept it from sonically falling apart but there wasn't much of "a show". (I like a show!) Visually SK looked like an opening act with a lousy light show and no stage movement. But singer Adam Agee was a great encourager and communicator and the SK songs were, of course, great. "Me and Jesus", "Activate", "Shine Like Stars" and Bon Jovi's "Living On A Prayer".

Opening the show, (which was running late), was To Tell. I love these guys. In three years I've seen at least 20 shows and never have I seen them do a bad show. Always a great performance. Zach Haven's, the lead singer, is mature beyond his years. He says all the right stuff and instinctively knows what to do on stage to keep the show exciting. Backing him up are Nate, Justyn and Mike who all rock it out!

(left - Zach Haven's kicking out "Safe To Say")

It is my hope that next year To Tell would be the headlining act at Change Conference next year. It's a waste for To Tell to only play five songs and they can easily pull it off.

I love SK but it would be fair to say - To Tell stole the show.

New Music by To Tell!

One of my favourite Canadian artists is To Tell, based in London, Ontario. Their new song is "In Your Eyes", which you can hear on LIFE 100.3 in Barrie.

Here's the audio. No video available.