"Down in the mines of the Crowsnest Pass..."
My brother and I were out at the Carleton last night, for a show by Calgary folksinger James Keelaghan. The tickets were a birthday present from a friend who works at the venue, which was extremely sweet of her. I'd seen him once before, at the Lunenburg Folk Festival in the mid-1990s with my sister, who is a huge fan of his. He's got a lovely deep voice and once again, I was watching someone play guitar and thinking, "Yeah, gotta practice more." (I'm actually pretty diligent, I've just gotta practice more.)
I have a picture on my camera from the show, mostly because I wanted to preserve a picture of Keelaghan's guitar, which seemed to be a folk model that had visible patching where the pick guard would have been--I have no idea how old the guitar is but it has seen some use. And, since guitars want to be played, it sounded terrific.
Yeah. Gotta practice more.
A lot of the songs were from the new CD which I have only just bought, so I don't have a proper set list. He was friendly and personable, and he did play "Cold Missouri Waters" (an absolutely wrenching song about the Mann Gulch Fire in 1949), a great version of "Follow Me Up To Carlow," and my favourite of his songs, "Hillcrest Mine." The latter is a song about a mining disaster that segues into a song about unionization.
In fact, here is a video clip of James, probably in the early 1990s, on a TV show called "Listen Up." (The song starts about a minute into the clip.) He is greyer and has a brush cut now, but the voice is the same:
Anyway, terrific show, and I owe my friend big-time. I will have to think of some sort of suitable payback.
I have a picture on my camera from the show, mostly because I wanted to preserve a picture of Keelaghan's guitar, which seemed to be a folk model that had visible patching where the pick guard would have been--I have no idea how old the guitar is but it has seen some use. And, since guitars want to be played, it sounded terrific.
Yeah. Gotta practice more.
A lot of the songs were from the new CD which I have only just bought, so I don't have a proper set list. He was friendly and personable, and he did play "Cold Missouri Waters" (an absolutely wrenching song about the Mann Gulch Fire in 1949), a great version of "Follow Me Up To Carlow," and my favourite of his songs, "Hillcrest Mine." The latter is a song about a mining disaster that segues into a song about unionization.
In fact, here is a video clip of James, probably in the early 1990s, on a TV show called "Listen Up." (The song starts about a minute into the clip.) He is greyer and has a brush cut now, but the voice is the same:
Click to viewAnyway, terrific show, and I owe my friend big-time. I will have to think of some sort of suitable payback.