A couple nights ago I made my second appearance on CJSF (the radio station for Simon Fraser University) on a show called Melodies In Mind.

I love being around good musicians.  It feeds my creative soul.  I got to share the airwaves with two bands: Tough Lovers (a brand new indie band full of young energetic musicians) and Brighter Lights Thicker Glasses (a collaboration of white-haired gentlemen playing various styles of music with  an assortment of instruments: snare drum, cello, guitar, harp-guitar, and some other sort of stringed instrument).  I had just as much fun listening to music as doing my own performance.

We each had a 20 minute feature of interview and performance and then did a song circle (see videos below).  The show will do a repeat airing on Monday, March 29th 9am-10am on CJSF 90.1 FM

Please click on the links below to hear my feature (this is different stuff from the videos below):

Jeff on CJSF Part 1

Jeff on CJSF Part 2

Jeff on CJSF Part 3

Jeff on CJSF Part 4

What a week!

I’m dog tired, and sick, and I have to wake up early to travel to the Interior for a wedding (which I am looking forward to, it will just not help the tiredness).

“Why are you so tired?” you say in an inquisitive and mildly concerned tone.

Well… the main reason I’m tired is because of kids.  About 40 of them to be specific.  This week I helped out with a kids camp called VBS.  It was a blast, but it drained me.  I spent hours upon hours running around, chasing kids, lifting kids, being attacked by kids, singing, jumping, yelling, dancing, playing “grounders” and other games, etc.  For a relatively-out-of-shape-non-athlete like me, this is pretty intense.  Oh yeah, I also had to wake up at 6:30AM everyday, which is also intense for a mostly-self-employed-rockstar-wannabe like me.

Crazy kids and no sleeping in would be managealbe by itself, but this was also busy week with music.  I was burning the candle from both ends (is that how the saying goes?)

Here’s what I’ve been doing:

- finding students and writing curriculum for guitar lessons
- finding musicians and starting auditions for a cover band
- playing shows (I had two this week)
- playing on a radio station

Yesterday, I met Julie Lee.  She is an amazing violinist and we got along really well.  She was so good that I invited her to play with me at my show that night (which Julia Spitale hosted so wonderfully).  We performed some songs that she had never even heard before and no one in the audience would have known - she’s that good (it’s like playing with Brielle, for those of you who saw her play with me).

The radio appearance was really cool.  It was at Simon Fraser University’s CJSF 90.1 FM station, on a show called Melodies in Mind, hosted by Ryan Fletcher.  There were three other performers - Aidan Mayes, Dana Marie, and Day Cart (four if you include both guys of  Day Cart - whose name is a reference to philosopher Rene Decarte) and we did a song circle.  We traded songs back and fourth.  All of them were really talented.  In fact one of Dana Marie’s songs almost made me cry.  It was a great show in general.  You can hear a few of the songs at http://www.myspace.com/melodiesinmind

Or download the full show here in two sections: one and two

Anyway, it’s been a hectic week!  I feel wrecked.  But what keeps me going is that I absolutely love everything I am doing.

Working hard or hardly working?

Well… I’ve been keeping busy at least.  Not much of what I do feels like work.  Even my day job - worship leader and youth worker at Killarney Park Church - doesn’t really feel like work because I love what I do.  So it’s hard to say if I’m working hard, but I am doing a lot of stuff.

- I’ve been playing a decent amount of gigs.

- I’ve done a couple photoshoots.  One with Tracy Zhang and one with Adam Loewen.

- I’ve been planning a Vancouver Island tour for late August.

- I’ve become the new host of weekly Live Music Wednesdays at Bean Around the World at the Lonsdale Quay.

- I’ve done the Grouse Grind (I finished in 80 minutes… I’m going to try to do it in an hour next time)

- I’ve been running almost daily.  I have a goal to be able to run the Stanley Park sea wall by the end of August.

- I’ve appeard on Drive TV.

- My album has been reviewed by Colin Rink.  Check out his podcast “On the Run”

- And I’ve been having fun hanging out with friends.

By the way, last night I tried Bud Light Lime and I must say… it was good.  I’m not a Bud fan at all, but this tasted like Corona with Lime.  It’s a nice Summer beer.  Give it a try (I wish I was getting paid to say that).