Mike Bourgeault Photography

Tag: Folk

  • July 2, 2012 – Corin Raymond

    July 2, 2012 – Corin Raymond

    Ok, I am going to try to get this post done quick. I had this big lofty idea that I would be able to sit down on a Sunday and write two months worth of posts. That is not going as planned. It takes much longer to write about things I like than I thought. Hours longer. I spend a lot of time with the backspace key.

    But I don’t have much time today, and this is going to be a busy week (month, year, rest of life), as the purchase of our new home closes tomorrow!

    For my music Monday post this week I’m going to talk about Toronto singer-songwriter Corin Raymond.

    Although I’ve known Corin for a few years, he recently spent some time here at the London Fringe Festival, and I figured I should write about him and help get the word out before his current summer tour is over.

    Corin can almost be considered an institution in the Toronto roots scene. He’s part of The Undesirables, and The Sundowners (whose other members, as well as the group themselves, will no doubt be featured here at some point). In addition to that, he writes and performs his own solo material, both theatrical performances as well as musically.

    I first saw him perform at the Home County Folk Festival in 2009, in his duo The Undesirables, with fellow singer-songwriter Sean Cotton. I was immediately struck by how much of himself he gives to the audience. It’s not unusual to watch a singer simply hold the mic, maybe move their hands and feet to the music a bit. Not Corin, he involves his whole body in the song, and truly communicates with the crowd.

    You may have seen or heard of Corin recently on the news. He is in the process of creating an album of his favorite Canadian folk and roots songs. That in itself is pretty cool, but what really sets this apart is that the studio he is working with will accept Canadian Tire money as payment. To date he has raised over $4000 in “paper nickels and dimes”. That means over $1,000,000 was spent at Canadian Tire to earn that much. Corin calls it his first million dollar record. It is expected to be released sometime in the Fall.

    What really makes me want to write about him right now is not so much his music, but the show he performed at this years London Fringe Festival. Bookworm. Aside from getting rave reviews, he also won the Producers Pick award, which is essentially a best in show as decided by the folks putting the festival on.

    Corin Raymond and Sean Cotton preform as The UndesirablesBookworm is a one man show, starring Corin, in which he talks about his childhood and how much of an impact literature has on him, particularly the work of Ray Bradbury. Corin’s energy in his presentation on the theatrical stage is no different than his music performance. He gives everything he can to his audience. In an hour, with no more on stage than a stack of books, he manages to build the walls of his childhood around you.

    I can’t recommend this show enough. He will be touring the show to the Winnipeg Fringe Festival from July 18-27, Edmonton Fringe August 16, Victoria Fringe August 12, Vancouver Fringe September 6 and the Words Aloud Festival in Owen Sound on November 2.

    You can find out more about Corin, Canadian Tire Money and Bookworm at his website: www.dontspendithoney.com. It also has a comprehensive schedule of upcoming show dates.

     

  • June 25, 2012 – Leah Morise

    June 25, 2012 – Leah Morise

    So here we are, week two! As I mentioned before, my Monday posts are going to be used to talk about music. I’m going to make it a goal to only write about people I have photographed. That way if I want to write about someone I haven’t, I’ll have to make it happen somehow. Even though last week I talked about a relatively big star, I’ll have a lot about people you might not know of, but should.

    For my second music post, I’m going to talk about my partner, and one of my biggest supporters, Leah Morise.

    Leah Morise & Jim Johnston

    I met Leah in the February of 2006. A friend and I had started hosting an open mic night at a pub, and Leah was one of the first people, along with our good friend Jim Johnston (who I also met that night) to take the mic. I vividly remember being struck by her voice. She sings with an ease and joy that can grab a noisy rooms attention, stopping people in mid sentence. Her smile when she sings is my favorite part; there is no doubt that she loves singing as much as people love listening.

    Aside from singer/songwriting gigs, Leah is also a soprano in the First St. Andrews Choir, and has performed in several local musicals. It is not uncommon to see her jump on stage with a friend to add some harmonies. I’ve been lucky enough to share the stage with her often over these last few years, both on guitar and with some trumpet. Last year we toured out to Nova Scotia for two weeks, playing gigs along the way with another friend, Manitoba Hal. You’ll likely see a lot of pictures in future posts from that trip.

    Leah is also a very good photographer, as well as a graphic designer. Last year, we made a shared exhibition at the 2011 Visual Fringe. Leah turned the camera on me, while I was turning my antique film cameras on the landscape.

    In 2006, Leah released her first CD, “Take Me Anywhere”. It is a great collection of original songs, and was recorded by another good friend of ours, Greg Lirette. Though there are no solid plans in place for a second CD, the broad strokes should start to happen soon, as soon as we are done another project we are working on.

    As I write this, Leah and I are 8 days (8 days, 8 hours and 8 minutes actually, weird; yes, we have a countdown timer)  away from taking possession of our new home. Several years ago, on one of our many road trips, we came to the realization we both had this dream to live in an old country church. Fast forward to now and its about to happen. Among the many creative plans for the new place, we will be using the space to rehearse, and record Leah’s second album. If you would like to see more details about out it, click here to go to the little site we made about the project.

    I won’t go into too much more here. It’s surprisingly difficult to write an article about Leah without it sounding like a tweens diary entry. My life with her these last 5 years has been an amazing adventure filled with music, art, theatre, and campfire jams that last till the sun comes up.

    A couple of years ago, Leah and I spent a couple late nights and made a music video for one of her songs:

    Here’s an old video of one of our collaborations:

    If you would like to see more, you can find her here:

    Website: www.leahmorise.com
    Twitter: @leahmorise
    Facebook: www.facebook.com/Leah.Morise