Sips Bistro

5:10 pm on Jul 2

Tonight I'll be playing at Sips Bistro...the first of many Thursdays for all of July and August this summer. Each week I will invite different players, artists and performers alike to share the stage....this week...Coco Jafro. See ya there!

Happy Birthday!

12:34 pm on Jun 9

A gift to you from me!

1:19 am on May 2

Sip's

10:31 pm on Apr 25

Getting ready to sing at Sip's Artisan Bistro tomorrow night...Ryelee (from Winnipeg MB) will be sharing the spotlight. Can't wait! 7pm-425 Simcoe St, Victoria BC.

Junofest

10:25 am on Mar 30

Took the ferry over to Vancouver for Junofest with Jesse Roper and my love Motown Cunliffe. Played at the Yale and just rocked it. Awesome time had by all and I can't wait to do it again! Things have been so busy. This Thursday I will be playing at Sip's Bistro at 7pm. Check SHOWS for details...
-Char xoxo

Canadian Music Week

11:58 pm on Mar 22

A friend of mine told me that if I wanted to boost my career in music I'd better get my ass over to Toronto for Canadian Music Week. So I did. I booked a show alongside Adaline and Mani Khaira both from Vancouver. But it turns out that both Adaline and I went to the same high school in Whitby, Ont. Small world...? The trip was a solo one so needless to say I was a little intimidated by the big city after living in (much smaller) Victoria BC for the past 4 years. But once I got to the venue I was welcomed by Adaline and Mani and was looking forward to the show. Mani brought some white lights to wrap around the keyboard which was a nice touch. There were about 50 seats filled and I was surprised by such an attentive audience, the Free Times had a great bunch of people there.
That night I hung out with old friends from school and I stayed at my friend Marcus' house. Marcus did my website and cd cover for me...he's an awesome artist. http://www.marcuskamps.com/
But I ended up freezing, sleeping on the floor and had about 4 hours sleep that night. We went to breakfast in the morning and then I was off to the Royal York hotel where the conference was being held...
I met up with my wise friend (who suggested I attend) at the hotel and he showed me some things I should attend while I'm visiting. Michael owns an entertainment group in Victoria. http://www.cordovabay.com/ He's got some great artists he is promoting like State of Shock, Acres of Lions and Vince Vaccaro. So I was very grateful to be a part of the experience and you can bet I made it worth while.
As soon as Michael introduced me to the first person I just took off and met as many people as I could. It was great. And I can't wait to do it again. I met people from record companies to music lawyers to promotions people to the famous bands themselves! It was great. I was lucky to have met such great people along the way. It didn't feel like I was alone the whole time cause I was meeting with one person to the next until 4:45 am every morning. This went on for four days and by the end of all the handshakes and late nights I ended up with some wise insight and also a cold. Nothin like both to slow you down again. The insight was that I am still young, that time is more precious than money, that art is merely a price tag to many people, and that most people who are in the music business now had once loved music for the art and not the money. And I'm fine with that...every aspect of it. I've accepted my life of music to be part art/part business.
There was one conference that I really enjoyed. It was about Trent Reznor of NIN and how if you connect with fans and give them a reason to buy then that equals the business model. Anyway, here's the vid..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njuo1puB1lg&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs%2Etelegraph%2Eco%2Euk%2Fshane%5Frichmond%2Fblog%2F2009%2F02%2F10%2Fif%5Ftrent%5Freznor%5Fcan%5Fsave%5Fthe%5Fmusic%5Fbusiness%5Fhow%5Fabout%5Fjournalism&feature=player_embedded


it's great. I'll see you at Hermann's this Tuesday night! I'm on at 8pm sharp!

-Char

Support Char!

10:55 pm on Mar 19

Canadian Music Week

1:15 pm on Mar 18

Just got back from Canadian Music Week where I played a solo show at the Free Times Cafe on Wed Mar 11th. Opened for Adaline and Mani Khaira. The show went so well and there wasn't an empty seat in the house the whole time. Plus by the end of the week I felt like I'd known those two forever. Plus, thanks to Michael Burke and Cordova Bay Entertainment, I have more contacts than I know what to do with! So needless to say it was a very productive time and I can't wait to do it again.

The ALOMST Blues Brothers-NYE SHOW

11:30 am on Dec 21

I am the keyboard player and vocalist in The ALMOST Blues Brothers Band, and we will be playing on New Years Eve at the Ambrosia Event Center located 638 Fisgard St, Victoria BC. Tickets for the show are available at the event center, Alloy music in Langford, or Lyle's place at 770 Yates St, Victoria, BC. Show starts at 9pm. We have a 12 piece band too....cya there!

Recording

11:28 am on Dec 21

The Broadleaf Killers (my band) received a recording grant thanks to the NRG and Cornerstone Collective Records dated for January. So you can expect some new tunes to be available in the new year!

The show was a hit!

11:27 am on Dec 21

Our show at Hermann's was really great. Dallas brought out the best in each other that's for sure! We did get it filmed so we'll try and post the show soon...

Show At Hermann's Dec 13th, 2008

10:15 am on Dec 5

Dallas Harlen and I will be playing a show just before Christmas at Hermann's Jazz Club-753 View Street, Victoria BC • Tel: (250) 388-9166. The two of us are looking forward to playing some softer tunes for the holidays. We are sharing the stage with Gail and The Low Riders, Steven Del Rizzo, and other special guests. The show starts at 8 pm, tickets are $10 in advance and you can purchase them at Lyle's Place 770 Yates Street Victoria BC Canada. We look forward to seeing you!

xoxo

Char

Fourth tour diary....Canmore

7:33 pm on Dec 1

We decided to stop and sleep at another camp site before reaching Canmore and found a place called Premier Lake Park. It was a bit off the highway and we were near the mountains by Banff so it seemed to be a bit colder too. We get to the park and it is beautiful but a wee bit nippily so the first thing we looked for was firewood. There were some nice people at the site who gave us some wood and said it was only 1 degree celsius last night and that we were in for a cold one. We went for a hike and did some fishing at a nice little lake near by and Mike caught a perch (I think) which was cool. So later we made some dinner and cozied up to the fire. As we were eating dinner we heard this rustling in the woods and didn't know what it could be. The rustling got louder and louder and louder until it was right next to us, so Mike and I are both freaking out. Mike's got his knife in his hand ready to jab anything that pops out of the dense unknown forest. Sure enough something pops out and guess what it was....a skunk. Now because Mike has been born and raised on Vancouver Island he has no idea that running after a skunk usually isn't the first thing to do by instinct when you see one of these suckers. So he starts running after it and I'm yelling, "Don't run after the skunk!". Luckily no one was injured and no one was left skinky that night. But man that skunk was sure after our food! The morning was pretty chilly that's for sure..but we managed. Then it was on to Canmore... So we get there and the town is very nice. Small with big mountains around it. The Canmore Hotel said we'd get two nights accommodation there which we were looking forward to quite a bit for a good warm nights sleep. We walk into the bar and ask where the hotel part is and we got lost trying to find it because it's an old hotel with no front desk or anything and usually people don't rent rooms there anymore. So we get the key for the room and finally find our way up to the rooms. The whole experience was quite like a movie to be honest because it was such run down place and this old man with no teeth is going up the stairs before us. We look for our room and he's like,"Which room ya stayin in?" And by that time things were getting creepy, so we find the place and there is no bathroom, a sink and a bed with burn holes in the sheets and blankets. Mike was the one who said he wasn't staying there. I thought it was gross but I could manage. To be honest I think Mike was just creeped out by the whole place, and I don't blame him. Growing up on the road I've been to and seen many different and grosser places than that and still managed. But I definitely agreed with Mike and decided on another hotel to stay in. So we forked out $70 and stayed at a nice hotel with a shower and bath and tv and the works! Yay! Then we had to get there to do sound and talk to the band we opened for which was Maurice from Victoria as well and who were also doing a tour of their own. We did a one hour set and had a great time. The audience was great and attentive and by the time we finished we had two drinks and two shots waiting for us, so needless to say we got intoxicated that night. Maurice played a great show and we enjoyed hangin out with them and exchanging stories from the road. The sound guy was really nice too and gave us a ride to the hotel which was nice. We didn't have an extra night to stay in Canmore anymore so we decided to keep on movin to the next location the day after. And so we were off to Regina, Saskatchewan to visit my Uncle and Aunt.

Third tour diary...Nelson

7:32 pm on Dec 1

So in the morning we packed up our stuff from the small little patch of gravel that we payed $30 to sleep on in Kelowna and moved on to Nelson. The drive was a nice one but a bit long. We got to Nelson around three had lunch, stopped by at the Cocoanut Lounge to scope the place out and then looked for a place to camp. We found a nice provincial park right out of town so we set up and left to go and play. We also found out that tourist season had just ended there as well so we actually only played two songs and left because there was only one guy there! I hadn't had the time to visit the radio station until the next day unfortunately. But the good thing is that we met the people there and got to know when the best time of year is to play there. It's all a learning experience right? So the next morning we stopped and dropped off a cd to the station and were on our way to Canmore....

Second Tour Diary....Kelowna

7:30 pm on Dec 1

The venue was really nice at the Minstrel cafe. But we found out the hard way when tourist season ends and we just missed it so we ended up playing to the staff. But it was fun and they loved it and bought us drinks and a nice dinner which was really nice...we didn't have accomodations there in Kelowna so we had to look for a place to stay before the show. Most of the trip we planned on camping so we searched for hours for campsites and came up with nothing but two campsites that were right in town which was kinda weird and so we actually ended up paying $30 to camp on gravel downtown Kelowna...it was pretty funny but we were just going to get up and leave right away anyway so it worked out. The next day we were off to Nelson to Play at the Cocoanut Lounge.

Finally! A blog about our Canada tour!

11:56 am on Dec 1

Alright, so this is the third time at my attempt to write this blog...my parents computer has a vendetta against me or something! To start off, the show in Victoria at Detour on Friday the 5th of Sept was great! Dallas (my guitar player for the Broadleaf Killers) opened and sat in on a few tunes. The audience was so supportive and generous. Great way to start the tour. Then we left on Sunday morning, just barely caught the ferry (over to the mainland) and drove to Hope BC to play at Skinny's Grille. Such a beautiful drive throughout the entire region. We arrived at Skinny's and they put us up in a nice motel and we went fishing on the Fraiser River most of the day where I saw bear poo for the first time and we captured some neat photos of a little otter who came and said hi to us while we were there...That night we played with Adriaan (who runs the place with his wife), Davis, and Greg (both good friends of Adriaan's). They sat in on the show and played along with us which was neat. Greg had the major hard rock style goin on with his Gibson Les Paul and his distortion pedal, but managed to fit in quite nicely with us and Adriaan grooved along with bass and a bit of drums when Davis wasn't on percussion. All in all it went really well and we sat and had a few drinks with them after and listened to their detailed stories all night....great times! The next day we were on our way to Kelowna to play at the Minstrel Cafe. But first we stopped in Princeton to visit Mike's grandparents who were soooo sweet, and we had homemade peach jam and scones that were delicious...then it was on to Kelowna.

Welcome!

The music section is now up! Click here to listen to tracks from Char's debut CD, Blame it on the Moon!