Great Music in A Beautiful Setting

A couple of months ago (on my way to Europe in fact) I saw that one of my favorite bands, Great Big Sea were playing a show in Banff.  I emailed Tammy as so as I saw it and asked if we should go.  One of the best parts of it was that we could bring the kids.  It was an outdoor venue and the kids tickets were only 10 dollars.  So Tammy and her family and Darryl and I and the kids all headed up to the mountains yesterday for an awesome day.  Here are some picture highlights from it.



The reason for the concert was the Parks 100 anniversary, so there was the park beaver for the kids to enjoy.

Family One

Family Two

If you have never been to a great big sea concert you may not get it, but Great Big Sea concerts are some of the best, even if you don't know who they are or don't love their music.   When you watch them play and even if you've never heard the music you'll love it.  And they love it, they get the audience involved and so much of their music is so upbeat that you can't help but get up and dance.  And Canadians are so nice and polite that in most concerts there is very little standing or no standing at all.  But when Great Big Sea plays they tell everyone, get up!  Vertical Movement! Dance Around!  At this point Canadians then feel okay to stand up.  "Well the lead singer told me to, so I better" =)    At a GBS concert you can't help but clap and dance.  Even people who are non clappers, or not big GBS fans, they will have sore hands by the end.   If you ever get a chance to go I highly recommend it.    As you can see from our pictures we had a great time dancing around.  Especially Nathan. =)

Till Next Time

Jenn

U2

Last year for Christmas I gave Darryl two U2 tickets. Darryl has always really liked U2 and when I heard they had rescheduled a show to June 1st in Edmonton I booked tickets. One of the things about me is I often do crazy things. As I talked about before I love experiences, and sometimes do things (or say things) without taking everything into consideration. So I checked Ticketmaster and there were tickets available, so I bought Darryl two for Christmas. It was a Wednesday and we both had to take two days off work, and luckily my sister was around to take care of the kids, so it all worked out.


The concert itself was incredible. There were 65000 people there and I don’t think I’ve ever been to something that big. Bono can really sing and the Edge is an amazing guitarist. They also had a really cool stage. It is 167 feet tall and it takes 100 semis to transport it from city to city. The stage had lots of lights and effects with it. There was also an inner and outer stage to it. There are so many great U2 songs and they played a lot of them. My favorite was probably Elevation, but they played so many of the good ones. Like most Canadian concerts most people stay seated and danced in their seats, but I would stand and dance whenever there was a song I liked. Plus there was this story, which had people talking.

The other crazy part was leaving. With 65000 people trying to get out there was hordes of people trying to get on the train. It was crazy. It probably took us an hour just to get on a train.


It was a super fun experience and something I’m happy to cross of my life list.

Till Next Time

Jenn

Winter 2011 Playlist

1. The Cave: Mumford and Sons. Hands down my favorite band of late. If you love banjo and songs that build and rock songs you'll love them. If you saw them at the Grammys you'll know what I mean about music building. If you like this song I would also recommend Little Lion Man and Roll Away Stone.
2. Dog Days are Over: Florence and the Machine. I may have been in the dark about this song for a while. It was a song I kept hearing on the radio and loved it, but never heard the name of it. Again the Grammy's (you'll notice a theme here) introduced me to her great voice and then I found this song.
3. Alberta Bound: Brian Adams. Obviously...
4. Stuck Like Glue: Sugarland. I'm not really a country fan, but her voice is growing on me. Besides who doesn't love a song with some reggae rap in it. =)
5. Jumpstart These kids wear crowns: It was a free song from itunes and it's great. Especially for those of you who like pop music (I'm looking at you Alexis and Lesley). I don't think it's a radio song- but it could be. My kids like to dance to it too.
6. Born this Way Lady Gaga: This is a radio song and it certainly sounds like Madonna's Express yourself, but I still really enjoy it. I also like the message.
7. Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise: Avett Brothers. Again a fantastic performance at the Grammys. I've had this song on itunes for a while, as I've loved the song I and Love and You for a while, but this song is on rotate now.
8. Uncharted: Sara Bareillies She has such a great voice and this song is up beat and has a great message.
9. Heavy Metal Girls: Jim Bryson and the Weakerthans: If you follow me on Twitter you know I saw these guys earlier this week. I enjoy their whole album but this is probably my favorite song of all of them. It was great live (as songs should be)
10. Rolling in the Deep: Adele This is from her new album and man this woman can sing it. Tammy introduced it to me and as she says it's a little motown.
11. Firework: Glee Cast. Again a great message and I like Lea Michelle singing it better then Katy Perry.

What's been on your playlist lately?

Jenn

Grammy and Two of My Favorite Bands.

This morning on my way to work I hear that two of my favorite bands of the past year, Avett Brothers and Mumford and Sons will be performing together at the Grammys this weekend. I'm already so excited. Check out two of these bands popular songs.





Till Next Time

Jenn

Stampeding

I love the Calgary Stampede. I love how the city gets into it. My favorite part is the coke stage. There are free acts there every night. And usually quite good, I've seen Chantal Kreviauk, Trews, Mariana's Trench, Len, Amanda Marshall and last night we saw the Barenaked Ladies there.




The foursome
Ed rocking it out.
The acoustic set.

My favorite part was the encore where Tyler came out an sang alcohol. He impersonated Steve and did a hilarious job at it. All of Steve's funny moves. Man it was great. My other favorite part was hanging out with Tammy and Alexis. I love those ladies, they make me laugh.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Lilith Fair

Yesterday I had the extreme pleasure of attening Lilith Fair. It was a really fun day. We got to hear lots of live music, which is one of my favorite things. I got to spend it with 3 of my favorite ladies and I got to sing and dance my heart out.

They had tents with lots of "good" for the world products. I bought some delicious fair trade chocolate and got some free tampons.

We enjoyed Kate Miller-Hiedke and her song about not wanting to be friends on facebook with your ex boyfriends. Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, were also outstanding and loud, much louder then expected. Ash Koley was also a really good act and although we were far away we were bopping to her songs.

After that we headed to the main stage for Colbie Callait, Erykah Badu (who I didn't really enjoy). Then came Sheryl Crow. She was really good live. Her son came up on stage and was dancing with her and it was so cute. She has so many good songs and sang alot of them.


After Sheryl was Sugarland. I'm not a big country fan, so I wasn't sure about this act, but they put on a much better show then I expected. She had so much energy and could really sing (even though I'm not crazy about her twang). Very good live



Lastly was Sarah, and oh Sarah she has such a beautiful voice. I was sad that there was a strict curfew and her set was short, but the songs she did sing were so lovely.


One of the other really great parts of it all was being with 3 of my favorite women. We had such a good time and lots of laughs.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Spring Playlist

Here is the latest Spring 2010 Playlist

1. Wellington's Wednesdays (Live) The Weakerthans Live At the Burton Cummings Theatre (this live version is great)
2. Four Seconds Barenaked Ladies(the most fun song from the album)
   
3. Wavin' Flag Young Artists for Haiti
4. You and Your Heart Jack Johnson (new Jack Johnson is always good)
   
5. Take It Upon Yourself Sloan (the boys loves this one)
   
6. There's a Light Jay Malinowski
7. I and Love and You The Avett Brothers (this one may have been on the winter one too)
   
8. Gives You Hell (Glee Cast Version) Glee Cast
9. Loving You Is Easy Sarah McLachlan(yeah new Sarah)
   
10. Manifest (Live) The Weakerthans Live At the Burton Cummings Theatre
11. 4 Minutes Glee Cast
12. Magic Pilot(This is from the BNL concert, but I'm loving it)
    
13. You've Been a Friend to Me Bryan Adams (Really love this song)
    
14. Deny, Deny, Deny Joel Plaskett
15. Jessie's Girl (Glee Cast Version) Glee Cast

Enjoy

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

New Barenaked Ladies

My very favorite band is coming out with a new album. Here is the first single from it. I like the single, but not sure how I'm going to feel about a whole album without Steve. I was listening to my Ed playlist to try and get into Ed music, but I just felt sad when I heard Steve singing backup. Have a listen and tell me what you think.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Music on my ipod

The people in this picture make up the marority of the music on my ipod lately.



Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Great Big Sea

If you have been reading the blog for a while you'll know what a big fan I am of the Barenaked Ladies. Really I'm a big fan of Canadian music. Not all Canadian music, but most of it. One of my favoites is Great Big Sea. They play east coast/celtic music. There songs have great upbeat messages (except for Scolding Wife "if the devil would take I'd thank him for his pain I swear to god I'll never get married again). I use to blare them loudly while drivin home after night shift. Lucas was also named for one of their songs. They were also on the cruise, so I got to introduce Tammy to what a fun experience their concert. On the second night she claimed she wasn't going to jump or clap, but when you are there you just can't help yourself.

So anytime I get a chance to see them and jump around, i "jump" on the chance. Last night was one of them. And the fun part about it was it was our godson's first concert. He was so excited, although exhausted by the end of it. It was a gala. So there were many many artists that night. The Canadian Tenors (who were much younger and better looking then I expected), Sophie Millman (a jazz artist), Divine Brown (and R&B Artist) and George Canyon (a country artist) were all on before GBS.



It was a super fun night. To see Matt's excitement when his favorite songs were song was priceless.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Fall Playlist

Here is my fall playlist (it's actually a combination of summer and fall), but here are some of my favorites.

1. Soldier Ingrid Michaelson She put out a new album and this is one of my favorites.
2. I Love This Town Joel Plaskett Love this Canadian Artist. He is great.
3. Already Yours Bahamas My very favorite song lately! Slow but catchy
4. Lion's Teeth The Mountain Goats Started listening to him when I went on the cruise. Love him, he's like the male Jann Arden
5. Islands In the Stream Constantines & Feist A surprising but wonderful duet.
6. Everybody Ingrid Michaelson Another great song from that album.
7. Sing Your Heart Out The Trews I love the Trews and I love acoustic, a great song
8. Hey, Soul Sister Train My favorite "radio" song lately. Catchy and I look cool when I know it.
9. A Million Miles Away Jann Arden Jann just put out a new album and this is my favorite track from it.
10. Whiskey Is the Life of Man Bellowhead Heard them at the folk fest and they are great, very big band though.
11. If I Ask You Nicely Gomez Another folk fest great song
12. Lie Down Good Lovelies Another great band. Anohter folk fest tune. Although Darryl thinks we are in the "50's" when I listen to them
13. Where the Road Meets the Sky Katie and Matt A song from Grey's, slow and beautiful
14. The Show Lenka This song should be on the radio, so catchy.
15. Man of Two Minds The Trews This is what Darryl calls the Nick Newman song, but I love to sing it
16. You and I Wilco

What are you listening to these days?

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

30th Birthday Celebrations

Last week I turned 30 years old. In typical Jenn fashion I celebrated for a whole week.

It started on my actual birthday with a delicious bouquet of food from Mom and Dad. Lucas and Nathan really enjoyed it as well. He kept saying about "how good" it was. I would definilty recommend an edible arrangement's.
After a request from me Darryl went out and bought Beatles Rockband, which is really a blast. The birthday celebrations ended with a weekend of parties.



First was my Friday night party. Here are some great, super fun ladies. Singing happy birthday to me. More details are on Michelle's blog (she's a new blogger, stop by and say hi) and Lesley's blog. Then a family birthday with more kareoke and more rockband. It was music filled which makes a celebration for me.

This was a great appetizer I made. It's cream cheese and whip cream mixed together. Then drizzled caramel all over and skor bar crushed on top. I highly recommend it.



Nathan trying to get in on the rockband drumming. The kids were great. I am usually a schedule nazi, but knew they would fall asleep easily with all the noise and excitment. So I kept them awake and they were good, till almost 10pm



Lexie and Karen showing off their moves, they were singers and dancers. I think they both really enjoyed themselves. I was amazed at how many songs we all knew (especially Auntie Karen)



Monkey see, monkey do. =)

Lucas's snuggling with Auntie Karen and her belting out a song.

One of the funniest parts was a 10 year old who was there. He didn't really know any of the songs, but loved singing along. Which meant he really didn't know the tune or the note, so was really off. But still had a great time.

Thanks everyone for a great party.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

RIP Michael Jackson

He made great music. My sister and I would put on the Bad record and dance around the living room to it. That and the Whitney Houston album, I want to dance with somebody.



It was great fun. He made some really really great music, especially to dance to. I do hope his kids are well taken care of. It's weird to be living through a time that you know you will quote for years and years to come. I was doing..... when I found out Micheal Jackson died. I think the weirdest part of it all was was that I continued to check Twitter over and over until I found out.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Coldplay

Last night we were lucky enough to go and see Coldplay at the Saddledome last night. It was one of the best concerts I've ever been too (and I've been to lots of concerts).

First off Snow Patrol opened for them. I think they did a great job. I came home and downloaded a bunch of their songs. Open Eyes, Crack the Shutters, You're All I Have were all great ones. The lead singer was very animated and I love that. Tammy and I were discussing how you could tell he loved his job.

It was definitely a big budget concert. It was great because they sang little "sets" on both sides of the stage.
At one point they even came to the back of stadium and did a little set.
They also had screens and the "videographers" did a great job of capturing the facial expressions.

A couple of things that really amazed me about the show was how gracious they were. For being such big names, they said thank when most of the songs were done. At the end they bowed at all sides of the stages and at the end. But for being so famous, they were very polite. They also gave us a live CD as we left (which you can also download at their website)

Another thing was how energetic they were, Chris ran all over the stage and they were all sweating, but they continued to do it.

The other thing, that always amazes me at concerts, especially "big" ones is at how talented they are. I remember feeling the same way after seeing the Dixie Chicks. The drummer from Coldplay was so talented. He can really sing as well.

Here are some huge yellow ballons that came out when they played the song yellow.
Here is Lovers in Japan when confetti fell from the ceiling.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Sarah Slean

Tammy and I are becoming concert fanatics. The cruise did it to us. We love live music. The question is how do I get a job with itunes? Or a professional concert go-er. So last weekend we went to a Sarah Slean concert. It is amazing how so much voice can come out of such a little person. It was also a very different crowd then the Weakerthans concert. She has a famous song on radio, Sweet Ones (which she didn't play) My favorite one of the night was this song



Looking for Someone was also a great song as was Parasol. Which made me want to move to Paris.... oh one day.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Spring Playlist 2009

Every couple of months I put together a new playlist. This one has been a while coming as I have been listening to the Weakerthans endlessly since the cruise. But to save Darryl's sanity I have put together a new one. Here it is:

1. Glad Girls - Guided By Voices A great song, got it from How I Met Your Mother. It's a catchy song it will be in your head all night.
2. I Can't Stop Laughing - The Trews This song and the first one are my favorites on my new playlist. This song is great for dancing to.
3. Wonderwall - Ryan Adams Remake of the Oasis song, slower
4. Heartless - The Fray Remake of the Kayne West song, Lesley I think you would like this song
5. Come On Get Higher (Live) Matt Nathanson- Lori if you like Jason Mraz, you'll probably like Matt as well.
6. Apology Song The Decemberists - My new favorite Indie band, they are coming to the Calgary Folk Fest.
7. Through & Through & Through - Joel Plaskett I loved his song Nowhere with you. This is another dancing song.
8. Sleeping Sickness - City and Colour A great Canadian song. Ian I think you would really like this one.
9. Romeo and Juliet - The Killers Another remake, but a good one.
10. Our Retired Explorer (Dines With Michel Foucault In Paris, 1961) - The Weakerthans So this is my newest Weakerthans song, great for clapping and dancing.
11. Walk On By - Bryan Adams Heard this one at the Junos, it was great.
12. Now My Feet Won't Touch the Ground - Coldplay
13. Unless It's Kicks - Okkervil River A great song that builds and builds and it's great for groving.
14. The Rake's Song - The Decemberists. A free song from Starbucks. Who knew they gave a new free song every week. If only I loved one of their beverages.
15. Long While - Barenaked Ladies. This song will probably come out on their new box set. It is such a FUNNY song.
16. Tug of War - Carly Rae Jepsen This is my new favorite "radio" song. I don't get most songs from the radio, but this is one of the few of them.
17. Fifteen - Taylor Swift . This song reminds me of Mackenzie
18. Use Somebody - Kings Of Leon I know most everyone has heard of this band, but they are new to me and I like them.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Weakerthans

This weekend we had a wonderful treat in store for us. My amazing parents babysat our kids and our best friends kids and we all went out. Started with wine and steak from the Keg for dinner and then headed out to a concert at the University. Unfortunately when i showed up with my camera they had to call the tour manager out because it was "semi-pro", when I told them I just use it to take pictures of my kids, they still didn't let me bring it in. Another funny thing was you could really tell we were at a university. They played in a "gym" and there were lots of young people there ( I was feeling kind of old). And it was loud. Especially the Constantines. My ears were ringing, my pants were dancing (even though my legs weren't moving) after the first couple of songs. The Constantines did improve after the first couple of songs. But oh.. the Weakerthans, the reason I was there.



This band is amazing. The lyrics they write are so Canadian Pennies for the GST, provide such great imagery And they bite their mitts off to show me transfers, deposit change and make me want to sing along all the time I hate Winnipeg. Funny love songs You may role your eyes at this, but I'm so glad you exist. Such great music. I can sing along to most of the songs. And play air drums to them too, peel the corner gaurd, dance down the sheet to the tune of hurry, hurry hard Some songs are slow, some songs are fast. It was a great concert. Made me come home and download more of their songs. It also took me back to some of the great memories I had from cruise. Although there were many more people there then we out on the deck of a boat.

If you haven't heard of them I highly recommend them.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Why I Love the Barenaked Ladies Reason.... 147 & 148

Free Music... they are giving away their latest concert for free. Click here for the link to it.


And Ed's Up. With caving to buy TSN to watch curling the Outdoor Life Network was included, so we've been watching Ed's show. He is so funny.

Yeah for the BNL

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

Maybe.... It'll All Be Okay

I really like Jim's vocals in Steve's part.

Till Tomorrow

Jenn

So Sad

Well I've spent most of the day reading, listening and watching to all the news about Steve leaving the Barenaked Ladies. I am not surprised but I am very sad about what has happened. When I say I'm not surprised, I certainly noticed something to be off on the cruise. Steven was late for shows, didn't participate in the banter as much and spent lots of obvious time with his girlfriend. I thing Steve has grown away from the band. And although I'm not happy about it and thought it was something they could get over. I'm not surprised that this is the outcome.

The sadness comes from never hearing those Steve songs anymore. Not hearing the back and forth banter from Steve "the man on my right" and Ed. I'm glad we heard Break Your Heart on the cruise and Asleep at the Wheel.

I have hope though, hope that the foursome will be great. Hope they will make great music and their stage show will be great. Even on the cruise there was alot more interaction with the "backies". Plus Kevin did a lot on the Snacktime album and that is one of my favs. So yeah... hope that it will still be good.

I'm still having trouble getting on side with the Steve music. I still feel kind of mad at him. Mad for growing away from the band. Grow, do stuff, but don't leave. I don't think he'll find the chemistry that he has with Ed anywhere else. But I think in a while I'll probably be able to get on side with it. Just not right now, still disapointed with him.

Till Tomorrow, and a wonderful happy post with lots of pictures. I promise

Jenn