Groove Corporation at The Burlington Jazz & Blues Festival

Groove Corporation plays The Burlington Jazz and Blues Festival

in support of our new CD, "Record Prophets".

We, Groove Corporation, are pleased and honoured to be playing The Burlington Jazz and Blues Festival at the majestic Spencer Smith Park in downtown Burlington, Ontario, Canada. Showtime is: Friday July 17, 7:00 - 8:30pm on the main stage. Please come out and support the band. This is a free outdoor event.

Groove Corp CD Release @ The Silver Dollar

Silver Dollar Room
Toronto's Premier Blues Club
GROOVE CORPORATION'S TORONTO CD RELEASE PARTY
SATURDAY MAY 30TH, 2009
We are proud to present Groove Corporation's Toronto CD Release at the legendary Silver Dollar Room.
Specials Guests: Snake Oil Johnson
Showtimes:
Snake Oil Johnson 8pm-9pm

Groove Corporation 9:30-10:30
Doors open at 6pm. Dinner reservations are accepted. Cover Charge $12
The Silver Dollar Room is located on the Northern edge of Chinatown in Downtown Toronto at 486 Spadina Avenue, just north of College Street. Details directions, map, parking tips, and even a tour of the club are all available at their website: www.silverdollarroom.com

CD Baby Has Arrived!!

The brand new Groove Corporation Cd entitled "Record Prophets" is now available at CD Baby.

http://cdbaby.com/cd/groovecorp

Groove Corporation CD Release Event

This is Groove Corporations favorite place to play in the Hammer. The Corktown is very much like "The Horseshoe" in Toronto, "The Yale" in Vancouver, or "Tipitina's" in New Orleans, where I've played with Crowbar and King Biscuit Boy. The stage is big, the people rock, and the sight lines are great!

A few pics from the Groove Corporation CD release party.

Album will soon be available on CD Baby.

A big "Thank You" to our fans who made the evening an unbeliveable event and a sold out venue for our CD release.

L to R: Rob, Pete, LX, Cole, Kim

Groove Corporation CD release party at the Corktown in the Hammer! (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada)

What a great evening!

The house was rockin', the press was talkin', and we were groovin' with all our might.

People dancin' and romancin' and the band was playin' tight!

The cover for "Record Prophets" the new Groove Corporation CD

New Groove Corporation CD

Nick Blagona (The Master of Mastering) and Ian Neilson

Photo: Blackberry Lil

Well...it has been a while since I've been posting. Why... you might ask? We've been completing the new Groove Corporation CD. Above is the album being mastered by Nick Blagona, (just Goggle his name, I dare you...) a really great guy who stepped in to give us a hand with his advice and expertise as a master of mastering. Mastering is the process of taking the individual tracks from the album and laying them out in the proper order, equalizing, smoothing and adding the magic dust that belongs to the masters of mastering. It is a skill few have and those that do it well, such as Nick, are a very valuable asset to the production of any album. He had just returned to the Hammer after working with Alexisonfire in Vancouver, so much thanks to Nick for being there in the "nick" of time for us. (Sorry...couldn't resist that...lol)

Groove Corporation will be holding our CD release party in the Hammer (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) at the Corktown, one of our favorite places to play. If you happen to be in the area, it is April 4th. Directions and all pertinent information is at http://www.groovecorporation.com/ under our Calendar link. We are having a great time with our first Groove Corp album and are looking forward already to making the next one. More info to come...

At The Bottom of Each Page

Round Lake

There is now a slideshow of paintings at the bottom of each page. Please feel free to scroll down there and have a look. You can stop the slideshow at any time by clicking on the middle button that appears when you put your mouse pointer over the painting. Click again and the paintings continue. Thanks for stopping by......

July 12, 2008

GROOVE CORPORATION CHOSEN AS ONE OF SIX FINALISTS IN TORONTO BLUES SOCIETY TALENT SEARCH

Groove Corporation will perform on Thursday, August 14th, live in Toronto at Nathan Phillips Square before a panel of judges as one of six finalists in the Toronto Blues Society Talent Search.
Now in its thirteenth year, this event has proved a launching pad for outstanding emerging talent - previous winners include JUNO and Maple Blues Award nominee the Rockin' Highliners, New Artist of the Year nominees Jake and the Blue Midnights, and Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards winners, the Ronnie Douglas Blues Band, CBC/Galaxie Rising Star David Rotundo, and Maple Blues Award nominees Wickens-Knight.

Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto, Ontario, CanadaThursday, August 14th (Noon until 2pm)

Sandy MacDougall and the Gretsch

Sandy MacDougall

In the last post I was talking about how I was amazed at the playing of Domenic Troiano. This post is similar and gives credit to another amazing guitarist. The picture above is of my Dad, Sandy MacDougall. He played through the 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. He was a humble, kind, and gentle man whose style was the Travis/Atkins (Merle Travis/Chet Atkins) style. The guitar in the picture is an original Gretsch Chet Atkins model that came out at the beginning of the 60’s.

My Dad’s playing was finger style with a thumb pick. He was an incredible player whose understanding of chord structure, melody, and rhythm went far beyond anyone in the area and he became a well known and sot-after player in Atlantic Canada and in later years an outstanding guitar teacher. He played most every day and I grew up listening to a player who played on the level of a Chet Atkins with much of his own developed approach intertwined with the Travis/Atkins style. My technique developed as a single note approach with a flat pick and claw style of finger picking. He helped me in the early years understand how chord structure worked and how rhythm combined with chord structure worked behind someone such as a singer, or a sax player taking a solo.

I remember many evenings listening and watching him play and develop his skills. At the time I really didn’t understand just how good a player he was. It was just my Dad playing his “stuff” and I was all charged up playing and listening to Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Paul Butterfield, Mike Bloomfield, Electric Flag, and into the mid to late sixties sound. It wasn’t until I was out playing professionally myself for many years that I began to understand the depth of his playing and musical knowledge. I’m listening to Hendrix, Clapton, Bloomfield and telling him how good these guys are and he’s saying “Oh, you like that? You should check out BB, Albert, and Freddy King, Buddy Guy, and Muddy Waters because that is where these guys are getting their “stuff” from.” That was great advice and started my journey into the Blues and R&B world which has lasted a lifetime.

We had many jam sessions at our house with players from all over dropping in to play with, and learn from him. I was always allowed to hang out and listen, and the odd time allowed to sit in. Most of these players played way above my level at the time, and they helped me learn, by fire, to play better. I thought with Father’s Day coming up soon that this would be a nice way to honour, and say a big “Thanks” to my Dad, for all the help he gave me to survive as a professional player in a competitive music world. The advice, love, and encouragement will never be forgotten.