by Joe | Aug 29, 2017 | Band News, History, Personal Blog
When Thom said he’d like to celebrate his 30th birthday with a concert, it made sense that we would reunite the full band lineup to play. 30’s a big milestone and deserves some fanfare, and that’s exactly what we provided. It also turned out to be a farewell to the home that served as our main practice space for many years. The old family home was sold this summer and so Thom’s 30th birthday concert became a farewell to Maley Lane, as well as a special birthday surprise for his mom, Cathy. It was fun returning to the house to practice, all of us living quite a distance away from it now, and being graciously welcomed by mom with snacks and drinks while we practiced. Just like the old days… The party was a private affair, just for family and friends, but when I think about it, See Joe Smile has always played for family and friends. Even when we played at new venues to new people, we always had family and friends present and I’d like to think our music welcomes people into a friendly and comfortable atmosphere, too. We missed Kaitlin who has just given birth to a boy, a few days earlier, but we were happy my wife, Michaela, was ready to jump in and sing. She’s been singing with the band for any full band appearances we’ve made over the past five years so it was great for her to join us for this special occasion. The setlist included our most popular SJS originals and a few of our favourite covers: It’s All Been Done (medley...
by Joe | Jun 6, 2017 | Album Reviews, Personal Blog
In the early 2000’s, before blogs, Facebook and Instagram became the most important means of personal online expression, there were free websites that would allow a person to make their own website. As long as you knew some basic html, you could work with the templates provided to create a space on the world wide web that was all your own. A few of my friends and I did just that, creating webpages that reflected our personal interests and updated people on what was going on in our lives. It turns out that both of my webpages, from my highschool and university years, are still online. “Great, Joe. Your old website is still up. So what? What does this have to do with Sgt. Pepper’s 50th anniversary?” says an anonymous guest’s voice. Well, I used to write music reviews, something I started when I did my co-op placement, in Grade 12, at The Charlatan, Carleton University’s student newspaper. I liked writing album reviews (still do, though I don’t have time for it anymore), and I’d post them on my website. One of them was for Sgt. Pepper. Sgt. Pepper made an impression on me long before I realized it. As a young Joe, I had access to a limited number of tapes, all of which belonged to my parents, until I could start buying my own. The Beatles’ blue album is the first Beatles tape I can remember actively listening to, enjoying songs like Sgt Pepper, With A Little Help From My Friends, and Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. I did my Grade 8 song project on Penny...
by Joe | May 16, 2017 | History, Other Bands, Personal Blog
Teitur @ Cafe Dekcuf February 2004 Hi friends. I’ve long had this idea of a recurring blog post topic. In fact, about five years have passed since I took pictures of my old concert ticket stubs and corresponding t-shirts. I did this for two reasons: in case I forget about all of the great concerts I’ve attended and because I liked the visual way it captured the memory. So here we are in early 2004. I had only recently begun seeing live shows down in the Byward Market, exploring my newfound independence as a 19 year old university student. My pal, Steve had begun performing as a solo artist and it was a real joy to support him at his shows. This one was a big deal because the headliner was an emerging singer-songwriter from the Faroe Islands, Teitur. My buddies and I saw him when he opened for John Mayer, a few months earlier at what turned out to be my first major concert experience at the Corel Centre (now Canadian Tire Centre). To get the opportunity to see him play again was amazing luck. Even better, this was a much more intimate venue, with a high probability of getting to meet him afterwards. It was also special because my pal Steve opened the show. What I most enjoyed about Teitur’s live performance and his songwriting, in general, was how poetic it all was. The imagery he employed, the metaphor, the honest emotion dripping from every phrase, for a 19 year old guy in the midst of a tumultuous transition between highschool and university, crushing on girls to...
by Joe | Apr 27, 2017 | Music Ministry, Personal Blog, Upcoming Shows
Refuge is a word that has been on my heart a lot over the past six months. Its cousin-word, “refugee”, has been very prominent in the news during the past few years, and for good reason. Thousands of Syrians left their homes to find a safer, healthier and happier place to live. A few of those families were helped by my home parish of St. Augustine’s, and we welcomed them into our community, helping them get a fresh start with housing, clothing, ESL classes and fellowship. For many of us, we will never find ourselves needing to leave home and start anew somewhere else. I do feel, though, that in our lives, we are in need of some kind of refuge. We need a safe place to go to, away from busy routines, emotional turmoil, mental health struggles and more. As part of a planning committee at my parish, we discussed ways in which we can better fulfill the needs of our community. In my reflection and prayer, my mind turned towards organizing an event that would help all of us pray about how our parish should proceed, moving forward, but would also help individual needs, too. I brought forward a plan to re-introduce the practice of monthly evenings of Eucharistic adoration to our parish. These evenings would provide an opportunity for those gathered to pray, in the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, supported by music, words of reflection, and times of silence. In this way, a dynamic prayer experience would be created in which people could find refuge. Refuge, for those who attend, is an opportunity to unburden...
by Joe | Feb 16, 2017 | Music Ministry
For the past 10 years, I have played an active role in music selection for the masses which I have led or co-led for Sunday liturgies, feast days, and retreats. During that time, I have done a lot of research and self-teaching to train myself on how to be better at selecting appropriate songs, hymns and psalms that connect to the readings for each mass. Many parishes include a section devoted to their music ministry and, sometimes, songs are listed there for each Sunday. There are also a multitude of bloggers who have shared their own song selections. Then there are more official documents from organizations like Lifeteen and the CCCB (for the Catholic Book of Worship) with song suggestions for each week and each liturgical season. Many times, I have immersed myself amongst these resources, spending hours at a time planning for a month or 6-week block of masses. Many times, however, I have been frustrated because I can’t easily find a resource that has a combination of hymnal/traditional and contemporary selections. They are often separated, in the same way that I see music leaders arguing about which is better: traditional and Gregorian Chant or contemporary Catholic & praise & worship music. So, I would return to the readings of the day and try to make the best connection I could to my own personal songbook and the hymnal my parish used the most. While I am not a scholar of church liturgy, my quest to marry traditional and contemporary styles in a way that finds best practice for antiphon/song selections for each part of the mass is one...
