Brothers: Zac, Taylor, and Isaac Hanson

The Hanson brothers have been to Canada before, but not extensively and will be gracing Ottawa with a live show on February 8th*. In preparation for their tour through Canada, Zac, 1/3 of the band Hanson sat down for a quick phone interview with yours truly to touch base on the upcoming tour and more.

So this tour is going to be a launch of sorts, for the “Shout It Out” Album?

Zac: Yea, we’ve been to Canada before but not with as many stops. We’re excited to be coming to Ottawa, meeting new fans is a challenge we always enjoy and we hope to entertain.

You guys have a lot of songs, which song are you most looking forward to playing on this tour?

Zac: That’s a hard question actually! New music is always fun for me to play, but I also like older songs with a bit of history. This is really hard!  I’m excited to play “Thinkin’ ‘Bout Somethin’ ” among others. Fan reaction also plays a huge part for sure. We are lucky to have fans that are really engaged at our shows and make the performance energetic.

At many of your concerts you do The Walk before the event, to raise awareness for the HIV/AIDS Pandemic and poverty in Africa. Since it’s winter will there be an indoor walk?

Zac: (laughs) Yea, not on this tour! It is really cold, and the walk is a barefoot walk and it would probably be bad to send people to the hospital with their toes falling off from a Hanson walk. I know I need my toes! But also, the walk is about giving people a way to act, to make an impact. In fact, people could host their own walks, it isn’t something limited to just us. We want people to know that these walks stand for something, and it’s action that will help facilitate change.

What do you want fans to take away from this tour?

Zac: You know, we hope to create a unique experience for them, we want it to be memorable. This isn’t going to be one of those shows where everybody stands around with their arms folded, and looks somber. We want fans to feel a connection to our songs, we want them to be engaged.

*For official  tour dates and more info please visit Hanson.net

If you would like information on The Walk, please visit Take The Walk

Check back with us for the official Ottawa concert review!

**Special thanks to Zac for taking the time out,  and Catrina Jaricot from Strut Entertainment for setting this up!

The concert featured:

• Ana Miura [Website]

• Amanda Rheaume [Website]
• Leela Gilday [Website]
• Tara Holloway [Website]

• Annabelle Chvostek [Website]

The show took place at St. Brigid’s Centre for the Arts.
More photos can be found here.

Cover art by Yvon Villarceau

It began with a desire to help in the face of disaster.

Over the past 2 years, OttawaTonite.com has grown from a fledgling blog/web site about the Ottawa arts and culture scene into a hub of community and connectedness. It’s helped to bring artists together many parts of the city, and created a space where they can not only feature their work, but where they can share a glimpse of what it’s like to be a creative person in our city. Most importantly, it’s brought artists together, and created some powerful relationships.

This web site has enabled the community to become more connected, and it’s that connection that spawned the idea to bring artists together, to try and help the people of Haiti in any way possible.

Photo by Sean Sisk

Ottawa for Haiti is a remarkable CD compilation put together by many artists in the Ottawa music community. The project, headed up by Ottawa Tonite founder Cheryl Gain, is the culmination of many months of work by a team of generous and talented people. The CD contains 14 tracks from a broad range of local musicians, such as Lindsay Ferguson, Silver Creek, Jill Zmud, and Juno Award winner Kellylee Evans. It is a magnificent recording that truly showcases the many talents of our local music scene.

All proceeds from the sale of Ottawa for Haiti will go to Hope for Haiti, a wonderful organization that is working on the ground to help Haiti’s people rebuild.

I sat down with Producer Cheryl Gain to discuss how this remarkable project came together. (If you can’t see the video, click here.)

Photo by Sean Sisk

This project would not have been possible without the efforts of the many people involved. In addition to the amazing contributions of the artists and their songs, much appreciation goes to recording engineer Matt Ouimet, mastering engineer Philip Shaw Bova, artist Yvon Villarceau who designed the gorgeous album cover, graphic designer Ben Welland, photographer Sean Sisk, web designer Steve Donnelly, Jester Creative for lending a hand with the web site and video, Darner Media for tech support, and our amazing sponsors, Jeff O’Reilly of D’arcy McGees, and Chris Saracino at Standard Media.

Ottawa for Haiti is being officially released on Saturday, April 30th at 8pm at D’arcy McGee’s on Sparks Street in downtown Ottawa at a special show featuring artists from the album. Lindsay Ferguson, Shannon Eddy-Smith, Megan Jerome, Ken Voita, Jill Zmud, Kellylee Evans, Matt Ouimet, and more, will all be performing tracks from the album. We hope you can join us!

The CD will be available at the show on April 30th and is being sold at Compact Music for $7. You can also purchase it online at www.ottawforhaiti.ca or download it from iTunes.

Ottawa Tonite sent correspondent Bob LeDrew to find out what Amanda and her guitarist and partner-in-music Jeff “The Legendary” Logan are up to this year:

Pick up the CD at:

• All BRIDGEHEAD locations
• Alfa Diner – 274 Parkdale
• The Morning Owl – 538 Rochester
• Compact Music Glebe – 785 Bank
• Compact Music Downtown – 190 Bank
• Greenfields Barrhaven – 900 Greenbank
• Studio B Hair Salon – Bank

Get your tickets online for the December 8 Christmas show via Ticketbreak.

In the meantime, enjoy a review of our coverage of the local news and views from the fest…

If you want to see the video playlist in a larger window, click here.

• Charles Downey – Guitars/vocals
• Kris Ward – Vocals/guitars/keys
• Joey Patrois – Bass/vocals
• Alex Patrois – Drums

Their music is indie rock with some country folk.
Had some British rock influence too.
Check out these two performance videos on Youtube.

• Performance with an interview
• Best Way Home

Right by Midnight will be playing at Zaphod Beeblebrox on May 14th.
The band gave two tickets to Bands Undone.
If you liked what you hear and saw.
Just send an email to Bands Undone about the two free Right By Midnight tickets.

• Derek Atkinson
• Khary Byron
• Dan Larmour
• Jamie LeClair
• Brad Sheffield
• Nicole Yates

Nicole and Khary were not able to make it out to Bands Undone.
For those that don’t know, their music is indie folk-rock.
They did a really great set up.
They played two songs from their upcoming album “Expansion Forces” and one new song.
Listen to the interview I did with Loon Choir.
Here is the video on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiPjrndMQuk
Here are some of the photos.


Upcoming shows for Loon Choir:

• CD Release show at Avant-Garde Bar on May 22, 2010
• Opening up for Rah Rah on June 10, 2010

After appetizers, the NAC gave us a tremendous opportunity to capture a bit of the show from the press gallery and then meet the performers and producer after the show for some Q & A.

It was another great night on Blogger’s Row at the National Arts Centre!