artist A Few Innocent Civilians

We have the opportunity to play music along the Ottawa Marathon race route this year on Sunday May 27.  We are very excited for this show because our music will be a vehicle to inspire and cheer on the many folks taking on this physically intense challenge. 

I do a reasonable amount of running and races each year myself and run mostly without music playing in my ears from an iphone or ipod.  Naturally it can get a bit dull running without music.  When I'm running I always enjoy hearing music along the race route, it helps me to pick up the pace and it keeps my mind off the various nagging hurts in my body as I run.  To provide this support to the runners is exciting.  It's going to be such an energized show for us because of the charge in the air from the race and from the runners.

Another cool part of this show is the fact that one of our songs, "Love Song for a Runner" is written about running.  It was inspired by my brother who is an ultra-runner.  As a result of his training and remarkable strength he finished the Marathon Des Sables, a 250 km run through the Moroccon desert twice!  I'm looking forward to playing this song during the race to feel the words put into context of an actual race. 

I'll keep you posted on the aftermath of the show to see how it compares to the excitement and anticipation that I feel as we practice for this show.  For those of you at the Ottawa Marathon, give us a wave and a smile as you run by, we'll be at Parkdale and Emerson.

Go Runners Go!

Andrew

Well we are definitely hard at work to promote and play songs from our first album, Let It Go, now available online and in select stores.  We had an excellent time at our recent album release party with lots of great friends, new and old, and family there to dance and sing with us.  

Having said that, I can't help turn my attention to some of the new originals that I've written and that we've started to craft.  I'm excited by the growth of our band’s sound and skills as musicians in making music.  This growth and ability brings inspiration to me as to where our music can go and what it can be.  Some of the new originals we have tested out at recent shows received great reviews. In particular, the folk rock sound from the song, Legacy, a song about the conservation of the rural landscape and of natural places. 

The words seem to resonate with people, "Land it is a freedom, you can't pass it by.  It will be yours until the day you die", and speaks to how protecting and conserving natural spaces is a legacy for all of us.  For this song we've included a re-occurring harmonic instrumental as well as some acapela harmonies that just make you want to sing along.

Yes, there are four or five new songs that we are working on, all of which are true to the sound from our first album.  Our sound, I feel, covers numerous musical genres.  This of course makes it difficult to characterize the album for radio because the songs have influences from rock, folk, blues, and country.

So, keep checking in with us here at CBCMusic and CBC Radio 3 for these new songs.  We will want to test drive them with you, our fans.

Until next time,

Andrew

Welcome to our first band blog!

We thought it would be prudent to keep you updated with our bands developments.  We are sad to say that Geoff Stephen, our bass and mandolin player, will be leaving the band.  Good terms of course, just a change in his priorities.

Fret not innocent civilians we have found other civilians willing to help us keep our music playing.  We'd like to welcome new members Mike Pacey, playing bass, and Rick Gravel, playing drums and assorted instruments.  Yes, we've added a live drummer and asked 'Vinnie' the drum machine to step aside.

Both of these guys come to us with lots of great music experience in other bands over the years and we are pleased to have them with us.  We are already working on new music and developing our 4-piece sound.

Keep innocent, civilians.

Andrew Mack