artist Spencer Jo

Joe and I had some fun filling out a column for VUE Weekly, promoting our new album, The Kitchen Chorus Songbook. Have a look!

Tune in to Kootenay Co-op Radio, CJLY on Monday June 13 at 6pm Pacific Time (7pm Mountain Time) for The Edge of Reason! The hosts, Jamie and Emily, are being so gracious as to have me on as a guest. We're gonna shoot the shit and play some tunes, I think. Actually, it looks like we're just gonna wing it. Could be interesting... Click this link to stream it from your computer now!

Heya! I'm excited and honoured to announce that my song, Pavement, won an honourable mention in this year's Folk Fest Songwriting Contest. Here's a neat video they took of the performance at the Ship & Anchor:

Heya! I'm excited and honoured to announce that my song, Pavement, has made it into this year's Folk Fest Songwriting Contest. I'll be performing it in Calgary at the Ship & Anchor on Sunday May 15. If you're in the neighbourhood, I'd love to see ya there!

Spencer Jo - Pavement:

Here's a neat article on following dreams by Lace Senio. Check it out if ya like.

Well, the last couple of days kinda blur together for me. We finished harmony vocals and, as always, it was a great lesson. My times recording with Casey have been the closest thing to singin' lessons I've ever had. This time, I had a pretty good idea of what the backup vocals would be like and Casey, being the exquisite singer that he is, was able to make some amazingly helpful suggestions.

We've all been working pretty hard and it came down to the crunch last night. We moved onto additional guitar as well as banjo, harmonica, boot stomps, etc. Our friend, Pernille, came to visit so we added her boot to the mix. We then had some pals, Mikey, Robyn and Dineke come in to get in on some gang vocals, which was tonnes of fun. Then, I left to go see an xmas play with my family and Joe put down the final harmonica parts.

We're going to listen to the mix over the holidays and, in the New Year, we'll go back to Casey and fine-tune it. We're soon to have a finished album. We'll keep ya posted.

Today's Day 3 and I'm writing from the studio. We committed yesterday to finishing the guitar bed tracks-- the foundation of the songs-- and starting on lead vocals. Today, we've finished the lead vocal parts and are moving onto harmonies. We'll spend a few hours on that and then move onto harmonica, banjo and second guitar. The instrumentation will probably take us into tomorrow and we'll finish the session with gang vocals.

Well, Joe and I survived our first day in the studio. Casey, as always, is a joy to work with. Yesterday, It was our task lay down the acoustic guitar "bed tracks" for the songs. We got a lot of work done (some of the songs were done in one take). Today, we'll sing. We'll put lead vocals over the bed tracks and come out with the songs in their essence. I'm happy to have a break from the guitars today, as I ran into some finger-picking frustration at the end of the session yesterday. I'll post some photos below. You can find the rest here.

My good friend, Joseph Barley, and I are recording an album together. Today is Day One and we are excited. We practised the songs for a few hours last night and it was our third practice ever. The second was about five weeks ago in Edmonton, AB, where he lives.

The first must have been three years ago, when we met in the kitchen of a hundred-year-old house in Connaught, Calgary, AB. He'd been touring and had landed a show at the house. I liked the cut of his jib so, after his set, I approached him and we got talking about traditional folk music. I picked up his banjo and he, his guitar and we played into the night. We knew a few of the same tunes but, mostly, we were teaching each other new songs (largely in the key of G). When we had played all the old songs we knew, the party had died and the host was kicking us out. Anyway, it was the start of a great friendship and we went on to play all over Alberta and BC together.

In the summer, he approached me and asked if I'd like to record a collection of folk songs with him and I replied "Why the hell didn't I think of that?". It took us some time to get the project underway but now it's rolling. We're booked into Echo Base and have both worked there before and are both excited to work with the engineer, Casey Lewis, again.

 

I'm trying to keep up with the "Modern Times" by keeping this "Studio Blog". I read somewhere that the "Internet" is good for that.

I was touring around Alberta about month ago and I met some great folksincluding a few from Balcony TV. Check out this video we put together.

My good friend, Nathan M. Godfrey, and I have been playing music together, here and there, for a couple years I guess. A couple months ago, we decided to step it up a bit and get something together for Saint Patrick's Day. We learned thirty songs together and called ourselves the Boom City Hobos. We played four sets on Saint Pat's and had a blast. A couple weeks ago, we stumbled on some recording time at the Beach Studio, here in Calgary, and a couple tracks I've posted on my page. See "East Forest Village" and "Tramps and Hawkers" on my myspace page. We're a real casual project and have no plans right now but, Calgary (and surrounding area?), look out for the Boom City Hobos.

I guess I'm gonna try this blog thing out. It's a good thing to be up-to-date with the interweb these days. So here I go. A month back, while Rum Runner was in Edmonton, I started a band with my good friend Dan Lilly. We played in the Falling Pianos together once. While I've been busy with my solo thing and Rum Runner, he's been busy with the Johnsons. Touring Japan and shit! Anyway, we started playing music together again and it's wicked. We're calling ourselves Mountain Jack and we're touring with The Old Sins in April. If we're hitting your town, you should come out! We just finished recording with Casey Lewis at Echo Base and we're real happy with it. We got three songs done and they're all about primates. Check us out at http://www.myspace.com/mountainjackmusic

 

By Sean-Paul Boynton for Beatroute Magazine

If you're a new band looking for gigs, a promoter trying to put up posters, or simply a fan of the local scene, look no further than Prairie City Noise.

Created by Spencer Jo Burgess - leader of the Falling Pianos, Rum Runner banjo slinger, solo performer, and all around scene veteran - the three-month-old Facebook group already boasts over 200 members, and offers such services as sending group members weekly rundowns of shows going on throughout the city, to pointing bands in the direction of helpful booking agents, to putting up posters along 4th Street.

"At first, I had a problem putting it on Facebook," says Burgess with a mild eye-roll. "It's so cliché. I just wanted to create a medium where I could share what I know."

At the suggestion that in this day and age, Facebook is the best way to get Calgarians connected with the scene, Burgess - almost sadly - agrees.

"I guess you're right, but I still feel that if we want to be taken remotely seriously down the line, we would have to transcend Facebook," says Burgess. "I would have to put a lot more time and effort into it, and it would have to be made up of a solid group of people who actually give a shit about live music, because that's what this thing is all about."

Burgess pays special attention to Prairie City Noise's poster team, which helps out promoters - especially those for all-ages shows - by putting up ads for upcoming events at no cost to the venue.

"It's a volunteer thing," says Burgess. "We get in touch with the promoters, and then we just ask around, 'who's got staple guns?' We've gotten in trouble with the paid poster guys, whom I have a huge problem with - they tear down our posters a lot."

Despite that, the group's creator remains confident in his over-all mission.

"I think there is a genuine Alberta sound," Burgess suggests, "but it can only work if we bridge the gap and group together as a province. A city can do nothing but benefit from new acts, more shows, a stronger community."

http://www.beatroute.ca/view_archived_article.php?id=55&sectionID=15&articleID=2214