All Good Things….

December 12, 2011 By 7 Comments

….Must come to an end.

Well folks we made it home from a ten week tour alive. We had good times, some great shows (like our tour finale in Quebec City with two standing O’s) and of course had the flip side to all that as well. Before I get to the meat of this post I want to thank everyone who gave us food and shelter along the way and of course all the clubs who gave us shows and peeps who came to said shows!

However….

It is with a heavy heart that I announce the parting of Shawn Bastard from our current line up. Shawn and I have played together for 13 years so believe me when I say that this is not an easy time in my life right now. I’m sure it won’t be but a blink of an eye before you see him rawking a stage somewhere with someone and considering he is one of Canada’s best on the low end, I’m sure he’s already in demand. Karl Gans and myself will continue to make music in some fashion or another over the coming months. Spring tour and band shows are still scheduled as planned for 2012. You can check Karl and I out in Duo form this weekend in St Andrews NB. Of course, since it won’t be the same without Shawn I’ll be dropping the moniker “& The Sufferin’ Bastards”. You’ll be able to find all things related to me musically under my very own name. Not too clever i realize but it works. Website will remain the same but eventually the band Facebook page will go away and I will have a new Ross Neilsen Music related FB page.

Currently I’m booking my solo tour for the first quarter of 2012 and there are a few shows listed in the tour dates section of this site now. Stay tuned for more shows in Ontario in March. I’m also going to be woodshedding hard to get ready to head to Memphis for the International Blues Challenge where I’ll represent Harvest Jazz and Blues Fest in the solo/Duo category. I’m very excited to head back to the land of Blues and BBQ! There will be a fundraiser event at Dolan’s Pub on January 18th at 7.30pm. I hope y’all can come and help a fellow out so I can afford to head south with out too much overhead. It’ll be two sets of solo material spanning the past 6 years and who knows, maybe a guest or two?

Before I go get into “the medicine” I’d just like to say what a pleasure and honour it’s been to have such a great band and even more so, such a loyal base of friends, family and fans. I really do believe we wouldn’t be anywhere without the support we receive from y’all and while we weather this shit storm I just want everyone to know that we’ve appreciated every single time you’ve been there for us. While right now I am struggling to control my emotions, know that I will turn this into an opportunity to re-collect myself and continue to put out new and exciting music with the same high quality shows/music you’ve been used to in the past.

Your’s in music,

Ross

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Pure Rawk Fury Update #1

October 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Hello friends

Well we’ve been out for about three weeks. We’re currently in Lethbridge Alberta at the man with no name’s house. We’re chilling before we load into the Slice for tonights rawking!

We have had a great tour so far. LOTS of nice weather. Last trip we discovered a great way to get around northern Ontario and we did the same this trip. Nice and slow, stopping in little towns to play shows in the evening to kill our expenses and keep us driving short, day light, hours to the next show. It takes twice as long but in the end it’s much more relaxing and we’ve met some wonderful folks in these towns. After our second show of the tour we stayed another night in Lavigne to relax before we got into the meat Northern Ontario. We got a lovely tour du lac from Jo and Manfred. Again, it was a beautiful day on lake Nippissing.

The good weather didn’t stop there. We had low twenties all the way around Superior which prompted Shawn Bastard and I to take a dip in the Great Lake. It was cold, I can tell you that, but refreshing.

We played our way out of Ontario in a new venue for us, Shooters in Kenora. Fun joint. We’ll be back here again on our way home. After that it was a long haul to Regina for our show at the Gaslight. This one was way better than our last and we look forward to playing here again next tour. The road then pointed us towards Saskatoon where we always play the amazing Bud’s on Broadway. Mid week shows can be tough but we’re grateful to have them at all and we always have fun at Bud’s with the staff and patrons. Big thanks to Al from the blues society for wrangling a few folks out on a Wednesday. Thursday we did a house concert in Stoon in our pal, John’s, basement. We met John in Jasper last tour and hit it off. Before we knew it wed booked a show with him for this tour! Nice little crowd and a whole lotta fun. I went all out for this and rented a big amp specially for the show!

We were real spoiled all week in Stoon as we stayed with my cousins family and Kris’ home cooking was it’s usual amazing! We arrived for Thanksgiving and didn’t seem to stop eating great food till the moment we left! Thanks to family! So awesome!

After we vacated Saskatchewan our first Alberta stop was the Mainliner in Medicine Hat. We discovered the Mainliner through our pal Geoff Lightenin’ a few tours back and it’s become a real awesome spot to hang for the weekend. Great owners and staff and a real appreciative audience. We always have a ball and can’t wait to see them again in the spring!

After the Hat we cruised to Cowtown to hang with our pals from Fredericton at the Vista Commune. We got deep into a great HBO show called Game of Thrones and enjoyed one helluva nice day on the Vista patio. It was so warm the hornets were waking up and hanging around. The boys have a great view of downtown Calgary and in the morning you can clearly see the mountains. Nice foreshadowing for this week. We caught a great sunset too!

Last night we rolled into Lethbridge to stay with our pals who we know from Fredericton. These cats are always a blast and treat us with the hospitality that the Maritimes are known for. We had a wonderful night of telling tales and enjoying great alberta beef with some tasty wine!

Tonight we rawk the Slice and then move on to Canmore tomorrow. This part of our Alberta trip wraps up next Monday before we roll into BC. Looking forward to all the adventure and fingers crossed for more excellent weather.

Yours in RAWK,

Ross

PS….I posted a few new tour dates for our trip home. Check em out and tell a friend!

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At The Helm

August 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Hello minions!

Well as I type I’m over looking the lovely Davidson Lake. I’ve been out here on a mini “vacation”. It sure makes doing agent work easier and almost bearable. I’ve been coming here my whole life and it never wears off for me. recently I came out to do a painting I was asked to submit for the Brush of Hope Kideny Foundation fundraiser. They ask non artist to paint something for auction. I hadn’t painted in about 25 years. I used to paint with my mom, who is an artist. Needless to say I got some much needed coaching form moms. It was an honour to be asked and fun to do it! They’ll auction all the pieces off on ebay near the end of October I believe. Here’s the piece. I called it “No, No, No”.

So let’s see….What’s goin’ on?

Last week we had a killer run of festivals in Quebec and NB. We did the opening show at The Donnacona Blues Festival where we had nothing short of an awesome time. Played to a real great crowd and then had some more fun afterward at The Totem bar where an acoustic mysteriously appeared and I was convinced (jack daniels) to do a short solo set. Much fun was had. The next day we drove to Levis, Quebec where we played to a very appreciative crowd of what seemed like a thousand peeps! Awesome fun! Then on Saturday we hit the Dooryard Arts Fest in Woodstock NB to rock my old stomping grounds of Carleton County. What a great time it was and it’s nice to see the festival there really being supported by the community. We had a fun Jam with Newfoundlands Chris Kirby too! I handed him the guitar I usually keep in open “D” tuning and although I had thought I tuned it all up, one string was a full tone down. I tell ya, you’d never know. Kirby rocked anyhow. No flies on the boy!
Here’s a pic from Donnacona:

And here’s a video from the same night. I think this one is our version of BB’s “Thrill is Gone”

This weekend we head up to Perth Andover for the Larlee Creek Hullabaloo. One only need check the line up to know what kind of awesome Festival is up the Saint John River. Matt Andersen, Dave Gunning, Thom Swift, Carmen Townsend, Chris Colepaugh and MORE!!!! Gonna be a gooder. Bound to be some jams too! Saturday well wake up too early and no doubt be fuzzy headed for our drive to Charlottetown. We’ll be playing Hunter’s Ale House for the first time and really, really look forward to it. I know there will be some friends in town for the Charlottetown Jazz and Blues Fest so we’re hoping for some of them to pop in.

Recently I’ve been in conversation with the fellows from a new Fredericton based company called Timbre Collective. These cats build custom pedal boards, flight cases and more. After some emailing and discussion I’m very happy to say that I will be entering a sponsorship with the lads to endorse their cool products. My new board is being constructed as we speak and I hope to have it in time for Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival. These cats have their research down and are great about giving you whatever you think your board needs. I look forward to working with them. Here’s one of their prototypes

Did someone say Harvest Fest??? Well here’s two amazing bits of info for you to look forward to…ONE: we are currently reviewing the mixes for our new live album “What You Need Vol 2″. You may remember Vol 1 was recorded at Harvest during our Dolan’s run a few years ago and it’s on the site here for free download now. We recorded VOL 2 at Blues on Whyte on this past spring tour. It’s part of our fan series which means if you want this baby you gotta get to a show to buy it. It’s sounding good and features a lot of the rocking stuff from Redemption. We hope to have it for sale during Harvest and we hope you dig it!

TWO: Unless you live in a cave you may have heard that Gregg Allman had to cancel his Harvest shows due to respiratory infection. Obviously, being a huge fan, I was devastated by this news as I was scheduled to open the second show. Well The Festival Musical Director, no stranger to last minute cancellations after last years, did it again. In no easy task of replacing the rocknroll hall of famer, he upped the ante huge. He got TWO rocknroll hall of famers. Mr. Buddy Guy, who I had the pleasure of sharing the bill with a few years back and Mr. Levon Helm, back beat and vocalist for legendary group THE BAND. What a roller coaster for me. Heart broken right back to elated. I can’t explain how stoked am to open for Levon and The Family Band. The Band has been an amazing influence on me in my life and I can’t even believe I’m on this bill. Again, HUGE thanks to Harvest. So excited.

In between this weekends shows an Harvest we’ll pile into Ruby for what could very well be her last tour (if I can devise a plan to get a new van). We head out to Ontario on the 25th of this month with a quick stop at Pub St. Alexandre in Quebec City on the 25th before we dive into Ontario for a week. Check the tour page and find out where we’ll be next. We hope to see you Ontario folks out at the show!

FREDERICTON PEEPS: If you can’t wait till harvest we’re doing a free outdoor concert on my birthday, Aug 23rd, at Officers Square. Show time is 7pm. When we get home form Ontario we’ll play the KV Valley Jazz fest and then drive right up to Florenceville to rawk the Dooly’s there. Haven’t been up that way for quite sometime so it should be a bash!

So there it is peeps. Our schedule for the next little bit. You folks out west can look forward (or escape) a return trip in October and November too!

On a side note I’m listening to some Taj Mahal right now. Y’all know he’ll be at Harvest Fest too right? Oh it’s gonna be a gooder!

Stay good,

Ross

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It’s a Wonderful Life.

June 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

On the particular day in question, we awoke in Jasper. After a yummy breakfast we stopped at Coco’s for a cup a joe and to drop off a CD before we split town. While there I met a fella who was at our show the previous night. He bought a couple CD’s and gave me his contact info as he does house concerts in Saskatoon from time to time. Would we like to do one? Certainly would!

Mid travel to Kamloops we find a yummy German bakery and stop for espresso and soup n sammies! Great find.

We travel on and arrive in The Loops. We hit Long n McQuade to grab a small P.A. for the nights use. We score a $20 rental! awesome! I check the old interweb for a hotel. We book a Travel Lodge over the phone. Score a $70 room. Sweet. We find the hotel with some effort (the name of the hotel had changed) and I check us in. I meet this really cool guy from behind the counter. A biker sort of fellow. We hit it off right away. He gives me a hand written note that says $50 rooms for our next visit there in the fall. I think that’s pretty sweet. As a sign that I’ve appreciated his efforts to be unusually nice to us we give him a discography and a stack of stickers. He returns THAT gesture by giving us 3 skull caps to rock and tags our van with a Kamloops Harley Davidson Club Sticker. Then as if this wasn’t enough he requests me to come see him in the office. So down I go to see whats up. When I enter he refers to me as “Rossy”. My late Grandmother and Roger Howse are really the only peeps I can recall addressing me as Rossy and I always have a chuckle when someone does. He explains that he knows after a long day of travel and a night of rocking, no one wants to share a bed with his buddy. So he hands me a key to my own room. For Free. My mind is blown by this point. What a guy.

We head to the club. We were lucky enough to discover the Westsyde Pump a few tours back when a local agent/promoter sorta guy, Ray Nyuli, booked us in there. The staff are some of the best around and certainly high on our favorites list. Real sweethearts. The first time we played there they all dressed up in shirts, ties and blues hats. Nice sign. THIS time they all had white tank tops on with our new logo on the front. AWESOME!

they also had fake tattoos on! Here’s a pic of Homer’s neck tattoo….(i hope it washed off for fathers day!)

What a killer bunch. We had a fun time as usual rocking the joint.

This was just one of those days where everything lined up right. We always shake our head with amazement when stuff like this happens. We recognize and appreciate when the world looks after us. As always, we say “Thank you Rock n Roll”.

This is our last “west” show. after tonight we’ll be slowly making our way east. Next week we’re rolling into another fav spot of ours…Blues on Whyte in Edmonton. We always have a blast here and we’ll be celebrating Canada Day weekend here as well so it should be off the hook. Oh yeah, did I mention we’ll be recording a new live album there? Well we are. Why not come be part of it?

I don’t want to get to far ahead of my self but right after the Edmonton week wraps we’ll be pulling our best RocknRoll move yet….We’ll hop a plane to Montreal to rawk the shit out of the Montreal Jazz Fest. We’re playing the Lotto Stage at 9pm and again at 11pm. To say we’re stoked for this would be an understatement. This is gong to be an “everything before and everything after” moment for us. Again, “Thanks Rock n Roll”!!!!

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Day 19 (?): Edmonton Compound

June 13, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Well hello there. I’ve been fairly delinquent in updates. Sorry ’bout that. It’s difficult to stay on top of while traveling. We’re in Edmonton at our Bastard Compound now for a few days of downtime so I’ll try and get caught up. Let’s see, we’ve played a bunch of shows and been through a couple provinces since I last updated…

Winnipeg: Got to hang with our pal Vince and his lovely lady. They were gracious enough to host us for the night. Since it was a lovely day we BBQ’d. Can’t be in Manitoba and not try farmer sausage right? So Vince grabbed some Farmer Sausage (not to be confused with some farmer’s sausage) and chopped her right up for the Q. It was good stuff! I think Vince even had a stop by his fridge in the middle of the night to have a snack…it was THAT good.

Regina: After a fairly nice drive we found our club for the night. The Gas Light is up two flights of stairs (BOO!) but other than that we felt right at home there. They have some sweet dinner deals for you while the Ladies dance the pole …not nekkid though.. : ( Unfortunately we were told by the Bartender right away that due to the Mosaic being that weekend in Regina we shouldn’t expect too much of a crowd. The Mosaic is a food fair featuring pavilions from around the world and it is highly attended. Our Bartender was right. It was a quiet night but we rawked ‘er anyway. Had a nice chat with the owner, Joan and got to re-connect with Dan from the Regina Blues Society. We look forward to coming back in the fall to try our luck again. Did I mention there is a tattoo shop in this bar???? How awesome is that?

After our show we had a few days off and thought it might be nice to do some camping to relax a bit before our next string of shows. We tried a place called Regina Beach but all the campsites were “full”. All that really meant was they didn’t want to rent to us. Seems Regina Beach has a bit of a party reputation and the campground owners assumed we’d get rowdy…..So after a beer and some sunshine we fueled up, got supplies and drove to Dundurn. We found the campground, which is just south of Saskatoon, and set up. Man. What a find. Totally quiet this time of year and RIGHT on the lake. Shawn Bastard tried his luck at some fishing…

and we got a great sunset too!

We had such a great night we decided to stay another day since it was sunny again. The beach was a couple KMs away so we played a “through the woods to the beach and back” game of Bocce. Lots of fun, a little sun burn and loads of little bug fly/thingys that we’re getting it on down by the beach. that part was a little creepy. It was a good bocce match. Shawn Bastard came out on top and now I think that means he is up 2-1 over Karl this tour. I, sadly, have yet to win a game….That night we cooked on the fire and relaxed and enjoyed another epic sunset.

The next day we hit up Saskatoon. We were due to play the following two nights at Bud’s on Broadway. We’ve played at Bud’s a lot over the past six tours and really love the place. Great staff and always a good time. We had some folks from the Saskatoon Blues Society out as well and it was good to see some familiar faces there to rawk! Here’s a pic of one of the full time residents int he Apt. above the bar….

His name? Yup, you guessed it…Bud.

The really great part about Saskatoon is we get to stay at my cousins place and hang out with family. The really, REALLY great thing about staying there is that my cousin’s wife is an incredible cook and she knows we love to eat so it’s a great relationship really! Here’s a pic of one of our great plates of food while there…

After our last show at Bud’s we drove overnight to Edmonton. We had a fresh shipment of T-shirts coming and wanted to make sure we were there to receive ‘em. We only just got this re-order and are already finding ourselves ready to do a third order. Needless to say the T’s are selling well!!!! We played Stony Plain on the Friday and had a fun time. Great owners there that go out of their way for you. Always a treat to rawk the Stony Plainers!!!

Saturday we got up and had lunch at our fav little deli in Edmonton. “Care it Urban Deli” is home to some delicious sammies and yummy soup. We eat here a lot as it’s tasty, healthy and cheap. Three rarities in food when on the road. Before we knew it we were back on the road to one of our best gigs in Canada. Mikey’s Juke Joint. What can I say that I haven’t already said here….Mikey’s kicks ass. We always have a great crowd there with lots of old east coast friends and each time we play we make some new Calgary fans. This time was no exception. Here is some video someone took during the concert…

GREAT TIME!!!! Big thanks too, to our pals in Vista Heights for letting us crash. always fun!!! MAJOR THANKS to Justin for giving me a pair of sweet boots too!!! What a guy!

After a nice breakfast with our pals we hit the road to return to Edmonton for a few days off before hitting the mountains. We got to have a quick hang with our compound manager Jim and his son/helper/tough guy extraordinaire, Sean. We had a great time into the wee hours and before we knew it, it was Monday and we were making our patented Bastard Breakkie…..

Gonna get some rehearsing in tomorrow and then Wednesday we drive to beautiful Jasper for a few shows at The Downstream before heading into BC’s interior. Lots of fun coming up so stay tuned. There are always shows being added so keep in touch with out tour dates too. We’ve announced a couple shows that were under wraps including MONTREAL JAZZ FEST!!!!!! and a couple other fun Quebec Festivals! Mais OUI!!!

So i say to everyone, enjoy the long days and get some sun when you can. We’ll chat soon! yours in RAWK,

MB

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Day Five

May 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Hey all,

we’re in Batchawana Bay which is about 40 minutes north on HWY 17. We’re five days into our tour and all is well We got away early Thursday AM to make our tour kick off in Quebec City. We played the Casbah and it was awesome! Great venue, nice people. We even had a look see at who was coming in the summer and look who we found….

Friday we trekked along to Ottawa for our show at the Rainbow.
It was maybe the best crowd we’ve played to there. We got to hang with our pal John Crowely as well. Thanks to Mr. Crowely for putting us up and the late night BBQ! Saturday found us back in Lavigne at the Lavigne Tavern. Guy and Judy have become great friends and we always enjoy playing there, not to mention the Pizza is the best and the pie and cake, well I don’t want to say too much cause then everyone will know, but some of the staff there are awesome bakers and we love the goodies!

Last night we played in Batchawana Bay

at the Voyageurs Lodge and Cookhouse. We discovered this joint a few tours back and like to stop for the amazing home cooking and Best Baked Beans in Canada!

This time we decided to do a little show as well and had a real blast playing for the locals. The folks who run the place are so nice and treated us like gold. It was a great time and I know we’ll be back here for sure in the future!!!

Today after breakfast we had a rousing match of Bocce.

Karl Bastard took home the trophy today but it IS early in the season so it’s still anyones championship. There will be more details on this championship in the coming days. All I can say is…shine up those balls folks….the challenge is on….Stay tuned for the official bocci challenge video…

Well, we’re off to Wawa now to play the local high school theatre tonight. I’ll try to keep the updates regular but up here in northern Ontario web service is here and there so be patient! Stay tuned,

Ross

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And They’re Off….

April 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Hey all,

Well, what a weekend! We released our new live cd “Live at The Acoustic Grill” at The Playhouse in Fredericton on Saturday and what an amazing time. Thanks so much To Harvest Jazz & Blues Festival, 105FM The Fox, and of course The Playhouse Staff and Crew.I don’t know when I’ve had so much fun. The folks that came out were such a great, responsive crowd. It really was a dream for us to have the release there. Thank, you all who helped make it happen! Click HERE to watch a couple video’s from the night

Here’s a pic for now….

Well, there is no downtime in the life of the Bastards. We’re shifting gear from Acoustics, Suits & Ties to Straight up, loud, dirty, blues rawknroll. We’re off to Charlottetown PEI on Thursday AM to rock the island. The East coast Music Conference is on and not only are we up for Best Blues Recording of the year but we are gonna be busy with showcases. I thought i’d send out a little post to let anyone who might be over there know where they can come shake em on down while on the island.

*All time listed are Latenight the day listed/early morning of the next day
Thursday April 14th The Alibi Lounge midnight-ish (late thurs/early fri) 77 University Avenue Charlottetown, PE – (902) 629-1651
Thursday April 14th Late night Molson Stage Delta Hotel 1.10am-1.40am

Friday April 14th MIAN’s Showcase Murphy’s Community Centre 11pm (200 Richmond St)
Friday April 14th Partnered Blues Showcase at The Haviland Club 12am (2 Haviland St)

Saturday April 15th Swamp Showcase at The Globe Restaurant 4pm (132 Richmond st)
Saturday April 15th Molson Canadian Rock Stage Delta Hotel 10.30pm -10.50pm
Saturday April 15th ECMA Member’s Lounge Delta Hotel 12.45am

So there you have it.If you’re gonna be in Charlottetown this weekend there is no excuse to not be able to catch one show!!!

Ive also posted the bulk of our summer Canadian tour HERE so check that out too! Looking forward to rocking with y’all again!

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Solo Tour finale and Farewell to Hogtown!

April 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Hey folks,

well I made it back to NB alive!!! I am sitting in my brand new apartment as I write this and I gotta say it’s pretty surreal to have a home after another year of being homeless. Very luxurious. I got home late Saturday night after a grueling Port Hope> Quebec City> Bastard Rendezvous in Moncton run. The solo tour is very near over and I’m shifting gears to Bastard mode again.

I had a great time traveling Ontario an playing a bunch of clubs over and over again! Thanks much to all the club owners, the peeps who came to the shows and very special thanks to the folks who gave me a spot to crash! Highlights for me were The Acoustic Grill in Picton (no surprise there) as I got to jam with my pals Ken and Greg on the last few Mondays and of course the Sarnia house concert. This show was amazing and really blew me away with all the peeps who came out and my gracious Hosts Alexa and Ron. Thank you so much for an incredible night! My last solo show for this tour and for a while is this Friday at The Bourbon Quarter in Saint John. 9pm. C’mon out!

Here are a few pics from the trip:

lots of shoes in Sarnia!



Toronto Souvenirs!


freaky fish tank at Two Doors Down in Brantford


Biggest Shrimp I've ever seen.

All kinds of fun! My last Day in Toronto was a bit of a sad one. As I said my goodbyes to my sister and Douglar I also said my goodbyes to The Bastard Toronto Compound as my Sister and Doug are headed out west to chase some dreams! End of an era in hogtown fo’ sho’. Here is a little video I put together for it….(if yer on facebook you can’t view, visit www.rossneilsen.com to view video)

This week I’m headed to Freddy Beach to rehearse our acoustic show with the Bastards. We’re prepping for our Cd release at The Playhouse on Sat April 9th. It’s going to be a real fun night with some cool versions of tunes. Really looking forward to it. Tix are on sale at The Playhouse Box Office 1-866-884-5800 or Online HERE Hope to see you there!

After the Cd release its ECMA time folks. We’ve got a few showcases and plan on making the most of our time there. Shows are listed under tour dates now. I’ve also posted some of our summer Canadian Tour so Check em out and get on out to a show. We’ve missed you ya know?!

See you out there,

Ross

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There is a place in Peterborough…

February 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Last summer while playing The Alibi in Charlottetown I met a fella named Rob. Rob was from Peterborough. He was in town visiting family and came to the club to check us out. We had a good conversation. Rob mentioned he hosts house concerts and that maybe we could work something out one day. Fast forward six months later. I was on a solo trip up to Toronto for a conference I managed to squeeze in a few shows to help pay for the trip. The last show of that brief solo trip was at The Gilmour St. Music Hall.

The people who own the joint are the kind of people who make you feel good just standing next to them. Their room is awesome. It’s what would be a sort of living room but it has a stage, piano, PA system and the best part, tiered seating. I got there early and had a wonderful buttered chicken dinner that would have had Karl Bastard drooling all over hi’self! A great band led by Nathan Foulon opened up and then it was my turn. a capacity crowd at Gilmour St is very near 30 peeps i’d say. What a bunch they were. They made me feel so good! Very kind and generous. I sold a bunch of discs and gave out a lot of hugs! BELIEVE IT! An amazing show and night. I definitely made some friends that I’ll know for a very, VERY long time!

Incredible joint. Anyway. Today they sent me some video they had posted on their youtube page. Check their page out HERE. Below you’ll find the video’s for your viewing pleasure (unless yer reading this on Facebook, in which case you must visit www.rossneilsen.com). I hope you dig. They certainly put a smile on my face remembering the warm, fun time I had in their home. Can’t wait to go back!

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The (1st) Death of Cherry Cherry

December 17, 2010 By 4 Comments

Ok, some folks have been wondering ….. Why the hell does Ross Neilsen need a new damn guitar…doesn’t he have like a million….

Well, no, not a million. I have a couple that I use regularly. First off, and most talked about, is the ol hubcap. She’s a 2003 (i think) National Resolectric. I keep her tuned to open G flat exclusively. She’s mean an nasty like most women in my life. (kidding!) but she is, she’s a dirty, dirty girl. check her….

My other Slide axe is “Dido” named for my late great friend and former bandmate, Randy Cable. Randy was kind enough to leave Dido with me after he checked into the great gig in the sky. Thanks pal! Dido is always tuned to open D flat. Once in a while she slips into standard if I bust up Sherry at a gig. Anyway here’s Dido….

Now this brings us to Cherry Sherry. I bought her from a great friend for a measly $400 and she quickly moved up the ranks passing my Clapton strat and Gibson Nighthawk (i’ve since sold both of those cause I never played them anymore) and eventually securing the #1 spot in my arsenal. She has been on all my records and is ALWAYS there for me regardless of how piss poor I’ve treated her. I’ve broken her neck twice and in other times it hasn’t been unheard of for her to end up stringless, bridge-less and nut-less at the end of the night. Here is a video of Sherry meeting her first broken neck. Usually I would edit this so you don’t have to watch and listen to the whole thing as the audio is bad…BUT, for some reason my Mac doesn’t like the file and won’t edit it. Sorry. So it really gets going about the two minute mark…..feel free to skip ahead. Maybe it was the snakeskin boots, maybe it was the mustache, maybe it was the “super fan” in the front row ( . )( . ) that was losing her shit ( it should be noted that super fan’s “man” has since turned up at other gigs further west, with different women each time. Nice) either way something happened during this version of Cortez the Killer that sent me into a state of mind not know for it’s reason. During this period I lost it and went ape shit on Sherry. I rocked, I rolled, kicked, smashed and crashed her. She took it ALL. I didn’t even notice until the next day that she had a life threatening injury. What a trooper. Anyway I think the actual debilitating blow happens at 3.25 in the video but sadly i didnt stop there….again poor audio but thats not why we’re watching is it…and don’t forget all you folks who only watch this on facebook….you gotta go to www.rossneilsen.com to get the video. (Someone tell me why that is?)

Yes, I play hard. She takes it. What more can you ask for? Like all good things, though, she must come to an end. There are two options for Sherry.

1. To be played to death in a live show where she meets her maker – think of a viking death.
2. Retire her to the studio life. (imaging a ‘snowbirds’ sort of life for guitar) Climate controlled rooms, safe environment and continues to be heard on my recordings.

Option 2 is my preference. To do this, I need a replacement. This is why, folks, I have been at y’all to give me your vote in the Taylor test Drive Electric 2010 Contest. Good, New guitars are not cheap. To replace Sherry would be around $2000 give or take. So, instead I’ve entered this contest knowing all along that our fans rule and will burn the competition down with votes thus winning a quality new guitar for me to ruin over the next ten years.

First a big thanks to everyone who has voted and been posting it everywhere. You’re awesome. Now, I know there are some folks who don’t think their votes make a difference. Believe me when I say folks, they truly do. As a matter of fact we’ve held the number two spot in the contest pretty much the whole time….and Mr. Skylar has held the number one spot pretty much the whole time. you know what, I’m gonna take off my humble hat for just a sec….I’m TIRED of number two. I want to be number One in this contest for just a minute. Is that so wrong? I want Skyler to feel number Two for a second. Is that wrong? I mean Skylar DOESN’T EVEN HAVE AN ELECTRIC GUITAR IN THE FREAKIN’ SONG!

So there it is….with only SIX days left to vote I am challenging our Bastard Minions and their friends to push it. Get on your computer and Vote. I guarantee you’ll make a difference.

So i challenge you, post the event on your FB page, tweet to your peeps, tell the WORLD!!!! Lets do it. Lets finish this thang in the Number freaking 1 spot. I KNOW we can do it!!! Lets show the continent what lil ole NB can do!!! Hell, Andy Brown ALREADY WON the Acoustic contest! Might as well keep it going on wha? Worst case scenario you KEEP me at number two (#2 is easier anyway. way less pressure than #1, or so i hear…).

Anyway, all kidding aside, y’all have been great. Keep rocking that shit and lets take number one over this weekend!!

MB

PS…VOTE HERE
And stop by the site and leave a comment say hello, tell me off, whatever just say somethin’!

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