Happy Monday y’all.
So Harvest Jazz and Blues Fest was last week. What a time. Always surreal to see Fredericton turn into a world class festival for six nights! I kicked my festival off by going to see JJ Grey and Mofro at the Keith’s tent. Great show from one of my favourite bands. Thursday I had a last minute rehearsal with RNB so we could go over some tunes we were learning for our Saturday show. Thursday night Karl Gans and myself hit the Mojo tent to rock out a pair of tunes for the monster jam. We had the great Tony D from MonkeyJunk join us. I always love playing with Tony. He’s a real master and brings great energy to the stage.
Friday RNB rocked the Mojo tent opening for our good friends MonkeyJunk and Big Sam’s funky Nation. It was a fun set. Jam packed by the end of the show. MonkeyJunk has a new album coming out called “All Frequencies” and their new tunes sound killer. Make sure you check ’em out. After our set I hit up the Keith’s tent to catch Gov’t Mule and Big Sugar. It had been years since I saw either band and man, they rocked HARD!
Saturday was the day for our big show at The Hoodoo. Alvin Hart and Hook Herrera opened the night up and then the 24th Street Wailers absolutely blew the roof off the joint. Then it was finally time for our show. What a thrill it was for me. Bruce Katz, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Hook Herrera and Ron Holloway all sat in with us. Absolutely blew my mind to have Ron Holloway taking solo’s right across the stage from me. Such a great time. Huge thanks to Harvest for that show! After our set I managed to catch Black Joe Lewis in the Mojo tent and then back to The Hoodoo for The Record Company. Great shows from both bands. I really enjoyed The Record Company. They rocked it and were so gushy about being at Harvest. It was great. AND the pulled out Sabotage by the Beasties! Can’t go wrong with that. Head on over to my instagram page to see a quick video.
Sunday I caught some free stuff in the park with my brother. It was great to see the park full of people and lawn chairs. Too bad it rained all week except for Sunday. The weather didn’t seem to slow anyone down though and Harvest organizers really handled all the poor weather like champs. Every year I miss something great because you just can’t be everywhere at once. I was bummed to miss the Gordie Johnson and Warren Haynes early show and also I missed the Revivalists. Perhaps next year…It was awesome to see all my musical friends that I so rarely get to catch up with. Good times hanging with everyone. So many laughs!
I want to say a big thanks to the Volunteers and the organization for having us again. it was SO much fun. Proud to be part of it!
Part two of today’s post is all about Music New Brunswick week. If you don’t know, our province has an organization designed to promote NB music. Every year they have a conference and awards show. On Thursday they sent out the nominations for the awards. The Ross Neilsen Band Camp is humbled and honoured to have been nominated for Seven awards. Jim the Temp is Nominated for Collaborative Musician of the year and Karl Gans is nominated for Educator of the year. Very proud of the boys. Both much deserved recognition. Our latest album, RESURRECTION, has been honoured with Album of the year, Best Group Recording and Rock Album of the year nods. My solo recording, THE SHACK UP SESSIONS, has been nominated for Best Solo Male recording as well as Blues recording of the year.
While I have mixed feelings about awards shows and Music contests and the like, I do not have mixed feelings about our music and recordings, that we have worked so hard to create, being recognized by our peers. That certainly feels good. We’re very proud of our last few records and thank the folks who have made these decisions.
The winners are decided 50% vote from MNB members, 25% vote from Jury and 25% vote from the public so you can bet I’ll be hassling you to drop a vote our way. Voting starts today apparently and goes until Oct 16th. Thanks in advance for all your help!
Lastly, fall tour dates are up. Head on over and check out our schedule to see when we’ll be rawking your town.
stay tuned,
Ross