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Looking forward and back ….

It’s been a great summer and I’m looking forward to a great fall. Highlights included a return to the Mariposa Folk Festival and the Kitchener Blues Festival plus album production of a project called Afro Métis Nation Anthem and nearing completion of a new album of my own.

My concert at Mariposa went very well with an Allstar band including Bucky Berger (drums), Ciceal Levy (vocals, percussion), Rob McLaren (vocals, guitar, banjo, mandolin) and Ben Whiteley (string bass). There was a great workshop called “That’s When I Need A Song” with Rick Fines, Colin Linden, Ellen Froese and Ben and I. I also got to participate in the tribute to Bruce Cockburn as he was inducted into the Mariposa Hall of Fame.

Ciceal Levy, Ben Whiteley, Ken Whiteley, Rob McLaren, Bucky Berger
Talking with Bruce Cockburn after the sound check for his Hall of Fame induction.

I’m very excited about my new album, Unseen Hands – 12 songs 12 strings. As the title suggests, all 12 songs feature me playing 12 string guitar and there is lots more too! The recordings all speak to place in one way or another – from the little patch of ground in downtown Toronto where I live, a conversation with the moon, April in Paris, looking at the stars, the soil, the planet and how we all connect. As well as twelve string I play slide, tenor guitar, tenor mandolin, Hammond organ, vibraphone, pianos, washboard and sing harmony along with Ciceal Levy, Adrienne Mackenzie and Georgia Harmer singing. Ben Whiteley and Gord Mowat play bass, Bucky Berger plays drums, Tom Sczesniak is on accordion and Sundar Vishwanathan on bansouri flute and soprano sax. Watch for it’s release later this fall.

Ken Whiteley on his Laskin 12 string guitar.