When I performed at Owen Sound Summerfolk towards the end of August I promised on stage to post a recording of my song, Bigger Than That. This is from an unreleased cache of recordings I made with the amazing Sufi musician, Davod Azad. He is featured on oud on this track. Sharon Riley, along with Amoy and Ciceal Levy add stellar vocals and it also includes Bucky Berger on drums and Ben Whiteley on bass. Sharon and Bucky were integral parts of the ensemble with me at Owen Sound, along with Pat Patrick, Coco Love Alcorn and Gord Mowat.
Davod Azad on oud and Ken on his National resophonic guitar.Bigger Than That
I was surprised and delighted to be awarded the Maple Blues Lifetime Achievement Blues With A Feeling Award this February. I thought I’d embrace this auspicious occasion as a time to post a new video of my original version of the African American spiritual song You Better Mind. The song appears on my newest Borealis release, Calm In The Eye Of The Storm. For the album I recorded it with sacred steel sensation Nikki D. Brown and the Sisters of Thunder. The video however is very much a product of this year of the pandemic. On it I sing and play all the parts including bass, lap steel, percussion, etc. Mako Funasaka masterfully crafted the video from my own shots of me busily recording all the parts.
On February 19 I will be part of the Virtual Winterfolk Blues and Roots festival. It’s a great line up and you can watch it by registering here. I do a set with Ben Whiteley accompanying me on mandolin, guitar and harmony vocals.
Then on Monday, Feb. 22 I’ll be doing a live stream concert for the virtual North American Folk Alliance conference at 8:30 EST. Of course you can register for the conference (with a sliding pay scale) and see a lot of great workshops and other concerts, but if you want to watch my show you can do it here.
Whether you believe that we’ll all have to “give an account in Judgement”, call it the law of karma or accept that our actions can have consequences, I hope we all remember to put a little love and kindness out there and spread some light.
