A Fond Look Back Over the Years…

On Valentine’s Day, 1969, I persuaded my mom to drive my brothers and me in from St. Catharines to hear B.B. King play Massey Hall in Toronto. It was his first Canadian appearance. My brother Kirk took this photo.

A poster from my first concert as principal trumpet of La Scala Orchestra, Milan.

In New York City performing with Canadian Brass (we’re in white shoes) and the New York Philharmonic Brass at a sold-out Christmas concert in Lincoln Centre, 2003.

Back in the early 90’s I had a bunch of wonderful Canadian music that had been written for me that I wanted to record. To name the album I chose a piece called Opening Day (after Paul Quarrington’s text for the singer, about the opening day of fishing season) and for good measure called my (non-existent) company Opening Day too. A JUNO nomination ensued and I released 18 CDs over the next 10 years. Eventually I had North-American distribution with companies like Allegro and Universal.

In Canada, five of these discs received JUNO Nominations, plus one win. I passed the reigns to Chuck Daellenbach of Canadian Brass. His wife Mary Beth now runs Opening Day Entertainment Group.

Porkbelly Futures was performing at the Edmonton Folk Festival and our concert was recorded for Holger Peterson’s Saturday Night Blues CBC show. I asked guitar ace Amos Garrett (Maria Muldaur/Paul Butterfield) to join us onstage at a workshop, after which I was invited to join his band on harmonica at the festival’s gala closing party.

The one and only Ronnie Hawkins laughs it up with Porkbelly Futures.

I’m very proud to have been both Founder and Artistic Director of The Forest Festival, located in Haliburton Forest and Wildlife Reserve. The festival ran from 2007 to 2019 with two fabulous venues, one of which featured a floating stage on a pristine wilderness lake reserved for our exclusive use. Over the years we’ve presented Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor, Sarah Harmer, Canadian Brass, Nathaniel Dett Chorale, Alan Doyle, Hilario Duran, Whitehorse, Murray McLaughlan, Lighthouse, John McDermott, Patricia O’Callaghan, Bruce Cockburn, Sultans of String, Ken Whiteley, Mary Lou Fallis’s ‘Primadonna Goes Into The Woods,’ Suzie Vinnick, R. Murray Schafer, Manteca, Natalie McMaster, Dan Hill, Russell deCarle, Jane Bunnett, True North Brass, Dave Young Quartet, Anne Lindsay, Soul Stew with Michael Dunston, Measha Brueggergosman, The Shuffle Demons, Colette Savard and The Savants, Susan Aglukark, Cowboy Junkies, Rob Lutes, BMC Organ Trio, Leahy, Buffy Sainte Marie, Michael Occhipinti’s ‘Shine On’ and Grooveyard, Jimmy Rankin, Radio Dial, Alison Young Quartet, The O’Pears, Red Hot Ramble, Oh Suzanna, Melissa Bel, Alan Doyle, Angel Forrest, Tom Allen, Steve Page, The Satallites, The Slocan Ramblers, Amanda Rheume, and others.