Stepping Onstage In junior high school I was in a quartet, harmonizing the songs of the day at school dances. I began to play the guitar at 14, when a friend gave me an old one that was no longer being used. At that time there was a coffeehouse in Vancouver called The...
A passion for writing songs and a great friendship was born when Valerie Hennell and I met. I was playing the lead in a university musical, and she and I began to write songs together. She wrote the lyrics, and I wrote the music. That was all I knew about songwriting...
Looking Back with Love Valerie Hennel was my manager and dearest friend. We were two impassioned innocents without a clue as to what we were doing or where we were going. We wrote songs together, built a company together, and fashioned our careers together. After all...
The Floating Stage One of the most memorable stages I performed on was a floating stage. At the Elora Arts Festival in Ontario the stage was on a raft which floated in a gorge. My band and I got to the raft by rowboat. It was a hot summer afternoon and after the sound...
Laughter on Molokai One of my most unusual concert locations was the Kalaupapa Leper Colony on the island of Molokai in Hawaii. I spent four days there after being invited to do a concert, and loved the place and the people. After the concert, I went to the tiny pub....
A Voice in the Darkness At the beginning of a week-long workshop I always ask the participants what brought them here. What was their desire, motive, hope, need, or intention in coming? In a singing workshop usually someone will say, “I want to reach higher notes,”...