If Music Be The Food Of Love

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I supplement my journalism income by playing bass and if you want to see what I'm up to check the

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I took piano lessons when I was about ten. It distressed my mother because she just couldn't get me to play the thing. After that I took trumpet lessons for two years and this distressed my father because he just couldn't get me to play the thing. In high school I started playing the guitar and this distressed both my parents because they just couldn't get me to stop playing the thing.

I started playing guitar when I was in high school. The guitar is a wonderful instrument that anyone can play and play reasonably well and there are some that can really take it to stellar heights. That's an old Norman guitar that I bought when I was 19. I sold to my brother when I bought a Yamaha 12 string and I think he sold it after he got a Larrivee.

When I was in university I took up the bass guitar. I played a borrowed Fender Precision for a while but when it came time to get my own bass I bought a new Gibson Victory Artist off the rack. It has a big fat sound that works well with R&B and rock. I still have it and I still play it. In my halcyon university days I played in a six piece R&B band called The Ministers Of Soul. We were on the local circuit for about a year. We're all still in touch and we've even jammed together on occasion.

Some Previous Bands

	The Mighty Ministers of Soul From left to right - Brian Stefaniuk (trumpet), Dave Pletz (saxophone), me (bass), Bill Wagar (drums and vocals), Marcel Soulodre (rhythm guitar and vocals). The Ministers of Soul was a six piece R&B band (you see five here, we had a couple of lead guitarists pass through) and, in spite of some very fine ensembles that I've played with since, The Ministers are still the bench mark. We were good players and we played well together on stage and we are still good friends off stage. We still get together and we even played each other's wedding socials.
The Porch Climbers You may notice a startling resemblance between the bass player (me in the middle) and the rhythm guitarist/bohdran player on the left. It's my brother Graham and this is what we did in the off season from the Fringe. The Porch Climbers played Celtic music and sea shanties and was a great place for two baritones to ply their trade. We put out one disk and played clubs and casinos in Winnipeg. We even had a regular gig playing the Forks Float in the annual Festival of Lights Parade. The third member of the Porchclimbers is Blayne Waldebaur who, last I heard, is in BC somewhere teaching violin. He's a dynamite fiddle player who can do Vivaldi's Four Seasons (he likes playing the Spring selection) and then turn around and do a smoking version of the Orange Blossom Special (it's on the disk).
	The Porch Climbers MKII On our last Fringe tour we produced a show called The Real Millennium Wireless Broadcast featuring John Huston and Heather Lea-Brown. Heather is a trained soprano who sang with the Stratford cast of The Mikado and she spent over a year playing Jellylorum in the German production of Cats. Since then she's played in touring productions of Cowgirls and Wooden Boats and Iron Men. She also plays banjo and sings bluegrass so she became an honorary Porchclimber for the Beer Tent tour at the Saskatoon Fringe. She still works as busking soprano Atrilla Minute and if you want to get ahold of her, you can e-mail her here.