The Life & Miss-Adventures of Emme Rogers
"No, I Said Smile!"
Moments like these two have made me decide to start a new column of ‘Scenes that Make Me Smile’, because life is too short not to.
Groovin' Up a Storm at the IBC Great Canadian Polar Bear Blues Showcase
With special thanks to all the great Canadians at the first annual IBC Great Canadian Polar Bear Blues Showcase for inspiring these moments. Here are two of them in action at the Kooky Canuck in Memphis, Tennessee.
Kisses,
Emme xoxo
Always find it funny that it takes traveling the World or, in this case, driving to Memphis, Tennessee to discover just what incredible talent we have at home. And that is exactly what happened last week on my road trip to the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee. I discovered just what incredible talent we have in Canada’s Blues Community and what great ambassadors they are to Canada. Yes, there were many talented musicians that we met from the States and elsewhere in the World, but the Canadians were everywhere ~ from Jimmy and the Sleepers at the next table in practically every joint we pulled into for lunch, to the Conor Gains Band teaching a pre-coffee (and hence poorly functioning) version of myself how to use the waffle maker at breakfast, to Ross Neilsen generally showing up whenever I felt the need for a giant bear hug or a cheek to kiss (without the bearer of the cheek thinking it weird – well maybe Ross does think it’s weird, but he certainly doesn’t make me feel weird about it, so I wouldn’t know).
I have to say an enormous thank you to the Ottawa and Montreal Blues Societies for throwing the IBC’s First Great Canadian Polar Bear Blues Showcase and the Kooky Canuck for hosting it, as this ensured that I got to see all the Canadian acts I’d been promising to watch and didn’t need to worry about competing times in the program to catch them all. And wouldn’t you believe it, one of the acts I fell in love with was just a stones throw away from where I live, on Vancouver Island, Jesse Roper with The Roper Show.
Filmed more great Blues from Canada that day, so this is just the beginning of what we’ll be sharing here and on Roamancing.
Thanks to the International Blues Challenge and Memphis, Tennessee, for showcasing all the great Blues artists, and to all the sponsors, including Canada. And congratulations to this year’s IBC winners, Canadian born Ray Bonneville in the Solo / Duet Category and The WIRED! Band in the Band Category. I was lucky enough to see Ray perform and would have to agree that he was brilliant.
Polar Bear Kisses,
Emme xoxo
Jesse Roper playing at the IBC Canadian Showcase
As far as week’s go, this past week has been pretty damn fantastic ~ enjoying my first music pilgrimage into the history of Rock & Roll and the Blues in Memphis, discovering some bloody fantastic Blues talent at the International Blues Challenge, cheering Canadian Ross Neilsen on in the Semi-Finals of the International Blues Challenge, and coming home to discover some simply beautiful music that Chris Blake has written for Roamancing. Now to top it all off, I went to pull the name of a winner for Studio 58‘s Julius Caesar tickets and was thrilled to pull Kelly Lui’s name, who interned with Ahimsa Media this past summer. To make this especially fantastic, I went to congratulate Kelly and discovered it was her birthday! Happy Birthday Kelly!
For those that entered, but didn’t win, we are entering you for a second chance at the tickets on Roamancing’s site. For anyone unaware of the contest, that wishes they’d entered, you can still do that on Roamancing’s site until midnight. Just drop us a comment with which Shakespeare play you would most love to see as a gender bender (ie. with men and women playing opposite gender role). Here’s a little of what you can expect from the play:
Catch this gender bender of a Julius Caesar at Studio 58 in Vancouver, February 2nd – 26th, Tuesdays – Saturdays at 8 pm and Saturdays & Sundays at 3 pm. Tickets can be purchased here.
This pretty much sums up how I feel about roamancing Memphis this week, especially with the International Blues Challenge on:
Loving the Blues, Southern hospitality and good ol’ Southern home cooking!
Kisses,
Emme xoxo (with an extra long smooch for the Sleep Inn at Courtyard Square for ensuring I get my beauty sleep)
For those of you that have been following along with my adventures Roamancing, you may have already met Ross Neilsen & the Sufferin’ Bastards from my #CrossCanada road trip this Autumn, and Lucy Duck whose flown in to join us on the road from the UK. You may also be aware that the first adventure we took Lucy roamancing on was to catch the tail end of the Sufferin’ Bastards #CrossCanada Autumn Tour at the Oasis in Cobourg, Ontario. And one Hell of a good night of RAWK it was, as the boys schooled Lucy in a bit of Bad Boy Canadian Blues with Anyway I Can.
We didn’t know it at the time, but this was the boys third last performance together. So glad we caught it, as they were damn fine. Looking forward to seeing and hearing what comes next with Ross Neilsen Music. Might call for another road trip for Lucy and I!
Kisses,
Emme xoxo
