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August 24.10 What an incredible summer! The weather has been amazing! Even in Saint John, known for being chilly and foggy, has been warm with very few days of fog - I could count the amount of foggy days we've had this summer on one hand! In my spare time this summer, I worked on my very first perennial flower garden in my postage stamp size back yard! I tore out all the crappy grass and weeds and planted a jungle of flowers, shrubs and vines. So nice to see the butterflies and bees again, and I think every cat in the city has made love to my Catmint plant - AKA Catnip!  My special garden :) To start off the summer, I was nominated in The Originals Arts Awards here in Saint John as part of the Saint John 225 celebration. It was an evening of entertainment and celebration of the arts in our community. I not only had the pleasure of performing one of my songs, "Chasing Sunsets", with the incredible Saint John String Quartet (which by the way has been one of my most favorite and memorable musical moments in my musical career…so far!) but I was also hired to prepare the design collateral for the event in collaboration with artistic director Judith Mackin, PUNCH Productions. Saint John artist Paul Mathieson created interesting character paintings for each of the award categories which I then took and turned into digital illustrations. I am a huge fan of Paul's artwork, so it was fun to work with his creations on this project. With the digital illustrations I designed the event's brochures, posters, an elaborate program for the evening and huge banners that hung from the ceiling of the Imperial Theatre Stage to the floor. It was a fun night and fun project to take part in.  Graphic interpretations of Paul Mathieson's illustrations/paintings in the making.  The Originals/Les Originaux banners - on the stage getting ready to hang from the ceiling.  Performing "Chasing Sunsets" with the Saint John String Quartet at The Originals/Les Originaux. I bought my dress at Value Village for $20!!! Photo By Mark Hemmings My performance of "Chasing Sunsets" with the SJ String Quartet. Canada Day found me in the country’s capital city, Ottawa. This was my first time being in Ottawa for Canada Day. It was nuts! Sooo many people! For miles all you could see were red and white flags, some worn as dresses, tube tops, skirts and even a cape! It was unreal. I was asked to represent the city of Saint John, which is being recognized as one of the Cultural Capital Cities in Canada this year, by going to Ottawa and taking part in a song circle with other CCCities. I shared the stage with Imaginary Cities, from Winnipeg, and Clement Jacques from Montreal. We performed at the Jacque Cartier stage early Canada Day morning and at Major’s Hill Park later that afternoon. Thanks to the Saint John 225 committee for choosing me to represent the city! It was a fun experience! Check out the Visuals Page for more pictures of this performance.  Canada Day at Major's Hill Park in Ottawa.  Me with Imaginary Cities, and Clement Jacques on Major's Hill Park stage. My band and I were happy to take part in Saint John’s Salty Jam music festival in July. We opened the show for Justin Towns Earl and Corb Lund. It was a fun night of cowboy boots and cowboy hats, full glasses of beer (wine for me) and good old fashion country music!   Salty Jam 2010 Our perfornance of "Shadow Man" at Salty Jam. The band I played a show in Moncton as part of the Mosaiq Cultural Festival in July as well. It was created around the Junior World Track and Field Championship, which Moncton hosted this year. The night was beautiful and brought lots of people out to hear the music performed by NB artists. My friends Dominique Dupuis and Chris Colepaugh were some of the other artists to perform that evening. The next day we took our time getting home, driving on back roads that eventually took us to Hopewell Rocks. It has been a while since I walked on the ocean's floor!  Mosaiq Festival in Moncton - Photo By Kâté Braydon  Chris touching Hopewell Rocks! Check out the shape of that rock! haha! Saint John is celebrating it’s 225th Birthday this year. As part of the celebration, the band and I were asked to perform in the Reunion Music Festival. The band and I rocked out a set on country night, opening the show for Tara Oram and Aaron Pritchett. The venue was at Fort LaTour, just off Harbour Passage, down by the water front. I hope the city makes this an official performance venue site for concerts to come as it was a perfect location.   Saint John 225 Reunion concert at Fort LaTour. A summer festival favorite would have to be the Fundy Music Festival in Alma at the Fundy National Park Ampitheatre. It was a beautiful sunny, hot day and so many people and chidren came out to hear the music. Lots of dancing, hola-hooping and bubbles! We took off early that morning to do some swimming before our performance - the lakes in Fundy Naional Park are beautiful and refreshing. The highlight of the show for me was, after singing Shadow Man, a true story about a personal ghostly encounter I had while living in a haunted apartment in Fredericton, a little boy about 3-4 yrs old came running up to the stage to tell me about his ghost story…it started out like this…“This one time on Scooby Doo…” and he proceeded to tell me the entire episode! It was hilarious!    Fundy Music Festival in Alma NB. - Photos By Kâté Braydon To end my summer of performances, the band and I took part in the Cops For Cancer Fundraiser at the Saint John High School Theatre. All proceeds went to the Cancer Society. We did not hesitate to do this show as the subject hits pretty close to home - my Mother and Grandmother are both cancer survivors and a couple of the guys in my band lost their mothers to cancer several years ago. We shared the stage with Mike Biggar and his talented wife Laura McNeil. Looking back, it has been a fun summer of making music with my friends. I look forward to the fall and more shows to come. Thanks to all who came out to my summer shows. Your support is much appreciated. Until Next time. Xox JRhaye |
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