RANDOM PLAY IS BACK!
What does Alan Neal have planned for Writersfest on April 23rd? Well, we know that somehow a cartoon from the 1970's is involved. And the following amazing songwriters will be on stage:
CRAIG FINN of THE HOLD STEADY
ELLIOTT BROOD
ROSE COUSINS
BONJAY
ISKWE
our house band, THE SPLIT
..and a few surprise guests!
So what will they be doing?
Well, it's the latest edition of RANDOM PLAY: Yet another Songwriters Event put together for the Festival by Alan Neal.
See, back in 2013, Alan Neal, host of ALL IN A DAY on CBC Radio One, took on an interesting challenge for Writersfest: He took his i-pod, of over 13,000 songs of folk, pop, rap, jazz, rock, soul, showtunes and superhero children's stories...
And put it on "random".
He picked the first 10 songs that came up and made it his job to find out everything that he can about how those songs came to be... and analyze what messages are in the music.
And so it was we witnessed Jim Bryson, Jenn Grant, The Acorn, Measha Brueggergosman, Kellylee Evans, Hilotrons and the Souljazz Orchestra all on stage with wild interpretations of not only their own songs but covers that no one had expected.
(Jenn Grant performing a song from the Dallas TV soundtrack, The Acorn performing Michael Penn, and then that bizarre Aquaman radio play with Measha as Hydro The Dehydrator... we will never forget any of it.)
Well, two years later, Alan's doing it again... (and his iPod is up to 15,000 songs) and he has assembled another all-star cast of musicians and is doing an insane amount of musical detective work to track down the stories behind the songs.
It's an evening that's conversation mixed with storytelling, a blend of delving into the musical past with a cavalcade of musical talent from the present.
Tickets are being given away on ALL IN A DAY (3-6 on CBC Radio One 91.5FM) this week.
But we suggest getting tickets NOW!
Fanmail we received in 2013 about Alan's last Random Play event:
"This is not typically my genre of literary interest - I was transformed...a truly memorable evening of entertainment and literary revelation."
"Tickets could have been $300 apiece - what an evening. I have watched musical theatre in London, Paris, New York, Stratford in England and other places and I have never seen anything like what you did last night. Truly amazing"
"It was intimate and casual and hilarious, and then, lulled into this sense of comfort by the intimacy and casualness and hilarity, you're hit by these stunning musical performances... Seriously, one of the best nights out I've had in a while."
RANDOM PLAY IS BACK!
What does Alan Neal have planned for Writersfest on April 23rd? Well, we know that somehow a cartoon from the 1970's is involved. And the following amazing songwriters will be on stage:
CRAIG FINN of THE HOLD STEADY
ELLIOTT BROOD
ROSE COUSINS
BONJAY
ISKWE
our house band, THE SPLIT
..and a few surprise guests!
So what will they be doing?
Well, it's the latest edition of RANDOM PLAY: Yet another Songwriters Event put together for the Festival by Alan Neal.
See, back in 2013, Alan Neal, host of ALL IN A DAY on CBC Radio One, took on an interesting challenge for Writersfest: He took his i-pod, of over 13,000 songs of folk, pop, rap, jazz, rock, soul, showtunes and superhero children's stories...
And put it on "random".
He picked the first 10 songs that came up and made it his job to find out everything that he can about how those songs came to be... and analyze what messages are in the music.
And so it was we witnessed Jim Bryson, Jenn Grant, The Acorn, Measha Brueggergosman, Kellylee Evans, Hilotrons and the Souljazz Orchestra all on stage with wild interpretations of not only their own songs but covers that no one had expected.
(Jenn Grant performing a song from the Dallas TV soundtrack, The Acorn performing Michael Penn, and then that bizarre Aquaman radio play with Measha as Hydro The Dehydrator... we will never forget any of it.)
Well, two years later, Alan's doing it again... (and his iPod is up to 15,000 songs) and he has assembled another all-star cast of musicians and is doing an insane amount of musical detective work to track down the stories behind the songs.
It's an evening that's conversation mixed with storytelling, a blend of delving into the musical past with a cavalcade of musical talent from the present.
Tickets are being given away on ALL IN A DAY (3-6 on CBC Radio One 91.5FM) this week.
But we suggest getting tickets NOW!
Fanmail we received in 2013 about Alan's last Random Play event:
"This is not typically my genre of literary interest - I was transformed...a truly memorable evening of entertainment and literary revelation."
"Tickets could have been $300 apiece - what an evening. I have watched musical theatre in London, Paris, New York, Stratford in England and other places and I have never seen anything like what you did last night. Truly amazing"
"It was intimate and casual and hilarious, and then, lulled into this sense of comfort by the intimacy and casualness and hilarity, you're hit by these stunning musical performances... Seriously, one of the best nights out I've had in a while."
