STUDENTS COMMISSION sarah came out of hibernation long enough to play a benefit concert for the students commission. this makes no real difference to anyone because it was invitation only. just evidence of her return to music. she'll do a show people can come to soon. she promises.
TASTE the annual Taste of Saskatchewan Festival took place riverside in beautiful Sasktoon (Friendship Park) from July 20 - 23. see past events for sarah's showtimes and below for other artists of interest.
OTHER TASTES 6pm 20 july: james earl hails and the pachyderms. twang and the truth. (sarah says: ran all the way there, glad to have a different reason for not breathing.) noon 21 july: james earl hails solo set. just the truth. (sarah says: missed it. i was in a small town putting on a benefit concert at the time.) 9pm 22 july: reunion show of original members of the drowned. (sarah says: my how things have changed.) Friday July 21st Scott Patrick, of the folk trio Jonah, entertained with his delicious voice and sparkling guitar. (sarah says: i was not there. sadly. but i hear it went well.)
CONCERTS the tea party, played centennial auditorium on nov. 14. robert scolded sarah thoroughly for not attending. gordon lightfoot was here nov. 4, but sarah's daddy couldn't bring himself to go. valdy, graced our fair city along with gary fjellgaard on sarah's daddy's 49th birthday, january 18. valdy sang happy birthday to "barry who is seven squared today".
BOXING DAY WITH FMM five minute miracle, a delicious band of boys who play "prairie funk" and happen to be sarah's good friends, played the big boxing day bash in foam lake, saskatchewan. foam lake happens to be a matter of minutes away from sarah's hometown where she and her extended family were gathered to celebrate the season. the small town bar experience came complete with druken groping strangers and a good old fashioned cowboy bar brawl. the audience, accustomed, of course, to hearing country bands, soon warmed up to the band, and by the third set, the dance floor was packed.
BOWMAN COFFEEHOUSE aden bowman's annual coffeehouse was held on friday, november 26 at the school (1904 clarence ave) in the social centre starting at 7:30pm and featured such artists as hawaiian mafia and pretty ladies (shanda and amy stefanson). having successful auditioned with amy, sarah then learned that she would have to be in toronto taping jonovision the very same day as coffeehouse was scheduled. regretfully, she was forced to leave the show in the very capable hands of cousin shanda.
SHANDA'S PLAY "Never a breath..." a lamentable tale of love, romance, and friendship Written by Shanda Stefanson Directed by Shanda Stefanson and Sarah Stefanson Starring Sarah Maxwell, Shanda Stefanson, Brandon Snowsell, and Heath Horejda Preview: Friday, Nov. 19th, 9pm Performance: Saturday, Nov. 20th, 8pm North Studio, John Mitchell Building, University of Saskatchewan campus. free admission
AUDITIONS auditions for the male lead in "Never a breath..." were held on sunday, october 17 from 7-9pm in the john mitchell building on campus, room 186. pants were optional, but thankfully everyone showed up wearing them.
JAY AT MCNALLY jay hails played a solo acoustic show at mcnally robinson on friday, october 15 from 8 to 10pm. the famous aaron finally got to meet the famous jay. and jay made him real sad with his songs.
WMM IN CONCERT wide mouth mason performed at the wheatland building on friday, october 15. sarah's mom and sister's amy and maggie attended the concert and thought it smashing.
HOJA AT MCNALLY chris martin's lovely acapella group, hoja, did a show at the mcnally robinson bookstore on 8th street on friday, september 24 at 8pm. sarah hoped leif would follow her home after the show. ;)
BRANCHALA NEWS sarah got an email that said this: Check out the site mp3.com and find and listen to Branchala's songs. Help them move up the ladder. We are currently 49 th and 50 th of 75 in the Saskatoon catagory. In the search line just type Branchala and we'll pop up. Listen many times if you want! Tell your friends, family, co-workers, co-students, and even your enemies!! Tell everyone! Everyone must know !! Or don't... Whatever....
HAILS AND PALACOL AT AMIGO'S since dear rob palacol was so very nice to sarah at a recent show, she thought she should acknowledge a gig of his. the jay hails band opened for rob palacol and his band at amigo's on friday, august 10. i hope the audience was prepared for shiny pants. the show was described by mr. hails himself as "a splendiferous, absolutely kissable show."
CROWN NECTAR'S LAST SHOW something great has come to an end, as all great things do. crown nectar played their last show ever before paolo moves to italy. the show was at the bassment (3rd avenue) on monday, august 30 at 8pm. the junior pantherz opened up the night with a great set of songs from their brand-spankin' new album ("the rebel alliance" is sarah's favourite tune). sarah looks forward to seeing more from them in the future. crown nectar played for a room full of old and new fans. the crowd wouldn't let them stop even when they insisted that they had played "all the songs they ever wrote". sarah made several observations about the band's style and the individual musicians' playing....none of which does she really care to print here. ;) for a bio on the band...Crown Nectar
SOMA AT BUD'S a soma event took place at bud's on broadway on sunday, august 29. the jay hails band headlined starting at about 10pm. sarah caught a bit of the band before them, but mostly only came to see those jay people. kyle looked like he was almost having fun. kevin talked to sarah more tonite than he all the other times combined. mike was mysteriously aloof (like most times). jay broke a string. a good set.
HUMMERS AT AMIGO'S the hummers from winnipeg played a very interesting set (minus their turntables and all of craig's pedals) at amigo's on friday, august 27. although sarah mostly went as an excuse to see craig, the beautiful guitar player that she met at ness creek, she thoroughly enjoyed the show and hopes she'll be able to catch another one when she doesn't have to get up early the next morning to model.
JAY'S SLOSH SHOWS the new and improved jay hails band (kev buzinski on drums, mike card on guitar, and kyle lamont on bass) are playing three nights at the wash n slosh this weekend, august 19-21. jay is apparently taking his music in new and exciting directions and sarah looks forward to listening after all this time. ****sarah attended the thursday show with her sister and they both enjoyed it immensly and danced for a very long time. her favourite part: "we're called the... oh no, wait, we're not." she wonders how jay manages to sparkle when he sweats.
TRENT RADIO sarah has this cousin and his name is chris and he's helping to organize this wild thing at his radio station in ontario and he sent her this email saying that he would love to hear from "interesting strangers from far away places" so here's your chance.
Trent Radio invites you to help create an improvised "Day Long Song" on 11 August 1999.
Starting at 11am (Eastern Daylight Time), we are inviting musicians, poets and sound-makers from all time zones to participate in person and by phone throughout the day with a continuously changing group.
There is no presumption that the "song" will conform to any common definition of "songness", though it is expected that idiomatic explorations will be episodically embraced and abandoned during the day.
Anyone is welcome to contribute whatever they what to the piece by coming into Trent Radio at 715 George Street North at Parkhill in Peterborough, Ontario or by calling the on air line at (705) 741 4011 and contributing via the phone lines.
Many star contributors are already slated to contribute so please count yourself among them and come or call in to the piece. The piece will continue until at least 10pm but might carry on beyond that, depending on how badly everyone is bleeding by then.
Don't be shy all contributions are welcome!
Chris Tonelli, Trent Radio Summer Programme Coordinator
call (705) 748 4761
or email
an email from chris on how that went...."The In house musicains spaced thier arrivals and departures almost perfectly to keep the song going all day. There was some really nice moments from experimental sound to improved sections with bizarrandom lyrics, comic improvised stories and musical improv between juxtaposing players in all genres. No calls from Sask. but we got calls from L.A., Winnepeg, Vancouver and Toronto which all worked surprisingly well. People rigged phones on their ear so they could hear us and played into a speaker phone at the same time which seemed the best way to go. Otherwise they just played and we followed in studio as they could not hear us. Anyways stellar moment in the history of improvised music!"
FMM AT AMIGO'S beautiful wonderful five minute miracle will be played at soul food in regina on friday, august 6 and at amigo's in saskatoon on august 7. the band decided that they weren't going to take a break between sets, just play all thru the nite. so sarah didn't take a break either and danced for every song. the after party at the house of beats was typically drunken and weird, but not as much fun as usual.
TASTE OF SASKATCHEWAN in addition to sarah and luke, soma's taste of saskatchewan stage (july 21-25) boasts many other talented and exciting musicians. and i can't think of a single other one.... well, sarah watched a jayhails show this afternoon (21) with new songs and old ones that were fast. sarah is also aware of a drowned...(oops!) i mean, the jay hails band set on saturday at 5.
NEW HOJA BOYS all the members but garret have been replaced in chris martin's acapella band, hoja. the new members are jeremy, nolan, and leif. rest assured, they are all fabulously cute. all that remains is to see if these new boys will be held in as high regard as their predecessors in their number one fan's mind (maggie ann).
THE DROWNED AT WASKESIU saskatoon's "the drowned" have recently resurfaced (and it's about time too) to play a week of shows in waskesiu (june 21-26). only two of the original members remain with kyle lamont on bass. sarah hopes they play a saskatoon show very soon.
TREENA AT MCNALLY treena kortje did a reading of her book "variations of eve" at mcnally robinson on wednesday, june 23 at 7:30 pm. it was inspiring as always and sarah again forgot to bring something to write on. :(
HOJA AND OPCO sarah's sister, maggie ann, and some friends, being the young entrepreneurs that they are, designed a business called "opco" for a school project. one of their shrewd marketing schemes was to get hoja (maggie's their biggest fan) to come and sing in front of their booth to attract customers. how very clever. the sale was on all morning on friday, june 18. it is truly amazing how many times the boys could fit "opco candies" into hoja's songs. :)
TOMKO AND DEVILS sarah got a quick note from tomko lamb letting her know that he and the plaid tongued devils would be in town to play two shows at lydia's on june 11 and 12. sarah had planned to attend both shows, but due to circumstances beyond her control she and shanda only made it to saturday's show. tomko was incredible (surprise, surprise) and the appreciative and enthusiastic crowd was apparently a welcome difference from the night before. it's a pretty different experience seeing tomko on a stage as opposed to sitting on a street corner, but definately a nice one. tomko did a set alternating between dulcimer and guitar songs. sarah loves the way tomko's mouth moves when he sings. she also got to see a couple other of her favourite boys that nite at lydia's (tony from streetnix and shaun from wmm) and it was truly a good nite for hugging beautiful boys. later, sarah and shanda had an excellent time dancing to the plaid tongued devils. happily, neither of them got raped and/or murdered the entire nite. (sorry, inside joke:)
BENT SHOW saskatoon's infamous bent did one final show at amigo's on may 29th. bent has been an important and exciting part of saskatoon's music scene and it is a tragedy that they will be no more. amigo's was packed and bent delivered an amazingasalways show (the drunk boys crowd-surfing at the front sure appreciated it). sarah was happy to see many friends that haven't been around in a while and didn't it feel like 1997 in there? bottom line: anytime sarah gets to hug rueben, it's a good nite.
HOJA IN MARTENSVILLE chris martin's delightful a capella band "hoja" will be doing a show in martensville where they have many fans but not quite enough, consequently they'd like some s'toon ppl to come out and support them. the show which takes place on saturday, may 29 at 7pm is the last show for members john and matthew. tickets are available in advance ($6) or at the door ($8). contact sarah for more info. OH DEAR, the show was cancelled. :(
HAIR SHOW aden bowman's hair show took place sunday, may 16 and monday, may 17 at castle theatre. sarah remembers last years production fondly. and aaron is somehow involved. both good reasons to go.
also....treena kortje's launch for her book "Variations of Eve" was on Friday, May 14th at 7:00p.m. at the Wash N'Slosh... sarah was grateful to treena for providing some much needed inspiration to an otherwise bland and uninteresting day.
BOWMAN ONE ACTS student directed one acts plays were presented at aden bowman's castle theatre on may 11, 12, and 13. the plays were directed by three of sarah's favourite bowman people, robbie webster, bequie lake, and joel bernbaum. the highlight of the night was mr. webster's play "personal effects" by john mcnamara which featured a splendid group of actors playing to perfection parts we could all relate to. the strong characterizations were largely due to solid and capable direction. "personal effects" provided a much-needed comic break from the serious tone the evening had taken on.
SLIPPY AND CROWN NECTAR on the 8th of may, slippy and crown nectar (both bands former schoolmates of sarah's, and a couple of them good friends:) put on a very LOUD and enthusiastic show. the all ages event took place at the senior citizens centre on 11th st. sarah managed to pull herself out from under (or at least around) the state of blue her day had resigned itself to in order to attend (and she's glad she did). the show apparently was the first in a planned series with proceeds going toward a foundation that the boys are setting up which will serve to give young saskatoon artists a chance to share their music. they are planning on doing one or two shows a month and eventually hope to make enough money to finance a compilation cd. more info once sarah talks to luke about it. but it definately sounds like something that everyone should get behind and support.
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