~ We played more than 60 shows this year including The Cameron House, Mambo Lounge and Black Swan as part of Winterfolk, The Spill in Peterborough, Chapters, McNally Robinson’s in Toronto, Winnipeg and Saskatoon, Lady of The Lake in Brandon, Michelle’s Brasserie and others.

~ We continued our residency at The Cameron House. Can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

~ We made the cover of the Winter 2009 Ontario Council Of Folk Festivals Folk Prints Magazine! There’s a scan of it in the ‘Stuff’ Tab.

~ We played our first House Concert in May. We have to do more of those…they are perfect for our kind of music. I blogged about it (scroll down) if you want to read all about it.

~ We did a ‘Mini Tour’ of Saskatchewan and Manitoba in June…always great to return to the homeland.

~ We took a travel guitar with us to Uganda, Tanzania, and Malawi in July/August and had the opportunity to play for people in various villages we visited. I blogged about the trip (see link under Archive at right) if you have some free time to kill. Also, in the ‘Stuff’ Tab there are a couple of links to videos of us singing there.

~ We finished recording our new CD ‘Little Child Big World’. It took quite a bit longer than we expected because new ideas kept emerging during the process, but it was well worth it in the end. We had a great time working with Kevin Quain again on this one. In addition to engineering and co-producing, he contributed some wonderful piano, bass and accordion performances. We were also excited to have Adam Warner (percussion), Shelley Coopersmith (violin), Kim Cole and Michelle Rumball (back-up vocals) perform on the CD.

~ It was a bonus that the whole gang (Kevin, Adam, Shelley, Kim and Michelle) were able to join us on stage for our Toronto CD Release Party in September. The backroom of The Cameron House was packed and the night felt magical. We performed the songs in the order they appear on the CD.

~ In October, we sent our new CD off to radio show hosts across Canada who we thought might be interested in playing our music and were really happy with the response. So in November, we did the same with radio show hosts in the U.S. and again received a very positive response. It’s so exciting that, thanks to the Internet, we can listen these shows either live or as a podcast…in the “old days” we’d have had to be in the same province or state.

~ Since it’s our hometown, we had a second CD Release Party for ‘Little Child Big World’ in Winnipeg in December. We tried out a new venue, a used bookstore/cafe, called Sam’s Place. It was another great night with an awesome turnout. Our nephew Brock, a bass whiz and Dwight’s Dad Ken, a violin player joined us on stage.

~ We were fortunate to do well at this year’s auditions for the TTC Subway Musicians Program, and in October began our 5th season. In addition to busking together, I also busk a lot on my own, occasionally with Shelley, and most recently with Kim. It’s so much fun.

~ Although I’m not quite at the seeking treatment stage, I have become quite addicted to Facebook over the past year. I have actually made some new real-life friends from it!

There you have it. Those are some of the bigger things but there have been many other highlights…you know, those small things that keep you going. Like when someone tells you a song you wrote helped them get through a tough time. Or the many new friends we’ve made through our music. Wishing you all the best in 2010!

I had an interesting experience while busking today at Queen Station. I was singing ‘Time With You’ and a young man was listening intently. When I finished, he came up and asked if I could repeat the chorus into his cellphone after he dialed his girlfriend in India. Aww…so romantic!

P.S. She liked it