Hi Everyone

Hope the New Year is off to a good start for you! We’ve got lots to tell you so I’ll try keep it short and to the point.

First, here’s where we are playing…
Every Saturday in February, 3:30-5:30pm - The Cameron House, 408 Queen St W. (Toronto), just one block west of Spadina   We’re back to doing our weekly matinee at The Cameron House but for a limited run so if you’ve been planning to come out please do it soon! Dave Lang will be joining us on bass when he is available.

The 9th Annual Winterfolk Festival takes place on the  weekend of February 18-21 at a variety of venues on Danforth Ave. (Toronto). We are playing several shows (a couple on our own and a couple with other performers) as follows:

• Friday, Feb. 18th, 8-9pm - Dora Keogh, 141 Danforth Ave.
• Saturday, Feb. 19th (TWO SHOWS)
  - 2-3pm - Mambo Lounge, 120 Danforth Ave.
  - 8-9pm - Black Swan (Upstairs), 154 Danforth Ave. - Songs of Social Justice with Glen Hornblast, Peter Verity, Mikel Miller, David Leask
• Mon., Feb. 21st, 2-3pm - Black Swan (Upstairs), 154 Danforth Ave. - Songs of Canada with Peter Verity and others TBD

Next, some exciting news…

- Our CD ‘Little Child Big World’ shared #29 honours with Fred Eaglesmith and The Duhks on ‘THE TOP CANADIAN ALBUMS - 2010 list, comprised of Canadian CDs that received the most airplay on radio stations reporting to the Folkdj-l listserve! We appreciate all the radio hosts who took the time to listen to our CD and include it in their playlists.

- I had a spare 17 hours a few weeks ago so decided to tackle a project that I’d wanted to do for a little while…to put together a video set to the music of our song ‘When The Rains Don’t Come’ using photos and footage from our trips to Uganda. I posted it on YouTube if you want to have a look: http://www.youtube.com/user/sueanddwight#p/a/u/0/Ow0Zzu0CgRE
Oh, and don’t worry, it isn’t 17 hours long…it’s 3 minutes and 20 seconds…I’m just a slow learner with the video makin’ software

- Speaking of ‘When The Rains Don’t Come’…not too long ago we entered it in a songwriting contest. It didn’t win however, I received a copy of the evaluation form and this wonderful comment was on it: “Great storytelling—it reminds me of an impressionist’s painting—the perspective is great, the touch so light. This song stuck with me for a few days.” 

- Dwight is in the process of booking a tour for us in Man., Sask., and Alta. in April. As soon as all the details are available, we will fill you in!

Thanks and we hope to see you soon!

Sue and Dwight

Hello and Happy 2011!

If it’s true that time flies when you are having fun, then it’s one big fiesta around here. This is just a quick note to let you know what’s coming up…

Saturday Afternoon Matinee at The Cameron House - EVERY SATURDAY (beginning January 15 – March 22) 3:30-5:30pm in the Front Room, 408 Queen Street West (one block west of Spadina)…The front room of The Cameron House is a wonderful intimate venue, the perfect place to hang out on a Saturday afternoon. In addition to a fine selection of cold libations they have specialty coffees now. We’ll be introducing some new songs over the next few weeks.

Mark the weekend of February 18-21 in your calendar. It’s the 9th Annual Winterfolk Festival on Danforth Avenue in Toronto and we are honoured to be a part of it again this year. Watch the ‘Gigs’ section of our website for details.

We hope to see you soon!

Sue and Dwight 

Wow, the holiday season is approaching…heard Christmas music in the mall the other day…yikes! I know this is a busy time of year so I’ll try keep this short

Here’s what we’ve been up to…

• attended the OCFF Conference in Ottawa; met lots of great people, learned lots, and heard lots of great music!
• the following weekend we were back in eastern Ontario for shows in Napanee (The Music Market) and Ottawa (Elmdale Tavern); both wonderful venues
• returned to The Cameron House for our matinee on Oct. 30; it was so great to be back; it’s looking good there…bathrooms have been renovated
• played an early evening show at a seniors residence; it was such a great night…the people were lovely, great auditorium, wonderful sound
• we both struggled with colds at varying times during the month but still managed to get in lots of busking in the subway
• the ‘new’ CD has been out for a year now and understandably radio airplay has slowed down but even so, in the past month these shows have played tunes from it so we encourage you to check them out…you can listen online:
  • DETOURS (Yellow Springs, OH), hosted by Norm Whitman www.wyso.org
  • ACOUSTIC PLANET (Erin, ON), hosted by Steve Clarke www.erinradio.ca
  • FOLK PLUS (Liberty, NY), hosted by Angela Page www.wjffradio.org

Here’s what we will be up to…

• Saturday Matinee at The Cameron House - Saturday, November 27th, 3:30-5:30pm in the Front Room; 408 Queen St. W., Toronto; PWYC. The Cameron House is a great place to relax and enjoy live music! All ages are welcome. www.thecameron.com
• ShoreSoundz Muzic Festival - Saturday, November 27th, 8pm; Taste Portuguese Cuisine, 2888 Lakeshore Blvd. W. (near 6th St.)  www.tastepc.ca/events.html; fundraiser for The Gate House, an Etobicoke Agency that helps sexually abused children and their families. Uncle Herb and Friends Variety show 8 pm until Midnight: Jennifer Robert, Sue and Dwight, Mark Ripp, The Curries with Doug Snow and Curtis Reid, The McDales
• Two Of A Kind - Saturday, December 4th, The Moonshine Cafe, 137 Kerr St. Oakville, ON; Hank Redman and Julie Cutler host an evening with Sue and Dwight, and Carrie and Lawrence; Cover $5  www.themoonshinecafe.com

Holiday Gift Idea…

If you order a CD from our website www.sueanddwight.com/music we will wrap it, add a little gift card, and send it directly to the intended recipient! You can pay directly on-line with your credit card/PayPal or snailmail us a cheque.

We hope you have a wonderful holiday season and we’ll be in touch in Jan. to let you know what’s happening in the New Year…unless something else pops up before then that we need to tell you about!

Sue and Dwight xo

Hi

After a little break, it’s time to start gigging again.

Here’s what’s coming up in October…

Fri. Oct. 22, 8pm, The Music Market, 17 Market Square, Napanee, with Sean Peever; $10

Sun., Oct. 24, 8pm, ’Sunday Songwriter Soirée’, Elmdale Tavern, 1084 Wellington St., Ottawa, ON with Chris MacLean, John Gillies, and Sean Peever; $10

Sat., Oct. 30. 3:30pm, Saturday Matinee at The Cameron House, 408 Queen Street W., Toronto, ON, with Dave Lang on bass; PWYC (It will be great to be back playing at our fave club. Don’t miss this one…there won’t be another til the end of Nov.)

In other news…

We were fortunate to get into the TTC Subway Musicians Program for another year. The competition seems to get tougher every year with more musicians auditioning than ever. Busking has been a great experience for us. In addition to being fun, and a source of income, it’s provided us a wonderful stage to get our music out there. It still thrills me each time someone stops to buy a CD after hearing just a brief portion of a song.

Speaking of CDs. It has officially been a year since we launched ‘Little Child Big World’! We’ve been very pleased with the radio airplay it’s received. I’d like to encourage you to continue requesting our tunes on your favourite shows.

While on the subject of CD’s…the stack of boxes of ’Little Child Big World’ in our storeroom has gone down but there are still some available if you haven’t got yours yet! You can get an early start on your Christmas shopping

We will be attending the OCFF Conference in Ottawa this month. We always enjoy meeting other musicians and people in the biz at this annual event. It’s a tiring weekend…late nights with music til all hours…but fun!

I think that’s it for now. Come out to a show if you can. We’d love to see you!

Sue and Dwight

Hiya

Although I haven’t been in school for years, I still feel like Sept. signals the start of a new year. Hey, maybe that’s a good thing…we can start a new year in Sept. and if it doesn’t go the way we want, we have another shot at it in Jan  

I don’t have a lot of stuff to update you on since my last ‘Sue and Dwight News’ email in July. We had a bit of a quiet few months on the music front. Dwight was extra busy at his day job this Summer so we didn’t plan many gigs. But the ones we did play were really enjoyable. We continued to receive some airplay on U.S. Folk radio shows, though quiet on that front here in Can. We continued to do a lot of subway busking. Speaking of that, we had our annual audition for the TTC Subway Musicians Program a few weeks ago and now are on pins and needles waiting for the results. Keep your fingers crossed for us! Oh, and Kim Cole and I entered ‘Mercury Rising’, the song we wrote together, in the David Suzuki Playlist For The Planet contest. Sadly, the song didn’t make the final cut but we really appreciate all of you who went online at cbc.ca to vote for it…thank you so much!  

So, on to what’s new…

Big news! After a four year weekly residency at the wonderful Cameron House, we decided it was time to shake things up a bit. So rather than playing every week, we are going to do a Monthly Saturday Matinee (3:30 - 5:30pm). The first two are booked so please mark them in your calendar…Sat., Oct. 30th and Sat., Nov. 27th. We will definitely miss the weekly routine, but our plan is to do a bit of touring around Ontario on weekends and playing to some new audiences so this will open up a bit of time for that.  

While you’ve got your calendar out, and if you happen to be in the Ottawa area, another show ‘Sunday Songwriter Soirée’ currently booked, is at the Elmdale Tavern where we will be sharing the stage with Sean Peever, Chris McLean, and John Gilles. Sun., Oct. 24, 8 PM, $10 

I’ll remind you of all these shows in my next News update in Oct. but wanted to let you know what happening because I’ve been getting lots of queries about when we start back at The Cameron.  

So I think that’s all for now. 

Hello!
 
Just a quick note to let you know what’s happening this Summer.
 
We did our last Cameron House Matinee of the season on June 26th. Thanks so much to those of you who braved the G20 mayhem to join us! Had some fun busking at outdoor Farmer’s Markets around town last month. I’d just booked us for June because we weren’t sure how it was going to be, but loved it, so now wish we were doing it through the Summer. We had a wonderful time at the House Concert we played in Waterloo. We were treated royally and met a lot of great people. We continue sharing the love in the subway I frequently report my underground observations as status updates on Facebook so if we aren’t already FB Friends, let’s hook up there!
 
With the exception of a few shows, we are taking much of the Summer off, but here is what we do have booked…
 
Upcoming Shows
 
Wed., July 28th, 8:30 pm - Moonshine Cafe in Oakville, 137 Kerr St. Oakville, ON,  905-844-2655 www.themoonshinecafe.com
Come join us for a fabulous night of ‘Women In Song’ hosted by Julie Cutler and also featuring Sara Kamin. This series just celebrated its 50th show in June! The evening starts at 8:30pm with the host and featured performers and is followed by an open stage from 11pm till close. The Moonshine is one of those really great music listening venues. If you haven’t been yet, check it out. It’s a gem! If we had a rec room, we’d set it up just like The Moonshine.
 
Sat., August 21st, 12noon - House Concert / BBQ in Downsview (by invitation)
We will be on the bill with The Rizdales at this wonderful outdoor event. We go on at 12:30pm. We played a concert there last year and it was great. Beautiful venue and amazing hosts.
 
Shameless plug alert…if you haven’t yet got a copy of our CD ‘Little Child Big World’, there are several ways you can get it…on our website www.sueanddwight.com/music. Or, if you kids are into digital downloads you can download individual songs or the whole CD at CDBaby www.cdbaby.com/Artist/SueAndDwight and at iTunes http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/little-child-big-world/id343150860. 
 
Songs from the CD are continuing to pop up on folk radio shows across North America (yay!). We even had a tune spun on a show in Australia last month! Don’t forget to request songs from ‘Little Child Big World’ on your favourite music stations For those of you interested in stats…currently the top 2 songs being played are ‘One Song’ and ‘Mercury Rising’, followed closely by ‘Ain’t No Passenger’ and ‘Little Child Big World’. But happily, all of the songs have received airplay, which is quite exciting. One of our greatest supporters has been a show from Yellow Springs, Ohio called ‘Detours’ hosted by Norm Whitman. The show airs on Sat. afternoons from 1-3pm. You can listen live at http://www.wyso.org/
 
We’ve got a couple of new songs in the works. I’m just putting the final touches on one that I’ve put aside in frustration a few times over the past year. But last weekend while sitting on the sand at Cherry Beach and looking out over the water, it came together!
 
Well, I think that’s it. I know once I press Send, I’ll think of something else I want to tell you but that’s the way it goes
 
Have a WONDERFUL Summer. Hope to see or hear from you soon!
 
Sue and Dwight

It’s a bit dreary outside this morning but because yesterday was such an amazing day/night at The Cameron House, I’m basking in an amazing glow of wonderful music and friendship. What a great time we had.

Our matinee was packed right from the start…albeit most folks were there to secure their seats for the evening festivities. Nonetheless they were an appreciative, responsive audience. A few regulars of ours, unaware of the upcoming gala send-off for Cindy (longtime co-owner/manager of the bar) featuring The Cameron Family Singers, wandered in looking a bit stunned that available seats were so few. Our first S.R.O. matinee There was a palpable feeling of excitement in the room all day.

Anticipating the crowds, a live video feed of the action in the front room was beamed to the back room. Dwight and I moved between the two rooms over the course of the evening. While it was fun to be in the front room where the live action was, the back room had it’s definite advantages…much cooler and seating!

The Cameron Family Singers were in great form! The latest “regular” line-up of Cousins Cindy Matthews, Jack Nicholsen, Tony Benattar, Shelley Coopersmith, and Sam Ferrara, were augmented with returning Cousins Kevin Quain, Rod Booth, and Chip Yarwood, as well as honorary Cousins Col. Tom Parker and Burke Carroll. Cindy looking beautiful as always was glowing in a room full of admirers, all there to wish her well as she moves on to her next adventures. A gang of other performers including Justin Rutledge, Corin Raymond, Joanne Mackell, Michael Laderoute, The Ferraros, and Run With The Kittens were each invited on stage to perform during the second set. Dwight and I were honoured to be included among them. All of us feel and expressed gratitude to Cindy for her tremendous support over the years.

So many people we love, we’ve met at The Cameron House in the almost 20 years we have been going there. A lot of them were there yesterday so it couldn’t help but be magical day.

“The room is an oasis, the desert beats at the door. We head out to it’s fury, can’t wait to come back for more.”

Hiya

April came and went in a blink and it’s May!

Here’s where you can find us this month if you want to catch a show…

3:30-5:30pm EVERY SATURDAY IN MAY at The Cameron House, 408 Queen Street West (Toronto)
We play two sets in the Front Room. It’s laid back and hanging out at this great little club, listening to tunes, is the perfect break in your hectic Saturday.

There has been some confusion about the future of this wonderful music venue so here’s the scoop on what’s happening. As you know, The Cameron House was listed for sale awhile ago. It was owned by three separate owners and two of them wanted to pursue other ventures. Long story short, the other owner decided to buy them out. So the “new” owner is really an old owner who loves The Cameron House and it will live on. There are plans to do some renos…bathrooms are on the list …so there may be a short closure to get that work done but the timing hasn’t been decided so it’s business as usual. Please keep supporting The Cameron House…there’s so much great music there!

Here’s some other stuff…

RADIO PLAY: We are continuing to send our new CD to radio stations across North America and have been very happy with the response! A variety of songs have been played on folk shows all across Canada and the US. “Imagine my surprise” to learn that ‘Diamonds On Velvet’ was played last week on a Jazz show!

One folk music show in particular, from Ohio called ‘Detours’, has been a great supporter, and have had us on their playlist for (knock wood, hope I don’t jinx it) 7 straight weeks!! And ‘Mercury Rising’ made a respectable showing on programs with an Earth Day focus this month. Thanks to the Internet you can listen to shows from all over the world either live or in some cases by podcast, so I try to catch as many as I can, particularly those ones supporting our music. As a result, I have been exposed to a lot of great new music I might not otherwise have heard.

We still haven’t cracked the CBC beyond the one play back in December. If you have any ideas how to make that happen, let me know!

SOMETHING VERY COOL: As some of you know, ‘One Song’ from our new CD pays tribute to singer-songwriters with a social conscience and mention a couple of Pete Seeger songs in one of the verses. So, I sent a copy of the CD to Mr. Seeger a little while ago as a thank you for his inspiration. You can imagine my excitement when we received a reply in the mail a few days ago. While most of the letter was a form letter there was a personal note for us added in, so I am very very excited about that! He’s not only a folk icon, but a very nice man as well…and he turns 91 this week!

BUSKING: Continues to be fun and a great way to get our music out there. And you can meet some really NICE people. One day my friend Kim and I were busking together up at Finch and this young woman stopped to look at our CDs. When she saw ours, she said “You’re part of Sue and Dwight? I’ve been wanting to see them for ages.”…seriously, she really said that!! Of course I looked around expecting Ashton Kutcher to pop out from around the corner telling me I was punk’d. It was all quite surreal. 

RECENT REVIEW OF ‘LITTLE CHILD BIG WORLD’ CD POSTED ON MY FACEBOOK WALL THAT MADE OUR DAY…WEEK…MONTH…YEAR: “Just thought I’d let you know, I am sent many albums each week, most have only one or two really good songs on them. Yours, however, is one of the best all around albums I’ve gotten this year. There are no filler songs, songs that were added just to fill up album space, you know, B rated songs. You and Dwight should be very proud of this album, it’s first class al the way!”…Norm Whitman, DETOURS, WYSO FM, Yellow Springs, OH

Well, enough about us. How are things with you? We’d love to see or hear from you so don’t be a stranger…ha ha, accidentally typed strangler but corrected it. Don’t be one of those either.

Sue (and Dwight)

Hi Everyone
 
Spring is definitely in the air!
 
So here’s the GIG NEWS for April if you happen to be in the Toronto area…

Every Saturday - Matinee at The Cameron House - 3:30-5:30pm - 408 Queen Street West
We want lots of bums in the seats this month…well, not bums in the hobo sense of the word, but you know what I mean! 
 
And, for those of you who used to like to straddle ours and The Cameron Family Singers show at 6pm, here’s some great news. They will be back for three Saturdays this month…April 3, 10, and 17. Oh, and according to a fiddle playing source in the band, Kevin Quain will be joining them. Yahoo, just like old times!

Other News…
 
~ RADIO AIRPLAY: I continue to listen to and scour the playlists from folks stations in Canada and the U.S. where we’ve sent our new CD and get a huge thrill each time one of our songs is played.
 
A couple of weeks ago I was listening to a show online (’Detours’ from Ohio) and heard  ‘One Song’ followed immediately by a Pete Seeger tune. Wow, that was cool. So, now I’m telling everyone that we’ve opened for him
 
‘Gulu’ received it’s first airplay this month on a show called Music Of The People in Massachusetts.
 
March 8th was International Women’s Day and March was Women’s History Month in the U.S. ‘Marching’ (our tribute to women) received airplay on some folk radio shows including Folk Oasis in Vancouver and Grass Roots Revival in Colorado Springs.
 
We happened to be listening to the Sunday Coffee House from Bellville the other night and were pretty excited to hear two of our songs played in a row.
 
 
~ BUSKING: I’ve been a busking machine…still loving it. Even after a little incident the other day where a ‘yout’ tried to loot my coinage. My stern “DO NOT DO THAT, I WILL CALL THE COPS” must have caught him off guard and he dashed off without the spoils, but it did remind me one has to be on guard at all times.
 
I think what’s making busking even more fun this year is the variety of folks I’ve been playing with…me and me, me and Dwight, me and Kim Cole, me and Shelley Coopersmith…each combo is a unique experience. Kim and I do a killer version of Gillian Welch’s ‘Orphan Girl’ and Shelley has introduced me to the high-brow music world with ‘Pachabel’s Canon’.
 
~ SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT…our CDs are both available for sale on-line at http://www.sueanddwight.com/ and/or download at CDBaby www.cdbaby.com/Artist/SueAndDwight and iTunes.
 
We hope to see you out at The Cameron House this month….and, if I may impose on you to please spread the word among any friends who you think might enjoy our music
 
Thanks and Happy Spring!
 
Sue (and Dwight)