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December 06, 2007 - Kitchener, ON Hi folks. Shane Hendrickson here and I've had the absolute honor of being asked to play once again with Natalie for the month of December. What a treat as she's made a few changes and she had snagged a few top notch players. For those of you who have seen the new line up you'll agree that these new guys are pretty darn amazing! First there is a cello player by the name of Nathaniel Smith. This guy is one of the best cellist's out there and he's only 13!! And the new guy behind the drums is one of my favourite drummers out there. His name is JD Blair and some might recognize him as the drummer for Shania Twain and has also worked with some of the biggest names out there. I've always been a fan of Mr. Blair's and never thought I would have the honor of working with him. It's a great line up folks. Anyway getting back to why I'm here, the show last night was in Kitchener, ON at the Center In The Square Theatre. A wonderful 2000 seat theatre with great lighting and sound. We had just come out of a couple days of rehearsals with quite a few new tunes so it was a bit tense for me but the show was sold out and the audience was great. Lots of energy coming from the crowd and Natalie was at her best as always. JD, Nathaniel, Matt and Mac were better than I could have imagined and the new tunes went over great. It was a great night for me. Felt like I was back home!
Anyway I'll
be sending in reports from the rest of the shows this month. Huge thanks
to Natalie once again for bringing me back on board. It's gonna be a
great month! ............................................................................................................................... December 9, 2007 - Hamilton, ON |
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Natalie was on fire once again tonight. She changed the set up again a bit and tweaked a few things. Things are definitely changing for the better. Her choice of material and her attention to the smallest detail only makes the show better. Tonight there were quite a few Cape Bretoner's in the audience. Always love that as they are the one's that make the most noise and you're always guaranteed to see them dancing in the isles. Always makes for a great show. Huge thanks to the folks who came out tonight and also the staff at the theatre. Great bunch to work with and they made our show tonight very enjoyable. Well we're off tomorrow and then we hit Alberta for four shows. Gonna be fun. ............................................................................................................................... December 11-12, 2007 - Fort Saskatchewan, AB Well it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. We're here at the Shell Theatre at the Dow Centennial Center. What a great facility with not only a great theatre but check out the floor plan of this place! They have a full sized hockey rink, a leisure skating area, a soccer field (indoor!) and an amazing gym. The people of Ft. Saskatchewan are definitely lucky to have such a wonderful facility in their back yard. Well we did two shows in two nights here. You know it should be illegal to have this much fun on stage. The band was hot and the audience was into every moment. We really fed off their energy both nights. We even tried out some new material and it seemed to go over pretty well. The folks around here are a friendly bunch and the staff went out of their way to help us out the whole time. We hope we'll be back very soon to this lovely place. Now we're off for a short drive to St. Albert, AB for two sold out shows in one night! Gotta love it! ............................................................................................................................... December 14-15, 2007 - Regina, SK You know you can't beat the generosity of the prairie people! I'll explain in a minute. We're in Regina, SK at Casino Regina for two nights. First off it's a bit cold out there but we're all prepared! The casino itself has an incredible sound and lighting system and is set up with tables on the first floor and seats on the second. The stage techs here are some of the best around and proved it to us on the second night. Okay here goes the story.... A couple hours before the second night we all gathered on the stage to do a small sound check. We had rearranged the set up a bit from the night before. Unfortunately Nathaniel's cello was accidentally knocked over breaking the bridge and making it unplayable. Now this is a Saturday night and it really isn't easy to replace a bridge in that short of time no matter where you are. So the local crew got on the phone, called friends who called friends and so on and managed to contact a cellist from the Regina Symphony. This wonderful woman, who was heading out to a party, didn't hesitate to loan her beautiful (and hugely expensive) cello to Nathaniel for the show! Okay I'm biased because I was born and raised in this province but the generosity of the people here leaves me speechless. So now to the shows. Friday and Saturday's shows were pretty much identical in audiences. Both were sold out and both were full of some pretty exuberant people! We had people dancing all over the theatre and they were a vocal bunch! The response to Natalie's tunes was incredible and it was a real pleasure meeting some of the people after the show. We'd love to come back again (maybe summer next time!) So today we hop on a plane (hopefully... it's snowing pretty hard out there right now!) and head out to Victoria for a Symphony show and then one last one in Nanaimo. See you next show. ............................................................................................................................... December 17-18 , 2007 - Victoria and Nanaimo, BC Hey folks. We are on Vancouver Island for a couple of dates. First we are in the provincial capitol of British Columbia, Victoria, BC. Today Natalie told us if we were good we could have the day off but unfortunately Mac wasn't very good at all and had to work tonight! Actually Natalie is doing a show with the Victoria Symphony and Mac was sitting in, playing Piano for a few songs. The show was completely sold out and there were no seats for the rest of the band so we all went out for a little R&R. According to a few people in the know, the show went great. Next we drove up to Nanaimo, BC for the final show of the year. We are at the Port Theatre in the heart of Nanaimo. Great theatre with about 800 seats and again, every one of them filled! Since it was the last show of the year we were all in great spirits and had a blast up there. We all gave it just a bit extra knowing we have some time off to recharge our batteries. Natalie was at her best and clearly having a wonderful time. The audience was outstanding and gave us a wonderful standing ovation at the end of the show. A great place to play and a great way to wrap up the year. Now we all head home for a rest (some are going to be traveling all day!!) and get ready to start again at the end of January. I will be joining the tour a week late as I have a prior commitment to Natalie's husbands band, Leahy for the first week of the tour (sorry, the road stories will have to wait a bit). I would like to take this opportunity to thank Natalie once again for bringing me into her band again. This is such a wonderful gig! And to all the other musicians; Matt, Mac, JD, and Nathaniel, thanks for the great music. Each one of these guys is worth the price of admission and to be able to work with them is definitely a musical dream come true. A huge thanks to Trevor and Chris for keeping the road smooth, Donnell, Maureen, Barbara, Dianne and Minnie for taking care of the business and of course the queen of the web, Cheryl, for making this website work. (Hope I haven't missed anyone. My apologizes if I did!) Merry Christmas everyone, happy holidays and all the best in the New Year. See you then ...............................................................................................................................
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