January has drawn to a close with a brilliant trifecta in the sky, a full moon, a lunar eclipse and lunar perigee (super-moon in common parlance). It was bitterly cold and very early in the morning in our part of the globe, Edmonton, Alberta. The air temperature was hovering around -25 C and the wind chill put it well into the -30’s as I pulled on my long johns at 6:00 a.m., my son Joel has already put in about 2 hours of watching and got some great photos from start to finish of the eclipse.

Music, yeah, music. January closed with probably the worst concert experience of my life, and that takes some bad crap to top that list. I won’t bother to mention the venue or the artist, both of whom I respect and have had good relations with outside of this event, it was just a perfect shit storm. ‘Nuff said.

I expanded my listening to some R&B and hip/hop stuff that I don’t normally listen to very much. I started with a Canadian who has 9 albums to his credit and with Real Love, David Myles hit a 10. I really liked the smooth crooner that shifts to peppy rockabilly and plays around with a tribute to Elvis, Sinatra and Brian Setzer and brings it all together in a mix that is all David Myles. I may have to get a solid copy of this one to spin on the old turntable.

Another record that will be arriving in the mail this week thanks to the great staff at Listen Records in Edmonton is Chris Dave and the Drumhedz. Chris Dave is highly regarded session musician and a rock steady hard-working touring drummer. On the album he takes samples of the jazz the influenced his early life thanks to his fathers playing jazz at home and the hip/hop that he as worked with recently such as D’Angelo. I have been grooving to D’Angelo and The Vanguard with their great album from 2012 titled Black Messiah as I write this.

Chris Dave and the Drumhedz is a wonderfully crafted trip that I can lay back, close my eyes and float away with the songs pushing me here, pulling me over there, floating me up this way and that. It was fun but it is also a tremendously well-crafted project that I can tell a lot of love and emotion went into the making of. Well done lads.

Gwen Cresens, Diego Matheuz & Brussels Philharmonic gave my music listening a jolt to a whole new dimension with Concertos for Bandoneon & Accordion. Very enjoyable and I love the building and release of tension that exists in much of this album.

Nightmares on Wax, isn’t that a great band name? I love it, so I gotta hear it too. I heard it and I liked it. I listened to it again and heard more detail. And a third time. I have it on order for a full-on vinyl attack through the big stereo, could be this Friday. I’ll keep you posted.

All in all, it was a really inconsistent month for both the weather and the music experiences. I sampled a band from Greece, I didn’t know that they had anything other than Vangelis. They do and they are good. Tango With Lions is the band, The Night is the album, get it to the Greek on time and spin it. Good music.

Moving into February I see only one show as of today, a local band that I have a friend playing in Mortar and Marrow. They will be at the Sewing Machine Factory on Feb. 9, check them out. I don’t have any albums jumping out at me for new releases so I might focus on some of the older music that I listen to. Lots of Beatles so far, we’ll see where else this goes.