My top five musical inspirations:
1. Raised on Robbery — Joni Mitchell
"The most uniquely talented Canadian woman singer/songwriter of all time. Biting lyrics and storytelling about every emotion in life and love, pain and hate and society."
2. Fly at Night — Bill Henderson
"Brilliant songwriter with complex rhythms and chord changes. Catchy songs since the early days with the Collectors and still going strong today. True Canadian talent."
3. Desdamona’s Building a Rocketship — Jimmy Buffett
"From his humble beginnings of the southern folk rock genre with Jerry Jeff Walker in the early 1970s, to the drunk, Caribbean rock ’n’ roll days with the Coral Reefer Band, to the current cross-over to contemporary country on License to Chill, you can’t help but laugh at his play-on-words and clever imaging. It’s hard not to sing along. Parrot Heads Unite! (see you in Vegas at the Convention)."
4. My Favourite Mistake — Sheryl Crow
"Singer/songwriter who is able to do it all: sing, play bass, guitar, keyboard, accordion and then produce it. Song material from very light to very dark about things that are easy to relate to."
5. Santa Monica Pier — Christine Lavin
"A quirky storyteller with dramatic pounding guitar rhythm, reflective pauses, brutal honesty and hilarious insight into human nature and relationships."
Last Words
:"Really good songs are those that start pure and clean, have some substance with good rhythm, catchy melody, interesting riffs and rhythm changes. Just when you think you know where it’s going and becomes predictable, it changes and takes you somewhere else and then it hits you and you realize that’s where it should have gone.
"As Jimmy Buffett says (among many other things) ‘I’d rather die while I’m livin’ than live while I’m dead.’"
