Our House

Such a sweet and touching song. Between web work.. a break to play my handmade for day 29 a cover of Our House - By Crosby Stills Nash and Young.
Handmade #29

can't make it better

This guy was the reason I fell behind in my handmades... Loading issues, but finally resolved. January 10th's handmade - a song (*note* very rough recording).

to be young

Recorded Saturday night, A wee tribute for Bern

To Be Young - Sing a Long from chris parker on Vimeo.

hope in hell

Life is short... short and sweet and oh so wonderful.

This song was written for a dear friend who passed away 4 years ago. Im very happy to have heard it today. Written by Jamie Smith, recorded with a lot of great people. It may have made me weep at my desk, but its tune is appropriate for the day. The air is thick and overlayed with a tinge of gloom. There are a lot of hearts missing a lot of people today... Bern, Jesse, Calen, heres thinking of you.

lullaby

This recording was done close to a year ago, but my friend Sean has just recently edited the track and sent it back in my direction (thank you). The song would have been written a few years ago now. I hope to not forget the chord progressions in the future so that i might someday play it for my wee ones.

524 porch recordings

Simon and Garfunkel are coming to Ottawa... for a good $150 a ticket. Booo I cant justify it.. So instead i'll just pay tribute to them on the front porch... recordings complete with loose jargon and random neighbourhood noise.

christmas album

I was fortunate enough at christmas to get a few hours in with the full 'J' team - Dave, Nick, Nathaniel, Niels & Stef...

At some point in the evening christmas carols came out... It's now past the holidaze but I can't stop listening to the entertainment of this wee carol...

jay sparrow

So my uber talented cousin Jay just released a new music video.
lay yr mountain down - pls giver a listen.

More jay videos...
jays song behind the movie trailer for steak & milk

Murder City Sparrows music videos
black hole betty

hammer click

okkervil

a few photos taken from the Okkervil River show. Man i wish i had this lens (it was a rental)

thunder bays finest

Perhaps not everyone is aware there is a 'Paul Shaffer boulevard' in my home town of Thunder Bay. Other than hockey, we dont have a large amount of b listers to showcase, so we've made do with the little bald music sidekick on Letterman as our claim to fame.

I am quite thankful to have had this video brought to my attention last night. Prepair for a long haired shaffer as a guess on the letterman show, with special guests - dj jazzy jeff and the fresh prince. Can it get any better?!

medley with an ending

Heres a clip taken from the jam at Daveos last night.
We couldnt decide whether to play Crazy Love or Train to Jordan so we mixed the two... with surprisingly not too terrible results.

family of melodys

last nights musical festivities

A few tunes randomly recorded from the living room...
daveo on drums/base/guitar/backupvocals
dad on guitar/vocals/base
guy (not a member of the fam) on guitar/vocals/drum
me on vocals

If its not already known I have a wonderfully musical family. When we get a group of us together, one of my most adored activities is to bring out whatever instruments we can find and play.

Among my extensive family tree of marvelous musicians, we have:
Grandpa Jewitt – in his mid 80’s and still recording his own singing and piano tracks in his mini studio at home.
Don (papa) Jewitt – in his free time leading a 9 piece charity band (with full horn section). Amazing pianist, guitarist and singer. Writer of two of my favourite albums.
the late Jeff Murphy (mothers brother) – Musician all his life, singing and playing guitar across the country. Raising amazingly talented boys one of which being…
Jay Sparrow – Lead singer of ‘Murder City Sparrows’, an Edmonton band that’s been making huge leaps and bounds in the Canadian music industry. Amazing singer songwriter and guitarist.
wee brother, Isaac Matthews – Mini icon in his teenage musical career. Talented singer, actor, guitarist. Constantly wining awards and prizes in every competition he enters and about to embark into the field in his post high school excellentness.
And it goes on…
cousin Neils Jewitt – meanest harp skills I’ve seen
uncle Daveo Jewitt – energized and interchangeably moving from bass, drums, guitar and vocals nearly all at once
brother Lucas Jewitt – guitarist and most recently basses, shy but skilled
cousin Nathaniel Jewitt – great singer, doboro player and guitarist
cousin Nick Jewitt – sweet base vocals
Ian Matthews (dad#2) - amazing drummer
cousin Lenny Murphy – amazing drummer
sister Glory Jewitt – crowd energizing tambourine girl
even Carolyn (mother) Matthews – leading in her harmonium playing, kirtan singing goodness.

It might now be a little more clear as to why my name is Melody
or why playing music with my family is one of my most enjoyable past times.