My acoustic guitar music goes on tour ...

The author at a coffee house at 16 years

Here are 3 new artist videos that use my guitar music:

Canoe Trip on the River Wye, England
Drone tour of St-Leon-le-Grand, Quebec
Lovely Fall trees 

In my non-author life, I play acoustic guitar.

I've played guitar most of my life. I started with a ukulele that someone thoughtfully gave me when I was nine. I begged my family for a guitar (my older brother had one, it seemed only fair), and when I was 12, I got a Sears guitar for Christmas. I played it until it bent in half (admittedly it wasn't a great instrument, more of a toy really).

For my 16th birthday, I got a truly wonderful instrument which I still have and record with even today: a solid body acoustic Yamaha dreadnought, mahogany top, made in Japan. Glorious deep voice, still. It's in the picture, above.

My first guitar album with
editor Allister Thompson, 2015

But before that, when I was 12, I started guitar lessons with the Sears toy guitar on Wednesday nights with Ursula Davidson, an amazing Russian woman who loved guitar and loved teaching kids how to play. Each student dropped a $2 bill in the jar at Ursula's feet, then sat in a circle and tuned (which usually took a long time). Then we played great old tunes, a new one each week, including some Monkees, Beatles, Jim Croce, even some America and CSNY.

It was perfect for me. Not too intense, no one-on-one unless I needed it, just learned some fun music every week and realized I really loved the instrument.

Ursula told my mother one spring night that I should go and audition for another guitar teacher because I had promise, and she couldn't teach me much more. So I did. I'll never forget how nervous I was auditioning for this man in a stern beard.

My second guitar album with
editor Allister Thompson, 2017

He assured me that I knew how to read music because my mother had assured him that I could. I assured him that I couldn't read music. He sighed. He said he didn't teach beginners anymore. Then he had me follow some complicated picking that he showed me quickly and I thought, sure, I can do that. I'm pretty sure I couldn't, and didn't, but he must have seen something in me because he told me to turn up for lessons the next week.

And that's how, at 13, I met my Julliard-trained guitar teacher. He patiently started at the beginning and taught me how to read music for classical guitar. He cajoled and bullied me, a fairly lazy student, into someone who could actually sight read reasonably well, and play acceptably. But I wasn't up to his standards, not really. He and I both knew that I was never going to play in Carnegie Hall. So at 16, I stopped lessons. But I never stopped playing.

2010, author and daughter doing our favourite things 

In fact, learning new songs and creating music of my own has been incredibly important to me my whole life. I've played with friends from university on a regular basis for almost 40 years now. I have a classical duet flute partner, and we practice regularly and play in public from time to time. And I also record music with my editor, Allister Thompson.

And people use the music in their videos to celebrate whatever it is they are doing in their lives. Honestly, that makes me so happy.

I think it would make Ursula Davidson happy too, and even my old Julliard-trained guitar teacher might say a quiet "well done." Or he might just be able to listen without wincing.

Thank you to them and to my musical friends, for the gift of music.

Here's a link to MORE VIDEOS using my music
More musical posts ON THIS BLOG

You'll find me on Bandcamp ...

BIRCHES (2017) with Allister Thompson

I finally opened a Bandcamp account! 

Here it is:  Philippa Dowding, Bandcamp

You'll find a few tunes from my two guitar albums with my editor, Allister Thompson.

You'll also find recordings from my first book, The Gargoyle in My Yard. The book just turned 10 years in April 2019, and to celebrate I recorded me reading two chapters. 

You'll also find The Gargoyle Shuffle on there.

More to come, stay tuned!

SUMMER, from the album Fifth Season (2015)
with Allister Thompson

The first time I touched a guitar, I was 10 years old and I had just snuck into my older brother's room to crouch before his brand new birthday gift: an acoustic guitar. I drew my finger tips across the strings, and was shocked into wonder by the beautiful voice, the gentle whisper. That was it. Hooked for life.

I've played guitar ever since, and made friends for life through music. I've written dozens of instrumentals for the guitar since then, and have a handful of songs which I sing for friends (usually reluctantly) when pressed. You'll hear me singing in only one place that I know of: on Birches, Moonlight, a song I wrote for my sister-in-law, a song which Allister pressed me to record.

Does any amateur musician like the sound of their own voice?

I still play guitar for about 20 minutes every day, and I record new compositions all the time. Recording acoustic is hard though. You have to be perfect, you can't suddenly get itchy, or have to sneeze. The neighbours can't be cutting their grass, the dog can't bark, the front door can't slam, the cellphone has to be off ... it takes patience!

But there may be a new collaboration soon, so perhaps more tunes to come. Happy listening, everyone.

MORE ABOUT GUITAR on this blog.

Without music, life would be a mistake ...

Saturday night guitar party, 28/03/2020 (I'm top, 2nd left)
10 guitars, 15 friends, including a friend from Tokyo

"Without music, life would be a mistake." Friedrich Nietzsche, 1889

I've played guitar most of my life. I started with a ukulele at age 9 (which I still play), and graduated to a 6-string acoustic guitar at age 12. I've written quite a bit about my guitar life on this blog.

Read my guitar and music posts here.

Music has lifted me up my whole life. I've made lifelong friends, even met my husband one night almost 40 years ago, because of my love of the guitar.

Author at 17, playing at a
high school coffee house

This spring as humanity finds itself in the grip of a pandemic, each of us must find solace where we can. So last night I ventured boldly with my musical friends onto the internet!

I was skeptical when a friend suggested we try it but in the end, I found joy in the deep connection I have to my friends, and to the music we have played together for decades.

That's me with my husband, top row, third from left

It was so beautiful to see everyone, all together in one place. One of us joined the party while sitting in his basement in Tokyo. One of us held his newborn son, so in one family three generations were present on the screen. Some of us were in isolation alone, some of us had our partners or children with us.

But in the end, we were all together.

It wasn't perfect. The internet was slow. Sound was intermittent. Sometimes people dropped out and had to reconnect.

Click to hear BIRCHES
With Allister Thompson

But we sang. We played. We listened. We chatted. We kicked at the darkness, as our guitar hero Bruce Cockburn once sang. We found solace in each other, and in the music we've always shared. It reminded us of warm summer nights around a campfire, of beautiful harmonies, of the passage of time and the impermanence of everything except music and friendship.

I played 3 original tunes, including The Gargoyle Shuffle. 

So find solace where you can, everyone. For me right now, it's in friends, music and a wonky internet connection.

With love to you all.

PD

Introducing Morning Fox, a new guitar album by Philippa Dowding and Allister Thompson

This album is one year old today! Repost, for posterity.  

Welcome to MORNING FOX, a beautiful new guitar album of ten old and new instrumental pieces! 

As with all my music, my collaborator is my editor and friend, Allister Thompson. We've been making music together for 8 years now, and MORNING FOX is our fifth album.

The album is available here:

Bandcamp (please leave a small donation if you can)

Spotify

Youtube (free to you, artists get paid) 

Hopefully you'll find your own favourite, but personally I love the soft, sensual tones of SONNET, and the lively fingerstyle of LISLEHURST. The title track, MORNING FOX, is my signature version of Travis Picking style, pretty lively.

Art by Patricia Storms

This album is my first on a new, smaller guitar. Usually I record on a full throated L'Arrive 6-string, which I love. But most of the songs on this album were recorded on my new Taylor Grand Touring 3/4 guitar, a beautiful but smaller instrument that is easier on my hands, so you might notice a slightly quieter tone when you compare this album to previous recordings. 

A friend said to me on Monday, March 20 (after listening to the album), "Your music is becoming more nuanced." I think that's the whole point of mastering an instrument, a real compliment. I hope you enjoy this new album!

Thank you to the lovely Toronto artist, Patricia Storms, for the foxy album cover art. As always, I try to use high-quality art from talented local Canadian artists. The Henry VIII theme is in keeping with a trip to England I'm taking in the fall. 

For more of my music on Spotify

 

Time out on Manitoulin Island

"Give me nights perfectly quiet, and I looking up at the stars." Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1855)

There is very little to cheer about this year. I still take time, however, to try to remember what I love about summer, and to do the things that make me happy.

Here, in no particular order, are some of those things:

1. Reading. I've been reading and re-reading Whitman, Melville, Shakespeare, Virgil, alternating each with modern authors. Reading is my greatest love and in this horrible time of pandemic, I've revisited old favourites and discovered new ones: I finally read Middlemarch! 

Here are Goodreads reviews and books I'm reading.

2. Playing guitar. My second great love is to create music. I've played guitar since I was eleven, and I've put out three albums with my editor, Allister Thompson, over the years. 

You can listen on YouTube here: Philippa's Guitar Music. Spotify and other links at right.

3. Manitoulin Island... this place is quiet, peaceful, and I try to visit every year or two. COVID kept us away last year, but this year we managed to visit. We've been visiting for 20 years now, the same cottage, the same fields, the same wildflowers. I sit on the porch and read, or write, or play guitar. Then, walk the lane to the farmhouse with Molly the farm dog. Or go for a swim. Or look at the night sky ...

4. Writing. I've been writing a lot during the pandemic. I can't promise that what I've written has been terribly good, but I have had a weird urgency to keep writing. Poetry, short stories, a novella, two middle grade novels (need polishing before I can submit them anywhere). AND, big news, I finished the sequel to OCULUM. 

It's OCULUM ECHO, and I've been working hard at it, although honestly it's been weird writing a book about a post-apocalyptic world with a ruined environment and a plague stalking everyone. I wrote the first book in 2016 and DCB published it in 2018 ... it's a little creepy to be so prescient and accurate, but writers are futurists, observers, smart liars. In fact, writing OCULUM ECHO has been cathartic too, since I get to imagine my characters healing and starting a new world, by being brave, and kind.

Here's more about OCULUM ECHO.

I've been so lucky to be able to write, and escape into my head. I hope that you have a creative outlet too, dance, music, art, soap bubbles, whatever it is, embrace it. Art will carry us through.

5. The Olympics, Tokyo 2020! I know, I know, it seems frivolous, to watch young athletes athleting their hearts out right now during a pandemic, but that's exactly why we SHOULD watch it. Human endeavour, challenge, striving, small acts of humanity, coming together as a global community to compete in play, joyous in winning or gracious in defeat. It's what makes us human, I think, and we can't forget to watch, to remember, to celebrate. 

I love that the IOC didn't change the name of the competition year, it's still Tokyo 2020 even though the events are happening in 2021. I think it's a small act of defiance in the face of COVID; the pandemic has taken so much from us all in the past year, but still we celebrate and compete as though it hasn't, and strive and live, read and write, play music and walk the country lanes, despite it. 

Or look at the wildflowers on Manitoulin Island, right after it rains ... 

All posts on this blog about the Pandemic

Goodbye Summer 2017 ...

Sitting at Scadding Cabin at the CNE, August 2017

Once again, summer leaves us. 

This summer, I've been to cottages, sung in abandoned mining caves, kayaked in a storm, tried paddle-boarding (and fell off), finished two books (which was a bit of a death struggle and is possibly one book too many), sailed as much as I could despite the weather, wrote some lovely, achingly-sad music, and mourned my sister-in-law, who left us much, much too soon.

Must ... finish ... manuscript!

I sent my eldest child off to Paris for the fall, and packed my youngest off to BC to plant trees, then just this morning, sent him off to second year university. I rode on the back of a jet ski (which I hate), but laughed like a 20-year-old when the driver opened the throttle (230 horsepower really makes your hair fly!). I sat at the CNE for two Mondays in August, and read to kids about Fort Rouille.

I also turned another year older, and am now convincingly into middle-age, which also means that I recently realized that some of my most meaningful friendships are now 35 years old. My children are also the exact ages of their father and I when we met in university so long ago (23 and 19, so, so young). Yet here we still are, and on and on we go.

So, a few photos to remind us that summer is sweet, and sweeter every year, my friends:

1. Cave singing,
photo courtesy Rob Schauer

1. Playing guitar and cave-singing in Bancroft, Ontario.

Had an audience, and sang in this abandoned mine on a friend's cottage property, in the dark. Feldspar and quartz were mined by hand in the last century (@1880-1910), and drawn from the cave in the winter, by horses pulling sleighs. You can still see the miner's pick-ax marks.

The acoustics were something else.

2. Sailing. It was a rainy summer, but we managed to sail every week. Here we are, 10 km off Toronto.

3. Playing guitar in Bala. Standing on the dock, playing my friend's backpack guitar, a tiny instrument with a surprisingly big voice.

3. Playing in Bala

4. Said goodbye to my daughter, for 4 months, while she lives in Paris with her boyfriend until December (ahhh, to be 23 again).

5. Also said goodbye to my son for another year of university.

5.

AND ... I leave you with this picture of me, my favourite of the summer, with a very good friend, waiting to go for a sail together on a perfect day in early August, when nothing like school, or Paris, or work, or getting older, really mattered one little bit at all:

Here's a little music, composed by yours truly and my editor, Allister Thompson, that fits: Summer

Enjoy!

As Stuart Little so wisely said, "Rememer your summertimes sweethearts." Until summer 2018, then ...

Another Blog Post from Last Summer 2016

OLA Silver Birch nomination, and why the universe is laughing at me!

Gordon Lightfoot died last week (May 1, 2023), so I am reposting this blog entry from October 2011 which is mostly about him. Thanks to him for his music, and all the inspiration he gave this guitarist.

From October 17, 2011:

"The universe is a prankster, I think we all know that. Today, I can only laugh and shake my head along with the crazy pranking universe, which is laughing quietly at me.

On October 17, 2011 my second book, The Gargoyle Overhead, was nominated for the Silver Birch Express award. It's a large award, a great honour, from the Ontario Library Association. The book is listed along with 9 other books selected by the OLA committee, and many thousands of Ontario school-children between the ages of 9-12 will read it over the coming months, and vote on their favourite book from the list next spring, 2012.

Here's the link to the nominee page: Silver Birch Express 2012, Nominees

Some great books on there, I'm in fantastic company for sure. My book is number four on the alphabetical list. Now, cast your eye to book three on the list ... The Canadian Railroad Trilogy, by a certain Gordon Lightfoot. Yes, the musician who wrote "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and "Early Morning Rain" and "If you could read my mind love" and well, hundreds of other songs. I have always loved Gordon Lightfoot, and I'm so awestruck and honoured to have my book listed along with his. I've listened to his music my entire life, and have learned to play many of his songs on my guitar.

Here's the hilarity.

I have recently created my first guitar CD. It's a collection of my own guitar songs, all instrumental. It is called (and I'm not kidding), This is NOT Gordon Lightfoot. As I say above, I love GL. It's just my picking style can sound a little like his, and when listening to me play people will often ask if my music is his. The title song of the CD is called, well, This is NOT Gordon Lightfoot.

Here it is: This is NOT Gordon Lightfoot

Give a listen. I'm giggling. Are you? And what if I spend time in his company, getting to know him at the awards ceremony at Harbourfront next spring (where presumably we'll stand side by side on the stage) ... do I take a copy of the CD for him, just in case? Or do I ... just shake my head and laugh?!

PD/OCT 17/2011

Release day for The Crow's Nest, a new instrumental guitar album by Philippa Dowding and Allister Thompson!

 

Today is RELEASE DAY for The Crow's Nest, my latest instrumental guitar album, with musician and editor Allister Thompson.

Listen on Bandcamp now: The Crow's Nest 

This is my third album with Allister, and our first since 2017. These 10 songs are inspired by my guitar heroes like John Fahey, Django Reinhardt and more recently, Adrianne Lenker. 

I love all these tunes, I hope you do, too. If I had to choose a favourite (and tomorrow it may be different), listen to Fahey. 

Or All the Stars.

Or any of them! I have been incredibly lucky in my musical and writerly collaborations with Allister. He has edited 12 of my children's books and counting, and made my music sound so good. Many thank yous, once again, to him.

Also, the lovely cover art for The Crow's Nest is by the wonderful Shawna Daigle, who illustrated all six of my Weird Stories Gone Wrong series of horror stories for kids. Thank you to Shawna, too.

I hope you'll visit Bandcamp, and give our latest album a listen! Enjoy!

Also today, our complete work of 26 songs is released on SPOTIFY: Songs from Birch Island
Beautiful cover art by Baye Hunter.

Includes 3 albums:

Fifth Season (2015)

Birches (2017)

The Crow's Nest (2021)

The Gargoyle Shuffle (single, 2019)

Music meets muse, in February ...

February, oh February, with your difficult middle vowels and extraneous "r", when will you be over? Last month I posted about the one thing that kept me going through a miserable January of funerals.

It was flamenco.

This month, it's music. Last week an old friend came to visit. Musician, opera-singer, and guitarist extraordinaire, he breezed in from Vancouver for a few days and well, the house was full of music, opera, and it was all hands on deck while everyone grabbed a guitar! A harmonica! A set of spoons! Something, anything, to ward off February and make some beautiful noise together.

Joni Mitchell's Hejira, figured large. Shakespeare's sonnet 18, too. As luck would have it, another old friend had a guitar party and well, worlds collided. We played for four hours straight, until my fingers gave out. We've all played guitar together for almost thirty years, and it never, ever gets old.

It was grand. It lead to an outpouring of poetry and a burst of renewed enthusiasm for a YA/Teen science fiction manuscript I'm trying to finish. I'm not a professional musician, I've never made a living from my music, but I definitely turn to song when I'm struggling with a story line, an arc, a characterization. The muse has come around unbid this month. Interesting that "muse" is 3/5 ths of the word "music." February, thou art cruel and sometimes kind.

So here are some links, to remind us that spring IS coming, and music renews us. And soon, we'll find March is upon us with her milder breezes (and fewer vowels).

Toronto Island Spring Trees Video (wherein I make some guitarish sounds accompanied by lovely spring tree photos from my artist friend Baye Hunter)

Philippa's Soundcloud page

Joni Mitchell, Hejira

A little baroque music at a garden party ...

 

Today was a fun day! I was invited to play baroque music with my friend Baye Hunter, at a garden party on Toronto Island. We were celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Shaw House.

Baye and I have played baroque music together since our kids were small, but sadly I don't have any recordings of us. (We're hardly professional, but we have fun.) In fact, this the first professional photo anyone has ever taken of us. Thank you to Austin Zhao.

Thanks for having us Shaw House! Please note: many thanks to Dawn for lending me her guitar. Usually I would play my classical guitar, (for you musicians wondering why I'm playing baroque with a steel-string acoustic guitar), but I couldn't lug my classical on the subway and ferry to the venue.

See Baye's wonderful art here.

Find more of my music on YouTube. See link at right for Spotify.

A piece of music to celebrate the sustaining life of women ...

 

Here's a photo of a cherry tree in my neighbourhood last year, in full bloom, scenting the air, filling our senses with wonder and delight. I had to stop to take her picture today. 

On this (almost) May Day, I will take a moment to celebrate all the women I know who change the landscape they inhabit, just as a beautiful tree changes the landscape around her.

I have a piece of music for that! Please enjoy Rivkah's Dance on YouTube, or on Bandcamp (please leave a small donation if you can). You can also hear it on Spotify, iTunes and other streaming sites.

Rivkah's Dance is from my latest guitar album   Morning Fox (2023) with editor and musical collaborator Allister Thompson. 

I hope you'll give a listen, and think about the women in your life who have changed and sustained you. 

 Liner notes for Rivkah's Dance: 

"Rivkah's Dance is from my latest guitar album "Morning Fox,"  and is the closest I've come to writing a symphony for guitar. One of my longest pieces, it is meant to imitate the life of a woman as she grows, just as a tree grows. In four movements, the music begins softly, then builds as she grows tall and strong and vibrant, sustaining life, sheltering, and withstanding seasons, storm and wind. May she live long, and change the landscape she inhabits."

The Gothic Gargoyle Ballet

Listen to the Gargoyle Shuffle

What would a dancing gargoyle look like, do you think? 
I can't show you, sorry, you'll have to imagine it. But I CAN let you listen to the Gargoyle Shuffle. It's a guitar piece I wrote for the description of gargoyles dancing in my children's book, The Gargoyle at the Gates (p. 91).

Click here for the Gargoyle Shuffle. Enjoy!

"Christopher ... picked up his guitar and began playing into the night. Snow was falling delicately, softening and quieting the busy city. His music lifted through the snowy air. Ambergine came out of the bushes first and stepped into the spotlight near the apple tree ... Then she started spiralling and pirouetting in the snow, dancing to the guitar music. Slowly Gargoth joined her ... and there in the snowy, strange little gothic park, Christopher watched the two ancient creatures dance and pirouette and move together in a gargoyle ballet, as the snow fell gently upon them." From The Gargoyle at the Gates, p. 91

A writer's life during the pandemic crisis...

Dear Friends,

Do we all have a picture of ourselves in a mask by now?

We make one and then check out what we look like in this new reality. Mine is made from pieces of my son's old flannel pyjamas and hair bands, it's totally serviceable and reasonably comfortable.

Here's the link to how to make this simple no-sew mask: No Sew Pleated Face Mask

So here we are, facing months of isolation and mask-wearing and how, really HOW, are we all doing with this? I'm not a therapist, and I can't tell anyone how to cope, only that I hope you ARE coping, however that looks for you.

Here's what I've been doing most days:

1. Sleep. I've watched the moon cross the Toronto skyline from my porch at 2 a.m. I've also slept in until past 11:00 a.m. and napped on and off. I'm not really a night owl, a napper or a particulary late sleeper. But right now, sleep comes and goes and I just accept it.

Author and her husband on the street,
photo by daughter at 6 feet away ...

2. Stretch. When I do get up (!), I start most days with a gentle tai chi or yoga stretch in a sunny part of the house, for me that's the kitchen. I usually have a coffee and music going too. I face the window, look at trees, breathe, stretch, but mostly breathe.

3. Watch. The back of my house faces an alley, and there's a lot going on back there. Families out riding bikes, older folks going for brisk walks, people washing their cars, kids playing road hockey, cats slinking around. Lots to see actually, if I just slow down and watch.

4. Create. I've finished writing a sequel to OCULUM, and now I'm editing a book coming out next fall (more about Firefly here). The safest place for me has always been in my head, frankly. I hope you have a safe creative space too, whatever that might be.

Making puzzles, reading, making music, writing, working with food or paint or dance or whatever it is you do or would like to try.  For me, creating really is a way to beat back the fear, the aloneness, the anxiety of not knowing what's going to happen. When I create something, I'm completely in control of it and the world, at least for a little while. I hope you find a creative outlet that helps you feel in control of something.

5. Music. I play guitar and piano. I've had people gift me classical guitar music books for most of my life, so I'm slowly reading through new music. It's completely absorbing to try to learn something new. Here's more about my musical life on this blog if you'd like to listen free: Philippa's Music

The last time I was out in public at a conference,
(Feb 2020) and met a friend who wanted a picture

6. Visit with creators. I've looked at paintings online, listened to music, and spent my fair share of time watching Netflix, of course. I've decided not to worry about the quantity or quality either. There's lots of letting go right now. I've also found podcasts and stories I've liked, as you have too no doubt.

Here's something I really enjoyed, listening to Stephen King: Stephen King is Sorry you Feel like you're stuck in a Stephen King Novel

I like writer and pundit Chuck Wendig, who's been writing about being a writer during COVID. All of his posts are interesting but start here if you like: Being Broken In Half (but wanting to be whole)

7. Read. This is of course, a given! Again, I haven't worried too much about the quality or quantity, but for the record, my quarantine reading so far: Battle Royale (Koushun Takami), The Tartar Steppe (Dino Buzzatti), Love in the Time of Cholera (GG Marquez), Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming (Paul Hawken). 

I've also read several of the Silver Birch books nominated with OCULUM this year. I've got one more to go, then I've read all ten books, they've been fun to read. Sadly, we won't be doing the Forest of Trees this year, I was looking forward to meeting all the writers and the kids. Tough one to miss out on, but we gotta go forward.
There will be some online celebration though, so stay tuned for more on that.

8. Do nothing. Sometimes, you just have to do nothing. It's not actively doing nothing, it's just a moment where you catch yourself actually doing nothing. I think that's something we used to do a lot as kids, and frankly it was okay to do nothing. It's when we daydream, or at least I do. It's when we accept we can't change the big things, but just have to sit with ... nothing in particular. And it's really okay to do nothing.

9. Friends. Ya, I've connected with friends in all the ways we do right now. Zoom, sure, and facebook and instagram and messaging and groups of us meeting on whatsapp and so on. But we all know it's a pale imitation of real life. I've written poems lately about how much I want to hug someone, anyone, and run my filthy, unwashed hands across their beautiful cheek. I wonder if that will ever happen again with the same freedom we once had? I realize that I've never actually run an unwashed hand across anyone's face ... but suddenly it seems sad that I haven't.

Zoom guitar party, fun but hard to be apart

10. Family. My kids are both on their own right now, in apartments in different cities, trying to finish their university year however they can. Online exams are the new normal. I can't even express how much I miss them, but it occured to me yesterday it could be a LONG time before I can hold them again; September, December, next spring?

The last photo I have
of me hugging my kid!

If you're with your loved ones, please hug them for me.



Until we're all running our unwashed hands over each others cheeks once again ... be well. Please. Read, write, sleep, do puzzles, dance, sing, cry, hug each other, watch too much terrible television ... whatever it is you need to do to get through, I'm doing it too.

PD

More Pandemic Posts on this Blog
Oddly this isn't the first time I've been quarantined in my life. Read here for a post about my Brush with Mortality ... and Measles

Songs from Birch Island is streaming on Spotify!

 

It's a first for me, but I'm really pleased to say that all of my instrumental guitar music from the past 7 years is now streaming on Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Apple Music and probably wherever you listen to music.

Here's the Spotify link: Songs from Birch Island

Songs from Birch Island is a compilation of all three of my guitar albums, a total of 26 short, jubilant pieces, in collaboration with Allister Thompson, who is also the editor of my books. 

Or find  Songs from Birch Island on YouTube.

My favourite tune from Songs from Birch Island is probably All the Stars (at least today). But that could change! I hope you'll listen and choose your own favourite. The songs are inspired by a wide variety of guitarists from John Fahey to Bruce Cockburn, from Django Reinhardt to Adrianne Lenker. The beautiful compilation cover art is Birches in Autumn, paper collage by Baye Hunter. Check out more of her lovely art at bayehunter.com.

And someone has asked me if there is a particular Birch Island? There is (mine is in Algonquin Park), but I think most Canadians have a favourite lake with a Birch Island on it, so this music tries to capture that Canadian ubiquity: hearing music through the birch trees wherever you may be.

I'm delighted to bring you this compilation, especially right now during the pandemic. Creating is a great release, artists have it luckiest at this time, I think. I hope you'll listen to Songs from Birch Island, and gain a little calm in the storm.

Update! You can also listen to Songs from Birch Island on CD!  If you'd like a CD, contact me via email (contact info in the sidebar at right). 

More about my music on this blog.

Songs from Birch Island is a compilation of
the following albums and one single:

The Crow's Nest, April/2021
10 songs, click link to listen on Bandcamp

Cover art by Shawna Daigle

Birches, October, 2017
8 songs, including me singing on Moonlight
Click to listen on Bandcamp

Cover art, Birches in Summer, by Baye Hunter

Fifth Season, October 2015
7 songs on Bandcamp

Cover art, Lake Nipissing, photo by Allister Thompson

The Gargoyle Shuffle, April, 2019
Single on Bandcamp

Cover art by Emma Dolan

Florida star trails, Cornwall coastline, New England spring, Wales time lapse ...

Fifth Season, guitar music by P. Dowding/A. Thompson

A few months ago, my musical collaborator, Allister Thompson (who also happens to be my editor), and I posted our new guitar abum, Fifth Season, on the Free Music Archive. Listen here.

Since then, five people from across the U.S. and Europe, have used our music to create cool artistic videos. One of them, the Florida Star Trails video, won a photography award!
Take a look at this YouTube link to see Artistic Videos, where all five are listed.

Or here they are individually:

1. Florida Star Trails
2. New England Spring
3. Wales coast Time Lapse 4. Cornwall flowers
5. Banished, Gamer Video

This makes me pretty happy. Sharing these musical worlds is always fun!

Guitar music for Winter Solstice and a long snowy walk home

Image courtesy artist Baye Hunter

Welcome, Winter Solstice!
Time to curl up and read by the fire, indulge in carb-loading, and open that annual bottle of port.

Also, time to listen to music. Here's a guitar piece I wrote with my editor, Allister Thompson (The Gateless Gate), a few years ago. It celebrates a sleigh ride, or a long, cold walk in the snow, and the return to hearth and home on the darkest day of the year (or perhaps on Christmas Eve).

Listen to WINTER free. Enjoy! 

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Summer 2020 on Mute

Author and husband, July 2020

Congratulations dear reader, you made it through Summer 2020, the summer on mute. 
Or the "Bummer Summer" as some family members have dubbed it.

Every year at this time, I do a quick recap of the summer months, mostly because I haven't posted much in July and August. I wasn't expecting to have much to share this year due to COVID, but when I look back, I find it wasn't a completely uneventful summer.

It was just quiet. Muted. 

So, here are 5 moments to share with you, from the summer on mute:

1. 30th Anniversary, early July.  It wasn't three weeks in England like we had planned, but we did go back for the day to the small Ontario town where we were married. We stood on the steps of the little church and remembered all our friends and family there with us in July 1990. It was hot, quiet, and kind of a romantic day, which surprised us.

New cottage, new dog, same lake

2. New cottage, new baby. We visited a friend's new cottage and met their new grandchild, the first for our group of friends from university. I kept having flashbacks all day, of the baby's father when he was an infant and the last set of grandparents who inhabited that space in the old cottage. I realized as I sat there watching the baby go from hand to hand, that we're all connected through time, regardless of where we are in space. And babies are cute. (We had all quarantined, were outdoors, and stayed masked btw.)

3. Niagara-on-the-lake is peaceful. We also had a few visits to my daughter in NOTL, where I read a lot and looked at Toronto (my hometown) across the bottom end of Lake Ontario. 

Toronto is out there!

4. Edited, wrote and did some magazine work. The world does go on, and I managed to do a live online presentation in June (I start at 43 minutes), edit an upcoming book in July (more to come about Firefly), and work on a sequel to Oculum the rest of the time. I also did some magazine work in September, for Canada's History magazine, which was very welcome.

Peel Virtual Forest of Reading Presentation

5. I had another birthday. A nondescript, middle-ish of the decade birthday, but what was noteworthy is that I spent it among friends, after we all quarantined and/or knew our COVID status for various reasons. It was fun, and when we took our masks off to eat cake, almost normal.

I also went kayaking, played guitar around a campfire, and walked or worked out at home, every day.

Keeping the kids out of
the birthday cake!

So there it is friends, my summer on mute. I hope you're all coping okay, and that you found some unexpected joy in the
Great Muting of Summer 2020.

As the kids head back to whatever school looks like this year, and for however long it lasts, I'm pleasantly surprised to realize it's okay to be quiet. And muted. At least for a while.

PD/September 2020

Socially distanced author playing guitar around the campfire.
Until next summer everyone ...