A Date With the Governor General.

There is a new Merle record out. It took a while but it is out NOW. Finally! Cool, eh? A bunch of us are celebrating this Saturday the 17th over yonder at The Clocktower Brew Pub. You should come too! Merle is kicking off the show with a very small version of The Silent K. Thank you Jason. And then The Muffin Tops will make the scene and dance and shake like nobodies business. Remi Royale was one of the first acts that my old combo The Knurlings ever played with back in the days of The Cave over near Bank and Sparks. Back when Remi had a huge frigging disco band. He used to strip down to his undies then. Not much has changed in all these years. The band has gotten smaller but the ego remains the same. You know? B. A. Johnston is headlining the bill. This lad plays the Capital once or maybe twice each year. We are lucky that he doesn't want to stay in one place for very long. B.A.s stage show is not to be missed and has yet to be topped. So my advice is for you to get there early. The show is gonna be a sell-out, no doubt. There will be records and beer for sale. We would love to see you!

The Clocktower Brew Pub
575 Bank Street.
Saturday April 17th
$8 - 9:30 PM start

Radio Radio!

Merle Knurling live on the radio! Indeed. This Friday evening Merle will be performing on Crimes Against Music on CKCU FM 93.1 as part of their annual funding drive. Host Bill Guerrero has a lovely little show and is offering Merle airtime and also a ride to the station. Hooray!

This should be an acoustic performance and perhaps a song from the upcoming record will be played. Tune in and find out! CKCU is found at 93.1 FM and on the web at www.ckcufm.com.

One take wonders.

Good news! Merle made a new record. A bus drove pals and me to Montreal. Shane and Krista warmly welcomed us into their boss recording studio. Six songs in as many hours were recorded. A course record, they say. Everyone was involved. Shane tracked and guided and the rest of us played instruments and sang. Sometimes into a cake pan, sometimes into some duct work. Cheers to the latest incarnation of The Silent K. Thank you Jason, Jessamy, Krista and Lucil. Wonderful musical pals all.

The working title of our little record is A Date With The Governor General. There is some funny stuff happening in music these days, you can bet! Watch this space for more details and send me your mailing address so we can put a record in the post for you. Okay?


It's Krista and Shane.

Long time coming.

This is ridiculous. Merle has been spotted around town. Two shows in the last 40 days, some new songs and a new band. Call that The Silent K v3.0. Pal Jason is on the traps this time around. Cheers, brother.

Last Saturday's show with Cold Coffee and Salty Boots and Krista Muir was fab. A new song was given a debut and folks laughed and half-danced and sang along. Looking into doing some recording very soon. In Montreal no less. So all is not lost. This Merle thing never goes away. Sometimes it just forgets to mind the gaps. See you in the funny papers.

Oh my. A year now?

Exacty a year, it seems. I have been away from the Merle Show for a while. For too long? Depends on who you ask. I've been playing the sideman in other folks bands, hanging out at The Carleton Tavern, watching baseball out at the yard. But still writing, always writing songs yet filing them away, not performing them for you to listen to while staring, confused and with jaws open, 'tsk'ing or shaking your heads. Shaking them in dismay perhaps, not necessarily in time to the music. Such is my musical career as it were.

Today I bought a microphone. A little mic for my tiny black mini-disc recorder. Perfect for making demos or recording this one man act. I was hoping to use it to capture practice sessions of our various bands but all of these bands have fizzled out of late. Boo. So hopefully I will be returning to the basement, finishing songs, booking shows. For now I will do this when my Lynx are on the road and hopefully, come Labour Day, at a more regular pace.

Enjoy this summer. Watch this space for more Merle details. I will not make promises about future performances but with some effort and gumption on my part, perhaps we can once again get this act back into shape. And then we can all have a hearty laugh about beating the shit out of baby giraffes. Together. You and I.

Meet Paul.

I picked this old boy up at Songbird a while back. A nifty little tube amp that is suitcase size. This means that Merle can tour on a bus. Or in taxi. Or with a shopping cart, leaving, as a bonus, extra room for a cooler. Good news!

"Paul" came with a replacement speaker and extra tubes. Oh boy. It sounds really fine, like an old warm crackling radio. It will be useless if I play with a drummer or other loud musicians but will be way cool for solo shows and recording.

Since it has no reverb I have hooked up an old Univox reverb unit which, handily, fits in my back-pack. So let me know if you want Merle to play your next party. I have a bus pass and if you draw me a map and keep me in whiskey, I can turn your next shindig into something to remember. Even if I forget about what happens.

Looking forward to the next show and hopefully will begin recording soon. In the meantime, please check out my brand new MySpace thing. There are some songs and photos and we promise more fun to come. Bye bye for now. Check out the MerleSpace.

MerleSpace

www.myspace.com/merlek

Rock, rock on!