Hey everyone,

It has been an incredibly busy week.

First of all, even though this blog won’t be posted online until the decent hours of the 9-5 work day, it is currently 2:44 AM E.S.T. here at the house. I am up late because I am studying for a music exam coming up soon, and there is a ton of stuff to learn. So here I am just reaming through chapters in my text and all of a sudden I realized that it was due time for me to get a blog done.

The recording session last weekend was pure magic. We had Anton Fier up from N.Y.C. to play the drums, as he has on all our recordings since the infancy of Blue on Brown. Eli came down from Montreal, and Chris engineered the session. We completed the bed tracks for 9 songs, on top of the tracks that we have already somewhat polished. It will be a nail biter to decide what songs to put on the next album, so it will definitely take come careful consideration. There are some great pictures that I captured on my iPhone, so I am happy to post those soon.

Last Friday night Alex and I dropped in to see the “Open Hearts Society” perform at The Mansion in Kingston. This is Chris’ band which also includes the vocal talent of Sarah McDermott and guitar guru originally from the Spin Doctors, Eric Shankman, who played electric guitar with me on our recorded version of “Nothing At All” – (How about that for a little chic preview). I can honestly say that it was one of the greatest live music experiences I have witnessed. Not to mention that Eli was playing bass that night as well, and my was he playing bass!

James and I just finished a little Christmas concert at St. Mary’s hospital for the long term care patients/residents there. Donny, our sound technician and bus driver, volunteers his time to organize the event every year out of the goodness of his heart. We played a few tunes, and were very touched by how much it meant to everyone there. One man in particular, became so excited he started singing “We wish you a merry Christmas” out loud from the audience, with his own personalized lyrics – including content that I had talked about from stage. Pretty ingenious actually.

Our mom, Tanya Abrams, wrote a children’s book on becoming a musician. She is doing her book release on Saturday the 12th of December at Chapters in Kingston, Ontario. If you are around, please come out and support her. The book is brilliant, and we are all really proud of her accomplishment. For the most part, it is a jam session to encourage youth to get together and play. If you are a parent of a child, or you are a youngster yourself, please come out and join in on the session. Lets make this a great success for mom!

Other than that it has been nose-to-the-grindstone at school. Exams can be stressful, but I got started on studying early so it helps. I’ll let you all know how they go.

Thanks, and God Bless.

John

Wow, so I haven’t blogged in quite some time, eh? I’ve been living in Montreal since the end of August and absolutely loving it here. My lovely lady (Carly) and I, live above a Porn Theatre on St. Laurent appropriately called Cinema L’amour. The interior of it apparently, has been virtually unchanged since it was a Vaudeville theatre in 1914. The view from my balcony lets me see the old projection booth made of red clay bricks stilted on rusted, yet seemingly sturdy steel beams. One might think of it as a shady apartment, but it’s quite the contrary. Great heat, attentive landlord, a rooftop that is reminiscent of one Mary Poppins may be seen prancing about upon and an amazing neighbourhood that makes fresh meat, pizza and all dollar store accessories readily accessible.

I’ve been working ‘real’ jobs, or trying to, since I’ve been here. Gotta make sure my electricity stays on!!! The first ‘real’ job (and to date the only job I’ve ever had other than a musician) I worked, was in the noble trade of Telemarketing. Though I quickly found out that it’s an insult to call them telemarketers. They prefer the term Telesales Representatives. Also, once you’ve taken the 8 floor rickety elevator ride to the barren cubicle field, you will NOT be in a call center. I’d share the pitch that I used to sell’ uh’ errr’ ummm’ I mean ‘Send off’ First Aid Stations, but the dramatic effect (and possibly the comedic value) wouldn’t be nearly the same without hearing it from me. I must say, I would be misrepresenting the place if I didn’t say that the people there were very kind to me and sincerely interested in our music.

Anyways! Now I’m looking for a job once again. Due to a scattered playing schedule, I was ‘let go’ because they are in need someone more reliable, and, understandably so.

So now I’m goin’ out to jam with a few friends. Bri Salmena and Duncan Hay Jennings. (My childhood best friend) We’re gonna get a Chris Brown and Kate Fenner song down called Margaret. Find it on their Geronimo record.

Elijah Abrams

My friend, Edan, on Cinema L’amour’s ‘exhaust’ pipe.

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to give you all an update on the past weeks events. Last Thursday we played at yet another Holt Renfrew store, this time much closer to home. We performed at the grand opening of the new Calgary branch in October and received a very enthusiastic response to our style. This time, we didn’t have to go all the way out west. We played on Bloor Street outside of the Toronto store and main offices. I guess you could say we felt a little like rock stars when we saw that half of the street had been closed down for the venue, and our vehicle was escorted into the VIP area (yes, exactly…”woah” is what I was thinking as well). The fantastic stage set up was further augmented by how nice the crew was. Everyone was so easy to work with and it made the whole sound check very pleasant. Not to mention we had Donny there to help facilitate the fun.

So after we had spent some time in the marvelous green room–fully equipped with the spread of fine cheese and sandwiches–we were led down to a part of the store quite close to the outdoor stage. We were just sitting there on the couches when a nice lady by the name of Leslie Feist (aka: “Feist”) came along and said hello. We had met Leslie backstage at the Neil Young show we attended in Toronto last fall. Her opening line was “Hey guys, we met at the Neil Young Show!” We were pretty blown away by here fine tuned memory and struck up a nice conversation about touring, studio work, our mutual friend Chris Brown (our producer), whom you all know now from his debut on our Vlog. It was a really nice artist hang out before we went on stage. We even managed to snap a photo for you all to see–the picture will be posted on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. We started the show off with a couple tunes, then Feist went after, and we had the privilege of watching her set from the side of the stage.

Here are some links to pictures of our performance at Holt Renfrew:

Pic 1: James, John, and Eli
Pic 2: James and John

This week I have been reading John Milton’s Paradise Lost for English, and things are getting busy with school alongside the recording work that we have to finish up. I am about to embark on a term paper discussing Paradise Lost, and while I am looking forward to it, there is a lot to do. However, it was nice to get away a couple times this week and just write more potential songs for the next album.

Be sure to visit CMT Canada’s website to see “4 Tracks with The Abrams Brothers.” It is a live taping we did for CMT about a month and a half ago that was aired across Canada last Friday.

You can find more details about upcoming shows and the CMT live performance on our website and on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc.

Thanks, and God Bless.

John