Ice Cream Man

Two things I’m a big fan of are luck and… Canada.  Last night they crossed paths and I found myself at a Canadian Grammy party hosted at the Canadian Consulate’s house in Los Angeles. K’NAAN, Hey Rosetta!, and Dan Mangan were the scheduled entertainers for the night and, thanks to Daniel Lanois being in the house, we were treated to impromptu performances by Dan and Emmylou Harris as well as Dan’s new band Black Dub.

CBC Radio 3 and Sirius were broadcasting the whole event and, luck have it, Jeremiah was asked to shoot pics for Radio 3 and I got to be his, uh… assistant. Grammy Parties are the best.  Crash and I have stopped by the Only in Louisiana party the last couple years and have been treated to legendary music performances as well as some of the best grub you can imagine.  These parties don’t drag on too long and we always seem to run into people we know. This might be one of the biggest years for Canada at the Grammys.  Not only do they have 13 nominations but two legendary Canadian-born artists were being recognized for their life-long contribution to music.  Neil Young will receive the Musicares “Person of the Year” on Sunday night and Leonard Cohen will be honored with the “Lifetime Achievement Award.”  Not too shabby. Canadians know how to party.

There was no pretentiousness in the house and everyone was very talkative and friendly.  Consul General David Fransen stepped to the stage and welcomed everyone into his home and told them they could party all night “as long as they didn’t trash anything.”  Dan Mangan then took the stage and played a handful of crafty songs.  I sometimes think it can be a burden to fall into the singer-songwriter category but he seemed so relaxed on stage, and with his music, that he engaged the audience and even got them to sing along to a song about robots. All of the nominees in the house took the stage next and the Consul General congratulated them all and acknowledged the importance of music in the world and how it helps bring people together as well as to do good, like artists banding together to help raise money for Haiti.

Leonard Cohen was in attendance and after being honored said a few words about being proud that when his great grandfather arrived in Canada he was welcomed by his new neighbors and was able to prosper and build a life for his family.  Interesting enough, when K’NAAN performed later he also mentioned that he was welcomed in Canada after the INS kicked his Somalian family out of the US.  Pierre Cossette, who is considered the father of the Grammys and for bringing the Grammys to TV, was acknowledged for his contribution to music’s biggest night. Once the recognitions were completed the party kicked into music mode and Hey Rosetta! played some songs then K’NAAN, who’s had much success all over the world the last couple years brought his band to the stage.  It was nice to see how relaxed they were.  They were picking songs to play on the spot and mentioning how long it had been since they had played together.  He finished the set with “Wavin’ Flag” which has been chosen as the official song of the World Cup. This was supposed to conclude the music for the night but…. Daniel Lanois was in the house.  He hopped on stage with Trixie Whitley and a bass player to perform a track from his new project Black Dub.  Trixie, daughter of Chris Whitley, has one hell of a set of pipes on her.  The project is pretty new, you can check out a couple videos from the studio on Daniel’s Myspace page.  Next Daniel asked Emmylou Harris to the stage and they played an impromptu version of “Waterfall.”  I was beaming with excitement and everyone else around also knew how special and awesome this was and I can’t imagine a better way to end the night.

Thanks to Chris and Marie and CBC Radio 3 for inviting us. Thanks to Sirius and the other sponsors involved for making the party possible. Thanks to Creative Control for the Louisiana hookup a couple days later.  Thanks to the Consul General for being a great host.  Why can’t there be parties like this in LA more often?  Here’s the robot song for Gooch, he likes robots and believes that robots need love too. http://lala.com/zsMO

Photos courtesty of CBC Radio 3