Here’s the deal:

• Write a NEW song on one or more of the topics below, and
• Sign up to perform that song and one other song of your choice

The event will be held at the funky new Le Michel-Ange Café, located at 35 Laurel. Le Michel-Ange Café is a coffee roasting warehouse / café located in Little Italy. Check it out at www.lemichelange.ca

Performance dates are Friday March 9 and Saturday March 10, starting at 7:00 pm

Now…the topics for 2012

• (something/someone) that gets you through
• turning the page
• out in the rain
• a campfire or cowboy song

…plus three bonus anniversary topics…

• a hat (a topic from Year 1)
• any colour but blue (the most popular of all past Song-Along topics)
• a number (because this is the 20th Song-Along)

I hope you are inspired. If you would like to participate, write a NEW song on any of these topics, and contact:

• Tony Turner 613-798-0365 / tony@tonyturner.ca , or
• Greg Kelly 613-680-6163 / grgr2swtr@yahoo.ca

Make sure you tell us the night you would like to perform. Feel free to collaborate in songwriting / or your performance. If the performer is someone other than the writer, that’s fine. Just let us know closer to the event.

That’s it. We hope you can join in.

Happy writing!

Lynne Hanson brings her unique blend of country, roots, blues and folk to our concert stage on Saturday February 4 at 8 pm. Admission is $20 and are available online here and at the Ottawa Folklore Centre, 1111 Bank St. will still be available at the door tonight. Doors open at 7:30pm.

One of the mainstays of Ottawa’s roots scene, Lynne has been increasingly busy over the last couple of years. She released a well-received debut album, Things I Miss, in 2006, followed by 2008’s internationally-acclaimed Eleven Months, a CD that scored rave reviews in Q and Maverick. Her latest release “Once the Sun Goes Down” is continuing the trend. She was nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award in 2009 and In 2010 she won the Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award, presented by the Ontario Arts Council..

In March she leaves for a UK tour supporting Nashville star Gretchen Peters, and in April she is overseas again for a tour in Germany.
Onstage Lynne is a happy-go-lucky storyteller with a gift for the gab and a wink in her eye, engaging her audience just as much with her stories and one-liners as she can with her music. She’s intimate with her audience, as if she were shooting the breeze with old friends at her kitchen table. Or her front porch. Which brings us back to that Texas red dirt …

Anders Drerup

Who: Anders Drerup with Kelly Prescott and Adam Puddington
When: 8:00pm January 21, 2012
Where: Westboro Masonic Hall, 430 Churchill at Byron

In Canada’s blossoming music scene, Anders Drerup has jumped quickly from the streets of his home town to the far reaches of Canada and beyond. The twenty-something singer/songwriter carries an impressive resume in formats ranging from reggae to classic country. He has logged tours of Europe, Australia, Cuba and Canada and has recorded in premier studios around the world. In addition to his first instrument, guitar, Anders also plays mandolin, steel guitar, banjo, harmonica, piano, bass and dobro. He got his start playing in clubs in Ottawa, but soon started to catch the interest of musicians far his superior.

On our stage, he is joined by long-time collaborators Kelly Prescott and Adam Puddington. If you saw Anders and Kelly in the roles of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris in the production Grievous Angel: The Legend of Gram Parsons, then you probably already have your tickets! They are joined by Kelly’s husband and talented songwriter Adam Puddington. Adam’s craft is wholly original, and warmly familiar. While close listening offers traces of Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Young, Ian Tyson and Blue Rodeo, Adam’s music arises from the hard-won and carefully tended ground he stands on, ultimately and unmistakably his own.

Tickets: $20 online here, at the Ottawa Folklore Centre, or at the door the night of the concert.

Coming up soon

Feb 4: Lynne Hanson: Westboro Masonic Hall, 430 Churchill (tickets here)
Feb 5: The Next Stage featuring Spencer Scharf, Dynamite Hotel, and Dave Morrow 7:00pm upstairs at Whispers Pub, 249 Richmond Road (pass-the-hat)

Membership Counts

Membership drive target: 100+ members

Membership provides Spirit of Rasputin’s with two essential strengths: a strong community connection, and a durable financial foundation. Our community of members provide direction, volunteers, and encouragement to pursue our mandate, which is to develop folk music and local performers in exciting and responsive ways. The modest dues that members pay each year create the cushion we need to offer 90% of our events as free or pass-the-hat events and to take modest risks with larger productions and new directions.

If you are not already a member, please consider joining us and add to our strength. I admit that joining The Spirit of Rasputin’s Arts Society is essentially an altruistic act. Our list of “member benefits” is short. The most important tangible benefit is the right for your opinion to be heard and to count at members’ meetings, notably at the Annual General Meeting coming up on March 18. Members may also promote personal events through the Spirit of Rasputin’s website and newsletters. Members know that every twenty dollars added to the kitty helps us build stage infrastructure, pay an advance deposit to a concert artist, cover an expense at one of our venues (to maintain goodwill with our landlords), or pay for the insurance that permits us to operate in a variety of commercial venues. But the most important part of membership is being part of a folk community that pursues its agenda at a grassroots level in a socially responsible manner.

We continue to grow at a manageable pace in both number of members and number of events. We have grown from 37 members one year ago to almost 80 members today. I hope we can reach 100 members by the time the March AGM rolls around. During the past year we added The Next Stage and additional Rasputin’s Beards and turned all the Beards into strong charity fundraisers. This spring we are adding Cabaret Concerts at a new location (Le Michel-Ange at 35 Laurel) and planning is under way to resurrect the bluegrass and celtic events that were fomerly part of Rasputin’s Cafe. If all plans succeed, by the end of 2012 Spirit of Rasputin’s will be presenting close to 150 events each year. 120 of which will be participation the events Rasputin’s Open Stage, The Folk-Along Jam, The Bluegrass Jam, and the Celtic Jam.

New applicants can fill out the application form online (and even pay your dues online). If you prefer, you can pay your dues at the Rasputin’s Open Stage or at any of our concerts.

If you are already a member you simply need to pay your 2012 Membership dues online here, at the Open stage or at a concert.

Thanks for indulging me. I hope you are all having a fun, wintry January. It’s time to shovel some of that glow off my driveway. See you soon.

Hollis Morgan
President, Spirit of Rasputin’s Arts Society

Who: Anders Drerup with Kelly Prescott and Adam Puddington
Where: Westboro Masonic Hall, 430 Churchill at Byron
When: 8:00pm January 21st, 2012

Rumour has it that Anders, Kelly and Adam are now officially a band called the Clay Tones (sp?) although I can turn up no references on the Internet to support this assertion. The name is derived from Clayton, the quaint village the Prescott clan calls home. If true, this logical extension of years of friendly collaboration is a very exciting development. More and tighter collaboration among these three extraordinary musicians can only be a good thing.

Individually, they are all remarkable. Anders, a diversified musician who easily strides the boundaries among folk, blues, and rock ‘n roll, is one of the most naturally talented musicians I have seen in years. Kelly’s smoky alto works wonders on her audience whether she is caressing a song on her own, or filling the corners and niches behind another voice. Adam, with one foot in the Ottawa Valley and the other in The Maritimes, is one of our strongest local singer songwriters.

What a treat to have them all on the same stage. Tickets are $20 and are available online on our e-store, at The Ottawa Folklore Centre 1111 Bank St., or at the Rasputin’s Open Stage at Whispers on Monday evenings. And here are some interesting live concert videos:

Draft Agenda

• Officers’ Reports
• Election of two board members
• Appointment of Audit Committee
• Resolutions and bylaw amendments

Bylaws para. 10: “Each voting member present at a meeting shall have the right to exercise one vote. A member may, instead of being present at a meeting, in writing appoint a proxyholder to attend and act at any specific meeting of members on her or his behalf, in the manner and to the extent authorized by the proxy. A proxyholder must be a member of the Corporation. There is no limit to the number of proxies any one proxyholder may hold.”

Proxy forms are available here…

Note Resolutions and bylaw amendments must be forwarded to the AGM organizing committee by February 26 so that all members can receive the required two weeks advance notice of business to be considered. Send proposed resolutions to: board@rasputins.ca.

One year ago at our inaugural AGM we had 37 members most of whom came to the meeting in person or by proxy. We had a newsletter mailing list of about 250 and a bank account just barely in the black. The meeting was a lively discussion that placed us on a clear course with the first election of board members and numerous resolutions and bylaw amendments. It is well documented here…

As we approach our 2nd AGM we have 75 members, a mailing list exceeding 500 and a very positive bank balance…I won’t say more about finances here to avoid upstaging Mark’s “Treasurer’s Report” to be presented at the AGM. But we clearly had a very good year. I sense the folk community is now, for the most part, aware of our efforts and our events and folks are clearly supportive.

This has been a year of managed growth on all fronts. We turned all Rasputin’s Beard events into charitable quarterly extravaganzas, added the monthly “The Next Stage” at Whispers and are now building an association with Le Michel-Ange Coffe/Tea Restaurant to present cabaret style events in a coffee house venue with audiences larger than Whispers and smaller than the Westboro Masonic Hall. The first event at Le Michel-Ange will be The Great Canadian Songalong 20th Aniversary on March 9th and 10th.

What a year it has been. I will be proposing two resolutions that I want to discuss with all of you at the AGM. One relates to seeking charitable status; the other relates to planning for a permanent venue. Both require the wisdom and consideration of the membership to go from dreams to real plans.

What about you? What dreams do you have for the future of the Spirit of Rasputin’s Arts Society? You are invited to express your dreams in a resolution that seeks the support of members and gives direction to the board. The vision of our members sets our course for the future.

If you wish to help organize the AGM, contact Heather (AGM Committee chair) at mheven@sympatico.ca (613-521-3097). She would appreciate a couple more “heads and hands” at the committee table.

Cheers,
Hollis Morgan,
President, Spirit of Rasputin’s Arts Society

Amanda Bon

The Ottawa Valley Special, The Elementals, The Amanda Bon Band and The Gerry Griffin Band provided a stellar evening of music. And thanks to the volunteers who make this event happen: Carol Noel, Elaine Gibson, Isabel Bouchard, Katherine Gunn, Heather Evenchick, Sharon Letovsky, Kate Morgan,  
Mark Evenchick and Hollis Morgan.

And thank you, audience, for making the show a sold out success and for being so generous with your donations.

Here is Kate Morgan’s Gallery of photographs: