New Group of Seven Album

July 29~08
Just finished recording my new CD "Riding the Rails in Paradise". All the songs on this new album are dedicated to the members of The Group of Seven.
This cd was recorded at Rec Room Studio in Sault Ste.Marie with music producer Rusty MacCarty. Rusty played a few of his guitars and added bass tracks and did a little hand drumming! The new disk will be available in a couple of days on this site store page. You can now hear all the new tunes on this site.
I will be doing two live performances later on in September. September 11th at the Algoma Art Gallery and Semptember 28th at the Searchmont Ski Resort. I will be posting the dates and times on my main page a little later.
You can read stories and inspiration about these songs on this Group of 7 page.

Jul 29, 2008 | 0 comments

Art: an act of Peace

Art: an act of Peace (Don Charbonneau)

I wish I could with a stroke of my brush
Paint happiness and good health into your life
I wish
I wish I could with a stroke of my brush
Paint enough food to feed everyone on this planet.
I wish
I wish I could with a stroke of my brush
Paint all equipment of war
Into environmentally friendly tractors.
I wish
I wish I could with a stroke of my brush
Paint a new song in the empty heads
Of Ministrels of War
I wish
I wish I could with a stroke of my brush
Paint God into an image that every human being
Regardless of Race, Colour or Creed could experience
I wished this wish and experienced
Peace.

Mar 27, 2008 | 0 comments

The Man Behind The Music~Music Producer Billy Bruhmuller

I just posted a new slide video on this website featuring Award winning music producer Billy Bruhmuller and his Easter Island Studio. (Make sure to turn off music player before starting video.) Many Sudbury musicians have had Billy record their music over the past ten years and I'm sure everyone who have had the pleasure of working with him would agree that he does a good job, loves his work and has great ideas.
I'm not sure of the status of Easter Island's location...Billy was telling me last March that the City of Sudbury was planning a road improvement in his area of town and that the building was slated to be torn down.
My son Noel and two of the bands he played in recorded three CDs there and Billy produced a couple of acoustic EPs for Noel. I have posted one of Noel's song on the music player titled "Under The Stairs".
Thanks Billy Click here for the video.

Mar 11, 2008 | 0 comments

Joshua Slocum~Sailor

On April 24th 1885 at the age of fifty-one, Canadian born sailor Joshua Slocum left Boston Massachusetts for his famous circumnavigation in his rebuilt thirty seven foot sloop the "Spray". Slocum sailed single handedly around the world ...a passage of 46,000 miles.

I remember hearing part of this story on CBC Radio one morning about six years ago. I just caught the end of the story and was inspired to write the song "South Wind". A friend of mine and sailor Rick Aho helped with some of the sailing lyrics.
I just posted the song on the website and it is free to download. Here are the lyrics.

South Wind

Stars are shining bright on this harbour tonight
Stars are shining bright on that shore
I can still hear her calling to me
Why does a man leave his woman alone
Why does a man go to sea
Is it because I'm looking for
something inside of me.

Listen to the sound of the creeking spars
Heaven open up distant stars
Wind is in the rigging
Wind is in the sail
Listen to the sound of the crashing sea
Listen to that melody
Sweet sweet melody

I've often wondered if I did right
I've wondered if I was wrong
There's something calling to me
Something way out there at sea.

I'm leaving tonight on an evening sail
I got South wind at my back
don't know where I'm sailing to
don't know if I'll be back again

Listen to the sound of the creeking spars
Heaven open up distant stars
Winds in the rigging
Winds in the sail
Listen to the sound of the crashing sea
Listen to that melody
Sweet sweet melody

Stars are shining bright on this harbour tonight
Stars are shining bright on that shore
I can still hear her calling to me

Mar 7, 2008 | 0 comments

Willie P. Bennett

I just heard the sad news tonight that folk legend Willie P. Bennett died on Friday February 15th 2008. I first heard Willie when he played with the Dixie Flyers in London Ontario.
The Dixie Flyers were a bluegrass band with Bert Baumback (guitar & vocals) and Ken Palmer (Mandolin & vocals). Willie played the harmonica with this band and recorded an instrumental album with the Flyers in the late 70's called "Just Picking".
He later embarked on a solo career and wrote some great songs. He was part of the London Folk Music scene and I saw him perform a number of times at the "Cookery' which I believe was part of the Rideout Tavern in downtown London.
Willie P. Bennett was a working musician, a true artist and playing music was his life. His sincerety and passion was reflected in the songs that he wrote. Willie P. Bennett has been and will continue to be a great inspiration to a lot of musicians.

Feb 18, 2008 | 0 comments

Swimming with loons

We are in the middle of January and opening pickerel season is still four months away. I had a wondeful experience swimming off the dock at Totomenai last year ...

Swimming with Loons

I jump off the dock for the first time
this year
To my surprise and pleasure
A common loon appears less than
twenty feet from where I surface.
An old friend has come to greet me
And I say hello….....and ask “did you winter well?”

He quietly slips under the surface
to feed on a new hatch of Suckers
and Whitefish.

Later that afternoon he returns with his mate
and they entertain us with song and loon dance.

I want to speak to this ancient creature that
calls to me in my dreams
But I only hear his voice
A single penetrating note that
echoes a sadness
and yet
I do not feel sad.
I feel a million springs
I feel the silence of a warm summer night
I hear the call of a new born calf
I see the pickerel feeding on minnows
in the shallow of a bay
I hear the wind as it gently moves the water on a rocky shore
All these things I see and hear
in the sound of this loon’s song.

Once again I feel there is hope for this planet and
my children’s
Children.
Don Charbonneau

Jan 11, 2008 | 1 comment

Maxie Simon and the Wawa Iron Men

I just added a picture of the Senior "A" hockey team the Wawa Iron Men. This picture dates back to the early sixties I believe and ..."Manitoulin Island's hockey legend"... Maxie Simon is seated first row on the right. ( I saw Maxie today and he let me have this picture)

When I first came to Wawa in 1965 I got work at Algoma Ore working underground on the miner's shift. I just turned 17 years old at the time and I believe I got the job because of my hockey background. I had played the year before with a Junior "A" team from Garson called the Native Sons. Maxie Simon worked has a miner for the company and played for the local 'Ironmen" Senior "A" . I practised with the Ironmen men a couple of times and was told that I was hired to play for the new Junior "B" team that was slated to start up later in the fall. I remember Maxie Simon and his great snap wrist shot. I was quite impressed by the accuracy and speed of his shot and worked hard to perfect mine.
This team had incredible talent and I believe a few of the players given a chance could of played in the NHL. I heard that Maxie Simon got the call from the Detroit Red Wings...I will have to ask him about that.

I'm in the process of collecting pictures and stories from the 50's and 60's and will turn them into a slide video with the new tune "Roy Bell's Farm is Not There Anymore". Hopefully we will get in the recording studio sometime in March and will have the music and slide video available by then.

Jan 9, 2008 | 1 comment

Roy Bell's Farm is not there any more

These are the lyrics to a new song I wrote after hearing the news of our strandboard and lumber mill closure late this fall. The town of Wawa has gone through a lot of changes and tough times in the last few years. We lost a major employer when Algoma Ore shut down it's iron ore division. Although this town has had a few set backs in it's history it always seems to get itself back up and running.
I will be recording this song shortly and it will be available on the website sometime in March 2008.

Old Roy Bell's Farm's Not There Anymore

When I first came up here it was in 1965
I was driving down this highway
wih nothing but a dream.
This small northern town was booming in those days
A thousand men and women worked for the company.
Taverns were open all over town
and closing time was never that far away
and you could buy breakfast at any old time of day.

I went up to the mine looking for a job
Man in charge asked me son "well can you skate"...
Skate? Yes Sir, since I was four years old
Played last year for the Native Sons.
Sixteen years young now and working underground
Sixteen years young now and working underground.

My dad worked at the old Red and White
worked another job just to keep his family warm.
You could buy beer cheap at the Union Hall
and spend the rest of the evening there
drilling another round
and spend the rest of the evening there drilling another round.

Saturday nights we would head down to the rink
watch the Iron Men they were the best in the Senior "A"
A few of those guys could of played in the NHL
and Maxie Simon had the best shot in the league
and Maxie Simon had the best shot in the league.

The mine shut down 10 years ago
and that old Red and White's been torn down to the ground.
We just got news only yesterday that the lumber mill shut down
now there's nothing left to say.
and old Roy Bell's farm is not there anymore
and old Roy Bell's farm is not there anymore.

Dec 22, 2007 | 0 comments

Local Food Bank needs your help

Many Northern Ontario communities have experienced layoffs in the wood industry and now more than ever more people are relying on their local food banks...they need your help especially at this time of year. Please help! Donations here in Wawa can be made at Iris's Place on Broadway Avenue.

Dec 22, 2007 | 0 comments