Gigs Music has been a major part of Darren Forbes' life from the time he could open up his mouth and sing. The instrument playing came later followed by the song writing. Darren's music is a simple mix of Celtic Folk, Modern Folk, and Folk Blues sounds. His sound and vocal style are his own but not without the influence of many great musicians along the way both famous and undiscovered.
Darren's songs come from the heart and always express an aspect of personal or shared truth. The lyrics are the soul of the music. The melody simply sets the mood for the words. Darren makes music as a creative journey he can share with others. It is not for fame, respect, or popularity.
Darren and his brother, Todd have been playing music since their youth. Two brother, two best friends, a guitar player and a bass player. A simple acoustic arrangement to express a love for music. The Brothers Forbes.
June has been a good month for playing. Todd and I played at the Cafe Vivant in Saskatoon to a small but appreciative, responsive crowd. I then got to play "Art in the Park" in Meadow Lake and tried out a bunch of new songs. Todd was busy with the new house so I was flying solo. It was a great set minus the mosquitoes that were trying to drain me of blood.
Cafe Vivant
July is going to exclusive Luthiery. Should be a great experience.
May was a month of preparation for the most part. We played May 16th. It was good but a bit different than what I am used to. We were not permitted to interact with the crowd so we had no introduction, no song explanations...nothing. We prepared easily enough songs to last the entire two sets, however, with no interaction the silence between songs was awkward. So we continued to play. We ran out of songs in the second set and i continued to play a series of additional song to complete. It was a gig marathon and it left me with a pair of numb hands.
It was nice to see many friends there to support us and it was nice to gain some new fans as well.
We play again in Saskatoon on June 5th. I was hoping to have some cd's ready but that is just not going to happen. My life is too much of a shambles right now to organize it. Plus, Derek needs time to learn the first 43 songs in the song book and that has been a real challenge alothough he has been very focused on it and doing really well.
As usual, I have been writing lots (started writing more prose...which has not happened in a long time) and setting the new songs to music. I amnot going to claim that they are good but I think people could appreciate them.
I was thinking about including some of the non-song writings somewhere on the site but am undecide as to whether or not that would be valuable or interesting to anyone. Time will tell.
Be Well
~Darren
March has been a cold month. With only a week left I can only hope spring is here for April.
Todd and I have brought on another guitar player into the mix. A fine young guitarist by the name of Derek Kunkel has agreed to give our music a chance. We are hoping Derek likes what we do and stays on to add another dimension to our sound. He is not a "biological" brother Forbes....but we will call him our brother from another mother...so he doesn't have to feel left out.
We are also wanting to add some percussion to the mix so if there are any drummers hiding in the shadows....let us know. We would love to see if you could be part of our group.
As always, new songs are in the works. Todd and I are hoping to get the CD done by April (fingers crossed).
Todd is a new home owner! Congrats!
February has been a month of reflection and attempts to make some connections in Saskatoon. I have another "friend" in music that suggest that we should get a booking agent. So I did look into that and tha is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Even SaskRecording does not have any "agents" listed really. The few contacts I did get back are not taking on any new clients. Another dead end.
I did get lucky and made a decent contact with the Events Coordinator for the Prarie Ink coffee house in Saskatoon (thanks Nicole Berrard for taking the time to listen!). Things seem to look positive and we may have a show in May.
I also spoke with the owner of Cafe Vivant, Shannon Vinnish. She has a great little Cafe (with killer Cappucino!) and it looked like a place I would love to play...not to mention she seemed like a lady that could appreciate original music. I am crossing my fingers on this one.
There are, of course a few others I would like to look into but that will have to come with time.
Be sure to have a listen to the media player if it has been a while since you checked it. There are a few new additions to the list.
Here is a follow up to my previous post. If you go to William's Blog you will see the entry for January 28th, 2009 is my question. So if you were wondering what he responded with...well there it is. What is even cooler (could it get cooler?) is that January 28th was my birthday.
Mr Cumpiano also teaches his art to students one-on-one a few times a year. So , if you want to learn from the "best" yo can check out his site here.
Jiddu Krishnamurti Words to live by
"Most of us are rich with the things of society. What society has created in us and what we have created in ourselves, are greed, envy, anger, hate, jealousy, anxiety - and with all these we are very rich.
The various religions throughout the world have preached poverty. The monk assumes a robe, changes his name, shaves his head, enters a cell and takes a vow of poverty and chastity; in the East he has one loin cloth, one robe, one meal a day - and we all respect such poverty. But those men who have assumed the robe of poverty are still inwardly, psychologically, rich with the things of society because they are still seeking position and prestige; they belong to this order or that order, this religion or that religion; they still live in the divisions of a culture, a tradition"
Freedom from the Known (p. 60)
