- ON THE GO
- - Gary
Fjellgaard and I have recorded a CD in Vancouver,
Contenders Two. It came out early April 2007 on Stony
Plain Records. - an acoustic guitar
instructional DVD! It's by Windswept/Cox Productions, check
'em out at Learn
Roots Music. - Involvement with
Caliban,
a bassoon quartet, singing three songs on their CD, "Caliban
Does Christmas" on the Atma Classique label Gumboots
as
Goalposts
- Pond Hockey on Saltspring
- More
Pictures
If you'ld like my recent double CD, "Viva Valdy: Live at Last" - ROT 22152, you can order it from a mainstream retailer. It's distributed by Warner. Your inquiry/order will help distribution a lot. Thanks!
Tour Schedule - Press Kit - Discography - Contact - Buy - Product Info - Home
|
This page is my place to rant, my letters-to-the-editor page, and to mention what I'm up to or have recently accomplished. To the right are my beautiful wife, Kathleen Mary Fraser Horsdal, & I. I'm at: info@valdy.com, - please don't hold your breath; life is full. If you post me, please mention something relevant in the subject line, as I am merciless at dumping suspected spam. |
|
- Tour Schedule - Press Kit - Discography - Contact - Buy - Product Info - Home -
The very much beloved 'Reynolds Road Bon Vivant' known as
"Dickens", also "Mr. Dickens" and 'Little Woolyman', passed
away sadly around the same time as 'Fritz' the cat. He was
lion-hearted, a most decidedly independent fellow, always
with a mission up the road, whether visiting Claire and
'Wrinkles', a stop at a catfood dish along the trail, or
tolerating gracefully the Drummond girls dressing him in
doll clothes and pulling him around in a wagon. (He was
thrilled when 'Ivy' relieved him of these duties!). He loved Trish and Maggie too for his spot in their
hearts. Dickens was rescued in '92 on Christmas Eve from the
downtown Vancouver pound and lived the ideal of finding his
'inner wild dog' here on Salt Spring. He put in many hours of service as a 'therapy dog' for
Bessie Dane Hospice and will be always remembered with great
joy by K.& V. and multitudes of others... Our furpeople
do indeed touch very deep places in our human souls.
- Tour Schedule - Press Kit - Discography - Contact - Buy - Product Info - Home -
There are hundreds of worthy pathways for a curious mind; a few have grabbed my attention.
Local Governance Landscape Design and Building
Placement Lap Steel Guitar Lust: an obsession without a fixed goal,
the shifting sands of desire.
Photos......
 
My wife, Kathleen!! - - - -Right photo is at a Workshop (I'm sitting!) |
|
Winter on the Gulf Islands - my wife's Sculpture, "Simone" |
w/ Graham Wardrop @ the Mussel Inn, S. Isl., NZ Festival |
|
|
|
Off he's gone, likely to be found on some angel's lap, spreading his joy. 'Bye little fella. (Read the Obit in our local paper) |
 |
|
I am; I have been for 42 years, and I'm pained to see so many union families shopping at Wal-Mart, actively undermining the union movement, on behalf of all the major retailers, who've been union bashing for over 100 years; now all you sisters and brothers who shop there are doing their work for them!. Unfortunately, shopping alternatively means paying more, and even at union wages that's a major bite. But wait a minute! Without collective agreements, wages are being rolled back. Without collective agreements, benefits are disappearing. Unions work. Community is worth investing in, as culture. Support your local merchants, eat at the local restaurants, and just plain boycott any franchises that you know are keeping the unions out. Organize, support local commerce, and prosper. I'm union, eh? |
Tour Schedule - Press Kit - Discography - Contact - Buy - Product Info - Home
- A Gulf Islands
Tour, May, 2007, a second annual "Songs of the Salish Sea"
tour. In May of '06, Graham
Wardrop, a
New Zealand guitarist/singer, joined Kathy Stack and myself
on the inaugural tour, including ten of the hundreds of
islands in this protected sea. Thanks to the assistance of
our sponsors Island Quest Realty and Gulf Islands Brewery,
and to Saltspring Marina. Done and available:
a Guitar Instruction DVD for Learn Roots Music, a few of my
guitar chops using four songs, including "Play Me a
Rock'n'Roll Song," arguably my biggest radio hit. I'm
selling a lot of these on the road.- www.learnrootsmusic.com.
- A Wild Christmas
CD: Caliban
Does Christmas.
I got to sing on three tracks of this exceptional CD.
Caliban are a bassoon quartet, among the finest players on
the planet, and their skill is combined with a sense of fun
within this wide swath of musical genres. - a PA that'll fit
in a Subaru Forester has been corralled. I'm using a Yamaha
8 channel analog desk with two effests strips, a ten-band
graphic equalizer, AND (here's the space saver!) two 500
watt power amps. Express Kit!! proposals: -
Put Spookie on the hard for a month, or build a cover now to
work wharfside. Why a musician, spending over two hundred
days away each year, can justify having a wooden boat is not
yet answered, but the boat is suffering. Spookie is a 20
foot sloop built in 1936, and needs 3 weeks steady work. But
oh, would she be cherry then! parameters:
Cholesteral Free Butter Substitute!!! For all of us who
watch our food intake, please try some
Earth Balance;
it's a tasty butter substitute that you'll enjoy. -
Tour
Schedule
-
Press Kit
-
Discography
-
Contact
-
Buy
-
Product Info
-
Home
- Here and Now
-
January 12th -
Home, surrounded by weather that can kill me, right here on
Saltspring Island! Fundamentally, people come here because
of the moderate climate; today is Co-ol-ld, -3ºC. We've
put a chicks' warming lamp in the pumphouse, and yard stuff
is all frozen in place. This is so unlike this 'hood, and
yet so expected in 90% of this country, for months at a
time. Take the Rockies for example .......
.
- Tour Schedule - Press Kit - Discography - Contact - Buy - Product Info - Home -
Body Fat and
Booze: Rub
a little, Dub a little, System Flaw. Making culture
cross, Leveling hierarchy, conVergence has
occurred withOut a manual. New pump, old
pressure Tank, golf umbRElla. FJ 45, shOrt block
three fifty, Zed twenty eight steering Box. Starchoice and
Earthlink and X-Drive Hybridized all our
Work and tools, and Now let's
discuss our Bodies. Dinner in a rented
tent, Kitchen help Schmooze, Chit chat, yoga mat.
Body fat and booze
- Tour Schedule - Press Kit - Discography - Contact - Buy - Product Info - Home -
Viva
Valdy: Live at Last
- 2 CDs, 25 songs; 13
live, 12 tracked. portrait by
David Goatley,
Victoria,
BC, The 12 songs on the
Studio CD ( No Effects: well, Not Many ) is as ambitious as
anything that Claire and I did; Claire Lawrence is a fine
player, a composer, and for me, and he was and is a music
producer of great taste, earning us four Gold Record
certifications. This CD is as
even more diverse than what Elliot Mazer and I did in San
Francisco in 1978. I've been learning
as I go; it's all mileage, really, and paying attention.
Norman MacPherson co-produced this CD with me; as a
guitarist, a bassoonist, and owner/engineer of a fine
studio, Norm is a human of vast musical potential, and his
touch is evident throughout these recordings. So, that's
half of the story, the big half by my measure. The other is a
live CD, recorded between November, 2002 to April, 2003.
I've been asked for years to release another live recording,
the last being in 1974 from Massey Hall in Toronto.
Fortunately some of these performances feature other
musicians, and three songs feature Western Roots artist Gary
Fjellgaard and Valdy in duo performance. -
Tour
Schedule
-
Press Kit
-
Discography
-
Contact
-
Buy
-
Product Info
-
Home
- Viva Valdy: Live at
Last, 2
CDs, 25 songs; 13 live, 12 tracked. "The 12 tunes on the
Studio disc are multi-track productions, with great players,
sweet BGs, a few parts flown in on the net, hard disks
lugged up and down the 401 to various studios; Logic audio
on a dual processor G4 through a Motu 2408, it's all good
stuff, great software," asserts Valdy, "and it has helped
Norm and I make a really decent recording." Now, doesn't that
sound Canadian? This is the best
recording work Valdy has ever done with keen songwriting,
assertive vocals, marvelous textures; this disc should be
this good, after the years Valdy's been recording. Maturing
as an artist, it would appear, does not include backing away
from the edge. Viva
Valdy: Live at Last,
the Live CD:
"No Overdubs, No Second
Takes!"
joined by Gary
Fjellgaard on 3
songs. the Studio CD:
"No Effects; well, Not
Many!"
10 new songs, 2 songs reprised,
including "Play Me a Rock 'n' Roll Song." "The original intent
was to do the same tunes both live and in studio, yet with
so many songs to document, the content shifted to who I am
today, and I want to give these tunes some shelf life, let
them be heard, et voila! Viva Valdy: Live at Last. Hope you
enjoy these tunes."
- Tour Schedule - Press Kit - Discography - Contact - Buy - Product Info - Home -
- 
<<<<< Now and Then >>>>>>>> |
|
|
I sang a harmony vocal on "River Stay Away From My Door" with the amazing Belvedere Broadcasters, recording at the Belfry Theatre in Victoria. That's Joey Smith on bass, Don Clark on trumpet, all eleven players are great. I'll link the CD here when it's ready. |
- Tour Schedule - Press Kit - Discography - Contact - Buy - Product Info - Home -
|
>> Tour Dates |
 Support the Future of Music Movement |
|
|
|
I em-ceed a Seniors' Choir gathering here on Saltspring Island, entitled ChorFest. This gathering of choirs from across the province, many award winning and all a pride of their communities, had a concert at the Gulf Islands Secondary School (GISS). They've asked me to perform a few tunes; imagine if you can, being asked to sing for, and thankfully with, such a chorus of voices!! I've worked with Symphonies and Philharmonics, and the lush, full pillow of music is amazing to be part of. Now, imagine that texture replaced by major vocal sections, in all 4 voice registers? The mind reels. The average age, we determined, was 78. See what singing does for a heart? |
- Tour Schedule - Press Kit - Discography - Contact - Buy - Product Info - Home -
|
Kathleen in her wedding veil. Looks good, eh?
|
This is an old Stihl 090, on the future cedar steps to Kathleen's studio deck. |
- Tour Schedule - Press Kit - Discography - Contact - Buy - Product Info - Home -
|
There is not enough music in the world. I played recently for some elementary schools, and what a wonderful reception! They drink it up. Here's a glimpse of Lakefield College School's band, at the school's 125th birthday party. Play for the kids, you adults. Play for the adults, you kids.
|
|
|
|
- Tour Schedule - Press Kit - Discography - Contact - Buy - Product Info - Home -