Party for Kris Monday, May 15,2000 7:00 p.m. At the Black Horse Restaurant and Bar, Bloor St. West in Toronto  Thank you note | Notes from absent Friends | Photo Gallery | Party Sounds On May 15,  2000, a group of friends and fellow musicians got together in a sort of unstructured down-east, kitchen party style event. The Black Horse is a small, intimate restaurant bar with middle-east cooking influences and a really friendly management and staff.  A couple of us began to mill around there about 5 p.m. - there was the P.A. to set up, guitars to be tuned and in some cases restrung, and of course a tiny bit of breathing space. Our friend Jon Long of Long and McQuade (luckily directly accross the street from The Black Horse) came bustling over with two of his associates with a pile of equipment. Quickly and efficiently they set everything up at the front of the bar, right in front of the window facing the street.

Our friend, John Valenteyn (blues show host from Radio station CJRT) arrived and we sat around visiting for a while.  People decided they should have dinner, so everyone enjoyed some of the delicious Black Horse specials. We had brought Kris' CD, "Boss of Love" with us, as well as acouple of other blues cds by local blues guys,  so we got the restaurant to play these for us.  It was great to have Kris' gorgeous voice uplifting us again. A few more folks drifted in, including Kris' friend Yammy (Jeanine), so we decided to get the show on the road, so to speak. We had heard from quite a few people who really wanted to come but for one or another reasons could not be there, so we share their thoughts, and John started the evening off with Toronto bluesman, Grant Lyle.   Grant is usually seen and heard playing electric guitar so it was a real pleasure and an interesting change to hear him on an accoustic. He started off nice and easy, then warmed up with some fancy slideand finger picking.  He concluded his set with a song written especially for Kris, for last  night, called " A Way to Beat The Blues". He had done a really nice arrangment of the song and his rich voice did the lyrics credit. (We'll share some of the musical highlights with you when we extract them from cassette!) A song for Kris - This is a Real Audio file of a song written by Louise for Kris, and performed by Louise in a recent recording session (May 2001) Note: To hear this song, make sure you get the latest version of RealAudio (for free) - just click on the RealAudio graphic. "A Way to Beat the Blues" (Click on title for soundbite) There is also an MP3 file which will be found at the following URL: http://www.mp3.com/briarrose.

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Kris' friend Yammy had asked if she could participate with a couple of songs, so Grant and she worked out some material they were comfortable with and they got into it.  While Yammy protested vehemently that she was the Karioke Queen and could NOT jam, jam she did, and what a voice. Yammy is not only charming and beautiful she has a lot of potential. Hope she pursues the live music thing, seems a shame to hide her voice under a Karioke machine.

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Toronto singer/songwriter Gerry Leblanc came up next, and he played some of his beautiful original material and Grant gave him support on an electric guitar. They sounded great.  Gerry is really a very good songwriter and he has a sweet, folky voice.

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Last up was Kris' friend, Toronto bluesman, Brian Cober of The Nationals.  Brian has a unique double slide technique which he demonstrated to us last night while playing some cuts off his new Cd (to be released shortly). Brian invited Grant to sit in for the last couple of tunes and they played up a storm together. We ended the evening at a few minutes before 11:00 and John Valenteyn thanked everyone for being there. We milled around a bit and took some snaps (hope they turn out, we'll find out soon I guess...), tidied up the sound equipment and said good night. We all had a good time, and I know Kris was right there with us the whole time.

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Click on Kris to see this sketch bigger

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Thank you to everyone.... Hi Everybody: Last night was an intimate, delightful evening, with love, music and a lot of friendship.  Kris has had a lot of influence on a lot of people and her influence continues to spread.  New friendships were forged, old friendships were re-kindled, familiar songs were heard, new ideas were born, new music was heard...it was a special evening, and one which we hope can be repeated in the future....and a special lady was with us, all through the night. Thanks to all those good friends that made last night possible. Jon Long of Long and McQuade who so generously made the sound system and recording equipment available; Jon and Jon's associates of Long and McQuade who brought over the equipment and set it up. Thanks also to Jon for strong moral support, and to Ratch (L&McQ) for dropping in after work. The folks at the Black Horse Restaurant and Bar, who were nice enough to allow us to hold our "soiree" at their place, and who provided beer and snacks for the musicians, a friendly and charming venue, and friendly and efficient staff (Special thanks to Elizabeth who switched her night off to be on duty last night - you're the best!) John Valenteyn of CJRT who was nice enough to be our host, and who made the evening run really smooth and sweet (removing a big worry from the organizers....) Thank you John! To the musicians Grant Lyle of Brotherhood who was the first one on the scene at the beginning and he went way beyond the call of duty by playing the whole first set...also special thanks to Grant for arranging and singing "A Way to Beat The Blues", a special tribute song to Kris. Jeanine/Yammy who took her courage in both hands and shared her beautiful voice with us, bolstered by Grant on guitar. Go girl, you can do it! Jerry Leblanc for sharing with us three of his beautiful original compositions, Jerry's sweet voice, lovely lyrics and strong tunes were enhanced both by his folky guitar, by Grant lyle on Electric. Nice going guys. And Brian Cober of the Nationals. Brian kept the group spellbound with his great double slide playing and excellent songs and nice singing. Can't wait for that new CD, man. As an extra treat for us, Brian and Grant jammed a couple of tunes at the end of the set.   To the Press Gary 17 of to-nite magazine who gave the event a lovely write up in his magazine. The Toronto Blues Society for giving the event a plug in the Loose Blues News section, and for giving us a listing in the Events section. Special thanks to Lily Sazz for making sure that the event was mentioned on-line as well. John Valenteyn of CJRT for playing songs from Kris' album and for annoncing the event on his show, and for making all the phone calls to people he thought would be interested. All the blues radio show hosts and various Toronto newspapers that were nice enough to announce the event. To the rest of the gang Bruce Walker for monitoring the sound system and cassette recorder and for making sure that the event got taped. Also for providing moral support throughout the planning and actualization of the event. What a guy! Eddy B for coming out and being there...and giving his support. All Kris' friends that emailed and called to offer support; all the friends that came out; all the friends that wanted to be there but couldn't - you were there in spirit; all the friends that helped behind the scenes in countless ways. Thanks to you all for making last night possible.   God Bless Louise

Page updated May 31, 2001

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