Braden Shines His Star From The North

It was a cold stormy night. The winds were wild and whipping past corners of houses in Bonavista like a screaming eagle. The roads were bare and empty except for me. I was determined  to make my way up the harbor (what the locals call downtown) to the famous Garrick Theater. There was a show there that night that I was determined not to miss. As I griped the slippery streets with my feet and narrowed through the 120 km gusts of wind somehow I made it to Walkhams Pub where I sat back at a table to grasp my breath and gather my energy before the great show. Pat Braden was about to perform for us Newfies and oh what a night we were about to witness. I made it to the show and downed a beer before in the lobby. I make my way to the concert hall in awe. It was my first time in the Garrick since the renovations and oh what a beautiful job the city done with the place. They really kept the old with the new and I love how they kept alot of the vintage look to the place, I was impressed. As I was sitting waiting in anticipation for Braden to start his set my buddy Harv joined me for the show, me and Harv has seen some great music together and im sure this will be one more notch on the music stick. Braden makes his way to the stage and straps on his unique guitar called the Chapman stick. Its an interesting and strange instrument where you tap the strings on the fret to play the note and play bass with on hand and the melody with the other. It seems extremely complicated to play and sounds amazing with Bradens wonderful songwriting. Braden paints pictures with his songs, giving them intros that explain the whole song with a storytellers voice. He talks of growing up in Yellowknife Northwest Territories. He grabs your imagination and throws you back in time and thousands of miles away with his great imagery. With the winds churning outside it really gave us all quite the impact that night, what a perfect night for such a unique concert. I was extremely impressed with the great show as it gets deeper and deeper into the show. He tells you stories of the native people of Yellowknife, of the new blues club that just opened and had a unfortunate turn of events at opening night. He tells of of the gold miners who were hard and rough. With the Chapman stick he had the perfect tool to flow through the story songs. Pat Braden is one of the gems of Canada and should be seen by everyone who is interested in knowing how wonderful our country really is.