Life Happening All Around Us! Life Happening Right NOW!

And voila, I'm in Canada for the foreseeable future. SURPRISE.

I got back a couple weeks ago and spent some time in Toronto visiting old friends and volounteering at the salvation army - there is a video of me singing a new song called 'Galapagos' on my FACEBOOK page if you would like to see what this looks like.

After the end of the world didn't happen, I headed up to Ottawa to eat turkey with my family. My sister and I dropped in on Chief Theresa Spence who is holding a hunger strike until Stephen Harper and the governor general agree to sit down and talk about treaty issues with her. We met two brothers who were there with their drums and a really nice guy from the Walpole reserve who brought his harmonicas, so things stayed pretty a-political and I had a nice time in the sun on Christmas day jammin' with these dudes. The next day I found my picture in the paper!:

Other news... I finally got to listen to the recordings I made last month. The mixing and mastering is not yet complete, but oh what the heck, you can preview them here, too, I'll update them when I get the final mix.
This song is recorded by Stefano Capone with Paolo Melindi on Double Bass and Erik Schoepen playing the lap steel in his signature twin peaks D9 crazy tuning:

And then I made this song when nobody was looking... So maybe it'll be a surprise for everyone else involved in the production of our EP:

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST!!!

I have some some concerts to announce in Canada!

Friday, January 11th

The Coach and Horses

Windsor, Ont

9PM - FREE CONCERT
Last time I was in Canada and played at this place with Benito Band it totally blew me away....
So save the date and don't miss it cause my expectations are HIGH.

Wednesday, January 16th

The Horseshoe Tavern

Toronto, Ont.

5 Bands, 5 Bucks - the first one starts around 840 and I play at 1130. 

Come early and I'll buy you a beer :)

More Canadian dates to be announced. See you soon!

In Love With Leaving - Festivus Edition

ALBUM UPDATE:

Cougars in America became Cougars in the Studio in November and soon enough we will have a 3-song EP ready for your ears! I think Paolo took some pictures so I will upload them as soon as I fix my computer.

COMPUTER UPDATE:

Irregular electricity has zapped my means of updating the blog but i'll do my best to post pictures/videos/news as I get them - you can help by emailing me things I can post! A funny aside for anyone who has seen where I live: the computer repair man asked me if I live in Africa when he saw the state of my computer's fried interior.

CONCERT UPDATE:

In Brussels I'm playing a bunch of solo shows over the next month.
These include:

Friday Dec. 7 - El Turco, Place de Londres, 19h-21h

Sunday Dec. 16 - Lava Café, St Gery, 20h

Saturday, January 19 - 12 Chaises, St Gilles, 20h ***POSTPONED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE***

CANADA UPDATE:

I'm going home for Christmas and staying for a month - stay tuned for details about any of the small concerts I hope to play while I'm home.

GENERAL UPDATE:

All is well!
If you want to listen to me trying to speak French about various things cougar-related and not with Nicolas, Dany and the DI crew at Radio ALMA, you can! They "got to know me" a couple weeks ago and you can listen by clicking HERE. They also let me pick the music and play songs on the guitar. I still have not had a chance to listen (see computer update, above) so I can only hope I didn't swear or sing off-key or tell jokes that weren't very funny.

A busy week in Brussels

I'm coming to 'visit' Brussels very soon. In addition to seeing good friends, having a laugh about lunch, and imagining the world above parking 58, this means playing a few concerts. Just to keep things interesting, there will be a different line-up each time, so none will be like the others. I look forward to seeing you at one or all of these eventful events. Also, we will be recording for a new demo CD while I'm back so hopefully the next time I can try to sell it to you :)

BUT NOW...................

...OR RATHER...

....................VERY SOON

Thursday, October 25th

Concert Pour Ici

3rd Floor of Mr. Wong (Nicolas Bucci's house)

€ HAT

An acoustic living room concert with Cougars in America performing as a trio:

Paolo Melindi - Contrabasse 

Erik Schoepen - General wizard of stringed instruments 

Scott Hamilton - Guitar + Vocals = Guitocals

Places for this concert are limited, please email Nicolas (buccinicolas@gmail.com) or send him a message on the FACEBOOK SOCIAL FRIEND NETWORK EVENT PAGE.

Friday, October 26th

Urban Ecoogy Centre

Apero-Acoustique

€ au chapeau

A solo concert featuring Scott Hamilton and his loop-station, kazoo, harmonicas, stylophone, melodica, etc. This is how Cougars in America started... Not to mention, how it will probably end ; I play old songs and new songs in preparation for a small solo-tour I am making around some familiar places. Here is the FACEBOOK SOCIAL FRIEND NETWORK EVENT PAGE.

Thursday, November 1st

Cougars in America BAND

Espacio ON

€ 4 Entry (Free Exit)

The whole band! Similar to but not exactly like the one shown on the youtube internet television channel; nominally related to but not quite as seen on the facebook social friend network; in the form of yet more multidimensional then they appear on the flickr web photo sharing application; COUGARS IN AMERICA BAND packs a whallop.

Giacomo Pelli - Drums

Erik Schoepen - Banjo, Mandolin, Steel Guitar

Paolo Melindi - Contrabass

Scott Hamitlon - Guitocals

Share the FACEBOOK SOCIAL FRIEND NETWORK EVENT PAGE with your most social friends or become entranced by our promotional image in 400dpi high resolution AND RGB colour:

More concerts TBA soon.

First solo concert in... 9 months?

Wish me luck!!!