The talented artists performing on "Assume Nothing" (1999) include Cynthia Gibson, Steve Gillen, Jim Graham, Bob MacKenzie, Lesleigh Smith, Melanie Vancoughnett, and Alex Young.
Influences
Bob MacKenzie cites influences in music and poetry that include John Donne, Leonard Cohen, Edith Piaf, Jaques Brel, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Hank Williams, Felice and Boudreau Briant, Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, Mystic Moods Orchestra, Ogden Nash, Dr. Seuss, T. S. Eliot, Barry White, Lawrence Ferlingetti, Clannad, Tangerine Dream, and hundreds of others. High on the list are Cohen and Holly.
Into this stew of musical and literary influences, each member of Poem de Terre brings his or her influences, most often as broad and eclectic as Bob's, to create an exotic blend of sounds and images that is unique to this Canadian performance collective.
Sounds Like
Bob MacKenzie
Bob MacKenzie's performances have been compared to artists as diverse as Jim Morrison, Leonard Cohen, Burl Ives, Glenn Yarbrough, William Shatner, Jerry Garcia, Red Sovine, Alan Ginsberg, Barry White, and many others spanning the worlds of roots/popular music and modern literary poetry.
Poem de Terre
Poem de Terre's performances have been compared to The Doors, Pentangle, Cranberries, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Moody Blues, Spirit of the West, Baz Luhrmann, The Grateful Dead, A Wing and a Prayer, Judy Collins, Melanie Safka, Joni Mitchell, and diverse other artists.
Since it was formed by six artists in the summer of 1993, Poem de Terre has organically evolved a unique sound and style with a powerful repertoire of original material as well as new interpretations of music and spoken word pieces previously performed or recorded by other artists.
While the musical style of Poem de Terre's material transcends genre, at heart the music is folk. Building upon this foundation of folk music, Poem de Terre draws upon many influences to create dramatic music for the new millenium.
As much as the music, words are central to Poem de Terre's work, presenting compelling stories and ideas to the community in the form of live performance.
A musical collective usually performing with eight to twelve people on stage, over the years Poem de Terre has featured more than fifty artists. Each artist brings to the performance his or her own creative sensibility and subtly changes the quality of the performance and the clarity of the message.
Readers and listeners either love him or hate him. Its hard to be ambivalent about this Canadian writer who often mixes his media and messages in unexpected ways. Beginning with readings of poetry over flute or piano, Bobs art has evolved into a multi-media format that brings together printed, spoken, and sung words; music performance; and visuals including photography, painting, print making, and collage.
Bob believes that the individual arts and crafts are part of a greater whole, are simply Story. A time-honoured unified tradition of the arts is the basis for Bob's multi- media approach, integrating his written and spoken words with various other artistic approaches. This is the art of the travelling Bard, of the Shaman adding elements of magic to every tale.
Born on Canadas west coast, son of a photographer/ musician and a photo-colourist, and raised in Albertas parklands, Bob has followed his family roots East as far as the Maritime Provinces and visited every province along the way. He has been writing and performing his words since he was five, making a short 16 millimetre movie by the time he was eight and combining his words, music, and images ever since.
Bob also reviews new CD releases and writes commentary for the popular online magazine of news, reviews, and commentary: Blogcritics.
Poem de Terre's rockin' new CD, War & Love (click) now on MySpace.
Check out the personal music MySpace of Canadian poet Bob MacKenzie. (click)
Discography
2006: War & Love, compact disc, 18 songs [16 original]
..Hey Assume Nothing! If you happen to be in Los Angeles this December...
..The Nutcracker Electronique Goes LIVE in LA This Christmas!..
For the first time ever, The Santa Monica Contemporary Ballet and EarthWalk Dance Company will be presenting The Nutcracker Electronique live in Los Angeles December 18-21, 2008! ..
.."Sexy! Stunning!"..
..I've created three brand new tracks for the performance. One of them, Pas de Deux, is up on MySpace right now!..
More Psychotic Fun at your fingertips from your friend at the fringe!
The fully animated WASP FLIGHT Video is Finally Out and a complete blast!! (produced by SongFire Studios)
Poor little Wendy Wasp gets chased down by a pair of horndogs lookin' for love: Yellow Chopper Wasp and Jet Green Wasp. Little do they know, someone else wants all three of them for dinner. Who's coming out on top?
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Drop by and Shout Out! You know how lonely I get. Hehehehehe ;)~
Brète
PS: I love to share, so, if you like the vid, I've enabled embedding. Just click Menu on the vid player and copy the embed code to your profile.
Whats poppin' Assume Nothing? .....Stopped by to tell u that Hip-Hop Legend Nas threw down a sick show last week proving that Hip-Hop is alive and well....It was a great show and the Toronto crowd went home witness to hip-hop history.....One of the shows highlights was NAS's performance of "One Mic". Nas was on the top of his game during this song, switching between tempo's with gusto.....You can watch NAS's performance of "One Mic Live in Toronto" by clicking the link below:
Speaking of which, there's a smokin' new Progressive Classical track up on Mad Nutcracker titled "Wasp Flight" Currently #2 in Progressive Rock on SoundClick.
Hey Assume Nothing, amaAmbush here..our myspace is under new management! so come check out our new fetures which include right-ups after each gig, interviews with the staff, pictures and upcoming events
HoPe YoU eNjOy
dear Assume Nothing, thanks for your friendship!
We are really happy to tell you our new cd 'YA DUNYA' is finally available at your local record store (Europe) or through iTunes or bol.com.
We are getting really great reviews, but you buying the cd makes us buying a beer and than we are both happy! :-)
kind regards and maybe our paths will cross this year!
Thanks for the friend request,mate.
Cyberspace is virtually great -
Or because it's so great
Is it really greatest,
But that might limit it,
The possibilities should be infinite,
But only virtually so.
And even when you put a full stop.
Then click 'post comment',
The full stop's go.
