After taking the month of January off, the band started off February on the road, heading north up
through Southern Ontario to the private ski club of Georgian Peaks, on the shores of Georgian Bay.
Dave Battah's "Tonight's the Night" show was booked to play at the annual "Ladies Day"
celebrations. It was a show
that most of us won't be forgetting for a while. In addition to our regular band and Dave
Battah as Rod Stewart, we
had Ewan Fernie from the Abbamania show filling in for us that day on piano. And as we
have known him to do before,
he did an excellent job.
As 40+ year professional
musicians, there's not a lot that will 'phase' us when it comes to performing shows. But being
the only 10 males in a room of
700 women, all ready to party is rather unnerving.
As usual, Dave had the place
rockin'. Once he finished his one-hour Rod Stewart show, there was a rather long break
before the band came back on
and did an hour-long Powerhouse show. During the break, there was a 'fashion show', with
models walking by runway-
style, wearing the latest in summer beachware fashions. Of course you can imagine the
difficulty that we had as we
were forced to sit quietly as bikini-clad models paraded in front of us. I would have supplied
pictures for this part of the
show, but somehow, sitting in the wings, snapping pictures of young ladies in bikinis just
didn't seem like the thing to
do. All in all though, a memorable show at Georgian Peaks in February.
Throughout the early part of 2009, the band
stayed local, playing familiar clubs to keep the
sound 'tight' and work in a bit of new material.
They did a two-night date at Woodbine
Racetrack in Toronto with Frank Rondelle and
his Ray Charles tribute show, took their
Chicago Transit show to AppleJack's Grillin' &
Chillin' and in April, they were at beautiful
L.I.U.N.A. station for the closing night of the
four-day Hamilton Film & Arts Eco Festival.
The above write-up is from that event.
A week later, the weather
was starting to turn for
the better and
Powerhouse was on the
road again -- this time,
across the border, up to
Brimley, Michigan and the
Bay Mills Casino on the
Michigan upper
peninsula. The band had
taken their Chicago
Transit show there two
years ago in the middle of the winter, racing home in the middle of the night to
avoid an impending blizzard. This trip promised to be much more pleasant.
The band for this U.S.
Chicago Transit show
had Glen Higgins on
saxophone, who'd
played many times
before with the band,
and Suzanne O on
piano and vocals.
Suzanne, is a regular
in the local band, "Up
Front". Although
never playing with us
before, and with only
a few weeks warning,
Suzanne came in and
'nailed it'. This very
talented woman had
certainly done her
homework and was a
pleasure to work and
travel with.
"Rising 552 feet (that's 55 stories!) above the Straits
of Mackinac, where lakes Michigan and Huron meet,
is the world-famous Mackinac Bridge. Also known as
the "Mighty Mac," this engineering marvel is 5 miles
long and, anchor block to anchor block, holds the
record as the longest suspension bridge in the world!"
From: http://www.great-
lakes.net/teach/history/macbridge/mac_1.html
When we came through here a couple of years ago, it was the middle of the night each time we
travelled over this bridge. This time, we made sure to leave Hamilton early enough that we'd get here
before the sun went down. And we made it by about an hour. It didn't really feel like we were 55
stories high as we drove over the middle span of the bridge, but it sure felt like it was 5 miles long,
though. Pictures were difficult to capture from up so high in the overcast early evening. But we'd be
coming back again in a couple of days during the daylight. All that remained of today was the two-
hour drive to Brimley and unwind in the hotel rooms.
The next day was a late afternoon soundcheck
before our evening shows, so a few of us took some
time to stroll around the casino property. The place
was huge, also housing three restaurants and a
200-room, 3-floor hotel where we stayed. It was still
quite chilly and windy outside along the southern
shore of Lake Superior -- one of the hotel staff told
us that last summer, there were only 2 or 3 days
when it got up into the 80F temperature range.
There was certainly no one but us walking around
the grounds that day.
Since it was just the eight of us, with no one else
manning a camera, pictures of the show are limited
to a shot of the stage during set-up for soundcheck.
The venue was a mid-sized banquet room and we
did two shows, at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Next morning --
well, noon actually -- it was time to pack up and
head back home.
After getting back
from northern
Michigan, the band
was off to the club at
Sherkston Shores for
an 'official' start to the
summer season. Our
friend Sue joined us
for the evening and
took her typically
excellent shots of the
band that night.
The next night, the band was at the Arnold
Centre, Mohawk College on Hamilton
mountain for a benefit in support of
woundedwarriors.ca.
"The fund is designed to deliver quality of
life, financial, benevolent and moral
assistance through five different streams
of support.
The outpouring of support from Canadians
has been overwhelming. Be it
corporations, celebrities or everyday
citizens, WoundedWarriors.ca is a
success story borne out of a horrible
tragedy that continues to support those in
need."
Excerpted from: woundedwarriors.ca
Above: The Burnt Rose Band (from left to right) -- Don Berryman (keyboards), Greg Cannon (drums), Phil Kott (bass guitar), Robyn Echlin & Kim
Lister (vocals), John Ricci (acoustic guitar), Debi Ferguson & John McCullough (guitar and vocals)
Don on keyboards also plays trombone with Powerhouse, and Phil on bass guitar is the Powerhouse lead guitarist.
Once the other three Powerhouse horns took the stage for the final two numbers of Van Morrison's "Wild Night", and a Burnt Rose original song, "Easy
Street", the stage became very crowded. The band went over well, though, and after a short break, Powerhouse took the stage for their show.
Of course, the best part about any evening like this was that, not only was the Arnold Centre packed
that night, but the show raised over two thousand dollars for the woundedwarriors.ca cause. If
you're not familiar with this group, please do visit their website.
"Celebrate your country's 142nd birthday
at this year's Canada Day extravaganza,
which could be the biggest July 1 bash
Richmond Hill has seen yet.
Boasting one of the largest municipal
fireworks display in Canada and dozens
of free activities, it is expected more than
20,000 people could descend on
Richmond Green Park Wednesday.
Canada Day committee chairperson
Lynton Friedberg, the recently retired
commissioner of parks, recreation and
culture, has seen his share of July 1
parties and says previous experience
points to a monster crowd this year.
The largest municipal fireworks display
outside of Ottawa,
according to Mr. Friedberg, will blast off at 10 p.m. and last up to 25 minutes.
Live music and performances and activities will fill the day, highlighted by tunes from Lou Moore Band, The
Tynes and Chicago Transit."
BY ADAM MC LEAN
http://www.yorkregion.com/article/93794
When the band rolled into the park late in the afternoon, things did not look promising for an outdoor
concert. We'd been rained out of just about every show we performed last summer and it looked like this
would be another day of the same. The clouds darkened up and we spent our planned start time, crowded
under the canopy of the stage, covering equipment from the rain.
When the rains let up a half hour or so later, the band took the stage to, basically, an empty park. There were a couple of brave folks under umbrellas down
front, but that was about it. We thought, at the time, that this would be one of those 'tuff gigs', playing to no one. We couldn't have been more wrong.
Once the band started playing, people started to trickle back into the park. As the band played into the early evening, the crowd grew ... and grew. The
production crew had placed stacks of speakers way back in the middle of the field, so I suppose the sound was traveling well.
'Da Horns' -- Don, Tom, Carlo and John
By the time the band finished their
show, the park had their 20,000
people -- you tell 'em, Carlo.
And what would a Canada Day
celebration be without a firework
display to close off the evening.
Happy Birthday, Canada.
Powerhouse enjoyed their stay in
Richmond Hill.
Following an excellent show
in Richmond Hill, Ontario on
Canada Day, the band took
their Chicago Transit show
on the road for a trip down to
Baldwinsville, New York
(near Syracuse) for a show
the following Friday night.
The show was booked for
the Budweiser Amphitheatre
on Paper Mill Island, an
island in the middle of the
Seneca River in the heart the beautiful Finger Lakes region of New York State. The band left a day early so
we'd have time to stay over and enjoy a bit of what this part of the United States area had to offer. Paper
Mill Island is shown in the photo above, with the iron bridge joining the island to the town in the right centre.
Just to the left of the bridge is the Red Mill Inn (dark red building with the green roof), a gorgeous old-style
hotel where we stayed. The Amphitheatre is the bright red-coloured building directly above the hotel, looking
out over the park at the one end of the island. Immediately on our arrival early Thursday evening, the band
got their rooms and scattered. I was gone till dark, with my camera in hand and a few bucks in my pocket for
something to eat later on.
Some of the band headed into town for dinner.
Others walked up the east side of the Seneca River
and snapped the surrounding pictures.
Baldwinsville definitely had that small town America
charm as it sat peacefully for us to explore on a
Thursday night in July. For myself, when I walked
out the front door of the hotel, I could hear music
playing from an outdoor patio over by the Lock
The Seneca River is part of the Erie Canal, which
connects the Niagara River by an inland water route
to the Hudson River and then the Atlantic Ocean. I
checked out the lock, walked along the river for a
while, then doubled back through some gorgeous
old buildings in the old part of town and back to
Paper Mill Island where I watched the sun go down from the far end of the island.
Most of guys headed over
to the B'Ville diner next
morning for breakfast.
We found out the night
before as we enjoyed our
Spiced Rum in the hotel
room, trying to pronounce
the town we were in, how
the diner had probably got its name. Since I'm not a
'breakfast person', I took my camera for another tour
around the town. I had some things I noticed the night
before that I wanted to visit again in the daylight.
Set up and soundcheck
was at 4 p.m. and our show
started at 6. So by late
afternoon, I'd had quite
enough walking and
'touristing'. Unlike our
native land, Upper New
York State was actually
experiencing hot, mid-
summer weather, so setting
up my equipment, then
sitting backstage for a bit
was a welcome relief.
It was already a very hot day in
Baldwinsville, and with the sun going
down directly in front of the
amphitheatre and the curvature of the
roof, the stage area was like standing
in an oven. There were fireworks to
close out the show that night, but we
didn't see a lot of them as we were
packing up to head back home. We
had a show the next night at the Port
Credit Yacht Club near Toronto,
Ontario and we needed to drive home
that night.
Pre-show Set-up
