Kate's Newsletter
July, 2010
Hello Everyone,
It's been a great spring & summer here in the north.... although I admit it's not been very warm. I'm still wearing long johns and a toque most days. I went on tour up the North Klondike Hwy. in May with Home Sweet Home (Keitha Clark & Boyd Benjamin on twin fiddles, me on guitar). We performed in Carmacks, Pelly, Mayo & Dawson City. It was a real treat to perform for the elders in Mayo as well as lead workshops with the school kids. I had my first experience playing for jiggers & experienced the challenges of playing the same tune for twenty minutes! The whole tour was alot of fun. More good news - Home Sweet Home has received funding from the Yukon Film & Sound Commission to record a demo. We'll be in the studio in October recording with Bob Hamilton.
I've been busy rehearsing with Five Finger Rapids, the swing band that I'm playing in. We've been invited to play in China in October at the Nanjing Jazz & World Music Festival so there is much anticipation. I've been writing lots these days & look forward to some down time in Ontario this summer to finish up some songs I have on the go before things pick up again in the fall. I just returned from a beautiful 5 day hike in the Tombstone Mts. and am already planning to go back next year for longer.
Happy Summer!
Kate
February 15, 2010
Hi Everyone,
Its February, always a busy month here in the Yukon with the Quest happening & Rendezvous (our northern festival, featuring events like chainsaw throwing & flour-packing competitions), as well as Frostbite Music Festival. I'm playing at Frostbite with the new swing group I'm in, called Five Finger Rapids. It's been a lot of fun playing with this group, working out fun harmony parts, and diving into some songs that range from Steve Goodman to Fats Waller. Somehow it all works : )
I'm also playing in a group called Home Sweet Home. This is a group that features the twin fiddles of Keitha Clark & Boyd Benjamin. We're playing Gwitch'in Fiddle tunes and a variety of other Canadian tunes, as well as some of my original songs. We're going to be heading into the schools again soon to teach the kids about the fiddle history of the Yukon.
Big news for my hands is that I've started playing upright bass with the Bluegrass Babes. This band features Erica Heyligers on guitar with her daughter Selena singing harmonies. Marg Tatum plays fiddle & Grant Simpson is on banjo & mandolin.
It's been an incredibly mild winter here with 0 degrees being the average temperature for the last month or so. Its very bizarre & not very good for the sled dogs who are finding it hot for running. However, I'm guiltily enjoying not freezing out on the sled this year.
The light is returning rapidly & it feels like spring most days here. We'll see what March brings. Could go down to minus forty yet.
Take care,
Kate
August 26, 2009
Hi There,
Very exciting - a short film was made this winter (thanks to the Yukon Film Commission & Music Yukon) featuring the life and music of Kate Weekes! I had the opportunity to participate in Showcase Yukon, which took place in January & February 2009. A result of being involved with that showcase was the creation of 4 minute film. Be sure to check it out.
It was a busy spring, working in the schools in Yukon Communities. I was helping Keitha Clark teach kids of varying ages to play the fiddle. It was a very rewarding experience. I learned a lot watching Keitha - both about teaching, and also about the fiddle culture in the North as Keitha's classes focus on the Yukon fiddling tradition.
I've attended quite a few Ontario folk festivals this summer (Hillside, Blue Skies, Summerfolk, Ottawa) and have seen some great music. I was introduced to music by artists including Matt Anderson & James Hill ... and I got to see some already familiar and favourite acts including Trout Fishing in America and Evelyn Parry.
Summer in the Yukon this year was wonderful - hot and sunny. Summer in Ontario has been pretty rainy. Now - I'm off to Thailand and Japan! I will be traveling in both countries for a total of 5 weeks this Sept. / Oct. I'll be traveling in Thailand with my niece and her grandpa. In Japan I will be visiting one of my dearest Yukon pals Tammy. Tammy was working at the Beez Kneez Backpackers Hostel when I arrived early in the morning 6 years ago looking for a place to stay.
When I return to Canada in October I'll be heading out on Home Routes House Concert tour, accompanying world class stride pianist (and fabulous singer-songwriter) Grant Simpson (www.grantsimpson.net). We will be playing shows in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Please contact Home Routes directly if you are interested in more information (www.homeroutes.ca)
Thanks & take care,
Kate
April 7, 2009 - visiting Ontario
Hello Everyone,
I’m writing today from the sunny south (Ontario). It’s been a busy & fulfilling winter. Aside from January, weather for mushing has been ideal. Our dogs were in great shape this year, so we were able to go on many day long mushing trips, exploring the mountains behind my cabin. I really enjoy being out on the sled all day and falling into rhythm with the dogs. We run together, rest together, eat together. Genesee & I have found new trails this winter and are excited to go farther next winter. We’re up to 18 dogs now – yikes! I also ran in a few spring races this winter including the Carbon Hill & Copper Haul Twister.
I’ve continued to work with Yukon Women in Music (www.ywim.ca) as an active volunteer. I co-stage managed our CD release concert in November & have been helping to organize some tour dates for YWIM around the territory. We’re hoping to get up to Old Crow, which would really interesting I think. Old Crow is in the northern part of the Yukon and isn’t accessible by road.
I have been playing in a number of combinations musically over the winter, ranging from Swing with Grant Simpson & Keitha Clark to Bluegrass with Erica Heyligers. I’ve continued writing (trying to process all the stuff I saw & experienced in Ireland) and playing my fiddle lots too.
Right now I’m in Ontario playing some gigs & visiting family & friends. In a couple of weeks I head to BC to tour with Grant Simpson, which I’m very much looking forward to.
Life is good both north & south,
Kate
October 8, 2008 - a letter home from a bicycling tour of Ireland
Hi Everyone,
I'm in love with Co. Donegal. I've been in Co. Donegal since leaving Enniskillin. I took the bus to Dungloe, then biked to Burtonport where I caught the ferry to Arranmore Island. Arranmore had mostly shut down for the season... so the hostel was closed, but I managed to find a B&B to stay at - had to convince the owner to open up for me, but they ended up being a really nice couple. Turns out the husband is a fiddle player, so he set up a jam for us (a session they all call it here, which makes me think of the studio, so I keep saying jam anyway) and on my second night we walked across the back lawn to Early's pub, run by Jerry who has a wonderful singing voice. There were 4 or 5 of us, everyone played fiddle, the only tune we found in common was Off to California, which made me happy. They played The Rose of Arranmore for me. So, it was really good - it felt like - AH! this is what I've been looking for. I would have liked to stay longer but there wasn't much by way of food on the island, restaurants shut down... so I ate rice cakes and potato chips... and then had to leave before I got scurvy. The island was beautiful, I loved being on the ocean, and i walked around a bunch picking blackberries and singing to myself.
Next I biked to Dunlewey. This was a BEAUTIFUL bike ride. Along the coast on a winding empty road, then biking into the mountains. Glenveigh National Park is right beside Dunlewey... so there are these mountains towering all over the place. The whole county feels really remote... not many cars, the towns are small... and the roads feel way less hectic than down south - maybe just a different pace of life... but also the visibility is better - no trees, so it doesn't feel as dangerous to be out biking.
It's WINDY in Dunlewey! there are no trees and it just howls through the valley. The weather blows in quickly.
I hiked a bunch around Dunlewey, met some girls staying at the hostel and went out one night to this fundraiser at a pub with poetry, drama and music all spoken in Irish! very cool. I didn't understand a word, but I liked it. Went hiking and hitch-hiking with one of the girls the next day - into Poison Glen! sooooo beautiful. then hitched down to Glenties where there was this fiddle festival happening and met up with a couple of other girls from the night before. I really wished I had my fiddle for this weekend. Good to have the mando - but there were so many fiddles I could barely hear it even when I put my ear up to it. This festival was geared for fiddlers - lots of jamming - but there was also this bus trip into the back roads where we all piled onto a bus with our instruments and people played as we rolled along, and these three drunken old local fiddler guys passed the mike around and told stories about the houses we passed and who used to live in them. We stopped at a graveyard and at a memorial - the grave of John Doherty, and the memorial for Mickey Doherty - local fiddlers, apparently quite famous. Everyone piled out of the bus and played tunes over the graves. It was really very cool & a neat way to keep that local history alive. Then they dropped us at this back country pub where everyone jammed for a few hours till we got picked up again. and so on and so forth. It was a cool weekend.
Then!
I went back to Dunlewey and arrived in time to join Hands up Errigal - a fundraiser where something like 3000 people all joined hands wearing snazzy green vests (I've been wearing mine for biking in since) from the top to the bottom of Mt. Errigal, the tallest mountain in Donegal. It was a really cool site, and really fun to hike up with all these people.
Umm... then I did a day bike & hike into a different part of the park, also beautiful. and then yesterday I biked to Dunfanaghy, which is north of Dunlewey. It was cold and rainy, but not too long of a ride. The hostel there has rooms that are old railway cars... pretty funky. I had dinner with the owner and the girl working there - got to chatting with her - she's a make-up artist for the Israel opera, so she said if I'm ever in Israel I have a place to stay and free tickets to the Opera! I left my bike in Dunfanaghy, I will return there next week to explore more.
I'm in Belfast right now - headed to Berlin tomorrow with Lorraine. Odd, eh? Yes, well there's this guy named Emaho who does these inspirational talks and Lorraine's been to a bunch and I got to thinking I might like to check it out - so off I go! It's kind of a strange twist, but it might be a really cool thing, I'll let you know : )
Anyway - I've found a really good rhythm with my trip now - only took a month : ) but truly - it's been a great week and a half or so, really enjoying every bit of it. I feel like I just want to spend the rest of my time in Donegal. It feels full of life, but not full of tourists, not crowded, nice and remote, full of culture, really beautiful.... it's the good stuff.
So, off I go, feeling good about my trip,
Love,
Kate
March 13, 2008
Hello Everyone,
It’s the wacky-Whitehorse-weather report! In February we began with two weeks straight of minus 40 weather, followed by two weeks of above zero weather… and now it's just cold enough that the snow isn't melting & dog mushing continues for another couple of weeks… phew! I've been mushing quite a bit this winter & it's been a blast. I've learned a lot about myself & about working with dogs.
I've been working this winter as the Project Manager for a recording project that has been organized by Yukon Women in Music. Lynn Miles is here in Whitehorse right now working with engineer Christine Church to produce a compilation album of 12 previously unreleased songs from 12 different female Yukon songwriters. The songs are all being recorded from scratch at Old Crow Recording Studio. The songs all vary in style & the women all vary in age & musical background. It's been a really neat project to be involved in. I've really enjoyed working with Lynn & Christine, as well as all of the artists & musicians.
Other than that…. I've been fiddling lots with some pals up here & we're now signed up for group lessons with two different teachers – Keitha Clark, who I've toured with previously, and Sarah Hamilton who sang on my album. I've been writing quite a bit too & having a grand ol' creative time up at my little orange cabin on Squatter's Row.
I'll be heading back Ontario way for a tour in July/ August – I'll be playing the main stage at Blue Skies Music Festival this summer with Ben Whiteley & Carolyn Stewart.
Hope to see you there!
Take Care,
Kate
December 9, 2007
Hi Folks,
I’ve just returned to the Yukon after a two week house concert tour in Saskatchewan & Manitoba. These house concert tours are organized by Home Routes and are a fine thing to be involved in. Grant Simpson, a world-class stride piano player accompanied me on this tour. This is the first time that Grant & I have toured together and we had a lot of fun. For those of you in Saskatchewan, he’s coming back your way in February with New Orleans North, a traditional jazz band.
We met some really great people on this last tour. It was a unique experience to play in such an intimate setting & get to interact so much with the audience. I’m walking away from this tour feeling inspired & creative. I’ve been playing quite a bit of guitar since returning home & have a bunch of new song ideas I’m hoping to get down.
I’m going to be working at a school here in Whitehorse to lead a songwriting workshop with a grade 12 class. I’m really looking forward to it. This is something I’m interested in becoming more & more involved in.
Oh! I just found out that I’ve won the Mac Beattie Award as part of the Porcupine Awards, held on “Back to the Sugar Camp” – a radio show based out of CIUT-FM Toronto and hosted by Steve Fruitman. I won the award for being quintessentially Canadian in my songwriting…. neat, eh?
Other than that…. It’s off to Ontario for Christmas soon! The drive up here from Winnipeg last week was beautiful, but I’m excited to be flying back down instead of bussing it this time. It’s not as good fodder for songs, but it gives me more time to keep my guitar in hands.
Hope you’re all well & thanks to everyone who came out to and hosted our shows in Saskatchewan & Manitoba. It was an incredibly fulfilling experience.
Take Care,
Kate
Kate on tour with with Grant Simpson, November 2007
October 29, 2007
Hi Everyone,
Welcome to the very first Kate Weekes newsletter! I thought it would be good to have a place that lets you know a bit about what I’m up to every so often, so here we go.
It’s a sunny day in Whitehorse, but cold enough that the snow doesn’t seem to be melting. I’m hoping we get lots of snow soon so that that dog-mushing can start happening on sleds instead of 4-wheelers. I’ve been working for the past couple of months with a friend of mine to help take care of her sled dogs. So far, it’s been a great experience.
I’m getting ready to head out in a couple of weeks on a Home Routes house concert tour of Saskatchewan & Eastern Manitoba. I’ve only ever passed though Saskatchewan & never lingered, so I’m looking forward to seeing a bit more of the place. Accompanying me as a driver, piano player & banjo player will be world-class stride piano player Grant Simpson – should be a great time!
Other than that, I’ve been sawing away at my fiddle lots lately and have been making some good progress. I’m also working hard to memorize my 2,5,1’s all around the circle of fifths. I’ve got it in my head, but have to get it to come out of my fingers and then I’m allowed to have my next lesson. I want to learn to improvise this winter.
As always it’s a balance between work & play.
Hope you all are well,
Kate
Ottawa Folk Festival - August 2007