Lights will guide you home.

Date: 17 April 2012
Venue: Rexall Place

Guests: Scott, Angela, Patrick and Madeline
(and Melissa, a few days later, in Vancouver)

Rexall shows are a little more impersonal that I typically like, but I've heard such great things about Coldplay in concert, we simply had to go. From my sister, who has made the arduous and expensive trek to Vancouver twice to experience them in the past few years, and Angela, who said they did an amazing job at engaging the audience in such a large venue, I couldn't ignore the recommendation of two of the people whose opinions I value most highly in all things relevant (life and music). Yet again, they were both right. 

The opening band and the set up of the venue went well. The Pierces, two sisters from New York started the night off. They have a beautiful 70's vibe with their sound and style.  Metronomy, a British electro-disco band continued the warm up with interesting tap-light type lights attached to their bodies that lit up and went along with the music. Some of the music was a little too experimental for my tastes, but they played with great energy and I always am a fan of a girl rocking the drums well. This song is accompanied by one of their more strange videos... but I liked it. Because I am strange. 

Coldplay took the stage by force to launch their world tour from our great city.  They came on stage, and called out to the crowd , “Is there anybody out there?!”, then exploded into Mylo Xyloto where our light up bracelets went bananas, all in rhythm to the music depending on what colour bracelet you had. A few songs later, during the first few notes of "In My Place" whilst the Confetti cannons blanketed us with with paper snow. For Yellow, 100 giant balloons floated down from the ceiling. Thousands of voices echoed: “I wrote a song for you, and all the things you do, and it was called Yellow.” The chanting crowds in "Viva La Vida". 
In a word: Epic.

I think that being early in the tour, Chris did quite well in terms of energy and vocals. They really give their all up there, and by the end of the show, you could see how tired they all were. There were a couple mistakes, (intro to God Put a Smile on Your Face), but in the classic English, Hugh Grant style, the cleverly befuddled Chris came off as even more charming... if that is possible.

There was a good balance of the heavy hitting power ballads with the quiet contemplative songs through the set, which I think helped the boys catch their breath a little. There was a long outcropping of the stage where a day-glow graffiti-ed upright piano popped up from for Chris to do a great Linus impression for The Scientist (naturally, my fave song of the night)

       Setlist: 

(Back to the Future Theme intro music)

Mylo Xyloto
Hurts Like Heaven
In My Place
Major Minus
Lost!
Yellow
The Scientist 
Violet Hill
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
Princess of China
Up in Flames
Warning Sign 
A Hopeful Transmission
Don't Let It Break Your Heart
(Live premiere)
Viva La Vida
Charlie Brown
Paradise
Us Against the World 

Encore:
Clocks
Fix You
(with Happy Birthday to Guy Berryman)
M.M.I.X.
Every Teardrop is a Waterfall

The Princess of China performance was disappointing... I understand it;s difficult to get RiRi to come on tour for months on end for one song a night... really puts a kink in the social life.... but really, i think a decent female vocalist could have easily performed that part... and it wouldn't have felt so much like a really big 1998 Much Music video dance party with the whole crowd staring at a giant screen for most of the song. The Moby show does this well, as many of his more popular tunes involve collaborations... this video is a little distorted, but that girl had awesome pipes and did the song justice.  I also was a little sad they didn't play "Don't Panic", but I GUESS you can't have everything you want all the time.  
 
The band did a great job of engaging the crowd, moving around the stage the right amount, and popping out in the crowd for the encore. I still love my small venue shows, but floor seats for Coldplay was a fantastic experience that I would recommend to anyone.

 

Goodnight, California

Kathleen Edwards

Date: 26 March 2012
Venue: Belly Up Tavern, Solana Beach California

Tickets $20

On a recent work trip, I was pleasantly surprised to find I wasn't the only Canadian girl in southern California that week when flipping through the local events. The venue was in a quaint little beach town 30 minutes north of San Diego by car. The walls were lined with artistic posters from previous shows, including Andrew Bird, Neko Case, Pinback, Colin Hay, Iron and Wine, Xavier Rudd and M. Ward. Sure signs that if I were a resident of southern California, the waitresses would know me by name. 

I settled into a set to the right of the stage about an hour before the show and sunk myself into some delicious fish tacos.  I started chatting with the most wonderful audiophile, Chip, a retired teacher from San Diego who shared my taste in both music and podcasts. We swapped favorites and expanded our musical horizons a little.

Hannah Georgas:

Hannah Georgas, a fellow British Colombian, opened up for Ms. Edwards on this tour. I have seen her twice before: The first opening for Said the Whale at the Bricks (under the Starlite room), the second open for Royal Wood at Myer Horowitz. The first show in November 2008, was a very special show for me. I had heard a clip of her singing "The Beat Stuff" on CBC that morning, and couldn't get it out of my head all day at work. I luckily rounded up two tickets and Steph was gracious enough to humor my crazy sporadic concert. She warmed up the room well with backing from Jaycelyn, Peter and Spencer from Said the Whale. The show was amazing, and I still love the 6 album sampler that I got at that show. That was my first exposure to Said the Whale. I had seen flyers around for them the last few times they were in town, but never pursued it further. Four years later, Said the Whale is my favorite band, so sweet and personable. I've seen them more times that I can count on my hand now, and they never disappoint. 

Hannah flew in that morning and got the night started around 9 with a collection of her most recent album and few new tracks she's been working on. She didn't play a couple songs that I really wanted to hear. She didn't play anything from the first album, namely The (aformentioned) Beat Stuff, The National and Let's Talk. She also didn't play Drive from the CBC song quest: Road Songs, which a great traveling song. Neither This is Good nor Lovers Breakdown from the most recent album were performed, my two favorite songs from that album. I was a little disappointed that she didn't play more songs I was familiar with, but I liked the new material she's been working on.  Enough about what she didn't play, this is what she did play:

Elephant

Somebody

Enemies

Chit Chat

Waiting Game

Millions

Shine

Fantasize

She definitely earned a few more fans in that room tonight. She played with good energy and the sounds was great from where I was sitting. The I ran into another couple there form a marathon from the interior of BC. She worked the room a little after the set, meeting and greeting before she nipped back to change into her back-up singing outfit for Kathleen Edwards.


Here's a little video for Bang Bang You're Dead:

which she didn't play. Okay, okay. I'll move on...


Kathleen Edwards: 


Kathleen took the stage with a keyboardist, drummer, bassist and guitarist as well as Miss. Georgas at about 10. Her banter between the songs was incredibly endearing and you really got the sense she was a total sweetheart. She discussed a little about the personal struggles she went through in the last couple years, going through a divorce with her former collaborator Colin Cripps and her budding new relationship with Justin Vernon (frontman from Bon Iver). I find that Voyageur, her most recent album really speaks to me. To me, you can tell there is a lot more emotion and depth in the songs over her previous three albums.


Kathleen is  from Ottawa, and has been foraging her way through the music scene since 1999. Her album Failer from 2002 put her on the radar of Rolling Stones as a promising  new artist, playing on David Letterman and making the press in Billboard and Blender who felt Failer's songs possess "an indefinable pull that makes you love the characters they describe, no matter how fucked up they are." Her follow up albums, Back to Me and Asking for Flowers showed her progression into songwriting and built on her early sucess. The first song that I heard from Kathleen was "I Make the Dough, You get the Glory" from Asking for Flowers last year on CBC 2, and thanks to shazam, I was able to pursue my ear worm to get the whole catalog. Her style is a little more country than I typically listen to, but I really like the narrative style of her songs, and maybe it's the Alberta influence, but I am allowing myself a little room for genre-ical growth.  

The set was great, the band had great chemistry on stage and the energy was both honest and positive. I was thoroughly impressed with the skills of Gord Tough, the guitarist in plaid that I had a great view of from my perch. The set had a good mix of songs from the past four albums and good pacing from slow to upbeat. My favorites she played were Empty Threat, Six O'Clock, Change the Sheets and House Full of Empty Rooms.

Empty Threat

Asking for Flowers

Goodnight, California

In State

Sidecar

House Full of Empty Rooms

Going to Hell

Back to Me

Soft Place to Land

Mint

Change the Sheets

Encore: 

Six O'Clock News

For the Record

My favorite song from the new album is Chameleon/Comedian, which I thought she played on this night, but didn't have it on the setlist. I would have liked to head "You Make the Dough" also. House Full of Empty Rooms and Chameleon/Comedian have been the soundtrack to my inner monologue on and off since March. I work up this morning singing house full of empty rooms, so I figured it was time I sat down and finally talked about this event. It was a great concert, I would have liked to visit with her afterwards and wish her hell on her tour, but after waiting around for 15 minutes after the show, I decided to should call it a night and get back to San Diego. I highly recommend seeing this national treasure if you have a chance.

Happy 2012!

I just saw this wonderful video that has made me think about how we expose ourselves to new music and the constant reshaping of our musical libraries into interesting directions.

Off Book: The Evolution of Music Online from PBS Arts on Vimeo.

I thought I would start off the New Year with something a little different: What channels do you look for new music? I find that I go through fits and spurts with seeking out new music. Suddenly I will get onto a trail that leads me to song after song, or I'm just loving a lot of the music that I'm hearing around me. I try to constantly expose myself to new music from the Zunior playlists and the wonderful Edmonton Public Library system, but it takes a few months to compile playlists and actually get them into regular rotation on my iPod unless I'm planning a long road trip.

One feature of iTunes that I really love is the Genius function. You pick a song that you like, and Genius formulates a playlist of songs that are similar to that song in the same style and genre. This is great to incorporate songs you love with new music that is already in your library, but not in common rotation. There is also the genius sidebar (a little play arrow on the bottom right corner next to the genius icon) that will show you bands that you may like that you don't yet have. When you are perusing the iTunes store, often there are playlists from other users that that song is on, which is useful to find other artists similar in style that you may enjoy.

Outside of the iTuniverse, I love listening to CBC Radio 2 to get new Canadian music into my library, and also watching the local venues to see who is coming to town in the next few months, as seeing live music performed is an awesome way to get to know a band. There are a also few Podcasts that are around as well that broaded the auditory horizons, like CBC Radio 3 R3-30, Zunior and Under the Radar. Another wonderful revolution in this digital age are the internet playlists that you can create like Grooveshark, which you can then pick other playlists much like in iTunes. I also love the Shazam app, picking songs off the TV and radio, which is useful for more well known songs.

Last but not least, my friends! Let me know what you are listening to, what you like, and where you find your new music. I'm loving all the end of the year lists favorite songs that show up in the dead of winter when we all need something to get excited about. I love talking about music with people; I find it's such a personal thing, and you really get to know what a person is like from what music makes them happy. 

Here is a list of 15 my favorite songs from 2011

Hummingbird: Imaginary Cities

About As Helpful As You Can Be Without Being Any Help At All: Dan Mangan

Merry Happy: Kate Nash

Black Creek: Valery Gore

Change the Sheets: Kathleen Edwards

Bambi: Tokyo Police Club

Horchata: Vampire Weekend

Sweet Things: Danny Michel 

Stadium Love: Metric

Pumped Up Kicks: Royal Wood

Incredibly Drunk on Whiskey: Memphis

Emerald Lake, AB: Said the Whale

Emerald Isle: Whitehorse

Harmonizin: Dehli 2 Dublin

Why We Fight: Decemberists

There are many other songs I could add... but I think this sums up 2011 for me. Please comment with your favorite songs at the moment, or locations that you use to find new music.  

Edmonton Folk Festival 2011

Date: 04 to 07 August 2011

Venue: Gallagher Park

Who: Niki & Scott

Guest Appearances from Shannon, Kay, Jill, Ian & Tiago.

This was our second year as volunteers for the Folk Fest. We were on Liaison Security as well this year, which I think is a perfect fit for us since we get to walk around and help people. We had a total of 20 hours of shifts over the four days, as well as a few hours of site take down. This year there was no Wednesday night fundraising concert as we have raised enough in the last few years to have a bit of as cushion left in the account. The wonderful food was another highlight again this year, the biggest joy of our festival was a dinner with Peter Brown, the hilarious former host of the afternoon show on CBC Edmonton and the producer of The Irrelevant Show. We also forayed into the surprising delicious realm of deep fried oreos and strawberry covered elephant ears from the food vendors.

Here are a few highlights:
Delhi 2 Dublin
Scott and I finally made it to an after party this year, and it was incredible. We got to the concert room about 20 minutes before the band started and mingled a little, then the room just exploded with energy when this high energy indo-celtic-techno music started. I had heard of them a few times on CBC as they are based out of Vancouver, and their live show really delivers. We danced and danced into the wee hours of the night, and had a chat with the band afterwards. Really a fantastic memory of the festival.

Matt Andersen
We caught a few performances with this amazing soulful blues singer. We saw him a few years ago at Myer Horowitz, and his performances this year definitely turned a few heads this year at Folk Fest. He can project his voice so it give you goosebumps, and his fingers fly up and down on the neck of his guitar, defying physics.

The Secret Sisters
Scott heard of these two country singing siblings on Q a few months ago, and we had been looking for a Canadian tour date to check them out. They sing country, but soulful Johnny Cash country, not modern twangy pop country. The look and sound as if they walked out of the 1950s, harmonizing and playing the heart strings of the crowd.

 KT Tungstall

This Scottish singer-songwriter warmed up the crowd during a brief downpour before Brandi Carlisle played. She really had a sweet stage presence, lots of humor and her performance lifter the spirits and the tarpolines of Gallagher Hill of all the soggy patrons. By the end of her set, there was a beautiful rainbow above the hill and smiling faces of all who braved the storm.

Amelia Curran
From Newfoundland, this Canadian Singer Songwriter participated in many different workshops as well as her concert. Her heart-felt lyrics and down-to-earth stage presence make her an endearing performer and a gem in Canadian Music.

Honorable mentions for performances for this year were the amazing repeat performance from last year's sweetheart, Brandi Carlile, the whistling sensation Andrew Bird, k.d. lang and her cover of hallelujah that warmed the hill, Celtic jazz from the McDades,  Lissie and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

The Indie Queens are Waiting

Dan Mangan

Date: 03Nov11
Venue: Sonic Session/McDougall United Church

Guests: Scott with a special Appearance by Ms. Spina. 

Tickets $32 from Blackbyrd

CBC Radio 3 did a full album Roll-out for all the songs on this album, their first ever. Dan talks about all the songs between performances. The Podcast can be found on the CBC 3 website or iTunes. On the album, a 12 piece band was used, which he brought into Studio 40 for this podcast. The full band really fills out the sound, compared to the first two albums he put out. The strings really complement the songs nicely, if I do say so myself. I think that the art of the album is back in full force. The flow between the songs, and slight overlap in tracks accompanied with reoccurring themes and building a story is great on this album.  

Sonic Session

The local Modern Rock station Sonic 102.9 FM offers this unique and interesting sneak peak into the music industry with tickets that are available as prizes to listeners periodically. They are often difficult to obtain, but we were luck enough to log on at the right time and get a pair of tickets. The session started off late with the band running behind with a tight tour schedule, driving in from Saskatoon from a performance the night before, and a whole bunch of equipment that was difficult to cram into the miniscule listener lounge, running about 40 minutes behind, and cutting the session a little short unfortunately. Personally, I prefer the acoustic listener lounges, as the concert that night will be with the whole band, and it gets VERY LOUD and crammed in that tiny room with a full drum set, trumpet, upright bass, keyboardist and guitarist in there with their amps et cetera. I also was quite a fan of the simpler nice Nice Very Nice album with just Dan Mangan, his second album which was shortlisted for the 2010 Polaris Prize, which he toured with no band to back him up. I will never kick anyone with an upright bass out of any room, as I have a huge crush on the cello/bass; the drummer and the trumpet could've played from the hallway and saved my ears. Oh well, in 40 years when my hearing is failing, I'm sure modern science will invent new ways for me to experience music. 

He addressed his change from singer songwriter to band in his CBC 3 (21:50) a fore mentioned interview, and his movement away from the first two albums, showing up at radio stations with a full band versus the unplugged folk style with just the guitar, and he's trying to evolve his performance from playing in little coffee shops and trying to fill The Railway Club with even 100 people, to the new successes of playing sold out theaters and churches. I can appreciate striving for something new and reinvention, but simple can introduce an element of honesty into a performance. Some of the best reinterpretations of songs I've seen are done by stripping it bare, playing it acoustically with sparse back up... Kind of the reverse of "If I Am Dead" experience he discusses in the CBC radio 3 interview (27:45).

The band was able to play four songs and have a small interview with Layne Mitchell. I usually am quite fond of Layne, familiar from The Zone 91.3 FM back in my university days, and he actually took us on a quite awesome tour of the studio a few years back. Layne seemed a little off his game with this interview, I think due to the rushed nature and the hectic atmosphere leading up to the session, but I feel like he came off a little cavalier in the between set banter with Dan Mangan, particularly about the Sasquatch Festival, and being surprised about Dan's fan base when he had not. I could be reading too much into it, but let me know if you agree when you watch the session for yourselves here: 

Set List: 

Oh Fortune

Leaves, Trees Forest

Rows of Houses 

About As Helpful As You Can Be Without Being Any Help At All

McDougall United Church Performance

Just a little sidebar to say that Blackbyrd really save us from freezing unnecessarily outside before the concert. I headed back into work after a late lunch concert, and was stuck there a little late, so we didn't get to McDougall until 2015, when doors were at 1930. The line-up was half a block long and not moving very quickly with some delays at the door confirming tickets. Scott and I are huge supporters of buying tickets at our local music store Blackbyrd whenever they are available, and we picked one of the last few there a week before the concert. We would much rather the handling fee go to  local music than Ticketmaster. Oh, fortune for us, an organizer walked down the line and offered anyone with actual tickets (that can tear vs the print off) to jump the line and go right in. We leaped to the front with a lot of glares from those stuck in the cold and nabbed a great spot in the balcony to the left of the stage.  We were able to get to the Merch table before the vinyl sold out, and get all comfy and settled in during the first opening band.

And that's why you support local music stores: rewards for doing what's right.

There were two opening bands: The Crackling & Daredevil Christopher Wright. We arrived halfway through the set of The Crackling. The lead singer is Kenton Loewen, the drummer from Dan Mangan's band (as well as Mother Mother). The song writing was solid, a little jazzy; I think the style was a fitting warm up tone for the people streaming in from the cold.  I forgave Kenton from his earlier assault of my tympanic membranes in the listener lounge. Daredevil Christopher Wright played for another 45 minutes as the rest of the crowd streamed in, filling out the terrace in the church. They opened with an interesting acappella song, which was a tad awkward, but definitely got the attention of the crowd, which is difficult to do when you are billed as "Guests" on the performance.

Dan Mangan

 Dan Mangan took to the stage around 2210 and was onstage until midnight, much to the chagrin of my sleepy Scotty. It was quite a late night, reminding me why mid week concerts are reserved for those artists that you really can't miss.... Although it made getting up for a flight to New York at 0400 the next morning quite atrocious. The church was packed to the brim, with people on the floor in front of the congregational seating and the terrace seats all filled up also.  

Set List 

About As Helpful As You Can Be Without Being Any Help At All
Sold 
Oh Fortune
Leaves, Trees, Forest
Post-War Blues
Basket
You Silly Git
Road Regrets
If I Am Dead
Daffodil
Starts With Them, Ends With Us
Some People
Rows Of Houses
How Darwinian
Jeopardy
    
The Indie Queens Are Waiting
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
Robots 

The set was great. With a mix of old and new songs, more of an emphasis on the new album, but a definite nod to the previous albums, and one solo song midway through the set. There was such a friendly, loving atmosphere, with lighthearted banter between sets. The band sounded excited to be only two sleeps from retuning home to Vancouver before the European leg of their tour began. A few areas got a little long winded and instrumentally exploratory, but all in all a great performance. The traditional closing song of Robots included Mr. Mangan hopping along the tops of the pews into the crowd and rousing chants from the crowd; something we all know but rarely have a chance to bequeath: robots need love too. 

The title "Oh Fortune" is based on Gertude Ederly swimming the English Channel and arriving home to a ticker-tape parade. Large monumental events like this impact many lives, with individual yet collective memories of one situation. Be it good or bad, these events shape what happens in our lives. It's a type of fate, but also a logical impact of causal relationships later in life and within a community. The album is a solids follow up, and I enjoy the variety of instruments on the album, although sometimes there is too much going to dissect all the parts, but just enjoy it as a whole. I suppose that is true for monumental events too. I really enjoy Rows of Houses from the new album, as well as Leaves, Trees Forest. Jeopardy is also awesome, for the mere fact that every verse is stated in the form of a question.

From the previous album, I really enjoy Les Mot Croises and Pine for Cedars, neither of which were played in the set. I heard a interview where Dan discussed the significance of crosswords to him and how he would work through them with his now fiance in the early days of his relationship, and the song always has resonated with me after. Pine for Cedars reminds me of the west coast, and days when I feel home sick for a forest where I can feel dwarfed by the lush green forests that make you feel safe yet insignificant, a brief moment in the life of a beautiful giant. 

Guest Post for Royal Wood

Hi All!
For some festive fall fun, I wrote a guest post for my friend Isabelle on livingthelife, the concert blog being the inspiration for my own blog.

Sundown in the Paris of the Prairies

Date: 14 July 2011
Venue: Northlands

Guests: Carmen, Kevin and Derek
Tickets: Kevin

Broken Social Scene

This group from Toronto based band played a solid opening set, although I'm not certain they were an appropriate choice for the crowd in attendance. The crowd seemed slightly older, with more heavy rock tenancies than the typical Sonic crowd, and although the set was well executed, it didn't command the regard they deserved. The group consists of musicians from a few different indie band, do not like to refer to themselves as a super-group, as that suggests: stability of the group, international fame or super powers of the members. None of which are applicable. The indie music scene in Canada shares a lot of projects, this being one of them, with many collaborations sprouting up between a small community of artists.  Depending on the artist, the year and the songs, the bang is constantly evolving and changing. I really enjoyed their set and were glad they were the opening band, and by the end of the set, it felt like the crowd eventually came around.

The Tragically Hip

 The atmosphere was perfect. The set started when the sun was still up (you have to love the long evenings of Edmonton summers) and continued past sundown. the crowd was so excited and was just humming with anticipation by the time the Hip took the stage. The general atmosphere was a bit rowdy (aforementioned) so there was moshing, people sitting on other peoples shoulders and quite a bit of crowd surfing. To the point where Gord called them out about how utterly lame it was to crowd surf, yet the surfing continued. I don't think the crowd surfers were listening... must be all the water in their ears.

 

Set List

Blow At High Dough

Grace, Too
Love Is A First
Streets Ahead
Gift Shop
Ahead By A Century
In View
Poets
At The Hundredth Meridian

Wheat Kings
Drip Drip
Fully Completely
Courage
Bobcaygeon
New Orleans Is Sinking
 Little Bones

 The Kids Don't Get It
 My Music At Work

 

The Hip have a way of charming a crowd, even a rowdy one. By the time Poets was played, the ruckus subsided (perhaps people had been outside the beer garden long enough to quell the effects of inebriation, or the smoke mellowed them out enough that we could enjoy the show) and the atmosphere was one of people just enjoying beautiful music on a gorgeous night. My favorite song of the night was Wheat Kings, a personally favorite and an anthem to Scott and my life in Alberta so far (although the song might be about Saskatoon, I think that when the lights are just right, and you squint just a little, an oil derrick resembles the Tour d'eiffel quite nicely).

Under the ticket cost, you may see that I listed Kevin instead of currency. This part was really awesome. The Hip awarded free tickets to members of the Armed forces and their dates. I think this is a fantastic idea and applaud them for this. My friend Carmen was going with her boyfriend Derek, and was able to convince their room mate Kevin to bring me along as a date, and his girlfriend was in Calgary. For this, I am every so grateful, and forever indebted... or until I buy Kevin some JD.. whatever comes first.

Originating in Kingston, Ontario in 1983, the band is truly a mathematical phenomenon: with the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. The front man, Gord Downie, is quite a character on stage. He quite often goes off on rants or gets quite experimental, but I feel as part of the band, he is grounded a little, making the music more accessible and cutting those rants with a awesome bass line to back it up makes it seem more like beat poetry than sporadic ramblings of a mad man. The solo act of Gord Downie and the Country of Miracles is a (fully) completely different beast than the Tragically Hip, and I think that speaks to the wonderful chemistry that the Hip brings to the stage.

My favorite memories associated with the Hip are from my High School Basketball team. Our Coach, Mark Neufeld (no relation), was a huge Hip fan, and we warmed up to  Blow At High Dough, New Orleans is Sinking as well the Cure and some other songs that are eluding my memory now. I can't help to think of those wonderful days of friendship, teamwork, and soul construction when I hear of the Hip. There was this gorgeous house in the middle of the woods in Shawnigan Lake by the Koksilah River, with a full sized outdoor court surrounded by huge Douglas fir trees on the base of a mountain. He would rouse us for training camp with some Hip blasted at full volume, then we would run up the mountain, make brekkie and play ball all day surrounded by the beauty of nature.  Strongly recommend it for building skills, team work and character. 

Tenacious Basketball Camp