And then the snow flew...

Posted by Deon on October 14, 2009

Greetings!

I hope this finds you well, it has been a while since I have written and I apologize to those that actually read this.

OK so, when did I write last? what info are you missing? oh OK looks like July was when last we spoke. Well then, here it goes! 

Summer was great , got a good tan, life changed completely for me. You know at some point in life you have a realization of who you are and what you want, I will turn 33 this winter and I think I have had that realization. It's not that I don't have a great "dream/goal/passion" that I am working toward. It's that I have so many "dreams/goals/passions" that I am working towards. And I am confident in my world view and the ways in which I tackle each of these consistently and with all other things in balance. I will enjoy life and all things in it along the way, a life shared is better than simply a life experienced alone. I can benefit only so much from experiences alone, it's when I share those experiences that life gets really good! Stay open. 

September was a month full of great experiences, on Sept 7th I landed in Victoria BC for the first time in my life. I did some camping and sight seeing and played a show with the mighty Edmonton band The Wheat Pool http://www.thewheatpool.com . It was a good start to a 6 week road trip. I then flew to the exact other side of Canada, Halifax NS. It is impressive how different and the same two ocean side cities of similar size can be. From Halifax I slowly worked my way back across Canada, just thinking as I am typing maybe I'll give you a run down of restaurant highlights from my cross Canada tour? I am a total food geek and would watch the Food Network for days if I had nothing else to do. OK I'll give you a list at the end. We should probably talk music somewhere in here too hey? 

I played a show in Ottawa with a lovely lady named Elise vT, she brought all of her friends and fans out and it turned into a great night! I came back from the road a couple times for shows in Edmonton, one of which was with the band, band shows are always a nice treat and I always look forward to them. Many friends and fans tell me they prefer me to play solo, while there is a certain freedom to playing solo it is a lot of work. Singing your heart out and trying to ignore the fact that most of the room is chatting, brings on a nervous fight in side a solo artist that makes them either give up on "winning" the crowd over or makes them fight harder. It's exhausting, and takes a massive toll on an artists heart and soul when you do this night after night. This leads me to a wonderful show I played recently in Edmonton at the Myer Horowitz Theater opening for the lovely ladies of Dala http://www.dalagirls.com . This show was a real treat, it has been a goal of mine to play at this theater ever since seeing so many of my favorite artists there (Sarah Harmer, Danny Michel, Ron Sexsmith etc) and on Oct 1st I did! In this venue no one chats during the show and you could hear a pin drop, equal parts pleasurable and terrifying! Ultimately a great night and one for the personal history books. So back to the road trip, after Ottawa I spent a week in Toronto and area catching up with some Calgary "ex pats", some local friends and clearing my head, then over to Winnipeg for a few days actually again catching up with some Calgary "ex pats". I then had a quick stop in Calgary to open for current "it boy" and fantastic artist Dan Mangan, at the sold out Marquee Room, great night. The morning after this I flew out to Vancouver for two days and now have been back in C-Town for the last week. Home is a good thing after a long trip of rental cars/airplanes/airports/hotels/room service/restaurants, speaking of restaurants, here's a list of my fav's in Canada. 

Victoria - Pagliaccis - Home cooked Italian dishes named after classic movie titles and characters. 

Halifax - The Economy Shoe Shop - Pub food in a historical character building that actually used to be a shoe shop.

Ottawa - The Black Tomato - Equal parts rustic wood floored bistro, chic pub and record store.

Toronto - So many to choose from, highlight this trip though - Rancho Relaxo - Authentic and delicious Mexican food. 

Winnipeg - Dale and Abi's Kitchen - The only home cooked meal of the trip! fantastic.

Vancouver - Alibi Room - Trendy BOHO chic atmosphere with rustic food delights. (downstairs is a completely different universe, try not to get sucked in when heading to the powder room)

So back in Calgary for a least a few weeks, some local shows upcoming and I will be heading back to NYC again for a show on Nov 25th! I love that city. I will also be heading into the studio a few times in October to start demoing some of the twenty "songs/songs in progress" and decide which will make the new album. I am toying with the idea of doing the next album with me playing all instruments...I demoed a tune called "Winnipeg Italy" http://www.myspace.com/deonb last winter on which I played everything and it was a great experience and gave me the itch to do the entire new record this way. We shall see how the demos sound and decide from there!  

Oh the weather...It was interesting to see autumn fall over Canada as I traveled across and back to town, and then the snow flew...

db.  

Well then...

Posted by Deon on July 9, 2009

Hi

Well then...how have you been? Things have been realy cool since my last entry, had a few shows here and there. A great night at Cafe Duex Soliels in Vancouver was had with Jon Bunyan and Tariq and Jody Glenham, lots of fun and great tunes! I hadn't seen Tariq since folk fest in Calgary in 2008 and he and I have been in contact about playing a show together since and just couldn't make it work, so it was a real treat to find out he would be playing with Jon B at this show.

I was introduced to another world AKA "the next level" when in mid June I was asked to open for Kate Voegele (One Tree Hill / Myspace Interscope Records) for 2 shows when she came through Edmonton and Calgary. I was happy to come play and didnt know quite what to expect, other than being told the Edmonton show was moved to a bigger venue because of demand and that the Calgary show was completely sold out. It can be pretty easy to get used to fairly small shows as a normal thing at this stage of my musical journey, so walking out on to the stage both of those nights with people packed right up to the front of the stage and being completely engaged, was a real treat! The crowd both nights was fantastic and totally into my set, I must admit I was a little scared being a "bit" older than Kate and her fans that it might make it hard to connect. But it was great! talked to a lot of new fans nearly all of whom bought CD's, thanks everyone! A lovely young lady named Navkiran filmed a few tunes from the Edmonton show and posted them on youtube check em out http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=deon+blyan+&search_type=&aq=f 

Took a great 2.5 week holiday, 4 days in San Francisco, 5 days at the lake in Sask and 5 days beside a mountain in Kananaskis!

A few great shows on the horizon, and funny that they are all in Edmonton, check here http://www.deonblyan.com/shows.php or here http://www.myspace.com/deonb for up to date gig listing. I am really looking forward to the Oct 1st show at the Myer Horowitz Theatre, It has been a long time goal of mine to play there, I have seen some very inspirational shows there, Ron Sexsmith, Danny Michel and Sara Harmer. I will be opening for a great duo from Toronto called Dala www.dalagirls.com

Hope to be playing Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto and Vancouver this fall.

Well...I hope you are having a great summer! until next time, I have become addicted to twitter so if you want to keep up with me and my shenanigans you can come follow me here http://twitter.com/Deon_Blyan

Deon

New things!

Posted by Deon on May 14, 2009

Hey everyone!

It has been a while since I updated here, I finally have some news worthy items to share so here we go!

New press in VUE Magazine Edmonton for the show this Saturday May 16th check it out here http://www.vueweekly.com/article.php?id=12002 or pick up a copy of VUE if you are in Edmonton.

New demo recordings of songs here www.myspace.com/deonb titles are as follows; Wininpeg Italy, Earthquake and Across Street 23. I am very proud of Winnipeg Italy, on this demo recording I actually played all the instruments and produced, it is slightly long and with more time I will touch some of the performances up but a great start in my mind.

If you are at a show please come say hi!

Till next time...

db

Happy Belated! reflections on a year...

Posted by Deon on January 15, 2009

Happy New Year I guess!? my appologies for being tardy.

So I'm supposed to give you my "best of" lists and what not? Well... tough thing to do, not many albums tickled my fancy this year, or maybe I just didnt buy any? I had to of though. I'm not going to be able to devise a grand list, I can give you some highlights of discs i have lstened the heck out of this year though, cool?

Teddy Thompson - A Piece of What you Need. I saw Teddy play at the first show of his tour in Toronto at the Horse Shoe, excellent, I'm a huge fan. Radioheads In Rainbows was delightful (was that 2007 though? what evs) Mathew Barbers Ghost Notes is a great album, Mathew opened for Teddy at the Horse Shoe and I totally missed his set, we bumped into each other before the other opening band went on and chit chatted and exchanged albums, great guy. Luke Doucet and the White Falcon, Bloods Too Rich, Fantastic! and I told Luke this at the Dakota Tavern in Toronto, completely smashed...embarassing kinda. Ray Lamontagne wins for the happiest openning song on Gossip in the Grain, great horn section! The I'm Not There soundtrack was incredible, Going To Acapulco by Claexico and Jim James, brilliant, and Moonshiner by Bob Forrest, SOO Good. I'm always a fan of Ron Sexsmith's albums, Exit Strategy for the Soul is very good, also some great horn sections. The New Kings of Leon Album Only the Night is great too. I bought a Gram Parsons box set and The Byrds best of. Cardinology from Ryan Adams and the Cardinals is growing on me too.

I had some great musical highlighths and Deon Blyan shows this year. Canadian Music Week was a blast even if not exactly what it is marketed as, I made some great friends and played the Dakota Tavern for the first time. I played in New York City in the summer of 2008! the place I played was in Greenwich Village on Bleeker St. Incredible, if only those streets could speak! the Western Canadian Music Awards were also a great time, me and the Edmonton band had a great show! I took a really fun little tour to Vancouver with the Greg Cockerill band from Calgary, we played the Railway Club and then on a yaught/party boat, weird but so cool.

2008 was also the year of me re-connecting with my multi instrumental abilities. I actually am a drummer and started playing when I was 13yrs old (thats about 20 yrs ago wow) I was enlisted as a part time drummer with Calgary Alt Country band Cowpuncher, love it! we had some really scary/fun/hilarious shows this year, Nanton, Tofield, RoundHill, Lethbridge, South Country Fair, Fernie, Winnipeg and some great ones here in Ctown. I also played a few shows as lead guitar! this is really exciting for me, I actual played a solo for one song at a Juanita Brandt show and when the solo ended the crowd applauded! very jazz, and a huge boost to my guitar ego, I'm still not a "great" lead player but I will certainly now at least try more.

Yay 2008! thanks for everything! I only even shared the half of it here but hey. 2009 lets do this!

db

Western Canadian Music Awards!

Posted by Deon on September 15, 2008

We are happy to announce that Deon and Band will be playing as a part of the WCMA showcase festival in Edmonton.

Here are the deets peeps,

Oct 17th, 2008 9pm

The Velvet Underground

10030 102nd street, Edmonton AB

Shameless Records Canada / Saved By Radio Records

Line up

Mark Davis

Deon Blyan and band

Andy Shauf

Lorrie Matheson

F&M

History, Heritage and Now

Posted by Deon on August 10, 2008

I really love history and the heritage of things, nearly all things. I love seeing pictures of a city or street corner from years past, even more so i love hearing the story of the people who walked on that street corner or those city streets from years past. As soon as the story is about musicians/artists/poets/thinkers/movie makers etc I'm completely hooked.

Having read Bob Dylan's Chronicles volume 1 and visualizing his accounts of living and playing music in Greenwich Village in NYC, you can imagine how my mind was blown a few weeks ago when I traveled to the very same streets to play a show in Greenwich Village. Walking through the Village zig zagging down Bleeker St. I found myself morph into the ultimate tourist geek with my camera in hand pointing at each and every music venue that Mr. Dylan played. I normally love to quietly find a great neighborhood in a city and be a local for the time I'm there, in NYC on this my first trip, that was impossible. Much to much heavy heritage of the sort of things that went on there during the late fifties and all the way to today i guess. In all cases I'm sure the characters involved were simply going about their daily business doing what they do oblivious to how they were completely influencing music and culture for the foreseeable future. Bob in his book claims to have had a slight inkling of what was happening, this would certainly prove a portion of his mystique as an icon. I wonder if Ryan Adams felt the same way? Living at the Chelsea Hotel (Bob D also did) recording at Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village (originally owned by Jimi Hendrix) and shuffling down the streets of Chelsea, Soho, Greenwich Village, and the Lower East Side. I guess what i'm saying is if you love music history and heritage or even just love a great city and amazing food and the option of doing anything you want at anytime of day nearly, you should visit NYC.

The rest of the summer is going to be really busy for me, some great shows are planned and some great times shall be had! Since last we spoke, I have had the fortune of being involved and or playing at The South Country Fair (Fred Eaglesmith insisted I take a sip of some green mixture in his mug, Geoff Berner and I discussed how under rated Mike Macdonald and his influence through Dinosaur JR. is. Looking back some moments in the Artist Lounge strike a close resemblance to moments on the movie Festival Express, festivals are a lot of fun) and The Calgary Folk Fest. I didn't play the CFF but helped out as a tech on a side stage, some great musical moments were witnessed, if you haven't heard of any of the following musicians you should look them up. Outlaw Social, Sam Baker, Mark Erelli and Basia Bulat.

Take a look at the shows page and come on out to the closest gig to you, I'll do my best not to disappoint!

Next Time!

db

Updates

Posted by Deon on June 17, 2008

The beginning of summer has been quite good. All of the shows up till now have been really great and a lot of fun! Thanks to everyone who has been out to support and take it in.

I have been enjoying playing as a trio lately as well, it's nice to meet some great guys who eat sleep and breathe music throughout Canada, i have updated the photo gallery with shots from most of the shows i've played lately, have a look see.

Now on You Tube is a video of us playing "I Won't be Far" in Calgary at the Marquee Room see it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_M6A2yrPHs.

 later

db

Today and forward thinking...

Posted by Deon on May 7, 2008

Today marks the begining of an exciting summer of shows for me. I am sitting here in downtown Vancouver in what has become over the last 2 years "my neighborhood". I don't live here but have spent enough time here the last while that i feel completely at home. I have always loved Vancouver and have been trying to play here for a great long time. Well, today is official show number one! I have also decided that I need to relax and write and finish some of the 5 or 6 partial songs I have in the works this week. Lovely as well that the week will end with a show on Sunday at the Railway Club here.

I feel good these days, my newest album is called "Lessons and other things learned" you may well know, and it is quite fitting because I truly believe life is simply a series of lessons and I feel as though I am constantly learning. I guess some of us take longer to learn certain lessons though? Today's lesson is that its fine to happy today with today instead of a constant expectation of the future. OK enough now, sorry I have songs to write!

db

New shows! New York City here I come!

Posted by Deon on May 2, 2008

Hello web followers!

lots of shows on the horizon if you're in any of these cities please come out and bring all your friends! I'll do my best not to dissapoint.

May 7th Cafe Duex Soliels - Vancouver, BC (solo)

May 11th The Railway Club - Vancouver , BC (solo, opening for the Human Staues)

May 17th The Marquee Room - Calgary, AB (Trio, opening for Manraygun)

June 3rd The Dakota Tavern - Toronton, ON (Deon and Band)

June 7th Hughes House House Concert - Calgary, AB (solo with guest Scott Macleod)

June 14th Crown Pub - Edmonton, AB ( band with Paul Bellows)

July 22nd Kenny's Castaways - New York City, NY (solo)

 I am very excited to make my USA debute in New York! Kenny's Castaways is in the historical Greenwich Village on Bleeker street and is said to be the first place Bruce Springsteen played in NYC!

Keep your eyes peeled for more dates, should be appearing in Toronto again this summer as well, all details for shows are in the shows section of the site.

be good all!

 db

Canadian Music Week mayhem!

Posted by Deon on March 14, 2008

Well!

How was CMW you ask? really actually quite good! I am as you may know a bit of a sceptic when it comes to this industry, shhh... don't tell anyone! But this little festival was great, I didn't attend one single conference or meeting at the Royal York with all the artists lined up to be seen. However I played my showcase at the Dakota Tavern and in the good old fashioned way I met a bunch of rad peeps!

Mr. Trainsleeper came all the way from Vancouver and backed me up on guitar and BG's, I sure hope he finishes his new record his stuff is great. Then a delightful group from Southwest Australia called The Audreys played, this night began a 4 night marathon of songs and suds with these Ausies. More on that later. The Deep Dark Woods played a scorcher of a set with Shuyler Jansen on keys and guitar (Think The Band but faster and harder) Then Shuyler Jansen played his fantastic songs with the DDW backing him, great!

Shawn is the owner of the Dakota and one stand up dude he is! If you ever get to Toronto on a Sunday make darn sure you end up at The Dakota Tavern you won't regret it it's a barn burner! The Beauties are the house band and they have many many special guests who join them during the night, I had the privelage of being one of them!

 What now you say? The post fest come down? nah to busy for that, I'll tell you whats next... The Dakota Tavern again soon and maybe just maybe....Australia?!

 OK go outside now.

db

Update: In the Key of A

Posted by Deon on February 1, 2008

My interview with Katherine Duncan will air on CBC radio one Feb 2nd 2008 at 5pm (MST)

Tune in to hear about all the artists I copy and about how my crappy love life makes great songs!

OK, maybe I'm just a bit self conscious about this interview... it probably won't sound that dismal, tune in to hear for yourself.

you can listen online at www.cbc.ca or on your local CBC radio frequency.

 ciao,

In the Key of A

Posted by Deon on January 21, 2008

Katherine Duncan host's a great radio show called in The Key of A that airs on CBC radio 1 on Saturdays at 5pm. On this show Katherine chats with an Alberta musician and plays tracks from their catalogue.

I will be heading down to the CBC studios tomorrow afternoon to chat about my new album and topics of the like. as soon as I know when the piece will air I will ensure you know!

Till then...

-d

P.S. did I mention I will be playing a showcase spot at Canadian Music Week in March? check the shows section to see the location

NEWS!

Posted by Deon on January 8, 2008

It looks like 2008 is starting out quite well!

new shows added, Canadian Music Week here we come! More chat later... -d

Top's for 2007

Posted by Deon on December 18, 2007

Ok, a bit early and I may revise as I give it more thought, but here are my top's for 2007. (keep in mind these are albums I discovered in 07' not necessarily released then) in no particular order.

Top 10 Albums of 2007  

Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger

Josh Rouse - Country Mouse City House

Wilco - Sky Blue Sky

Richard Swift - Dressed up for the let down

Travis - The Boy with no name

Lyle Lovett - It's not big it's large

Radiohead - In Rainbows

Greg Laswell - Through Toledo

The Wheat Pool - Township

James Murdoch - In Transit

Top 5 live shows of 2007

Josh Rouse w/ Jason Collett - The Plaza, Vancouver BC

Ron Sexsmith w/ Jill Barber - The Cohn, Halifax NS

The Wheat Pool - Varscona theatre, Edmonton AB

James Murdoch - Haar theatre, Edmonton AB

Wilco w/ Richard Swift - Jubilee, Calgary AB

-d

Re scheduled show comes sooner than expected!

Posted by Deon on December 5, 2007

Canceled show

Posted by Deon on December 4, 2007

Hello internet,

Sorry but the show tonight at the Ironwood in Calgary with Twilight Hotel is canceled. Twilight Hotel had to cancel their entire tour (sucks). the Ironwood will host their regular open stage instead, I'll still head down to play and hang out.

Watch for a rescheduled show at the Ironwood soon!

 d.

New TV appearance

Posted by Deon on December 4, 2007

Dec 5th at 9am, if you live in and around Calgary tune in to see Deon live on City TV's Breakfast show, BT. 

Playing a tune or 2 from "Lessons" and chatting with the host.  

New Press

Posted by Deon on November 13, 2007

Francois Marchand spoke to Deon about the new record in the Edmonton Journal, read the interview online as well as the podcast guide.

You can find these pieces here in the reviews and press kit sections.

To Here...Here...From here...

Posted by Deon on November 9, 2007

To Here...
What a big 6 weeks it's been! After 6 long years the new album has been officially pollished up and released to the public, I have played my first 2 shows in Toronto ever (one a CD release show), crossed Canada once and most recently played two great full band CD release shows, one in Edmonton and the other in Calgary. Alberta radio has been very kind and the album has been recieving airplay and features on CKUA, CJSW, and CJSR, I have also played live and been interviewed on both CJSW and CJSR. (Thanks to all the DJ's and stations!) Thanks to everyone who helped with the release shows and also to all who attended and made them all memorable and special!

Here...
As mentioned the album is at the radio stations listed above as well as most university stations across Canada, please call and request it as much as you want, lets let everyone hear it!The album is also available for purchase at the following places

• Megatunes ( Edmonton and Calgary)
• Itunes online music store- www.shamelessrecordscanada.com
• At each and every show

It's been a long time coming but I will this week be a dot com! the website address is www.deonblyan.com and it is loaded up with reviews of the album, live pictures, and journal entries to give you some interesting web reading to start. I'll be sure to keep it updated and full of e - fun for all who enjoy such things.

From Here...
Concerts! Gigs! shows! whatever you wanna call em, I've gottem! After all the hullaballoo of CD release shows I'm gonna bring it all back down and play some acoustic shows. Some say this is what I do best, I love both full band and solo shows. check in the shows section for details.

Across the country...to here...

Posted by Deon on November 2, 2007

Well, Hi blog reading people, are you out there? I'll write this trusting you are and you’re reading...It's been an incredibly eventful 6 or 8 weeks; let me go back to the beginning for you... In the middle of September I left home for a 5 week jaunt across our great land. The weird thing is this jaunt started in the middle of our great land in Winnipeg. Winnipeg was oddly and yet expectedly cold for the middle of Sept. it was only a 3 day stay but a stay in the right part of town apparently...there was some big fashion convention or something and all the models were staying in my hotel! I never did lay eyes on any of these creatures but I got a pleasant description from likely one of Winnipeg's oldest night owls, a kind gentleman who you could find each and every night at the hotel bar. One night we conversed, Earl (I'll call him Earl here because I completely forget his name) with his cheese plate and white wine and me with my bottle of Stella. Earl adamantly proclaimed that Winnipeg was once a high class joint (never said it wasn't...honestly) and that I should go out get me a girl! I ended up at some grand establishment with some friends who wanted dancing; I watched them dance for a while and headed back to the hotel through the windy and chilly streets of downtown high class.Then I went to Vancouver! I love Vancouver I never get sick of going there. One week on the agenda to be in "Van." Night one in Van and my friend Mr. Trainsleeper guided us down to some "party warehouse" near East Hastings for the Vancouver Comedy Fest after party. There are a lot of comedians you've never heard of! and let’s just leave it as this was a really weird night. I went to see Josh Rouse and Jason Collett at the Plaza, great show! Josh is nice and rocking live really digs in. Ended up on the guest list for the Besnard Lakes, Mohawk Lodge and some band with one line of lyrics in their whole set, not to mention 2 drummers, 2 vibes players, a violinist and a sit in trumpeter, at Richards on Richards. Next to Toronto...straight from the airport to my show at the Savannah Room, nice little room and very kind staff, all in all a painless first show in the big smoke! A few days later my good friend Paul Bellows flew out to join another good friend J Ryan Waye and I at Holy Joes for my first official CD release show! This was a great night although a very small room we can proudly say all the seats were filled! Paul's Rochester NY fans showed up as well, quite a pleasant surprise. The Holy Joes night ended with us hungry and wondering why someone called the cops on us. (that’s a whole other story though).Now off to Ottawa! Ottawa was a place for recovery on this trip, took some time to sleep and relax. walked through downtown with an umbrella in the rain, sipped coffee across from the parliament and went to an Ottawa Senators game. Good times. Once my French friend arrived things got a bit more interesting. Late night in Hull Quebec (which very well could have been France to me) sitting in a pub surrounded by people gabbing at each other in French, so confusing! I need to learn French so then I can brush up on it. If you ever go to Ottawa go the Black Tomato restaurant in the Byward Market! magnificent!Halifax, still going yes! Land, stop at hotel, rush down to the Cohn theatre for Ron Sexsmith and Jill Barber, fantastic show! Ron is one of my favourites of all time, such great song writing and delivery. Wonderful guitar player and a real character voice. Ended up at the Economy Shoe Shop (go there) after the show with Ron and his band, chatting and drinking, another night that just took a turn for the absolute crazy and weird. (again that’s a whole other story though). the last night in Halifax brought me to some hip hop CD release show with 4 really not good artists and one really good artist (not sure who he was but I think it was his CD release show) he was like Kanye West from Halifax, pretty cool! up the next morning and finally on a plane home. Oh I drove to Moncton for 1 day when I was in Halifax.And that brings us from there... To here.

I got websited!

Posted by Deon on October 17, 2007

Look at me! I have a website!

No, I am not a deukabore or hudderite or anything like that, I just never bothered to get a website. But now, thanks to Nik, Glenn and the folks at Yellow Pencil - I have a website!

I will be adding more and more content as time goes on so don't be saddened by the lack of info, be gladdened that every time you visit there will be a little more of me revealed... kind of like a stripper... but with little-to-no nudity.