User:Theshowmecanuck

Me
I live in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada. I like bicycles, blues, guitars, drums, photography, and would like to win the lottery so can retire in this life. Speaking of which, it would be nice to make sense of this one. Ah well, this is it, gotta make the best of it.

How I Get My Name

 * Missouri: state in the U.S. midwest whose motto is "The Showme State", as in "show me, don't tell me".
 * Canuck: euphemism for a Canadian.
 * The ShowmeCanuck: a Canadian who was brought to Saint Louis by his work in computer software, who lived in Saint Louis, Missouri for a little more than six years, and has since considered it his real home town; even though he is forced to return to his native Canada (which he has a love/hate relationship with). A guy who, if only the United States would get rid of their pig headed immigration policies, would spend the rest of his life there enjoying all the things the city has to offer (and which for some unfathomed reason many native Saint Louisians seem to overlook). And especially reveling and playing the finest music going: Saint Louis Blues. Down Home Blues.

Saint Louis and the Blues
There are places where would-be bluesmen and women go because of reputations formed by famous recording studios, like Chicago and Memphis. And then there are places where the recording studios never materialized, but still there are the blues musicians. How is that? It is because they are there just becasue that is where they are, many born and raised, some by chance. It is the nature of the place. They are there, and they are bluesmen. They are bluesmen not because of reputations. Not because of the draw of popular myth and culture. And certainly not there because of studios and labels famous for their blues recordings. They are there because they are there, however they got there. And they play blues... because that is what they do, and that is what they like to do, want to do, and that is what they do. And that is why they play the blues like it is supposed to be played: with a feeling. People from elsewhere, from outside the Mississippi floodplain, can play the blues note for note, every measure played in its time. But unless you know how to play with a feeling, a feeling that rises from the proximity to its home on the banks of the great river, it just isn't the same. And in Saint Louis, they play with a feeling. Chicago blues is great, slick, and professionally polished. Memphis blues seems to be slowly fading. But the gritty Urban Blues of Saint Louis maintains. It is what I love.