Barking Space

Elaboration

I posted this entry a few days ago. It was woefully short, but I wanted to get something out and I didn’t have much time. In my opinion, Pamela‘s music probably speaks volumes more to people than my entire blog, and probably doesn’t need publicity to do well, but I figured I’d publish something short for the purpose of earmarking the subject for a more lengthy post at a later date.

And here we are.

It’s not really a plug, so much as it is me just talking about a good friend that I’m very proud of. Well, maybe it’s also slightly pluggish.

In the Olden Days

I met Pamela in high school. We got along fairly well due to the fact that we both had a strange sense of humour and shared some likes and dislikes.

I was always in awe of Pamela’s musical ability. For a lithe gal she has a huge voice. It never failed to blow me away. On top of that, she played the guitar very well. I was in awe. On top of all of that, Pamela was always willing to share her gift with others.

Our high school had a chapel which was not used all that often. With the exception of being used as a spare classroom from time to time, the chapel was usually available for people to hang out in. The acoustics were nice, so practicing guitar in the space was a no-brainer.

Pamela would teach me how to play chords and tunes on the guitar. She taught me a number of songs, but the two are permanently etched in my memory are Stairway to Heaven and More than Words. Whether this is a good thing or not is still up for debate.

We were also in a play together (Bye Bye Birdie). Pamela played Kim and I played Conrad. It was certainly a lot of fun. Pamela made performing on stage much easier because for all of her ability she was not pretentious in the slightest. She would treat you as an equal, no matter how tone-deaf or horrible you were.

After we graduated, Pamela was someone that I always kept in touch with.

Hennessey

After a few years, I went to see Pamela play in Ottawa with a newly-formed band called Hennessey. They had some catchy tunes and played well together. I remember it was in a crowded pub in Ottawa and I enjoyed every minute. Good, honest music is always the best kind.

I’ve actually lost count of how many times I’ve made it out to see Hennessey play. I know it was quite a lot. I’d make sure to see them whenever they played in Toronto.

While all of Pamela’s covers with the band during this time were great, her versions of Big Yellow Taxi and Carey by Joni Mitchell rank among my favourite covers of all time.

My highlight of her Hennessey days was when she asked me to be in a music video called The Fifty Most Beautiful People. I joked with her that she’d have to change the title to The Fifty Most Beautiful People and That Ugly Brown guy. She didn’t laugh as long as I thought she would.

I kid.

Solo

Pamela eventually struck it out on her own. She lived a short distance away from me, so it was pretty exciting when she asked me to do some publicity stills for her.

So we booked an afternoon and took some shots. It’s not really hard when your subject is photogenic. However, the intimidating part was to produce images that would show her character. It’s hard to portray what someone might sound like through an image, but it’s possible. I’ve always felt that managed to capture some of the magic that is Pamela.

A little while after that shoot, Pamela was part of a show at Hugh’s Room called “Girls Doing Guys” in which female artists did cover tunes from their favourite male artists. It was at that show that Pamela and Lori Cullen did a version of Mercy, Mercy Me by Marvin Gaye that was (and I kid you not) better than the original. I swear to God.

Since then I’ve tried to get out and see her. It’s been tough, what with having Baby J and all.

Pamela has worked hard on her album called One Hundred Photographs for the last “Four Years, Two Months, Fifteen Days, Seven Hours, Twenty-Two Minutes and Forty-Two Seconds. Approximately.”, according to her.

The hard work certainly shows. I really enjoy listening to her stuff.

Check it out..

Filed under: Anecdotes, Announcements, Friends, Interest | 1 Comment »