City of Brampton Concert Band

I'm a member of the City of Brampton Concert Band. I play clarinet.

What's a concert band? Remember your high school band? Well, people who've grown up and want to keep playing music join community concert bands. Typical community concert bands have a wide variety of members, from high school students through retirees and everything in between. They may be professional musicians, doctors, dentists, computer consultants, housewives/househusbands, shoe salesmen, shipping clerks, or whatever.

Bands usually play lots of different styles of music, from classical to contemporary to jazz. They tend to play concerts in and around their areas, so chances are pretty good that there's one somewhere near you which would love to see you come out to a concert.

Other instruments

I've played lots of other instruments, with various levels of skill, over the years. There are some recordings I've done of original songs and parodies here.

Covers

Here are some covers I've recorded. For the first two years of this pandemic project, I recorded a new song (mostly covers, with some parodies and originals) every weekend. Since then, I've been doing maybe 2-3 a month, so check back every week or two and there will probably be a new song.

• Amanda Marshall - Dark Horse: She recently returned to recording after a long layoff due to a legal dispute. Here's one of the big hits from her excellent first album. (9 April 2024)
• Chumbawamba - Tubthumping: I figured April Fools' Day would be a good day to release a cover of this song. And in the spirit of the day, I had some fun with it, too. (1 April 2024)
• The Cranberries - Linger: Here's my St. Paddy's Day song for this year. (17 March 2024)
• Anne Murray - Shadows In The Moonlight: The song was written by Americans, but both Anne Murray's recording and mine count as Canadian Content because they're Canadian recordings of Canadians. Plus, obviously it's Canadian - it's Anne Murray! (9 March 2024)
• Tokyo Police Club - Hot Tonight: Tokyo Police Club announced last month that they're splitting up later this year, so I decided to cover one of their songs. (24 February 2024)
• David Soul - Don't Give Up On Us: I covered this song as a tribute to David Soul, the Starsky & Hutch star who died earlier this month. In addition to acting, he also had a career as a singer, and this song was his big hit. (30 January 2024)
• Paul Janz - Close My Eyes: I covered a hit by his previous band, Deliverance, last year. He had more success (at least in Canada) as a solo artist in the 1980s, so I covered one of his solo hits. (10 January 2024)
• Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home): My Christmas single this year, like last year's, is a song from the 1960s that's probably better known for being covered by a rock band (in this case, U2). (20 December 2023)
• Killjoys - I've Been Good: This band from Hamilton had a few minor hits in Canada, and it could be argued they deserved more. (7 December 2023)
• Aldo Nova - Fantasy: It's a 1980s song, so I decided to cover it in a 1980s style (but different from its original style): synthpop! (7 November 2023)
• Justin Bieber - Ghost: Here's my Hallowe'en single for this year. (30 October 2023)
• BTS - Permission To Dance: I took this song in a bit of a different direction than BTS did. I hope they don't send their army after me! (20 September 2023)
• Robbie Robertson - What About Now: I covered this as a tribute to this great songwriter who died last month. (6 September 2023)
• Deliverance - Leaving L.A.: Those of you who lived through the 1970s will probably remember this one-hit wonder. While the band formed in Germany, some of its members, including the two who wrote this song, were Canadian, so this is Canadian content. (27 August 2023)
• Bad Company - Can't Get Enough: I suppose I could have covered the song Bad Company from the album Bad Company by the band Bad Company, but that's just too much Bad Company. So I covered this song from that album instead. (30 July 2023)
• Eddie Schwartz - All Our Tomorrows: I didn't realize this was a Canadian song. Also, like most people, I was most familiar with Joe Cocker's cover. (16 July 2023)
• Young-Stills Band - Long May You Run: I never realized this wasn't a Neil Young solo song until I started planning to cover it. But he wrote it so it's my Canadian Content song for the Canada Day long weekend. (30 June 2023)
• Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud: Hey, there's no law that says only gingers can sing this song :-) (10 June 2023)
• Big Wreck - Ghosts: For some reason, one time recently when I heard this song on the radio I got the idea of covering it. Dunno why I got that idea this time and not any of the numerous times I've heard it before. (15 May 2023)
• Elvis Costello - Everyday I Write The Book: He says he wrote this song in about ten minutes, which goes to show you how good a songwriter he is to produce something like this so quickly! It's full of the usual wordplay that led him to mock himself as "rock and roll's Scrabble champion." (3 May 2023)
• Marillion - Kayleigh: This is a great band who have never had the level of success they deserved. This is a really good song, and it was the peak of their chart success. (16 April 2023)
• Nickelback - How You Remind Me: Nickelback has sold a bazillion records and were inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame last month, despite being hated by everyone. So April Fools' Day seemed like a good day to cover them! (1 April 2023)
• The Go-Go's - Our Lips Are Sealed: Terry Hall, who co-wrote this song with Jane Wiedlin (one of the Go-Go's), died in December, so this cover is a tribute. I haven't turned a song into synthpop in a while so I did it to this song. (22 March 2023)
• U2 - New Year's Day: It's St. Patrick's Day, and Nowruz (Persian New Year) is just a few days away, so I covered a song that kinda fits both. (17 March 2023)
• Metric - Gimme Sympathy: I got the idea to cover one of their songs while watching their Dreams So Real concert film. (7 March 2023)
• Spoons - Old Emotions: This is the first time I've covered a band that played at my high school when I was there! (26 February 2023)
• Led Zeppelin - All My Love: here's my Valentine's Day single for this year! (14 February 2023)
• Crowded House - Don't Dream It's Over: this is a signature song for this fine band. I didn't stray too far from their version. (6 February 2023)
• Yardbirds - Heart Full Of Soul: this is my tribue to Jeff Beck, who died earlier this month. (22 January 2023)
• Trooper - General Hand Grenade: This song was one of the first hits for classic Canadian rock band Trooper. (11 January 2023)
• Bonnie Raitt - Something To Talk About: I covered this as a tribute to Shirley Eikhard, the Canadian songwriter who wrote this song and who died earlier this month, and that's why it's marked as a Canadian song even though the version everyone knows was recorded by an American. (31 December 2022)
• Charles Brown - Please Come Home For Christmas: The Eagles' cover of this song is probably the best known version. I covered it for my Christmas single this year. (19 December 2022)
• Level 42 - Lessons In Love: Here's my cover of a song from a band with an amazing bass player. (3 December 2022)
• Loverboy - Working For The Weekend: Let's go back to the 1980s for a Canadian classic! (9 November 2022)
• The Psychedelic Furs - The Ghost In You: Here's my Hallowe'en single for this year! (30 October 2022)
• Default - Wasting My Time: After doing mostly keyboard songs for the last few weeks, I decided it was time to do a guitar song again. (19 October 2022)
• Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence: It's a while since I've done a 1980s synth pop type of song (yes, it was released in 1990, but recorded in 1989). (29 September 2022)
• Daniel Powter - Bad Day: I always thought this song sounded a bit like Keane, and having paid attention to a few Keane songs as part of this project, I heard even more similarities as I listened to it and figured out what I wanted to do with it. I've changed a few little things and my version is more of a typical pop arrangement than a Keane-like piano rock song. (18 September 2022)
• Twisted Sister - We're Not Gonna Take It: Put on your Dee Snider makeup and get ready to yell "You're all worthless and weak!" in the outro while you listen to this classic 1980s hit! (31 August 2022)
• Louis Cato - In My Reach: Little bits of this song have been used as bumper music (the music on either side of a commercial break) on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. It's a beautiful song so I decided to cover it. Coincidentally, while I was in the midst of working on it, Jon Batiste, who had been the bandleader on the show, left the show and Louis Cato got promoted from guitarist (and multi-instrumentalist and singer) to leader. (17 August 2022)
• April Wine - Tonite Is A Wonderful Time To Fall In Love: despite this band apparently having a fetish for misspelling the word night, I covered this song. (6 August 2022)
• Doug And The Slugs - Making It Work: I once read an article that began by saying something like "Once upon a time there were two bands gigging all over Vancouver. One went on to fame and glory. This is the story of the other one." Well, here's my cover of that other one. (20 July 2022)
• Harry Styles - As It Was: Pretty sure this is the first time I've covered a song while it's still in the charts (#1, in fact, on the Billboard Hot 100 as I write this). I get why people compare this song to a-ha and The Weeknd but I also hear Keane in it, so that's what I had in mind when covering it. (13 July 2022)
• Extreme - More Than Words: I covered a song with a similar title a few weeks ago, which gave me the idea to cover this. (22 June 2022)
• Triumph - Fight The Good Fight: I recently watched a documentary about this band, and someone I went to school with was in it (she's a superfan), and that gave me the idea of covering one of their songs. So here it is! (14 June 2022)
• Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes: it's actually a coincidence, but a friend of mine recently posted a Peter Gabriel cover he did with one of his bands, and now I've done one, too. (4 June 2022)
• Alias - More Than Words Can Say: here's a classic power ballad from a Canadian hair band. (15 May 2022)
• The Cars - Just What I Needed: The music studio where I used to take lessons and teach as a kid sometimes played a video in the waiting room of a band of their students playing this song, and now I've covered it, too. (8 May 2022)
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Otherside: I put a little bit of ska into this song. (30 April 2022)
• Greg Kihn Band - The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em): I took this song in a bit of a different stylistic direction. (23 April 2022)
• Ozzy Osbourne - Mama, I'm Coming Home: This week I covered everyone's favourite sweary drug-damaged Prince of Darkness! (16 April 2022)
• The Beatles - Two Of Us: Here's a lovely little song from the greatest band ever. (10 April 2022)
• Alanis Morissette - You Learn: the late Taylor Hawkins didn't play on the album but he would have played this on tour, so this is a little bit of a tribute to him. (3 April 2022)
• Big Country - In A Big Country: I can't duplicate the bagpipe-guitar sound from the original but I've done what I can with it. (26 March 2022)
• Luba - Everytime I See Your Picture: Luba burst onto the scene with this hit, had a few more, then disappeared for a decade or so before having one minor hit and then pretty much vanishing again. Too bad; she's quite good. (20 March 2022)
• Whiskey In The Jar: Here's my St. Paddy's Day song for this year. It draws on both the Metallica version and the Thin Lizzy version (which, let's face it, was what Metallica was covering). (13 March 2022)
• R.E.M. - Texarkana: I was thinking of covering Shiny Happy People, but then I thought of this one. I think it's a better song so I covered it instead. (27 February 2022)
• Payola$ - Eyes Of A Stranger: Here's my cover of a classic Canadian song. (20 February 2022)
• Platinum Blonde vs. 10cc - (I'm) Not In Love: For my Valentine's Day single this year, I mashed up two songs with almost the same title. (13 February 2022)
• Oasis - Don't Look Back In Anger: Here's some classic Britpop. (6 February 2022)
• Madonna - Borderline: Back to the 1980s for one of Madonna's biggest early hits. (30 January 2022)
• Spin Doctors - Two Princes: I decided to change things up a bit and come up with a different arrangement of this song. (23 January 2022)
• Scandal - The Warrior: A friend of mine posted a meme about this song earlier this month, so I decided to cover it. (16 January 2022)
• DJ Ötzi - Hey! Baby: We didn't get to hear this (Team Canada's goal song) as much as usual during the World Juniors recently thanks to COVID-19 cutting the tournament short, so I covered it. (9 January 2022)
• The Northern Pikes - She Ain't Pretty: Let's start 2022 with a fun Canadian song. (2 January 2022)
• Odds - Someone Who's Cool: This Vancouver band never really had as much success as they deserved. I doubt my cover will fix that, but hey, it's worth a shot. (26 December 2021)
• Wham! - Last Christmas: Another COVID year, another COVID Christmas single. (18 December 2021)
• ABBA - Knowing Me, Knowing You: This great band just released their first album of new material in four decades, so I decided to cover one of their classics. (11 December 2021)
• Come, Thou Badly-Needed Coffee: I'm short of time this week, so here's a gag hymn from sheet music a friend posted on Facebook recently. (5 December 2021)
• Alannah Myles - Love Is: Alannah Myles is a karaoke go-to for a friend of mine. Here's my cover of a song co-written by former MuchMusic VJ Christopher Ward. (28 November 2021)
• Ricky Martin - She Bangs: Unlike William Hung, I played all the instruments on my cover of this song! (20 November 2021)
• The Police - Wrapped Around Your Finger: A friend of mine, who is a huge fan of this band, says I look like their drummer. (14 November 2021)
• Gordon Lightfoot - Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald: Massey Hall reopens later this month in the only appropriate way (a series of concerts by Gordon Lightfoot), and the anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald is coming up this week, so I covered it. I included some revisions to the lyrics that he's made over the years. (7 November 2021)
• Classics IV - Spooky: I think this was on one of those K-Tel type compliation albums that were heavily advertised on TV in the 1980s. (31 October 2021)
• Cutting Crew - (I Just) Died In Your Arms: Here's another 1980s classic. (24 October 2021)
• Dan Hill - Sometimes When We Touch: I decided to cover this sensitive ballad as a power ballad. (17 October 2021)
• Boy Meets Girl - Waiting For A Star To Fall: A friend recently shared the playlist she listens to while baking cakes. This song was on it, and I like cakes, so I figured I'd cover it. (11 October 2021)
• The Eagles - Desperado: I decided to change the instrumentation from the original. The Eagles are primarily a guitar band, so I made this a guitar song. (3 October 2021)
• The Outfield - Your Love: Here's my cover of a classic 1980s power pop song. See if you can figure out the 1970s song from which I borrowed much of the guitar solo. (26 September 2021)
• Our Lady Peace - Stop Making Stupid People Famous: When I saw the title of the song they released earlier this summer, I knew I had to cover it. It was purely coincidence that I recorded it just a few days after Nicki Minaj made herself an icon of stupidity, but somehow it's fitting. Warning: explicit lyrics (18 September 2021)
• Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World: And back we go to the 1980s for another new wave classic. (12 September 2021)
• Rolling Stones - Let's Spend The Night Together: This cover is in honour of Charlie Watts, who died a couple of weeks ago. (6 September 2021)
• Spandau Ballet - True: Back to 1980s new wave again for this classic. (29 August 2021)
• Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers - Breakdown: A friend of mine recently posted "I need more Tom Petty in my life" on Facebook, so I covered him. (21 August 2021)
• Haircut One Hundred - Love Plus One: Back to 1980s new wave, from a band that was basically a one-hit wonder on this side of the pond. (14 August 2021)
• Supertramp - Bloody Well Right: A classic! (8 August 2021)
• Blue Peter - Don't Walk Past: Here's another 1980s Toronto new wave hit. (1 August 2021)
• Metallica - Nothing Else Matters: Probably the most covered Metallica song, because unlike most of their songs, it's not fiendishly difficult. (25 July 2021)
• Double - The Captain Of Her Heart: A 1980s one-hit wonder, and according to Wikipedia, its genre is "Sophisti-pop." (17 July 2021)
• Semisonic - Closing Time: Indoor bars can open next week, so closing time will be a thing again. (10 July 2021)
• Boys Brigade - Melody: For the Canada Day weekend, here's a gem from a 1980s Toronto new wave band. (3 July 2021)
• Genesis - Misunderstanding: Genesis is one of my favourite bands, and this is one of their big hits from the period when they were transitioning from progressive rock to a more popular format. (26 June 2021)
• The Tragically Hip - Long Time Running: The Hip recently released an EP of songs recorded during the Road Apples session, so I've covered one of the songs that was on Road Apples. (12 June 2021)
• Soft Cell - Tainted Love: Last week I stole things from this song to use in my cover, so this week I've covered this song, though in a different style. (5 June 2021)
• Don Henley - The Boys Of Summer: After the last few weeks of guitar songs, I decided to do a synth song, so I covered this song using Soft Cell's Tainted Love/Where Did Our Love Go as a guide. (30 May 2021)
• Foo Fighters - Big Me: Last week I covered the band that introduced Dave Grohl to the world; this week I'm covering the band that made him a superstar. I took bits and pieces of other Foos songs to build this. (16 May 2021)
• Nirvana - Come As You Are: This cover stays fairly faithful to the original. (8 May 2021)
• Sloan - Everything You've Done Wrong: Sloan is one of Canada's best bands and this is a really good song. (1 May 2021)
• Jimmy Barnes - Stone Cold: Jimmy Barnes is an Australian singer who's a star there but barely known here (and only for being a guest vocalist on an INXS single). This is my cover of a lovely song he recorded that was a hit down under. (25 April 2021)
• Hall & Oates - You Make My Dreams: Many Leafs fans have a love-hate relationship with this song - they love when it gets played but aren't so fond of the song itself (especially since it's been the Leafs' goal song for a few seasons now). Here's my cover. (18 April 2021)
• Ian Thomas - Hold On: Santana's cover is better known than the original; I've drawn on both for my cover. (11 April 2021)
• Haddaway - What Is Love: A friend encouraged me to take more songs out of their genres, so I took this one way out of its genre! (3 April 2021)
• White Reaper - Might Be Right: Several weeks ago, I covered some classic 1970s British power pop. This week, it's 2019 American power pop. (27 March 2021)
• Unknown tune from Toronto Blue Jays broadcasts: Spring training is well underway, and I'm short on time this weekend, so here's a short tune that will be familiar to fans of the Jays' TV broadcasts. (20 March 2021)
• The Corrs - Breathless: It's the weekend before St. Patrick's Day, so I covered this Irish band. (14 March 2021)
• Harlequin - Innocence: Here's some 1980s Canadian classic rock. (7 March 2021)
• Robyn - Show Me Love: Last week I turned a guitar song into a synth song; this week, I did the reverse. (28 February 2021)
• 54-40 - I Go Blind: Hootie And The Blowfish did a pretty straight-up cover of this guitar song. I decided to turn it into synthpop. (21 February 2021)
• J. Geils Band - Love Stinks: Perfect for Valentine's Day :-) (14 February 2021)
• Bay City Rollers - Saturday Night: Well, it's Saturday night, so why not cover the song of the same name? (6 February 2021)
• New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle: The supposedly most depressing day of the year, Blue Monday, came up a couple of weeks ago and gave me this idea. The song Blue Monday is not feasible for me to cover, so I did a different New Order song instead. (31 January 2021)
• Badfinger - No Matter What: Here's some classic 1970s power pop. (24 January 2021)
• Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up: A friend of mine loves rickrolling people, so I decided to cover this and tag him on it on Facebook. (17 January 2021)
• Barenaked Ladies - If I Had $1000000: wouldn't we all like a million dollars to pay off our Christmas credit card statements? Or maybe to buy some of the things in this song. (10 January 2021)
• Journey - Don't Stop Believin': it's a classic! (3 January 2021)
• Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas: my Christmas single for the year :-) (24 December 2020)
• Max Webster - Let Go The Line: Here's a Canadian classic! (12 December 2020)
• Luke Combs - Six Feet Apart: Toronto just went back into lockdown so it seemed appropriate to cover this song (with some changes to the lyrics). (29 November 2020)
• Radiohead - Creep: It's a classic so I decided to cover it. Warning: explicit lyrics (22 November 2020)
• Blue Rodeo - How Long: This is one of many songs I like from this excellent Canadian band. (15 November 2020)
• Steve Winwood - Valerie: I always liked this song. (8 November 2020)
• Warren Zevon - Werewolves Of London: I figured this was a good song to cover on Hallowe'en weekend. (1 November 2020)
• Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear The Reaper: I did this gag version in tribute to the famous More Cowbell sketch on Saturday Night Life. (31 October 2020)
• Brandy Alexander: This song was co-written by Feist and Ron Sexsmith. My cover is closer to his version than to hers. (25 October 2020)
• Fleetwood Mac - Dreams: This song has been in the news lately due to that viral video of a guy skateboarding to work, so I covered it. (18 October 2020)
• a-ha vs. The Weeknd - Take On Blinding Lights: A few weeks ago I noticed how the beat of these two songs is similar, so I decided to do a cover of Blinding Lights with its instrumental sections replaced with instrumental sections of Take On Me. (12 October 2020)
• Green Day - Wake Me Up When September Ends: Well, September ended, so it seems like a good time to do this song. (4 October 2020)
• The Smiths - Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now: and here's a cover of the other band I mashed up earlier this month. (27 September 2020)
• Huey Lewis and the News - If This Is It: since I took one of their songs last week and mashed it up with something else, I did a normal cover of another of their songs this week. (20 September 2020)
• Huey Lewis vs. The Smiths: I mashed up and covered a Huey Lewis and the News song with a Smiths song. (13 September 2020)
• Arkells - 11:11: This is probably my favourite Arkells song. (6 September 2020)
• The Revivalists - Wish I Knew You: I really like the groove of this song, so I covered it. (29 August 2020)
• Spice Girls - Say You'll Be There: The video for this song was my first glimpse of Future Wife Emma. (22 August 2020)
• Lighthouse - Pretty Lady: This is my favourite Lighthouse song. (16 August 2020)
• Queen - Crazy Little Thing Called Love: Last month a friend suggested I should cover an Elvis song. Instead, I decided to cover Freddie's tribute to Elvis. (9 August 2020)
• Katrina And The Waves - Walking On Sunshine: I quoted a couple of other Sunshine songs in my arrangement of this summertime song. (2 August 2020)
• Pagliaro - Lovin' You Ain't Easy: I've covered at least one Canadian song each month so far, so here's July's Canadian Content. (26 July 2020)
• Asia - Only Time Will Tell: After borrowing Asia's style for last week's cover, I decided to do an Asia song this week. In their own style. (19 July 2020)
• Keane - Bend And Break: This is my second Keane cover, but for fun I tried to imagine how it would sound if it had been performed by 1980s supergroup Asia. (11 July 2020)
• Weezer - Island In The Sun: Since Toto's response to Weezer's Toto covers was to cover Weezer, and since I covered Toto last month, I decided to cover Weezer, too. (5 July 2020)
• Bryan Adams - One Night Love Affair: I figured I'd do some Canadian content (this recording gets the full MAPL rating!) for Canada Day. (27 June 2020)
• Toto - Hold The Line: Since Weezer made Toto covers a thing, I decided to do one, too. (21 June 2020)
• Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Ohio: In the wake of the killing of George Floyd, I decided to record a protest song. (7 June 2020)
• The Pursuit Of Happiness - She's So Young: This is my favourite song from this band. (31 May 2020)
• Keane - Somewhere Only We Know: A friend commented that an original song I posted reminded her of this song. So I covered it! (24 May 2020)
• Beatles - Her Majesty: during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, a friend of mine posted a challenge to record a deep track - any album track that was never released as a single. He did a song from Revolver, so I decided to do a song from Abbey Road. Recorded in April 2020, uploaded in May 2020.

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