Arts

Bringing “Six Strings and Beyond” To The Radio

Michael Keith has been a professional musician for over 35 years, and lately people have been asking him to share some of his expertise on the radio. He finally launched ‘Six Strings And Beyond’ on Tuesday June 18th. 

“The idea of the programs is based on guitar, which is my area of expertise: guitar, guitarists, and guitar like instruments from around the world. So, plucked string instruments – a number of which I’ve studied privately over the years. I’m an  amateur ethnomusicologist,” he explained.

Cortes Currents: What’s the format: interviews? recordings? your expertise?

Michael Keith: “All of the above, I’m wide open. Cortes Community Radio (CKTZ 89.5 FM) would like to have local people as much as possible. I’m certainly  open to that, but mostly just sharing anecdotes about  my experiences as a guitar player, discovering and being inspired by people that many of my listeners probably haven’t heard of. I’ve done such an extensive amount of listening and following off the radar guitarists and other instrumentalists over the last 40 years or so. I also plan on bringing different instruments with me, having a little talk about them and playing a little bit live in the studio myself, just for the fun of it. Randy Bachman has done that on a CBC show where he’d have guitar player guests, and then they would jam a tune live on the air and I think that’s a cool idea.”

Cortes Currents: How is the show coming so far? 

Michael Keith: “I’ve done two and they both went smoothly. So now we’re starting to advertise it a bit. It’s Tuesday afternoons on CKTZ 89.5 FM, at 3:30 to 5 PM. 

Cortes Currents: Tell us about the first show. 

Michael Keith: “Basically, I played a number of guitarists that have inspired me through my career thus far. I had rock guitar, blues, really avant-garde experimental guitar, which I love and which is a challenging listen for the uninitiated. A few string instruments from other parts of the world that have inspired me, as opposed to just random ones I’ve  played. It was a really diverse show and I thought that would be a good indication of what’s to come.” 

“If you’re hoping to tune in and hear classic rock guitar players like  Jimi Hendrix yet again, you’ll probably be disappointed. It’s a little more adventurous than that,  but if you’re open minded and want to  hopefully discover some new music, that’s something I can offer.”  

Cortes Currents: Have you had any feedback?

Michael Keith: “Two people. One guy who totally knew about an instrument that I was talking about, and I thought nobody would know it.  He was offering some recommendations for other music and I thought that was great. Another guy  asked, ‘Would you play more Bill Frisell?’ I love Bill Frisell and I said, ‘Absolutely. Big inspiration for me.’”

“The word seems to be getting around. Bryan McKinnon at the station seems excited about it, which makes me excited. He’s like, ‘you have a bit of a name and a reputation on the island as a musician.’ So, he’s really enthusiastic. Honestly I’ve thought about it for a number of years and  then kept putting it off.” 

Our conversation wandered into personal anecdotes, which is relevant because Michael and his guests will be sharing a lot of them during his show. 

In a recent interview Scottish singer-songwriter Simon Kempston mentioned his experience touring Irish pubs in the Netherlands. It was his first European tour and Kempston has avoided venues like that ever since. The money was good, but the audience weren’t interested in his music. He received some requests to play Bruce Springsteen or other big name artists, but for the most part they were glued to football or rugby on the big screen.

Michael Keith: “That’s the story of my life. Unfortunately those gigs that  he was talking about, ironically those quite often were the ones that were a guaranteed pay.”

“I really hated playing those places in and around Toronto, the sports bars. We call that the ‘chicken wing circuit’ because everyone’s eating their wings and watching the game while you’re playing. If you’re playing your own music or anything even slightly intellectual or unique, you completely disappear. They don’t even notice you’re there.  I never did Springsteen, but I’d play a Stevie Ray Vaughan song or something. Then you’d get a few heads up.  Once you play a cover tune, then the floodgates are open. Then next thing you know, you got people coming up ‘do you know the theme to the Titanic by Celine Dion?’ And I’m like, ‘you want me to play that?’ Like, what are you thinking? They think you’re a human karaoke machine.” 

“One time I was trying to block out this sports bar, because it was so loud and obnoxious, and I’m just not a fan of those environments, but whatever, a gig’s a gig. So I was playing, and I really got into this part, my eyes closed, and I was just feeling so connected and playing, and all of a sudden the people there erupted in this applause. I felt so good. I was like, they’re getting it finally.  I opened my eyes and they were all watching the tv, right? Their attention was with the game, but they had the sound down. I was embarrassed beyond belief, but only I knew what was  happening.  That’s an absolutely true story. I said, ‘wow, my ego actually let me think it was for me for a second!’” 

Cortes Currents: Another thing Kempston mentioned was that after the expenses for his first Canadian tour were paid, he made a 16 pound sterling profit. 

Michael Keith: “Man, what a success story!”  

Cortes Currents: He covered his expenses, which is what he was worrying about.  

Michael Keith: “Hey, if you can actually break even, that’s a success. Over the years I’ve managed to keep my head up above water, but while my friends went on to buy their houses  and multiple cars, I stayed  in the kind of same financial area where I was in my mid twenties. However  I was just doing something that I really loved, which was important to me.”

“I’ve always played with numerous different types of music and people just to keep busy but breaking even is pretty much the common thing.”  

Cortes Currents: How many times have you been on tour? 

Michael Keith: “Not as much as a lot of people. I’ve  played full time for years in and around Toronto and then lots of weekends away in parts of Southern Ontario, bit I was based at home. As for actual tours, I don’t know, like 10 times.”

“I did a couple of neat ones. I toured across Canada a couple of times with different people, a bit of the States. I did a small tour with two of my heroes in free jazz,  a very experimental trio, but that was a career highlight for me. Over the course of a couple of weeks, we played in France and  Italy, Belgium.  That was a fantastic experience playing in Venice. Italy.  I’ve also played in Taiwan for a two week period, which was an incredible experience.” 

“I’ve been fortunate that way, but there’s a lot of people and they’ve toured incessantly for decades.  I don’t know if I could do that. I get cranky easily.”

“So many stories and that’s with this show too. I have so many really fun little stories or anecdotes about my career and the radio show seems like an opportunity to share a few of those. Maybe that’ll be fun. People like to have a laugh. We’ll see how it goes.” 

Cortes Currents: Do you have anything in mind for your show coming up this Tuesday?

Michael Keith: “Nothing really planned, but now that I’m thinking about it maybe I’ll make this the first week I play a small piece live on air.”

“This coming week is quite busy. Wednesday I’m going to be playing instrumental Improvisations on my three string ukulele outside a market that’s happening at Hollyhock (July 10). I have two gigs on Friday, July 12th. At 1:00, I’ll be playing in the Village Commons  for an hour and a half.   Then 7:00 in the evening, I will be playing at the Gorge Harbour Marina with a trio that I’ve been playing with. I’ll probably be plugging a few of those things.”

Cortes Currents: Who’s the trio?  

Michael Keith: “We’re just friends, for lack of any name, just the Michael Keith trio. Greg Osoba is playing bass, and Zach Sukuweh is playing different hand drums.  We’re  also going to do Lovefest and we’re playing Manson’s Hall in the evening on Cortes Day.” 

Links of Interest

All photos submitted by Michael Keith

To receive an emailed catalogue of articles on Cortes Currents, send a (blank) email to subscribe to your desired frequency: