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news..... JULY 7 - We rocked TBay this past weekend! Summer is proving to be one of the best I've had with my music. Highlights so far are jamming with Julian Fauth in Toronto every chance we get, and doing the jazz stuff with Tony again. It's exciting to work with a new rhythm section in Toronto (the T-dots featuring Hap Roderman and Mike Sloski) and getting to play with my Right Hand Band in TBay for the Blues Fest weekend. Looking forward to the tour in August with my duo partner Jamie Steinhoff - we'll be in Wpg in mid July too! I'm busy making and taking bookings for 2009/10 dates. I've also got local dates with my Blue Thunder band. See ya round! MAY 13 - In the May issue of Toronto Blues Society's "Maple Blues Magazine" Festival Roundup - "Thunder Bay's Tracy K (right) wowed the crowd at the Blues Summit with her engaging stage presence and a killer band and this summer she makes her way back to Southern Ontario with festival appearances at the Orangeville Blues and Jazz Festival (June 4 - 7) and the Orillia Spring Blues Festival (June 12-14)." See "shows" link for more dates in T-dot. MARCH 29 - There are Southern Ontario and Thunder Bay dates coming up. Some are band bookings and some are duo. I was part of a couple of special musical events in Thunder Bay recently as a vocalist for Rodney Brown's cd release, and for a tribute to Ken Moore, TBay's late great jazz guitar phenom. Another highlight was the JAZZ gig I did with TBay's boy wonder Danny Johnson on piano, Jim Differ (Flamenco Caravan) on percussion and Montreal's Sage Reynolds on double bass - the show stole standing ovations (plural) and was touted as one of the best shows ever at Gargoyles - I must admit, it was outstanding and a whole mess of fun!! JANUARY 10 - There are shows added for our trip to Toronto - see the shows link for details DECEMBER 29 - Fantastic news!! Tracy K and her Right Hand Band will showcase at the Toronto Blues Society's BLUES SUMMIT on January 18 at 11:30 in the Market Garden at the Delta Chelsea Hotel, home of the conference. Registration for the Summit is on now. You can find out more information about the Summit and register online at http://torontobluessociety.com/summit/index.html. OCTOBER 29, 2008 - The duo's showcase at Ontario Contact was highly successful. We are anticipating lots of tour dates in the upcoming year. More work is starting to roll in for the Christmas season, but I know that the dates with my Right Hand Band will slow down with the onset of winter travel - boo hoo. Hurry up spring! On that note, I am hoping to get a showcase at the Toronto Blues Society's Blues Summit in January to kill the winter blues and score some summer blues festival bookings for the band and duo. Fingers crossed! AUGUST 28, 2008 - Summer was a blast, and now I am preparing for our Blues Duo juried showcase and exhibitor booth at Ontario Contact in Richmond Hill, Ontario, October 22 - 25. We showcase at 2:15 on Thursday Oct.23. Got lots of photos up on facebook, too. Come visit! MAY 17, 2008 - Listen to the "Canada Live" concert of my duo and my band as it was broadcast on CBC on my MUSIC page. The entire concert recording is up on the CBC website under "concerts on demand". Try the link in the NEWS LINK box to the right. MAY 5, 2008- After a busy year with my cd release, I am now keeping busy with my kid's accomplishments! My 16 year old son Jackson has won High School Idol with his guitar and vocal performance of Keb Mo's "City Boy". My 13 year old daughter Emily has won second place in the grade 7 & 8 category, the only one in her group playing an original composition and accompanying herself on piano! My 18 year old daughter Jolene is up for a National Award Scholarship and travels to Toronto in June to meet with the National Board! What great kids I am blessed with. They are keeping me busy right now and for the next little while, so if my live schedule seems sporadic, this is why - couldn't have a better reason! Staying home to raise my three children and watching them grow into inspired, creative and diligent young adults was worth every minute of my life that I gave to them. APRIL 14 -FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: ISC 2008 - Canadian Songwriters Shine In 2007 International Songwriting Competition The prestigious US-based International Songwriting Competition (ISC) is pleased to announce its 2007 winners and the strong presence of Canadian songwriters in many categories. Songwriters hailing from Canada won First Place in the Blues, Instrumental, and R&B/Hip-Hop categories, Second Place in the Americana, Jazz, and R&B/Hip-Hop categories, Third Place in the Gospel/Christian category, and many Honorable Mentions in multiple categories. Blues First Place "That's The Only Time" - Jack de Keyzer - Toronto, ON, Canada Second Place "Color-Blind Angel" - Robin Rogers / Tony Rogers - Charlotte, NC, USA Third Place "Just What You're Looking For" - Peter David Harper (Harper) - Perth, WA, Australia Honorable Mention "Birthday Suit" - Loring A. Jones (L.A. Jones And The Blues Messengers) - Orange County, CA, USA "BROKEN & BLUE" - TRACY K - Thunder Bay, ON, Canada FEB 28 - CBC RECORDINGS The recordings in Ottawa went great! Both will be aired sometime in April on CBC Radio Two's "Canada Live". One concert is the duo (Snakeman & me), and the other is with the Right Hand Band. Thanx to Alan Neal, who by the way, did an awesome job of the Canada Reads project, of which I was part of. The concert was aired on Bandwidth last weekend, and on Canada Live - LOTS of compliments on the tune that the Audutor General (Jamie Smith) and I wrote about the book "Icefields", which, I might add, is in the lead for Canada Reads!! Feb 5th - "Broken & Blue" has made it to the finals for the International Songwriting Competition in the Blues category. Jan.30 - Tracy K is declared a semi-finalist in two categories of the 2007 International Songwriting Competition. Her song "Broken & Blue" was chosen for the Blues category, and "Rollin' with the Changes" was chosen for the honourable Performance category! Finalists will be announced Feb 4th. Jan 21/08 - Tracy K and her Right Hand Band are touring South-Eastern Ontario and BC. The Ottawa valley tour is being booked around Tracy's CBC gigs in February. The BC tour is centered around a weekend in Prince George, May 9 & 10. Any other folks interested in booking Tracy K and her band (including house concerts)please talk to Tracy through her website (tracyk.ca) or here at myspace. Tour details posted as dates are confirmed. Jan 5/08 - CBC RECORDINGS in February - Tracy K and her Right Hand Band will be recorded live at the Rainbow in Ottawa for "Canada Live" on Feb. 15th. Tracy K has also been chosen to write a song based on one of the five titles from CBC Radio One's "Canada Reads 2008". She partners up with TBay's 'Auditor General", another amazing songwriter. Canada Reads is an annual event where five 'celebrity' readers compete over which Canadian book should be considered a classic. It gets an amazing following every year, and they want other CBC shows to do related programming. Alan Neal is the host of Bandwidth, and has decided to ask five musicians that he loves (from different parts of Ontario) to each read one of the books and write a song based on it. There will be a concert recorded in Ottawa for future broadcast on Bandwidth. See other dates on "shows" page in the Ottawa valley area for the same time. Nov 15/07 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Canada's First Lady of the Blues Harp wins at the OIMA The award for "BEST BLUES" in the inaugural Ontario Independent Music Awards 2007 was given to TRACY K on Thursday evening at the Phoenix Theatre in Toronto. The full house at the theatre was treated to a performance of the song "Broken & Blue" which won her the nomination. She was joined onstage by Jamie "Snakeman" Steinhoff on dobro and Danny Johnson on acoustic, both who travelled with Tracy from Thunder Bay for the awards show. The crowd's enthusiasm for Tracy K culminated with the producer asking her to do one more tune before leaving the stage. She broke into Jimmy Roger's "Walkin' by Myself", taking the lead reigns once again with harmonica, a major crowd pleasing element of her performance. The next night, the trio gave a two-set show at Toronto's Cadillac Lounge, once again to a full house. It has been a banner year for the transplanted Manitoban now based out of Thunder Bay, Ontario, following the release of her cd "Old, New, Borrowed & Blues". Contact: Blue Zircon Productions email: mojomama@mts.net Info: http://www.tracyk.ca Listen to a sound clip http://www.tracyk.ca/onbbmp3sample.mp3 Myspace http://www.myspace.com/tracykmojomama Sonic Bids http://www.sonicbids.com/tracyk publicity: Bluestime Productions, Toronto, Canada, 416-467-1453 email:gken@look.ca Oct. 11 - Tracy K OIMA nomination For the fifth time in less than two years, Tracy K has been nominated for a music award. The latest nomination has Ms. K contending for the Best Blues award in the Ontario Independent Music Awards, on the strength of her 2007 release "Old, New, Borrowed & Blues". The awards will be held at the Phoenix Theatre in Toronto on November 15. Currently residing in the jewel of Northwestern Ontario, Thunder Bay, the native Manitoban garnered two Winnipegblues.com's Music Awards in 2006 for "Harmonica Player of the Year" and "Female Vocalist of the Year", and a nomination for "Electric Act of the Year". Earlier this summer, she was a finalist in the Toronto Blues Society's Talent Search where she claimed First Runner Up after a memorable powerhouse twenty minute set of originals at Nathan Phillip's Square. Since releasing her second cd last spring, Tracy K's music has been heard all over the globe on various blues programs and keeps attracting attention in press and reviews. Aside from fronting her own four piece touring band, Tracy K also performs in an acoustic duo of vintage rags and blues, and contributes vocal and harmonica duties in a Thunder Bay all-star psychedelic/blues ensemble. July 10 - Old, New, Borrowed & Blues placed number four in the top ten blues albums for June on CFBX in Kamloops, and was named World Album of the Week on CRBlues Radio in France. July 1, 2007 - Happy Canada Day! It's a good feeling to come home with the silver!! The Toronto Blues Society Talent Search honoured us with second place, which is nothing to sneeze at, especially knowing that well over a hundred bands entered the competition! Now, time to get a tour schedule happening. I'm open and ready to make dates........ May 15 - woohoo! The Toronto Blues Society has informed me that I am a finalist in their 2007 talent search! An honour indeed. Apr.26 Well, Jamie and I are looking forward to performing for the Six String Nation gala concert this weekend! If you are not familiar with this, PLEASE go to sixstringnation.com and do a quick briefing, so as to understand the depth and magnitude of ths event - it'll blow your mind! We've been having a blast putting together new lyrics for the song we are doing. We've taken the traditional Woody Guthrie song "This Land" and changed it to 'This axe is your axe, this axe is my axe" and so on, with as many pieces of the guitar worked into the lyrics as we could, without going into thirty verses! It was impossible to include all of the 64 pieces, so we highlighted the most recognizable names/events/subject matter and ran with that. I've learned so much more about our Canadian legacies, history and land. This is truly an honour and privilege. Thanks to Heather MacLeod, CBC Thunder Bay, and to Jowi Taylor for founding this entire project.