Graham Ord

Songwriter circles

grahamord — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 00:49:41 +0000

I was performing in Memphis at the Memphis Folk Alliance last year and one of the highlights for me was to witness something called a songwriter circle hosted by Blue Rock studios from Texas. It was really well hosted and it felt like such a natural way to hear new songs and get an introduction to some new artists. I was so happy when we returned to Canada to find that one of my friends at Tribehouse took the initiative to get a songwriter circle going in our town. It has been running for about 8 months now and each month we have four different artists sharing their stories and songs. Usually there is a mixture of more established artists and new comers too. Its a safe environment for everyone to try new songs out and gauge how an audience responds to the music.

Tonight I will be performing there again along with Gary Norris, Bethany Petch and Hayden Ward. It should be a blast. If you are in Kelowna please come out and support the event. 7pm streaming cafe, Kelowna BC

http://www.tribehouse.org/2012/01/songwriter-circle-feb-17/

Stuck on Love

grahamord — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:44:20 +0000

When the news comes that one of your children is gravely ill your heart is pulled out of shape as you try to come to terms with the reality of the situation and try to understand the implications of the diagnosis. My wife and I have had our share of such experiences worried sick about our own children at different times. Our dear friends the Unrau’s have just heard that the youngest son has cancer and is undergoing treatment in Vancouver. Dealing with the illness is one thing, dealing with the financial pressures that time off work and all the travel involved is another.
Some of their musician friends from our town have put a benefit concert together on February 10th to create a place for our community to express their love and support for the family by collecting some cash to bless them at this perplexing time.
The show will be at The Bridge, Kelowna BC and will feature The Ord Strauss Blues revue, Andrew and Zach Smith and Windfall Prophet.
The Bridge is located at 2100 Gordon Drive, Kelowna, BC (Gordon and Springfield) The concert begins at 7pm. All proceeds will go the the Unrau’s. Please say a prayer for Jordan as he courageously battles this cancer.
He is a wonderful young man who is greatly loved in our community.

Not even spring yet!

grahamord — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 05:06:55 +0000

I was looking around my place over Christmas and realizing that I needed to clear out some things in the new year. Things such as my old drum kit (pictured) that I bought during a stressful time so that I could smash the daylights out of something to alleviate the stress a few years back! Sometimes it feels good to lay some old things to rest so that you can do some new ones instead eh? I so often get attached to things because of what they represesent or also because of what they could possibly become. What usually happens with me though is that years go by and I realise that I have never done anything with the things I have stashed! What was funny this time as I was contemplating my ‘winter’ spring clean my kids also began telling me that they had desires to play various new instruments. Big instruments too, like the harp and the Cello - any space I was thinking I might create will soon be filled with other stuff and this time stuff that wasn’t mine. There is a princple there I guess? I am enjoying the process of clearing stuff out and selling some things on that I hope will bring pleasure to someone else like it has me.

I am looking forward to the coming year, I dont really have too many strong plans for world domination as I might have had in previous times but I do feel good about what might unfold as I keep open and keep the road clear. I look forward to developing a few new skills on the various instruments that I own and hope that these skills will grace some recordings and live performances in the year ahead.

Thanks so much for stopping by the site, I always appreciate that people are interested in what I am doing. Have a very Happy New Year.

Trinity Baptist Concert

grahamord — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 06:22:49 +0000

L-r top: Graham Ord, Brian Wiebe, Andrew Smith Bottom: Norm Strauss, Kim McMechan.

Really looking forward to performing at Trinity Baptist Kelowna this weekend. Sunday at 7pm will be our last performance of Christmas Presence this season. If you are in the Okanagan BC. Feel free to join us, it will be lots of fun with great music and seasonal poems and stories. Also featuring Andrew Smith, Kim McMechan, Norm Strauss and Brian Wiebe. Details can be found under the events tab at the top of the page.

Nice shot

grahamord — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 08:06:27 +0000

Here’s a really nice shot from our Christmas Presence show at Bottega Farm Inn Kelowna.
Photo used by permission of Darren Hull Photography (all rights reserved).
For more great shots visit bo.ttega.com

Christmas Presence – what a blast!

grahamord — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:01:32 +0000

This past weekend was so much fun! Our shows in Kelowna and Penticton were completely sold out and we had such a great time performing before really appreciative audiences.
The last chance to catch Our Christmas Presence show is on Sunday evening at 7pm at Trinity Baptist Kelowna. Admission is by Donation.
The concert will again feature Andrew Smith, Norm Strauss, Kim McMechan, Brian Wiebe and myself.

Two Sell out shows this weekend

grahamord — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 06:58:34 +0000

Christmas Shows and Bottega Farm Inn, Kelowna and Penticton Vineyard are both sold out. We will also do the show at Trinity Baptist, Kelowna (springfield road) on Sunday 18th at 7pm.
Admission is by donation.

All New Site

grahamord — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 03:48:07 +0000

Thanks so much for dropping by the brand new site. We have been busy revamping everything and are happy to go with a different and hopefully more interactive format. I hope to use the space as more of a blog as well as a place where people can find out what I am working on and of course where to get my music. Once we get the content all up and running I will begin to share some thoughts and ideas about stuff that interests me. Please fell free to connect via the site or through face book and Twitter. Thanks again for your interest in what I am up to.

A place to write more thoughtful things

admin — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 19:45:32 +0000

If you know me then you will know that I love to piss around and have a good laugh, you will also know that I love to contemplate more serious things as well. One of the ways I have learnt how to cope with some of the bewildering things that life throws at me is to laugh at them. This however doesn’t mean that I dont actually think deeply about them. I have been thinking about writing a more serious blog about such things in the hope that it can be cathartic for me and also so that people who are interested in an on line dialogue can enter in to that with me. I have decided to do it here because it takes a deliberate effort to find this blog rather than on facebook which is open to anyone and I dont know if I want anyone to see this if you know what I mean. I have been involved with a couple of online discussions in the past and they have sometimes become a bit agressive or dare I say it narrow and I am not really interested in that kind of approach to discussion.
So with this in mind my first posting will be some inconclusive thoughts about how gnosticism (A heresy dating back to the first 25 years of the church’s formation) effects how Christian artists are permitted to express themselves in most churches today. I will put the finishing touches to my 1st draft soon and post it up here to see how it goes down.

I welcome your constructive input.

Cheers Graham.