One Year and Counting

How time flies.

This "Little Band" as they describe themselves (got to be JT) has now been together as TheSotightBand with Miss Nadine for one full year. I'm sure i am not the first person to offer Congratulations but I do have a perspective to offer because of how this "Little Band" has affected me personally.

I remember very well as a newcomer to Vancouver and as a volunteer to the Jazz Festival being told of a one off venue on a Saturday afternoon for good music was a place called Rossini's in Kitsilano. This is June 2006. As a Brit used to playing in bands on Sunday lunchtimes from 11am to two pm this was a GOOD thing. Don't know a single soul but Rossini's seems friendly and has an '"atmosphere" I frankly found missing elsewhere, still do.

Band playing is..Billy Dixon and The SoulTrain Express...electrifying...first rate covers from a first rate artist, audience participation has me enjoying myself. Billy gives his all and has
everybody up and dancing, booze is flowing, ladies seem able to come here alone or with girlfiends without problems and there is a general feeling of goodwill .Good beer too.
Saxaphone player, whose name I don't know, gets my attention, plays a ton of notes at such a furious rate and with such Passion I just know there is SOMETHING here I have never experienced before in Canada. Singers got an ego, hogs the limelight, but nothing wrong with that, he is excellent and gets everybody dancing. Ask the sax players name, bartender not sure, ask the singer at break, gives me his autograph and an invite to Boat party instead, good salesman.

I will always consider myself a lucky person, no background in the local music scene and yet found myself so drawn to what became TheSoTightBand with Miss Nadine.

The very first time I heard Nadine States perform with SoTight, raw, nervous, edgy AND wonderful, if Nadine does not rank with the very best of todays performers then show me WHO is better. Miss SoTight has grown so much in the past year that perhaps we take it all just a liitle too much for granted.. There is a talent here, that for me, is not being recognised at the very highest level. Amazing natural voice, a stage presence which is huge, and has that ability to interact with her audience right on the dance floor level, gets down and dirty with ease and always gives you the impression she just loves and appreciates the audience reaction, not through ego but a genuine will to GIVE and then seems quite astonished at the return.

The very BEST thing one year later is her ability to grow that edgy, nervous and still raw energy she brings to each performance, more comfortable with her own ability,hits almost impossible notes with confidence, I don't think we have seen anything even close to what Miss Nadine can, and will do in the future.. As you read this I would just ask you to close your eyes and do nothing but listen to an extraordinary talent right on your doorstep.....and show your love. Got quite the body..looks and moves too...down boy down (It's all in the mind at my age...fantasy is a wonderful thing)

The Band.

Here is where I totally lose it. I would have given my eye teeth to play with such a group of musicians, sold my first born blonde son to the Arabs, allowed my wife "Freedom to
Fully Explore her Sexual Fantasies in Mongolia"(Still think that's a WONDERFUL idea, just need a ton more air travel points) AND made a contribution of high calibre to the Flat Earth Society.

We will never really know what makes these individuals tick, a Chicken who plays Guitar, a drummer who can STILL get into a one piece outfit from the seventies(whats THAT all about)
a Bass Guitarist who should be in jail as an obvious Biker Hooligan, a saxaphone player ( so he tells us) who pretends to be '"arry Potta"but looks suspiciously like "U Efner" (God help Jeannie )and speaking of God they are all looked over by the Priest Himself masquerading as a keyboard player, well it's not right is it? PLUS they pretend that the only player who knows what he's doing is "Away in China"... beggars belief.

I hold up my hand and swear I do not know of a group of amazing individuals (oxymoron..too late) who play with such energy together...who continually play basically the same material and yet always bring something fresh to each performance, a group that is so committed to each other that time after time over the past year somebody has stepped up to the plate when illness or just a low point has hit a band member , a spouse, close relative, or friend. If this band were all full-time musicians then that's fine BUT they ain't, most are working stiffs like all of us, and yet on A Saturday Afternoon at Rossini's, late at night at the Yale or the Casinos' etc they routinely transform OUR lives and give us a few hours of pure magic.
THEY will tell you that they feed off us, that they appreciate the loyalty and following we give them. I say it is THEIR wonderful musicianship which has grown over the past year and continues to grow, THEIR belief in each other not just musically but as friends and then those moments we all look for when everything just clicks and they" forget" all of us and let the music play, thats what these people give to us..time in and time out.

A great quote from a good friend..."They play covers better than the Originals"...They do too

To Nadine..to Peter..to Rob..to Robbie..to Cliff..to JT..to Kent HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Richard Winn

White Rock BC

One Year In... The Best Is Yet to Come

Keep it Tight...Keep it SoTight