Whoa! I’m very excited to officially announce that my first book, Adventures In Solitude, will be published this fall! And while it is filled with music references (including the title), Adventures In Solitude is not a music book. It’s a book about the Canadian cottage experience from my perspective, both as a nerd kid and an adult, set on the wild west coast beyond the end of the road in Desolation Sound, BC. Desolation Sound is the central, bi-polar character of the book. The supporting characters are myself, my family, friends, and all the salty Beachcombers-come-to-life inhabitants of this lonely stretch of coastline where no roads lead in or out.

I am very much looking forward to introducing you to Desolation Sound fixtures like Mack the Knife, Roger the Dodger, Reverend Jim, Harvest Moon, Handy Candy, the Cougar Lady, Bernard The German, Scarface Mike, Prawn Bob, Help Me Rhonda, and my old pal Russell Latowski, Hermit of Desolation Sound.

Adventures In Solitude is being released this fall on Harbour Publishing, a fantastic west coast adventure publishing company that has been in business for over thirty years, and it was Harbour that I had in mind first and foremost when I wrote the book so I’m honoured they’re putting it out. There’s been some initial online coverage here and here and here which I totally appreciate, and I can’t wait to share more of the book with you, hopefully in your town this fall!

To read more about the release of Adventures In Solitude, an excerpt, and what other people have said, here’s the press release. Cheers!

Whoa! I’m very excited to officially announce that my first book, Adventures In Solitude, will be published this fall! And while it is filled with music references (including the title), Adventures In Solitude is not a music book. It’s a book about the Canadian cottage experience from my perspective, both as a nerd kid and an adult, set on the wild west coast beyond the end of the road in Desolation Sound, BC. Desolation Sound is the central, bi-polar character of the book. The supporting characters are myself, my family, friends, and all the salty Beachcombers-come-to-life inhabitants of this lonely stretch of coastline where no roads lead in or out.

I am very much looking forward to introducing you to Desolation Sound fixtures like Mack the Knife, Roger the Dodger, Reverend Jim, Harvest Moon, Handy Candy, the Cougar Lady, Bernard The German, Scarface Mike, Prawn Bob, Help Me Rhonda, and my old pal Russell Latowski, Hermit of Desolation Sound.

Adventures In Solitude is being released this fall on Harbour Publishing, a fantastic west coast adventure publishing company that has been in business for over thirty years, and it was Harbour that I had in mind first and foremost when I wrote the book so I’m honoured they’re putting it out. There’s been some initial online coverage here and here and here which I totally appreciate, and I can’t wait to share more of the book with you, hopefully in your town this fall!

To read more about the release of Adventures In Solitude, an excerpt, and what other people have said, here’s the press release. Cheers!

The Podcast team clockwise L-R: Steve Pratt, Nicole Goodman, Jenn Aikman, John Paolozzi, Mark Macarthur, Grant Lawrence, Chris Kelly, James Booth, Ahmed Khalil.

Five years ago, CBC Radio 3 director Steve Pratt (top left, blue shirt) asked me if I would take a shot at hosting a pilot for something called the “CBC Radio 3 Podcast”. And I wasn’t the first choice, either. At the time, I was hosting a national Saturday night radio show on CBC Radio 2 and I thought was that about as big as it got. I totally and utterly was not interested. Really, what the hell was a Podcast?

Steve was convincing and in charge (still is), so I did it, introducing eight Canadian independent songs. That pilot became the first episode. A couple episodes later, our friend Lane Dunlop at iTunes Canada picked it up and all of the sudden it took off, quickly becoming the #1 Podcast in Canada. It was the first music podcast from CBC, and one of the first podcasts in the world to play music legally.

Since that first episode five years ago, we’ve now made 245 weekly shows, we’ve had millions of downloads, and have spawned shows and ideas like the CBC Radio 3 Bucky Awards, the Sweatin’ to the Indies workout podcasts, the Sing For Your Song Canada Day specials and much more. Over the half decade we’ve received mail from over 60 countries in response to the thousands of Canadian artists and songs we’ve showcased.

Now the fifth anniversary show is here… and you can download from right here.

Thanks for listening! Wait… you know what a Podcast is… right?