www.richardgarvey.ca
www.facebook.com/amycarsonhuntermusic
Original song by Richard Garvey featuring Amy Carson Hunter
“I’ve been there” is track 4 on Rich’s Album “To Create” which was recorded with support from the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund
You can download or order the album on Bandcamp
http://richardgarvey.bandcamp.com/album/to-create
Video by Duncan Finnigan & Josh Spurling at the Multicultural Cinema Club
Song recorded at The Sound Distillery (2012)
Engineered, Mixed by William Muir & Dave Houde
Mastered by Noah Mints at Lacquer Channel Mastering
LYRICS
Won’t you call me
If you’re broke down
Or busted flat
On the road to nowhere
I’ve been there
If you’re lonely
Or you’re lost
I will find you
I’ve been there
I don’t know where you’re going
I don’t know how to get there
But if you’re hurting
You can share
I’ve been there
When the doors
Close in your face
Won’t you call me
I’ve been there
It gets hard
When your pocket start to empty
When no one spares you change for a song
I’ve been there
Chorus
When you feel you’re at the end of your rope
Think you’ve got one last prayer
Well pray for hope
The world will kick you down and try and keep you there
But good people around do love and care
So won’t you call me
When you’re passing by
I carry burdens
And try to wear a smile
I’ve been there
I’ve been there
Chorus
September tour with Amy and Dan
This has been an amazing tour so far. Dan and Amy are supportive in all of my endeavours. They beam with excitement, enthusiasm and helpful advice at every turn. We share songs and tunes at every chance and meet exciting folks and run into old friends everywhere we go. I would like to climb a tree every day.
Hamilton is exceptionally wonderful. Ron and Judith at the Artbar are expert hosts and probably the most genuine lovers of art and music. We had a great show with lots of new and familiar faces. Delicious sing-a-longs and if Joey was on the tour we could have inspired some folky-stomp-dance-everyone loves life movement for sure. The art crawl was overwhelming but I ran into friends from every era of my life so far. If you are lucky you meet new friends who stow you away into a dance party that echoes Wellington St’s cider parties except everyone celebrates a shared birthday while hoping for/(to avoid) a new haircut…great music, smiling rad folks, art on the walls and joyfulness.
Guelph is a magical town where people focus on farming new orchards of fruit and nut trees. I love trees. The Moonshine Cafe is very close to a great place to take a nap on the waterfront. Also a very fine music venue with a recently threatened abundance of delicious draft beer. Watch out “Free times Cafe”!
The Art of Gentrification
A few months ago the City of Kitchener invited me to a session/workshop to discuss and create strategies for making sure “music works”. On some levels this discussion comes with a sigh of relief. It has taken me a very long time to begin earning my living as an artist here in Kitchener. Any help would be appreciated. I have been very lucky to have great friends and supporters who come to shows. I am grateful to be part of a community of artists building a very creative and diverse music scene.
The strategy session included lots of musicians from most genres, promoters, representatives from the city, independent press, a few venue owners, and some folks from the Blues Festival. The question at the heart of the session was “How do we build a profitable music scene in downtown Kitchener?”
Less expensive rent, inspiring people, tightly knit yet diverse pockets of community, cool hangouts, and room for social consciousness are all reasons that artists live in Kitchener. Artists contribute a lovely-lively-creative energy to our city, while creating a localized talent based economy.
The city and the downtown BIA recognize this “music scene” as a step to develop downtown Kitchener into a hot spot for tourism, entertainment and arts culture. Saying “artists should be able to make a living in Kitchener” and asking us to share our ideas, expertise and vision to help them make it happen. Writing everyone’s ideas down. Telling us a booming arts-industry is key for financial success and continued growth of Kitchener.
The problem is that the City of Kitchener is a corporation interested in financial growth. The strategy they are asking artists to invest in is called gentrification. Pushing down and out the last of the poor while attracting the rich.
After pointing this out at the meeting I was told this is the “way it goes”. Like gentrification is a force that can’t be stopped or resisted, or at least guided to be less violently destructive to poor people.
Between gentrification and austerity measures downtown is a very unwelcoming place for poor people. As public services are cut and made more difficult to access, resilient communities struggle and begin to work together to create and provide these services so they can survive. The people who would normally be resisting, engaging the political process on all levels,demanding change, and advocating for the poor are busied into providing for the poor themselves. They are running grassroots initiatives that provide services our taxes use to pay for. Meanwhile our government says tighten your belt, and invites others into the downtown to live it up and hopefully make a profit from this music scene.
As an artist I live very simple to pursue my creative efforts with the hope of doing as little non-creative work as possible. I have and continue to benefit from gentrification. I don’t think the City of Kitchener is doing everything it can to promote a balanced approach to building up the city. We see new proposed condo’s and parking garages but no quality affordable housing initiatives being built. It appears that the city sees a future of Kitchener that does not include the poor.
Music scenes are built from the bottom-up. Artists share art. People find meaning in the art, feel connected to the community and keep coming out to shows. Maybe we don’t have a booming arts industry in downtown Kitchener, but we do have an arts community and a very creative and supportive scene. The purest art is expressed out of necessity. Kitcheners true artists are creating the most beautiful art they can…because its all they have.
This is what my new album “To Create” is going to look like!
Thanks for all your support you can have a listen here.
Hey friends.
Check out this article by FUSS magazine about my bike tour and music.
I have returned to KW. My hands we’re strained or pulled or something in my palms. It was very painful and I decided to catch a ride home from Hanover. I am disappointed I couldn’t complete the tour on my bike. I’m glad to be resting and recovering. I am going to do more research and maybe go get my hands checked out to make it work for long trips I am planning in the future. I am looking forward to meeting up with friends and playing some tunes for you all. Kitchener is a good home.
Thanks to the almost 60 people who have pre-ordered the album. I might do an indie -gogo campaign to do a few more pre-orders starting in late July and early August with some fun stuff that I’m still putting together.
I’m engaging the recording process with “to create”. I’m super glad to get back to working on the album with Dave and Will at the Sound Distillery. I’m listening to what we have so far and imagining what ideas I need to fill the sound out with meaningful content, while making it musically fun and still represent the way I perform the songs live. The goal is to have the album ready for my fall tour in September with Amy Carson Hunter. She sings on the Track “I’ve Been There” and you are really going to like this!
My next performance is for the Downtown live series. July 11 @ noon at Kitchener, City Hall. And its free! So come see me jam with the grooviest bass player around Mr. Joey Bell.
