Vintage

It's not the swing band, but I thought I'd give you a taste of another band I've been playing in, Leonard and the Lab Rats. It's a blues band run by Andrew "Huggy Bear" Leonard on vocals, harmonica, and amplified ukulele (yes you read that correctly).

We played a gig at the Purple Crab the other night to a packed house. Here is a track I recorded that night:

Chicken Shack - Leonard and the Lab Rats
Live at the Purple Crab

Keep in mind this is a one-microphone recording to mini-disc so the mix is not exactly the best. But it's not bad considering.

The Blue Morris 6's first album, Swing Me, Blues Me, is now available on iTunes Canada! For just .99 cents a song or $9.99 for all 14 songs you can download our album to your computer, burn it to CD, or transfer it to your iPod.

Swing Me, Blues Me (Canada)

If you're not an iTunes fan, you can always order the CD from our online store and we can ship it to you right quick.

Other countries

We cannot currently offer the album on iTunes for countries other than Canada, sorry. We do not have the sufficient rights to some of the songs to do that. But if you live in the U.S. you can still purchase the CD from our online store and we can ship it to you right quick.

The wrap party for the short film Not Quite Hitchcock gave us the opportunity to play different music than the classic swing we are used to. If you're looking for samples of how we normally sound, these are not the files to download. If you want to hear a different side of the Blue Morris 6, check these out.

The last track is a medley of improvised music. The first section started as a blues in Bb. Carly then jumped back on stage and started singing a song she wrote--a song which was originally written for different chord changes, but seems to work wonderfully on the blues. The second part steals some ideas from the sountrack to the film "Not Quite Hitchcock." And the third part is another improvisation, which I am calling "Who Dat?" because that's what Nick is shouting behind Ian's solo. Preview or download the MP3s below.

Blue at Stomp It Off

That being said, it's quite a different experience playing for dancers. They don't necessarily clap as much. But that's just the point. Sometimes I figure the less I hear of them the better because that usually means they're too busy dancing than to show their appreciation by clapping.

Below are some really nice free MP3s recorded at our February show. These recordings turned out really well. Some of the best so far, in my opinion.