Juno award winning musician Bill Bourne is a busy man, having released two Cds in the past few months.
His latest solo CD, “Songs from A Gypsy Caravan” is a laid back, more acoustic blues affair, while his CD with the Amoeba Collective allows him to spread his wings on world music with Tippy Agogo and long time musical partner Madagascar Slim.
Both are a celebration of the guitar, the solo CD more than the Amoeba Collective.
He will be giving audiences a taste of both with Indio Saravanja and Scott Cook, Nov. 10 at the Geomatic Attic.
“It’s 2012, so I thought I’d release two CDs. I just wanted to get them both out and fill up the schedule for fall 2012,” chuckled Bourne, adding both projects came up simultaneously.
“It’s different singing with an orchestra because a guitar can be an orchestra in itself. You can do percussion, bass, melodies,” he said.
“ You can see why guitar is so popular,” he said.
The solo CD is very much a solo project, while the Amoeba Collective is a band record.
“ It’s definitely the product of a band. It’s beautiful because they are such great players. They are virtuosos,” he continued.
“We just finished a couple CD release parties (for the Amoeba Collective),” said Bourne, adding he’d like to do a longer tour with them.
“ It depends on what we can come up with because of schedules,” he continued.
In the meantime, he is excited about a quick western Canadian tour with Indio Saravanja and Scott Cook.
“We’ve only played together once in Edmonton in a songwriter in the round and there was a great vibe,” he said.
“ They are such great songwriters, so I’m really looking forward to that show.
“ There will definitely be a lot of jamming, because to me, that’s what music is all about,” he said.
“It’s a songwriting thing. There is unified energy that makes it a beautiful thing,” he continued.
A show like this one means listening to the other performers.
“You need to be supportive of their voices. That’s the fabulous thing about it. You know where you want to go with it. Otherwise you stay down or step back,” he said.
“That’s why it is ideal to have a guitar. There is great flexibility,” he said.
He noted his part of the show will include songs from his new solo CD and maybe some Amoeba Collective material.
“That was my contribution to Amoeba Collective— guitar and background vocals and some songs so I’ll probably be playing them,” he said.
The Amoeba Collective material has a more exotic, world influence, in a large part to Madagascar Slim, who is from Africa.
“When you’ve got all of that experience playing, that’s hard to duplicate,” he said.
“I guess world music is what's called anything that isn’t from here,” said Bourne, who has had that influence in his music for many years.
“ A lot of it comes from Paul Simon’s Graceland album. I heard it and I said, ‘wow, that's a guitar. And I immediately felt comfortable with that approach,” he continued.
“And Madagascar Slim and I have a lot of fun together, We really enjoy each others’ company. He’s an African guitarist, so that comes through,” he said.
