2 blog entries in one day, why not?

The Saskatoon "rock country" band, Wyatt, is in second place in the XS Emerging Artist of the Month and I would love to see them win.  They are a wildly talented group, and I happen to know Danny Fortier and I know how hard he and the band work and how much this title would mean to them.

Let me tell you a story about Danny and his friend and bandmate, Scott Patrick.  I have to first set the context though.  I have a complicated body, and while there are a lot of details of how and why it happened, let me just put it as simply as I can.  I had stainless steel rods fused to my back when I was 12 years old to correct for scoliosis that was a result of my then 6-year-old spinal cord injury.  Some 25 years later, those rods broke while I was pregnant with my daughter.  For many reasons, I had to wait for 7 months after she was born to have the broken rods removed and new ones installed.  It was the worst pain I have ever experienced; every breath I took was a labour.  I was essentially home-bound because I could not safely transfer in and out of my chair and because my spine was so unstable the only way I could hold myself up was through leaning my elbows on a pillow that was tied around the back of my chair.  I was fighting infection in my spine and in my lungs and in many ways, I was also fighting for my life.

Tough times.  That is where Danny and Scott came in.  Literally came in.  To my house!  And performed a house concert.  They played and sang their own songs, and covered the theme from "The Littlest Hobo" which rocked my house off its foundation.  And to end this magical concert, they covered Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."  I know that everyone loved kd lang's cover - me too.  I have been lucky enough to see both she and Cohen himself sing that well-loved song.  But for me, during one of the most vulnerable and dark times of my life, when my hope was a fragile string that I was barely holding onto, it is Danny and Scott's version that will always be my favourite.  Where we sat in my golden-lit living room and held hands and swayed together and sang along.  They helped make that thin string of hope a little thicker and stronger.  This memory for me is so beautiful.  So so so beautiful.

Let's vote for these guys.  They are good-hearted, hard-working, and again, wildly talented.  http://ckxsfm.com/2013/02/25/xsnewartist991/   Their name is about 1/2 - 2/3 down the list.  They are in second place - so close to winning!  Let's help.

wishing you beauty,
hk