As 2011 comes to a close, we look back at the 50 live streamed shows produced this year that featured close to 80 artists performing in front of our timber wall stage.
We thought this would be a great time to ask you our audience... "What was your favorite Streaming Cafe show of 2011?"
We`ve compiled the top 10 viewed shows of the year for you to vote on, but feel free to show support for your favorite artist and add them to the list. Simply head to Facebook and cast your vote and be entered to win a $50 iTunes card!
The winning show will be rebroadcast in its entirety on New Years Eve and Day.
Before you head over to vote, have a look and listen to all of our 2011 show video highlights in our Past Performances Section.
by Michael Donley
We end off the 2011 year in a big way by showcasing some world class talent from with in our British Columbia borders. Dominique Fricot, The Wild Oaks, Windmills & Greg Sczebel
Our production team will be taking off the Christmas break but the cafe as always will be open for business to serve up some festive egg nog (rum!) latte`s. We`ll be back with a new year of live music January 7th.
Merry Christmas and the best of the season from all of us here at Streaming Cafe and thanks for helping to make this an amazing year of live indie music.
December 3rd - Dominique Fricot
Dominique Fricot is a Vancouver-based solo artist with a lot to offer. Not only does Fricot charm his audiences with his captivating banter, but he also has the ability to move his audiences through song with his heartfelt lyrics and soulful melodies. Standing 6 foot 7, Fricot commands the stage with his rich baritone and his emotive fusion of rock, soul, folk and jazz.
Check out this amazing performance from Dominique.
December 10th - Wild Oaks & Windmills Wild Oaks
The Wild Oaks is the song writing combination of Jacob Verburg and Jesse Clarke (former member of Old Man`s Beard). Together they write music that displays their talent as song writers and musicians. After a few jams in the spring of 2011 the boys found the musical combination incredibly creative and fulfilling. They are very excited about their new project, so look for them in a coffee house or street corner near you.
Windmills
Based out of Kelowna, BC - Windmills is Cory Myraas.
Windmills is described as an electric indie folk-rock band, but more importantly Windmills is a one man loop-artist, meaning every song is created and based around looping melodies and percussion, as well as vocals live during live performances.
All these shows will be broadcast FREE live online at 7pm (PST) @ http://streamingcafe.net/, where via our live chat window you can send in your questions live to our artists!
All too often when someone is referred to as an “award-winning artist”, the award turns out to be a relatively unknown presentation from a relatively unknown organization or group. That may seem harsh, but take it from me: I’m an award-winning artist.
Greg Sczebel, on the other hand, is a genuine award-winning artist. He’s taken home nine Covenant Awards (Canadian Gospel Music Association) plus been nominated three additional times. He’s been a finalist, a semi-finalist, and a third-place winner in the well-known International Songwriting Competition (ISC). He’s been a finalist and a two-time Grand Prize winner in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, another big one. He’s won four Shai awards (formerly the Vibe awards). He won a Western Canadian Music Award for his album Here To Stay. And, at the pinnacle for Canadian musical artists, he has won two Junos, one in 2005 for his first album (Here To Stay), and the second this year for his newest album (Love and the Lack Thereof).
But it doesn’t stop there: Greg Sczebel, live and in person, has played at Streaming Café! He and we liked it so much that we had him come back. And that was so good that we invited him to do a Christmas special. That, too, was out of the park, so we prevailed upon him again to make his way to our log-pile wooden wall – and he’s going to do it!
Rumour has it that Greg will have to interrupt a tour with Paul Brandt in order to show up at the café. And if you’ve watched Canadian television at all over the holidays (or probably American TV, too), you’ll know that Paul Brandt has a well-received Christmas tour that he takes on the road each year. So for us to be able to pry Greg away from a gig like that shows how much he likes showing up at SC!
"Perfect" #4 on iTunes
Little side story: when Kelowna was host city for the Western Canadian Music awards in 2010, Greg Sczebel and band were booked to play at one of the local venues (but not at SC). As we were setting up in the café for the musical guests who were to be featured on our stage, Greg and his band trooped into SC to order sandwiches on their way over to the venue at which they were playing. Hats off to the Streaming Café baristas! They make a mean enough sandwich that even artists booked to play elsewhere will take a detour just to nab some good food – I’d say that speaks for itself.
Back to Sczebel and Christmas 2011: Greg released the first single from his new Christmas album at the start of November. Within hours of its release it had climbed to #41 on the iTunes Holiday music chart. And within days it had climbed to #4 – right behind a couple of Bieber songs and right AHEAD of another Bieber song. Here's the video for "Perfect".
And Greg played that song at his Christmas concert with us way back in 2010 – if you were with us in person or online you would have seen/heard this song far before anyone else in the country… makes you think that it’s worth coming out to the gig, doesn’t it?! Here's the video from that performance...
The Christmas event last year was such a success that we’ve decided to do two seatings, one at 7p.m (our normal start time) and a second at 9:30 p.m. Only the first show will be streamed online, so if you can’t make it in person be sure to catch the early show on the website!
Adding to the festivities, for the first time in history we are going to be simul-casting the show on radio station Q103.1, ‘live on the air’ at the same time we’re live on the web (and again, it will only be the first showing, the one at 7 p.m., that will go out over the radio waves).
I would suspect – and of course, I could be wrong – that this is the first time anywhere in the world and at any time in history that a live performance will go out simultaneously on computers via the Internet, on Blackberry devices, on iPhones, and on FM Radio. Just think, even if you’re driving in your car and cannot even safely look at your iPhone (and please don’t if you’re driving!!!), you can still catch the show in real-time on Q103.1
How cool is that?
So, now you’re faced with a choice: should you listen on the radio, on your phone, on your computer, or in-person?
No matter what you decide, December 17th promises to be a wonderful celebration of Christmas merrymaking and jollification with genuine award-winning artist Greg Sczebel. Come join us at the café at either 7 p.m. or 9:30 p.m.: tickets are on sale now, $20 advance and $25 at the door (sorry, TICKETS ARE SOLD OUT!). Or catch the show online or on-air at 7 p.m.
We will all be Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time.
