Australian Making Music In Canada

by Malcolm Petch


He sounds somewhat like a young Bill Bourne. Yet Dominique Fraissard started out life in Australia, half a world away from Bourne’s rural Alberta roots.

Who else pokes their head out in the back of your mind when you listen to Dominique? Perhaps Cat Stevens. The earnestness and tonal range of both Fraissard’s voice and songwriting carries a sort of built-in connection to folk greats of the present and past.

And he’s been going at it professionally for quite a while, now. Fraissard got his start gigging in Sydney in 1998, and has released one live and five studio albums between then and now. His latest offering is Art of a Common Kind, which his current tour is in support of. Dominique moved to Canada two years ago, and lives in the North Slocan Valley in South-Eastern BC.

Fraissard describes his music as being “in the folk/acoustic genre with a very original twist of urban transfer” (according to his Sonicbids site). His album output, six albums in 13 years, is definitely worthy of note – this guy is serious about writing, recording, and performing his music. It’s easy to see why his music has found favour with indie film directors and both college and commercial radio. He even has some music on the Qantas In-flight system.

Dominique has recently been nominated for three 2011 BC Interior Music Awards including: Folk/Traditional Recording of the Year, Producer of the Year and Astral Radio Peoples Choice Award.  If you'd like to show your support vote for Dominique @ http://bcima.org/index.php/pca.

Dominique Fraissard will be playing at Streaming Café on Saturday, April 2nd @ 7PM Pacific. Come on out and enjoy this transplanted Aussie who now calls BC home.

click here for more details

Cafe Chalk Art Masterpieces

by Michael Donley

Over the last few months Brad and Vicky at the cafe have of been creating chalk art for our upcoming performances. The Greg Sczebel Christmas show chalk created some buzz on local radio, where the announcer noted how "life like" Greg`s tie was... nice work guys!

Although you may not hang a sandwich board over your mantle piece, I didn`t want these chalk masterpieces to be wiped away forever. So here they are for your viewing pleasure.

The Archive - Largest Record Collection in the World

by Michael Donley


There's something about holding a vinyl record in your hands.  For me I think it's holding a little bit of history that can't get erased when your hard drive fails.  On that note I came across this really cool short "The Archive" worth a look at.  It talks about Paul Mawhinney who over the years has amassed what has become the world's largest record collection.   Due to health issues and a struggling record industry Paul is being forced to sell his collection.

This Sundance documentary short was made by filmmaker Sean Dunne.


The Archive from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.

Streaming Cafe's new website!!!

After months of work we are very very excited to have launched Streaming Cafe's new website!
The site focuses on upcoming streamed performances and gives you the option of watching highlights from our past shows, and diving in a bit deeper to read about the performing artists.

There is no longer membership sign up required, so everyone has free access to all the site has to offer. Our live chat also requires no membership so tune into our shows and join in the conversation without any roadblocks!

You can also find lots of information about the cafe and all we offer in food and festivities.

We are still updating and adding content, so keep coming back and check out what's new.
Give us feedback! Let us know what you think of the site and how we can make it better (leave us a comment)!

Web-traveling the North Scene : Little City

Michael Donley


I thought from time to time I would blog about some bands that I've come across in my web-travels that aren't booked or haven't performed at Streaming Cafe but stood out to me as something cool and different (and I just had to tell someone!) The Toronto based six piece folk rock band Little City is exactly that.

Little City have just released their first EP The Going and the Gone and worked with renowned Canadian producer/engineer Laurence Currie (Sloan, Hey Rosetta!, Holy Fuck). It really is a good album and worth checking out.

Thom Macfarlane’s powerful, restrained percussion grounds Dave Clarke’s uplifting bass and provides the perfect foundation forTrevor Kai’s virtuosity on the keys (and accordion!) as he adds effortless elements of both exuberance and solemnity. The same can be said for brothers Jordan and Shaun Axani’s intricate, guiding guitar melodies, and of course Frances Miller’s arresting roots-tinged vocals, as her distinct whisper-turned-wail dynamics and warmth anchor the songs’ vast sound scope.

They just recently performed two showcases at Canadian Music Week as part of the FACTOR Break through serious.