KEVIN McKENZIE first taught himself the blues harp/harmonica when he was travelling country roads in Alberta 40 years ago.
“I was a closet player until I turned 50, and then I came out playing harmonica at my birthday party,” says the Nelson chiropractor of all things vertebrate, including humans from babies to adults, and horses, pigs, dogs, parakeets and iguanas.
While he’s in the process of slowly cutting back on workdays, he’s revving up his love of the blues, which includes playing and performing with his Nelson group, White Lightning Blues Band, often at the local Finley’s Bar & Grill, and also in neighbouring Creston and the Slocan Valley.
“There’s a bit of a blues revolution in Nelson,” adds the father and grandfather.
Kevin is now learning the guitar, albeit with the support of a teacher because he admits it’s best not to build bad habits.
“It was really Holger Petersen’s Blues (CBC) Radio Show that introduced me to the blues. That’s when I gravitated to the harmonica,” he says, adding that music was always around him when he was growing up. “My mother, in bringing music groups to our small Alberta town, was most instrumental in my early interest in music.”
Hear White Lightning Blues Band on YouTube: White Lightning Blues Band Live Kootenay Sound Studios
KATHY O’SULLIVAN and THERESA McNICOLL were neighbours, friends and teacher-colleagues when they started drinking coffee together at 7 a.m. on Saturday mornings in 2003, while their spouses and kids were still sleeping.
“We wanted to have some ‘we’ time as friends, before our family weekend time started, so we got going early,” says Kathy. “Then we started recording and keeping track of where we went,” adds Theresa, who, with the encouragement of her son Duncan, started their coffee review blog some years later. “We had so much data,” she says, “it just evolved into keeping a formal record.”
Now retired, both friends say going to a different coffee shop every week has been fun and has helped them get to know many neighbourhoods in Vancouver.
“We don’t cross bridges or leave the city,” adds Kathy. “There is so much variety in Vancouver.”
To date, they have records of more than 380 coffee houses, with Theresa critiquing tea and Kathy, coffee. They rate their experiences out of 10, but both say it’s their curiosity and their special time together to continue learning that keeps them exploring and having fun while they are doing it.
For more information on Vancouver coffee shops, check out: vancouvercoffeereview.com
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