Windsor Plywood French Creek: The Pulse Community Podcast is brought to you in part by Windsor Plywood in French Creek, specializing in hard to source interior and exterior home finishing products, including flooring, doors and moldings, and exterior project materials such as yellow cedar. Windsor Plywood French Creek carries high quality, responsibly sourced products and are committed to providing outstanding value and personalized, one on one service to all of our customers, homeowners, do it yourselfers, renovators. Builders, designers, craftsmen, and contractors. Regardless of the type or size of your project, Windsor can help you bring your vision to life, from start to finish. Let Windsor Plywood and French Creek help you with your renovation, new build, or building project. Visit them online or call 752 3122.

Rockin Rhonda & The Blues Band: Here comes Peter. Here comes Dave. Oh listen. Bringing stories, making waves. No missing. Spinning tales in the podcast cave. So much laughs and insights everywhere. Peter and Dave, they're on the mics. Alright, join the ride. It's gonna feel just right.

Dave Graham: Welcome one, welcome all, step on up and become a part of the Pulse community podcast, where we share stories from the people who add the zing to the amazing lives we get to live here in paradise. He is a man who, if he had to describe himself in just one word, it would be bad at following instructions. He's Peter McCully. 

Peter McCully: That's more than one word. And he is a man known for having a lot of willpower, and even more won't power. It's Dave Graham.

Dave Graham: On this episode, we travel to the Macmillan Arts Center in Parksville for a chat with executive director Jennifer Bate. Jen will touch on some of the upcoming events and exhibitions coming to the MAC. It's a hoppin spot. 

Jen Bate: So if it's art, or if it's music, or if it's theatre, or if it's dance, we also have yoga here, meditation. I mean, this is a feel good space. These are tough times in the world right now. And I think that a place like the MAC, that's a collection of people that want to be inspired and want to create and make other people feel good, is so important in the fabric of our communities.

Peter McCully: And we chat with Ken Levigne, a founding member of the Canadian Tenors, who talks about his musical journey and his new show, A Night at the Movies. 

Ken Lavigne: I think for a long part of my career, I didn't really understand that. I thought it was my mission to impress people with the size and the power of my voice. And it took a while for me to settle into actually the vulnerable parts, the parts that you actually don't want to expose. That's the part that is the most meaningful and the most tender and the part that people come to hear. Don't get me wrong. I still love belting out some glorious high notes because that has its own place too. But those intimate moments are the ones that are irreplaceable and that's what you have to hone in is. An artist. I think. 

Dave Graham: Congratulations to Randy Hall of Parksville who got the answer to our last clue in our tickle trunk contest. Thanks to Thrifty Foods. The last clue was years ago, this was where kids went to learn the three Rs.

Now this place still offers classes, but they might be in color mixing or sketching. Upstairs is a piano. that was donated by a famous figure from the world of hockey. The answer being the old schoolhouse. Mr. and Mrs. Howie Meeker donated the piano. 

Peter McCully: Here's the clue for the next location of the tickle trunk. The trunk's in a place where it might be spotted by Cammy. Who or what is Cammy? And if you need another clue, it's where Peter and Gracie went fishing on Skookum Kid Stories. Episode 8. 

Dave Graham: If you think you know the answer or even if you just want to give it a guess, get in touch. It could be worth a $25 Thrifty Foods gift certificate. Email your answer to contest at the pulse community. ca or you can also check out the website and our Facebook page for clues and winners. 

Peter McCully: Hey Dave, are you all ready for the big game? Got your seven layer dip and your cool ones all lined up for Sunday's Super Bowl? 

Dave Graham: Go Philadelphia Chiefs! 

Peter McCully: Go Cowboys! 

Ian Lindsay & Associates: Ian Lindsey of Lindsay and Associates has played an active role in the local community since 1979. He has been with RE/MAX, Vancouver Island's most advanced real estate business network since 1996, marketing and selling residential, rural, strata, recreational, investment and project development real estate. Ian has received several awards recognizing his exceptional community commitment locally. As well as awards for outstanding performance and achievement from both RE/MAX International and the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board. You'll find true real estate professionals at ianlindsay. ca 

Peter McCully: Local groups and governments have been taking action regarding the shortage of doctors and that includes the Parksville, Qualicum Beach area. A recent announcement was about new doctors and nurse practitioners coming to the area, eight in all, and we plan to have a conversation in an upcoming episode with one of those doctors.

Dave Graham: And we are planning to be heading back out to connect with our Pulse community at some point. We'll be asking about perhaps Valentine's Day. Actually, we're looking for your stories anyway. Great memories, big plans perhaps, or maybe you treat it as just another day. For me, it's another day for chocolate. You are welcome to reach out, share your thoughts at your convenience. You can email, text, even leave a voice message. Follow the contact link to join the conversation. For now, I believe it's time for a chat. Marilyn, who's in the green room? 

Marilyn: Jen Bate is the Executive Director of the McMillan Arts Center. And she's waiting in the green room to talk about upcoming shows and a campaign to raise funds to replace the roof, among other projects. 

Dave Graham: Jennifer, thanks for your time. Nice to see you again. We go back a little ways, don't we? 

Jen Bate: We do go back, Dave Graham. 

Dave Graham: We have encountered one another in various different environments through the years, but here we are. I've been coming to this building to rehearse, to see shows, to see music programs, to learn. The common thread every time I step into this building is the structure itself and the spirit within. How does it strike you? 

Jen Bate: Isn't she beautiful? This old schoolhouse was the Parksville School, built in 1913. She's well over 100 years old. Back in the day, it was used after school. It was used as a ballet school. The Arts Council took it over in 1986. So we've been operating here at the Mac. Macmillan Arts Centre is now called since 1986. And it's really, really gorgeous. 

Dave Graham: And of course, after all these years, maintenance and repairs must be made. So how are you coping? 

Jen Bate: This old lady needs a little bit of love. It might not be public knowledge, but this building is owned privately. It does not belong to the City of Parksville. And the Arts Council co owns it with Inclusion Parksville, who are our neighbours on this same piece of property. And so, yes, from time to time she needs a little bit of lipstick.

She needs a couple of repairs here and there. And since 1986, the OCAC, the Arts Council, has spent a lot of time trying to maintain her and keep her going for another hundred years. So we are going to be focusing over the next two years on a capital fundraising campaign. Not for operations, it's strictly for the building's maintenance and upkeep so that we can keep going as guardians of this building for another hundred years.

The roof needs replacing, the windows need replacing, and she needs a new paint job. Over the next couple months, you're going to hear a lot more about what our planning is. So, we are talking about fundraisers, you're going to see some music concerts, you'll see some art sales. We are going to spend a lot of time finding National grants and things like that, because she's not a heritage building, even though she could be, in order to make sure that we can take care of all of these things now and move forward. Hopefully, people will reach down and help us bring her back up on her feet. 

Dave Graham: We could have a conversation that goes on for an hour as to the importance that a facility like this plays in the community. 

Jen Bate: I think that every community needs an artistic hub, a centre. Every artist needs a place where they feel that they have a sense of community. We get an awful lot of visitors to the Arts Centre. I don't know about you, but when I get into a new city or I fly in somewhere, The first thing I'm going to look for is, Hey, what's on? Is there a show on? Is there a, a music event or something? Arts speaks to people. It speaks to us as a community, certainly to our visitors, and we get our fair share of both, so I think that an art center is the soul of a community, said there by an artist.

Dave Graham: As we sit here, I realize I really love silk painting. 

Jen Bate: Right now we have some great exhibits. We have now an Arts Council member show called Songs from the Heart. They were tasked with finding a song and then painting a 10 by 10 piece about it. The fun part of that is that you can try and guess what the song is by looking at the piece and then we give you a hint underneath the label. And then beautiful work of Bev Robertson. She's from Down Island, Shonagan Ways, but if you've ever read about Georgia O'Keeffe, Her lovely big canvas of flowers and if you're a flower lover, you should come and check it out. It's gorgeous. 

Dave Graham: I got here a few minutes early today, and I think in the space of five minutes, you probably dealt with seven different things, but I suppose that's the nature of someone in your position. Here we are, what, eight years you've been here now? I guess it's working out for you. 

Jen Bate: Yes, I'm moving into my ninth year here at the MAC. Prior to this, my family and I were living in Hong Kong. We were there for seven years. My husband, Bob, was a basketball coach, and he ran the guidance department, and my two daughters graduated high school in Hong Kong.

We were there for seven years and came back, and within a couple of years, here I am at the MAC. It's so funny because everywhere I seem to be in my life, I gravitate towards arts. I was the president of Echo Players for a long time. I started up Barred to Broadway Theatre. That was a great project. In Hong Kong, I ran a 700 seat theater and seven story art center.

This is Hong Kong, so this is not unusual. But that art center hosted arts classes, visual arts, music, and theater. I had the Hong Kong Ballet on my stage, the Hong Kong Symphony. We were a very well known, popular location for films. And that was a dream job for seven years. Came back in 2014, and I've been here at the MAC since 2016.

Dave Graham: This summer marks the 25th anniversary of Mount Aerosmith Biosphere and the 10th anniversary of their Amazing Places program. The MAC is celebrating both. How so? 

Jen Bate: Well, the Mount Aerosmith Biosphere region is coordinated through VIU. About two years ago, they reached out to me. They actually know what we do for our summer exhibits, which is having a conversation that could be scientific based, historical based, but we do it through an artistic lens.

They came to see an exhibit called Soft Shore that we had, and it was all about the soft shore, where land and water meet. The conversation was about that, but we did it through an artistic lens, so artists were able to be, uh, part of an exhibit. But it featured like 10 or 11 different mediums. So we had a glass artist and a steel artist and textile artist and a carver, a potter, and I guess they really, really liked the whole concept of bringing in all of these artists to have a conversation.

So here we are in 2025, the 25th. Anniversary of the Mount Aerosmith Biosphere, and they want to do the same thing. So what are we going to do? Well, how about we talk about the 10 Amazing Places and bring in a group of artists that are going to be their representation of these 10 Amazing Places. So you're going to see Red Cod Forge is going to be joining us.

He's going to be doing ten pieces. Each of the ten amazing places will be represented. We have a Haida carver, Mike Bellis, is going to join us. The Spinners and Weavers are going to be creating unbelievable pieces for these ten amazing places. A mosaic artist, a watercolourist, Peggy Burkoski, is going to join us this summer.

We've got oil painter Marjorie Blom. When you come into this art center, it's going to be all about Mount Aerosmith. You're going to learn about the biosphere. It's a UNESCO chosen biosphere. Two of them are on Vancouver Island and we live in one. So some of the 10 amazing places are. Cathedral Grove, Rath Trevor Park, Top Ridge, Notch Hill, Qualicum Falls.

You'll have to go find the other ones because we're going to encourage everybody to go out and check them out and then come in here and see what the artists do to represent these amazing places. 

Dave Graham: Wow, what a wonderful program. So people will be able, as they visit the MAC through the summer, be able to see art as it's being created.

Jen Bate: I think we're going to have at least two artists here for the whole summer. They'll take over the studio. You might see a carver in there creating work all summer long. It's such a pleasure to watch an artist at work. And frankly, it's a pleasure for them to get out of their studios and their solitary lifestyles, and then come in and be a part of what is a busy space.

We had 8, 000. Visitors to the Mac last summer. And of course we have our lovely urban art garden right next door to this building, stewarded by the PQB Fruit Tree Foundation. In that urban garden next door, we have steward Dan LaRock, who is a hydroponics. Expert. He will be teaching classes and workshops on tree pruning to hydroponics.

Our Creative Kids summer art program happens in that garden. Check it out. It is the place to be in the summer. 

Dave Graham: What's coming up in February? 

Jen Bate: This is just a small snippet, mind you, because our studio is booked seven days a week. For February, I would highlight three in particular. On February the 8th, we have, as part of our folk series, the Cosmic American Musical Review.

You're going to have to check it out and find out what that's all about. It's a selection of local artists. On February the 23rd, one of our exhibiting artists, Laura Cargilla, is going to be doing a workshop for four hours. It's called Finding Your Visual Voice. She is an amazing arts educator. She's traveled across the country as an artist in residence, and now she's coming in not only to share her beautiful work in the concert gallery, but to share her knowledge.

Finding Your Visual Voice workshop. It's going to be on that Saturday during the day. She's also doing an artist talk. And just for fun, she's going to do a class on how to apply for grants as an artist. So she's got a lot of knowledge to share. I highly recommend you check her out in February. The last day of February, we have a Tales for the Telling adult storytelling.

It's called Fables, Fancies, and Facts. And I leave that with you. If you've ever had a professional storyteller. It is such a great experience, it's uplifting, it's interesting, it's fun, and you feel like a kid again with somebody telling you a story. So, the Tales for the Telling program is one of my favorites here at the MAC.

Dave Graham: Before we wrap, what else would you like to touch on? 

Jen Bate: I just want to say how proud we are as, as an organization since I started here at the MAC. Not only have we created the urban art garden, our school for creative arts, the gift shop, which now hosts 180 local artists. And of course our box office, we handle all the ticketing for all the great stuff that's happening down in the Parksville outdoor theater.

So check out our box office online because we're selling tickets for rock. The park can't tell you who's going to be the opening act because it'll freak everybody out. Last year it was trooper, but we also have really, really important partnerships with elder college. We run programs on Mondays for Elder College.

We've just signed an agreement with RDN for some creative kids classes. And of course, we have a gorgeous satellite gallery now at the Bayside Oceanfront Resort. They have artwork of local artists in the dining room, the hallways, and in their hotel rooms. So thank you to the Bayside for being such a great partner for us.

Dave Graham: You know, it brings to mind a conversation that could take another hour. And that is about connecting people with our day, extending the gallery out into the community, but also encouraging and showing people, guiding people how to express themselves creatively. As we're sitting here and you're talking about that, I'm surrounded by all of this art.

It strikes me how helping others to express themselves creatively is helping to achieve their potential as humans. 

Jen Bate: We are a safe, artistic, enthusiastic space. I think that there's not one person that doesn't walk in here and feel comfortable, inspired, maybe happier. Arts make us happy, right? They do something inside.

They give us endorphins. They make us feel good about ourselves. So if it's art, or if it's music, Or if it's theatre, or if it's dance. We also have yoga here, meditation. I mean, this is a feel good space. These are tough times in the world right now. We got through COVID. You know, we had to close this building down.

And are just coming back up on our feet with music programs and things like that. But it's a tough world out there right now. And I think that a place like the MAC, that's a collection of people that want to be inspired and want to create and make other people feel good. is so important in the fabric of our communities.

Dave Graham: All of the wonderful things that happen in a space like this contribute to the spirit that you feel as you walk through the doors of the Macmillan Arts Centre. Jennifer, thanks for your time. 

Jen Bate: Thank you, David. It was really fun. 

Dave Graham: You know, I think we are all artists, even though some of us do not believe this.

I believe we are. I choose to believe that art is not limited to something you hang on a wall or perform on a stage. As an artist, I am of the crowd who says art is essential to a properly fulfilled life. It can be expressed in unlimited ways, and I will always be a supporter of places like the MAC that help people to do so.

Oceanside CWeed: Oceanside Seaweed, that little pot shop, is Parksville's first licensed cannabis store. Since April 2022, Seaweed is under new ownership. With a product expert at the helm, that includes two decades of retail mastery and seven years in the cannabis industry, Seaweed is a legacy in the making, with cannabis products regulated by Health Canada. Community minded Seaweed is a member of the Parksville Chamber of Commerce, the Parksville Downtown Business Association, and the Retail Cannabis Council of British Columbia. Those 19 plus can drop by the store at 154 Middleton Avenue next to Tablet Pharmacy. Open Monday to Friday, 9 am to 8 pm. Weekends and holidays, 9 pm. Visit the online store at seaweedoceanside.ca 

Peter McCully: We encourage you to check out our Skookum Kids Stories, delightful original stories, including the adventures of Captain Dave and his buddy, Larry the Lobster, aboard the Mellow Submarine. 

Dave Graham: And then there's Peter and Gracie. Gracie's a dog, Peter isn't. Peter and Gracie the Eskimo dog have new stories coming out regularly. Their latest story has them going on a tour of the Dashwood Fire Hall and meeting Chief Nick. You'll find all the stories at SkookumKids. com and wherever you like to listen to podcasts including Apple, Spotify, iHeart and Amazon.

Rockin Rhonda & The Blues Band: The Pulse Community Podcast is brought to you in part by Windsor Plywood in French Creek, specializing in hard to source interior and exterior home finishing products. including flooring, doors and moldings, and exterior project materials such as yellow cedar. Windsor Plywood French Creek carries high quality, responsibly sourced products, and are committed to providing outstanding value and personalized, one on one service to all of our customers.

Homeowners, do it yourselfers, renovators, builders, designers, craftsmen and contractors. Regardless of the type or size of your project, Windsor can help you bring your vision to life, from start to finish. Let Windsor Plywood and French Creek help you with your renovation, new build, or building project. Visit them online or call 752 3122. 

Peter McCully: We appreciate Windsor Plywood for joining our growing family of sponsors of the Pulse community. And the Skookum Kid Stories podcasts. We have some opportunities available for anyone wanting to support coverage of the people and stories of Mid Vancouver Island to find out more about sponsorship options, email me Peter at the pulse community.ca. 

Dave Graham: I believe we have another guest waiting to join us. Marilyn, do we have someone, I don't know, maybe a singer in the green room? 

Ian Lindsay & Associates: Ken Levigne is in the green room. Ken was born and raised in Victoria and has attended the University of Victoria and the Victoria Conservatory of Music. He is one of four founding members of the Canadian Tenors.

Dave Graham: I was thinking back to the last time I saw you. We were on stage together at the Filberg Festival. I was just the emcee. Of course, everybody was there to see you. That was a few years back now, pre COVID. And then along came this pandemic, and we all found new ways to function, and I have to think that for someone who depends on crowds gathering for a living, this presents challenges. How did you work around, and are there any positive spin offs that came out of that? 

Ken Lavigne: Talk about having the rug pulled up from under you, for sure. And I think that many of us musicians who are in the live performance space really found ourselves not entirely sure how best that we might be able to pivot and make a go of it.

And so for me, it was one of those really awkward moments of spending a few months sort of twiddling my thumbs and realizing I have this music inside of me. I have an audience. Why don't I embrace the new technology that everyone is using right now? And so I started in earnest to work on some serious YouTube connections and suddenly it just blew up.

I think realizing that a lot of people had a lot of time on their hands and were spending it in front of their phones or on their tablets or on their laptops and was able to connect with my fans that way. And that's blossomed into a really wonderful community of musicians and singers and fans that I couldn't have possibly imagined.

I don't know if it's necessarily a good news story because I really missed the audiences and I really missed the being able to connect live. And I recall we had this one moment we were going to do a live feed on Facebook, like a Facebook concert that was all the rage. I was struggling to get all of that going and I had my band in my studio here behind me for the first time in like six months and everyone was so filled with glee that we actually got to make music together again that it was like, Oh, it was such a huge reminder of how powerful this art form is that it is.

the connection that you get with music. I was like, okay, yeah, I'm in the right space. This is the right thing to do. And I really enjoyed that. reminder that I think is sometimes missing when you're busy and you have full schedules and you're balancing life and your career in music and audiences and all of those stresses.

You sort of sense this kind of burnout and you lose sight of the magic of just making music and what a true gift it is. So I suppose in some way. I have COVID to thank for that. Having that forced reset for the career. That's what I sort of found myself doing during that time. That was really informative for me.

Dave Graham: Can you believe it's been over 20 years since the great Canadian tenors were launched?

Ken Lavigne:  That is humbling in so many ways to realize that, I was part of that all those many years ago. Two decades. My goodness gracious, what a trip. 

Dave Graham: And now here you are again, teaming up with one of the other people from that time to put on this show that we're going to be talking about. Dr. Philip Grant, it sounds like the two of you are pretty tickled to be working together again. 

Ken Lavigne: Phil and I go back to the founding of the Canadian Tenors, and we were fast friends. We were both very ambitious and wanted to pursue this music thing that we had both bubbling up inside of us, and both living on the West Coast.

We are able to hang out and in that crucible, I think one of two things can happen. Either the idiosyncrasies of a personality can grate on you or you can be like, no, this is a lifelong friendship. And for both of us, that's where we landed. And to this day, we catch up once a week. He's on the mainland, I'm on the island.

You know, families and career and life takes divergent paths, but it's wonderful that we've been able to manufacture this opportunity to sing together on stage again, and so I couldn't be happier. 

Dave Graham: The show we're talking about is A Night at the Movies with Ken Levine and Van City Harmony. Can you talk about how this came to be?

Ken Lavigne: Dr. Philip Grant has worn many hats in his life. One of them is being a spectacular singer with the Canadian tenors. As he's moved through a variety of different formats, he became a doctor, got his PhD in industrial marketing and became a professor. He still had that love of music and it morphed and changed.

And he wanted to really make an impact in the musical landscape in Vancouver. and started this incredible choir. This is a 40 voice choir and they're basically the all stars of choral singers in Vancouver. They're award winning and this new choir is absolutely stunning and he's put together just an incredible all star cast of singers to, uh, to present this kind of music that is really complex and difficult to pull off at a high level.

And I've had the opportunity to hear them live on multiple occasions and I'm always blown away. The ability of these voices to both individually shine but as a group blend in a way that is just absolutely transfixing and I'm pretty hard nosed, okay? It takes a lot to impress me. These guys do it every time.

You get the hair standing up on the back of your arms, you know, on the back of your neck. Just that sort of spine tingling moment time after time after time. For him to be able to pull this off and for us to be able to perform together is a real thrill. 

Dave Graham: Is this a three night only engagement or is there more involved?

Ken Lavigne: Well, one of the things that Phil had wanted to do with this is provide them opportunities outside of their own native environment of Vancouver. The logical choice was, hey, let's take this on the road and we'll do these three shows as a test run. I'll call up my old buddy, Ken, see what he likes to do, what he thinks would work.

Of course, I jumped at the chance to be able to work with these wonderful folks. So yes, three nights only. This Valentine's Day weekend seemed like the obvious choice to pull in a theme that I think everyone would be able to enjoy. We're having a heck of a time, a heck of a fun time, putting all of the music together.

Did you have a hand in deciding the final program? Yes, I have my fingers in all of the pies. Of course, not what the choir itself is doing. Donny Rose is the choir director. He and Phil and they have their creative team are responsible for pulling all of the threads together to make what the choir does come to life.

We're going to be collaborating on a number of the songs together. I'm going to be doing some solos that will help fill out the show. And of course, Phil and I are going to be joining our forces for a duet that I think is 20 years in the making. 

Dave Graham: The show promises a spectacular, and I'm quoting here, a spectacular evening celebrating the most iconic songs ever to grace the silver screen. That's raising the bar a little bit. Are you a movie fan yourself?

Ken Lavigne:  Oh yeah, of course, yeah. Love the movies, love old time movie musicals as well as modern movies that incorporate music as part of the soundtracks. Big film buff, for sure. 

Dave Graham: When I look at your website and I look at the touring shows that have included Ken Levine's Christmas Musical Roadshow and The Road to Carnegie Hall, Three Nights with a Tenor, The Italian Tenor, and The Singing Cowboy, I'm wondering, is this you designing and managing your own career, or do you rely on others to help you put this together?

Ken Lavigne: I come up with the creative ideas. When I collaborate with my musicians, I say, okay, this is the main idea. These are the songs that I want to present. This is the thrust of the whole evening. It's working out the music in collaboration with my musicians that really helps bring it all together. I do have an agent.

I do have some management that helps. Everything function on the back end so that everything goes off smoothly because left to my own devices. Like most musicians, I'm excited and take the music seriously. A lot of the details sometimes I'm not so concerned about. So thankfully for everyone involved, I have a lot of help making sure that things go smoothly behind the scenes.

Dave Graham: If somehow music were to go away tomorrow, god forbid, what would you want to do? What's choice number two? 

Ken Lavigne: Well, I think I'd probably get into podcasting. The thing that I've been doing in addition to my live performance since the pandemic was I realized that there was a lot of folks out there that had ambitions to improve their singing and I had this whole back catalog of knowledge and experience that I really wasn't utilizing and I felt, you know, it's time for me to share this.

There's people out there that I think I could really help and benefit. So I've been very seriously pursuing the vocal coaching realm. And so I have students from all over the globe, from Paris and the UK to all throughout North America, people who are interested in improving their voices. And I help them achieve that through this online portal of vocal coaching.

It's been a real wonderful drive. So when I say podcasting, I think it's more, I enjoy meeting people and getting to know them. And you're never more exposed and raw than when you're singing for someone. And so I feel that I know these students very well. And I'd like to keep that going in whatever capacity, whether it's vocal coaching, whether it's meeting wonderful folks such as yourself and, and getting to know them is, um, it's a real treat.

Dave Graham: Interesting line there, you're never more exposed and raw than when you're singing for someone. For people, uh, unfamiliar with the environment in which you spend your days, they're thinking, you know, this is what they do for a living, they sing, you know, no big deal, that's their job. At your level of performance, this is a place you have to go in order to reach your, your standards.

Ken Lavigne: I think you really have to think of your job in two ways. As a performer, there's a technical feat that you're trying to accomplish. You need to just sing the right notes at the right time with the right words, and create that sort of space in the right idiom. And there's this artistic side that you really need to expose yourself, because everyone can smell a phony a mile away.

Either you're phoning it in as a musician, or you're trying to put up some false bravado, and people, it's, that's not why they came, they didn't actually come to hear your voice, they came to hear you as an artist, as a person, and really get that personal connection, so being able to sort of deconstruct whatever that persona is and just be real, that's the part of the artist that you realize is the most painful thing to go through, and just Be comfortable in that zone.

I think for a long part of my career. I didn't really understand that I thought it was my mission to impress people with the size and the power of my voice and it took a while for me to Settle into actually the vulnerable parts the the parts that you actually don't want to expose That's the part that is the most meaningful and the most tender and the part that people come to here.

Don't get me wrong I still love Belting out some glorious high notes because that has its own place, too. But those intimate moments are the ones that are irreplaceable and that's what you have to hone in as an artist, I think. 

Dave Graham: Have you any other projects in the works that you were able to talk about?

Ken Lavigne: Well, you mentioned one of them. One was the Spaghetti Western, which is a fun show that I've put together. It's basically this other persona of the singing cowboy. I love a Western, Western swing. I love that Western music, old singing cowboy medleys, gunfighter ballads. Marty Robbins, those old gunfighter ballads, El Paso and whatnot.

They're really fun, and I've been messing around with some cowboy yodeling too, and it's a lot of fun to be able to present that. So I'm looking forward to doing that in March, and those will be some shows in Alberta where they really know their cowboys. So those are some of the stuff I'm working on right now, and constantly recording, constantly putting stuff out into the world, and seeing what becomes of it. That's my job right now. 

Dave Graham: Thank you, sir. 

Ken Lavigne: Thank you very much for the opportunity. 

Dave Graham: You know, when Ken mentioned that he's now yodeling, I was tempted to follow up on that. It's a bit of a departure for a guy known for, well, not yodeling. Nonetheless, it sounds like they have an entertaining program set for around Valentine's Day at select locations, including Knox United Church in Parksville.

Peter McCully: Dave, I don't know if you remember or not, but when we were kids in elementary school, everybody bought a big bag of Valentine's Day cards. At least enough to give to everybody in the class and we all exchange them, put them up on the boards, all that kind of fun. I'm not sure that's how you celebrate Valentine's Day anymore.

Lots of folks buy chocolate, buy cards, buy flowers, go for dinner, that kind of thing. We want to know what you have to say about how you celebrate Valentine's Day. Is it your favorite occasion or do you think it's just a greeting card day or do you land somewhere? in between. Tell us in your own voice or text us or email us.

Go to the pulse community dot C. A. Click on contact or maybe we'll see you sometime soon as we take the Peter and Dave Roadshow to a busy spot near you. 

Dave Graham: Okay, Peter, it's time to head down to the cafeteria. See what special Mabel has for us today. 

Peter McCully: Mabel follows all the trends and she's been experimenting a lot lately.

Dave Graham: Yeah, last week she came up with a um, Chocolate bacon cake. 

Peter McCully: And then she made us that green salad in the microwave. Maybe there's some leftover haggis. 

Rockin Rhonda & The Blues Band: Here comes Peter, here comes Dave, oh listen. Bringing stories, making waves. No missing. Spinning tales in the podcast cave. So to speak. Laughs and insights everywhere. What a treat. Peer and Dave. They're on the mics all right. Join the ride. It's gonna feel just right.