What happened to the www.craignorthey.com site you say? Why doth he forsake it? Well…I’ve been pretty busy with Odds stuff and that ends up over here on this page and then this Twitter thing got invented and I find it easier to say 145 characters and go back to work so sometimes I just jot a note up there. To top it off somebody hacked this site and wrecked all my galleries and I don’t have a lot of skills in that department and don’t know how to fix it. Look for a revamp around March when things open up a bit for me.

Currently I’m the scoring composer on two TV series. Right now I’m polishing up episode 7 of “Hiccups” starring my pals Nancy Robertson and Brent Butt. It’s going to be on CTV and I think episode 1 airs in February or March. I’m busy enough with it that I don’t actually know. It’s damn funny and I know fans of their work are going to love it. In fact…new fans are going to love it. You’ll even hear Pat Steward singing in the end credit piece.

I am also sharing duties with musical marvel Jim McGrath www.jimmcgrath.ca on Kids in the Hall’s “Death Comes to Town” for CBC. It started last week with episode 1. Tuesday nights @ 9pm. You can download the first episode FREE at the itunes store right now (in HD). We had 1,054,000 viewers on the first night. In Canada those are pretty great numbers so I am happy that something so good will actually be seen by a lot of people. We’re working on the final 2 episodes right now and it’s a musical Rubik’s cube of tension and release. Odds can be heard playing the theme and all over the place in the score as I hired Doug, Pat and Murray to cut bed tracks with me for all the major character themes.

During it all the Odds are playing quite a bit at the Olympics. There’s a place called Molson Hockey House that will be filled with hockey fans and players from all over the world…having a good time. Odds are pretty much the house band and we’ll also do double duty as Sean Cullen’s band for his talk show there.

The play we wrote “Odds in a Good Weird Story” had a nice little showcase in Calgary a couple of months back. This performance led to 9 others that will take place in Ontario and the Maritimes in the fall. We’re working on spreading that out to a full, big tour. I’ll keep you posted.

A question I get asked a lot…”when will there be new Odds music”? In March we’ll start on an EP that we’ve written but have had no time to record. Doug and Pat are currently out on the road with Colin James “Rooftops and Satellites” tour so go say hi if they’re in your town. Doug, Pat and I were in the band for that record and it’s a real gooder. Colin is a true artist who likes to go where his muse takes him and, this time, he wanted to make a rock record and we got the call. www.colinjames.com

Murray is about to release his first album under the band moniker “Swan”. It rocks you right in your man or woman balls. It will be released on the Pheromone label as was Odds “Cheerleader”. Look for it in 2010. I got to help write one song so I am glad that having Murray join our band worked in MY favour.

Young Liam Titcomb is about to release another precocious album. I hate when the young cats are so good. It might mean I am booted from the lower middle of the totem pole. We wrote some songs together a while back and Liam has put another of them on this new record. It’s called “Raise Your Right hand” and I must say he put a sweet spin on it. I don’t know how these young bucks can out Beatle a Beatles rip-off artist like me…but they can.

Our chums the Gin Blossoms are also in the thick of a new album. Jesse Valenzuela and I wrote a song for this one called “Dead or Alive on the 405”. They send me the track yesterday and its pure pop for now people. I forwarded the track on to Terry Townson and Steve Hilliam (the Vancouver Horns) and they’re going to go all “Tumbling Dice” on its ass. Look for that one.

In recent news Wendy Bird has released her album “Natural Wonder”. I implore you to buy this record. I will personally guarantee it. I don’t know the technicalities behind a personal guarantee but I am doing it right now. I suppose if you bought it and didn’t like it then I would have to buy you a drink or something. We’ll work that out later because it will never happen. You’ll love it. I produced the record and played on it…but the list of people who played on it is pretty amazing…Barney Bentall and all his Legendary Hearts, Elvis Costello, Odds, Colin James, John Ellis, my sister Morag, Geoff Hicks, Simon Kendall, Rick Hopkins and other CJBand members and alumni and Adam Levy (Norah Jones etc). The more amazing thing is that almost all these people played together live on a 2-day session. The songs are all Jeffrey Hatcher songs. Jeff is “the” unsung Canadian songwriter and he deserves a tribute as grand as Blackie and the Rodeo Kings did for Willie P. Bennett. Read this…it explains it all — http://tinyurl.com/yfbr46e

The reviews for this record are coming in VERY strong and I’m stoked for Wendy. She’s a talent that needs some applause. Get it here: www.beaumontclassicrecords.com/

If you’re near a computer or a local Vancouver radio on Thursday’s at 6pm PST you can hear me on Shore 104’s “Music Notes at Six” – 104.3 on your FM dial. I do a turn as “the Connoisseur”. They let me pick a song for their playlist and I make a case for it and then we spin the tune — pretty good gig. I get the power that all musicians dreamt of having over the last 50 years. Shore 104 is the new Vancouver AAA station and it deserves your support. They and the new “Peak 100.5” are exposing Vancouverites to all the music they may have been missing with local radio in the past. I’m very happy that these stations are taking the plunge and giving people choices that they should have always had. www.shore104.com

Tuesday night Jan 12th at 9pm is when episode 1 of Kids in the Hall’s “Death Comes to Town” airs on CBC TV. We are all very excited. Craig wrote all the music with his compadre Jim McGrath (Art of Time Ensemble, all around musical genius). We all played on the score so when you hear drums, bass, guitar or keyboards it is 60% sure to be us. For sure we are playing the theme so for those 20 glorious seconds you can focus on the music because there is none of that crazy dialog going on. Check out Jim McGrath at www.jimmcgrath.ca and start watching the series. Its fantastic.

The Holiday Train has hit some pretty spectacular scenery  and the crowds are really coming out to feed the food bank. We’ll try to put up a few more pictures because all of us are snapping them pretty much all the time. We saw two wolves out on the frozen expanse of Duck Lake in the Kootenays yesterday. Amazing,

Learning to play with Gloves On

Our man Ross “Copper” Bartlett has been filming the whole Holiday Train trip. Here are some stills from his footage.

This morning we played for the kids, parents and elders of Mobert Ontario. I guess we played for a few friendly dogs as well. Tucked into a crook of a frozen lakeshore dotted with wolf and fox tracks. I always wonder how much the wildlife loves our raucous Christmas carols. You have to think that all creatures can feel the vibe that you mean no harm and are only there to spread good will. After over a hundred years they are used to the trains coming through so what is a couple of Vox amplifiers and a drum kit to them anyway. Great that CP realizes the impact and influence they have in these small towns in Canada and gives back. The railroad looms pretty huge in our history and folklore. There are 16,000 people working for CP in towns big and small across the country. Always nice to see a hard working local CP employee be able to hand off the giant cheque to his or her local food bank. That must feel good in a community of only a few hundred where everyone knows everyone. You’ve worked hard and now your boss has your back. Doesn’t always happen. We’re on the train with people who have spent decades working on the railroad and this is their favourite thing to do all year. They work countless hours for months…some year round…to prep the two trains for these runs. They fight for a chance to work on it. If I worked for CP this sure would connect the dots for me.
I’m connecting a lot of dots for myself. Riding in this almost century old coach through the wintery wilderness of Lake Superior’s north shore you connect to your history in a tangible way. I’ve done highway #1 enough times that I can’t remember how many times anymore but it doesn’t feel like this. This is seeing into the backyards and the back pages of the country. It’s time travel for a cause. Unlike the highway there are no strip malls filled with mattress warehouses, Starbucks and Fast Food to repeat in a litany of beige stucco boredom across the entire country. You don’t see one billboard with a mouth full of white teeth, a cleavage and a price ending in $.99. When we gave the country over to the car we gave our best and worst up to the roadway. All the manifestations of our greed and laziness were erected in prefab, uniform cubicles along that path. Christmas in the mall has become Christmas in hell to me. Santa Claustrophobia. It’s the direction I can’t go in any more — buy it, go into debt and throw it away. I’ve never subscribed but it seems inescapable. Thanks to this train for taking me into the past so I can see what is possible in the future.

Craig Dec 4

We’ll be in Toronto @ 6:30pm and then Vaughn @ 9pm. Lots of good crowds and people out to give to their local food banks. Check out the “>crowd in Bowmanville; last night Yesterday we did 6 shows in 6 cities. The bands new Billy Preston is Randall the Elf. He rocks the harmonica on “Run Rudolph Run”.

We lost one of the best on Sunday. Our friend Haydain Neale left this earth to make more people feel good somewhere else I guess. It was a hard last couple of years for Haydain and his family and we Odds wish them much love.

Haydain just released a great record and the proceeds go to the Haydain Neale Family Trust. Go to jacksoul.com to get more info.

We played “Feel Like This All the Time” today on Urban Rush in Vancouver. It’s Shaw TV (Shaw Direct Satellite and cable services across Canada) In Vancouver it airs at 5pm and 7pm tonight the 23rd — Victoria 5pm. Cowichan Valley/Saltspring/S Guld Islands 5pm, Chilliwack & Hope 11pm, Kamloops 5pm, Up North 1pm, Cranbrook east 8pm. In the rest of Canada it airs at 5pm 11pm and noon tomorrow the 24th.

We’re helping promote our Holiday Train Food Bank Drive…see tour dates!

As many of you know there are really only two bands in the world. Odds and Kiss. Two days ago Murray was hanging with the next most important musician in the world — Jonah Rocks the 5 year old drummer. Jonah invited Murray and Pat to meet his friends in Kiss. Can you tell that Murray is happy? Murray has loved Kiss since he was smaller than Jonah yet Jonah kept having to tell Murray to, “get it together and stop being so immature”.

Hi all….We’re going on a zillion ton food bank drive across Canada soon. Its a zillion tons in that the vehicle we are in weighs a zillion tons and we also hope to raise a zillion tons of food. We have room for the food because its a big ol train we’re riding. The CP Holiday Train is all lit up with thousands of lights decking out vintage rail cars. Right in the middle is a fold out stage and there will be 20 to 3o minute Odds shows at each stop. There are quite a few stops each day. We’re looking forward, after many years as a band, to playing in some places that rarely get to see a live band. Bring the kids because Santa is there. It’s a pretty spectacular thing when that train pulls in. Here is some interesting info from the CPR.

Backgrounder: Canadian Pacific Holiday Train

• The Holiday Train Program began in 1999 with a handful of communities and a few lights on a freight train.  Today, with its hundreds of thousands of festive lights and a live show featuring well known performers, it’s one of Canadian Pacific’s main ambassadors in working with communities in Canada and the United States and is the only fundraiser of its kind for food banks in North America.

• The Holiday Train requires more than a thousand employee volunteers – from train assembly, to light design, to event production and security, to safety and planning compliance, to operations. This includes most of our terminals and offices, where local employees plan food drives to coordinate with the arrival of the train.

• Since its launch in 1999, the Holiday Train program has raised over $4.00 million CDN and more than to two million pounds of food for North American food banks. All donations collected in a community remain in that community for local distribution. In 2008, more than $500,000CDN and 250,000 pounds of food were raised by concerned Canadians and Americans.