“Take A Seat” - is inspired by the headstock on the Six String Nation guitar, which is made from seat 69 in the gallery section of the legendary Massey Hall. Upon learning about this piece, it got me thinking about the 100+ years of vibrations that had gone through not only the people sitting there but also through the wooden seat itself. I wanted the song to capture the history and range of momentous events that the Hall had witnessed and so it was a big challenge to choose and fit a limited number of moments into the song. However, during a “Doors Open Toronto” event, I had a chance to sit in the Hall up in the gallery near where the seat would have been and listen to Rob Bowman’s presentation as he ran through the years of events at the Hall. This helped me do some time travelling and I began to visualize the song. The legendary acoustics of the Hall had to be acknowledged with the lyric, “let these walls and arches have their say”, and I also wanted to give a nod to the 2 second decay time of the Hall’s natural reverb just before the bridge of the song with the line “2 seconds of a dream”. During the recording process, Kevin Turcotte played trumpet as a nod to Dizzy Gillespie and the Jazz Quintet and their famous 1953 concert. Kevin’s solo is actually an extrapolation of a solo - at a much slower speed - from the track "Wee" from that magical night at Massey Hall.

Hear more about the story behind the song and watch the powerful live performance @ https://youtu.be/xT23zFElCWI
Watch the Music Video for "Take A Seat" @ https://youtu.be/MiPuqjL45SA