We absolutely love music here in our office, and a variety of genres as well. One of the favourites you’ll hear playing here at any given time are The Blues and Blues Rock. I’m pretty lucky to have some talented musicians for sons, and my 13 year old shares my eclectic taste in music, so he’s not against me throwing in some Steve Strongman, Monkey Junk, or even some older Muddy Waters into the CD player, and turn it up loud.

Since 2003, the town we’re in has hosted the “Orangeville Blues and Jazz Festival,” originally a one day event that has now turned into an exciting lineup of great artists spread out over four days (Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday) during the first weekend of June. Proudly, I can say that I’ve been in attendance every year since the inception of the event. My youngest son, who is now 13, has also attended at least some of the acts at every single Bluesfest weekend as well, while some of my older boys have traveled down from Ottawa when they could, to share in the enjoyment with us.

Although I have many special memories over the years, some of my most special include the first year, when my eldest son who is quite an awesome drummer himself, got to meet Charlie Cooley. That was a pretty special moment for Alex – while his dad shared a beer with Mr. Cooley during a break, and Alex was able to ask lots of questions and sit in the presence of another great Canadian drummer. I was so impressed with how Charlie Cooley gave up his break time to give encouragement to a young teenager with dreams and goals of becoming a professional musician.

Another awesome memory was from the Bluesfest event of two years ago, in 2014. My son David and I had enjoyed some great music on the Friday and Saturday and had spent some time over at the Main Stage on Sunday, but the weather was not that great on Sunday. We’re very privileged in that the office is only a 30 second walk (literally) from the Main Stage, so we were still able to hear the tunes that were being played. Because of the rain and cooler temperatures that day, we were humming and hawing about whether we’d head over to watch and listen to the last act, when suddenly, we realized the last act was not who it was supposed to be – it was Steve Strongman! Hearing Steve Strongman’s guitar playing made up our mind for us, and we hustled right over to the park where we both were able to enjoy the awesome performance of perhaps one of the greatest Blues musicians in Canada.

What made it so special though was that after his show, Steve Strongman spent about ten minutes talking with David (who was 11 at the time), took the time to sign CD’s, and then gave David his “game pick,” – the pick he had been using to play those awesome blues licks and riffs. To some, it might only be a guitar pick – to David (and me), it was a pretty awesome and kind gesture after thanking a kid for coming out to listen to him. David still has that pick, and he gets it out every so often when we try to play my old acoustic.

We’ve had many great memories over the years, even more than the two described above. And so it was a great honour for The Ian Scott Group to be asked to help out this year! We’ll be doing some work for the Orangeville Blues and Jazz Festival and are looking very much forward to being involved in an event that we’ve loved so much for the past 12 years. The event has given us a lot of pleasure and good times, and to have an opportunity to give back to that is something we’re very much looking forward to and are excited to be a part of.

The Ian Scott Group will be working with a team of other professionals who are all top notch to help make it yet another successful year for the annual event. The dedication to the event, the work that gets put in, and professionalism behind the scenes that makes the Festival happen is impressive and we’re looking forward to working with such a great team.

Last year, we wrote about the fact that we might not be around the office much during Blues & Jazz Fest weekend – and it looks like this year, we’ll be here even less over the weekend – but no matter what, if you’re coming to Orangeville from out of town for Bluesfest, let us know and we’ll do our best to have drink or a meal with you.