The Great CATsby!

Hey, all!

I wanted to mention an amazing event I am honoured to be a part of annually.  The Langley Animal Protection Society’s (LAPS) yearly gala.  The 2015 event, entitled “The Great CATsby” was an early 20th century theme and was all the fun it was believed it was going to be.  There were burlesque dancers, a great band playing 1930’s flavoured music and a large majority of those in attendance dressed up in “Roaring 20’s” and “Dirty 30’s” costumes including me! I also played a couple songs. All in all it turned out to be the most successful fundraising effort for LAPS that we have had to date.This year’s event raised $101,000!!!  I’m very proud to be an honorary board member of LAPS and look forward to the gala every year.  It was also really cool that my cat "Della" that we adopted last year, was featured as one of their "Furry Tail Endings" success stories!  She was an extremely shy cat who has turned out to be a perfect fit for my weird family. And she has become best friends with our dog Perry, who is also an animal shelter alumni member.

I encourage anyone who might be in the    area of LAPS to come down to the shelter and look into adopting your very own new member to your family!  I also encourage everyone to adopt a black cat or dog. They are often the last to get adopted or not adopted at all and put at risk of euthanasia.   It seems silly but this is a real problem!     Here's some information about it:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_dog_syndrome             

So don't fall victim to the syndrome!  We adopted a big black dog and it's been great!  Head over to the Langley Animal Shelter website www.lapsbc.ca or www.petfinder.ca to find a new black friend in your area!

As well there is a great site you can visit created by one of the LAPS volunteers that is a live webcam of the cats and kittens being fostered and sometimes you might even be able to see the actual birth of kittens!  Go to www.tinykittens.com to watch them on live cam!

Back to shop talk...Now that we’ve done our last show in Winnipeg for the Grey Cup event with Dallas Smith, work doesn’t stop.  I am in the middle of recording and always working on the future of my career.  There’s no stop in me, whatsoever, and with the next single due out to radio early in 2016 I’m hoping that it’s the start of what will be a full album (first in almost 6 years!) chalked full of hit songs!

Cheers!

AP

1

Better Late Than Never!

HEY OHHHH!

I can’t believe how long it’s been since my last blog! Sorry everyone! Obviously, that’s a sign that it’s been an incredibly busy year.  Here are some more of the things that have happened in 2015.

The second leg of the O's & O's tour happened in June and it was just as fun and crazy as the first leg.  Cory put on an awesome show with his wicked, big voice and butt-shaking that all the ladies really loved!  King & Cash (Jordan Pritchett & Dan Arnold) opened the whole show once again and did a killer job!  It was so much fun to yet again be on tour with my son JP, who has such an amazing and successful career ahead of him. All in all, the tour was a blast and it was so great to see so many amazing fans come out to the shows.  THANK YOU!

Many more highlights this year include heading to Nashville at the end of May and into June for a two-week writing trip.  I had the pleasure of penning tunes with some amazing people down there and wrote some awesome songs that I think are worthy of a good look when it comes time choosing songs for the next project.  One at the top of my list is a song I co-wrote with the timeless Patricia Conroy who is just as much a sweetheart as she is beautiful... and a crazy-great songwriter!  The song is called “All Night Baby” and to me is a future SMASH HIT!!  More info to come on all the other co-writes but I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag.  ;-)

That being said, a new record is something that is now officially in the works!!  Scott Cooke, my producer, (Florida Georgia Line, Dallas Smith, Jake Owen, etc.- name-dropper, I know) is diligently working on the new tracks and I couldn't be more excited.  So far, with the songs that I've written and the songs that I receive from my friends at OLE Publishing in Nashville, there are going to be some awesome tracks that, with any luck, will get a lot of airplay on Canadian radio.  But, just as importantly, the fans will LOVE hearing on their favorite country station!!  

This year I decided I needed to start writing a book.  It will be filled with fun stories from behind the scenes of my career and some interesting and fun personal life stories.  I definitely have many things that have happened over the course of my life that I believe fans alike will really enjoy reading.  Don't worry for anyone close to me; this is not going to be a tell-all.  Your secrets are safe with me... for now!

In May I released my very first greatest hits record entitled "Body of Work".  I'm extremely proud of this achievement and feel so blessed to be able to have a "Best Of... so far" compilation of songs from throughout my career.  It truly is hard to believe that I even managed to get to that point, considering I did get a bit of a late start on the scene.  My first radio single was played on April 14th, 2000 but we, as a team, pushed on and now it all has come full circle with this latest album.  From the early hit tracks like "Lucky For Me" and "My Way", to the even more successful "Big Wheel", "Hold My Beer" and now with "Boat On The Water" and "Wake You With A Kiss", I consider myself privileged and quite lucky to have the career that I've had.... so far!  There are so many more years in me with not only recorded music but also live shows.  The high energy is still there, the drive to hit the stage is still there and the want to make the fans happy is still there. I don't see that ever changing.

I'm a massive hockey fan, if you didn't know that already, and not just of watching the game but just as much a fan of playing the game.  I first hit the ice when I was a little boy and have never wanted to get off of it since.  It's in my blood and if I could I would play hockey every day.  Even though my body hurts a lot more now when I do play, there is still nothing like the feeling of skating on ice at a high speed.  Having a bit of skill at playing has allowed me to be invited by my friends in Saskatchewan, Todd Duffin, Kyle Duffin and Ryan Danberg, to come out and be a guest at The Elk Ridge Resort as a part of their “Party On The Pond”, a pond hockey tournament that is an absolute blast to be a part of and raises money for a great charity, Prince Albert, SK's Habitat For Humanity.  Looking forward to the POTP 2016, fellas!

Another amazing hockey event I had the pleasure of being a part of was up in Smithers, BC for the “Smithers Celebrity Golf Tournament and Hockey” event with the Vancouver Canucks' Dan Hamhuis (www.smitherscelebritygolf.com) as our host.  What an ABSOLUTE THRILL to be a part of this event with so many great ex-NHL'er and celebrities galore all in one little town to help raise money for the renovation and reconstruction of the maternity ward at the Bulkley Valley Regional Hospital.  One of my all-time dreams came real as, not only did I get to meet, but was also coached by one of my boyhood hero's Mr. Bobby Orr!!!  What an incredibly nice and sweet man. It was awesome to have my son, Jordan, come and be a part of all the fun along with Dave Faber (Faber Drive) and to meet such great people like Todd Talbot (Love It Or List It Vancouver), Sebastian Clovis (Tackle My Reno), retired referee Kerry Fraser (don't touch the hair!), Harold Snepsts, Olympic Gold Medalist Tessa Bonhomme, among so many others!  I hope I get the invite to do it again in a few years.  And congratulations on raising over $120,000 for the cause!

In October I joined a cast of great characters on a trip around northern Ontario to play in some charity hockey games.  Former NHL players on my team, which is known as “Glenn Anderson's Legends All Stars Hockey Team”, are Cliff Ronning, Greg Adams, Doug Bodger, Dave MacLlwain, Darryl Shannon, Mike Krushelnyski, Trevor Kidd.  We played in Thunder Bay, Dryden, Ear Falls and lastly in Red Lake.  All were great games against hard-fighting teams and raised thousands of dollars for local charities.  A few more trips are planned for the future so watch for postings!

As I mentioned, hockey season is well underway and it was great to get back to my home team, the Pylons! A group of great guys from the area who are highly respected doctors, physicians and policemen- and now a country singer!  Playing with guys who can either stitch up a cut on the bench or arrest a guy right there on the ice, if needed, is a comforting thought!  All kidding aside, this is my second season with this same group of fellas and I couldn’t be more proud to be a member of the team.  I’m just as proud to say that only last week I was awarded “Player of the Game” by my teammates, which allowed me to take home our mascot, “KONZ”.  **See picture.  I cannot tell the stories of what KONZ saw in that week between games but let’s just say that whomever gets him this week, well; he’s been around the block now!  HAHA!!!

There have sure been a lot of shows this year!  Between numerous weddings and golf tournaments I’ve attended this summer, I’ve also performed shows from Vancouver Island to all over Ontario… and back again.  It truly has been an amazing year thus far.  Some high points are of places that I've never been before.  The first one that comes to mind is a trip to France that I did in July, along with One More Girl, where we played a show in a city called Tours (pronounced "Tore") about 3 hours southwest of Paris.  What a thrill to first of all be in France but secondly to be able to play for the amazing music fans of France!  Thank you to Franck Boucheraud for helping us get out there and putting on an incredible event!  Your country is beautiful in both landscape and the citizens.

With all the events going on in the world recently, it makes me appreciate more than ever what I have and where I live.  My heart goes out to everyone who has been affected by these recent tragedies in Paris, Beirut, Brazil, Russia and more.  I pray for peace in the world. I also wanted to encourage anyone reading this, to not get caught up in all the hatred that seems to be running rampant on social media these days. We need to keep our posts filled with love and light, rather than be a part of the negativity that does nothing to help the situation we find ourselves in.

   “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.” – Martin Luther King.

Thank you so much to all the fans and friends for coming out to the shows and making stops to say hello!  

 This weekend I’ll be in Victoria and Nanaimo, BC November 21st and 22nd, respectively as well as at the Grey Cup festivities in Winnipeg, MB on November 26th.  I'm looking forward to ALL those shows so if you're in the area then please drop by.

  I hope you ALL have an amazing rest of your 2015 and make sure to watch for more of these updates!!

SALUT !!

Aaron