Hey Rush fans, I am sure you know we have an enjoyable park in Willowdale dedicated to Rush. It is called Lee Lifeson Park. What you may not know is every summer for the past few years, there have been Progressive Rock musicians putting on shows there for free. This is a great way of honouring Canada’s favourite band.
With one of the biggest Rush supporters out there, David Barrett is flying that flag well and with only an acoustic guitar. He walked on stage and opened with a Rush song called Hope. From there he opened up our minds to another guitar great, Pat Metheny. He even threw in a little Joni Mitchell to keep things balanced.
David Barrett has been on the Toronto music scene for quite awhile and has a huge repertoire of music he can draw from. His solo work and his work with the Dave Barrett Trio has some strong legs in the Toronto scene of great music. I heard there is a new Trio at work and hopefully we will be surprisingly assaulted by them soon.
With a fabulous blend of his personal music and his extensive knowledge of music, this show literally could go all night. He has done about 525 live streaming shows for all of us to enjoy. Here is a link to his YouTube page so you can catch up on what you missed.
https://www.youtube.com/@DavidBarrettTrio
I always enjoy when he goes into his Steve Howe period. Listening to the Clap and Mood for a Day never grows old for me. This Year the tides turned a little and David did a medley of famous openings. So you were flowing through classic bands like Heart, Rush, Yes and Van Halen. Hell, he even did an acoustic version of 2112! How freaking cool is that!
Just when you thought you escaped the dreaded medleys- HaHa… We were forced into movie soundtracks songs, like Somewhere over the Rainbow, The second half of Layla, Pinball Wizard and Scarface. The audience seemed disappointed because they wanted to hear the theme from Jaws. Well David did not disappoint. He finished the evening off with Rainbows- Greensleeves and so, the happy crowd hung out to discuss the finer points of his show, and are already waiting to see what he will do next year!
Here are a few images of David Barrett: