Friday, September 17, 2010

It’s been a great ride! / Ce fut une belle aventure!

Dear Runaway Slide Fans,

After four years of performing together we have come to a decision to part ways. As you can imagine this was a painful decision but it will allow us to move forward towards our individual musical interest.

We received our first big break when we performed at the The Prix Étoiles Galaxie de Radio-Canada contest at the Tremblant Blues Festival back in 2007 at the age of twelve. A year later we were surprised and honoured by winning the Lys Blues Upcoming Band award voted by our fans and peers. We were honored to share the stage with the likes of Paul Deslauriers, Guy Belanger, Ronnie Baker Brooks and Frank Marino to name a few. We had the opportunity to travel to different cities in Canada and the U.S.A. We are proud of what we have accomplished together and the way we have progressed as musicians.

We would like to take this opportunity to express our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to everyone who has supported Runaway Slide throughout these years, especially to those that have been behind the scenes and helped us along the way.

It’s been a great ride!
Justin, Adam and Matthew

===============================================

Cher fans de Runaway Slide,

Après quatre années de performance, nous avons pris la décision de dissoudre le groupe. Comme vous pouvez l'imaginer, ce fut une décision difficile mais qui nous permettra de cheminer chacun de notre côté vers nos intérêts musicaux individuels.

Nous avons obtenu notre coup d’envoi à l'âge de 12 ans lorsque nous nous sommes démarqués par notre performance au concours Prix étoiles Galaxie de Radio-Canada lors du Festival de Blues de Tremblant en 2007. Un an plus tard, nous avons été surpris et honorés de gagner le prix Lys Blues Groupe Révélation attribué par nos fans et nos pairs. Nous avons eu l’honneur de partager la scène avec des artistes tels que Paul Deslauriers, Guy Bélanger, Ronnie Baker Brooks and Frank Marino, pour ne nommer que ceux-là. Nous avons eu l'opportunité de voyager dans différentes villes du Canada et des États-Unis. Nous sommes très fiers de ce que nous avons accompli ensemble de même que de la façon dont nous avons progressé en tant que musiciens.

Nous aimerions profiter de cette occasion pour transmettre notre appréciation et remercier bien sincèrement tous ceux et celles qui ont supporté Runaway Slide tout au long de ces années, et plus particulièrement les personnes qui ont œuvré en coulisse et qui nous ont aidés.

Ce fut une belle aventure !

Justin, Adam and Matthew

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Runaway Slide at la relève nouvelle Génération Trois-Rivières en Blues


This year the Trois Rivieres en Blues festival organisation held a competition for up and coming musicians called Concours de la relève, Nouvelles génération Trois-Rivièeres en Blues! We were not part of the contest but we were invited guests to perform after the contest winners were announced.
Other invited guests during this contest, which took part over a series of dates included; Bharath and his Rythm four, Trevor Finlay. John Campbelljohn and Jack de Keyzer.


The show was held at a huge restaurant called l'oriflamme Salon de jeux, which was right over a casino. The whole complex must be pretty new because it wasn't even on the GPS. It took us an extra hour just to find the place.


The competition had some very talented artists ranging from singers, blues guitarist and bands. It was quite entertaining and we got to meet some interesting people. The house band was led by Mo Blues whom we got to chat for a while before the show. Check out his site to know more about him.
We performed for about 80 minutes including a mixed bag of our original tunes and some classic covers. We had to quickly leave by the end of set because we still had a couple of hours of driving to get back home.
Runaway Slide will be back in Trois Rivieres on Sunday August 29 for another performance during the second edition of the Trois Rivieres en Blues festival. Also performing that day is Jim Zeller and Carl Tremblay, Layla Zoe, Monkey Junk and Dawn Tyler Watson Blues Project.
Until our next blog,
Justin, Adam and Matthew
Help support Runaway Slide to record more music by purchasing their single "28" on iTunes and other online stores.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Runaway Slide at Donnacona's Au Rythme du blues Festival August 2010


For the second year in a row Runaway Slide were invited to perform at Donnacona's Au Rythme du Blues Festival. The organizers sure know how to put on a show and the people of Donnacona really appreciate music. We played a 45 minute set and the crowd showed us their love throughout our performance.



We even had some fans that were singing along to our song "28." We really appreciated seeing that.



As always, after our performance we took some time to go greet our fans and sign some posters.



Around midnight, Mike Deway, a great blues guitarist, invited us to play a couple of songs at a local pub. We had a great time with him.



We also enjoyed watching Clio and the Blueshighway and a magical performance by Diunna Greenleaf and Blue Mercy. It was an excellent day, great people, friendly organizers and an overall excellent festival.

We would like to thank Yannick Lambert and the crew for their professional stage and sound setup. Also thanks to Brian Slack of ZEB Productions and Irene Ippersiel of the Montreal Blues Society for supporting us.


Until our next blog,
Justin, Adam and Matthew
Help support Runaway Slide to record more music by purchasing their single "28" on iTunes and other online stores.


Posted by Picasa

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Runaway Slide at Place de la Gare in St-Jerome August 2010


All weather reports pointed to thunderstorms. So we got ready for the worst and hoped for the best. Well it ended up being an exceptional evening with lots of people from St-Jerome coming out to watch our show.

We played at Place de la Gare which is an old train station that has been transformed into a public space where people can walk, bike and watch all types of shows that are organized by the city of St-Jerome. There is also an old train car on the site that has been transformed into a fast food restaurant were you can eat some excellent Poutine.

After a long set on a warm and humid evening Justin, Adam and
Matthew (sporting a new haircut) pose for the camera.




Runaway Slide played for 90 minutes which included an acoustic set and most of their original tunes.



During one of the songs Justin went out into the crowd while playing a solo giving the people a closer look at his blazing fingers :)
We would like to thank Maude Tessier who organizes the show's at Place de la Gare, in St. Jerome for giving us the opportunity to perform there. We are also thankful for all the people of St. Jerome who came out to watch our show even though rain was in the forecast. Last but not least, Brain Slack of ZEB Productions.

Until our next blog,
Justin, Adam and Matthew
Help support Runaway Slide to record more music by purchasing their single "28" on iTunes and other online stores.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Cure One, Cure All Benefit Concert July 2010

On July 30th, 2010 the Cure One, Cure all benefit concert was held at the Underworld venue to raise funds for the Weekend To End Women's Cancers. A total of $1010 was raised. This benefit was organised by Samanth and Rebecca Mossa who will use the funds to participate in the Montreal Weekend to End Womens Cancers in late August.
A great line-up of musical acts with varying styles were on hand that evening including M.T.L., All Day Dreamers, Runaway Slide and Stray Sounds. We suggest that you take a minute to listen to all of these great bands. You won't be disappointed. A big thank-you to Samantha and Rebecca Mossa for letting us perform at this benefit.

Until our next blog,
Justin, Adam and Matthew
Help support Runaway Slide to record more music by purchasing their single "28" on iTunes and other online stores.
Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Runaway Slide performing at the 2010 Tremblant International Blues Festival

Justin, Adam and Matthew during sound check

The Tremblant International Blues Festival is an gig that we are honored to receive and this was our third year that we were given our own stage. Tremblant is a beautiful location to be playing outdoors and your always guaranteed to have blues loving fans in the audience. This year we played at the Lac Mercier stage on Saturday July 17 which is about 5 km from the main village. We apologise to the fans that came out to see us and had difficulties finding the place. We went through the same experience.

Runaway Slide fans trying to take cover from the rain

One thing that you're not guaranteed at an outdoor event is good weather. We started our set under a beautiful sunny sky. We were pumped to play our 16 song set but after our 5th song the sky opened up and the rain came down. Our hearts go out to all the fans who did their best to stay dry and stick around to watch our show. We we're then forced to stop playing because the rain started to wet the equipment.

Justin, Adam and Matthew performing at Lac Mercier

After a while the rain stopped but the menacing clouds remained. We started to play the classic song from Jimi Hendrix - Red House. Half-way through the song the skies opened up once again and it didn't stop for quite some time. Most people were forced to leave. Only a few die hard fans remained but by the time the rain stopped our time slot had expired.

Matthew and Justin playing an acoustic blues set

On Sunday we were asked to perform three songs at a Guitar Fusion show. Unfortunately, Adam could not make the show. The large crowd enjoyed our performance of some traditional blues tunes using a slide guitar and bass.

In the closing show of the festival I played two blues standards and sang crossroads with Mo Blues and Carl Tremblay. The crowd of at least 1000 (probably much more) certainly showed their appreciation. Carl Tremblay is definitely a showman.

We would like to thank all the fans that made the effort to come and watch us perform. Also, thanks to Brian Slack of Zeb Productions for giving us this opportunity. Last but not least, thanks to all the staff and technicians of the Tremblant International Blues Festival that made the whole experience most enjoyable.

Justin, Adam and Matthew
Support Runaway Slide by buying their single "28" on iTunes and other online stores.
Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Runaway Slide and Layla Zoe at Bourbon Street West May 2010

It's been a while since we last performed on stage so we were pretty excited about this show. Not to mention that the club that we were at, Bourbon Street West, is one of the best places for sound, lights, a large stage and lots of blues fans.

The only thing that made us a little nervous was that a Stanley Cup Eastern Conference Finals hockey game was on at the same time as our performance. Since our home team, the Montreal Canadians, are in the semi-finals we were concerned that fans would want to see the game instead of our performance. To our surprise the audience was into our music as much as any other time we've performed there.

We played most of our originals mixed in with some blues standards. We also introduced one of our new songs called "Karma." We received a lot of positive feedback on this song.



On this night we opened for Layla Zoe. Unfortunately, we had not heard of Layla before this show. We definitely recommend that you take a listen to her music. She is a fantastic singer and a super friendly person. Head on over to her website at www.layla.ca t learn more about her.



Thanks for reading our blog.

Justin, Adam and Matthew


Posted by Picasa