Magic happens in rooms above bars!

Life is good, folks. And I'll tell you why: I now have a story that almost rivals Jaclyn's story about meeting Sebastien Grainger. 'Cause I met a rock star last night- and her name is Carmen Townsend. When I was in high school, a very special teacher introduced me to a lot of great music. Mostly indie bands. In fact, half of the bands I listen to now are the ones that he got me into. I was in his classroom one day and he had a song called "Sweet Little Bird" playing on his computer. I asked who sang it- he said it was Carmen Townsend, a great singer from Cape Breton. So, I did some research. Turns out, this girl could really wail. I'd always been a fan of chicks who could rock out so to find a musician like Carmen from my home province was pretty awesome. Fast forward a few months: I did an interview with Carmen over email for a website I used to own. The interview went well and I published it but eventually ended up taking the website down due to lack of time and help from other writers. Fast forward about a year: Little Jilly is now in Journalism school and doing interviews with as many people from the arts community as she can. And then she sees it in The Buzz (God bless that wonderful paper!): Carmen Townsend and the Shakey Deals would be playing at Hunter's. I emailed her soon after and set up an interview for after her set. Well, the show was awesome. Jaclyn came with me. Even she, not usually a fan of female singers, had to admit that Carmen is one talented babe. And the articles about her are right- she does have an amazing stage presence- even in a crowded bar that smells of spilled beer. I didn't even feel like a geek singing along to "River Rat" and, once more, "Sweet Little Bird". I went upstairs to Nightcap and waited nervously for Carmen. She appeared, I waved nervously and she came bouncing over in a flurry of post-performance giddiness. She commented on having the same coat, punched me on the arm and skipped off to get a drink. She came back a few minutes later and we talked for a bit. (Turns out, we also have the same earrings, glasses frames and natural hair color- mine has also gone from blond to red to brown.) I did the interview and we talked for a few minutes more and then she was off to perform some songs with The Tom Fun Orchestra downstairs. Well, you know what they say. Magic happens in rooms above bars... OK, well, maybe they don't actually say that- but they should!