Toronto music pals

OK, I'll see if I can breathe some life into this ancient dead message board,  I first discovered MF in 1998 as a senior in high school in Pennsylvania. A big bluegrass nerd, I went to see Bill Monroe play at the Theater of Living Arts in Philadelphia. While there, I discovered that another of my favourite artists, Michelle Shocked, was playing at the same place a few weeks later, so I came back for that show too. The opening act was this weird theater troup kind of folk band from Toronto - and I was hooked. I saw them 5 times over the years, in Pittsburgh, New York, and Philadelphia. Wish I'd seen them more but at least I had that. Ironically, both Jian Ghomeshi and Michelle Shocked had their careers implode around the same time, about 15 years after this show that I went to.  Many years later by a strange twist of fate I ended up immigrating to Canada for a job opportunity and found myself settled down in Toronto. I greatly enjoyed understanding many more references from their songs once I moved here - Dippers Grits and Tories, Pizza Pizza, The Viaduct. I even saw the Organ Grinder once - I'm sure it's the same guy!  I've also enjoyed seeing the other 3 band members in various outfits - Mike and Murray as the Cocksure Lads, and Dave with a Burt Bacharach tribute and with Ron Sexsmith on Canada Day.  Now I'm a middle aged dude with a wife and a kid and a house with a beautiful front porch perfect for making music on. I play banjo and guitar, and love to sing harmonies. No big musical ambitions at this stage in life; I just like playing some tunes around the house with like minded friends, cooking great meals and drinking great whisky. If anyone feels similarly, feel free to hit me up, come over and bang out some tunes. Or if you ever need a buddy to check out a concert with etc.  Mise.en.abyme1 at gmail dot com