http://thenancyduffyshow.com/shows/NancyDuffyShow-No.019-2013.01.11-DonRoss.AndrewCole.mp3

Show Notes:

Time: 00:01:21 Into the Show

A Conversation with Don Ross & Brooke Miller

An exciting performance is on its way to our home town – as well as to a few other towns over the next few weeks... And in celebration of this tour stop, on this week's show we'll be speaking with an amazing Canadian guitarist, Don Ross, along with the talented Canadian Singer/Songwriter – (and guitarist as well), Brooke Miller. A brief bio of each is below - first, as promised, here are their upcoming tour dates:

Jan 18, 2013 - The Aeolian - London, ON

Jan 19, 2013 - Place Concord - Windsor, ON

Jan 25, 2013 - West End Cultural Centre - Winnipeg, MB

Jan 27, 2013 - Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre - Ottawa, ON

Don Ross

Don was born in Montreal and began playing publicly (and for money) at the age of just 15. Fortunately he looked old enough to drink by then and was able to play at some of the downtown pubs that featured live acoustic music - exciting times for a person in his youth.  Early on he discovered the music of legendary Canadian singer/guitarist Bruce Cockburn and was amazed that such an insightful lyricist could also be a tremendous guitarist. This discovery inspired Don to write his first strong instrumental tunes for solo guitar around this time.

He went on to study composition at York University in Toronto and in 1988, he won the U.S. National Fingerstyle Guitar Competition.  Don has played with orchestras, and has had several records to date, recently signing with Candyrat Records in 2005.

Don has toured regularly since 1989, across Canada, the USA, a dozen European countries, Japan, Taiwan, China, Australia, Russia and India. He has played with symphony orchestras in Canada and Germany, and collaborated live and on recording with Andy McKee, Canadian singer/guitarist Brooke Miller, & Toronto bassist Jordan O’Connor. He also composes scores for television, radio and film, and does production and recording engineering for a variety of other musicians. In addition to acoustic guitar, Don also plays electric guitar, slide dobro and lapsteel guitar, voice, piano, keyboards, bass guitar and drums.  Click here to learn more about the music of Don Ross.

Brooke Miller

Now also in Montreal, Brooke Miller originally hails from Prince Edward Island from a small community where she grew up surrounded by the arts.  Brooke started as lead guitarist and vocalist in a loud punk band at the age of 12 – and hasn't stopped since.  She's a fan of the music of Bruce Cockburn, Rickie Lee Jones, the Police, and Joni Mitchel - traces of their influence are evident in Brookes hybrid sound.  Brooke recently released her fifth album for the German audiophile label Stockfisch Records. Entitled Familiar, the album is a collection of acoustic ballads, and it recently received a nomination for the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik (the “German Record Critics’ Award”), the German equivalent to Canada’s Polaris Prize.

Brooke’s tunes have been heard in recent feature films (The Year of Getting to Know Us, starring Sharon Stone, Lucy Liu and Jimmy Fallon), and on hit television shows (The L Word and Women’s Murder C...