This Wednesday, 3 GUYS FROM THE PRAIRIES TAKE OVER THE FRINGE at the Cameron House. For those of you not in the know, 3 GUYS are Jeff Straker, Grant Tilly and I doing probably my favourite night of singer/songwriter-ness ever. We're celebrating Grant and my musicals in the Toronto fringe festival - and Jeff just released a CD and opened for Mel C from the Spice girls - so we're all celebrating.

Speaking of shows, check out Grant's THE CHRISTIAN REPUBLICAN FUNDRAISER IN DAYTON, TENNESSEE (NNNN - Now, "High Recommended" - Toronto Star) and mine, DEATH TO DATING (4 STARS - Eye) at the Toronto Fringe Festival. Hooray!

I just got back from a short tour through NY, PA and MD - the highlight of which was winning the Susquehanna Music & Arts Festival (SMAF!) Songwriting Contest and playing on the mainstage. And I've been invited back to play there again next year! Thank you all for your crossed fingers - it worked! You can read the whole story in my blog section above.

Also, check out the article that was written about me in Acousticmusicscene.com - I was technically a little drunk during this interview - but it's nice all the same.

Hope 2008 is excellent for all y'all - it's already been great for me with a couple sweet circus-y shows and a copy of Guitar Hero 3. You can read about the shows (& maybe some guitar hero too) in my blog section above.

Some friends of mine put together an annual Holiday CD - everyone contributes songs, singing, playing, etc. including a song made up on the spot "Wind from the North" and a cute little original called "Coal on Christmas" (with a little "jetpack" reference for you jetpack finders out there). Listen to both in the music section above.

And for more holiday tunes off the CD, check out http://www.myspace.com/songsfortheholidays. If you'd like a copy of the whole CD, let me know and I'll make sure Santa puts one in your stocking.

So I'm prepping for my last couple shows and I head down to the basement to grab more CDs... except there aren't any... where did my CD's go? Didn't I used to have 1000 CD's down here???

It's been a year since my first CD printing of 1000 CDs and... I'm almost sold out!!! HOLY!

I know, I know. I haven't exactly gone platinum here... but I'm still pretty proud of myself. Although I'm still about 20 CD's away from selling out completely.

SO I NEED YOUR HELP. I'm biased, but I'm pretty sure that David Hein CD's make excellent Christmas presents. I've got you down for 5 each. Seriously, if you'd like to help me make 2007 amazing while giving the joy of independent music, you can purchase a CD at www.indiepool.com.

Thanks to everyone who came out to C'est What last Wednesday for my SORT-OF CD RELEASE PARTY. It was a totally fun night featuring 3 bass players in one set, a couple new tunes, and some C'est What Apricot beer. For those of you who missed the memo, last month Puretracks.com & Aviva shipped 10,000 CDs of my music across Canada. They featured 2 new exclusive tracks, which you can hear here in my music section.

Thanks to everyone who came out for the Gryffin-the-cat Fundraiser. My friend, Marisa found a poisoned cat and brought it to a nearby vet. A whopping bill later she was much, much poorer, so we threw a shindig to raise some dough - and raise it we did - thanks to all you generous souls, we raised over $750. Thank you all!

I played an hour set or so, including a questionably brilliant cover of Margaritaville and some new tunes, including one where the lyrics are verbatim Mapquest directions - impossible to remember, but fun.

If you couldn't make it and would still like to donated, please do so here.

This week 10,000 CDs with my music on it are being sent across the country. If you've come from the Fastrax/Puretracks promotion, welcome to my site! Check out my blog section for a journal of how the new exclusive tunes were recorded.

Two new exclusive Puretracks tunes were also recorded - the much-requested "Subway Sparrow" - featuring cello by Kevin Fox - and "Fast Track" - a reworking of "Smart." Listen to both in the music section and let me know what you think.

Last weekend I air miled my way out to Brandon, Manitoba for the Brandon Folk Festival - 3 days of amazing music, new friends, and some good adventures including kitten attacks, cruising in a car with no brakes, frisbee trash-talking, drunken bonfire jams, and a lot of people obsessed with jetpacks...

Check out my blog page for the whole story...

This past weekend, I played KINGFEST, an amazing 3-day music fest in King City - featuring performers like Jim Cuddy, The Trews, The Salads, Sarah Harmer, Sloan, Bruce Cockburn, The Joel Plaskett Emergency, Justin Rutledge, Oh Susanna, & many more. Check out my blog for a full show diary and pictures!

I just finished touring up to Sudbury, North Bay, and Sault Ste. Marie - many adventures and bunch of good shows... including a stop at science north, a live beaver, an escaped rat, and a bodybuilding convention! Read my tour diary in the "blog" section above.

Some of you may subscribe to Canadian Business magazine, but if you don't, you should check out this issue, which features Yours Truly on pgs. 32 & 33 in an article about how to "get more time off" from your work - right next to the "work naked" article (thankfully not about me). And if you don't want to spend the bucks or get yelled at for reading it in a magazine store, the article is online now.

Hey there - If you've been listening to CBC lately, you may have heard NORTH OF NOWHERE getting some good play across the country - Fresh Air played "Seventeen" the other day in an "up'n'coming songwriters" show and out West, Saskatchewan Morning played "My Eyes Wide" - there were also some BC shows that I've heard about playing some of my tunes. If you're a CBC listener, please let know that you like what you hear.

There's also some new tour press reviews on my sonicbids page - read what other people thought about me (I get compared to The Trews, The Barenaked Ladies & John Denver... what the?!)

I'm gearing up for a busy spring with some tour planning and submissions to folk festivals and a little recording inbetween. So far I'll be up in Northern Ontario in May and I'm booked for Brandon's folk fest in July out in Manitoba.

Meanwhile, I just caught Greg Lawless at Hugh's Room in Toronto - part of the six-string nation guitar tour. Greg was fantastic, but I was really excited to play the six-string nation guitar (made up of pieces of Canadian History, including: Gretsky's hockey stick, wood from Lucy Maud Montgomery's house, and mammoth ivory. For more info, check out www.SixStringNation.com - and also check out Greg at www.gregglawless.com).

Then I headed up to Ottawa for Winterlude and saw Evalyn Parry, Eve Goldberg, Karyn Ellis, and Allison Brown in a "girls with glasses" house concert. All are worth checking out. Winterlude was pretty but, as usual, freezing. We got in a quick dash around some ice sculptures though - if you're in Ottawa, check out www.winterlude.ca.

Finally, I'd like to congratulate Kris from Wawa (one of my favourite people in Wawa...) for winning the blog contest - Kris, you've won yourrself a bright and shiny $40 Futureshop gift certificate.

See you soon,
David

NORTH OF NOWHERE, is officially released and is now available here at www.davidhein.net, orderable through HMV, or on itunes. or puretracks. Makes an excellent stocking stuffer, Santas!

The tour is almost complete - check out the updated blog above, chock full of pictures and road stories. Thank you to everyone who made it a huge success - you all rock.

David