Brian Volke - Music and Art

Once again I am in awe and wonder at how effortlessly my son Liam is able to pull off harmonies, above and below the melody line. As I mentioned before, our voices are similar yet different enough to be different…

My son Liam came in again and did a bang-up job on “Dad's Old Records”.  I describe this song as a funky, folky tribute to the music I listened to and was influenced by when I was a kid.  Originally…

Hi Everybody!  It's been awhile since my last post, but here I am.  As of September 2024, I have begun working on a new album.  My hope is that it won't take five years to complete, like the last one…

I'm currently re-reading a book which I originally purchased in 1994.  It is “Care of the Soul” by Thomas Moore.  In it, Moore talks about “cultivating depth and sacredness in everyday life”. The lessons learned from mythology and the use…

Take a Deep Breath

The day after the rain

Makes me think of Toronto

Fresh and humid

Promise of wonders

Fueled by coffee

Every morning setting out

With my guitar on my back

But it's not Toronto

It's Calgary

Still…

As part of being an elementary (K-6) music teacher in Calgary, I showcase a different composer each month. So far it's been the Great Old Dead Guys:  Vivaldi, Mozart and Beethoven. You know, the Biggies! In January, I decided to…

I am one of those people who makes music and also makes art. All my life I have done both and in fact both have been inextricably linked for me.  At the age of about 10 I began drawing album…

Forgive me folks, it has been eight months since my last blog entry!  

A lot has happened in the past eight months. Musically, I put out an album (Acres of Chrome) and have been performing at numerous venues in person…

"Summer's here, I'm for that! Got my rubber sandals, got my straw hat!  It's my favourite time of the year and I'm glad that it's here, yeah!" 

Thus sang James Taylor in his song "Summer's Here".  I've always liked that…

In my last blog (or is it blob?) I told the story of how when I was a kid, I invented a rock star named Bob Calls.  Don't ask me where I got the name from! According to the album…

Who's Bob Calls?

Why, he's the imaginary rock star I told you about last blog.  I made him up when I was about nine years old.

I had a thought the other day - I get them now and again…

Bob Calls and the Beat Boys.  Anybody ever heard of them? No?  Probably only two people in the world have heard of them: my cousin Ken Volke and I.  

Bob Calls was an imaginary rock star I made up.  I…

Why write indeed?  I've been writing songs for a little over fifty years.  I started when I was in Grade Six with my first band.  We were called the First Million Megaton Explosion, a title that I stole from a…

I belong to a group here in Calgary called the Cornerstone Songwriters' Cooperative.  I've been part of this group for a number of years and I cannot say enough about it.

During the last session one of my fellow songwriters…

These days I've been hit with the double whammy of COVID isolation and recuperating from heart surgery (see my previous blog post).  It has left me with time to indulge my love of Star Trek (Sci-Fi Channel:  Classic Trek) and…

As I write this I'm listening to Richard Thompson's 2007 album "Sweet Warrior" and a song called "Dad's Gonna Kill Me".  Of course "Dad" refers to the city of Bagdad and the song is written from the point of view…