Yesterday I was killing some time and came across a Post from a friend of mine, a salute to an amazing Guitarist, Dartmouth’s Kevin MacMichael of the Cutting Crew who passed away some years ago after battling Lung Cancer.
It got me thinking about a great piece of Nova Scotia music History, one that you may not be aware of.
I first ran into Kevin as the Guitar player for the band “Spice”, a Nova Scotia band that many of a certain age may remember. I, like Kevin, was (and am) a huge Beatles fan, and Spice’s music had that feel to it. Later Kevin joined another Nova Scotia band called Fast Forward. I joined another band at the same time, and we called ourselves “Playback”.
Yes, I was following Kevin.
At the same time there was this British band called The Drivers, who were touring on the strength of their song “Tears On Your Anorak”. That one has slipped into obscurity.
The leader singer of the Drivers was Nick Van Eede. Fast Forward ran into The Drivers a few times. They both played the Bear River Music Festival in 1983. I was in the crowd that weekend. They met again in Halifax. A friendship was struck up. The Drivers headed back to the UK. Kevin followed.
The Cutting Crew found a bit of success worldwide. After things dried up and their label dropped the band, Kevin began working with Robert Plant, and wrote songs and played on Plant’s 1993 album “Fate of Nations”.
Kevin moved back to Nova Scotia after that and continued to work. I seem to remember him having a studio, although I can’t find proof of that anywhere.
Kevin died on New Year’s Eve 2002.
About 6 years ago, Nick Van Eede released this song about Kevin:
Nick wrote this: “As everybody knows I lost my best friend and music partner Kevin MacMichael a few years back to cancer. I miss him in many different ways and when it came to writing the Grinning Souls album the last thing I wanted and meant to do was write a song about him. Very briefly, my 7 year old niece Daizie came to stay with me on the island and infuriated everybody by repeatedly singing a melody to her silly made up words. When she had flown home I went up to the studio and the song “Silhouette” just tumbled forth and low and behold it was built around Daizie’s tune. It’s fitting that the song is quite Beatlesque as Kevin was such a huge fan of theirs and where on earth the lyrics came from, I have no idea but I think they stand up well (or at least many many fans have responded so well to them): “You gotta laugh, or else you cry. You gotta live, at least to try. A cigarette, an empty chair. You were my friend, the best i had. And you played it all on an old guitar.” “
Here’s to lost friends. And great memories. The music lasts forever.
