THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: A veteran of the Winnipeg music scene, Michael Finley, having recently returned from an extended stay in Japan, where, employed as a lounge singer, he toured the hotel and business circuit, performing for rooms full of interested fans – or, at least, Michael Finley considers them as fans; they bought his CDs, after all – Michael Finley, while in Japan, amassed a gargantuan amount of material, which he recorded in a makeshift, portable studio; and, now that he’s back in Winnipeg, he’s released a double EP of his favourite Christmas songs from those long, arduous years.
Side A, Christmas Each Day, features the classic Wake Me Up on New Year’s Eve, and Side B, When God Made Michael Finley, features Good-bye Santa and Merry Christmas Vole, songs that will liven up even the ho-hum-iest of office Christmas parties.
Of these EPs, Michael Finley had the following to say: “I have a lot of songs – this is just the tip of the iceberg. And now that I’m older and can’t perform like I could when I was younger, I had to move back to Winnipeg. But that’s been really refreshing, too. I didn’t know how much I missed the Winnipeg scene. Like, a lot has changed while I was away, but, at the same time, a lot has stayed the same. I like to think that that’s captured in these songs. Like, at Christmas, you’re supposed to go home to your family, and I feel like that’s what happened. And when you go home you’re supposed to bring some gifts, right? Well, these are like the gifts I’m bringing. Can I say one more thing? I just want to say Merry Christmas everyone. Put that in, too. Put that I said Merry Christmas in the press release.”
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To read the rest of this review — and more by Steve Schmolaris — visit his website Bad Gardening Advice.
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Steve Schmolaris is the founder of the Schmolaris Prize, “the most prestigious prize in all of Manitoba,” which he first awarded in 1977. Each year, he awards the prize to the best album of the year. He does not have a profession but, having come from money (his father, “the Millionaire of East Schmelkirk,” left him his fortune when he died in 1977), Steve is a patron of the arts. Inspired by the exquisite detail of a holotype, the collective intelligence of slime mold, the natural world and the suffering inherent within it — and also music (fuck, he loves music!) — Steve has long been writing reviews of Winnipeg artists’ songs and albums at his website Bad Gardening Advice, leading to the publication of a book of the same name.
