"The Boy Comes Home"

The sheet music for this has the following note;

When our son Martin was less than two years old, he had abdominal surgery. Any parent will understand how desperately happy we were on his return home.

We have a number of other tunes by Brian Pickell in our binders (Tam Kierney, Muriel's waltz, Sourgrass and granite, Waiting for Emilie). No doubt Marcia has a copy of the book of music Brian produced to go with his "Fresh Canadian Fiddle Tunes" CD.

Brian Pickell(www.brianpickell.com), a trad musician and photographer from the Toronto area, has been playing and composing traditional music for over twenty-five years. His early career was focused on BLuegrass, but a repetitive strain injury in the early 80's caused him to put aside his music for a while. Brian returned to photography and spent several years shooting for the Toronto Star. He has several books to his credit, including the Official Hockey Canada History of the legendary 1972 Russia vs. Canada Series and two full-colour books with Grit Laskin on the World of Instrument Making.

Brian returned to professional music in the late 1980’s with the Dawnbreakers and Ian Bell, producing three albums and occasionally playing as CBC’s Vinyl Café Orchestra with Stuart Maclean. Brian began performing with the Pierre Schryer Band in 1994, producing three albums with them and touring widely in Canada, the U.S. and overseas. He has also performed with other musical entities and has recorded with artists such as Sneezy Waters, Grit Laskin, Oliver Schroer and the Schryer Triplets. For several years he has been involved with the teaching of composition, guitar and mandolin at venues such as the Goderich Celtic Roots Festival and Northwest Festival in Smithers, B.C.

In 2002, with Canada Council support, Brian produced an album of his own compositions and songs, played by an all-star cast of Ontario fiddlers and musicians. (I believe this must have been the "Fresh Canadian Fiddle" album - wdm.) This project led to the formation of the Brian Pickell Band, originally with Shane Cook, Mark Sullivan, Julie Schryer, James Stephens and Pat O’Gorman, and the creation of a book of musical notation containing 51 of his tunes. This was followed with a second CD, Entwined, with support from the Ontario Arts Council. It featured the Band playing more original tunes and songs. During this entire period, he has been composing and seeing his music recorded. In the late winter of 2008, after many years of not playing banjo (due to tendon problems), Brian popped open the case. New tunes began to pop out and in no time he was tripping over them all around the house. Something had to be done and the CD “Friday Night in Town� was the result, featuring Brian Pickell Band members, Shane Cook and James Stephens. In 2013, Brian released another book of new tunes and in 2014 the Brian Pickell Band released the latest CD, Waves, featuring more compositions of Brian’s as well as those of other band members.

Brian has been awarded the Tradition Bearer Award from the Goderich Celtic Roots Festival. Brian’s tunes have been recorded by all of these performers plus many others, including Nicholas Williams, Pierre Schryer, Allison Lupton, Tony McManus (Scotland), Deaf Shepherd (Scotland), the Halali Fiddle Band (USA), Gretchyn Koehler (USA), Oliver Schroer, Liz Doherty (Ireland), and the Schryer Triplets.