About me: Jamie has been involved in the entertainment industry for 34 years. He received his recording engineering degree from Columbia Academy in Edmonton in 1989. He then went on tour for the following 2 years, finally making his home Saskatoon in 1991.
He has been involved with the Ness Creek Festival (FOH sound and formerly on the entertainment committee) for 30 years, and the Northern Lights Bluegrass and Old Tyme music festival for 15 years. He has worked the Electric Sky Festival, and Country at the Creek festival (both at the Ness Creek festival site.) He has been involved with the Napatak Ramble near La Ronge, Doylefest, Prairie Sky Festival as well as working at Merlefest in Wilksboro, North Carolina for past few years.
During his time in Saskatoon, Jamie has been the house live sound tech at Amigos, Bud’s on Broadway, Louis’, The Warehouse, Lydia’s, Crawdaddy’s, The Publican, The Roxy and The Fez, and Bon Temps Café and has worked at one time or another at most of the venues in Saskatoon as well as the Dekker Centre in North Battleford.
He was the entertainment manager at Lydia’s Pub for 11 years, entertainment manager at Bon Temps Café and has promoted a number of shows. He has worked with a variety of genres and bands.
Just a small sample of bands Jamie has done sound for include Nazareth, Sam Roberts, The Mahones, The Commitments, Barenaked Ladies, Shirley King, David Lindley, Big Sugar, Marty Stuart, The Jolly Boys, Corb Lund Band, Town Mountain, Blues Traveler, Kyle Riabko, Amos Garret, Garnet Rogers, Jordan Cook, 54-40, Trooper, Patricia Conroy, Scott Nolan, Pirates of the Mississippi, Fubar, Brent Butt, Tegan and Sara, The Be Good Tanyas, Karen Savoca, Wide Mouth Mason, The Rheostatics, The Reverend Horton Heat, The Sheepdogs, and has toured with The Deep Dark Woods, Colter Wall, Codie Prevost, Streetnix and many others. Pre-pandemic Jamie averaged working with over 500 bands a year.
Jamie believes in the saying “Do what you love and you will never work a day in your life” and is happy to have a long career doing something that throws curve balls his way, challenges him and yet keeps a smile on his face.
He also works as a producer, sound designer, installer, lecturer, manager and a booking agent.
Philosophy on mixing sound: I have worked with all kinds of gear in all states of repair and the trick is to know what you want it to sound like before you turn anything on. I once saw a man on the Outdoor Life Channel that had made a life-size wooden carving of a grizzly bear standing on his hind legs with nothing but a chainsaw. He was asked by an interviewer, “How did you come up with such a realistic carving?” He replied, “I just cut away everything that didn’t look like a grizzly bear!” That has been a philosophy of mine when it comes to mixing sound. Just cut away anything that doesn’t sound like the band. Bad frequencies in the room, to strange over-tones that muddy up and take away from the performance and clarity get cut out of the mix.
Favourite gear: My favourite gear that I have been using for the past number of years has been the Ear Trumpet Labs microphones. They are great for recording and micing acoustic music live. I loved them so much I became their first Canadian dealer.
Advice: A piece of advice for all musicians out there, keep working on your craft and make sure your music is heard by as many people as possible. I have so many artists in my world community that have gone on to doing wonderful things in the industry by learning something every day and persevering through the hard or slow times.
