D'Arcy J.M. Cain - Music

We always had a piano in the house, even before we had a TV. While I never really learned to play more than a few clumsy chords on it or pick out a few simple tunes, I grew to love music listening to my dad play swing and boogie on that old Heintzman.

In the summer of 1967 I bought my first guitar. It was a six string which I bought for $5 from, of all places, the Russian pavilion at Expo 67. While I played it off and on and even formed a band called the "Purple Moss," I never really got serious about playing.

In the summer of 2003 I started to play bass with some seriousness. This led to forming The Cain Gang in February of 2005. At first I was the bass player but over time I became the lead guitar player as well as playing some keyboards and harmonica.

In early 2006, I was invited by Lee Van Leer to form a new band called Trill. Lee has been in the music scene for many years, has toured with acts such as the Platters and was the original organist and arranger for Jack London and the Sparrows, a popular Toronto band in the sixties that later moved to the USA and became Steppenwolf. I left Trill in September of 2006 to pursue other interests but occasionally still work with Lee and Trill.

In October of 2006 I was invited to join a band called Whoover as bass player.

In early 2007 Jeremy Ronson, Voodoo Walters and I formed a new band called Fire in the Greenhouse. That project is currently undergoing some changes as Jeremy and Voodoo have left to work on other projects.

In the fall of 2007 I was invited to join a blues band called Voodoo Walters and the Rhythm Method. Eventually I had to step down as I was spreading myself too thin.

In March of 2009 some friends and I started a ZZ Top tribute band called Sharp Dressed Men.

In May of 2009 I was invited to join H to Oh! as the bass player.

In 2007 I started playing the piano. I'm no expert but I can hold onto a tune and I don't expect everyone to play in C all night.

While I have started playing seriously too late to expect to be a superstar in the music scene, I am happy to get out to play. I have found local musicians in Toronto to be very generous with new talent like myself. I have found most of them to be supportive and willing to give me a chance to showcase my playing and help me learn and grow as a musician.

In an effort to return some of that generosity, I have obtained and set up the web site Big Smoke Music as a free community online resource for local musicians. I haven't quite decided what I am going to do with it yet but I have a few ideas. Currently all it has is links to some local bands and the start of a weekly jam listing. It also has a database that allow bands to track their gigs and either link to a Big Smoke page for their schedule or use XML-RPC to extract their schedule for display on their own page.

Here is a recording of me playing Sweet Little Angel with an excellent rhythm section, Dale Harrison on drums and Stan Miczek on bass. Thanks guys.

Here is a recording of Just My Imagination with H to Oh! featuring me on vocals and bass.

Here I am playing Moondance on bass with Whoover.

The following list shows various dates that I have performed or will be performing either with one of my own bands or else sitting in with someone else. Following that is a partial list of songs that I perform on one or more of bass, guitar, harmonica, keyboard and vocals.

Date & Time	Location	Band	Details
2009-12-05 10:00 PM	Saini's East Coasters 2861 Keele Street Toronto	H to Oh!
2009-12-04 10:00 PM	Saini's East Coasters 2861 Keele Street Toronto	H to Oh!
2009-11-22 9:30 PM	Grossman's Tavern 379 Spadina Avenue Toronto	With Brian Cober	Bass player for Brian Cober's Sunday Night open jam.
2009-11-14 11:30	Saini's East Coasters 2861 Keele Street Toronto	Sharp Dressed Men	Sharp Dressed Men are doing a showcase during a gig with H to Oh!.
2009-11-14 10:00 PM	Saini's East Coasters 2861 Keele Street Toronto	H to Oh!
2009-11-13 11:30	Saini's East Coasters 2861 Keele Street Toronto	Sharp Dressed Men	Sharp Dressed Men are doing a showcase during a gig with H to Oh!.
2009-11-13 10:00 PM	Saini's East Coasters 2861 Keele Street Toronto	H to Oh!
2009-10-11	Private Event	The Cain Gang
2009-09-26	Special Event	Sharp Dressed Men	Played for Full Throttle Bike Rodeo and Roast held in conjunction with the OCC. Pictures
2009-09-19	Special Event	Sharp Dressed Men	Our first public performance. We performed for Walls of Hope at their "Marcels Charity Bash." Pictures
2009-09-07 4:00 PM	Beaches Blues Festival Toronto	With Mike Nagoda
2009-09-07 6:00 PM	Beaches Blues Festival Toronto	Backing up Elvis (George) Presley
2009-09-05 9:00 PM	Ellen's Place 1090 Kamato Road Mississauga	Playing bass with Soul Connection
2009-09-05 2:00 PM	Private Event	Whoover
2009-08-29 10:00 PM	Saini's East Coasters 2861 Keele Street Toronto	H to Oh!
2009-08-28 10:00 PM	Saini's East Coasters 2861 Keele Street Toronto	H to Oh!
2009-08-02	Private Event	Whoover	The band is helping drummer Doug Ross and his wife Terri celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary.
2009-07-31	Honey's Beestro Avenue Road 1980 Avenue Road Toronto	H to Oh!
2009-07-25 10 PM	Saini's East Coasters 2861 Keele Street Toronto	H to Oh!
2009-07-24 10 PM	Saini's East Coasters 2861 Keele Street Toronto	H to Oh!
2009-07-18 10PM	The Grand 177 Kent Street West Lindsay	H to Oh!
2009-07-05 9:30	Grossman's Tavern 379 Spadina Avenue Toronto	With Brian Cober	Bass player for Brian Cober's Sunday Night open jam.
2009-06-26 9:30 PM	The Black Swan 154 Danforth Avenue Toronto	The Cain Gang	No cover charge
2009-06-20 1:00PM to 9:00PM	Special Event		I did sound for the Salem stage of the 2009 Big on Bloor street festival.
2009-06-13 10:00 PM	Saini's East Coasters 2861 Keele Street Toronto	H to Oh!
2009-06-13 6:00 PM	Total Sports Bar 169 Dundas Street East Mississauga	The Cain Gang
2009-06-12 10:00PM	Saini's East Coasters 2861 Keele Street Toronto	H to Oh!
2008-12-22 9:30	Grossman's Tavern 379 Spadina Avenue Toronto	Sunday night jam	Sat in with Brian Cober and the host band as bass player for the open jam.
2008-12-19 9:30 PM	The Sunshine Restaurant 2879 Danforth Avenue Toronto	Reunited with Trill	Trill played a guest spot during a gig by H to Oh! and I reprised my role as bass player. I also played some keyboards with H to Oh!
2008-11-29 3:30	Special Event	Bayview Ghost	Duet with Gary Singleton on vocals and D'Arcy Cain on keyboards at the Ben Navaee Gallery, 1111 Queen Street East
2008-11-28 9:30 PM	Route 66 (Eglinton Square) Eglinton Avenue East and Pharmacy Avenue Toronto	Whoover
2008-11-09 9:30 PM	Grossman's Tavern 379 Spadina Avenue Toronto	Playing bass for Brian Cober and the Nationals	Sitting in with the Brian Cober as bass player for their Sunday night jam.
2008-10-03 9:30	Route 66 (Eglinton Square) Eglinton Avenue East and Pharmacy Avenue Toronto	Whoover
2008-08-23	Private Event	The Cain Gang	Birthday party
2008-07-17 9:00 PM	J Walton House 323 Danforth Road Toronto	Fire in the Greenhouse
2008-07-12 1:00 PM	Special Event	Whoover
2008-06-28	Special Event	Whoover	Whoover will be celebrating the Canada Day Weekend and the grand opening of Nando's at 7887 Weston Road, Woodbridge, Ontario
2008-06-07 TBA	The Pump On Rathburn 1891 Rathburn Road East Mississauga	Fire in the Greenhouse	We will be playing as part of the Ride For Sight Bandathon 2008
2008-05-30 9:00 PM	Route 66 (Eglinton Square) Eglinton Avenue East and Pharmacy Avenue Toronto	The Cain Gang
2008-05-23 9:00 PM	Route 66 (Eglinton Square) Eglinton Avenue East and Pharmacy Avenue Toronto	Fire in the Greenhouse
2008-05-04 10:00 PM	Private Event	Whoover
2008-05-03 9:30 PM	McGradie's Tap and Grill 2167 Victoria Park Avenue Scarborough,	Fire in the Greenhouse
2008-05-02 9:00 PM	Special Event	Whoover
2008-04-25	Special Event	With The Rhythm Method	Charity event
2008-04-13 3:00 PM	Special Event	Whoover
2008-04-11 9:00 PM	The Waterfront Pub 150 Water Street Port Perry	Fire in the Greenhouse
2008-04-05 9:00 PM	Ten Feet Tall 1381 Danforth Avenue Toronto	With The Rhythm Method
2008-03-14 9:00 PM	Route 66 (Eglinton Square) Eglinton Avenue East and Pharmacy Avenue Toronto	Fire in the Greenhouse
2008-03-07 9:30 PM	Route 66 (Eglinton Square) Eglinton Avenue East and Pharmacy Avenue Toronto	Fire in the Greenhouse
2008-03-01 9:30 PM	KC McFly's 1717 Victoria Park Avenue Toronto	Fire in the Greenhouse	KC McFly's Leap Year Party
2008-02-23 9:30 PM	Axis Gallery and Bistro 3048 Dundas Street West Toronto	With The Rhythm Method
2008-01-12 9:00 PM	Ten Feet Tall 1381 Danforth Avenue Toronto	With The Rhythm Method
2007-12-22 9:00PM	Noah's Ark 2777 Danforth Avenue Toronto	Bayview Ghost	D'Arcy Cain - vocals and guitar Benny Sanders - vocals and drums Mario P. - bass
2007-12-07 9:30 p.m.	The Sunshine Restaurant 2879 Danforth Avenue Toronto	With H to Oh!
2007-10-27 9:30 PM	Big Ronnies 1162 Danforth Avenue Toronto	Whoover
2007-10-12 9:30 PM	Axis Gallery and Bistro 3048 Dundas Street West Toronto	With The Rhythm Method
2007-09-02 6:00PM to 10:00PM	Big Ronnies 1162 Danforth Avenue Toronto	Whoover
2007-09-01 6:00PM to 10:00PM	The Hargrave 1106 Danforth Avenue Toronto	Whoover
2007-08-11 5:00PM	Special Event	Fire in the Greenhouse	POW-MIA Poker Run. Call Judy at 905 884-7030 for more information.
2007-07-28 9:30 PM	Club 329 329 Queen Street East Toronto	Fire in the Greenhouse
2007-06-24	Private Event	Whoover
2007-06-09 9:30 PM	Jay Jay's Inn 2847 Lake Shore Boulevard West Etobicoke	The Cain Gang
2007-05-06 9:00 PM	Private Event	The Cain Gang	D'Arcy & Carol's anniversary
2007-05-06 6:00 PM	Private Event	Fire in the Greenhouse	D'Arcy & Carol's 35th anniversary
2007-05-06 4:00 PM	Private Event	Whoover	D'Arcy & Carol's anniversary
2007-05-06 4:00 PM	Private Event	Our anniversary	Carol and I are celebrating our 35th anniversary. We will have a number of bands and musicians including a few that I am a member of.
2007-03-30 9:30PM	The Black Swan 154 Danforth Avenue Toronto	Fire in the Greenhouse	Our first gig. Opening for The Cain Gang.
2007-03-30 9:30PM	The Black Swan 154 Danforth Avenue Toronto	The Cain Gang	Opening act will be Fire in the Greenhouse.
2007-03-02 9:00	Club 329 329 Queen Street East Toronto	With Code Green	Filled in on bass in Code Green while Ben was out of town. Pictures.
2007-02-16 9:30PM	Club 329 329 Queen Street East Toronto	With Code Green	I sat in with Code Green replacing their keyboard player who was unavailable that night.
2007-02-11	Special Event		Not actually a gig but I did sound for the 2007 WinterFolk Festival in Toronto. On Sunday I worked the Dora Keough.
2007-02-10	Special Event		Not actually a gig but I did sound for the 2007 WinterFolk Festival in Toronto. On Saturday evening I worked the board upstairs at the Black Swan.
2007-01-28	Jay Jay's Inn 2847 Lake Shore Boulevard West Etobicoke	The Cadillac Daddies	Played bass with Cadillac Daddies
2007-01-13	Jay Jay's Inn 2847 Lake Shore Boulevard West Etobicoke	The Paul Storm Band	Played bass to help out Paul who was off sick.
2006-12-09	Private Event	Whoover
2006-11-18 10:00 PM	The Black Swan 154 Danforth Avenue Toronto	The Cain Gang
2006-11-09 8:00 PM	Z Bar and Grille 2527 Eglinton Avenue West Toronto	With H to Oh!	Filling in for bass player while she is out of town.
2006-11-04	Z Bar and Grille 2527 Eglinton Avenue West Toronto	With Trill
2006-10-28 9:00 PM	Z Bar and Grille 2527 Eglinton Avenue West Toronto	With H to Oh!
2006-10-27 10:00 PM	The Black Swan 154 Danforth Avenue Toronto	Whoover
2006-09-09 10:00 PM	Saini's East Coasters 2861 Keele Street Toronto	With Trill
2006-09-08 10:00 PM	Saini's East Coasters 2861 Keele Street Toronto	With Trill
2006-09-01 10:00 PM	The Black Swan 154 Danforth Avenue Toronto	With Trill
2006-08-26 10:00 PM	The Black Swan 154 Danforth Avenue Toronto	The Cain Gang
2006-08-25 9:30 PM	Happy's Bar & Grill 498 Horner Avenue Etobicoke	The Cain Gang
2006-07-28 9:30 PM	Happy's Bar & Grill 498 Horner Avenue Etobicoke	With Trill
2006-07-15	Private Event	The Cain Gang	We performed a set for the Bikers Rights Organization Summerbash. Pictures.
2006-07-14 7:00 PM	Happy's Bar & Grill 498 Horner Avenue Etobicoke	With Trill	We are doing one set as part of Happyfest, a three day showcase put on by Happy's in aid of local youth softball and the Canadian Cancer Society.
2006-07-11 9:00 PM	The Black Swan 154 Danforth Avenue Toronto	The Cain Gang	Double bill with Trill. Pictures.
2006-07-01 10:00 PM	Saini's East Coasters 2861 Keele Street Toronto	With Trill
2006-06-30 10:00 PM	Saini's East Coasters 2861 Keele Street Toronto	With Trill
2006-06-17 9:00 PM	Axis Gallery and Bistro 3048 Dundas Street West Toronto	With Trill
2006-06-03 9:30 PM	Ronnies Sports Bar & Grill 158 O'Connor Drive East York	With Trill
2006-06-02 9:30 PM	Ronnies Sports Bar & Grill 158 O'Connor Drive East York	With Trill
2006-05-26	Happy's Bar & Grill 498 Horner Avenue Etobicoke	With Trill
2006-05-21	Southside Johnny's Bar & Grill 3653 Lakeshore Boulevard West Toronto	With H to Oh!	Filled in for the H to Oh! bass player, who was unavailable. This was a gig as host band for an open jam.
2006-05-19 9:30 PM	Soho II 2391 Eglinton Avenue East Toronto	With Trill
2006-05-05	Happy's Bar & Grill 498 Horner Avenue Etobicoke	With H to Oh!	Filled in for the H to Oh! bass player, who was unavailable.
2006-04-29	Saini's East Coasters 2861 Keele Street Toronto	With Lee Van Leer	Band consisted of members of Trill (Lee Van Leer and D'Arcy Cain) and H to Oh! (Benny Sanders and Robert Mahler.)
2006-04-28	Saini's East Coasters 2861 Keele Street Toronto	With Lee Van Leer	Band consisted of members of Trill (Lee Van Leer and D'Arcy Cain) and H to Oh! (Benny Sanders and Robert Mahler.)
2006-03-18	Beaches Blues Festival Toronto	The Cain Gang
2006-02-12 6:00 PM	The Berkeley 315 Queen Street East Toronto	The Cain Gang	We appeared at the hereandthere Benefit Concert for a short set.
2006-02-12 4:20 PM	The Berkeley 315 Queen Street East Toronto	With Trill
2005-12-10 8:00 PM	The Pilot Tavern 22 Cumberland Street Toronto	The Cain Gang	Christmas party for the Southern Cruisers Riding Club, Toronto chapter. Performance was a great success. Lee Van Leer joined us as our special guest. Pictures.
2005-11-12 9:00 PM	Saini's East Coasters 2861 Keele Street Toronto	The Cain Gang	Opened for H to Oh!
2005-10-29 Midnight	Beaches Blues Festival Toronto	The Cain Gang	Closing act at midnight.
2005-09-09	Soho II 2391 Eglinton Avenue East Toronto	With H to Oh!	This is the D'Arcy and Benny birthday bash. Actually a H To Oh! gig but I joined them for a few tunes.
2005-09-05 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM	Danforth Music Festival Toronto	The Cain Gang	In front of Canadian Tire just east of Main Street. Thanks to Gordon Walker who returned to the group to fill in for Stephanie who could not make it due to illness. Thanks also to Benny Sanders who sang a few songs with us and even picked up the guitar for a song. Mick from Dash also sang a few songs with us. Pictures
2005-09-04 5:00 PM	Danforth Music Festival Toronto	The Cain Gang	We were the host band for the afternoon jam from 5:00PM to 11:00PM. Pictures
2005-09-03	Danforth Music Festival Toronto	With H to Oh!	I filled in as bass player for H to Oh! at Mr. Tasty Burger from 7:00PM to 11:00PM. Pictures.
2005-09-02 7:00 PM	Danforth Music Festival Toronto	The Cain Gang	Mr Tasty's Drive-in from 7:00PM to 11:00PM Pictures
2005-08-13	Fiddler's Dell 781 Annette St. Toronto	With H to Oh!	Played bass for H to Oh!, the host band for this jam.
2005-08-06	Heads Or Tails 847 Browns Line Etobicoke	With Bridget Taylor	Played bass for Bridget with Robert on guitar and Al on drums.
2005-07-24	Nomiya Restaurant 812 Dundas Street West Toronto	With Bridget Taylor	Andy, Jeremy, Tom and I formed the host band for Bridget's jam session at Nomiya.
2005-07-03	Nomiya Restaurant 812 Dundas Street West Toronto	With H to Oh!	I sat in with H to Oh! as their guitar player for their hosting of this jam.
2005-06-24	Silver Cue 3032b Danforth Avenue Toronto	The Cain Gang	Opened for Lee Van Leer and the Nouns with guest performers Benny Sanders on drums and vocals and Andy Fong on guitar.
2005-06-18	Embers Restaurant 781 Warden Avenue Scarborough	The Cain Gang	Private birthday party for D'Arcy and Ken's dad. We had almost 100 people there and were joined for a few songs by Lee Van Leer and Benny Sanders. As a special, special guest we were joined by my father for a few songs. Pauline Blackwood.
2005-04-30	Private Event	The Cain Gang	Private party at Marina Quay West. This was the first gig where we were the headline act. Great fun but the acoustics were challenging to say the least. Many thanks to Andy Fong who worked the sound board as well as playing with us. Thanks also to Benny Sanders who joined us for the last set and jammed with us after the concert.
2005-04-08	The Cabbage Patch 488 Parliament Street Toronto	The Cain Gang	Opened for Lee Van Leer and the Nouns. This was our first public appearance with Stephanie Mott
2005-04-02	Beaches Blues Festival Toronto	The Cain Gang	This was our first public appearance with Gordon Walker and Shaham (Fez) Kavah.
2005-03-18	Only In Paradise 360 Queen Street East Toronto		Benny and I wanted to play that night so we called up Andy, formed an impromptu trio and offered Marcel at Only in Paradise a free band for the evening.
2005-03-05	Smilin' Jack's 3482 Lawrence Avenue East Scarborough	With Lee Van Leer and the Nouns	Lee's bass player couldn't make it that night so I was asked to fill in for the first set until Andy Fong, his alternate bass player, could get there.
2005-03-04	The Cabbage Patch 488 Parliament Street Toronto	The Cain Gang	Opened for Lee Van Leer and the Nouns.
2005-02-13	The Mod Club 722 College Street West Toronto	The Cain Gang	The hereandthere Benefit Concert. This was a benefit held in support of the Canadian Red Cross, the Stephen Lewis Foundation and the Daily Bread Food Bank. This was our first public appearance.
2004-12-11	Only In Paradise 360 Queen Street East Toronto	With H to Oh!	Benny invited me to play some guitar with them at this gig at the Paradise.
2003-06-29	Beaches Blues Festival Toronto		First time performing in public. I showed up with my bass and guitar and wound up playing all night on the jams as I had the only bass. Really got my taste for performing here.

Partial list of songs that I play