Ninth Hour to me is my cousins Chris and Dean MacKinnon and my Brother-in-Law Kenny Vail.
These guys have taught me so much about music and they probably have no idea. I grew up listening to them sing at family parties in Kitchens, Livingrooms, decks, around Bonfires, and even on the back of a flatbed truck once.
Funny thing....When my sister Nancy started dating Kenny she took me to one of their band rehearsals. This was when I was probably 12 or 13 and before I started playing music. And so she took me to see her COOL new boyfriend's band rehearse at the East Royalty Hall and I was SOOOO Bored!! It wasn't that the music was bad...well..not that I'd have known..In those days the only thing I was interested in was Ball Hockey and becoming the first NHL Goalie that didn't skate but could still win a Stanley Cup!! ( Yeah so I still can't skate...but the dream is still alive... hey Montreal Canadiens...if you're looking for a Goalie that can't skate and never played Ice Hockey in his life...I'm your man!!..put me in Coach..I'm ready!).
Wow...I dygress...
So yeah...went to rehearsal..and was like Whatever! But then I started playing bass in Grade 9 and these guys were like growing up with teachers all around me. My cousin Dean was in both the Colonel Gray Concert and Jazz band and studied Classical Guitar with Paul Bernard...and Kenny seemed to know everything about current music and could sing like Chris Robinson from Black Crowes or Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam. Too cool to a 14 year old.
So I drained these guys of knowledge and started taking mental notes at Xmas parties when these guys would sing. Chris has this amazingly pure voice that sounds so effortless. It was the singing that blew me away....these three guys would harmonize and it would just floor me....and as the years went on and I became "Studied" with my music degree and my "vast gigging experiece", etc, etc, I still am blown away by them and still look up to them like that green 14-year-old who knows nothing.