Mick Dalla-Vee is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

singer, songwriter, producer, engineer, multi-instrumentalist.

Early days

He moved to

Western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West or the Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a Canadian region that includes the four western provinces just north of the Canada� ...

, after leaving Bawating High School from

Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario Sault Ste. Marie ( ) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is at the St. Mary's River on the Canada–US border. It is the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay. The Ojibwe, the indigenous Anishinaabe inhabitants ...

, with the band Shama. Shama toured Western Canada and was managed by Bruce Allen (

Bryan Adams Bryan Guy Adams (born 5 November 1959) is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, composer, and photographer. He has been cited as one of the best-selling music artists of all time, and is estimated to have sold between 75 million and mor ...

Martina McBride Martina Mariea McBride (née Schiff, born July 29, 1966) is an American country music singer-songwriter and record producer. She is known for her soprano singing range and her country pop material. McBride was born in Sharon, Kansas, and reloc ...

) before disbanding. From that point he became the lead guitarist of Trama, managed by Sam Feldman ( Joni Mitchell,

Diana Krall Diana Jean Krall (born November 16, 1964) is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 15 million albums worldwide, including over six million in the US. On December 11, 2009, ''Billboard'' maga ...

), then on to playing bass for the band

Paradox A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictory or a logically u ...

which evolved into his current band Cease & Desist. Cease & Desist has been described as "one of Vancouver's most popular club bands" by the rock music critic of ''

The Province ''The Province'' is a daily newspaper published in tabloid format in British Columbia by Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network, alongside the '' Vancouver Sun'' broadsheet newspaper. Together, they are British Columbia's on ...

''. He also played the part of

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...

in a Beatles cover band, Revolver, that was put together for

Expo 86 The 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication, or simply Expo 86, was a World's Fair held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from May 2 until October 13, 1986. The fair, the theme of which was "Transportation and Communicatio ...

, and played occasionally throughout the subsequent decade.

Songwriting

Mick has written or co-written many songs on albums for artists as diverse as country music's Brent Howard and Canada's Singing Cowgirl: Marilyn Faye Parney, the heavy rock sounds of Blackstone (released on the Delinquent label in Canada), the soul/R&B sounds of 'j.c. neill', Belinda Metz and new singing sensation 'Emily Jordan' to the 'smooth jazz' sounds of internationally acclaimed Lori Paul. He co-wrote ten of the eleven songs on Paul's album ''Vanity Press''. His first country song 'The Wrangler' reached the country top 30 charts right across Canada. It also achieved 'Heavy Rotation' on C.M.T., Canada's country music video channel. One of the songs from Mick's 'A Whistler Christmas' album entitled, 'All I Want is You at Christmastime' has been recorded and released by Canadian country star, Brent Howard and has also been sent to be recorded by 'Art Garfunkel' for a compilation Christmas album due in the not too distant future. He has also written music for movies, television, videos, video games and promotional spots. His writing styles run the gamut from 'Smooth Jazz' to 'Heavy Thrash'. (A Whistler Christmas and Dalla-Vee's original Christmas songs are often heard on Canadian radio during their Christmas music programming.)

Producing

Aside from producing himself in an array of projects such as 1994's ''A Whistler Christmas'' album, he runs his own studio 'Millennia Sound Design', producing and engineering for artists like: Randy Bachman, Emily Jordan, j.c. neill, Lori Paul, Hello Beautiful amongst others. He has ongoing contracts with The National Braille Factory, and has provided theme music and soundscapes for two network television series and Simon Fraser University. Randy Bachman's new CD "Jazzthing" had some work done on it at "Millennia Sound Design".

Vocals

Dalla-Vee has contributed to projects as diverse as, the multi platinum heavy rock of the " Mötley Crüe" album "A Decade of Decadence" to the country/rockabilly sounds of Brent Howard and Southern Cherry to Colin Arthur Wiebe. Canadian legends, Trooper and The Powder Blues Band have also used Mick's voice for recordings. He has worked extensively as a studio session singer/musician, with his talent of many voices being used on a worldwide 'Karaoke' album package marketed over the dreaded U.S. infomercial. He has sung a number of commercial jingles for radio and television.

Awards

Having recorded with a host of other Canadian and international recording acts such as

Randy Bachman Randolph Charles Bachman (; born September 27, 1943) is a Canadian guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was a founding member of the bands The Guess Who and Bachman–Turner Overdrive. Bachman recorded as a solo artist and was part of a num ...

(of the band The Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive), Mick was awarded a 'Gold Record' for his work on the 'Trooper' album 'Last of the Gypsies' in 1991. In 2011-2012 Mick received first a Gold Status award then a Platinum status award for The Live DVD: Bachman & Turner Live at The Roseland Ballroom in New York City. The guest performer with the band for that show and DVD was Paul Shaffer of The Late Show with David Letterman. Mick also earned a Platinum status for the DVD ‘Randy Bachman’s Vinyl Tap’ which was filmed during the cross Canada tour of the show by the same name. Mick is the featured vocalist as well as bass player in Randy's live band. In 1997, he received the Saskatchewan Album of the Year Award for his song writing/musician contributions to an album with proceeds going to people affected with multiple sclerosis.

Live

He keeps an extremely steady schedule playing guitar, bass and keyboards with his main band, Cease and Desist, and its new show "Atlantic Crossing". He is the bass player/vocalist with Canadian Rock Legend,

's band. Bachman’s 2003 - 2007 foray in the jazz world with his CD's, ‘Jazz Thing (1 & 2)’ features Dalla-Vee on the ‘upright bass’ and vocals. He plays mandolin, banjo, acoustic guitars and harmonica in the Brent Howard and Southern Cherry band, and has toured as

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

in 'Revolver - The Worlds Best Beatles Show'. Mick also appears as 'Elton John' in the hit show, Elton and Billy: Live. Dalla-Vee played keyboards with the R&B Grammy Award winning sensation, Melanie Fiona.

Affiliations

A longtime member of the

Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) is a non-profit organization responsible for promoting Canadian music and artists. It administers the Juno Awards, the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the MusiCounts music education cha ...

, he has sat on the panel as a judge for Canada's

Juno Awards The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

(Canada's Version of The Grammy's). He was on the board of directors of the Pacific Music Industry Association for 3 years, and is also chair of The Carolyn Foundation Musician's Assistance Society; a non-profit organization he and colleagues set-up in the wake of his daughter Carolyn's sudden death in November 1999.

References

External links

Cease & DesistMick Dalla-Vee
official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Dalla-Vee, Mick Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Canadian rock musicians