Fresh from his successful performance Under  The Trees at the Normandie hotel in Port of Spain, David Michael Rudder is all set for another big  6.5 show to celebrate his 65th birthday – this time at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto.

But the show on June 9  is going to be different from the one in Trinidad, Rudder told the Caribbean Camera in a telephone interview this  week from his home in Southern Ontario.

“People in Canada are not accustomed to sitting through 50 to 60 songs, as in Trinidad. So it will be scaled back.”

But he promised that it is going to be “the best show that I can do.”

“Through the songs that I have chosen, I  am taking the audience through the journey of my life and their lives –  the same concept as the  recent show in Trinidad.

And he is not worried about how his  compositions will be received by his Canadian audience.

“No, I think most people who come to the show know the songs and even in the case of  a song like The Immigrant , although they may not have heard it,  many would identify with the feeling of the immigrant. It is their story.”

Asked whether living in Canada has changed the music he has been producing, the Trinidad-born artiste said he has always been influenced ” by events in the world and events that surround him.

“So  that’s part of my progression over the years,  I’m not just looking at things in the Caribbean  but I am looking at the world with a Caribbean eye.”

At 65, Rudder  is promising his fans ” the  same  calibre performance, as before

” I think I have more experience now. I can’t jump around as wildly as the old days  but I’ve learned how to deliver over the years  and I think  with the type of intensity of my performance I have learned to make it work  for the audience.”

At age 11,Rudder started singing in Trinidad with a band called The Solutions which played Motown-style music. In 1977,  after becoming a backup singer at a calypso tent run by  the late Lord  Kitchener, he joined Charlie’s Roots, a popular local brass band, and was one of its lead singers. By 1986, he had established himself as a  singer-songwriter winning the National Calypso Monarch, Young Kings and Road March competitions. His Hammer was also the Tune of Choice that year for the National Panorama winner, Trinidad All Stars.

Asked about  ticket sales for the  upcoming 6.5 concert, he  said that a lot of non-Caribbean people  have already bought tickets.

But, he said, ” it’s the same Caribbean thing: the last week before the show is when most Caribbean people buy their tickets.

“And that is something that we should change because  it cripples a lot of  the artistry.

“I just want to invite people to get their tickets now . Don’t wait until the last minute because the scalpers are already buying tickets.”