National Steel Blues Tour

Home Safe

2008-11-21T07:26:00.000-08:00

On the road, pointed for home. Too bad the road didn't look like this for long. But that's the adventure, isn't it?

Got in yesterday, catching a WestJet out of Winnipeg for Toronto. Pretty uneventful. Thank goodness. All my gear got back unscathed. It's cold here in Ontario, but not like it was in Winnipeg. My friend Susan Harris drove me to the Winnipeg airport, and there was ice and snow everywhere. The good thing about all this snow is that it will likely fill the sink hole on Big Dave's lawn until spring. Then he can get on with his trapping projects.

Overall the return by land was OK. A stop in Vancouver to visit a friend. On to Golden, BC, from where I met a winter storm on the Kicking Horse Pass. I would of taken pics if I'd thought of it, but honestly, I was too scared and too focused on staying alive to consider it. Here's a winding, two lane highway, at very high elevation, cliffs on either side, at night, with clouds covering the road, dense, fog-like, snow covered road, slippery, can't see beyond a car length or two, nobody else up here but a couple of big semis, down to an eighth of a tank of gas, no where to pull over and stop. I've had some crazy drives over the years, but this was one of the wildest. I was glad to see the last of the mountains. I just kept going until I hit Brooks, Alberta, where I pulled over and slept in the truck.

Actually, in Golden I was lucky enough to pick up another guitar. A woman in a cafe recognized me and said she had an old steel guitar she might be willing to sell, as she was not a player herself. Turns out it was a 1935 National Duolian, and I bought it for cash, on the spot. It came with a cardboard case I had to leave at Long & McQuade's in Regina, where I purchased a hardshell for the flight home. You'll be hearing this guitar on the next album. It's a 14 fret guitar, and quite a bit louder than my early, Type O National. Needs some serious neck work first however. Still, I'm very glad to have it.

Over the next couple of weeks I will wrap the paperwork on this Tour, write up a little summary for this Blog, and send my thank yous out to everybody who played a part in making the National Steel Blues Tour a success. And there are a few holes in the Blog where I need to go back and put in pics and so on, so I'll take care of that, too.

The next Tour will be announced in early January.

Post Tour Rambles- Part Two, Running and Art

2008-11-13T11:01:00.000-08:00

Things are good here on the coast. I had a great run yesterday at Long Beach, between Tofino and Ucluelet, BC. The tide was perfect when I got there, so off I went. I ran for about 25 minutes along the beach, and then the same back. Pretty smooth going, and a great firmness for running. I would of kept going, except I'm a bit of a neophyte with the tide, and the ocean was clearly coming in as I ran. As it was, my feet got wet. But this was surely worth it. The song of the ocean, the wind on my face, the smell of salt. Big piles of drift. I saw a couple of other runners, but don't know where they went.

The sun did come out eventually, for a few minutes... Great spot whatever the weather! The surfers were out on another nearby beach. Wearing wetsuits, going way out there. Wow.

Today I run the Wild Pacific Trail. There's a loop out of Ucluelet which is about 10km of mostly wild ocean and huge trees. It is raining, and it's off-season, so I have the trail pretty much to myself. This is probably the last run of the Tour. I've got to turn that truck around and drive it east for something like 2500km before catching a plane for home. But right now, here's what it looks like on the Trail— this is a great Canadian run, for sure.

The sign doesn't look so wild... but the trail is a trip to take, as I discover...

That's a Canadian dollar, a "looney," next to this snail. Everything seems to be oversize in this part of the world.

So where's the art? Well, the snail was kind of cool, eh?

Actually, I did get a song list together. Michael will be doing some recording in November and December towards his next album, and I may drop by the same studio and lay down some tracks, too. I think this record will be a little more hard core than my last one. I've got to talk to Colin Linden and also to Ray Kennedy... Hmmm... Things are cookin' in Bluesland. In the morning I'll point that truck east and get back to the real world.

Back at the shack I end up frying my insoles on the electric heater! Crap! Well, I'm bound for home anyway, and maybe I can pick something up somewhere along the way.

There are sea lions out back. They bark like dogs, maybe louder. They seem to bark all night. The leader of the pack is Sammy. I try to take a snap of him, but it doesn't work out terribly well. He's the top sea lion, and he has to bark all night to prove it. I don't know if he actually gets time to get laid, what with his busy barking schedule. Anyhow, this is pretty novel to me— a very authentic ocean experience— so I'm not too bothered by the racket. I'm wishing he'd stop by midnight. I've got a long drive to make... but tonight Sammy sings the blues. I drink wine and listen for a melody. It rains.

Post Tour Rambles- Part One, Books and Art

2008-11-11T08:50:00.000-08:00

Quite strange not to be on my way to a show. I feel at loose ends, and wonder if I should even blog. It's just one guy in an empty truck now. There's no show left to play. Here on Vancouver Island I've come north to Port Alberni, and then to Tofino, where I've cut a deal on a small cabin for a couple of days. I've got a bottle of California red, a little BC green, and the mood is quiet. Mostly cold and raining here, so I boot up the lap top and try to catch up. Tour spread sheets are complete. These I have updated daily over the last few months, but today I do a cross check with the paper merch records. Everything adds up, thank goodness. I use a spread I've developed in Excel to track all the shows, contacts, and revenue streams. It's not bad, but I think I could tweak it to make it even more helpful.

I've always kept personal and Tour expense records in a separate, account book with receipt compartments for each, and I keep a fuel/mileage log on the side. This stuff we need for balancing the books on a tour, and later for the taxman. Also, post-tour I do a detailed analysis of where revenue actually comes from, and the nature of the expenses incurred against it. Individual shows cost way more than one might think, so the linking of shows into a Tour make it all possible. In the past I've been able to do rough, on-route calculations as to how well the Tour is actually doing, but now that the Tours are— typically— 65- 100 shows, this is more problematic. Next time out I'll see that I have daily spreads on the expenses in all significant categories as well. I hate the calculator and bucket of receipts part of the wrap-up. I know pretty much what this tour has made after costs. I'll need to figure out the exact costs and gross when I get home. It's important that all financial aspects of a Tour are documented, up-front, and transparent. I never want to quarrel with my friends and associates about money, and great books are the way to avoid disagreements and misunderstandings. Good books maintain good relationships, so they are worth the trouble. It's just part of being a professional.

So what the hell happened to all the art? Oh, you mean actually hanging out and writing songs? I keep a notebook with me and jot stuff down, but as you may have gathered if you have been following the Tour, there's not really much dedicated time out here for an Indy guy. Today I get the National out, put it away again. I'm tired. I want to go outside and wander around. As I walk I'll think of which songs should go on the next CD. I wish my team was a little bigger. Bigger than one. I'd get so much more done. Now I'm going down to the local java joint to sit with the young surfers, buy a late breakfast and look at the ocean.

Tell me I'm not lazy, I'm just tired today. I bet Michael is in Crystal Beach, Ontario, asleep. We've earned a little rest.

Parting of Friends, Good-Bye

2008-11-10T13:09:00.000-08:00

It’s an early start this morning. This Tour has been made of early starts. We’re set to make Victoria International Airport for about 11:30 AM. I’ve got Michael booked on a 1:PM flight to Toronto. So his mind is set on home. He’s up and about early, packing bags, moving stuff to the door. Don’t want to be late. Want to make that plane. I feel that way, too. It’s a non-refundable ticket, and you don’t want to mess with these messed up Canadian airlines. Well, Air Canada, anyway. WestJet has been very good to us, but there’s no WestJet out of Victoria today, and that means we have to fly BagBasher express. Neither of us discuss this. We’ve got Calton flight cases for the guitars. That’s about as good as it gets. And so far so good. But now it’s a quick breakfast, more hugs and good-byes to our hosts, and down the road to the ferry. We’ve been told that we’ll get on without any problems, but it’s Monday, so we’re not taking any chances. Thanks, Ron. Visiting you and Oni is magic.

We get to the Terminal about twenty minutes early, and there is already a line. We’ll be OK— we’re close enough to the front. Still, I am glad we got here with time to spare!

It's a short wait and a quick ride to the big island. We've done the Swartz Bay terminal a couple of times now, and know the route to the airport. I think we do anyway. Yes, we do. We are pulling up to departures almost before we know it.

Yes, this is Victoria International Airport. Could be Oz, with those big lolipop things standing there. Unpacking Michael's bags, loading an airport carry cart... This is it. A handshake and a hug. It's been a good adventure. We're still friends. Good friends, I think. But now we're lone dogs again on this big blues highway. Good-bye, Michael. Travel safe. I hope our paths cross often. It's a blink, and he's swallowed up by the terminal.

I put the van in gear and head back to the highway. It feels empty now— but it is kinda nice to have this little space to myself. I like company, but I also enjoy my own company... Alone with my thoughts on the road, stop and go when I please. It's been a long tour— a good tour— but I am relieved that it's over. I'm pretty good at planning and running these things, but there is a certain amount of stress involved. Still, it's a bit of a shock to be alone after all this time. I'm going to miss Michael Pickett. Maybe we'll do it again sometime...

Michael's going to get into Toronto sometime after 10:PM this evening. I'm going to spend a day or two here, decompressing, before taking the truck back to Winnipeg and flying home from there. This was my major screw-up of the Tour. I build the land legs around big loops where I can get good rates on the trucks. This time I thought I'd just end on the west coast— zigging and zagging instead of looping, and fly home to Toronto from Victoria. Of course, there would be a one way drop fee on the truck, but that would only amount to three or four hundred dollars... I should of checked that first! The route schedule was already in place when I found out that the drop fee would be (are you ready?) SIX THOUSAND dollars. They really, really, don't want trucks being dropped on the west coast. And, yes, I shopped around to every lease and rental company to no avail. So, OK. I'll make something good out of this. Tour over, Michael flies home, and I take a few days to myself. I'm going to visit some relatives, do some running in some cool places, drop in on some friends. I'll be in Winnipeg in nine days time. It's going to cost me a few hundred bucks in gas, food, motels, and an extra week's rental, but this is the closest thing to a holiday I've had in twenty years. Right now I'm headed into Victoria to visit Long & McQuade. I'm going to drop this PA system we've been travelling with. Thank goodness we didn't need it! Actually, we ended up using the boom stands on several occasions, and a couple of XLR cables, but that was it.

I'm going to finish this coffee, drop this PA and head north. The sun has finally come out. I'm hoping to connect with some distant cousins of mine later this afternoon at Nanaimo. Then, I'm going to run the Wild Pacific Trail near Tofino! Hey, sometimes the blues is good, eh? I'll keep you posted, because it's not over until it's over. Actually, once I check into the next cheap motel I'll be getting to work on the books, the paperwork, and the follow-ups on the Tour. It ain't all wrapped up yet, and won't be for a while.

Saltspring Island- NSBT Wraps! Last Show!

2008-11-09T12:07:00.000-08:00

There’s nowhere we can find in downtown Duncan to get breakfast. Not the breakfast we want anyway. Sunday morning, and all the cool places are closed up. We end up back at the Duncan Garage Café for coffee and muffins to go. This is not bad, just not the diner we want. And it is cool. Thanks!

It’s a short drive north to catch the ferry to Salt Spring Island. A short boat ride, maybe thirty minutes— and we’re here. The sun is working hard today. Very nice. We’ve had days of rain now. Days. So this is nice.

The NSBT, National Steel Blues Tour, is coming to an end soon. Michael has maintained the sign on the Tour Van...

We drive into the village and call our hosts, Ron and Oni. Hello! We’re here!!

It’s to be a house concert toight at the “Whale House,” a beautiful home on top of a small mountain. Both Michael and I have been here before, but not together. This seems like an amazing spot to end the Tour.

Yes, this is the Last Show. Wow. Hard to believe. We’re in early, but the house is already a hive of activity as Ron and Oni and Dave and other friends prep for the show. It’s to be a pot luck supper, and there are good things cooking here already. Smells great, can’t wait! Michael retires to his room to nap and chill away from the commotion. I’m to stay in a little alcove off the main room, so I’m pretty much in the middle of the set up. We’ve got most of the afternoon in front of us, so I decide— what the heck— I’m going to run Salt Spring Island.

It’s a long, steep run down the hill from this house. I know coming up will be very, very special. A real climb. I zig zag down the hill as I find it easier on my legs to do hills this way. Down to the Concession road, and I’m off on the rolling terrain. Most of the trees and bushes are still green, and loom up over the road. Occasionally there is an opening for a field. Blackberries are still on bushes along the ditches. It’s a grey sky, and the ground is wet, the road shoulders soft and splashy. Here and there I pick up a little mud. Another great Canadian run. Out about an hour. Pushing up the hill for home is just as tough as I thought it would be. But I’ve been training all across this great land. I’m pushing, pushing. This is the steepest, longest hill in over two months of travel. There are wet leaves on it. I must be careful not to slip. I will not stop running. I will not walk. I will make this last climb on this last run of the Tour. Finally I crest the hill. My lungs are bursting. I’m soaking. My heart is pounding. Wow. I hit the steam shower (yes, absolutely amazing) with the windows looking out over the hills. I’m blessed to be sharing this special place.

Night comes quickly. We’re to use a small PA this night, and local musician Shovelhead Dave helps us to set up and get the whole thing in gear. I remember Dave from last year when he sat around jamming with Big Dave McLean and I after our show.

People and food are arriving, so Michael and I get plates and explore some of the fare around the room. Nuts, oysters, red wine, salads, blackened chicken, salads, Salt Spring cheeses. This is good! Here's the girls collecting at the door, talking girl talk, and having a few laughs at my expense!

Showtime. We’re a little cramped here, but not bad. We limbo in and out behind our cage of mics and mic stands. We’ve got about 35 people here tonight. Fifty would have been better. But this is nice. Michael kicks off the show tonight. We’ve been trading off the opening from show to show. Tonight it’s “I’ve Been Fooled Again,” an old Sonny and Brownie tune. I get to play harp on this one. I do a second line, try to have fun, pump along, and stay out of Michael’s way. Every harmonica player in every town seems to come out to see us— well, to hear Michael anyway— so I’ve been a little self-conscious throughout the Tour. Here I am playing harp for Michael Pickett. How strange it that?? After all these shows I’m still knocked out by his playing every night. I get to play on two other songs, “Hitch Hikin’ Woman” and “Louise.” These are more down my Mississippi alley.

Tonight we are working hard, and soaking in this last show of the Tour. I think we are playing really well— individually and together. Last shows are like this sometimes. It’s kind of a warm glow, maybe a little sadness that we’ve reached the end of this adventure. It has been another great journey, both artisticlly and personally. Between sets we sell raffle tickets on the LAST tour jacket, sign CDs and posters. Here's the lucky winner of the jacket!!

My pal Bruce Everett has come to the show tonight. You might know him as “Ken Hamm’s harp player.” Ken and Bruce hung out with us last year in Alberta, and did some playing. We chat, and it turns out Bruce now lives on a boat, anchored in the village harbour here at Salt Spring Island. Very cool! Where's his pic? We took some. They'll turn up.

Our second set goes by all too quickly. I enjoy every moment. Michael plays “Tryin’ to Find My Way Home,” and I lead into Pearly Brown’s “Good-Bye” which has become kind of a closing theme for us. We sing a bunch of choruses to a standing ovation, and the night, and the Tour, is done. Michael and I end this night standing in front of the stage together for one last bow.

Later, we sit outside on deck chairs and marvel at the whole thing. We are lucky guys to live this life— but it has taken us the better part of 40 years to get to this Tour, this show, this deck on this mountain with a big moon smiling down on us.

Duncan Garage Showroom, Duncan, BC

2008-11-08T18:45:00.001-08:00

Another early start. Not real early, but early enough. Again, we’ve got a ferry to catch and we’d rather be too early than too late arriving at our show. After hugs and good-byes we’re off to the ferry docks where we are to wait all of about fifteen minutes for our boat.

As we wait, the traffic builds behind us, so we are glad to know we’ll be getting on! The trip itself is long. We stop at a couple of other islands on route to Swartz Bay, Victoria. Here's the view from the deck...

Picking up Route One is easy, and it turns out to be a pretty drive up to Duncan, BC, where we are to play the Duncan Garage Showroom.

This is one of my favourite rooms in Canada, so I’m very glad to be here as we approach the end of this Tour. Last year Big Dave McLean and I sold this place out and had a fabulous time. But Michael and I are here early, and the place is locked up tight. Longevity John is nowhere in sight, nor are the many dogs which parade about with him. We go downstairs to the café for a bite to eat, and run into John. We also meet folks who have come over from Hornby Island and from Galleano Island to catch our show. That’s very cool, and we really, really appreciate the effort taken. This is a good sign— the show could be another sell out.

After lunch we check into our hotel for a short nap. The place is loud. I can hear the guys drinking at the bar downstairs. I can hear the guy across the hall playing guitar. I can hear two guys and two girls boinking upstairs. Michael has his earplugs in. I’m grateful that this is the worst hotel we’ve stayed at during the Tour. And that we’ll be outta here in the morning!! What a great view!

I take all my personal gear to the gig in the truck. No way am I leaving anything of value in this hotel room! John has us up and sounding good in short order! This is the 1061st show to take place in this venue, and he knows what he’s doing!

By the second set we sound really good. This is another good show. A real good one. No, we’re not sold out here, which is disappointing, but a nice crowd in one of the best small venues you’ll find anywhere! As always here, you never know who will show up to catch your performance. I thought this guy looked familiar... Iconic Canadian songwriter Joe Hall. Thanks for coming out, Joe. Great to see you!

The raffle is good, we play good. Here's tonight's winner!

We’re getting close to the end of this tour. Hard to believe. We’re gonna miss this. I know I am anyway. Out back there's a little smoking porch. This is where hungry dogs go to properly address their popcorn... Tonight, about ten of them... Dogs that is!

We go for a bite after the show. It's chain pizza tonight, and the waiter asks us, "how do you like your food, so far?" What kind of dumb-ass question is that anyway? Back at the hotel there is a band playing, and it is pretty loud in our room. They sound pretty strange, but eventually they stop. The lead singer and his girlfriend have a big fight upstairs. They're not smacking, but they are nagging. It sounds like a puppet show gone bad. Very bad. Eventually they boink and she leaves. She was loud and he was quick. Is this important to the NSBT? Probably not, but it is the nearest thing to sex I have to report. Michael is asleep by this time, and soon I will be, too. Sleep is good.

Mayne Island, Sold Out!

2008-11-07T18:12:00.001-08:00

It’s to be the Mayne Island Agricultural Hall this evening. We are up early because we are nervous about catching the right ferry and getting it on time. We’d always prefer to get to the gig early rather than late. This day we are worried about whether or not we’ll get on the ferry of our choice. What if there’s a big line up? We decide to try to catch a very early boat, so we’ll have a fallback (still early ferry) plan if we can’t get on.

First we need to stop by mile zero of the TransCanada Highway.

I ran past this point already, but didn’t have my camera with me. I’ve seen enough of this road that I want “Mile Zero” recorded for the Captain’s log! It’s pouring rain as we detour around downtown Victoria, through some very nice residential neighbourhoods to the foot of Canada’s blues highway.

There’s also a monument here to Terry Fox, the one-legged runner who did so much to raise the profile of cancer fund raising. Surely the rest of us can do less without complaining. What a runner he was, too! Terry’s body never made it across Canada in his run, but his spirit certainly did— so this marker is in the right place. A great Canadian.

Quick stop at Serious Coffee and we are good to go. The ride out of town to the ferry terminal is easy, and before we know it we are in line. We’ll get on for sure, so we’ll be quite early to the Island.

The ferry ride is perhaps 2 hours, with a stop at another island along the way. It’s grey, wet weather, with clouds hanging over the water. Michael stretches out on a bench in the passenger lounge and sleeps. I pace about, try to read the paper, and look out the window. There are some seals, briefly playing tag with the ferry. Very cool. But I want to see a whale. I chat with a couple of other travellers, and soon we are arriving at the Mayne Island Terminal. No whales today, I guess.

The Mayne Folk Music Society is presenting our concert here, and we’ll be staying with organizer Don McDougall and his wife. Finding their rural farm is surprisingly simple, and we are soon settled into our quarters on this magnificent property. The Island is so special, and so is this farm! Michael elects to stay in the “cob house” which is located nearby on the same property. It is a beautiful, semi-subterrainian home constructed with local clay and straw. The interior welcomes with warm beams and furnishings, skylights, roman tub, woodstove, stained glass. The home is a work of art, as well as being environmentally progresive and architechturally complimentary to it’s natural surroundings. Here's the roof, and the garden overhead!

I’m staying in the big farmhouse, where I believe I may get a good internet connection and work on this blog.

As it is early afternoon, I decide to go for a short run. This Island is so beautiful, I’ve just got to get out and see it on foot! This place is way behind the Mainland in terms of the advancing cold season. Most of the trees still have their leaves, and some, I learn, are not going to lose their leaves at all! Old growth cedars and pine crowd the sky over the little roads, flowers are still in bloom, the land is green, and it’s no longer raining!

I head out down the farm road, perhaps a kilometer out to the Concession road. It’s a soft run, the air is sweet, it’s not to hot and not too cold and not windy.

I trot by a big pen full of chickens (later I find out we’ll be selling eggs this night!), cattle, and startle the first of the many deer I will encounter on this run. I’m met by a pretty good hill, and it’s work— but as it crests the view is thrilling and I can see the ocean. This is great!! There are no cars, just me and the sound of my shoes on the soft, road shoulder, the birds caling around me, and the whisper of the trees. It’s a gentle downhill, an easy run that seems to go on forever. I am ruefully aware that I’ll have to run back up this to get home again, but push on. Here’s another uphill. Oh, steep sucker this time, but I push on. No problem, I’m a hill guy, now. After a time I glance at my watch to see that I’ve done it again! I’ve been running for twice as long as I intended, and I’ve yet to turn around for home. It’ll be a darn good, serious run before I get back now. This is a world class hill course, full of twists and turns. I’ve been out for 40 minutes and still have not seen a car.

Deer stand by the roadside as I jog by. I stop in front of one, get my camera out of my pocket, turn it on and take a couple of pictures. He doesn’t care. Off I go.

I’ve been running for a while, looking for the little farm road, when I come out at the highway. Damn! I’ve missed my road by a couple of hilly km, and I’ll need to run BACK to find it!!

I’m tired now. This has been a great run, but I need to do a show tonight. It’s been over an hour of challenging hills, and I bet I’ll feel this tomorrow. Finally the friendly farm comes into sight. I'm not from these parts, and the trees and plants seem rather exotic...

Back at the house I shower, snooze for half and hour, eat a bowl of lamb stew, and then it’s off to the venue for set up and sound check. It’s a beautiful old, wooden hall, built over a century ago. It’s going to be great! Michael and I unload in the dark rain, thump our way in through the big, old doors, meet our sound man. Rick Martin is our guy for the night, and he’s already done a pretty neat job of setting up the stage. He’s a player, too, and is going to take good care of us over the evening. The room sounds great. We’re pretty picky about what we want in the house, but Rick is patient and cheerful and soon we are finished.

It’s pouring rain out. Cold. Dark. I wonder what kind of house we are going to get? As I set up the merch table near the bar there are people coming in. We have eggs stacked next to our merch, and I’m to mention them during the first show! The Folk Society volunteers have all arrived, so the coffee and snack concession is open, as is the bar. The barman pours me a generous glass of red wine, and I sit to watch and wait for showtime. By the time the local opening act is introduced, the place is full. By the time we are to start the place is over-full, with spare chairs pulled out to fill the isles and entry area!

A great crowd. These folks are listening intently, clapping in all the right places. “Are you with me?” I ask, and they shout back a grand “hurrah!”

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We've been blessed to meet some wonderful people on this journey— among them some great photographers. Tonight one of our new friends, Toby, is keeping busy documenting the show. I'm going to include a whole lot of his images because they are so good, and because they probably tell the story more clearly than I do!

At half time we sell eggs and raffle tickets. We’ve only got four jackets left, and indeed, we leave two of them on this magic island. The second set is, in my opinion, among the very best sets of the Tour. I enjoy every moment of it. Here's how some of it unfiolds...

The mighty Michael Pickett is hot tonight. Toby captures some of the action...

Michael and I end the night with a standing ovation. Great. Thank you Mayne Island. We’ve really appreciated every moment here.

After load-out we return to Don’s house, where he cooks us venison and perogies. We stay up talking and laughing into the small hours. In the morning, I’ll be leaving with a collection of heritage tomato seeds for my garden. These are good Quaker folk. Good folks with good dogs, good friends, good food and children. Bless this house and farm.

One of the border collies is able to open car doors, so before sleep I must go out and lock the truck! She’s not good at closing the doors, so the rain gets in, and the batteries will run down.

Long & McQuade, Victoria, BC

2008-11-06T00:05:00.000-08:00

It's raining. Raining hard. And it's 7:AM. Michael's already up. He says he's been up since 4:AM. I am NOT getting up! Not until 8:AM anyway. I lie in bed hoping to be sleeping again, but that's not to be. We head downtown for a little breakfast. Mountain Equipment Coop is still closed! What gives here? Oh, it's only 9 something in the morning. I want to buy a raincoat, or an umbrella, or something...

Back to the hotel. Still raining hard. We won't be seeing many sights today. Michael switches on the daytime TV and surfs. I boot up the laptop and surf. The connection is slow. It takes forever to upload each picture to the Blog. But it's raining very hard, and this is pretty much what our day is going to be. There is a Canadian show called Trailer Park Boys on the tube. I've never seen this before— and I can't believe that this is being broadcast on mainstream television! I haven't spent much time with television, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. It is kinda humerous, so we watch a few episodes. We snooze away part of the afternoon, go out for Greek food, and head over to Long & McQuade to set up. Finally! These slow days are a killer. We're itching to play, to do something. It's always tea time here...

The Victoria Long & McQuade is a big, bright store with a big stock. Lots of cool gear, including some used gear worth owning. Their educational facility is a block away, and it, too, is a very nice place. There are plenty of lessons going on as we arrive, and there's a great concert room for our use. We are early, so we set up and hang out, talking with the staff, waiting for 7:PM to roll around.

It's still raining. This all day rain thing is a pain. We have a few people sitting waiting, so we start. This has been promoted as a blues clinic, rather than a resophonic guitar workshop, and this is fine with us. We play a few songs and answer questions about tunings, chords, harmonicas.

One young lad and his mom sit in the front row. He's about 11 or 12 and says he's into Metalica (did I spell that right?) and Green Day. I let him hold my National Steel guitar and I think he's somewhat impressed. Before we finish I give him a scrap of paper with open G tuning written on it. He's going to go home and try some slide guitar playing! Pretty neat! We say our good-nights to all. Our friend Sandy Powlik, the local singer-songwriter we met on the ferry yesterday has arrived. She gives us instructions to find Hermann's Jazz Club.

I'd tried to book us into Hermann's, but this place hadn't returned calls or emails. I want to see the room, and maybe meet the booker. Still rain. Lots of it. We get down to Hermann's and check it out. Nice room. We could of played here, no problem. The bookers are not around, and we're not pumped up about the band that is playing, so we call it a night. In the morning, we'll be back to work finishing this Tour with some island hopping for three more shows! Maybe it'll stop raining soon?

Down in Victoria, BC

2008-11-05T22:43:00.000-08:00

Surrey traffic sucks! Big time. But we do manage to get breakfast at a diner, and head out on the highway to the ferry terminal. It's not exactly clear how to get to the ferry. We've got instructions from a couple of sources, and have a couple of maps, and are trying to follow the signs. Nevertheless, I'm surprised when we actually get there! And early enough to get on board! It's a little cold and grey today. Up on the deck we meet a charming young woman singing and playing guitar. Sandy Powlik. She's pretty good, and she plays us several songs before the cold air drives us inside.

Landing near Victoria we find our way into town, make a quick stop at Long & McQuade, and then find our motel. It's another down day— our last on the Tour, so we'll try to make the most of it. Michael heads out on foot to visit an old friend, and I suit up to go for a long run.

I check my map of Victoria, and then head out down Government street. The city is a bit smaller than I thought, so it's not too long before I'm downtown, here's Chinatown, here's the Empress Hotel, here's the houses of the government...

What a great way to be a tourist! Just run through with your camera and get those shots! Returning to the motel it's more uphill, and a little work, but a very good run. I follow the shore for a while, cut across Lo-Jo (Lower Johnson), and scamper back to where I started. How far did I go? 10- 15 km? Nice.

These Mizuno shoes are the best I've ever run in. They are wearing pretty well, too. I don't replace my runners as often as some people advise, but these are holding up well. Plenty of cushion, good support, comfort. I run somewhere between 40- 65 km every week, and I bought these in March. So there's maybe 1600km on them now. I still need to get these puppies wet in the Pacific before the Tour is done. I'm going to buy another pair so I can start to rotate them...

I'll be calling on John Stanton CEO of Running Room to talk about next year's Tour. I've enjoyed huge benefits from running/jogging/walking, and I'm serious about sharing these with other artists and fans. A great way to keep the music alive and well is to keep the artists and the fans healthy. Maybe we'll be stopping to play some Running Room stores next Tour!

Later I head out to a cafe near Chinatown. I'm back to the motel early. Michael returns as well. Would you believe that we are tired? In bed before 8 o'clock? Life on the blues tour is full of surprises. Sleep is one of them.

Here we are taking in the sights...

Long & McQuade, Surrey, BC

2008-11-04T23:46:00.000-08:00

It's a full breakfast at the Packinghouse Pantry, in Spence's Bridge, BC. Somebody at one of the other tables says we should drive up a nearby mountain and check out the view. It's a mountain backroad, and it's been raining all night, but we head out anyway in our rented mini-van. Sure. Right. Is this dumb or what?

Just don't tell National we took their truck miles off the pavement and lost it down a cliff... No. We're OK.

It's a slippery ride up and down, for sure. But it was a bit of a thrill. This country is going to look quite different in a few years time. Many of the trees are dying due to an invasive insect. Are these hills going to burn? Or slide off into the valleys below?

There doesn't seem to be panic about this. But I can't help but wonder what's going to happen to the communities that rely on this eco-system for their jobs and their way of life.

A dramatic, but uneventful drive down Route 1 to Surrey, where we report to Long & McQuade and check into our motel.

It's a 7:00 show here, and we've got a couple of hours to kill. We notice a tough edge to this town— by 5:00 there are hookers on the streets near our motel. There are pawnshops and fast cash joints scattered up and down the street. The King George Highway.

The workshop at Long & McQuade is fun, and goes all too fast. Here's Michael setting up. Do you think we will be loud enough tonight??

Actually, we do the workshop entirely unplugged, no mics, no PA. But the stacks do look impressive. Turn it up, mon, in all frequencies! Back at our motel we arrive just in time for the Presidential Victory Address. We savour this historic moment, and hope that a change is, in fact, going to come to America. Here in Surrey, BC, we load most of our stuff into our motel room. We want to make sure we still have it in the morning. Could use some change around here, as well.

Spence's Bridge, BC

2008-11-03T23:11:00.000-08:00

I'm up at 8:30, ready to run Prince George. Michael is already packed out, and is sitting on the tailgate having a smoke. I guess he's restless today. Earl warns me to stay out of the woods at this hour, as there may be bears. I don't want to deal with bears, so I run the main streets. It's pretty suburban in this part of Prince George. The air is clear and crisp on this day, and I have a good trot over rolling streets of yards and houses. I see a couple of other runners. There's nothing that jumps out to make this a destination run. I'll need to find a guide for next time. There must be some great trails somewhere in this wild country.

After a quick breakfast we're on the road. Southbound. We haven't decided what route we'll take to the coast yet. We may take 99 across to Whistler, and into Vancouver that way. This looks like it would be a wild drive, and we've got the time. Or we'll go back to Cache Creek and catch the old Route 1, TransCanada down towards Hope and Surrey.

By the time we get to 100 Mile House it's snowing and blowing. I'm thinking we should pass on 99 this time around and head for Hope.

It's a rainy drive out of the forest and into the high dessert again.

As it is getting dark we decide to stop at a place called Spence's Bridge to see about a motel. We find a cool little coffeehouse called the Packinghouse Pantry, and the good folk here direct us to some nearby cabins, as well as staying open to cook us dinner!

We notice that our new friend Leslie Alexander will be playing a show here on the 7th of November! Steve, one of the owners, plays us her CD. Hey, good stuff! We went to a Halloween party at Leslie's place in Ashcroft, BC... Go see her and say hello from us!

Sleep finds us early tonight, with trains calling out and grinding their way up both shores of this mighty river. The walls of this cabin actually shake!

It's quite dark, and we stand for a few minutes by the banks of the river, watching the train lights illuminate the opposite shore. I think it's about 7:00, and we are ready for the wrapper. Downtime is hard. We'd rather do shows every night. We have not had many nights off in the past 60 days, but for some reason these seem to tire us more than the shows. There's no internet here, and no phone, and there's a boil water advisory, and the blankets are thin, and my mattress is lumpy, and the room is $85. Oh, well. We're here, and the air smells like river and dessert, and there's the sound of the rain on the roof and the rapids outside. Trucks in the distance crawling up Route 1. There's a little neon out the window. Life is good. On to the coast in the morning.

Prince George- Capacity Crowd, No Mapes, No Foolin'

2008-11-02T09:47:00.000-08:00

It’s an early start for us today. We’ve got perhaps 5 hours of driving to get to Prince George, BC, for our 3:30 soundcheck and load-in. We cruise into downtown Ashcroft to find a cup of coffee, but everything is closed this morning. Looks like we’ll have to go to Cache Creek to get breakfast and gas up.

Sure enough. It’s a Huskey Truck Stop. Inside I see a clock on the wall. It’s REALLY early. The clocks all moved back an hour last night! No wonder Ashcroft was closed. I’ve been having time zone problems for a couple of weeks now anyway, so I just don’t care. You could tell me it was pretty much any hour, and I’d probably believe you. Or maybe that means I’m tired????

Michael and I have been looking forward to this drive for some time. It’s interesting from the get-go as we move out into this high dessert country and point the truck north on Route 97-C. We’ve got coffees to go and we’re taking snaps of the scenery.

We’re impressed by the range of gold, brown and yellow colours, and soon we find ourselves moving into higher country with scrubby pine or spruce trees. The dessert is left behind, and the transition to the North is becoming clear. This is pulp and mining, trucks and mills. Hydro lines. Winding highways. The little towns and hamlets along the way have names like 14 Mile House, 49 Mile House, 100 Mile House… well you get the idea. This was the route to the Gold Rush, and these were measured distances for transport.

We arrive in Prince George an hour ahead of schedule… wonder why we were not exactly on time??? But this is fine, as we poke around town looking for the venue. Eventually we find it. This is the Artspace. It’s above a good sized, indy bookstore/café. Not part of a chain. An indy. Full of books and low-bucks coffee. Nice. I can tell there’s a tough side to this town as well. We’ve driven past the mission, with a long line of people waiting for the evening doors to open. But on to the Venue.

The room has a low stage, great sight lines, appears to have great acoustics. It’s a warm, inviting room, really a small theatre/gallery space— and promises to be a good place to play. Down in the café we meet Earl, the town’s number one blues booster, and promoter of this show. We’ve met before at the Maples (Maple Blues Awards— Canada’s version of the BMAs/Handy Awards), and Earl had come out to say hello at one of our shows in Fredericton, NB, early in the Tour. Now he’s all energy on his own turf. We’ve had radio ads on two stations, a feature on the front page of the entertainment sectiion, email to the blues society lists, posters around town. We’ve had about 50 advance ticket sales. Nobody seems to know for sure if that is good or bad, but as there are no Maple Nominated Artists in this town tonight, I feel quite sure we’re going to do well here. They have not presented many acoustic shows, so there is a bit of a buzz in the air, and nobody seems sure what is going to happen.

Dave, the sound guy, arrives with his truck. There’s a good deal of carry in stuff, so the set up takes a while. I work the laptop. Michael noodles on his Gibson and smokes. Eventually we get some mics up. The room sounds as good as I thought it would. Michael soundchecks. I soundcheck. It’s OK up there. I can’t hear my guitar over Michael’s, and I’ll hit it too hard all night. But that’s kind of where it ends up. My vocal mic is, at least, as hot as I like it. Sound techs have had a bit of a challenge setting us up. We have different attacks on the same style of instrument, and different ways of using the workhorse SM58 vocal mics. You’d think it makes sense to set up the vocal mics the same way. Only Michael eats his, band style, and I like a lot of air around mine, so I can move on and off axis— old folkie style, I guess. Guitars look the same. Only they are played quite a bit differently. Without picks and full chord swipes, my guitar is quite a bit quieter. I know this, and fans at many shows tell me I’m not loud enough. Anyhow, we’ll be fine this night. The room sounds good, and we can work with it. Dave’s done everything he can do. It’s a go!

Back to Earl’s place to meet his family, have a wonderful, home-cooked meal, and a short snooze before show time. The room is busy when we return, and Earl is happy. Yup, this show is gonna be alright! Every seat is full by the time our set starts at 7:30 PM. These folks are attentive to say the least! And quiet! We are warmly welcomed and the first set is done before we know it.

It’s one of those nights where I’ve got to check my watch so we can end remotely on time. Michael and I can very easily do sets of one hour twenty minutes, one hour forty minutes. The songs in the round format seems to lend itself to this. Everybody’s relaxed, and it just goes and goes! So our fifty minute set is about an hour and five. Now I’ve got raffle tickets to sell!

We don’t lose anybody to the intermission, in fact the place seems more crowded now than before. We’ve got a great front row to play to, the lights are nice— not too hot and not too blinding. There was a lot of interest in the raffle for the jacket. One proud winner!

I’m afraid all the XLG and maybe even LG jackets are gone now. I know I’ve got a couple of M’s and maybe a SM left in the bag. We end the night with a standing ovation. And it really was a pleasure to play here. I wonder where the people from the folk festival are? If they came out, I haven’t met them. Pretty hard to play closer to the market area than this. I’ll be back next year.

Our merch table has been picked pretty much bare. For sure, a record sale of merch per capita. Michael’s not happy— he’s pretty much sold out of CDs and we’ve still got a few dates left to play. I tell him to lighten up— if he hadn’t sold so many cds tonight, he might have been taking some home at the end of the Tour! All in all this is very good. Back to Earl’s for a glass of wine. Decompress. Do the Tour books. Sleep. Tomorrow is a travel day, we’ll see where we end up. We’ll see.

Opera House, Ashcroft, BC

2008-11-01T16:13:00.000-07:00

Up early, but not too eary this morning. We’re staying in an old Inn/motel on the banks of the Thompson River, at Ashcroft, BC. This place has clearly been here a long time. A highway bridge for old Route 97C runs high overhead. I guess the road once passed directly by this place: an old sign on the wall faces the embankment and reads “HOTEI.” But it’s quite a thrill for us to be here. There are rapids on the river outside, and with our window open we can hear them roaring by. Across the river there is a CN rail line, and every once in a while they pull one by us. These are some of the longest trains we’ve ever seen. Are they a couple of kms long? A mile? We don’t know. They moan by, screaching wheels, steel on steel, grinding and banging and honking into the night. I‘ve been able to sleep through this stuff, but Michael’s wearing earplugs. Still sleeping as I head out for a morning run.

Runner’s log. A great run along the Thompson River from Ashcroft. I don’t know what direction the river is flowing here, but I’m running upstream, out of town, on a high, lightly paved road overlooking it’s banks. It’s mild with a hint of crispness in the air, and the strange, high desert hills are brown gold, with furrows of sand or rock. The leaves on the bushes and tres have long turned, but are still clinging to the sky, giving me a last display as I run by. Not a car or truck passes me in half an hour of running along this beautiful river. It’s quieter, up away from the rapids. The run is pretty easy today, although I didn’t eat enough yesterday to properly fuel this distance. On the way back the wind is in my face, so I’m working a little bit harder. As I approach Ashcroft I see another runner coming towards me. Good morning! Nice day for it!

We lounge around town for the rest of the day prior to soundcheck. It’s a 4:30 load in at the Opera House. Martin meets us at the door to help us load in. Wow! This place smells like dinner. Suddenly we are very hungry! Luck is with us and Martin has finished his kitchen work early today. It’s a dinner a show package for most folks— and Martin is a real chef. This is worthy! Soundcheck is done in about half an hour, and we enjoy a meal with Martin before the crowds arrive.

The Opera House was built over a century ago, and has rich, wooden walls and ceiling. Spruce or cedar perhaps? Great tone anyway! By showtime the room is pretty full. I’m impressed by how far some people have come to se us. Four car loads from 100 Mile House (that’s 160km from here), at least as many from Kamloops, including our radio blues pal Vince Almond, and Rusty— the guy who escorted us through Kamloops the previous day. We are especially grateful when people make such efforts to attend our shows. And dinner has been good here tonight!

We have a great first set, breaking for pie, cd and raffle sales. These folks want this tour jacket badly. A lotta tickets for this crowd! Short break, and we’re back in action. I start in with “It Won’t Be Long,” well my take on it anyway. Charlie Patton. Mmmm. We have a great set, give away a tour jacket, and before we know it the night is over. I’ve had a great night, and especially enjoyed hearing Michael’s tunes. This Tour is counting down. We stand outside the club after the crowd has departed. Say good-night. Good luck. So long. Good-bye.

We drop in on some of our new friends down the street. Rob’s a “scaler” I think he said. Climbs big cliffs and pries off rock. Crazy job. No crazier than ours, I guess. We’re off to the hotel. Early start for Prince George in the morning.

TV Vacancy, Kamloops, BC to Ashcroft Halloween

2008-10-31T15:43:00.000-07:00

We’ve got a TV show to do today in Kamloops, BC. It’s only about 150 km away, but we don’t know the roads all that well, and need to give ourselves a good start to get there on schedule. It’s Starbucks coffee to go, and the worst muffin I have ever tasted, and we’re on 97 headed north. The road south to Penticton, where the tour was originally routed, has been blocked by a massive landslide. They are saying it may be closed for a month, and the drive-around is something like 3 hours. The road north looks good, and there’s not much traffic today as we head out.

I always enjoy the drive into Kamloops. The hills around it are strange, cartoonish things. The sprawl is something else, however. Worse everytime in, it seems. Take a breathtaking landscape and fill it with corporate logos, billboards, and condos that look like cancer cells on the hillsides… Rolling into town a car honks at us and pulls up alongside. “Where are you trying to go?” the driver asks. I tell him we’re lookng for the TV station. “Follow me!,” he says. And off we go! At the top of a ridge overlooking the city we pull into a parking lot. Perfect. And right on time for soundcheck. We thank Rusty for guiding us in, and give him a couple of CDs for his trouble. He’s a blues fan, and knows a bunch of local players. Neat.

The TV show is Midday. We soundcheck. Our bite will be about four to six minutes at the end of the show. We hole up in the Green Room— thank goodnes it has WiFi— and wait for our turn. Michael sits outside and smokes. Nice view outside the front doors. I catch up on email and sit with a college football player, a specialty butcher, a woman who does custom Halloween parties… Our host, Tracy is dressed in a cowboy hat for this occasion. Happy Halloween! The tech drops a mic on the floor. Michael and I take snaps of ourselves in the newsroom. Finally it’s our turn to go on. There. We’re done. We present Tracy with a tour jacket and we are out of here! Thank you! Good-bye until next time. I wonder how much of our demographic is watching Midday Television. Will they drive to Ashcroft tomorrow to see us at the Oper House?

Michael and I are very, very hungry. He wants to stop at the first food place he sees. It’s an Indian restaurant. I say “not me” as I want breakfast. Michael goes Indian. I wander up the street and find a diner in the same block. Eggs, toast, coffee. Good. Very good. Back at the truck we decide to push on to Ashcroft. It’s not far, and as we are not performing this evening we might as well check in there a day early.

It’s a fascinating drive for us and we stop a few times to take it all in. In Ashcroft we quickly find the Opera House. Owner-booker-manager-chef Martin is standing outside as we drive up— a day early! But he is glad to see us and shows us around the venue. This is very, very cool. The building was once Town Hall, then was an opera house, a silent movie house… and eventually this wood filled concert hall. We can sleep in the Green Room if we want, but Michael and I elect to stay at the local hotel. There are plenty of vacancies at this time of year. We drink coffee with Martin and then check in for a nap. Michael naps. I go to the bar, the only place here where I sem to be able to get a WiFi signal. I sit with my laptop and a glass of red wine while some of the local lads drink beer and play pool.

After dark we go back to the Opera House, pick up Martin and head out for some Halloween social events. We are introduced to some really nice folks, and end up at a Halloween party at a studio/house high over the river. Michael plays guitar while a whole lot of people play drums. That’s more than I can manage, but I enjoy talking with quite a number of local artists and musicians. Also at the party are a couple members of a theatre group who are doing a play at the local school here. One of the women is from Atlanta, so we catch up on South for a few minutes. They travel around the country doing week long workshops in schools. Tomorrow afternoon all the kids will be presenting a play at the local high school. Anyway, back to our hotel before it gets too late. We had hot dogs. We had a pleasant evening. Thanks, Ashcroft!!

Kelowna, Kelowna, BC

2008-10-30T15:38:00.000-07:00

Breakfast with Lorne in Enderby, and then off we go to Kelowna. We are enjoying this drive through the big valley. In town early, we check into our hotel rooms and kill time until soundcheck. Nice suites here. Very comfortable. I decide to go for a run and head out along the lakeside. As I’m leaving I can hear Michael playing his guitar in his room.

It’s a busy road, with plenty of obstructions between me and the water, but after a few km I encounter a greenbelt walking/hiking trail. It seems to be an old railway right of way which follows a creek through the edge of town. I head up this path. It’s fine, crushed gravel, not too hard and not too soft. Great for running. Nice trees up either side of the trail. The creek murmuring next to me. Km markers every once in a while. This is a really nice run or walk. I go far too far, perhaps, but get back to the hotel feeling recharged.

Load-in and soundcheck at 4:30. Minstrel Café owner Clare meets us and shows us what the set up is. We end up bringing in our own mics, a couple of cables, and a couple of boom stands to set up. We carry a full, back up PA in the truck, and all too often we need to bring in bits of it. The mics here are not up to the task of a two person set up. And the fifty foot cables won’t do either. We’re up and ready pretty quickly, but we have our doubts about the volume of the whole thing. We’ve ordered food, and it is very good indeed. The staff are very nice. Back to the hotel for a snooze before showtime. Our hotel is only about 5 minutes drive from the club, so this is good.

Showtime. The place is not as crowded as we would of liked. Not bad, but not filled to capacity either. Outside on the sign it says “Doc McLean Blues Tour.” This is not an ego thing for either of us, but having both Doc MacLean and Michael Pickett up on the sign would be a good idea to maximize buzz for this show. Michael has loads of fans in this region, and they need to know that he is here! But there is a bit of a buzz, and quite a number of local musicians and blues fans have turned out to see us. Thanks, everybody, for supporting live music in Kelowna!

I kick it off tonight with Charlie James’ Blues, and the sound is better than I thought it would be, although not loud enough from my seat. But these folks are with us in a big way, and the set goes by far too quickly. Michael breaks a string on “Wicked Grin” and sings most of it without the guitar. It is quite cool. Between sets the merch table is busy— we’re selling and signing, and answering questions. These folks are into this tonight. When we start the next set we have a very quiet, very attentive house. I think we are playing exceptionally well tonight. We are both singing well. Timing is good. I have fun playing harp behind Michael on a couple of tunes. I don’t know what he thinks about it, but I think it sounds OK, even pretty good. After all these years of not playing I’m both rusty and cautious. And, heck, I’m sitting next to Michael Pickett. He’s one of the harp Kings. Tonight I sing the best “Bone Train” I have ever performed. It hits me that way, anyhow. The singing seems easy tonight. I was worried last spring, after a winter of street singing, whether or not I had finally destroyed my voice altogether. Well, I guess that’s always a matter of opinion. But everybody seems to be riding with us this night.

On the way back to the hotel Michael asks me how many dates are left. Heck, we’re coming up the last stretch now, what— maybe 10 shows or something. Hard to believe. It’s been good. I’ll miss this Tour when it’s over!

Lorenzo's, Enderby, BC

2008-10-29T15:34:00.000-07:00

We’re sorry to see the last of Golden, it’s been a nice rest. But we do like to perform every night. It just seems easier to stay in motion than to stop, however briefly. We’re headed for Enderby, BC today. Lorenzo’s Café. This is a cool place that both Michael and I have played before. Lorne is a fine host. The whole scene is a little crazed and wacky. It’s just a warm and interesting stop that we are both looking forward to.

Back out onto the TransCanada Hwy. Westbound. It’s the Rogers Pass today, and we’re over the continental divide and yet another time zone. Snow up here, but none falling at the moment, thankfully. Close call with a couple of deer on the road out of town. But we’re OK, and we enjoy this ride. Yeah, we’re tourists and we take pictures of all these mountain views.

Enderby is over the big hump, in more of a valley area. Upper Kelowna perhaps? I’m not sure what they call this district. Lorenzo’s is several miles outside town. Rolling in early we are greeted by Lorne, do a quick set-up and sound check, and retire to our quarters above the Café. Michael naps. I elect to go for a run. I don’t feel as stiff as I thought I’d be from running Golden, BC. Here it seems pretty flat, so I head out on the backroad, down past the river, and up into the rolling ranch country. Barking dogs, llamas, cattle. A nice trot.

Showtime at Lorenzo’s. It’s a small crowd tonight, so we get to met everybody pre-show and chat. Lorenzo’s has a big, outdoor smoking porch. So there’s plenty of hanging out and plenty of conversation. The acoustics of this room are really quite wonderful, so we enjoy every moment of playing. At the end of the evening we stay up too late, shooting the breeze with Lorne. I crash hard, while Michael and Lorne hang until who knows when. This is a nice stop, for sure. Next time it will be a Friday or Saturday night!

Mountain Ride to Golden: Kicking Horse

2008-10-27T17:42:00.000-07:00

We wake up this morning in Okatoke, AB. Breakfast is great. We are hungry enough to walk into the nearest chain diner— and there is a big, smiling gent waving us to join him at his table. It's Gary, a fellow traveller we met yesterday when we were looking for a hotel. He's a special EFX guy who has done some major film stuff and also does training for the Canadian armed forces. In short, he enjoys blowing stuff up. Big stuff with plenty of flash and woof! And he's a great storyteller, so we enjoy breakfast in a big way. My face hurts from laughing. Gary picks up our breakfast tab. I hope our paths cross again. Our day is off to a great start.

We're going to take the back way north to the TransCanada Hwy, by-passing Calgary by cutting through the hills to the west. This means going back to Black Diamond and ducking south for a few minutes to pick up the secondary road we will use. I took this road last year with Big Dave, and it was a great ride— worth doing again. This road does not disappoint. Michael and I stop the truck a couple of times and hang out, soaking up the mountain views. Totally amazing. In 30 minutes not a single car or truck comes by. The smallest sounds are clear. There's ice on the river below. It's a beautiful day, and we're telling ourselves how lucky we are to be here in the middle of all this. As we drive we encounter Texas gates, open range, cattle and deer on the roadside. Eventually we get to the Big Road. The TransCanada Hwy. You know, it ain't so big for a road that stitches together a nation from one ocean to another. It's a small country, with a big land mass. There's still plenty of wild between points on the map. In more ways than one might imagine.

Today we're headed for Golden, BC. I've already heard from the promoter— due to the municipal elections our show has been cancelled. My old pal Bill Usher who had initially arranged the show has arranged for hotel rooms for us. This is a class act, a great thing to do. Now we are on holiday!!! That's right, folks, the National Steel Blues Tour has TWO days in a row with no shows, in the same place. It's an amazing drive up through the Kicking Horse Pass, and we arrive at Golden to stay in a motel in the shadow of the cliffs. We can see the trucks slowly working their way up the great pass, and others working their way down. I would not want to drive one of those rigs through here! OK, I'm a whimp. But really, you wanna drive a big rig through here you better know what you are doing. No kidding.

We can also hear the trains. The railways twist up and down around the road, or within sight of it, boring through the mountains— spiral tunnels near here! You sure don't want to be afraid of heights!

Michael and I check into the Rondo, two rooms, marginal internet, great views of the mountains. It's cold and crisp. I head out and run the river trails. I run way too far, but these trails are amazing. The air is clear and the mountains inspiring. I run up a bluff over the river and the rail lines. I'm gonna feel this tomorrow! It's an early night for us. Dinner at a nearby restaurant, and then a quiet time at our rooms. Through the wall I can hear Michael playing his mandolin. I'd rather be doing a show tonight, but this is not bad.

The Stop, Black Diamond, AB

2008-10-26T22:53:00.001-07:00

A cold day in Cochrane, Alberta, this morning. We say our thanks and good-byes to Randy and his family who have put us up— and put up with us— for the last three nights. It's been really nice, and we so appreciate the hospitality. Today it's Black Diamond, AB, for an afternoon show at the Stop. This is the place that had the chicken toss going last year. I'm pumped for this one because it was so much fun last time!

It was a nice drive down Route 22, by-passing Calgary. The mountains are off in the distance, building anticipation. We are going there soon. But not today. Today they tease, but the foothills are bouncing light, and the sky is blue for us.

At breakfast we meet Warren Harbeck, a famous journalist with the Cochrane Eagle, of Cochrane, AB. After a most compelling and fascinating conversation, we are on our way.

These photos seem to be all about me meeting people today. I'll take more snaps of Michael tomorrow, honest. Here's me and my pal Hoogy. He's a well known film cowboy, ex-real cowboy, and musician. Always great to see him. We have a great time hanging out between sets. I'll stop by on my way east next month, and we'll really catch up.

Here's the lucky winner of the Tour jacket raffle! Congrats Laddie!! This should impress the folks back in Scotland!!

Merch guard at the Stop.

Merch dealer at the Stop. Wanna buy a Tour Jacket? Raffle ticket? Couple of CD's for you, pal??

What would life be like without magazines like this to guide us? Black Diamond is no one horse town, that's for sure!

The show is relaxed, we play well. We are well fed. Kate and her staff take good care of us. The soup and sandwiches are everything one could want. A friendly crowd shakes hands and heads out into the early darkness. Here's the gang at the Stop as we say good-bye until next time.

Mikey's Makes Good

2008-10-26T16:47:00.000-07:00

Email from Mike Clarke at Mikey's Juke Joint, Calgary, today. He's sorry we didn't get paid what was expected, and will mail me a cheque for the amount due. That's a good deed in my books, so Mikey's is forgiven. The multi-owner thing can be difficult to work with. So I hope these guys manage to keep operations smooth. It's a very nice little room, well suited for acoustic shows, or local blues bands. All the best to ya! Let's all work together to keep the blues alive and growing! Thanks, Mike.

Ironwood Grill, Calgary, AB

2008-10-25T15:47:00.000-07:00

Great day not too early in the morning. I'm not going to run today. We've got to be up and out of here as our hosts are selling their home and need to show it this morning. We're off to have coffee in town. Here's a cool guitar from the music store across the street. Too bad the rest of their stock is all new stuff.

We decide to take in an art exhibit in a rural gallery. We'll follow Randy and his daughter in her cool, Smart Car. Here's what it looks like in these parts—

The gallery is an old ranch house, and the inside is all wood and antiques. There were some stuffed things in here that got my attention.

Time to get back to our digs and get ready for tonight's show. We drive back to Cochrane under a big sky.

The Ironwood Grill is a very cool, SE Calgary venue. I couldn’t play here last year because of a prior commitment Big Dave had to the Red Onion. I’m like that, too. I’m very loyal to my venues. After the Calgary International Blues Festival, the Ironwood was the first venue to host me in Calgary. It was new, but looked like it was going to develop nicely. It has. And I’m very pleased to be back. This is clearly a destination now. I’m glad to have Michael with me. He’s gonna knock ‘em down!

On this night house soundman J.T. is on hand to meet us at load in. Absolutely one of the best sound techs I have ever worked with. He’s got some cool mikes up and ready for us to try, he does a great monitor mix, front house mix, back of house mix, fixes the lights, tells stories, and is an all around professional all evening. He makes it happen effortlessly, calmly. This is the best sound we’ve had all Tour. (Although, I gotta say the Slice in Lethbridge was really, really good, too.) I bet the Ironwood has the best sound in Calgary for live music. My pals Little Miss Higgens and Foy were here last night, and I’m sorry to have missed them. I guess I’ll try to catch them on the flip through Saskatchewan in November. It’s nice to have friends all up and down the line.

It’s still early when we finish sound check, so Michael and I order dinner. Nicely presented fare here. The soup is great!! And the staff seem to enjoy their work, and being here. We’ve set up an extra chair and a couple of extra mics tonight as we’re expecting company. Johnny V had come to see us a couple of nights ago, and had said he would like to play with us— if invited. We invited him! He’ll be here tonight, so the chair is ready. Also, I’m half wondering if Tim Williams will come down tonight. I’m not sure if he’s in town, but he sure is a fine acoustic blues player. He’d be very welcome to have a turn in that extra chair, too.

Club owner Patrick MacIntyre arrives, and we share a few jokes, catch up on family, and have a wee dram of single malt to warm up the evening. Rick from the Red Onion comes by to catch the show and I introduce him to Patrick. These guys ought to know one and other. I tell Rick he should open his new place across the street from the Ironwood! That way there would be an entertainment district.

Showtime. We kick off with an old Sonny and Brownie number. I get to play harmonica on this one, and it’s fun to be doing that a little bit again. I chase it with an old Son House number, and then we move the night into our own material. It’s a fun first set that seems to end all too soon. Johnny V has arrived and we’ll set him up on the break. I wander the crowd, meeting everybody and selling raffle tickets on the Tour Jacket. I should probably be selling CDs instead, but the raffle is popular tonight, so I bring a pile of tickets back to the stage. I have a moment of panic. I think the Tour Camera has been lost or stolen at the gig. I look in the truck. No sign of it. So no pics tonight. Damn!

Second set is way more fun than I thought it would be. I open with an old Charlie Patton inspired It Won’t Be Long/Rollin’ and Tumblin’ in B-flat— and Johnny is right there with us. He’s a great guitar player, and he’s doing our thing. Not as easy as it looks, folks. Michael and I play lots of stuff with variable meter and time, not cookie cutter music. We trade songs back and forth, including Johnny in the rotation. Johnny has brought his National Trojan tonight, and it’s a wonderful guitar. I like these wood-bodied Nationals. I’d love to get one. We raffle the jacket, sign CDs... The night seems to end all too soon.

Patrick is on hand to pay us, and even gives us a bonus on the evening. This is a class act, this club. I feel like family here. After we say our good-byes at the club Michael and I follow Johnny over to the Blackfoot Diner, and old truck stop on that edge of town. This diner has what are perhaps the biggest slices of pie I have ever seen. No kidding. I didn’t have one, but thought about it. I wish I had the Tour Camera to record this place properly! We have breakfast and head back to Cochrane at about 3:30 AM. The tour camera is sitting on my bed, where I had left it! Snap! That’s the day, folks.

Hangin' Out: Down Day in Alberta!

2008-10-24T15:12:00.000-07:00

Up early this morning in spite of a very late night. Do I settle in and work at this computer, or go for a run? We don’t have a show tonight, so this might be a good opportunity to get out there and do it! The house is pretty quiet, so I assume everybody is sleeping or at work. I suit up in my track gear and slip out the front door. We’re in Cochrane, AB, a town of about 13,000 people, about half an hour north of Calgary. In spite of the obvious rapid growth suburbs perched on the hills, there is open space and big sky. Hills brown and golden. Mountains in the distance.

We are staying in a ten or fifteen year old suburb, but I have a feeling I might get to the open country fairly quickly if I take the right road. I can see big spaces across the mighty valley, and I’m guessing that we are pretty close to the top of the ridge on our side. The wind is sharply cold this morning. It was minus 7 degrees last night when we drove up here, and it hasn’t warmed up too much yet. I’m glad I’ve got gloves and a good jacket. I head up the road. I’d rather climb hills now than at the end of my run.

It’s steeper than I thought, and as I clear the sleepy suburban street the wind kicks in. Cold and blowing full against me. It seems like a long way up this hill. What is it? One Km? Two? I don’t know, but I’m working harder than I thought I wanted to! I’m breathing hard. Yeah, this is good cardio, baby. Clearing the ridge at last I’m running into a gravel road posted “No Trespassing.” This is a First Nations land reserve. The road is rough gravel and it points straight ahead towards the mountains in the distance. The George Fox Trail. I carry on and run for half an hour without seeing another person, car, or animal. The wind howls and pushes, and I lean into it. Returning, it’s at my back, and the slope is downhill. Now this run is easy, and I feel good!

Back at the house I drink coffee with Michael and our host, Randy. Randy takes time to tell us of his recent arctic adventures. An amazing trip in which he pulled a sled for six weeks across the ice! The pictures are breathtaking, and it makes our little, cross-Canada trip look like a cakewalk.

Later I head out for a hike down the Bow valley with Randy and his pal Brian. I was going to stay in and work, but the river looks great, and I don’t want to miss any of it. It’s a fast, cold river. Some canoes pass us as we walk. The wind is behind them, and the current is pumping at a rockin’ rate. Neat! There are plenty of mule deer up in this part of the valley, but we don’t see any today. Maybe we’re talking too much!

Night time is dinner with Johnny V and his family at Mr. T’s BBQ in north Calgary. Great eats. If you like meat, go there. I’m not crazy about the sauces they use. But this place is a long way from Oklahoma. Only a BBQ snob would not enjoy this outing. We have a great meal and talk for a long time. After dinner we head over to Johnny’s for a coffee, a tea, some more chat, and a little guitar show and tell. Johnny shows us his National Trojan and his Gibson Army-Navy guitars.

Very cool. He plays us some very interesting stuff in “fandango” G tuning. I use this tuning all the time, so I enjoy Johnny’s take on it, and his choice of material. We all talk guitar stuff— strings, bridges, tension, necks, until it’s pretty late. A very pleasant day. Michael and I head out into the night to find the Crowsnest Trail, our way back to Cochrane.

A Little Stiff at Mikey's, Calgary, AB

2008-10-23T15:01:00.000-07:00

A slow start this morning. The hotel has given us a late check out time, so Michael and I will meet up at noon to look for breakfast. I wake up early. Too early. I’m getting a little tired. Some days my brain just races along, and there’s nothing to do but to go along with it. I fight it this AM. Work on the Blog? It’s way behind! Do the books? Take care of the spread sheets? Inventory? Nah, go for a run! We stuffed ourselves with pizza after the show last night, so I feel that I should do something good for my body this morning before doing anything else.

I head out and run through suburban streets of Lethbridge. Coming out at the gorge, or valley, I head up something called the “Dog Run Trail.” It’s exactly that. The wind is howling, so I turn back for the motel. I don’t want to go far this morning anyway. But my shortcut back is misleading! I’m running and running and nothing looks familiar! My luck to get lost out running! Finally I hook to a street where I can get my bearings. It’s a good, long run by the time I get back to the hotel.

Downtown for breakfast we find a great café with real coffee and real food. We then visit the downtown music store and the pawnshop next door to it. Ran into Elvis and chatted briefly before blowing town. Here's the road out.

On the way we stop in Nanton, AB, to visit the Auditorium Hotel. We couldn’t book this gig this tour, but it sure is a neat room with it’s cowboy pictures, gun racks, stuffed animals, etc. Here's a couple of images from the main street—

A nice drive north into Calgary. Arriving in rush hour is not fun, and although the city streets are arranged on a grid system of streets and avenues, the bridges and nogoes, no lefts, one ways, etc are here to make things interesting.

After about 45 minutes of this we locate the venue. I’ve played this place before under different owners.

Mikey’s Juke Joint seems kinda out of the way, but apparently it has a loyal following. Inside, there are great tunes playing on the jukebox and some very cool blues posters on the walls. The place is owned by Calgary musician Mike Clarke, a really good sax player, band leader, etc. It’s kinda nice to see a live music venue actually owned or operated by a musician. I’m hoping the PA has been upgraded since my last visit to this room!

The stage is better than the old one, more than big enough for Michael and I, and the board, monitors, and speaker bins look like they’ll probably be OK. I get word from the bar that Mike won’t be in this evening, as he is ill. I guess we’re on our own getting this up and running. Right away we need a boom stand and a couple of mics from the truck. Michael is the default sound tech on this tour, and as he gets the PA set up I do the merch sheets and set up our display. I order some food. Can’t wait. We didn’t do lunch, and I just had a muffin at the coffee joint earlier.

Michael is cussin’ over the PA system. We’ve got monitors, but no mains. Some of the channels do not appear to be working. The cables are tangled. We start tracing cables and checking this, that, and the other thing. OK the mains are powered. Get ‘em turned on. Get ‘em turned up. One side still not working. Trace the circuit. No AC. Run cable. Works now. EQ wonky. Rings on my side. This takes a long time to set up, and it ain’t great once it’s done. Sorry. Spending this much time getting a PA up should not be part of the picture in this time and place. I’ll end up playing the night with little in the monitor, little in the mains, and people telling me “you are not as loud as you should be.” I’ll be pushing my voice too hard and playing the guitar too hard. Probably. But that’s what it is here tonight. We’re not thrilled. Michael paces outside and smokes. I order a glass of wine and kill time while the place slowly fills. This gig does not seem to have made the listings, so I’m not holding my breath that we’ll draw a big crowd.

A bunch of old friends and fans do show up! One guy has seen us in Kingston, ON, and has come again to catch us in the west. That always makes us feel good! Johnny V and his wife arrive, and we exchange hellos and gossip. Our host for the next couple of days, Randy, arrives from Cochrane, and we hang out ad talk music.

Showtime, and this proves to be a great little listening room! During our first set the place is absolutely silent while we play— and the sound doesn’t seem to be as difficult as I had thought it would be. Now that the show is in gear we are actually having a good time!

There are not as many people in this club as I would of hoped for, but certainly enough to be comfortable. Second set we dig in, and they are with us. It’s a pretty good night. We sell cd’s, sign some autographs, shake hands with a whole lot of people. The night is done. This is the smallest gig on the Tour, I think, but it’s not been bad. Here's our lucky raffle winner. Paul caught the show already in Kingston, ON, but really, really wanted one of these jackets! We didn't sell any tickets tonight, as we wanted to surprise him with the Tour Jacket! Thanks for your support, Paul, much appreciated.

I see the bartender to get paid, and she gives me less money than was agreed to on my contract. This is what “Darrin” or some such guy— a co-owner apparently— had told her to pay us. I bring my contract in from the truck. I show it to her. I ask her to call Mike. She says, “I’m only doing what I’m told. It’s not my problem. Maybe you can come back and see him tomorrow.” We pretty much gave this show away already, but to be shorted on this is insulting and humiliating. The difference is not great, but she won’t budge. I’m not coming back downtown the following day for twenty-five bucks. But I’m not likely to come back here, either. I mean, what the fuck. Why? I’m not local, and this is not some kind of hobby band. The owners are no where in sight, and they are apparently directing the bar tender to ignore our contractual arrangement. Mikey’s Juke Joint. Calgary, Alberta, Canada. You can't buy publicity like this for $25. Actually, you can.

We go out for Chinese food with Johnny V. I watch him and Michael eat, as I’m not hungry this late at night. We gab a long time. It’s probably 3:30 in the morning by the time we find our way to Cochrane, and a couple of beds.

The Slice, Lethbridge, AB

2008-10-22T15:07:00.000-07:00

Wake up call comes early and we head down to the Broadway Diner for breakfast, gas up the truck, and point this show SOUTH. It’s to be a good haul today. About seven or eight hours of road to get us to Lethbridge for tonight’s show.

Again, it’s unusual landscape for us so the drive is not boring. It’s more big sky, flats, rolling hills. As we head south-west it gets a bit more rolling. We stop in Rosetown, SK, and visit the local diner (or rather terrorize it!). We are perhaps a bit stir crazed from being in the truck! We end up meeting probably half the town, being served free coffee and muffins, and getting little Rosetown, SK, pins, before being sent on our way. We think we see somebody from the Guess Who on the main street. But we can’t remember his name. Is it Randy or Burton? I don’t know.

It’s cold on the prairie, and there is ice on some of the ponds. A winter sky, perhaps.

Lethbridge is exactly where I left it the last time through. We roll into the Slice, and are greeted by Jess and his friendly staff. Big Dave and I had a great time here last year, and I have not wanted to pump it up too much in advance in case it was different this time. But no fears. We are immediately welcomed, fed great pizza and drinks. We have a quick sound check, and Jess, as last year, has this place sounding GREAT. It’s to be a late start so Michael and I go out to the truck and sleep in our seats for a couple of hours. At least there is a warm, south wind blowing here, so we are reasonably comfortable. We’ll worry about accommodations after the show. I wake up and both my hands are asleep. Odd! But I’m OK, and soon we are inside and it’s showtime.

There’s a bunch of grad students from the university that bought advance tickets and got to the gig early. They’ve got a table right up front, so we socialize a bit with them, and they prove to be fun and wonderful to play to. The lights are bright enough that I can’t see the rest of the audience from my seat on stage. But all in all it’s a good crowd. The sound is terrific, and I believe we are giving perhaps the best show of the tour. At the end of the night we sell a lot of CD’s, raffle off a tour jacket. Hey, Jess won the Tour jacket! The second booker on Tour to do this. Not fixed, really. But a nicer guy could not of won this coat! Gary Kendall at the Silver Dollar Room in Toronto, ON, was the other booker to win. We eat pizza again before heading out into the night to find a motel. The Slice is a great gig. It's a destination. Go there.

When we do find a motel, it has the slowest check in in the western world. What? Thirty or forty minutes to do the paperwork, figure who gets which rooms… I hit the pillow hard when I finally get one.

'Toon Town: Capacity Show!

2008-10-21T15:17:00.000-07:00

A rainy start from Regina. We stop at Mr. Breakfast on our way out of town for a decent feed. It’s an early start, 8:AM call as we have a radio show to do at noon in Saskatoon, SK, followed by a masterclass at Long & McQuade, and then our concert downtown.

After an uneventful drive to Saskatoon we hole up in a coffee joint to make our phone calls and emails. The radio show has not been organized as planned. So, OK. Relax. We drink coffee and talk to Jeff at the Blues Society. We’ll check into our rooms, and then head over to Long & McQuade to do our masterclass presentation.

Only one room ready. Michael and I take opposite sides of the king bed and catch thirty winks before going to Longs. It’s easier than I thought to navigate the Circle Drive around Saskatoon, and we arrive at Longs without any detours. This is a really nice store with a huge learning and teaching facility. We are greeted by manager Pete Woronowski, who makes us feel right at home and shows us to the room we’ll be presenting in. It’s got a little PA all ready to go, and pretty soon we’re ready to go as well! People are trickling in, a few at a time. We end up with about 15 for the masterclass. It’s a mix of young and old, players and non-players. We try and do something for everybody, and it’s a wide ranging presentation covering everything from slides to strings to fingerpicking. We talk about the history of our instruments, of the blues, how we each came to it. It’s not a real focused workshop, but it feels good, and Pete seems to be very happy with it. These folks at Longs are great supporters. Now straight to the venue for sound check and dinner.

It’s a room called the Vangelis, just a couple of doors down from Bud’s. It’s actually pretty nice— good sight lines, lights, nice stage. The sound tech is waiting for us, and has us up fairly quickly. All good from my chair! We order food and settle in to kill time until the show. The room is actually filling up rather quickly. Clearly this is going to be another sold out show!

I’m really pleased to keep meeting folks from last year and the year before. These are exceptional blues fans in an exceptional Blues Society that is doing great work. I so appreciate the fact that they support acoustic blues, and do so in such numbers!
Here I am with some Blues Society members before the show.

Prior to the show, Michael and I are honored by the Black American Blues Historical Society. This is a total surprise to us. Here Charles Taylor presents us each with the honor and title of "Acoustic Blues Master." This is part of the 6th Annual Black American Music Awards. I'm thrilled as I have never before had an Award or honor of any kind. And this one is particularly moving for me because of where it is coming from. Thank you. I am truly honored.

Showtime! Here's what it looked like from the merch table.

After a warm introduction, we got the show into gear. This is the National Steel Blues Tour, bringing the Blues to Your Town! Hey, great to be in Saskatoon. This is one great blues town!

Tonight I'm drinking red wine and we are playing the blues! This crowd is with us all the way. We dig in deep, and they follow. Here's our jacket winner— (picture here!)

We had so much go on in 'Toon Town, Saskatoon, SK, that this will have to wait another day or so. Too much to write about in a hurry! And my connection is so slow that this is taking forever to get the pics in. Thanks everybody for sending pics. I'll get these up in a day or so, as well as pics for the rest of the week. We had a ball. Thanks to everybody involved in making it all happen. This was a great day, and night. Saskatoon is a great blues town.

We Got Friends in Regina, SK!

2008-10-20T15:23:00.000-07:00

And I don't mean virtual, facebook style friends, but real friends and fans. I'll tell you all about these and put some snaps up in another day or so. There's just not enough downtime in my day today. Thanks, Redbeard and Dale for making our stay in Regina so enjoyable. Check back here soon. And C'mon, people, blog. It's really nice to hear from you, and to have some other voices talking about the Tour. I can't review it myself. Only tell you about it.

Bobby's Place, Moose Jaw, SK, Canada

2008-10-18T11:12:00.000-07:00

If it's Saturday it must be Moose Jaw. And it is Saturday, so it is Moose Jaw. But not yet. It's maybe 8:00 in the morning and the Yorkton Howard Johnson is being renovated with hammers and saws. Go figure. Today we planned on sleeping late and relaxing in our rooms until noon. They are bashing the wall next to my head, and they are spilling buckets of paint (yes, really, big big mess) outside Michael's room. Some quick internet checking and we are out of here! Is there a decent cafe in Yorkton for breakfast? Not a chain, but a mom and pop? Let me know, would ya? Be nice to get fed in town. We head back to Slow Helen's, in Melville, SK, for a sandwich. Michael mandolins as we drive. Today it's "96 Tears" that gets me going.

The flatlands are an adventure for us, and we soak in in as we drive. Stopping for gas and a snack along the way.

Bobby's Place is off High Street and Main, near the bus station. Next to the bus station, actually. Not that we need a bus tour. This place is jumpin' in late afternoon when we roll in. Manager/owner Kevin welcomes us and directs us to our hotel, after a quick tour of the stage and sound gear. We're staying at Al Capone's Hideaway Motel, just a block from the club. I've stayed here before (see last year's Big Road Blues Tour blog for Moose Jaw!) and I'm familiar with this place! Sure enough, we draw Room 10, the SAME room I had last year! We open the door and find it is HOT, HOT, HOT. We leave the door open to let in some of the crisp, prairie air. I explain to Michael how last year the heat in this room would not shut off, so I had to turn the air conditioner on full blast— letting the two machines fight it out all night between hot and cold. Surely they would of fixed the thermostat by now? A quick check shows it falling off the wall. They must be spending a fortune on hydro keeping this room at the temperature it is! We'll be ventilating this room tonight.

Back to the club for sound check and a meal. It's a Peavy system. Not my favourite PA gear to begin with, and clearly not to be fun tonight, either. Michael's the designated sound guy on this trip, and he works hard to get this puppy up and running. We bring in our own mics and a couple of boom stands. We can't seem to get the EQ right on this stuff. It's a very noisy house, and we can't get it up any louder, and we can't get the monitors to behave. Eventually we pretty much turn them off. Show time sees us start and be totally ignored by the crowded house. Oh, this is going to be an interesting night, for sure. We're starting at 9:00 PM for three sets, to end by midnight. There's a bunch of football players in the crowd, and they're loud, maybe louder than us, I don't know. By the end of the night there are a few people sitting up front listening to us. We wander through the crowd and sell (surprisingly, to me) a bunch of CDs. People are telling us how much they are enjoying the show! At the end the staff tell us they thought we were great. We get paid, load out, and back to our hotel. Big work. This is the grinder of the Tour so far, no doubt.

In front of our much too hot room we have a drink, a smoke, and watch the town go by. This town is going crazy this Saturday night. There are pick-up trucks squealing their tires at the lights, groups of people stumbling by, bottles breaking, sirens running, girls squeaking over the night noise. It's still loud at 3:AM when we close the door on this night.

Yorkton, SK, Anavet Club

2008-10-17T10:51:00.000-07:00

Up not too early. Say good-bye to Susan, and on our way across the flatlands. West! It's like setting out on some great sea.

And the sky is totally wrap-around. The roads are pretty lonely, but for some truck traffic. I'm driving with extra caution today, as I am finding it difficult to judge distances for passing! It will take a day or so to get used to this great space.

We stop in at Slow Helen's in Melville, SK. Fishbelly White used to wash dishes here, back in the day. No sign of him now, and even the old promo pictures have been stolen, or removed from the walls. Still, it's a great lunch stop today.

Yorkton's a jumping little town. We check into our hotel, and then down to the venue for sound check and show. We're playing the ANAVET Club this evening, so no hats, please!

It's a very friendly room. The show goes very well. The place is pretty crowded. We have a number of blues fans come out wearing last year's jackets. The raffle for this year's coat goes very well. Here's the winner!

My great-grandfather lived here for 10 years, about 100 years ago. Strangely, his offices were in one of the surrounding buildings. I don't know which one, but at the same intersection we are located at for this show.

Running with the Wolves

2008-10-16T08:23:00.000-07:00

I've had my best sleep of the Tour. The silence out here is amazing. It's going to be a relaxed start today, so I elect to go for a run before breakfast. These are one lane dirt and gravel roads winding their way through rocks and trees, picking their way around lakes, bogs, over streams and creeks.

Whiskey Jacks are playing tag in the yard. Hawks are above. The old dog tracks me to the edge of the clearing, and then leaves me to run on alone. Just me, the wind in my face— now a little crisp, it's a good deal colder and damper here than it was in southern Ontario. Great running roads, no traffic at all, soft, just the sounds of the birds and my feet crackling on the gravel. After about 15 minutes I turn up an even smaller road, a bit rougher. Rounding a corner I spot a large animal ambling along the road in front of me. Hearing my feet it turns, stops for a moment to look at me, and then leaps into the bush. A very large wolf. Huge paws and scraggy fur. A serious animal. I've skinned wolves, and I know a big one when I see it. Good morning! Are there more? I keep running another few minutes but see nothing else on this little road. Reluctantly I turn and head back to the house.

We say our good-byes, and head out of town. A relaxed drive back to Winnipeg, where we contact Susan, our host for the evening. We'll be staying out in Stonewall, a little town just north of the city. Meanwhile Big Dave tells us how to find Long and McQuade music, and we drop by to pick up our reserve PA.

As our original gig for this evening has been cancelled due to the closure of the venue, Dave has come up with another place we can hang out and play this night. It's a little coffee house in a big church. We crash it, and are fed coffee, tea, cake, cookies. Mmm, glad I ran so far this morning. Michael and I play a set. We hang out and talk too loudly, and keep the place open too late, telling jokes with Big Dave.

Now that's a relaxed night. Some of the clubs around town actually closed up this evening as Neil Young was performing, and they expected to be empty! Neil's playing tag with us, doing gigs in Regina and Calgary over the next couple of days.

Western Adventures Begin- Big Tour Day

2008-10-15T07:53:00.000-07:00

Up early. Need to do inventory, pack the flight bags, get the rental truck back to the dealer, get a taxi to the airport, check the bags, do security, catch our flight, meet Big Dave in Winnipeg, get to the downtown, pick up our next truck, go to Long and McQuade for a back-up PA, drive to Kenora, set up, sound check, and do a show. This is the most complicated day of the Tour, and if anything messes up there could be a nasty domino effect.

We roll into it. My house is so filled with stuff that we need to pack our bags on the front porch. We’ve got the merch packed into a big flight bag. It takes the two of us to carry it down to the truck. I hope we sell all these cds. I’m pretty sure we’ll sell out of jackets quickly. The fuckin’ truck has a near flat tire, and also requires fuel. I won’t be sorry to see the end of it when we turn it in. Crappy tires on two trucks in a row!!

Soon we are in a taxi, bound for the airport. We are exactly on time, so our driver drives very, very slowly. His cab is nearly full with all of our stuff. I mean really full. He looks amazed when I give him a tip at the airport. “Are you guys famous?” he asks us.

Long line at the WestJet counter. But it moves fast, and soon we are on our way to Oversized Bags to check the guitars in. We’ve locked down the cases, taped the latches. These guitars are good to go. We use Calton Cases, made in Alberta, Canada. These are fabulous cases, and do a great job of protecting our vintage Nationals, Gibson, and Stella, over hundreds of dates. Check ‘em out if you want great cases for your instruments. The guitars are sucked noisily up a conveyor belt, and we make our way to Security.

The usual take off your hat, shoes, computer, spare change, etc. I suggest that they should have a tip jar with all this change floating around, but the ladies with the security wands are not amused. One keeps pointing her wand at my zipper, saying “there’s something metal in there.” Michael is through the barrier first, and they are tearing apart his carry-on bags. “What’s this?” they keep asking. Guitar capos, slides, harmonica racks, fingerpicks… They really haven’t got a clue. They want to know where the guitars are. How come Michael is not carrying them, too? It’s like a music lesson gone bad. Michael points at me (ratting on his accomplice), and they descend upon me for baggage tags. Got ‘em. OK, we’re good to go. Michael is carrying a banana. I tell him not to point it or hold it in a threatening way…

We get right on board. Take off is amazing. There is a disaster simulation going on. Nobody has told us about this, but as soon as our plane is in the air I can see black smoke off to the side. Down below us there is what appears to be a passenger aircraft in flames, with fire and rescue machines all around it. We get a great view of this as the plane banks. Strange omen?? Weird way to start a flight? Our plane creaks and groans it’s way to cruise altitude. There are two crying children in the seats behind us. No sleep on this flight.

Big Dave McLean is waiting for us at the Winnipeg airport with his Caddy. It is great to see him. We all talk a mile a minute as he drives us downtown to the National rental lot. We get the identical van we’ve had, this one with Alberta plates. Dave and I make some quick plans to get together the next night in Winnipeg. Then he escorts us out of town in his Caddy. Points us in the right direction, and we’re bound for Kenora, ON. Long and McQuade will wait until tomorrow.

Kenora is about 30 minutes farther than I remember it being, but of course we drive this rental at a fairly slow, no ticket, kind of speed now. On the way we stop at a diner and have breakfast. It’s mid afternoon, but breakfast is what we want and get. Close encounter with a deer on the highway. Promoter Mort Goss is waiting for us at the venue with a team of volunteers getting up lights, PA, stage and tables. It’s to be an 8:00 show, and it’s now around 6:00 PM. Here's the sound tech and his stage crew:

Our 8:00 start turns into an 8:30 start as the sound crew are a little slower to set up than anticipated. It is decided that we should do one long set instead of two shows, so off we go! Hello Kenora!! It’s a good crowd with lots of familiar faces. A couple of people have driven in from Dryden for the show. Long drive. Thanks. We really, really, appreciate this kind of support. Others are familiar from the Trout Forrest Music Festival, which I have played a couple of times in recent years. Our set goes and goes. While Michael plays a solo piece, I roam the room and sell tickets on the tour jacket. Dryden takes it!! Nice. In the end our set runs to about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Everybody goes home happy.

We follow Mort and Em out into the dark night beyond Kenora. They’ve got a home way back in the woods. On arrival Mort cooks us an amazing dinner. Somehow we talk into the wee hours, before finding our way off to sleep. Day’s done. We did it! Thanks everybody!

London, ON. Full Moon Crazy

2008-10-14T17:03:00.000-07:00

I picked up messages at 10:30 last night only to find an urgent call and email from Brian Mortimer, the promoter of tonight’s show. He’s got a significant regional television show lined up for us, and we had to confirm that we’d be able to do it. The catch? Of course, there’s always a catch… We’ll need to be in London by 1:00 in the afternoon. Fine. Except that we are preping to fly out for the Western leg of the Tour, and need to be completely airport ready BEFORE we go to London. Basiclly, Michael and I will pack gear, do inventory, laundry, guitar repairs, etc. instead of getting a full night’s sleep. Then we’ll take off and get to the gig over 8 hours in advance of show time. We’re shaving 8 hours off of our most demanding 48 hour schedule. Right, then. Let’s do it!!! I hope this show puts some bums in seats. It’s election day in Canada, and it’s the Tuesday following the long, Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. And a full moon, so who knows?

Out the door and to the polls to cast my vote. Michael is doing the same in Crystal Beach. We’ll meet up in Hamilton, ON at about 11:AM. Remarkably I get there early in good weather, and have time for coffee before Michael and Louise arrive. A quick transfer of gear and we’re bidding Louise good-bye. She’s going back to Crystal Beach, ON, where she’ll be working on Michael’s upcoming winter tour of the South-East states, and his spring trip to Europe.

Meanwhile in Oh, Canada, we have an uneventful trip into London, ON. We’ve both played this town dozens of times over the years, so getting in and out of the downtown is smooth. After a little difficulty in finding the Lounge (building was being refaced, so no numbers…) we are met by Mortz himself, who helps us to load in and shows us around the venue. Here's the wall by the door... It’s pretty nice. We meet Flex, the full time sound tech for the place. He knows his stuff and has great gear. We’re using some pretty nice Sennheiser ( how the heck do you spell this?) mics both up top for vocals and for the guitars. Here's what it looked like from the stage:

Rick Taylor arrives to set up. He’s our opening act tonight, and he’s got a great looking new tricone. Wow. Nice to catch up a bit with Rick. We played the Winnipeg Folk Festival together in the mid 1970s, and I remember we had some great shows with Blind John Davis, Martin, Bogan and Armstrong… Others. Anyway, cool to see him again. We’ve both located to Ontario after lengthy stays elsewhere. I look forward to his set. He’s got a new CD called the Wonky Years, which seems to be picking up some airplay across the country. It’s a sparse crowd when he starts his set. Too bad, as Michael and I really enjoy his guitar playing— some nice slide playing in standard tuning, great picking and grooves. Very cool! Thanks, Rick! Here he is, raisin' a little sweat—

Below see Rick's guitar, tryin' to get close to mine!

The room has filled up quite a bit by the time we start, it’s still not as big a crowd as we’d like— but we do have some fans out from across south-western Ontario.
A couple of people come in wearing Big Road Blues tour jackets from last year. Nice! Very stylish. Michael and I dig in deep this night for the Great Lakes Blues Society members, and Karma. I think we have an exceptional night! After the show people are taking pictures, and we’re signing posters and cds. It’s very nice. I chat for a while with a blues society member who has driven in from Sarnia, ON for this show. It seems we had lunch one time in Memphis, back in 2000. Time flies when you’re having fun doesn’t it?

We load out, and it’s now way later than I would like. The truck has got a near flat front tire. It’s close to 2:AM when we get in gear and start to roll. Gas station. Air. Tim’s (Canadian coffee chain) for coffee. Out on the Big Road. By 3:45 we’re at my place in Toronto. In three or four hours we’ll continue on our way. The East is done. The Western leg is about to begin. I hope nothing messes up— we’ll be playing Kenora, ON in about 16 hours. Good night!

Oakville, ON, Sold Out Show!

2008-10-10T14:56:00.000-07:00

I’m not pumped about this gig today. Or maybe I’m just tired? Up too early for a run around Toronto’s High Park. It was pretty nice to wake up at home, even if this meant waking up way too early! Another perfect fall day, and the trees throughout the Park are showing plenty of colour. I count blue jays in the great oaks over the parking lot. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many in one place. I see another fox as I run today. The dirt trails are nice and soft. I strike a soft pace as well, and the swans at the pond shore ignore me completely as I pass.

Michael and Louise are going to arrive in Oakville— tonight’s gig location— at about 5:PM and are going for dinner. If I get there on time I’ll join them. I leave Toronto at around 4:15 and roll into Oakville just after 6:00. It’s not a long drive, but these roads around Toronto are entirely choked with traffic. I’m thankful I’m not driving back and forth to a dull job every day.

I spot the venue, The Moonshine Café, and load in. It’s a friendly feeling room, and I meet the manager-booker, John, as I’m entering. He’s very helpful getting me in, getting me a drink and dinner, bringing me up to date on ticket sales. Sold out! Sure enough, there are “reserved” signs at every chair, table and stool throughout the club.

What’s starting time? I had thought 8:00 PM, but John tells me “8:30, or 9:00.” The place fills up with people pretty quickly. Michael and Louise arrive and we sound check and get the merch in order. Singer-songwriter- Roots Toronto director Howard Gladstone and his wife drop by. Andie from Canadianblues.ca has come with one of her blues buddies, Dean. Great to see her out and about! Here’s a bunch of people who saw me play at the Escarpment Festival in Milton, ON, last year.

Michael’s greating old friends and fans, too. This is great. The bar is busy. Very busy. John asks us to hold back our start a bit longer.

Finally the place is packed to standing room only and people are restless. We are restless, too. I’ve been waiting over three hours. John says go!

What a great crowd, they are a little noisy in the back, but they are with us. The first set is very good. We sell cd’s and raffle tickets on a tour jacket. Here's the lucky winner.

The second set is hot. We are on in a big way. A couple of encores and we are done. Gosh, the night goes fast when you are in the zone. We pack out, signing cd’s as we go. I’ll come back and do this one solo during the winter. It’s a nice music room which reminds me of the coffeehouses I used to play in the 1970s- only with beer. Nice. Check out this room if you are travelling through the area. You will not be disappointed. John says he may charter a bus and take his club to Michael’s house concert- Concert for Peace next August in Crystal Beach, ON! That could be kind of wild, eh? Here's Louise and I closing up the paperwork on tonight's show. Thanks, Louise!

Silver Dollar, Toronto, ON

2008-10-09T15:24:00.000-07:00

One of those rare days! It’s a home town show tonight, so I’m waking up in my own bed, expecting to have a relaxed day in the chaos which is my house. It’s 7:30 AM and my son is waking me up. “Since your home,” he says, “I could use a ride to school with my bass.” Apparently my need for hours of uninterupted sleep will have to wait for my next hotel room. At least I’m not signed up to help with the guitar club today. It’s actually a pretty neat noon hour club run by James Simone, the school music teacher. I’m amazed at what he manages to do— in spite of having zip supplied by the school board. OK, quick cuppa coffee, drop Alasdair at school, and off for my morning run.

It’s High Park today, my own, hometown runner’s paradise. There are quite a few great places to run in Toronto, but this is my favourite. The park has a nice mix of big and small hills, trails, paths and roads, and is a wonderful, all season place to run. I’ve got a show tonight, so I’m not going to push. I do four laps on the upper road circle. That’s probably about 9 km? Anyway 36:07 today, which is a fine jog.

Back home it’s email time. The truck has a leaky tire. Search out a garage. Banking must be done. Done. And home. I get my National out and play some guitar in my kitchen. I’ve only just moved into this house, so I have not had time to do this yet. Sounds great! I wanted this place because I thought it would be a great kitchen to write in. And I’m sure it will be. When I get back here again in late November… But now I have to go. We’ve got an early show tonight, and I need to load in to the Silver Dollar Room at 4:30 this afternoon.

Going down Spadina the front tire of the truck starts going THUMP! ThumP! Pulling up in front of the club I can hear it hissing. Big hangin’ hole in this tire, I would think. Damn! I get the truck around to the back and call National roadside assistance. This is the car rental company, not the guitar company. I don’t know where the call goes, but they ask me what state Toronto is in, and want to know how to spell “Spadina.” Somebody will arrive within the hour, they say.

Meanwhile I go and get set up on stage. I really like the Silver Dollar stage.

The room is a little narrow, so it may not be the best for a large, loud band— but for what we do this is quite good. A good sound board, lots of monitors, mike stands that work. The sound technician worked with me on New Year’s eve, when I played this room with David Rotundo and Jerome Godbo. He’s quick and get’s me up in about ten minutes time. Nice to have in-house guys that know what they are doing!

The Silver Dollar is a storied old club that has been a fixture on Spadina for over 50 years. There was a time you could drink your way up and down this street: the Silver Dollar, the El Mocombo, Grossman’s, The Paramount, the Victory… and then the after hours joints all the musicians used to hang at: the Paper Door, Tiger’s, Funky Dee's, the Elephant Walk… a bunch of other’s I can’t remember at the moment.

I had a girlfriend who used to sing with the old, alcoholic piano player who used to play jazz standards at the Dollar. Poets and dope dealers and hookers used to live upstairs in the hotel next door. Probably still do. Anyway, I love playing the Dollar, and I’ll miss it when the condos eventually go shooting up.

It’s to be an early night show. Doors to open at 6:PM for dinner. An 8:PM show. I wonder what it will take to market the Silver Dollar’s kitchen. They’ve had an on and off service over the years, and it will take time to establish a reputation for good food. Dinner and show is a great idea, so I hope that they stay with it and make it happen. We won’t be eating here as food is not part of our deal this night. Only touring shows can get a meal now. As it is, the crowd is coming in slowly, mostly after the dinner hour. Michael has arrived and is setting up. He’s got a good ear, and locates a poorly functioning monitor that I’d missed earlier. Sound check is over quickly.

Louise Pickett, Michael’s partner, agent, manager, etc., has come out for tonight’s show and is going to run the merch booth for us. This is excellent as it’s fun to hang with Louise, and she’s very good at the things she does. We’re gonna be busy tonight, with only a short break between shows, so having her join us for the evening will be a great help. She’s got the merch table up and running pretty quickly, and we get the banners out for stage and side stage. I set up a couple of tour jackets to “dress” the center stage monitors. These look very cool. I think I’m going to have monitor slips specially constructed for future tours. Details make a difference.

The Roadside Assistance guys arrive from Abrams Tire Service. They hum and haw and have me move the truck forward. It’s just two guys in a little car. They put an air hose to the tire. It hisses. “You’ve got a bad leak,” the man tells me. No kidding, eh? They tell me that the service is going to cost me $48. Then they start digging in MY truck for tools. “We need a special tool to unlock the spare,” they say. What do you mean unlock the spare? That little tire thing??? I’ve got to take this truck to Oakville, ON, tomorrow. I thought these guys were going to repair my tire. “We don’t do that. We just put on the spares.” Oh, I see. In the end, these guys can’t even find my spare, and they don’t have the “magic tool” that they claim is necessary to do the job. So they leave. They don’t know any local garages that could fix the tire… Do you want to read about this?? Probably not but a call to the LOCAL office of National car rentals results in immediate service. A rep arrived to replace my truck within the hour. How he changes up the tire on the old one, I don’t know. But I’m thankful. It’s show time, and my new truck has a full tank of gas.

Silver Dollar booker, bassist Gary Kendall is on hand to monitor the evening, and he introduces us. The “early” show is still pretty early, but we’ve started about 15 minutes late as people are just ariving in numbers. It’s really nice to see several of our friends from the Toronto Blues Society out for the show. They really support the blues in this town, and go out to a lot of events. Thanks for supporting us on this night! Eddy B has dropped by to catch a set. I’m sorry he’s not shooting pics anymore, but he’s got a new radio show, so I guess that’s keeping him pretty busy. I think I can see Brad Wheeler, the Globe and Mail music critic, at the bar. I’m not sure if it’s him. It would be nice to get some ink in a big paper… Here’s a couple that saw us twice in Halifax at the Blues and Beyond Festival… Here’s a couple of subway musicians… But all these faces are quickly forgotten as we bite into our first song.

Michael’s been kicking off the night recently, on acoustic guitar, with me playing harp next to him. Any of you harp players out there can imagine what it must be like to be blowing next to Michael Pickett!! One remains humble at all times! We have a lot of fun doing stuff like this, but every time he touches his harmonicas I am reminded of how great he really is. Seriously, it’s a thrill to hear him every night, and tonight is no different. He digs in behind me on “Narrow House,” “Jinx,” “Charlie James,” and I feel that we are free to go anywhere inside and outside of this music. Later on in the evening he does a solo harp piece, and you could hear a pin drop in that big room.

Intermission comes all too soon for us. I chat with Brit blues musician Steve Payne, who has taken his rest day to come and see us. Yeah, maybe we will do Britain and Holland next year. It’s time to raffle off a tour jacket. Wouldn’t you know it- Gary Kendall wins the draw! Not fixed, I swear! Wait ‘til Mr. Downchild sees this cool swag. Gary is longtime bassist for Downchild, directs the Maple Blues Band, and fronts his own show as well. In Canada, he’s the guy the young bass players try and sound like. The coat fits him nicely!

Second set starts off nicely as we slow burn the old Charlie Patton tune, “It Won’t Be Long.” The club has filled up, and they’re with us. By closing we’ve sold a couple of tour jackets, and a bunch of CD’s. I get word that my mom was going to come to the gig, but she’s busy fiddling someplace else in town this night. Too bad. I would of got her up to play something with us. A pretty good night in the home town room— a good crowd, although we didn’t sell out as I had hoped we would do. We started early and end almost as early as planned. A couple of encores and we’re out into the night. Michael’s driving home to Crystal Beach, and I’m to have another, rare night in my own, Toronto bed. In all the excitement moving our gear between the three trucks my new Hercules, triple guitar stand is lost, left behind somehow. I can’t remember the last time I lost a piece of gear. But these stands aren’t cheap, so it takes a bit of the gloss off the evening for me.

Late note: 10/07/09. Somebody reviewed the show and took snaps. So you don't have to take my word for it. This is a nice piece, so check out the URL for somebody else's take on the night: http://mysteriousvault.blogspot.com/2008/10/national-steel-at-silver-dollar.html

Miss D and Bourbon St.

2008-09-30T20:14:00.000-07:00

So Google failed us and here we are outside a motel on the 20. There’s nobody around except a half dressed, forty-nine year old stripper on break, having a smoke. Miss D. The same Miss D on the sign, no doubt. We’re trying to get directions to Smoke Meat Pete’s, and all we know is that it’s behind a Dairy Queen somewhere out here on the 20. Miss D is probably not the Dairy Queen we were to look behind, but we do anyway, and there’s a shoddy bar and some mirrors crowding an empty room. But Miss D speaks a little English, and is able to relate the location of Smoke Meat Pete’s to us. “Are you coming back?” she asks hopefully. “Maybe,” we lie. We’re looking for a cheap motel on the strip, but probably not this one.

Smoke Meat Pete is behind the counter as we walk in and he greets us warmly as does his staff. They are excited that we’ve dropped in. Smoked Meat and Blues seven nights a week. Very cool. Pete offers to feed us if we’ll play a couple of numbers with the band that is loading in. This seems like a fair deal, or maybe the smell of the smoked meat has just sucked us in. So we play a couple of numbers, get fed, and check into a local motel. We’ve got about an hour to rest before soundcheck in Pointe Claire, at Bourbon Street.

Bourbon Street is a big room with an impressive stage and great sightlines. It’s in a plaza in this mostly anglo western suburb of Montreal. Nice place. I’ve played here before. I have a feeling that they may have more DJ’s than bands these days, but I don’t know for sure. Anyway it’s unusual to have this combination of stage, sound, lights, sightlines, etc. in a live music club. The Montreal Blues Society does a series of Tuesday shows here every year, and we’re lucky enough to be included in this fall’s line-up. We’re met by our sound technician, Rob, and by series producer Brian Slack.

After a quick sound check and set up we retire to our dresing room. We have an opening act, a young player named Riot. He doesn’t mind drinking our beer, but he’s not too friendly. Maybe just shy of us. That’s probably it. Brian wants to get him out unplugged and see what he sounds like. This is fine by us- we’ll only be playing one set, which we find much easier anyway. Ninety minutes goes by like nothing when you’re out there in the middle of it.

About 40 people turn out for us, including quite a few from the Blues Society. They are a pretty good audience, making noise at the right times, taking pictures and movies, and buying cds and tour jackets at the end of the night. After load out we look for a place to eat. We find a deli way out there somewhere, and eat probably too much before heading back to our motel. Ottawa in the morning.

Witches in Quebec, Garlic Works

2008-09-29T07:54:00.000-07:00

Back at Pub Limoilou in Quebec City. Richard Carr and Manuella are once again our hosts in this town. We arrived Sunday night after driving from St. Andrews, NB. Drive day. Rain day. It was cold and gloomy, but the with the trees showing off their fine fall splendor the day still managed to be interesting. The highway is largely completed now, and the drive itself was good.

Today I try to upload as many pictures and updates to the Blog as I can. The connection here is not as fast as I would like, but I do get a bunch of things done. (Note: if you’ve been following this Blog daily, you’ll find a whole bunch of new pics up for the last week’s postings.). Michael hangs in the kitchen and plays guitar. Richard’s got the best Yamaha guitar I’ve ever heard, and it gets played, too. I decide to go for a run. These hills are going to be easier than they were three weeks ago. The sun comes out for a while, so I have a perfect day running hills through a residential neighbourhood overlooking the river. Back at Richard’s we do laundry, inventory, and listen to some CDs from his new radio show. The truck has a flat tire. The slow leak is catching up to us. I drive down to a local garage and put some air in the tire. Need to get this fixed properly soon!

Sound check at the club is 4:PM, and a tired looking Mike Deway arrives with some gear to get us going. He’s been at a Quebec Blues awards event last night, as well as commuting between Montreal and Quebec City for his various band gigs. Mike is fun. He has almost no English, and I have almost no french, but every time we meet I come away with a little more common language, another choice phrase or two! Today I’m trying to tell him “too many cooks, spoil the soup,” but I’m not sure he gets it. I leave Mike and Michael to deal with the sound set up while I deal with the merch table, banners, and personal gear. Richard hangs in and translates for us as needed. He will open for us again tonight.

By 9:30 the venue is more crowded than it was last time we were here at this hour. This is a good sign, and the people keep on coming. I’ve got a glass of red wine, and I’m looking forward to Richard’s set. As he settles in to play there is immediate feedback from the system, and then the levels seem remarkably low. Soundcheck was great. What’s this? After a couple of false starts Richard’s set stumbles to a close. He sounded pretty good out front, but was put well off his game trying to deal with the sound difficulties.

Our first set goes well, once we locate the compressors and turn them off. Sound is ok. But what can you do? It’s an appreciative crowd, happy and noisy at the right times. I think we’re playing really, really well this evening. Hi-lights for me were “Narrow House,” “Angola Prison Rodeo,” and Michael’s very cool take on “Fixin’ to Die.” Jay Sewall came down to the gig, and this time he brought harmonicas— so we had him sit in for a few tunes. Jay had picked up a Lifetime Achievement Award just the night before. Congrats!

Outside, we have garlic in the truck to ward off witches. Tonight it works. A quirky night. But fun. We're gonna put garlic over the soundboards from now on, too.

Drunks in St. Andrews, NB, Not Us— Them

2008-09-27T15:36:00.000-07:00

Grey and gloomy this morning. I’ve heard the rain on the roof in the night, which was nice— but now we’re loading out into it. I missed breakfast as I was doing the email chores, and then I can’t find the café I want to eat at. I think it’s another couple of km down the road, but Michael’s not having any part of it. So what the heck, let’s just drive straight to St. Andrews. No sightseeing today in this rain anyway. We stop at the most expensive roadside diner in Atlantic Canada and have some greasy scallops and chips. I’m glad I ran yesterday, but the coffee puts me in a better frame of mind. Michael plays his mandolin. I drive. We’re into St. Andrews hours early.

It’s a real pretty tourist town o the sea. Clearly the main drag is jammed with galleries and gift shops, cafes, whale watch adventure operations, etc. The season is just past, but the stores are still buzzing with a few tourists. We make our way across town to our digs at the Salty Towers. This place has been made famous by the group Hot Toddy. It’s a very funky mansion come hotel, dating to perhaps 1870. It’s chaulk full of weird antiques, cool old couches, it has a great roofed over porch for hanging out on. We walk in and look for Jamie Steele, the operator of this great enterprise, and a real booster of roots music in the region. Jamie’s not around, so we wander through the town and back and then snooze in our rooms for the remainder of the afternoon. I use some of the time to work on this blog!

The Red Herring looks to be a fairly typical local watering hole. We’ve met the owner, Kevin, who assures us that there will be a big crowd out tonight. It’s a bar start- 10:PM, and will run late. We can tell it’s going to be a louder sort of place, but that’s alright we’ve both played enough loud places in our time.

Sound check goes ok. The little Yamaha system isn’t great, but seems to be working. We’ve had to bring our own mics and stands in from the truck. Dinner. The bar tender is on his laptop trying to download John Hammond tunes. The bar brings us bills on our dinner. It was supposed to be in our contract, but nobody seems to remember this. We let it go. It’s not the staff, and I sure don’t want to give them a hard time about a few bucks.

Showtime. We sit down and jump on the first tune. It sounds like we’re in a fishbowl or something. There’s no gain. I’m singing at PA volume without the PA. Michael is sitting next to the board, and he scrambles about between each song trying to find the problem, or at least make it sound a bit better. It was alright at sound check. What happened?

Between sets Michael tears down all the PA wires and reconfigures the system. Now it works very well. The house guy had messed up a couple of significant items. We should of known to do it all ourselves in the first place! The second set starts reasonably well, with just a couple of tweaks of the system to get it totally in gear. By song number three we are dealing with a loud, drunken couple who are interupting us constantly. As management seems to be nowhere in sight we have to stop the show altogether. Mid-song as it were. Words are exchanged. Michael’s on his feet. I follow, racking my National and standing in front of the stage. This guy must be out of his mind. Either of us could put him out. So, here we are, two guys in black standing in front of the stage. Bouncers this evening. The drunks leave noisily, and we take a five minute break before starting the set again. Jamie Steel, who set this thing up, has come down to the show with a number of people from Salty Towers. He doesn’t look too amused or entertained by the whole thing. Well, who would be. But what could we do? We don’t need to play through or ignore that kind of audience activity. That’s not what we’re here for. Sorry. We finish the set to a room suddenly crowded by college students. They are noisy, but digging the music, and a couple of girls are actually dancing. But our set never really recovers, and we are glad to reach the end of the night.

Back at the Salty Towers somebody pours me a rum and ginger, and I sit on the great wooden porch and drink it. There’s a big storm rolling in, so we’ll be on the road in the morning before it arrives. We’ve got maybe seven hours of driving.

Rothesay, NB

2008-09-26T06:36:00.000-07:00

Forty-one dollars and fifty cents to ride the Confederation Bridge! That’s one smackin’ toll, eh? There’s no longer a railroad in PEI, but they do have the Bridge. On the road: “Potted Meat for Sale,” “NFD Salt Beef.” Sorry to leave the Island behind, but New Brunswick calls.

It’s a nice drive on near empty highways today. As we get into New Brunswick we see more flashes of colour in the trees. It’s getting to be fall. Pickup trucks parked here and there along the road. There’s a three day moose hunting season, and this is it.

Michael plays the mandolin as we roll along. It's "Honky Tonk Woman" today. He's not singing, and fortunately I can't remember the words. Yet.

We find the venue in Rothesay, NB, near Saint John, without too much difficulty. It’s an amazing old mansion house converted into a small hotel. Built in 1874 the house and grounds retain much of their period character. Pretty neat. There are huge, ornate dining rooms and a small bar on the first floor, along with a showcase lobby big enough for ballroom dancing… The main problem as I see it is that none of our tour posters can be seen anywhere. My name is written on a chalk board. Michael’s is not. Could you fix this, please? I get the feeling that promotion may be a problem here, and wonder if we are going to sell many tickets. I’ve got a pretty loose deal here, and the venue has not assumed as much risk as I like to see. Increased risk usually translates into increased promotion, and a much more successful venture all around. Potentially, this is a great room for music, and the young couple running it are working hard to make it happen. The food is masterful!

We are shown to our rooms. Very nice! As we are in early we set up, check, and retire to our rooms to relax for a couple of hours before dinner. Here's the sound check:

And my room:

I choose to run Rothesay. It’s a rolling community of big old houses, some with horses in the yard. Big trees, not too many cars out on the roads. I'm out for about 40 minutes and only encounter one other person on foot. And they were walking.

The show is as quiet as I had thought it might be. We have a good time with those who attend- more folks following us from Fredericton’s Harvest Festival. We seem to have connected with a huge number of people there. We’ve been having them show up at our gigs all over Atlantic Canada. We’ll be in a loud pub tomorrow night.

Red Dirt and Mount Stewart, PEI

2008-09-25T20:53:00.000-07:00

Michael sleeps late this day. We’ve had fun with the woodstove in our cabin. It was pretty cold last night— down to around 3 degrees somebody said. We were fine by the bonfire, but our cabin needed a little warmth, so Michael stoked up the stove while I carried on with our new friends. By the time I got to the cabin it smelled of sweet woodsmoke and was wonderfully warm. Nothng like the warmth of wood heat! Of course, when I woke up later, the place was like a sauna! I slept on top of my blankets to wake up again, this time freezing cold. Like a real trooper, Michael got up and stoked up the stove again. By morning the place was baking hot and I escaped to the main house to hang with Hal and drink coffee.

After a pleasant half-day hanging out in the “Dunk,” we head off to our next destination. (You thought we’d never leave, right Hal?!). It’s an easy drive cross country, through red-dirt PEI, up and down the rolling hills, finally along the river, and over to Mount Stewart where we are to play the Trailside Café.

This one had been a hard one to book. The owners were pretty much convinced that no one would show up for a blues show. We’re rolling in very early to set up and get moved into our quarters. I’m pleased to learn that there are already 40 reservations for the evening show. This place maybe holds 65 or 70. That's as big as it gets in these parts. It’s gonna be a good night.

The room sounds great. We’ve been pretty lucky with good sounding rooms so far. This one has a small PA, but again, we could play it acousticly if we needed to. I consider this option briefly, but Michael (wisely, as it turns out) wants the PA and I’m happy to roll with this. A brief check and we’re up. The place is still closed and we’ve got a few hours to fill before show time.
I decide to go for a run. I was going to take today as a rest day, but I’m looking at these little, red dirt roads— and I want to put some miles in on them. I don’t normally run in the afternoon, or this close to show time. But, what the heck, I’m going to take it easy… right? Michael holes up in our room with his mandolin and a book. I get my shoes and head out.

It’s a beautiful day out here, and I’m delighted to find the Confederation Trail only a few hundred metres from the Inn. The trail is built, I believe, on the old railway right of way. A red dirt trail stretching away invitingly into the countryside. Off I go, and this is indeed a fine run! The ground is near perfect for running. The sun is out. It’s not too hot and not too cold. It’s not windy. There are no hills in this area! I take it from the sign posts along the trail and the maps in my road atlas, that there must be several hundred km of trail across the Island. Very neat. Run the Island! I end up going maybe 10 or 12 km, reluctantly turning for home as I do have a show to play this evening. There’s red dirt on my shoes. Cool.

Dinner at the Trailside is clearly an art. I have their seafood chowder. I could move in and eat this until bursting. Wow. Some good here! By show time the place is packed. I meet people from Vancouver, Kamloops, Winnipeg, Bahamas, as well as many local born and bred Islanders. People are so polite and friendly. This is great. A bunch of my fans come up from Charlottetown, and Michael has his, too. The CBC show has helped to get the word out, for sure.

Another fine night for Michael and I. We both play really well. We are having fun, and so is our crowd. They are a listening bunch, and even when we dig in very deep, they seem to stay with us for the ride. At half time we raffle a tour jacket. Here are the lucky winners!

Michael plays a great guitar piece, and we end the evening with a gospel number done off-mic in the audience. People are shaking our hands and buying cd’s, and then saying good nights and see you next times. Later we stand outside on the deck and take in the night sky. We like this life, and we’re lucky to be out on this big blues highway. We packed this place tonight, and we'll be back to do it again.

The Dunk, Breadalbane, PEI

2008-09-24T05:40:00.000-07:00

We’ve got a noon hour check out here. Very civilized as we don’t have far to go today. I wake up far too early and decide to run Charlottetown. It’s a town-sized city which can be pretty quiet in the off-season, which this is getting to be. I run the downtown blocks, weaving back and forth to see as much as possible. Down University Ave. to the marina, back past the Confederation Centre. Hey, this town is pretty flat. The sun is out, and it’s not windy. An easy run. Michael sleeps while I go to a nearby coffee joint to do some wifi email and read the paper.

We’ve got a 1:45 appointment at CBC Radio to perform a couple of tunes and do an interview for the afternoon drive show. Hopefully this will help our next couple of dates on the Island! The interview sets up quickly, and we have a good time recording the show.

Now the road to Breadalbane, which is NOT pronounced the way it looks.

This used to be a railroad town, but no more. Now it’s just an outpost in potato country. Our show, however, is to be on the outside of town, over on the Dixon road.
This is home to a wonderful arts/artist/green/progressive community. The land here is more marginal, so I guess some very interesting people have scooped it up to establish homes and businesses.

Hal Mills moved down from Yellowknife and pretty much built “The Dunk” to facilitate concerts. He may not of known it at the time, but his building designs produced excellent acoustics and sight lines. And the grounds are perfect for small outdoor shows. The property is named for the small river which passes through it.

Welcoming us to the “Dunk” Hal is the kind of guy you feel like you’ve known for years. We feel at home right awy, and he gives us the tour of our “cabin” (spacious little house with a woodstove), the stage, firepit areas, and the indoor space we’ll be playing in tonight. Being in early we take advantage of the time to set up. We could do this one with no mics, but a small house system is in place, so we put it up and soon have it sounding very nice. Meanwhile food is cooking in the kitchen. It’s a serious kitchen, and clearly Hal’s a serious cook! We will be well fed and cared for here!

It’s an early start tonight— between 7:30 and 8:PM. Catherine MacLellan drops by with apple tarts to have dinner with us. She’s been out earlier this year doing some shows with some other friends of mine, Bruce Cockburn and Colin Linden. We chat about this and that, and I get her to play me some tracks from her latest True North recording.

Soon the place is filled with people, and it’s time to play!

The show goes very, very well. Michael and I are getting quite relaxed on stage, and tonight’s show is warm, casual, and connects. After the last set we go outside where a huge bon fire has been lit. It’s a nice conclusion to a great day. Around the fire we become better aquainted with the community, and come away with a whole bunch of new friends.

Charlottetown, PEI

2008-09-23T08:54:00.000-07:00

Great day early in the morning! I’m up early taking in the view, waiting for low tide. It’s going to be about 10:30 AM, an it’s my intention to go for a run on the tidal flats. It’s pretty cool, so I dress against the wind and scramble after Andy and his dog, finding our way down the step cliffs to the beach.

You can just make out Prince Edward Island across the Straight. The sky is blue. The wind is howling. I head north-east with the wind at my back. What a great run. The air is pure and I suck it up in great, beautiful gasps. The hard packed sand appears to be a near perfect surface, and I just fly a long over it. After a while I get to a section which is rippled, and I start to feel this in my knees right away. Running home into the wind is big work, and I want to take it easy as we have a show to play tonight.

Out with Andy for lobster and cheese sandwiches. Never had those before! We drive past Ann Murray’s house. And then off to find the bridge and make our way into Charlottetown, PEI, for tonight’s show. Here we are sharing the driving—

We had a bicycle escort into town—

Brennan’s is an antique— or should I say heritage pub— in the heart of the old town. Strolling in to the club I note that there are no posters up, and no one seems to be expecting us.

Calls are made. We're OK. It's gona be what it is. The PA goes up, sound check, dinner. It’s going to be an early show, and clearly attendance is going to be questionable. We’ve done some press releases, hit our mailing lists, and our friends in the Blueprints (PEI’s blues band) have gratiously plugged us to their lists, too. We’ll see what happens.

Immedietly we notice how friendly this place is. Everybody talks to one and other. People are interesting. Stories and jokes fly. Here's Michael comparing hairdos with the owner!

The night unfolds this way. Not a huge crowd, but enough to be great fun to play to. Tuning was a bit of an issue this night. All four guitars. Some days are like that. But everyone’s relaxed, it’s like a living room show. We sell a bunch of cd’s and load out into the night feeling like we have a whole bunch of new friends! This was a great night. You just never know.

Out for Chinese food. Probably a mistake involving food colouring nd MSG. Anyway we survived that and headed on to our hotel for our next adventure of the day. Walking into our room we found two old people sleeping in our beds! We’d walked right in, turned on all the lights and dropped our gear down. I hought at first the beds hadn’t been made up, but then these people sat up with their arms stretched out in front of them and their mouths open like they were going to scream or something. Their faces were all contorted. I swear it was like a scene from Night of the Living Dead. We got out of there in a hurry, and made our way to the front desk to ask for another room. Good Morning! Keep Room 160, please.

Pugwash, NS

2008-09-22T08:26:00.000-07:00

A nice day for a run, so I’m up early and on the Dartmouth streets. We’re not doing a show tonight, so I can do some distance and it won’t matter if I’m tired later. Dartmouth is a pretty town for running, and I cover a whole lot of distnce going around a couple of small lakes in the town. Pretty, frame houses, big trees. Nice.

We have a nice drive up to Pugwash, NS, where we are to meet with our friend Andy Wainwright. He’s offered to put us up in his summer home for the evening. It’s close to the Confederation Bridge to PEI, so we’ll be well positioned to make our Tuesday show in an easy drive.

Andy’s house is amazing to these blues guys! Built on a cliff looking out over the ocean, it’s all air and sea. Eagles are overhead, foxes trot through the yard, deer amble by. We play a few tunes for Andy in his living room, and then settle in to watch— what else?— some great film footage of Bob Dylan in the early 1960’s. Great conversation. Great food. And a deep sleep with the wind roaring and the sea crashing outside.

Atlantic Blues: Part Three

2008-09-21T08:11:00.001-07:00

Up early to catch up on email. Then down to the kitchen and in the back door of the café to get a cup of coffee. We’ve got an early afternoon house concert in Fall River, a little community north of Dartmouth. We’ll need to get in, get set up, and get out on schedule to make our concert slot at the Great Atlantic Blues and Beyond Festival in Dartmouth.

On route we stop off in Wolfville and visit with the folks at the Deep Roots Festival there. That festival will be happening next weekend, and it looks like a real good one! Before long we’ve motored down into Fall River, Nova Scotia and got instructions to the house. We’ve had a slow leak in our rear right tire, so we’ve stopped a couple of times for air, but we’re on time.

Here we are at the house concert. These are great social and musical events. We really enjoy playing these, and a good time is had by all. In this instance we are really sorry that we have to rush away. Again, it’s a matter of the changing festival schedule. Originally we weren’t scheduled for a Sunday show. Our thanks to Dale and Eva and Andy for their hospitality. Here's Andy with his new tour jacket.

Here's what the porch looked like.

Other guests give us an escort down to the festival site, so that we will get there as quickly and directly as possible.

Again no pics, but a large crowd is waiting for us today. Joe Murphy walks up to say hello. He looks great! We are so pleased by his recovery from last year’s health crisis. The audio tech remembers us and our set-up from yesterday. We do the world’s quickest sound check. This will be good. It sounds great. Thanks, Gary, for making this happen. The act that was scheduled to appear before us has apparently been cancelled, so we again begin on the early side. Michael kicks off the show this day and asks me to play harmonica. This would be fine if I played anymore, or practised, or wasn’t sitting next to Michael Pickett! No, seriously, great fun to lay in some tonic notes and try to stay out of the way. I secretly hope that there aren’t any harmonica players out there listening. But, what the heck, we have fun and roll into the next song. I think we’re playing really well this day. We both cut in pretty deep. There’s a crowd listening intently to some very, deep, heavy blues that we are laying down. Very inspiring to know that they are with us and don’t need to be converted. Our set is relaxed, like a big living room with a couple hundred people in it. When I see that we are running out of time, I look over to the audio desk and ask Gary, “are we good for a couple more?” I know he’s got to tear down. His real hard work starts after the show. There’s nobody clapping when the bins are being moved and the cables wrapped… Gary waves us on, so we play a few more numbers. After we finish up Samuel James, a young player from Maine, strolls up onto the stage and starts to set up. I’m amazed. He was supposed to be on before us, and had apparently been cancelled. The last I was told WE were the last show on this stage. Another change of plan! I approach Samuel and offer our apologies for eating into his set time. We would not of run over if we had known there was another artist to follow.

We’re quickly broken down, packed, and loaded. I run into the AD in the parking lot, and he pays me cash on the spot. They’ve had big losses this weekend, but I’m not in a position to offer a deal. Michael and I go back to Billy’s Wings and sample the Digby Scallops before taking our gear back to the hotel. Later I return to the festival site to catch Edgar Winter and cash out my merch. Sorry, Edgar’s not my kind of show. In fact, I wonder wht he’s doing at a blues festival. Of course it is blues and Beyond, so I guess it must be OK. Clearly he’s got a lot of fans, but I don’t know if there is much overlap between his and mine. Backstage I eat strawberries with one of the sound guys. “Aren’t you supposed to be doing sound for Edgar?” I ask. “I am.” he replied, “it’s just too loud in there.” I say my good-byes to the festival volunteers, and it’s hotel time at last. Another long day.

More Atlantic Blues

2008-09-20T22:22:00.000-07:00

Big sleep. We asked the front desk where we could go for breakfast, a good breakfast. Not a chain store. “Try Tim Horton’s around the corner,” she said. We end up at Celtic Corner for brunch. We’re not scheduled at the festival until late afternoon, so we eat and then go to get organized for the day. It will be a long day as we will play our afternoon concert, rush off stage, and drive a couple of hours north to play an evening show in Berwick, Nova Scotia.

The Festival schedule has been changing again. There’s a new time slot for us, making our late afternoon run across the province all the more interesting. Less time to get there. I email the venue and ask them to have the mics up, so we’ll be able to line check and go right on stage when we get there this evening. Meanwhile the buzz is all about cancelled shows at the festival. Some major acts are not arriving. Some acts are simply not performing. There is discomfort and speculation about money. Yes, there is stress in the air. But it is a nice day, and maybe, maybe, the ticket gods will shine on this festival today.

Arriving at Alderney Landing it is way too easy to park. We park next to the door and load in. There’s a good size stage in the middle of the complex, and a small tech crew is busy doing this and that. There’s not much crowd yet, but we are pretty early, and all the shows in front of us have been cancelled. Our sound tech, Gary, get’s us up and running in near record time. The sound on stage is great, and the mains seem to be great as well. It’s so nice to be working with a professional! I brought the Tour camera in with us, but we are too busy to use it. (If anybody has some pics of this concert, I'd love to get a couple up. Thanks!)

A crowd has begun to collect in the concert area, but people have three different schedules for us! I tell ‘em we’re just going with our instructions for the day. Later I tease that we’ll take a vote as to start time. Eventually we start our show a few minutes early. When was the last time you went to a blues show that started early? There were a lot of people waiting, so we thought we’d just get it going!

The show launches well, despite being back to back with our old friend, John Hammond. (We’d like to be catching his show, too.) John’s upstairs in the Theatre, starting at exactly the same time we are. This definitely bites into our demographic. But John’s show is completely full. And we’ve got a couple hundred people, which is enough to make this hall comfortable. Here’s what the Halifax Chronicle Herald had to say…

“Those unfortunates who couldn’t get in to Hammond’s performance were treated to the dual action of Doc MacLean and Michael Pickett (as) the pair traded licks and quips for an appreciative crowd.

MacLean, sporting his trademark chest-length goatee, also paid tribute to doomed music legend Robert Johnson with a self-penned tale of spending $300 on a mint 78 r.p.m. shellac platter of Terraplane Blues and then melting it down to get high off the alcohol.

It may be a horror story for record collectors, but it was hard not to smile at MacLean’s method for getting the music into your bloodstream.

Pickett also had something of a horror story in Wicked Grin, a tale of another Saturday night in the life of your everyday razor wielding psychopath. Slashing away at his vintage 1932 National Steel with abandon filled his blues version of Sweeny Todd with voracious gusto… For those who missed out— Pickett and MacLean return this evening at 6:30…”

Big crush after the show. We’ve only got a window of about 30 minutes to get out of here! But people are lined up to buy cd’s, posters, tour jackets. The store is open! And there’s another act coming on and we need to clear the stage fast! Remarkably we get broken down, packed, and out of the hall right on time! We’ve done this a few times before, and our experience shows in moments like these. There’s a line up at Billy’s Wings, and we can’t wait even 10 minutes— so we hit the road without dinner. We’ll try and get something pre-show in Berwick.

A fast run across Nova Scotia. We arrive earlier than anticipated, which is very good as we will be able to eat before show time. The Union Street Café in Berwick has great food, so we were actually glad we hadn’t eaten food to go from Halifax.

A thinner crowd than we might of hoped for tonight. But enough to make it lively, and they are (for the most part) a good, listening audience. We raffle a tour jacket at half time, but the lucky winner works for a radio station, and needs to wear his own colours. Remarkably he trades the jacket for cd’s!

Living quarters at the Café have suffered since my visit here last year, but we’ll manage tonight. My room has no windows, but it does have wifi, so the Blog will continue. It’s been a long day, and we’ve got an early show in Halifax on Sunday.

Great Atlantic Blues & Beyond

2008-09-19T06:33:00.000-07:00

We made it. And so did the festival. I don't have time this morning to talk much about the opening night, but here's a few pics below to act as a placeholder! The local paper, the Halifax Metro, reports in a headline that there is "chaos prior to Blues and Beyond fest opening." Rick Derringer is no longer attending, the show has been moved indoors... Our Friday night show is now a Sunday night show, and the Theatre Stage shows have been moved to a giant, open mall area under the Theatre. The outdoor big stage shows now will play the Theatre. There is great ticket value here to see some major acts in the rather intimate Theatre Hall. A great room with good sightlines and a low stage. You could stand maybe 12 feet away from Johnny Winter or Charlie Musselwhite... or John Hammond. John is scheduled to play at exactly the same time as Michael and I on Saturday. This is a double whammy as we'd like to go see him ourselves, and it will unfortunately divide the acoustic blues demographic...

Today is Michael Pickett's birthday. Happy Birthday, Michael. I'm sorry I didn't get you a cake or something, but you know, Happy Birthday. The next twenty are going to be very good.

OK, so here's Halifax from the gig site.

One of the bridges connecting Halifax and Dartmouth. There's a cool ferry service as well. Our hotel is not far from here, and since we've had our Friday night show rescheduled to Sunday night, we are free to socialize and catch some music this evening.

I didn't have any festival ID for food, so I went outside and hung out a bit with Billy the Wing Guy. I had scallops and they were GOOD. No ID required.

John Campbelljohn got things moving with his trio, and we chatted for a while backstage. Brian Slack came in from Montreal for the festival, and I was surprised to see him out of context as he popped into the dressing room! Should not have been. Brian's a major booster of the blues in Canada, and he was here to lend his support to both the organizers and the artists. I noticed at least one other festival AD in the crowd. Ticket sales were not as high as anticipated, and everyone is hoping for the best. A festival like this is a massive undertaking, and we'd all like to see it continue, and we all hope that no one takes a personal loss. It's easy to be an armchair critic, but it takes a lot of guts to put everything on the line and go for it. The weather is good! Maybe a big whack of people will buy last minute tickets?

Fathead arrived for their show, and it was old home week in the hotel lobby. Later, they were joined by Lance Anderson for this gig, and it was very cool to hear the band with him. They were great. Here's Michael and Al after the show.

Some of us went across to Halifax after the last concert. Here's what was going on at Bearly's House of Blues. MonkeyJunk with Steve Mariner and Tony D. A fun show with huge promise. Very interesting format for a blues trio. We chat for a while between sets and hang with blues pals Andy, Dale and Shirley. I discover that several local shows have been dropped from the bill. That's unfortunate, as a festival like this could really help their profiles and give them a boost.

Michael and I back to our hotel at a reasonable hour. We'll have a slow start to our Friday, but then things will get interesting.

Bicentennial Theatre, Middle Musquodoboit, NS

2008-09-18T10:16:00.000-07:00

This was a really nice night for us. Great sound, lights, nice people! The theatre was actually built in the 1920's and is quite wonderful. Ed and Cathrine (sorry if I didn't spell that right, there are so many ways) took us back to their farm after the show and kept us well entertained until the wee hours. I'll tell you more about the show and the farm, and the theatre later. I'm running short on time here today, so I'm just going to lay in some pics to give you an idea of how cool this show was for us.

Monday to Thursday, Halifax

2008-09-15T05:30:00.000-07:00

A good night’s sleep. I’m up early and get my running shoes on. I see EmmaLee off to work, and then head out to run New Glasgow. It, too, is a town of big friggin’ hills. Coming down MacLean street is nice, and I trot around the square and down the main drag. It’s the time of day that passes for rush hour around here, and there’s diesel smoke in the air, or maybe it’s the mill, or both. Down and across the bridge to a trail which follows the water. It’s pretty nice, and I run it until it quits and then head back. Running UP MacLean St. is not as easy as running down, believe me! We’re not doing a show today, so I’m not woried about being tired. I give it a good push. Yeah, hills are good.

Quick change and a cuppa coffee and we say our good-byes and are off. Not before loaning Clem my guitar. Clem guards the yard behind Jim and EmmaLee’s home. Apparently he’s from somewhere in Ontario. Chainsaw art. Yup, that’s right.

Central, non-coastal Nova Scotia looks like this.
Michael indulges my backroad trip through Stellarton, down to Hopewell where some of my ancestors are resting. We make a quick stop at St. Columba, and another at the nearby Pioneer Cemetery. The stones are good, and there are apples for the picking. We take a couple of apples and head off for Sheet Harbour, NS. It’s on route to Halifax where Andy and Marjorie Wainwright are going to put us up. This is very cool. Andy rather famously taught a class about Bob Dylan and the 1960’s at Dalhousie University. He’s just retired and is working on books. I sense that this will be an interesting encounter, and I am not disappointed. The black Porche with the Hwy 61 plates sets up the whole encounter!

Andy and Marjorie are gracious hosts, and we are soon installed in very pleasant quarters. Their home is on te side of a steep hill and offers a spectacular view of Halifax. It is also very quiet. Michael and I snooze. We snooze a whole lot. How did we get so tired?

We were scheduled to do media events for the Great Atlantic Blues and Beyond Festival, but have been put on standby as the Festival deals with funding problems. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday drift by as we wait for instructions. The noon hour shows around town have been cancelled. Our Wednesday night Theatre gig in Liverpoole had already been dropped due to that promoter’s illness. Andy’s got a great wifi, so I use some of the time to work on the blog, do some press releases. That kind of thing. Michael plays the mandolin, smokes. We read.

On Tuesday and Wednesday morning I run Halifax. There’s a very cool park called, I think, Sir Sanford Flemming, which runs around a reach of the sea. Anyway, a very nice park with trails so I ran down and through it a couple of times. Getting back up the hill to Andy’s was some pretty serious hill running! In between all this I’m learning some pop history from Andy, who plays us a great number of tracks from his collection. My favourite discovery was an artist named Sam Baker, who has an independent album called “Pretty World.” Great stuff. I will buy it. Check him out. Andy gave me a copy of a live Dylan performance, Montreal, 1962. Neat, it’s playing as I type this!

Wednesday afternoon we check out the Halifax Folklore Centre, where I buy a bridge for my son's upright bass. What do I know about bridges for upright basses? Not much, but the price seemed to be right. We then went up to the newly minted Halifax Long & McQuade store and visited with manager John Parker. Nice store. They had a vintage Fender Vibroverb blackface in near mint condition. That's my favourite amp, and I've always wanted one! Sorry to leave it behind, but I've got an album to pay for before any non-essential gear comes my way. This store also had a left-handed Gibson J-45. I'd never played one before, so I got to give it a little test run. Very nice. We'll be back here to do some masterclasses on the next tour. Here we are in front of another Halifax landmark.

The call for Thursday is to do an event at Halifax City Hall. We’re to meet the Festival Director in the Square, and will play for an hour. Apparently there won’t be a PA. It’ll be like busking. I’m OK with this- it’s the Festival’s quarter, and I’m happy to do whatever they want during this week. Michael is more apprehensive. He worries that we are being used for political purposes, as the City has (we hear) denied the Festival funding. He’s probably right. But arts funding is usually a good thing, so I’m not too worried if that’s the kind of statement we’ll be making at City Hall. Arriving an hour early, I get my guitar out and play a bit. I’m a long time busker, so playing out here on the Square doesn’t bothr me.

It’s a grey day, and there are very few people on the Square. Some tourists at the other end take pictures. A CTV truck drives by. Has the media started to arrive? I keep playing until 12:40. Nobody arrives. Not even the Festival Director. Michael paces, smokes and drinks coffee. It’s starting to rain. We return to the truck, call the festival, and go down to Halifax’s famous “Pizza Corner” for a bite of lunch. We have doubts about this week’s adventure, compounded by the lack of advertising in the local papers. We’ve got a real show to do this evening, and need to be on the road soon. We’ll be back to Halifax on Friday morning, and hopefully everything will be OK. What's live music coming to?

House Concert at MacLean and Temperance

2008-09-14T17:10:00.000-07:00

No run this morning. It’s a drive day, and we are meeting in the hotel lobby for breakfast at 8:30. It’s the breakfast buffet, and we are on our way by 9 o’clock. We drive through Fredericton, catch the river road to Moncton, NB, and see deer on the highway in town as we are leaving. It must have been a good party the night before. The whole town is sleeping.

Before too long we’re up the road and into Nova Scotia. The sky looks like this-

We have a quick stretch before heading on to New Glasgow where we will be playing a house concert this afternoon. I like the big old houses in New Glasgow, and have some family connections to the area. My great-grandfather, according to the local newspaper, “left town on the early morning train,” while widows and orphans gathered outside his offices in hopes of recovering their savings. I’m hoping Pickett and I can exit half as gratefully after our show!

The concert is near the intersection of MacLean and Temperance, go figure that one!— and we are met at the door by our hosts Jim Stewart and EmmaLee. Michael and Jim are old friends, so when Michael demands “where’s the food, Jim?” we are actually served a wonderful pre-show brunch.

This is the first house concert in this house, and it looks like a good one! People bring food and drinks and we settle into a very relaxed performance.

I was really impressed that the folks who came out were brave enough to ask questions during our show. At one point somebody said, “that was a really neat piece, but could you tell me what the time signatures were?” About half the audience are MacLeans, including local photographer Steven, who took some snaps for us. That’s probably why they were so nice to us. MacLeans, ya know. These were Cape Breton MacLeans, mine came to Pictou County on the Sarah and the Dove back in 1801, with my branch being run out of town back in the 1880s. This has nothing to do with our show, which was great this day. No mics, head by head- a great, all acoustic show.

By early evening the guests have said their good-byes. We have a lovely dinner cooked by Jim. Plenty of conversation. EmmaLee is a cancer survivor who has become quite active fund raising. We were amazed at her ambition and volunteered to help out next time through. Everyone is early to bed this night. Great to make new friends. I love house concerts.

Last Day of Harvest Jazz & Blues

2008-09-13T08:39:00.000-07:00

A nicer day today. Up early and out for a run before breakfast. It’s completely rural where we are staying so I head out down the highway to check out the big dam project on the Saint John River. I quickly discover that it is not runner friendly, so I double back up the road and run into the First Nations reserve across from the hotel. It’s pretty rural, too. After a few km of pleasant, country running, I return to the hotel.

The hotel manager tells me that Michael and I are in the newspaper today and, sure enough, there’s a nice picture of us hanging out at a coffee joint. There’s a couple of quotes and then a sidebar suggesting that Michael may have been hung over at yesterday morning’s show! This is pretty outrageous, as Michael does not drink. “He said “good-morning” several times” said the reporter. Go figure. I guess people find what they want to find. This won’t help our “no show” problem from the day before. It’s really not bad, and we make jokes about it the rest of the day, saying “Good Morning” to each other and “I don’t remember what happened last night after I went to sleep.”

After breakfast we head down to the HooDoo Tent again where Michael is to give the harmonica workshop. Nick Moss is doing a solo thing as we walk in. I’d only heard him with his band, so it was nice to catch him on his own. I’m not sure what the workshop was, but it featured a good hour of 12 and 16 bar blues solos. A very good, listening crowd today.

Michael got set up quickly for his harmonica workshop and was joined a few minutes later by Steve Mariner, who sat in for a few tunes, including a fabulous harp duet on Michael’s “Long John.” After this, Michael got his rack back on and played a bunch of songs. It was the biggest and quietest crowd we’d (rather he’d) had to play to during the festival, and he tore it up. How many one man workshops end with standing ovations?

The guitar workshop is next, and host Brian Blain has invited me to take part. I play the early part of the workshop before leaving to get to our Delta show. Yup, great crowd on Saturday afternoon! A pleasure all around.

Back at the Delta we have another busy night, but relax with dinner after the show. Below is a pic of me with our Tour jacket winner!

We don’t need to rush off anywhere, but need to get an early morning start for New Glasgow, where we will be playing in mid-afternoon. So no end of festival parties or jams for us. Packing out we notice that one of the house SM58 mics is missing. After searching through our gear we report it missing to the night manager. He doesn’t seem too worried, but we don’t have it, and I don’t want to hear about it later.

We swing by the festival offices and pick up our merch, our merch money, and our pay envelope. Back at the hotel, half an hour later, I conduct inventory, balance the gig and merch sheets, and tear open our pay envelope from the Festival. The cheque is not signed! And we need to leave first thing in the morning to get to our next show. I jump back in the truck and head for the festival offices, it’s after 11: PM now, and the post festival parties will be starting soon. Thankfully someone is still in the office. Calls are made and Erin arrives to cash me out. The AD has Blackberried her, and our pay has been shorted by $300 for the missed show. Yes, legal. Somebody said we could afford it. I said, “do you know why I do 100 shows back to back? Because I have to.” We’re just two old blues singers in a van. Gas costs $100 a tank, and we’re very sorry we missed that show that nobody knew about. Good Morning. Good Morning. I guess this is the way the world is sometimes.

What Happened Last Night?!!

2008-09-12T11:26:00.000-07:00

Up in good time this morning. A quick bite in the empty hotel dining room and back to my suite where my phone is ringing. I pick it up. It’s Festival Director Brent Staeben. I can tell he’s upset about something. “What happened last night?!!” he demands. I can’t imagine what this is about. We spent a quiet night in our rooms. I tell him, “nothing happened! What’s this all about?” I feel panic. We are nothing less than professional in all our dealings with everyone. Brent responds “you didn’t show up for your concert last night!”

Now I’m totally bewildered. I’ve got my festival lanard with our individual, festival provided schedule printed on the back. No Thursday show. I’ve got the Festival Program. No Thursday show. I’ve got the daily newspaper with the Festival Schedule. No Thursday show. Brent informs me that the show is listed in the contract we signed last June. I grab the Tourbook. Yup, there it is. I wonder how many people came out to hear us at this secret concert, that only the Festival Director, the stage manager, and ourselves were to know about? Brent says not to worry, there’s nothing we can do about it now. But, yes, I should of caught this one. A simple question “are we doing any shows which are not listed on our personal schedules, in the programme, or in the newspaper?” would have prevented the whole incident. And I could of compared my actual contract to the schedule given to us… Anyway, too late now, and we have work to do.

Out to the truck and off to our first show of the day, a free outdoor show at King’s Landing. We arrive about an hour and a half early, and do a couple of media interviews at the coffeeshop across the street from the stage. Then it’s our turn, and away we go.
We’ve got a good sized crowd gathered, maybe a couple of hundred people spilling off the square and onto the street.

They are good listeners, and a bunch linger after the show to buy cd’s and talk. It’s a very warm and friendly town, and we’ve enjoyed meeting so many people.

We got to sign the big cymbal for Sabian, one of the Festival sponsors.

Load up, back to the Delta Hotel to set up for our next show and to have a late lunch/early dinner. By showtime the place is pretty crowded, and quite a few people have made the trip from downtown to see us. Our friend Trevor, a real blues fan from Toronto, has come out to see us and has brought friends. That's what the table looked like. And here's Trev himself—
A good show tonight. Michael and I can hear one and other pretty well, and we’ve got this PA working as good as it’s going to. We’re quite relaxed and have fun. We raffle off a Tour Jacket at half time. The winner is delighted (they always are, these are very cool coats).
We finish up at 8:PM and are met by festival volunteers who help us out the door with our gear, and drive us to the HooDoo Tent, where we’ll be performing in just a few minutes time. I wonder if the festival has sent these fine folks over tonight to make sure we show up for tonight’s concert! No roadies or drivers appeared for last night's secret show.

We arrive at the backstage area of the HooDoo Tent and this is more like it. There are a few hundred people crowded in. Beer is flowing. Food. Backstage they have sandwich plates, beer, water and juice for us. Much appreciated! Here we are setting up.
What the hell am I doing with a camera on stage when I should be doing a line check? That's a blogger's life.
Before we know it we’re onstage and I’m smacking into the first few bars of “Jinx Blues.” People are yelling and clapping. This is going to be a good night, for sure. Michael tells the sound guys to turn it up, and they do. Everybody on their feet at the end, so I guess we done it right. We're soaking wet when we come off stage, and the stage helpers have little white towels for us. I could get used to this.
Festival photographer John MacDermid snapped this one.

Michael gets a ride back to our distant hotel— back still hurting— while I decide to catch some of the festival. A block away I stop by to see my old friend Morgan Davis. We talk for a while and then I catch a set. Morgan is King. I am always amazed at how wonderful a player he is. If you don’t know Morgan , look him up on the Google. He’s an Electro-Fi recording artist, and one of the finest contemporary blues artists working today. He says he came by to hear our outdoor show earlier in the day, but didn't want to bother us as we were busy signing cds. A real gentleman. Next I wander down to the big tent, where I believe Buddy Guy may be playing. I run into local promoter Jamie Steele and we chat for a few minutes in the rain. Somebody says they’ll get me in backstage, but I elect to walk down the street and see Fredericton sensation Matchstick Mike. I’ll have no trouble getting in to his show. True enough. I’m welcomed into the crowded venue and enjoy a set of Mike’s great singing and guitar playing.

Finally, I head back to the Hoodoo Tent to enjoy some pizza and catch an old New Brunswick band called the Freightliners. They are great fun. Maybe not famous or touring, but they can really play. More in a rock groove, but cool and fun. They obviously had a huge local following. Caught the shuttle back to the Delta, got the Tour truck, and was in bed pretty early compared to most. A nice, festival day. Downtown Fred and this festival are amazing. It’s great just to walk around and hear the music coming from every pub, club, venue and tent— not to mention the buskers. I heard one kid who could really play the harmonica. Brent probably heard him, too. So maybe he’ll be on the bill sometime in the future.

Harvest Jazz & Blues, Delta Blues

2008-09-11T09:53:00.000-07:00

Today we sleep in at our hotel. It’s the quietest hotel I’ve ever seen. I’ve had an interesting night as my wind-out window opened wide and would NOT wind shut again. In fact it stayed wide open. And it got cold and windy. So I turned on the heater next to the window… Yeah, you get the silly picture. I find out later that Michael’s window was stuck wide open as well! There’s no wifi here, and the whole place has seen better days. I don’t see any other guests, and the small staff is friendly. There’s nothing around this place. No stores, houses, gas stations, billboards… I use the time to catch up on Tour Admin— spreadsheets, inventory, advance press releases, thank yous… No running today— I’m still sore from Quebec City, and I’m going to take a recovery day or two. I also don’t want to be tired for the show.

We head down to the Delta early to get a bite to eat and to see if we can do a better job with the sound tonight. It was ok yesterday, but I’d sure like to hear some more of my guitar. Our stage set up is a bit pokey, the contractor didn’t deliver the requested boom stands, so I’m attempting to sing and play using the two pole stands. I know a lot of people do this, or can do this to advantage— but I find it to be problematic for my posture and playing style. Tonight Michael strongly suggests to me that we mic the f hole and not the plate to get more volume. I normally like to mic BOTH the f-hole and the plate, but the plate has been my default single mic position for many years now. I play with bare fingers on dead strings, and I like the tone I get off the crisper, plate end of the guitar. Anyway, it’s not delivering the punch I need in this instance— so I will switch to mic the f-hole tonight. The stage looks like this—

Actually, the stage looks better than this picture would suggest, and but for the just too high stools, it is about right for the space. The Buddy Guy Band are around for most of our two sets tonight. It’s a busy room, about half of the crowd festival goers, and the other half business people and accidental tourists. Michael and I sell a few cd’s. Actually, Michael sold quite a few this evening. The hotel crowd don’t swarm the merch table very often, so that’s a nice development here. John Campbelljohn (did I spell this right?) arrives. He’s to play following us. We break down quickly to allow him time to set up. John’s a wonderful east coast guitarist. I’m a big fan of both his electric and acoustic work. Unfortunately, on this night Michael’s back is hurting, so we decide to go directly back to our hotel. Have a good one, John! Way up the highway in Mactaquac we are early to bed. We were hoping to catch Trucks show tonight, but apparently our performer passes only let us in to stages we are performing at. What's that all about? So tonight we're taking it easy. We’ve got three shows to play on Friday, and we want to be ready.

Harvest Jazz & Blues, Fredericton, NB

2008-09-10T10:02:00.000-07:00

Up early. It’s a beautiful day in Fredericton. The wind is roaring over the St. John River and there are a number of eagles circling overhead. You can hear them calling to one and other. Kind of neat. I ask Colleen if they share their food as they seem to be out hunting together. She says she doesn’t know. I’m thinking it’s a lot like being out on the road with a show. There’s a huge amount of trust involved— sharing, taking care of the common good, helping one and other along. That’s the intensity of touring with another musician on a show like the National Steel Blues. Here's what it looked like in the backyard.

I take a run down the river and enjoy the soft surface of the trail. I’m hurting a little after Quebec City, so I take it very easy today. I like to run every day, but I also have trouble knowing when to stop sometimes!

After breakfast at Joe’s Diner (my choice of best Maritime Diner) we say our good-byes to Colleen and Bob, and make our way downtown to check in at the Festival offices, get our IDs, place our merch, and generally say “hello” to everybody. Remarkably, we are met at the door by Festival AD Brent Staeben, who on this day is probably one of the busiest guys in New Brunswick. It’s a big festival, and one of my favourites, so it’s very nice to be back here this year. The number of performers is huge (I think about 125), and this festival does a great job of seamlessly bringing local, regional, national and international acts together in a variety of locations around town. There are some major acts here, but the placings are almost casual— you could miss one of these if you got wrapped up in a great concert or workshop in another tent. Michael and I are looking forward to wandering around in our down time and catching up with old friends. I think we’re going to go see Derek Trucks tomorrow night… Buddy Guy is in town,.. I want to see Ana Popovic… Eric Bibb is here, Hot Toddy, Hilario Duran (from Cuba— stunning piano player!), Mat Anderson, Nick Moss… heck, Morgan Davis is here, too… It’s going to be a time, for sure.

Over to the Delta Fredericton, where Michael and I will be playing Wednesday thru Saturday, from 5:PM until 8:PM. We’ll be doing downtown concerts and workshops as well, but this will be our headquarters for the week.

The bad news is that our rooms have been sold off to somebody for some reason. I guess the clause in my contract wasn’t specific enough, so they’ve booked us into another Delta owned hotel in another town, 20 minutes up the highway. So much for hanging out and socializing at the hotel! We’ll make do, what can you do?

Back at the Delta to set up. Sound specs were met for the mics, but there are no boom stands. Michael brings his two in from the truck, and his top notch mics. I’m to play through the straight stands with the lower line gear. I’d be fine with this, if my guitar could be heard, and if I could run a sound check on these myself. The PA ain’t great. But it is what it is, and I’m sure we can make do with it. As we start the night I can’t hear my guitar very well, and I’m not sure anybody else can either. Michael, at least, sounds reasonably good, and we’ve got a listening crowd, which helps tremendously.

Out in the crowd we notice Jackie Richardson (and was that Marcus Harper with her?), Matchstick Mike, and a few other friends. Thanks for coming down! At half time we chat a little, then back to it. In spite of a less than perfect sound set up, we’re OK. I’ve got to boost my guitar before the next show, but aside from that I think we’ll get her done good. We tear off a pretty heavy version of Narow House, Michael does a fun “Long John” harmonica piece, and we wrap the night with his “Blues is a Friend of Mine.” Nice night.

All done by 8:00, now we’re relaxed, fed, and back to our hotel for a quiet evening. I’ve got to get this Blog up to date! And that’s it for today!

Hammertown

2008-09-09T08:48:00.000-07:00

Drive day. We sleep in, hang with Richard, drink pots of coffee, do email, burn discs of the videos that Richard shot at the pub last night. I go for yet one more run in the rain in Quebec City. It’s cool today, so I’m fully covered. It’s a cold rain, but a treat to run through an unfamiliar landscape. I promised I wouldn’t go far, and after yesterday I’m watching my route for hill management. Still, it turns into a good hump around town.

It’s mid afternoon, dark and raining when we get out on the 40 highway, cross the big Pont, and head for New Brunswick. Once we clear Levis it's a fast road, and we make good time with little for company except the roaring semi trucks. My friends Colleen and Bob are going to put us up tonight. They live down in Hammertown, which took the brunt of this spring’s massive flood in the district. We wonder how their place held up. It looked good by the time we rolled in at 11:PM, but we did see pictures of the high water, and the house next door had had to be torn down. Great to see my old friends again and catch up on life. In the morning we’ll eat at Joe’s Diner and go check in with the Festival.

Bringing the Blues to Your Town, Quebec City

2008-09-08T22:17:00.000-07:00

Up way too early this morning for no good reason. Richard Carr and I drink coffee in his kitchen while Michael catches up on rest. I’m tired, too, but my mind is still busy with details and I can’t sleep. I can't get wifi either. Just as well. It’s a nice day so I get out my running shoes and go for a few miles around the district. We’re in Beauport, an old eastern suburb of Quebec City. High on the hill, we can see Levis across the St. Laurence River, and the boat traffic moving past. In the distance, I can see the Chateau Frontenac overlooking the old city. It’s great to be here in this 400 year old town. My run turns into a bit of a workout as I meet hill after hill! I go way, way too far. I know it's going to hurt later on! As I limp back to Richard's place I am glad that I normally run a hill course around Toronto's High Park. Why am I reporting all this in the Tour blog you might ask? Because keeping healthy on the road is important, and fitness is important to any artist that wants to have a lengthy and productive career. At least that's what I preach. And I like to be trim, too.

Sound check is scheduled for 2:PM, so after brunch Richard, Michael and I head down to Limoilou. We are met by Mike DeWay, the booker, sound tech, and popular Quebec blues artist. Mike quickly made us welcome and got us set up for the evening. This is what the streetscape is like near the venue.

Back to Richard’s where we are joined by Manuela and are treated to a salmon dinner. As we eat, a giant rainbow appears over the river. We take this as a good sign. Our show is at the end of that rainbow. It’s a 9:00 start, with Richard opening, so we get back to the club by 8:30.

The Pub Limoilou is a nice little blues bar. By about 9:15 the place is filling up as Richard gets the night rolling. I have not heard Richard since he opened for Big Dave and I last year, and his vocals and guitar playing are sounding great.

Michael and I launch into our first set around 10:PM, and the place is pretty full. Are we good or what tonight? Before the second set we’ve filled a return date! It's a listening crowd, despite the amount of beer being consumed. At the end of the night they even sing along on a gospel number. I like this club. Jay Sewell comes out to say “hello.” He’s a Quebec based player I haven’t seen in quite a few years, and it was fun to catch up on old times. We raffle off another Tour jacket. Remarkably, Manuela wins the draw. Everyone is very excited and laughing. We sign cds and posters. Everybody hugs one and other. Nice. Yup, there still are some good bar gigs in the world.

After the show we have a bonfire on Richards front lawn (yes really), and sit talking until the night is nearly gone. Manuela has to be up in about an hour for work! Thanks Richard and Manuela for taking such good care of us in your town. I've got more pic, but can't get them uploaded today. Slow line, I guess. (Doc revisiting this Blog from Halifax: got 'em in now.)

We'll be back to play another Monday in Quebec City in exactly 21 days.

Donnacona, Quebec, Hospitality

2008-09-07T21:43:00.000-07:00

A short notice cancellation by the Maison de la Culture in Donnacona, Quebec, has left us with an open day. Do I want to talk about this??? Blog it?? They did say they were sorry. And it's not as though we didn't have two weeks to come up with a replacement Sunday night theatre gig between Montreal and Quebec City. So that's just life, eh?

Richard Carr, the opening act for our Quebec City show, has kindly offered to accommodate us for the down evening— so we have nothing but a travel day ahead of us. We had a big sleep after staying up too late with McLean Ave house concert hosts Sue and Steve. Runners log: got a good flat five miles in around Perth. Nice, pretty old stone town. Michael gave a mandolin lesson on the front porch while I ran. After a great breakfast we were off to the highway. An easy drive to Quebec City where we were met by Richard and his partner, Manuela, who took excellent care of us— presenting a fine meal and sending us off to bed at a decent hour. Yes, really.

I met Richard in Memphis at the Blues Music Awards a couple of years back, and we’ve stayed in touch. He did some work with the Big Road Blues Tour last year, opening for Big Dave McLean and I, so it was a natural to get him on board again for some Quebec dates. He’s a talented singer guitar player— and is fun and easy to be around. He’ll be helping us set up at Pub Limoilou tommorow, and playing the first set. Manuela is charming in whatever language she happens to be speaking. While we were eating dinner my cell phone rang— it was Big Dave McLean, calling from Winnipeg to say "hi." Very cool. He's going to be off to Europe with the Perps in October, but he does promise to pick Michael and I up at the Winnipeg airport when we fly in for our western Canadian dates. Thanks, Dave, I love to ride in that Caddy.

We now look forward to a big sleep, and wonder about why some days turn out like this. But we're OK. Life is good. We have good company, a full table... and there's no point getting mad at the wind. We'll just remember which way it tends to blow.

Ottawa Valley Hospitality— Long & McQuade and O'Reilly's

2008-09-06T20:32:00.000-07:00

Runner’s log: a run around suburban Belleville in the rain! Michael and I head downtown for espresso before getting on the Highway and pointing the truck toward Ottawa. This is what downtown Belleville looks like on Saturday morning. And here's Michael in front of the friendly espresso joint called Organic Underground- they know how to do it! I took advantage of their free wifi hotspot to try and update the Blog and to check the tour email.

We’re going to do a masterclass at Long & McQuade this afternoon, and we’re calling ahead to find out what time they’d actually like to do it. Google is pissing Michael off— the stuff that I ran off line for directions is painful to read… But we get there, just the same. Maybe not by the smartest route, but by a route. We talk about this as we drive. Our Tourbook is thick like an old telephone directory, and there are dozens of maps like this in it. I sense we're going to have this conversation a few more times until one of us gets a GPS device... Meanwhile we'll keep getting there, not necessarily by the smartest route.

Long and McQuade is Canada’s biggest music store, and they have something like 30 stores coast to coast. We’re very pleased to be associated with them for this tour. Inside the Ottawa store a small PA is waiting for us and we are up and running in just a few minutes time. They’ve only got three resophonic guitars in the store, not much for us to demo on. But we do have our vintage Nationals- what the people have come to see anyway. I notice that they’ve got a great drum department, and a big selection of audio gear in Ottawa. Each store is a little different, but all seem to be very friendly and helpful. This one is no exception, and Manager Denis Chatterton and his staff did their best to make us welcome. It turned out to be a nice little workshop: we played a few songs, talked about the history of the resophonic guitar, alternate tunings, different sorts of slides, how to mike these… Sold a couple of cds and were on our way to Perth, ON, where we were told dinner was waiting!

It's a darkening sky, and a little bit of rain. This is never a good sign when entering a new town.

The gig at O’Reilly’s is a pub show, but a local couple, Sue and Steve, of McLean Ave. House Concerts, have kindly offered to put us up for the night. We are treated to warm hospitality— we feel like we’ve known these folks for years, whereas we’ve only just met! The town is not so dark after all! Their son, Adam, is to be our sound tech for the night, so after dinner we all head down to get set up and ready to go. This is one of those magic road moments where one can take real delight and pleasure in having made new friends. Adam and Michael troubleshoot the PA while I set up the merch and do inventory. We’re to have a 9:00 start. Here we are after dinner.

A pretty interesting night from my chair. Michael and I can hear each other pretty well, which certainly makes the night more enjoyable and creative for us. Some of the songs are way over the top. I’m very happy with how these songs are turning out! Neat. I also notice that our 10 song sets are running to about an hour and forty minutes. We did two shows, raffled off a tour jacket, met a pile of new friends. It’s a friendly pub, maybe not a destination event for a touring show, but a very pleasant night on the way. We’ll be back to visit Perth again the future. Did anybody from the local Stewart Park or Blue Skies festival come out to see us?

See ya next time.

The Belleville Club

2008-09-05T02:11:00.000-07:00

A great morning waking up in Carrying Place, ON. We’re in a nice house overlooking a reach in from Lake Ontario. The wind is roaring and the waves are pounding and the sun is shining. Swans and Canada Geese are out in the channel. I put on a pot of coffee and went for a 5 mile run while Michael slept. Didn’t see a car the whole time!

After hanging around enjoying the deck for a while, it was time to be back on the Blues Highway. We only had a short run to make today, about forty minutes up to Belleville, ON where the Loyal Blues Society had scheduled a concert for us.

Following a quick stop at our hotel we headed down to the venue. The Belleville Club was a private, men’s club built at the turn of the century for the pleasure of wealthy. It’s not a men’s club anymore, but it is pretty fancy in that old, art deco, come mission kind of style. In a word, it’s a beautiful old place stuffed with wood and fireplaces, great staircases… We were met at the door by Blues Society President Ron Foxall, along with our sound and service techs, Ken and Peggy. Between the three of them we were to be well taken care of all evening! Belleville is a small town about two hours from Toronto, and it’s quite remarkable to me what the local blues society has been able to accomplish. OK, this is a small town, and the scene here will newer be big, but these folks do all the right things to promote and develop the blues on a local, regional, and national-international level. Keep it up folks!

I had insisted on a hot meal being written into our contract— this is pretty standard for us, and usually we are well taken care of. I write this in to be sure that we get at least some chance to eat between load in and load out at the end of the night. You never know exactly how things will go. In this case I was unaware that Loyal Blues Society President Ron Foxall was an actual Chef of Distinction. He made a fabulous meal for us in the kitchen of the Belleville Club. What can I say? Wow!! We presented Ron with a Tour jacket in appreciation of his support.

Showtime began with a set by local one man band Mark Taylor, who was hoping to win a place in the International Blues Challenge next year. Michael and I took the stage in front of a relaxed but enthusiastic crowd and had a very strong evening, making lots of new friends, and meeting quite a few old ones. I was impressed at how far some people had come to see us. As I anticipated, a good many blues fans had heard us both solo and were very curious to hear us together. Encore. I guess that means we did good. Back to the hotel early for an early start on Ottawa.

National Steel Blues— On the Road!

2008-09-04T04:00:00.000-07:00

Six AM start this morning. Got my boy fed, dressed, had a big good-bye moment. Off he went to school on his new bike, and off I went to pick up our Tour van from National. Quite a bit different from the old cargo vans we used to get around in. She’s a bronze colored Dodge Caravan with 5 doors, tint, cruise and air. These are nice trucks for Touring shows like this one— we fold all the seats down and it holds our gear without crowding us.

Back at my place I do the final merch inventory, look for paperwork, check and re-check details. Michael’s arival at 2:PM is just about right for me. We load our gear carefully this afternoon— we’ll be loading and unloading this gear a couple hundred times over the course of the Tour, so it’s important that we have a common understanding of where everything goes every time. Michael is an old road hand, too, so we find we’re pretty much on the same page with our truck packing. By about 3:30 we’re ready to go.

This National Steel Blues Tour is on the Road!!! Here’s what we looked like in the first moments of the Tour.

Our first show is in Cannington, ON, a little town perhaps two hours north east of Toronto. I’m driving. Michael navigates. He takes a quick look at the Tour Book Google map for the day and we’re off! Right away he’s making changes and pretty soon we’re on the back roads zooming through some very pretty farm country. I can tell this is going to be great. If you don’t get off the beaten track, you’ll never see whatever it is we’re probably going to see!

Our first stop is Wilfred, ON. We’ve been looking at guitar shaped signs along the highway, so we’re watching for the Interesting Music Shoppe. Pretty neat. Owner Jeff Elias gives us a tour and lets us check out some of his vintage instruments. He’s got a good inventory of cool stuff. I’m eyeballing a left-handed 12 string guitar. Thankfully I couldn’t tune it, so it will have to wait for some other sinister musician! We leave a couple of tour posters, and then it’s back to the van and we’re in motion.

Rhythm ‘n Books is a warm and friendly little room in a warm and friendly little town. The staff made us welcome, and pretty soon we were greeted by the owners, Chris and Dianna. Great coffee. Michael had about 12 espressos, and I had a glass of wine. Thanks, Jamie, for putting up with us and keeping us wired. We got the PA up pretty quick, had an amazing dinner, and then show time!

This was a perfect place to shake down and get a feel for how the next two and a half months are going to shape up. We knew it was going to be good, but not how it was going to unfold. Well, it was a lot of fun. First night out to a near capacity crowd in a nice sounding room. And we sounded good, too! A whole bunch of Michael Pickett fans showed up, which was good for me because they already had his cds… Seriously, I’m really, really, looking forward to each of our upcoming shows.

Packing out at midnight we do our good-byes and then head east into the night. We’ll be staying at a waterside cottage a couple of hours down the road, but quite close to our next show. Michael and I roll into Carrying Place, ON at about 2:30 in the morning, and then sit on the deck by the water relaxing and talking into the very small hours. Life is good, and we’re glad to be on this National Tour.

This Tour is (Almost) Road Ready

2008-09-02T19:29:00.000-07:00

Summer escaping us quickly. We've taken delivery of our very spiffy Tour jackets, done a little warm-up show in Michael's backyard in Crystal Beach, ON— so now it's just details, details. It's the white knuckle business of negotiating truck leases, last minute contracts, shipping posters, getting press releases out there, booking plane tickets, hotels, providing stage plans, designing workshops, masterclasses, stocking up on harmonicas and guitar strings, buying insurance... Oh, yeah, and some interviews, pack a toothbrush, a laptop, a couple of smarty phones, digicamera, cables, Tourbook, spreadsheets, merch sheets, inventory sheets... There's never quite enough time, but I know it'll feel great to get behind the wheel in a couple of days. This is going to be a real good one. Lots of miles, lots of coffee.

I just sat on my front porch for a while and played slide guitar to my little street. Now it's back to one of these machines to wrap another day.

Last night I got my 63 Galaxie out on the Big Road and just popped the hammer down for old times sake. Burnt $20 with the shake of my shoe. I like that night air and seeing the red glow in my rear view mirror. Echo of my tail lights on a dark black road.

Somebody just picked up that Wednesday in Prince Edward Island, and I filled the Tuesday as well. Who needs a rest day? Only the lonely. Next post will be from my front row, hell no— mid stage seat— on the Blues Highway. I still got a Monday to fill south of Prince George... Who wants it?? Michael Pickett and I might well be coming to your town.

Long & McQuade, Lee Oskar Harmonicas on Board

2008-08-08T11:07:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to announce the corporate involvement of Canada's biggest and best music store, Long & McQuade, in the National Steel Blues Tour. Long & McQuade has stores from coast to coast and is the number one seller of musical instruments, PA's, recording equipment, and related accessories. They also do repairs and maintenance, and have fabulous, musician friendly rental and credit departments. I mean this. To me, music gear in Canada has always been Long & McQuade. Don't get me wrong— I still love the pawnshops and local little vintage shops— but when I need a PA, or a special mic, or a brand new whatever— Longs is where it's at. They gave me credit in the lean years, and I sure appreciated that. We'll be doing some pre-show, in-store masterclasses demonstrating resophonic guitars, slide technique, alternate tunings, and a bunch of other cool stuff. Michael will also give a brief harmonica workshop, no doubt tooting the virtues of the great Lee Oskar brand harmonicas he plays. Lee Oskar is a great guy and a big Michael Pickett fan. Jack and Jon Long have been steady supporters over the years. Watch for us in your Long & McQuade town or city! Dates will be posted over the next couple of days. This is great news! The Tour gets bigger!

I've still got a Wednesday in PEI. Hello, Charlottetown?

Doc MacLean & Michael Pickett Announce 60 Dates

2008-07-26T20:53:00.000-07:00

Back at you again. And what's been going on at National Steel Blues Tour headquarters since I last checked in? Well, we've been busy booking dates and more dates. I should say that "we" now includes the very able Louise Pickett of Mother Earth Management. This is going to be a GREAT tour! We've got some 60 shows confirmed and about another dozen TBC (to be confirmed) in progress. Michael has been to Europe and back, and has also had smaller tours of the eastern seaboard and Florida. I've followed Johnny Winter and have been the street level opener for a bunch of shows. It's funny, I make more money busking the wait line for half an hour than I do when I'm officially on some of these bills. Heck, that's not funny at all. Kim Simmonds was teasing me that I was cutting into his merch sales. Nice guy— always shares the Green Room goodies... But you really want to know about the National Steel Blues Tour, Canada's biggest blues-roots tour of the year, 20000 km of blues highways from coast to coast!

Dates and places are pretty much in order, and are listed in the sidebar here. We've still got the odd date available, so if you're a booker, or maybe a fan who wants to do a house concert, post us regarding any date not already listed in your area! We roll out of Toronto on September 4th and will finish up in Victoria, BC on the 10th of November.

East coast dates are all but sold out— I've got a Wednesday in Charlottetown, anybody want it? We're doing the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival in Fredericton, the Great Atlantic Blues Festival in Halifax, and a bunch of theatres, even some cafes and house concerts... Nearly half the tour dates will be played in Atlantic Canada. Great blues scene— heck, great music scene— with lots of good young players, and a bunch of older journeymen to kick their butts. For sure it's an honor to be invited to the Harvest Blues and Jazz Festival two years in a row. Hands down one of the best blues events held anywhere. The Director of the Great Atlantic Blues Festival lived in Atlanta back when I did, and knows his stuff. He's launching a very, very big festival, and we're pleased to have been the second hire (after Johnny Winter) —even if we're no longer at the very top of the bill! In addition to our concert duties we'll be doing daytime media events all week to help promote the new Halifax festival.

I'll be blogging here on a much more regular basis as we gear up to hit the road in a few weeks time. Jackets and posters are in production... the price of fuel is high. The Tour Book is in production. Next blog I'll ramble on about some other part of the country. I could rant about Manitoba, but perhaps I'll have Friday, October 17 filled by then??? Or do we have to sit in with Big Dave McLean that night? Now that might be an excuse to book a rest day.

Tour Now Half Sold!

2008-03-11T16:04:00.000-07:00

A busy week at the virtual headquarters of the National Steel Blues Tour! The emails are flyin' and chunks of the Tour are starting to firm up into real route schedules. There's been quite a lot of early interest from Atlantic Canada. This is good, as the Tour gets there during its (currently) 2nd week out— so the early east coast dates will be played more than two months before the finishing west coast dates. With less lead time to take care of details, it is nicer to have the early stuff figured out early!

I'm going to post up some partial routes later tonight or in the morning. You'll see them somewhere to the right of this column. After this I'll simply update them as often as possible.

The spreadsheets tell me we're now about half booked for this adventure. I think this will quickly reach the three-quarter mark as the West Coast starts to confirm. Then, of course, there will be orphan days to fill. Kinda fun! We gotta fill 'em somewhere!!

Lastly, there are quite a few really great venue managers and bookers across Canada who are consistantly patient and helpful while I collect expressions of interest and then hone this info down into time frames, and finally working route schedules. Thanks. Michael and I — and indeed all the independent artists you deal with — really appreciate your support.

Tour Starts to Take Shape

2008-01-29T17:26:00.000-08:00

Well, the Maple Blues Awards have come and gone. What a busy night! All kinds of people I didn't get a chance to talk to! However, many more I DID get to hang out with— so it was a blast! My good pal Big Dave McLean took the trophy for Blues With a Feeling. That's the lifetime achievement award. I was really pleased to see him get it. Thanks everybody for nominating him and for the votes of support. It's always a hard category to decide, so I like to think that our Big Road Blues Tour made a difference... it was acknowledged a couple of times from the podium, too, so that was nice.

But moving right along on the subject of Tours... THIS tour, the National Steel Blues Tour did very well at the Maples in that we are now about thirty percent sold or reserved. This week and next I'll start nailing it down properly. Michael and I got together for coffee at Toronto's High Park, and my son Alasdair shot a couple of pics to get us up and running. Here's what we looked like a couple of days ago...

We've been contacted by presenters in pretty much every Canadian region, so things are going pretty nicely. At the moment I'd have to say that the National Steel Tour is shaping up to be at least as big or bigger than last year's Big Road Blues Tour. I like to set the bar high! One thing's for sure, it's gonna be a good one. I'm very pleased to have Michael Pickett as my tour partner. Hold on to your hats!

2008-01-10T12:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the National Steel Blues Tour. This Blog will get busier as we move along, and will soon be packed with pictures, dates, sponsors, clips... All kinds of cool stuff. But every tour really starts with the Press Release. You'll find it below! Meanwhile, if you are interested in what a giant blues tour is like, I invite you to visit last year's Big Road Blues Tour blog, http://bigroadbluestour.blogspot.com. Thanks for dropping by!

January 7, 2008

For Immediate Release:

National Steel Blues Tour Announced

Doc MacLean & Michael Pickett to perform 75 Canadian dates

Doc MacLean and Michael Pickett are pleased to announce the National Steel Blues Tour. Hard as nails, tough as steel, but with a warm silver glow stretching from coast to coast. Join two of Canada’s most uncompromising, most travelled and most storied acoustic blues artists as they bring the real deal to your town. Feel the heat from two vintage National Steel guitars, up close and personal. Experience the hard edge and share the inspirations of these veteran artists, together for this unique tour. The Ammo's in the Icebox, and there's a raw steak on a plate, cut like a valentine. So be ready.

The National Steel Blues Tour, September 3 - November 14, 2008. Building upon Doc's highly successful 2006 TransCanada and 2007 Big Road Blues Tours, the National Steel Blues Tour will include up to 75 shows across Canada. A small number of American dates are also under consideration. Tour schedule, corporate sponsors, and routing TBA.

"This tour is going to feature some very, very deep blues. I'm totally thrilled imagining what Michael and I will do over so many shows. The National Steel Blues Tour is going to be an amazing journey." — Doc MacLean

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Michael Pickett's past achievements as a bandleader, singer and harmonica player are legendary. With his bands Whiskey Howl, Wooden Teeth, and the Michael Pickett Band he received numerous awards and nominations and inspired a new generation of harmonica players. Forged in the rough little clubs of Toronto's Spadina Ave., Pickett's bands leaped beyond these humble beginnings to perform on national television and at important concerts such as John Lennon's famous "Live Peace" at Varsity Stadium. Emerging more recently as a solo, acoustic blues performer, Michael Pickett has achieved international acclaim with his intense, riveting performances and compositions. Armed with a road worn National and rack mounted harps, he frequently tours the United States, Canada, the UK and Europe — often in larger halls with artists like Buddy Guy, Lee Oskar, James Cotton, and Hubert Sumlin. "Pickett continues to amaze everyone," — Blues Revue, "He's got it!"— Sing Out! "A truly gifted artist," — Real Blues. Goes for the throat, standing ovations everywhere.

Doc MacLean is a bit of a vagabond Delta songster, as likely to be playing the streets of Memphis or Toronto as opening a show for BB King. In 1972 he formed a duo with Colin Linden and became a popular opener for Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee and Muddy Waters. Mentored by Son House, Doc toured with Peg Leg Sam the Medicine Show Man, Blind John Davis, Sam Chatmon, and many others. Bare fingers, dead strings and broken glass on an old National. His emotional remapping of Delta rooted music has won him a fan club that includes a who's who of the blues world. "Like an audio version of the movie Sin City," — Blues Revue, May 2007. Sell out shows across Canada.

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Tour Info: The National Steel Blues Tour featuring Michael Pickett and Doc MacLean is now booking and accepting expressions of interest for all Canadian market areas. For further information please contact:

Doc MacLean doc@docmaclean.com
Louise Pickett, Mother Earth Management, mail@michaelpickett.com

Visit:
http://nationalsteelbluestour.blogspot.com
http://www.michaelpickett.com
http://www.sonicbids.com/docmaclean
http://www.sonicbids.com/michaelpickett
http://www.docmaclean.com
http://www.myspace.com/michaelpickettsolo
http://www.youtube.com/michaelpickettsolo
http://bigroadbluestour.blogspot.com