Aug 9 - Ottawa, ON

OK... from Toronto to now:

Finally! A good show in Toronto! Old friends I haven't seen in many years came out of the woodwork to say hello and show support. The house, though not full, was present, warm, and listening. What a treat from the Big Smoke! After all the traffic shenanigans, and walking several city blocks from Spadina (where The Deuce dropped me off) to the Roncesvalles neighborhood in the still sweltering heat, it was great to arrive to a groovy place with atmosphere, tasty food and good beer. I arrived quite early (about 3hrs), so I settled in with my book.

[The book is fabulous, by the way - "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell". It's about a couple of fictional magicians, and their impact, at the turn of the 19th century. I highly recommend it.]

Slowly but surely, the show got going, as Derek and I were both mingling with steadily arriving friends. I remember little of the set, except that I was in the mood to play every humourous song I had in me, and for the second time on this tour I dropped my pants to play "My Hammerhead Baby". I guess it is getting to the point that recording that song is a necessity for the next album.

At the end of the night, a rather explicit girl decided to make-out with my old tree-planting pal Gabe right beside our table, which was pretty amusing. She literally mounted his lap right there. Ha ha ha! I think Gabe ended up going home with her only to put her to bed. What a gentleman!

I got myself home on the streetcar by 3:00am, and was blessed with a light shower while walking from Queen up to Gerard. I dragged myself in, threw on the new CD I bought from Noah Zacharin, and after having listened to it through (it's great) passed out cold in The Deuce's vacant bed. Turns out I was viciously tired because The Deuce came home and plopped her exhausted paramedic butt down beside me and I had no idea until I woke up around 2pm. We decided to go to Kensington Market to check out a new vegan restuarant for lunch, and it was well worth it. I can't remember what the place is called, but it is closer to College St and has vegan ice cream that flat-out blew the mind of my tastebuds. Black sesame ice cream is one of the best things I have ever tasted!

After our taste explosion, we fought traffic yet again to get out to Oshawa for The Velvet Elvis gig. [Now, The Elvis is where Deuce and I met - she was a waitress and I was playing. So there was nostalgia in this.] Deuce dropped me at the door and took off to walk her lonesome dog and take a dip. I spent most of the lead-up to the show trying to figure out how to get to Consecon the next day, and finally linked up with Jake Willis from down in Guelph who was heading up to Blue Skies the next morning and was kind enough to offer me a ride there, even though it was a little out of his way. The show was good, I think. Derek did his thing for some friends that came up from Hamilton to see him. I'm not sure what I did, though I know I grew a big smile when Billy Blasko and Trish Robb walked in. I hadn't seen Blasko in years, and hadn't seen Trish since last I was in Montreal, I think. I finished my set relatively early for an Elvis gig, and spent the next while visiting with Deuce and Blasko, catching up and reminiscing and talking new too. I ended up going back to Blasko's place with the plan to sleep, but a few beers, great conversation, a few songs, and one recording later, it was 5:45am and I had to get up in an hour to call Jake to see where he was at. So I napped and called him and he was in Milton, so I slept a bit more and called again and he was nearer to Oshawa, so I groggly dragged myself down the stairs and out the door and over to The Elvis' parking lot, ate Tim Horton's sandwich on the asphalt in the morning. Ha ha ha! How many times have I been in this ridiculous situation?

The ride to Consecon with Jake was splendid. That's the only way of putting it. We went up Hwy 2 just above Lake Ontario, which offers some beautiful country views. Rich greens of summer leaves and vast expanses of tall grasses - an occasional brook babbling its way down to the the big water. The towns along this stretch are some of the most aesthetically pleasing towns I've ever seen. Huge oaks and red brick houses - the kind of places I knew when I was a teen trapsing about Perth and parts of Lanark County. Except these places were sunnier somehow. Maybe it was the way the sun was hitting them, but there seemed a lot of joy in them. Maybe it was Jake's positivity rubbing off on me. You see, Jake is a pretty phenomenal man. He's a lot of things, but I think most of all he is a philanthropist and humanitarian. He's a man of faith and a political activist, and he does not seem to blend the two - he merely seems to let them co-exist as independants. On the ride he expressed his concern about a document that might be signed on August 20th that might deepen the political, economical and military ties between the countries of North America. His view was that the United States of America was trying to take over Canada and Mexico "with a pen". I don't know much about what's going on politically. I am out of the loop. But I hope our leaders will not act in such a way that will compromise our integrity as a nation. If we are going to conglomorate with the US and Mexico, it needs to be a mutually benificial action, and there are too many things I do know of that wouldn't be beneficial to share, like privatized health care, for instance, or a deep disparity between rich and poor. Canada was once a more socially-minded nation. The social programs we've had have provided us with an identity. I would hate to see us drown in the deep waters of a North-American capitalism that is, frankly, viciously Machiavellian. There is no arguing it. America's profits are built on blood, sweat, tears and broken dreams - mostly outside their borders, but more and more the tragedy is creeping in.

OK. Enough of the rant. On to Consecon, where the beaches look tropical and old mills are made into drinking holes. I arrived at the Cascades Pub & Grill at 11am, and decided I needed to have a nap after the 1hr sleep absurdness. The girl at the bar drew me a little map, and I only got lost twice before finding the beach two hours later. It was worth it, though. The wind was blowing in off the lake, the sun was high, the waves were breaking, and I found a patch of shade on a patch of sand. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.... I woke up sweaty and hot, as the sun had found me, and jumped in the lake fully clothed before I began walking back to town. It was a glorious walk back as my clothes dried around me and I kept cool as the wind blew them. When I got back, the Cascades Open Stage was jumping, and it reminded me some of Irene's here in Ottawa - people even had songs with the name of the bar and the regulars in them! After the open stage, the place cleared out, and I spent my first set playing an up-close-and-personal set to a couple of tables. By the time Derek got up to play the second set, though, the place had filled up some, and though he fought the noise of the crowd a little bit, he did a pretty darn good job of keeping their attention. Fifteen minutes later, I went up to do my second set, and by that point the bar had erupted into a very noisy situation. Oh - did I mention we were unplugged? Yep. I had to blast my way through every high-tempo, high-volume tune I knew just to keep a scrap of attention. Luckily, it worked, as a lot of people responded very well to me. (There was even a guy who gave me his card who is a Nashville-based promotion outfit - pretty cool, eh?) We were supposed to earn $250 that night, but neither Derek or I felt we'd earned it, so we offered to take a pay cut down to $170, which would cover our expenses, but Chris wanted to pay us $200, so that's what we got. I guess it worked out OK for everyone. It is a hard thing, though, when you've made a deal for a certain amount, and you feel like you haven't earned it. I have trouble with that, anyway....

Later that night I went home with Richard Paxton (the fellow who made Derek's beautiful sounding guitar) and his wife, and they gave me a ride in the morning up to Belleville where I met my dad and headed to Blue Skies. Before I left I got to play some of the guitars he's made, and see his workshop. Guitar-making is an art form that boggles my mind. Sometimes, upon seeing the process, I feel unworthy of playing the things. =)

Ahhhhh... Blue Skies. Home sweet home. Familiar faces and warm embraces - the kindness and love that I need right now. Blue Skies was a whirr of reunions, music, joy. I arrived and felt uplifted. I got my bracelet on and felt liberated. I saw my friends - so many friends. I stayed up all night playing music along Washboard Hank, the good folks from Galitcha, Trevor Mills, Tannis Slimmon, my sister and my dad. I felt sad sad sad as everybody left on Monday and I got an all-too-short jam in with Jerome-Antoine, my greatest playing partner. By Monday night I just wanted to get stoned to erase how melancholy I was feeling, but ultimately it didn't help.

Aug 2 - Toronto, ON

Apologies for the delay in blogging. The tour lately has been busy, and wonderful, and hard. My psyche has been a mess.

Where did I leave off? South River?

Renee's Cafe in South River was a really cool spot that for no good reason people in the area didn't seem to know that much about. Well folks, if you live or cottage anywhere near South River, get your adventurous buns over there and listen to the great music they have in on the weekends and try their ridiculously amazing desserts. I have authority on these desserts, you see - I had two. Yum. That's all I gotta say.

The one part of the show at Renee's that sticks out in my head is how I played Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" that night. Sometimes I get in a zone with a song, and that night I felt every word. This experience is what makes music worth playing for me, and I find when I can lose myself in a song like that, it is more enjoyable for the audience as well. It was relieving because I hadn't really felt like that since Nanton, Alberta, where almost my whole show felt "in the zone".

After the show we slept in a funky little hotel on the highway that is all painted up on the outside. I think Derek posted a photo of it here. Despite the beauty of the place, I slept horribly due to vicious late-night over-consumption of caffeine and sugar (remember the two dessert thing?) and the next day I felt pretty horrible. I just lounged about the front deck of the hotel, making conversation with the quirky owners, and only going into town to purchase a personality-full shawl and some glass-bead earrings for Asta, which are apparantly a hit now. Geoff Holbrook's (Derek's pal from Montreal who has been promoting our show there and showed up seemingly randomly in South River) family gave me a hugely helpful lift right to Vki Lucier's Zen Waffle Inn (which isn't an Inn, by the way) driveway. My sigh of relief was long and wonderful.

I got in Vki's door and quickly went swimming in Georgian Bay. We feasted on healthy organic soup and steamed veggies, watched a movie called "The Time Machine," and got to bed relatively early. The next morning I got up and dipped in the bay again, feeling happy about using cool water and sunlight to wake me instead of coffee. [Since I stopped cycling, I've been leading a little more typical musician's life: lots of booze and late night partying. It really isn't for me, but old habits die hard.] At the noon hour was the "Waffle Off" sporting a head-to-head competition between Vki and her beau Peter who made independant and incomparable and delicious waffles that the crew that was slowly amassing enjoyed very much. One thing that was discovered was that the circular model of the waffle iron produced thicker, fluffier, tastier waffles, so Vki was working with a handi-cap with her square waffle making iron. No matter, though - chocolate and cranberries always taste good! The atmosphere was relaxed as we started the show a little late. I felt a little off that day, musically, but Derek was ON ON ON - he was making jokes and had that little group of people in the palm of his hand. My failings passed right by me, though, as I enjoyed more swimming after the show and a good conversation with a woman named Kate who is very vibrant and animated. She is always moving, like she has constant music going on in her head. We all stayed up a little late. Derek jammed with Peter and Vki and I played with the kids. Sleep was deep that night, and I woke up refreshed. Peter gave me a lift into Hamilton which turned out very long because of a 60-car accident on the 400. Welcome back to Toronto, I thought - what a dump!

Asta came and picked me up in Hamilton, gracious enough to wait for me though I was close to two hours late. We took off down to her sister's place in Simcoe and spent a couple of sweltering days there, exploring what Port Dover and Waterford had to offer. The heat was so strong it seemed to drain the life from us, and we spent most of both days lounging stupidly, unable to come up with inspiring ideas for things to do and generally lacking spontenaity. A little bit of bad timing on the weather's part for when I was visiting a new flame. How can you recognize heat when you're in a fire? Ha ha ha. I was thankful for the visit, all the same.

Up to Toronto I went on the Wednesday, when another friend, The Deuce, came to my rescue and graciously gave me a lift all the way up to Alliston through more Toronto traffic. Why anyone lives and drives a car in that city, I do not know. Its charms are lost on me, I must admit.

The show up in Alliston was in conjunction with "ladies night" at Groundswell Coffeehouse. Derek missed out, as I was one of two males in the joint, and the other one was wearing pearls, so I don't know if he counts. It was a fun little show, and I got to partake in the delectable desserts there. Mostly I remember swimming afterwards in one of the employees friend's pool. I swam (again wishing I didn't need a bathing suit) and watched the stars and talked to the girls - again I was the only guy. Yep - it's good to be me sometimes! Ha ha ha.

I got myself on a bus to Toronto today and here I am, at the apartment of The Deuce, preparing to take off to play music for a living while she goes to save lives as a paramedic. Nope, my life ain't so tough, is it?

June 21 - Moose Jaw, SK - in the heat

Scorching
skin sizzles beneath this sun
each second deeper sinks
the burn

I can feel it out there
an apparition in a bad horror flick
a laugh maniacal
behind a useless wall

sweating
still and lethargic
hard to get up for it
for anything at all

so here I sit
trying to will coolness
feel - really feel - the fan's breeze hit
any semblance
of respite
of breeze
of "aaaaaah - that's it"

June 1 - Vernon, BC - House Concert @ Asta K's

We had a hard day getting from Winfield to Vernon because the distance was longer than we expected, the hills were steeper, the heat was scorching, and we were hung-over from bottles of red wine graciously provided by our hostess Kerry the night before. I woke up feeling nautious, which only intensified as the day went on, until only a few kilometres from Asta K's place I had to pull over to be sick. Shortly thereafter, Derek had to pull over to cool down. It was mutually agreed that heavy imbibing the night before biking was NOT a good idea. =) As seems the theme of my trip so far, a guardian angel again appeared to help me out - two, in fact. The first was a woman who had been at our Winfield show and just happened to be passing by checking her mail. She offered to take my gear up to Asta's for me, making my load lighter, and gave Derek and I cool drinks. Second was Ty, the boyfriend of one of our hostesses (Kris) that night, who came to give me a lift up the last few kilometres. Derek, of course, refused to get in a car (he has promised himself no motor vehicles for the duration of this trip), and cycled the rest of the way up (he is hard-core cycle man!). Both of us felt immensely better upon arrival and immersion in cold water, Derek in a shower and I buck naked in a creek that ran through the property, which was idyllic: Three beautiful log cabins tucked away in thick woods with the mentioned creek running through it, complete with a foot bridge made of planks on fallen trees and a wading pool in front of a small waterfall. If Asta and Kris' home was by the ocean and had a garden, I would be tempted to stay with them and never leave. As it was, I was pretty tempted anyway, and had no desire to leave in the morning. Asta and Kris put on the ritz, setting up a little festival-like stage for us complete with cedar boughs and Christmas lights, and a tickle-trunk provided some fantastic costumes that came in handy towards the end of our performance. People kept arriving as the evening deepened, bringing food for a pot-luck and tents to camp in. It was the last day of classes for Asta et al at their massage therapy school, so a party was gearing up. We played an acoustic set (our second such show in as many nights) that tested the limits of our voices and our knowledge of and willingness to play loud party songs. During our break, though, Ty brought us a little amp and microphone, and we got ourselves plugged-in for the second set. After that, things really perked up. People got dancing and enjoying themselves, and Derek whipped out a ton of party tunes he knows. I finished up my night before him, played "My Hammerhead Baby" after dropping my vest and drawers, exposing a shiny red sleeveless shirt, 1980s aviator sunglasses and a skin-tight pair of black and white vertical striped pants that apparantly looked quite good on me. After I finished playing, I felt mellow and famished. Our lovely hostess Asta whipped me up a super salad and even better conversation until 2AM when I had reached my zenith of exhaustion. I went back to my tent by the brook and made sweet love to the Sandman for 7 hours or so, experiencing THE best sleep in my memory.