Hey Everyone!

It’s been awhile I know, but things are good and things are busy. After I got back from the “Painting With Tides” tour in December, I knew I needed a good ol’ break. Being on the road constantly for two months is a lot. As a musician you love the road, but it’s also a major adjustment period to be on the road and to come home from the road.

It was also a major adjustment to come home to a new house! My partner Warren and I bought our first house and I’m still waiting for the landlord to show up and tell us we can’t paint the walls or something! But it is ours. So, no rest after the road as we were moving and renovating galore before Christmas.

Our little abode 20 minutes outside Antigonish. The community out here is unbelievable! It’s super cool to be able to get your meat, eggs, vegetables, syrup, whatever down the road. We also have the worlds best neighbours ever – the kind of neighbours that’ll feed you for a full week and a half when you’re doing renovations, the kind that will come plough you out when you’re stuck because you get stuck a lot up here, and the kind that will come help you throw wood in in -20 weather when it’s all frozen together and snow covered. Best kind. I really do love it out here…

Anyway, so I got back in December, moved, and then it was Christmas and New Years and that was very full on as well. Warren’s family has about a 7 day event at Christmas and then we flew out West to see my family in Saskatchewan. We also drove 13 hours from Candle Lake, SK to Banff, AB to snowboard one day, but it was well worth it! Man I miss the mountains.

When we got back from out West, I had about a week till I hopped on tour with Rawlins Cross across the East Coast. It was an unreal time! Those guys are solid people and it was such a privilege to open up for them across the Atlantic provinces. We played theatres that made me want to cry when I stepped on stage! So old, antique, and amazing! My favorite, although it’s hard to choose, was the Imperial Theatre in Saint John New Brunswick. I couldn’t breath when I walked on stage for soundcheck! The fact that I had a dressing room at each of these shows was another luxury thing I wasn’t used to. James asked me if I needed a shower in my dressing room at one point and I responded with…”A shower?! I’m used to getting ready in car mirrors and campgrounds! The fact that I have a dressing room is blowing my mind!”

We had such a great time though. In the encore every night, the boys from Rawlins Cross were nice enough to let me come up and do a song of mine and they backed me up! We did “The Grave” and, yes, it was amazing! If you saw it, thanks for coming out to the shows! We did get it on video so hopefully we’ll have a link to post here soon. Thank you again and again to Rawlins Cross and to the folks who came out to the shows and to the new friends and fans I made along the way. I hope to see you again soon!

On January 20th, I also found out I am nominated for Female Solo Recording of the Year at this years East Coast Music Awards in P.E.I! I’m beyond excited and feel very privileged to be nominated with so many other amazing women in this music scene including Carmel Mikol, Christina Martin, Ruth Minnikin, Rose Cousins, and Meaghan Smith! For those of you who are eligible to vote, you can preview my album for free, as well as get 3 free downloads from “Painting With Tides” here.

I’m back here in the woods for most of February, and in fact, literally stuck today. 30 cm of snow and you can’t see the tires on any of the vehicles so I believe we will get ploughed out tonight. I haven’t gone into town in 4 days and I’m starting to feel weird about that. But I cooked moussaka, falafel, tabouli, moose chili, chicken noodle soup, homemade bread, and today I’m organizing receipts, so I don’t exactly take a break! I’m not the kind to sit down too often. Seriously when you have time off though there is no better time than to do things you’ve never done before, and for me that’s cooking!

I’m trying to eat healthy and local, so I’m trying to make it easy on myself by having as many healthy local things available at my fingertips! Making everything from scratch is quite a challenge as well. I know why my mom fed us hamburger helper now! With 3 girls on the go with 4 different sports after working a 12 hour night shift at the hospital, I’d feed them hamburger helper too! What a woman.

Well, I’ve got an amazing house concert coming up February 20th at my good friends Paula and Michael Fredericks’ house. I’m playing with Carmel Mikol who I haven’t seen or played with in a dog’s age…it’s going to be a great time! Paula is out on the South Shore so if any of you are close and would like to attend, just shoot me a message. You are more than welcome as well as your guests! If you’re interested in hosting a house concert, please feel free to drop me a line. I love them and would love to play one for you. I will also be partaking in the Canada Games 2011 in Halifax this month. What a killer line up of music folks, so I hope you get out to see some of it!

The label I’m on, Groundswell Music, has also just signed another artist, J.P Cormier! I’m very excited to be on this label. They work extremely hard and we are like one big family. Rawlins Cross, Joey Kitson, The Stanfields, Thom Swift, Carleton Stone, me, and now J.P Cormier are in the family. Groundswell, Ian McKinnon who runs the label, The Stanfields and Thom Swift, are all up for a couple of East Coast Music Awards as well, so wish us luck in April! The new Groundswell website is up, so if you would like a free sampler download of all the artists on the label, check out the website and join the mailing list at groundswellmusic.ca.

The rest of this month, I’m planning some tours for the Spring, Summer, and Fall so stay in touch folks. We will also be releasing some other videos this month so check back. I hope to see you all soon. Until then, I hope you all enjoy what’s left of the month of February and don’t get stuck as often as I do out here!

Happy February Snow Days!

Much love,

Kim