Hey Folks!

Coming at you from my Dad’s in London, Ontario. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I overate as usual so I decided to get back on the gym/yoga train this week and now I waddle down stairs like a 90 year old. Thankfully Kitchener was a songwriter’s circle where you sit on stools and don’t move too much for about an hour.

It’s been a good little jaunt so far. I’ve played Guelph, Toronto, Kitchener, London, and now I’m headed to Ottawa to the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals Conference! I’ve never experienced this shindig which happens in hotel rooms till the wee hours of the morning on 2 floors, but it sounds like a great time.

Not a lot has happened over the past week. Just the usual really…getting stuck for 4 hours on the 401 out of Toronto on a Thanksgiving weekend, GPS not doing what it’s supposed to and making up places that don’t even exist while also taking me right through construction zones (the fastest route obviously), a German polka jam in my Dad’s garage with my uncle and his accordion, friends I haven’t seen in forever and bowling competitions. That’s about it really.

In Guelph I played with two lovely gals, Ambre McLean, who I haven’t seen forever, and Ashley Condon, a fellow East Coaster. It was great to play with them again. Heads up, the entire downtown of Guelph is torn up and under the largest construction zone I’ve seen in my life so don’t use a GPS and mind the one ways if you’re headed that direction. It looks like the end of the world or a war zone.

In Toronto, I met two amazing gals, Tara Holloway and Amanda Rheaume, both from Ottawa. These two are unreal so check them out if you have a chance. The Cameron House was packed and very close to sold out, which was a real treat. As soon as I headed from London to Toronto on the 401, I started to get anxious. The only thing that kept me calm was CBC and my patient significant other, Warren, so when I got to the Cameron House and got into that black, dark, back music room, the 401 disappeared and it was such a great evening. As soon as I stepped out to drive home the anxiety kicked back in though so I believe I’m forever haunted by that stretch of highway.

Kitchener/Waterloo was a good time. I played Maxwell’s Music House, which is not only a live music venue, but also hosts music lessons, music camps, and jam space areas. What a great idea for a business. Ian Sherwood showed up looking like…well looking like he’d drove for 2 days from Nova Scotia, which he did. It’s always great to see Ian. He just put out a new album called “And Now the Fun Begins”. I recommend checking it out. Ian was also just nominated for Musician of the Year at the Music Nova Scotia Awards! He really helped me out on the Ontario leg of my tour and let me jump on a few bills with him. Genuine and helpful are two qualities that are like gold. So surround yourself with people like this and try to be like this.

In London, I also played with Ian Sherwood, as well as Rob Szabo and Jodi King. I’d never met Rob before but heard so much about him. His is hilarious and such a great performer. The London Music Club is such a great room as well, very much like a house concert. It’s as intimate as they get and I don’t need a mic in that room. It’s also one of those rooms where if you talk during a performance, you feel like an idiot and look like an idiot.

London is all of a sudden full of old friends I knew from out West who randomly moved here for school. I love when this happens. I went bowling with my friend Brett the other day. We found out that we both should think about bowling as another career. I started out with 4 strikes in a row and in the last game, Brett had 7 strikes, so for two people that haven’t bowled in 10-12 years, we should really rethink things. You should have seen my technique.

At the bowling alley, there are 10 large theatre screens above each lane. Now, I don’t have television and haven’t had television for about a year now, so when Much Music came on, I was entranced like a 14 year old Carmel Mikol when she saw Carebears for the first time after being a farm kid with no electricity in Cape Breton. This newest video from Ciara came on, ‘Ride’ featuring Ludacris. Now I know why I don’t have T.V. How do we support this crap?! Well, she’s the hottest thing since sliced bread (I still don’t get this saying…why is sliced bread hot anyways?) and she is an amazing dancer, but seriously, like always, watch with a conscience and think of the bigger picture before caving into this crap and giving it more hits on youtube. The main problem is that the audience watching it is anywhere from the age of 6 to 18. I know. When I taught voice lessons, you should have seen the songs the 7 year olds were bringing it. The best thing to do is watch the video with the sound turned off. It’s like a pornstar teaching little people how to ‘ride’ it. I’m cool with an open perspective on sexuality, but if you watch it and you feel like you should be watching it in the privacy of your bedroom, then it shouldn’t be on Much Music catering to 7 year olds. If you’re watching it, and it seems completely normal, you’re desensitised and need to stop watching so much Much Music. Anyways, this is nothing that hasn’t been said before. What do I know. I play folk and this is why.