Guitar
Hey gang. I've just arrived home from the Hurricane and the Hooligans whirlwind tour. I'm in one piece, albeit a shaky, just past exhaustion piece...
I had the best intentions of posting from the road, and set up the home studio in my room with plans to make hay while the sun shined. However, a terrible internet connection which left me unable to even send emails pretty much put the kibosh on that idea. I did shoot some video, but my camera had a real focus problem, so most of the live-show video was below par and I was unable to upload anything anyway, so I mostly spent my days eating, sleeping and walking, all good things to do when you're playing a beer hall to the wee hours seven nights in a row. Hopefully I'll have the time and energy to finish some of the work I started in the coming days, but I do have three more gigs this week and a very energetic little boy to attend to before week's end, so who knows?
We left Vancouver, BC at midnight on Thursday, March 14th and drove twelve hours through to Calgary, Alberta. I logged over nine hours of driving, mostly on twisty mountain two-lane highway, a two-hour portion of which was fogged in to the point of near zero visibility. I climbed out of the driver's seat a couple hours after dawn and fell down in the back of the van for a couple hours of fitful sleep. I awoke for the last leg of the journey and immediately discerned that I was getting sick. Oh great... We arrived in Calgary and immediately dashed to the airport to pick up our bass player (who wisely chose to fly), then checked into our band house and proceeded to the club to unload and soundcheck. After a hasty dinner we headed back to the shack where I got a shower and about a half-hours rest, which I immediately regretted after waking up groggy and half-comatose with no desire to let go of my pillow; I calculated that I had had less than four hours of sleep over the past 48 hours . Alas, time waits for no man, so off to the club for the first of two nights. We were performing at Booker's Barbecue and Crab Shack, to whom I must give a high-five: easily the best barbecue I've had at a Canadian restaurant, and I cooked BBQ for a living for over eight years.
The shows in Calgary were uneventful in the best way; although tired, we played tight and avoided any train wrecks. Although it was a restaurant gig, the show hours were largely after the dinner crowd finished eating and we were encouraged to not play too politely. I was told to turn up twice! Any guitarist knows what a happy occasion that is.
On Saturday afternoon we headed to the Blues Can, a groovy blues club in the Inglewood district for the excellent Tim William's jam session. Tim's so cool! It's always great to see him, and I ran into a bunch of other old Calgary friends. We played a groovy little set there and turned a few heads.
On Sunday we had to retrieve our gear from Booker's and drive up to Edmonton, about five hours north. Nursing a pretty healthy hangover from a little shots session with the Booker's staff, not to mention several beers for breakfast at the Blues Can, I was happy to be a passenger and drift in and out of sleep; a happy and uneventful drive which took place two days before a major blizzard hit Edmonton (in mid MARCH!) and caused a hundred car pile-up on the freeway. Nice timing.
We got moved into the Commercial Hotel in Edmonton to play Blues on Whyte, (the bar downstairs) and found to our joy that the bar manager was present, the front desk staff were cool and the rooms had been upgraded (well not mine, but it wasn't too bad, despite a shower that varied from scalding hot to freezing cold about every ten seconds and a very shaky email connection). After a couple of beers I crashed my sick and sore body into bed to prepare for seven three-hour engagements and two one-hour matinee shows in Edmonton's most legendary beer joint, a week that has seriously threatened my health and well-being in the past and now featured one more night and matinee than in previous years. We'll take up that tale next time.
Below is one of the tunes I recorded in my hotel room during an Edmonton blizzard. I'm using my Boneshaker microamp into an EHX Freedom Bros. cabinet with a Fuzz Factory clone in line. Just like Muddy's rig!
- 2013 - A Year In Review
Wow. 2013 is all but over and I can't believe all the plot twists that developed and defined what was a landmark, watershed year for me. The biggest development was really the lack thereof: my wife and I had planned to move to...
- Home In One Piece - Part 2, Edmonton.
We arrived in Edmonton mid afternoon on Sunday the 17th of March and checked into the Commercial Hotel without incident and with a night off before we were to start our seven day, nine show week at the hotel's bar, Blues on Whyte. The bar manager...
- Off On Another Quixotic Journey
Time to haul this bad-boy up the highway! Hello gang. I just thought I'd write a little note before I crash down for an early evening's sleep before a twelve hour drive from Vancouver to Calgary. Hurricane and the Hooligans...
- Some Crazy Gig Stories
Sandybone and I with our soul-faces on.Hello everyone. Lately, in addition to writing this blog (and playing all the music that inspires it {and being a full-time parent}) I have been contributing to the forum at Joe Gore's Tonefiend blog....
- A Tale Of Two Tours Part 1
Tour number one... In the last couple of weeks, I did two short tours. Leaving from Vancouver, I played on Vancouver Island with the excellent Dave "Hurricane" Hoerl May 4th and 5th, then split to Alberta with Sandybone and the Breakdown,...
Guitar
Home in One Piece
 |
| The road rig: pawn shop specials only! |
Hey gang. I've just arrived home from the Hurricane and the Hooligans whirlwind tour. I'm in one piece, albeit a shaky, just past exhaustion piece...
I had the best intentions of posting from the road, and set up the home studio in my room with plans to make hay while the sun shined. However, a terrible internet connection which left me unable to even send emails pretty much put the kibosh on that idea. I did shoot some video, but my camera had a real focus problem, so most of the live-show video was below par and I was unable to upload anything anyway, so I mostly spent my days eating, sleeping and walking, all good things to do when you're playing a beer hall to the wee hours seven nights in a row. Hopefully I'll have the time and energy to finish some of the work I started in the coming days, but I do have three more gigs this week and a very energetic little boy to attend to before week's end, so who knows?
We left Vancouver, BC at midnight on Thursday, March 14th and drove twelve hours through to Calgary, Alberta. I logged over nine hours of driving, mostly on twisty mountain two-lane highway, a two-hour portion of which was fogged in to the point of near zero visibility. I climbed out of the driver's seat a couple hours after dawn and fell down in the back of the van for a couple hours of fitful sleep. I awoke for the last leg of the journey and immediately discerned that I was getting sick. Oh great... We arrived in Calgary and immediately dashed to the airport to pick up our bass player (who wisely chose to fly), then checked into our band house and proceeded to the club to unload and soundcheck. After a hasty dinner we headed back to the shack where I got a shower and about a half-hours rest, which I immediately regretted after waking up groggy and half-comatose with no desire to let go of my pillow; I calculated that I had had less than four hours of sleep over the past 48 hours . Alas, time waits for no man, so off to the club for the first of two nights. We were performing at Booker's Barbecue and Crab Shack, to whom I must give a high-five: easily the best barbecue I've had at a Canadian restaurant, and I cooked BBQ for a living for over eight years.
The shows in Calgary were uneventful in the best way; although tired, we played tight and avoided any train wrecks. Although it was a restaurant gig, the show hours were largely after the dinner crowd finished eating and we were encouraged to not play too politely. I was told to turn up twice! Any guitarist knows what a happy occasion that is.
On Saturday afternoon we headed to the Blues Can, a groovy blues club in the Inglewood district for the excellent Tim William's jam session. Tim's so cool! It's always great to see him, and I ran into a bunch of other old Calgary friends. We played a groovy little set there and turned a few heads.
On Sunday we had to retrieve our gear from Booker's and drive up to Edmonton, about five hours north. Nursing a pretty healthy hangover from a little shots session with the Booker's staff, not to mention several beers for breakfast at the Blues Can, I was happy to be a passenger and drift in and out of sleep; a happy and uneventful drive which took place two days before a major blizzard hit Edmonton (in mid MARCH!) and caused a hundred car pile-up on the freeway. Nice timing.
We got moved into the Commercial Hotel in Edmonton to play Blues on Whyte, (the bar downstairs) and found to our joy that the bar manager was present, the front desk staff were cool and the rooms had been upgraded (well not mine, but it wasn't too bad, despite a shower that varied from scalding hot to freezing cold about every ten seconds and a very shaky email connection). After a couple of beers I crashed my sick and sore body into bed to prepare for seven three-hour engagements and two one-hour matinee shows in Edmonton's most legendary beer joint, a week that has seriously threatened my health and well-being in the past and now featured one more night and matinee than in previous years. We'll take up that tale next time.
Below is one of the tunes I recorded in my hotel room during an Edmonton blizzard. I'm using my Boneshaker microamp into an EHX Freedom Bros. cabinet with a Fuzz Factory clone in line. Just like Muddy's rig!
- 2013 - A Year In Review
Wow. 2013 is all but over and I can't believe all the plot twists that developed and defined what was a landmark, watershed year for me. The biggest development was really the lack thereof: my wife and I had planned to move to...
- Home In One Piece - Part 2, Edmonton.
We arrived in Edmonton mid afternoon on Sunday the 17th of March and checked into the Commercial Hotel without incident and with a night off before we were to start our seven day, nine show week at the hotel's bar, Blues on Whyte. The bar manager...
- Off On Another Quixotic Journey
Time to haul this bad-boy up the highway! Hello gang. I just thought I'd write a little note before I crash down for an early evening's sleep before a twelve hour drive from Vancouver to Calgary. Hurricane and the Hooligans...
- Some Crazy Gig Stories
Sandybone and I with our soul-faces on.Hello everyone. Lately, in addition to writing this blog (and playing all the music that inspires it {and being a full-time parent}) I have been contributing to the forum at Joe Gore's Tonefiend blog....
- A Tale Of Two Tours Part 1
Tour number one... In the last couple of weeks, I did two short tours. Leaving from Vancouver, I played on Vancouver Island with the excellent Dave "Hurricane" Hoerl May 4th and 5th, then split to Alberta with Sandybone and the Breakdown,...