Monday, Nov. 1: Kenora

After our one day off after Winnipeg, we were back on the road again. Before we took off, Shelley made us some amazing French toast and then we stopped by Sidney’s friends house who was kind enough to burn us a number of C.D.’s and equip us with a bottle of homemade wine…for those really long drives. JK. Thanks Yvan! He was also kind enough to pick me up a guitar strap to replace the shoelace I was using. Then it was Amy’s turn to drive. After about 2 and ½ hours we got to the HoJo Coffeehouse in Kenora where we were then greeted by an extremely friendly staff. I think it might be a requirement that your name has to start with the letter M in order to work there: Marlie, Melissa and Melanie. They would also end up making up about 1/3 of our audience. It was a small show, but like I always say, it’s always about the quality of the crowd, rather then the quantity. I think I had the most fun at this show so far on this tour… and I am not sure why. Perhaps it was because I always like to try my extremely new material out on smaller crowds. Or perhaps it was because everyone who was there were really enjoying, and responsive to our music. We sold C.D.’s to pretty much the entire audience, and ended up with more emails on our mailing list than actual audience members. So according to audience ratio, we did amazing!! Thanks to Kenora for the support. We look forward to playing there again. Then we were off to Thunder Bay. I was the one to start the driving. We would only arrive in Thunder Bay @ 3:00 am that morning, so we had to make sure our energy was up. We made a pit stop at Sidney’s favorite restaurant, the local A&W.

Tuesday, Nov. 2: Thunder Bay, ON.

We pulled into Thunder Bay at about 4 am this morning, and Alex, the sound guy from the Apollo was kind enough to let us in! I have to say, I am not sure of a more welcoming spot then the Apollo on the Canadian tour route and I am sure all other touring artists would agree. They always make sure there is roof over your head and food in your stomach, thanks Shiela and Tina! At 3:45 the next day I went to pay one of my favorite Campus radio music directors a visit, Jason, at CILU radio. He was a little disappointed that I didn’t bring any of my famous cookies with me this time, but he still let myself, Sidney and Amy do the Interview. We appeared on Jen’s Bent and had a lot of fun, as I did last time I was in Thunder Bay. Thanks again for the support Jen, we’ll be sure to stop by next time on our way through Thunder Bay. After the interview we headed back to the Apollo where Tina made us a marvelous meal and Sheila shared stories of all the musicians she has met over the years. Thanks to her I discovered a few new artists who are amazing. One in particular was Mason Rack from Australia. She made us sit down and watch a Youtube video on him, and let me tell you, I am sure glad she did. You should all go check him out right now. And when he is in your town, make sure you go check out a show. We also talked about some of my good friends from Edmonton, Scott Cook, Derrek Anderson… Sheila says hi!!

We had a great show that night with some awesome openers. Thanks to Les and John from the Uxmal Project; really enjoyed their tunes. John and myself have some similarity in our writing style. One song he performed, I maintain that he stole the line from me…jk. We can share John! However, I think it is defiantly fair to say that I stole Les’s dance moves. I tried…but nothing could compare. Hope we get a chance to play again soon boys!!

The next day was an early morning. Off by 10:00 and only 8 hours to Saulte Ste. Marie…

Saulte Ste. Marie:

OMG!! First of all, I would just like to say I am thankful that I even made it here. So we filled up our tank in Thunder Bay. Amy took the first shift of driving where Sidney and herself tried to scare the crap out of me with their crazy ghost stories, while I, being out-of-touch with the spiritual realm decided to share with them my gift for advertising (it’s a long and boring story…you’ll be sorry if you ask). After lunch in WAWA, I asked the Miss Sidney York if it might be a good idea to fill up. She simply replied, let’s wait and see where we are at by Marathon. Just under ½ a tank of gas, I assumed this would be fine. So placing all my trust in the wisdom of Miss Sidney York I slipped the key into the ignition and we were off again. About 4 hours later… I was getting a little nervous. We were down to 2 bars of gas on the indicator when the gaslight finally went on. Sidney reassured me this would be fine, and we would pull into the next gas station. However, we are now down to 1 bar of gas and have not yet hit a gas station. Sidney once again reassures me that this is fine, and she has often driven for quite long distances with her gaslight on. Trusting that Sidney would never put me in such a predicament as running out of Gas in the middle of nowhere, at night, in the middle of the woods with man-eating moose and who knows what else, I continued to drive along, putting the car in neutral whenever we hit a hill in order to save as much gas a possible. However, about 15 km later, there is still no gas station, and we are now down to no bars of gas. Then I started to get extremely nervous. Sidney once again reassures me that we will be fine and states that we have at least 20 km to go on empty before the car gives out. However, little did she know that our fate would be determined by a large green sign about 100 meters away in the distance. A sign that read, Saulte Ste. Marie: 28 km. Upon reading the sign, Sidney simple says, “O Crap, we’re never going to make it.” Ohh what happened to those kind words of reassurance I was hoping for? Sidney and Amy like to say I panicked, but I beg to differ. I think I handled the situation like a complete pro. I may have ranted about how ridiculous it was that there seemed to be number of residences along the road without a gas station, and simply put the car into neutral whenever we were going down a steep enough hill. And then some how by the grace of God, at the bottom of one of these hills we saw a little convenience store…which we realized, was also a gas station. Thanks to a last minute left turn by yours truly we rolled into the gas station as we all let out a cheer of excitement and relief. We then filled up and made it the rest of the way to Saulte Ste. Marie.

Before we went to our show we had a little time to kill back at the Hotel. However, we were completely distracted by our very “noisy” neighbors. They were having a really good time, and I mean a “really good” time. It was really quite distracting, Amy was unable to focus during her Yoga Meditation, and eventually gave up while I tried to maintain my focus on an exam I was writing for one of my college courses over the internet. If I get a bad grade…I know who to blame.

The show that night was a blast to play, thanks to Stephan at Lop Lops for having us again. Also, to Frank Deresti for opening. This guy is amazing, you must check out his music. We actually ended up getting a copy of an album he cut with “The Granola People”, and it must be good. Myself and Amy ended up listening to it all the way to Sudbury, and then again to North Bay. Sidney and Amy played phenomenally that night, as per usual. I feel so lucky to play with these to talented ladies. Sidney performed the song she had written for a friends wedding she was going to be singing at that Friday. It was the first time she had performed it in front of a live audience and she did it like a pro! Love the new tune! Also I would like to thank Amy for the dedication, I think the audience was left a little confused about your sexual orientation…but I felt the love!!

I would also like to give a special mention to Chris who brought the wine…and thanks for leaving your beer by accident…we will most definitely enjoy it for you!! For now, Sidney is off to the wedding for Friday and Saturday while myself and Amy head off for two shows in Sudbury in North Bay. We look forward to meeting up back in Montreal on Sunday!! It won’t be the same without you Sidney!!