Canadian Tour: Good Gigs #2
Aug. 27th, 2010 07:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jacey5th - 8th August: Lunenburg pics (see yesterday's post)
Hilary outside our billet at Lunenburg
Our friends Nigel and Clarisse in Toronto
11th August: Houseconcert, Toronto
For those not familiar with houseconcerts - these are a North American phenomenon where houses tend to have more open space than UK homes. Usually held on a midweek night as a filler between concert dates, the householder, invites people (and some concerts in larger houses seat 70 - 100 people depending on the place). It's basically a private party. There are no set ticket prices because that would mean the householder is using their home for commercial purposes which might invalidate insurance and contravene local bylaws, but there's a 'strongly recommended' donation of not less than $x, all of which goes to the performer. Visitors often bring food/cookies etc. to share, so there's a nibbles buffet, too. The householder gets an up-close-and-personal performance by his/her favourite performers and the performer fills an off-night and usually gets accommodation too. In this case we already have somewhere to stay, but the gig is still very welcome.
It's sold out well in advance. Full room. After a few fresh days on the coast at Lunenburg, the Toronto weather is once more excruciatingly hot and sticky, and with 40 people crammed in, the house is hot and sticky, too, even with the aircon on full. They leave the back door open for a bit of breeze, but unfortunately it lets in a mosquito. I'm A-grade mozzie-bait, and come up in huge purple welts if bitten, so every time it comes near me I'm dodging about. We try hard, but energy levels may be a little lower than usual because of the heat. I hope it doesn't show. The audience is clearly having a good time. Lovely to see so many friendly faces. Our host is David Warren who was the artistic director of Mariposa Festival and gave us our first ever gig in Canada back in 1994 when the event was briefly on Olympic Island in Toronto. There's Gord from the Flying Cloud, and Steve and Anne, and also Eileen who we met on our very first trip over. At least two people have come from the USA... just to see us... both travelling long distances. We are once again humbled.
Nigel and Clarisse come. Nigel brings his new digital video camera and films it all. Hopefully we'll be able to upload it somewhere before too much longer.
Plenty of shopping in Toronto from lowest common denominator places like Zellers, Dollarama and Wally-World (Wal-Mart) to the delightful independent shops and boutiques on Queen East at the Beaches. Brian gets jeans, jeans, jeans and more jeans. At that price how could he not? $14 for Wranglers - that's about £10. I get some new shirts and T-shirty, drapy things plus some of those rocker-shaped Scholl's sandals and a pair of purple sneakers. Hilary has a field-day in a fabulous little boutiquey shop on Queen, which has lots of floaty, drapey, baggy things in murky colours with asymmetrical hemlines and unusual tucks and shapes. OK, I confess, I bought one, too.
14th August: Aeolian Hall, London, Ontario
With Steve Ritchie and Al Parrish, lately from Tanglefoot, doing the opening spot for us this is a gig I'd have paid to do. The Aeolian is a privately owned concert hall, a fabulous building that was once London's town hall. We met up with Al and his son Ashton (age 8-ish) for dinner before the show, but Steve couldn't join us because he's recently got a more-than-full-time job doing technical stuff at the radio station in Owen Sound where he does his Thursday night 'Hundred Mile Music Show'. We stay for one night with Bill and Kenna and their granddaughter (and Sheltie dog) and then depart for Steve, Sharon and Connor's house in Chatsworth, just south of Owen Sound. More visiting, more shopping, both in Owen Sound, and a fascinating trip to Keady market - a huge outdoor cattle-market, farmers' market and general market which takes us 2 hours to walk around, there's so much to see (and buy).
18th August: Houseconcert, Grey Highlands Ontario
An amazing house, seemingly in the middle of nowhere (but not really). It always boggles me when some of Canada's highways are gravel rather than tarmac. I feel as though I'm going up a farm track - but no, they're real roads. Glad we've got directions, though. Apparently if you try and use a satnav it dumps you in the middle of the woods. We're fed royally before the gig and then perform in front of a huge, pointy picture window that looks out across woodlands. There are fans who've travelled up from Orangeville and neighbours who don't know us from Adam. A lovely mix. And Gord's here again.
Then there's just one more day to spend with the Ritchies before moving into the Travelodge, the hotel where all the performers stay for Summerfolk Festival at Owen Sound. Unfortunately I bend over to fold a shirt for my suitcase and feel my back go sproing. 'It's then I discover the delights of Robax (robaxicet) a muscle relaxant combined with various painkillers - in my case ibuprohen. It's not available over the counter in either the USA or the UK, but it's brilliant stuff. It stops my back from spasming in next to no time and lets it fix itself over the next few days. It even seems to help my foot. With that and the stretches from Clarisse (and a bit of careful planning) my foot isn't too bad over the course of the festival
20th - 22nd August: Summerfolk Festival, Owen Sound, Ontario
One of our favourite festivals. It's all contained on one site at Kelso Beach Park in Owen Sound, which fronts on to Georgian Bay, that part of Lake Huron that's like an ear-shape, separated form the main lake by the Bruce Peninsula. We played Summerfolk on our very first trip to Canada, some 16 years ago. Back then the lake came right up to the backstage area where the performers all eat and socialise. Then the lake level dropped and invasive rushes grew up and made the lake invisible from the shore. This year, although the water level is still low, they've cut the rushes back so you can see the lake again. It's a lovely setting, with a purpose-built stage facing a purpose-built amphitheatre which seats approximately 4000 on blankets and lawn chairs on the concentric terraces. As well as being a music festival it's an arts and crafts festival with lots of lovely and unusual goodies to buy.
We do our big concert on the Friday night at 9.00 p.m. just after it turns fully black. With sound by Steve Darke and his brilliant crew, we know we're in excellent hands. The stage end is handled by volunteers, but experienced ones and all under the competent direction of an experienced (longstanding) stage manager, a technical manager and a monitor engineer on side-stage. Everyone gets their own stage hand to take them on and plug them in and line-check them if necessary. There are no sound-checks for anybody (no exception) and turnaround time is rarely more than 5 minutes (with a 'tweener' on side-stage singing one song to keep the audience warm). If the act needs a drum-kit there's a roll-on platform so the drums can set up backstage behind a curtain. It's all so very smooth and well managed.
Onstage pics at Summwerfolk by John Fearnall (www.goodnoise.ca) Used with permission.
We have 35 minutes. Right from the instant we step out on to the main stage we're flying. It's an amazing experience when you have those moments of complete clarity, knowing that you're on top of your game and the audience is with you and you're not going to put a tonsil wrong.
Friends at Summerfolk L to R: Al Parrish and Rob Ritchie (Tanglefoot) and their wives, Ande Ritchie and Wendy Pearl
The rest of the weekend is a mixture of workshops, which in a Canadian festival means not a teaching workshop, but more of a round-robin concert, with a bunch of performers taking turns. We have a good time in the harmony workshop, which we host, though quite what we're supposed to sing in the 'pub tunes' workshop, I'm not sure. We shoehorn some songs into it and guess well when we do Neil Young's 'After the Gold Rush'. They love it. Neil Young is a Canadian god. On Sunday we do the Folksingers Without Guitars workshop, which is a gift for us because it means we can do anything from our repertoire.
Weather is cooler and damp, with rain showers that don't drive away the audience, thank goodness. They just wrap up in plastic and sit it out.
Wet Sunday Morning at Summersoak
We've been asked to sing 'Mary Ellen Carter' - traditionally Summerfolk's finishing song - on the big finale with Len Wallace, accordionist, left wing activist and singer. We did it in 1994, totally intimidated by having Ariel Rogers there (Stan Rogers' widow) and Al, (Stan's dad), but now Ariel seems like an old friend. It's lovely to see her again. She's been sick but seems to be well on the way to recovery. Fingers crossed.
We get together with Len to rehearse, and Grit Laskin - performer and wizard luthier and inlay artist - joins us, playing the distinctive riff that opens the song in accompanied versions, and which Grit actually had a hand in creating. (Diddle-iddle-um. Diddle-iddle-um-dum. Diddle-um-dum. Dun-dum-dum, Dum-DUM-dum-dum-dum....) That's settled. Grit's in on it, too, so the five of us are doing the last festival song with all the performers and volunteers on stage with us. We wait backstage for Lennie Gallant to finish his set and then we're up and running. Mose Scarlett sings Goodnight Irene and then we're on: Diddle-iddle-um. Diddle-iddle-um-dum. Diddle-um-dum. Dun-dum-dum, Dum-DUM-dum-dum-dum... and Hilary's into the first verse, good and strong. Good job we can hear her acoustically because with this kind of crowd on stage no one gets monitors. She can hear Grit, Brian and I can hear her. Len must be able to hear Grit, too because he's in there, too with the accordion and it's wild. The volunteers and performers behind us start stamping, clapping and singing along. Any chance of holding the speed steady is lost, we've got a monster on the loose behind us. They drive us all on until the song's going like an express train, but nobody hits a bum note or fluffs a word. We finish and the crowd goes nuts, then the folks on stage part, and the audience out front parts, and a Highland piper, the same one who's been playing for 35 years at this festival, starts up at the back. Dark Island. He walks steadily off the front of the stage through the crowd and we all follow, two by two, doing the shaking hands or high five thing with the audience as we go. It's a WOW moment. One of those memories to treasure.
Hilary outside our billet at Lunenburg
Our friends Nigel and Clarisse in Toronto
11th August: Houseconcert, Toronto
For those not familiar with houseconcerts - these are a North American phenomenon where houses tend to have more open space than UK homes. Usually held on a midweek night as a filler between concert dates, the householder, invites people (and some concerts in larger houses seat 70 - 100 people depending on the place). It's basically a private party. There are no set ticket prices because that would mean the householder is using their home for commercial purposes which might invalidate insurance and contravene local bylaws, but there's a 'strongly recommended' donation of not less than $x, all of which goes to the performer. Visitors often bring food/cookies etc. to share, so there's a nibbles buffet, too. The householder gets an up-close-and-personal performance by his/her favourite performers and the performer fills an off-night and usually gets accommodation too. In this case we already have somewhere to stay, but the gig is still very welcome.
It's sold out well in advance. Full room. After a few fresh days on the coast at Lunenburg, the Toronto weather is once more excruciatingly hot and sticky, and with 40 people crammed in, the house is hot and sticky, too, even with the aircon on full. They leave the back door open for a bit of breeze, but unfortunately it lets in a mosquito. I'm A-grade mozzie-bait, and come up in huge purple welts if bitten, so every time it comes near me I'm dodging about. We try hard, but energy levels may be a little lower than usual because of the heat. I hope it doesn't show. The audience is clearly having a good time. Lovely to see so many friendly faces. Our host is David Warren who was the artistic director of Mariposa Festival and gave us our first ever gig in Canada back in 1994 when the event was briefly on Olympic Island in Toronto. There's Gord from the Flying Cloud, and Steve and Anne, and also Eileen who we met on our very first trip over. At least two people have come from the USA... just to see us... both travelling long distances. We are once again humbled.
Nigel and Clarisse come. Nigel brings his new digital video camera and films it all. Hopefully we'll be able to upload it somewhere before too much longer.
Plenty of shopping in Toronto from lowest common denominator places like Zellers, Dollarama and Wally-World (Wal-Mart) to the delightful independent shops and boutiques on Queen East at the Beaches. Brian gets jeans, jeans, jeans and more jeans. At that price how could he not? $14 for Wranglers - that's about £10. I get some new shirts and T-shirty, drapy things plus some of those rocker-shaped Scholl's sandals and a pair of purple sneakers. Hilary has a field-day in a fabulous little boutiquey shop on Queen, which has lots of floaty, drapey, baggy things in murky colours with asymmetrical hemlines and unusual tucks and shapes. OK, I confess, I bought one, too.
14th August: Aeolian Hall, London, Ontario
With Steve Ritchie and Al Parrish, lately from Tanglefoot, doing the opening spot for us this is a gig I'd have paid to do. The Aeolian is a privately owned concert hall, a fabulous building that was once London's town hall. We met up with Al and his son Ashton (age 8-ish) for dinner before the show, but Steve couldn't join us because he's recently got a more-than-full-time job doing technical stuff at the radio station in Owen Sound where he does his Thursday night 'Hundred Mile Music Show'. We stay for one night with Bill and Kenna and their granddaughter (and Sheltie dog) and then depart for Steve, Sharon and Connor's house in Chatsworth, just south of Owen Sound. More visiting, more shopping, both in Owen Sound, and a fascinating trip to Keady market - a huge outdoor cattle-market, farmers' market and general market which takes us 2 hours to walk around, there's so much to see (and buy).
18th August: Houseconcert, Grey Highlands Ontario
An amazing house, seemingly in the middle of nowhere (but not really). It always boggles me when some of Canada's highways are gravel rather than tarmac. I feel as though I'm going up a farm track - but no, they're real roads. Glad we've got directions, though. Apparently if you try and use a satnav it dumps you in the middle of the woods. We're fed royally before the gig and then perform in front of a huge, pointy picture window that looks out across woodlands. There are fans who've travelled up from Orangeville and neighbours who don't know us from Adam. A lovely mix. And Gord's here again.
Then there's just one more day to spend with the Ritchies before moving into the Travelodge, the hotel where all the performers stay for Summerfolk Festival at Owen Sound. Unfortunately I bend over to fold a shirt for my suitcase and feel my back go sproing. 'It's then I discover the delights of Robax (robaxicet) a muscle relaxant combined with various painkillers - in my case ibuprohen. It's not available over the counter in either the USA or the UK, but it's brilliant stuff. It stops my back from spasming in next to no time and lets it fix itself over the next few days. It even seems to help my foot. With that and the stretches from Clarisse (and a bit of careful planning) my foot isn't too bad over the course of the festival
20th - 22nd August: Summerfolk Festival, Owen Sound, Ontario
One of our favourite festivals. It's all contained on one site at Kelso Beach Park in Owen Sound, which fronts on to Georgian Bay, that part of Lake Huron that's like an ear-shape, separated form the main lake by the Bruce Peninsula. We played Summerfolk on our very first trip to Canada, some 16 years ago. Back then the lake came right up to the backstage area where the performers all eat and socialise. Then the lake level dropped and invasive rushes grew up and made the lake invisible from the shore. This year, although the water level is still low, they've cut the rushes back so you can see the lake again. It's a lovely setting, with a purpose-built stage facing a purpose-built amphitheatre which seats approximately 4000 on blankets and lawn chairs on the concentric terraces. As well as being a music festival it's an arts and crafts festival with lots of lovely and unusual goodies to buy.
We do our big concert on the Friday night at 9.00 p.m. just after it turns fully black. With sound by Steve Darke and his brilliant crew, we know we're in excellent hands. The stage end is handled by volunteers, but experienced ones and all under the competent direction of an experienced (longstanding) stage manager, a technical manager and a monitor engineer on side-stage. Everyone gets their own stage hand to take them on and plug them in and line-check them if necessary. There are no sound-checks for anybody (no exception) and turnaround time is rarely more than 5 minutes (with a 'tweener' on side-stage singing one song to keep the audience warm). If the act needs a drum-kit there's a roll-on platform so the drums can set up backstage behind a curtain. It's all so very smooth and well managed.
Onstage pics at Summwerfolk by John Fearnall (www.goodnoise.ca) Used with permission.
We have 35 minutes. Right from the instant we step out on to the main stage we're flying. It's an amazing experience when you have those moments of complete clarity, knowing that you're on top of your game and the audience is with you and you're not going to put a tonsil wrong.
Friends at Summerfolk L to R: Al Parrish and Rob Ritchie (Tanglefoot) and their wives, Ande Ritchie and Wendy Pearl
The rest of the weekend is a mixture of workshops, which in a Canadian festival means not a teaching workshop, but more of a round-robin concert, with a bunch of performers taking turns. We have a good time in the harmony workshop, which we host, though quite what we're supposed to sing in the 'pub tunes' workshop, I'm not sure. We shoehorn some songs into it and guess well when we do Neil Young's 'After the Gold Rush'. They love it. Neil Young is a Canadian god. On Sunday we do the Folksingers Without Guitars workshop, which is a gift for us because it means we can do anything from our repertoire.
Weather is cooler and damp, with rain showers that don't drive away the audience, thank goodness. They just wrap up in plastic and sit it out.
Wet Sunday Morning at Summersoak
We've been asked to sing 'Mary Ellen Carter' - traditionally Summerfolk's finishing song - on the big finale with Len Wallace, accordionist, left wing activist and singer. We did it in 1994, totally intimidated by having Ariel Rogers there (Stan Rogers' widow) and Al, (Stan's dad), but now Ariel seems like an old friend. It's lovely to see her again. She's been sick but seems to be well on the way to recovery. Fingers crossed.
We get together with Len to rehearse, and Grit Laskin - performer and wizard luthier and inlay artist - joins us, playing the distinctive riff that opens the song in accompanied versions, and which Grit actually had a hand in creating. (Diddle-iddle-um. Diddle-iddle-um-dum. Diddle-um-dum. Dun-dum-dum, Dum-DUM-dum-dum-dum....) That's settled. Grit's in on it, too, so the five of us are doing the last festival song with all the performers and volunteers on stage with us. We wait backstage for Lennie Gallant to finish his set and then we're up and running. Mose Scarlett sings Goodnight Irene and then we're on: Diddle-iddle-um. Diddle-iddle-um-dum. Diddle-um-dum. Dun-dum-dum, Dum-DUM-dum-dum-dum... and Hilary's into the first verse, good and strong. Good job we can hear her acoustically because with this kind of crowd on stage no one gets monitors. She can hear Grit, Brian and I can hear her. Len must be able to hear Grit, too because he's in there, too with the accordion and it's wild. The volunteers and performers behind us start stamping, clapping and singing along. Any chance of holding the speed steady is lost, we've got a monster on the loose behind us. They drive us all on until the song's going like an express train, but nobody hits a bum note or fluffs a word. We finish and the crowd goes nuts, then the folks on stage part, and the audience out front parts, and a Highland piper, the same one who's been playing for 35 years at this festival, starts up at the back. Dark Island. He walks steadily off the front of the stage through the crowd and we all follow, two by two, doing the shaking hands or high five thing with the audience as we go. It's a WOW moment. One of those memories to treasure.
