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Monday November 17 - Home in Victoria
We're home. All that remained was a little tlc for The Goose which Terri and I did this afternoon. In the van on the way to Vancouver yesterday, we compiled some lists of the various ways we measure tours and thought you might be interested.
The Gruff Popcorn Tour - Fall 2008
Days on the road - 35
Performances - 21
Days spent getting to and playing at conferences - 9
Farthest gig from home - Falcon Lake, MB 2430km
Kilometers driven total - 12 200
Cool venues we got to play at - an old bank, a movie theater
Places there was popcorn - The Auditorium in Nanton, the hardware store in Lethbridge, the venue in Regina, the legion in Winnipeg, the movie theater in Saskatoon.
Cool things we learned - The short telephone poles you sometimes see along side the highway arent telephone poles at all. They're telegraph poles. - The prairies get really, really foggy because of Adiabatic Lapse Rate. - 20% of Saskatchewan's natural prairie is still there. - Indian Head is a progressive prairie town because it has both a gas station AND a grocery store (haha). - How to play Dance Dance Revolution. - Honey is easy to digest because it has already been digested once. By a bee.
The top 10 songs or albums listened to in the van
Moan - Jesse Matheson
Fashionable People - Joel Plaskett
Sound of Winter - The Provincial Archive
Gory Hope Mountain - The Acorn
More Than Words - Aloha Sex Juice
Time to Pretend - MGMT
Dream Lover - Eliza Gilkyson
Begin to Hope - Regina Spektor
The Stage Names - Okkervil River
And of course, everything by Ryan Adams
Things that broke - the alternator and the battery (fixed!), the power window on the front passenger side, Phaedra's camera, Terri's ipaq, two air mattresses (soon to be fixed!), Jenny's jean jacket, the windshield washer fluid thingy, Terri and Jenny's jeans, Adam's DI (fixed!) and one headlight burnt out.
Things that we lost, and got back! - Adam's hat and an air mattress repair kit....
And finally the percentage of the population of each town we played that came out to our show based on estimated audience sizes and populations found on the internet.
Falcon Lake 16%
Mortlach 15%
Kamloops 0.043%
Nokomis 9.2%
Falkland 8.3%
Nanton #2 0.97%
Fort Macleod 0.66%
Nanton #1 0.39%
High River 0.31%
Vernon 0.056%
Saskatoon 0.048%
Lake Country 0.0375%
Regina 0.019%
Brandon 0.014%
Lethbridge 0.011%
Winnipeg 0.0092%
Edmonton 0.0049%
And our videos from the tour are finally up on youtube. Here are a couple. You can find the rest on our youtube page. www.youtube.com/Gruffians
Top 40's on the Radio in Fort Macleod
Raghu Lokanathan's Sugar Candy Mountain in Winnipeg with The Crooked Brothers
Sunday Nov 16 - 1930 sailing of the Spirit of British Columbia, Straight of Juan de Fuca
0500 hrs this morning in High River
Right now Terri and I are sitting on the ferry enjoying being out of the van at hour 16.5 of an estimated 18.5 hour travel day. And what a day it's been. I'll start last night I suppose. We arrived in High River road weary and hungry with no where to sleep. I was a little anxious about the gig just because we were so tired and had such a good time in Saskatoon the night before... it's always nice to finish the tour on a high note... but all my worries evaporated as soon as I walked in and Donna the owner of Gitter's welcomed me with a big hug. Then I remembered how comfortable Gitter's is and that people in High River really like us and I felt ready for the show.
We ate, sound checked and tried to find a motel room. All the motels were full except the $140 a night one and since we'd decided to try to make it back to the coast in one day, we were only going to be in the room for about four hours hopefully sleeping soundly. Donna saved the day again by offering us a couple of couches and an extra bed at her house which we accepted. The show went really well. The room was full of High River folks and even a bunch from Nanton came up. After the show we packed up quickly and headed over to Donna's place and got into bed. We decided it was best to leave early so that if we hit weather we'd still have a chance of making the last ferry. Departure time was 0500 hrs. We opened the door to one of the most beautiful and terrifying sights I could imagine this morning. A quiet, white covering of snow over everything. After a couple of jumping jacks in the snowy street while the van warmed up and everyone got their stuff loaded we were off. I took the first shift and boy was it a doozy. The highway was covered in snow all the way to Calgary where we missed one of the signs guiding us to the Trans Canada, presumably because it was covered in snow like all the other signs, and ended up in a Tim Hortons/gas station asking directions. The two lovely gentleman at the gas station counter were most helpful. Normally I'm skeptical of taking directions from people... usually something goes wrong in the delivery or the listening. I would have taken any directions these particular fellows gave without an ounce of doubt. And they were right. Whew! The highways continued to be covered in slush and hard packed snow all the way out of Alberta. It felt like the sun was never going to rise. Finally we got to Golden where I handed the wheel over to Terri who got us to Revelstoke where thankfully it was raining and the roads were clear. It took us 7.5 hours to travel what should have taken 4.5 but we were still in good standing to catch the ferry. We were all thankful for the disgustingly early departure.
The rest of the trip was smooth sailing and we managed to get into Vancouver to drop off Jenny and Adam who are staying the night there and make it to the ferry terminal where the seven o'clock ferry was actually leaving at seven thirty because of extremely high tides in Active Pass. This meant that we made it onto the seven thirty boat and even though it's a longer ride around the Gulf Islands instead of through them, we'll be home a little bit earlier than originally expected. Thoroughly exhausted.
Saturday Nov 15 - the highway to Drumheller AB
Today we're playing the last show of the tour in High River, AB. Last night in Saskatoon was so much fun and we're hoping tonight wont pale too much in comparison. But first, I'll tell you about Manitoba. In Manitoba we hung out with The Crooked Brothers and it was a blast. First of all we played at a resort on Falcon Lake in a house concert type setting. It was beautiful, the show was fun, The Crooked Brothers are great, we all got our own beds and it even snowed all night long. Jesse Brother cooked us up a well needed meal for dinner and another one for breakfast before him and Matt Brother engaged us in a surprise snow ball fight. We were supposed to play at Candor Music and Books in Winnipeg the night after Falcon but unfortunately Candor shut down within the last couple of months. Jesse hooked us up with another Matt from a band called The Magnificent 7s who runs a little space above a restaurant called Mondragon in the Exchange District of downtown Winnipeg. Mondragon is a vegan restaurant with great affordable food. While we were there a guy came in to give a talk about being a deserter from the American military who fled to Canada to avoid having to go back to Iraq. It was a very interesting account and made for some heavy after dinner conversation. After the talk we headed over to the legion across the street for a beer before the show with The Crooked Brothers.
Matt from The Magnificent 7s handing out Lucky Lager
The venue is called the Rudolph Rocker Cultural Center and it was really cool. Even though it was on the third floor which made for a long haul of gear up the stairs... tough work for a band of musicians whose muscles have atrophied over five weeks in a van. The Crooked Brothers had done a little spot on the radio a couple of days before the show to get the word out there and told us that when the show ended there was about an hour of time before the next host came in so they all figured they'd play our album to fill that hour up. The album's not quite an hour long so they were going to put it on a loop so that the first few songs would play again to fill the hour. Somewhere along the way the wrong button got pushed though and instead the first track of the album, Holes in My Jeans, got played about twenty times in a row. Ha.... ha..... The show was pretty well a packed house.... I guess they liked that song.
After the show we all went back over to the legion for a bluegrass jam. And when I say all I mean All! The Crooked Brothers, us, the Magnificent 7s, Pepper Lang and the Lonestar Killers (who we played with last time we were in Winnipeg), the Dusty Roads Band and a bunch of other musicians that were already there. It was really fun and we kept it up until George, the legion guy, told us it was time to go home.
Adam the sound man
After a few hours of sleep we were up again and on our way to Saskatoon for what was probably the most looked forward to show on the tour for everyone I think. The show was put on by Vive Music who we've been working with in Saskatoon and took place in the Roxy Theater which is a super old theater that they fixed up and turned into a really great little old school movie theater. Last night instead of showing movies they had us and The Heartstrings with Ryan Boldt from The Deep Dark Woods as host. It was so much fun.
Talk about having your name up in lights!
They even printed a now showing size poster of the gig poster and hung on the wall outside the theatre with all the movie posters. It was our last show with Luke who we had to give back to Saskatoon until next time so we decided to have a little five piece bonding time by heading back to our host's house to play Dance Dance Revolution all night long. Who knew it was so fun?!
We finished up the dancing with a few rounds of a demolition derby game involving exploding chickens before calling it a night... or morning. Needless so say, it was another late one but we didn't have to leave super early today and we've got the end of tour energy reserve to call on so we're doing alright. Now the sun is slowly setting and we're quietly looking around at the prairies of Alberta with The Postal Service on the ipod, happy, (and maybe just a little sad,) to be heading West again.
The last prairie sunset of the tour.
Wednesday Nov 12 - just outside of Winnipeg on the Trans Canada
Right now I'm snuggled up in my sleeping bag in George Seat (that's the middle one) with a pillow and an amp to put my feet up on. It's winter now. The prairie is covered in snow and the sky is grey. With all five of us in the van snuggled up in blankets with the pedal steel and amp added to our regular stuff its sort of like we're driving around in a cozy, mobile nest. There isn't much room for things like feet so they're all tucked up under bums in seats or on top of things like amps. Except for Adam's of course... he's driving. We're on our way to Falcon Lake, Manitoba. It's east of Winnipeg. So far east that it's almost in Ontario and looks more like Ontario than Manitoba. Tree, rock, lake, tree, rock, lake, tree, rock, lake. We just had a very rejuvenating stop at Tim Hortons near Brandon and are now comfortably full of chili, soup, sandwiches and caffeinated beverages. We were in somewhat of a rough state this morning.... it was Luke's birthday yesterday and we were up quite late with our new friends in Regina The Lazy MKs. The Lazy MKs have singlehandedly (as a group...) proven to us that Regina doesn't suck as much as we thought. They put on a wonderful little show with the help of the people at the Mysteria Gallery that was exactly what we needed. And a full house too!
Jenny and Phaedra with The Lazy MKs
The MKs are a trio with pedal steel, bass and drums. Etienne, the pedal steel player is also an ecologist who answered a few of our prairie questions. Ever since we started touring we've been dreaming of having our very own personal scientist along to answer every question we could possibly have. Yesterday we learned that native prairie actually is native prairie and there never were trees there that farmers cut down to make fields. In fact, there are more trees in the prairies now than there ever have been since they stopped letting the prairie fires burn. 20% of the native prairie of Saskatchewan still exists. We also learned a bit about Adiabatic Lapse Rate which is responsible for the fog that we drove through on the way to Saskatoon. Basically it's an inversion of layers of temperature. We didn't get the tiny details as Etienne is an ecologist not a meteorologist. Chris, the bass player, looks just like John Cusack (or Bruce Springsteen depending on who you ask..), owns a great little book store three doors down from the gallery and has a record collection to rival John's collection in High Fidelity.
Tuesday Nov 11 - Saskatoon SK
We've been filming a few of our shows and other things and I've been making little videos to post on youtube but uploading them has proven only to be an unending source of rage so I'm giving up for now. I'll try again when we get home. For now you'll just have to imagine the pictures moving.
Monday Nov 10 - Saskatoon SK
We're back in Saskatoon! We arrived this evening after quite the prairie experience. We met the Prairie Fog. I'm not really sure if such a thing really exists often but it sure did today. Our Saskatoon host, who happens to be the son of the mayor of Mortlach, told me that if often happens in Alberta but not so much in Saskatchewan. Anyway, it was SO foggy all day long. We drove for 700km today and pretty much the first 600kms were deep in fog. We took orange highways all the way which was really fun. There were hardly any other vehicles on the road. Just the Stealthy Secondary Semis which came roaring out of the fog like demons and a scattering of pick up trucks. We passed all kinds of tiny little towns including a grave for one town somewhere in the middle of nowhere. It was just a stone at the highway turnoff that said the name of the town, something Plain, and had about 17 years of dates behind which were a few foundations of old long since gone buildings. We passed Millicent and Princess and Jenner and a handful of other towns that weren't even on our map. We came over into Saskatchewan just south of Alsask and could see the border coming. We learned the valuable lesson that secondary highways in Alberta are good to go but secondary highways in Saskatchwan.. well.... hold on to your hats. The road changed colour from grey to black and patchy as soon as we passed the Welcome to Saskatchewan sign and as soon as we crossed over we had to slow down drastically for fear of being bumped out through the roof. It was foggy as well as cold and all the grass and trees alongside the road were frozen from about halfway up. Just coated in a layer of frozen fog. It was beautiful and eerie.. like a Tim Burton movie. We kept expecting to see zombies coming out of the old run down barns alongside the highway. Soon after Alsask the sun went down and the fog rolled in really heavy. I couldn't see more than about 30 meters in front of the van! It cleared up about 100km away from Saskatoon and it was smooth sailing from there on in. We arrived hungry and kind of dazed from fog watching and called our good friend Luke, the drummer from The Deep Dark Woods who is coming with us for the next four days to play pedal steel. He brought us to a great little Mexican place after which we went to the Yard and Flagon to pick up a couple of other DDWs and then to Amigos to meet up with the rest. Now we're home again and ready to settle in for a good night's sleep so we're all rested up for our last minute, spontaneous show in Regina put on by a band called The Lazy MKs. We met one of them in Moose Jaw and they later noticed that we had a night off and asked if we wanted to play a show. We of course said yes and now we're headed for the Mysteria Gallery right after we teach Luke our new songs.
Luke's back!
Sunday Nov 9 - The number 2 highway in Alberta just south of Okotoks and north of High River
Today we got up to some trouble.... we cut up some old chicken wing boxes from the cardboard recycling in the alley behind the Auditorium, borrowed Larry's ladder and headed up the highway to a distance sign we'd noticed on our way to Lethbridge. We just couldn't pass up the opportunity to create the above art work which doubles as shameless promotion. We were a little concerned that the cops might see us and ask us to stop immediately. Or fine us after we left (our website is on there after all and we sort of told them exactly where to find us....) so we planned to remove the signs after the photo was taken. But then we figured that if they did fine us it would be super cool and we'd have a benefit show in Victoria to help pay the fine. The above photo would be the poster and we'd have it blown up and framed so we could auction it off at the show. So, we decided to leave them up. So far there's been no word from the cops....
Saturday Nov 8 - Nanton AB
Today we did some sight seeing. We went to the Fort Macleod Flea Market and found some good things: earrings, a book about Alberta from 1968, a bolo tie, and a power cord for our monitor to replace the one we lost somewhere along the way. And all of that for $5.50. Not too bad. Then we took the orange highways north (the orange ones are the smallest ones) to Vulcan. Vulcan was named by a CPR worker after the Greek God of fire. The farmers weren't too stoked about the whole fire thing so they decided to go the other route and focus on Spock instead. Now there's all sorts of Star Trek stuff going on in Vulcan including the Vulcan Trek Station where we spent our afternoon.
Jenny was like a kid in a candy store and I have to admit that the rest of us were pretty awe inspired ourselves. We were originally planning on going to Vulcan specifically for the thrift store there which we've heard is a particularly good one. It was closed due to the fact that it's Saturday but had enough fun hanging out with Jordie and Worf that we didn't mind too much. We're hoping we might be able to hit it up on our way to Saskatoon on Monday though.
Upon arriving at the Auditorium Hotel in Nanton the first thing we did (the first we always do...) was run to the juke box to see if our CD was in it. And wouldn't you know it! We're there. Number 40. Famous at last.
The Nanton jukebox
Friday Nov 7 - Fort Macleod AB
I'm curled up in bed in Fort Macleod eating Stoned Wheat Thins which I thankfully remembered were hidden away in the van after I went running from motel parking lot to motel parking lot in my pyjamas, freezing cold and starving on Main St. Thank goodness for Stoned Wheat Thins! We had a great show in Fort Macleod tonight and I'll get to it soon but first we have to go back to last night in Lethbridge. The show at The Slice we super fun as usual. We have a hard time with the sound in the room, probably because it's a giant square room with hard walls and high ceilings, but it's always fun anyway. It was one of our Lethbridge fan's fiftieth birthday and tons of other people came out too making it the largest audience we've had there so far. Terri and I asked the owner if he'd make a The Gruff pizza and he told us that as long as we come up with the toppings he'd name the pizza after us. We're going to think about it but I have a feeling it would have to be one of those pizzas that has different toppings on each quarter. We managed to not stay up ALL night long like we usually do in Lethbridge and woke up feeling not quite refreshed but not totally exhausted either. After breakfast we went downtown to see if we could find some speakers for the van. About... oh I dont know.... a year ago?.... the front speakers fell out of the van and we've been without them since. It's been sucky because you can't hear the music at all in the front seats over the road noise even when it's turned up so loud the people in the back seats need to wear hats so their brains don't boil out of their heads. Well! After a couple of pawn shops and about forty five minutes in the parking lot of a Totem hardware store and a couple of demolished door panels... we are once again living in stereo.
Once we had arrived in Fort Macleod, a whole thirty minutes from Lethbridge, and got ourselves settled into the motel rooms provided by our lovely concert host we headed over to the venue to set up. Our new friend John Wort Hannam set up the concert which is the first one in a new series that he's presenting with the support of the South Country Fair which happens here in the summer. The concert took place in an old bank that has been many things since then and is now a vacant building. There was nothing at all in the room except a wrecked fireplace, two old safes, and a perfect little stage in the corner. Not a huge amount of people came out but those that did were absolutely delightful and even brought their own chairs! Now were all settled into bed happy and perfectly tired after a show gone well. Tomorrow we've got all sorts of fun things planned to do in and around Nanton where we're excited to be playing again at the Auditorium Hotel.
Thursday Nov 6 - Queen Elizabeth Highway between Edmonton and Calgary
You're probably wondering how The Goose is faring. I'm sorry for leaving you in the lurch like that. Our lovely Calgary host, road dad, and friend Mr McAlister also happens to know a thing or two about vehicles. He figured that the sulfur smell must have something to do with the battery and or alternator. After popping open the battery and finding that it was empty of water (if you're like me, the news that batteries are supposed to have water in them is new...) he filled it up again and charged her up.
Being unable to tell if it was the alternator that was sending too much charge to the battery or the battery not knowing when enough is enough we decided we'd take our water filled battery to Edmonton and see how things went. Everything was fine until we got to the city limits. Then The Goose was flooded with the disgusting smell of sulfur once again. This time it had a distinct burning quality to it and by the time we finally arrived at the place we were staying at we all felt nauseous and light headed. I guess that's what happens when you breath in burning battery acid and plastic. We confirmed that's what the smell is when we popped open the hood and noticed the smoking battery covered in boiled over water and acid. Yay. Don't worry! Terri called poison control to make sure we were all going to be fine and they said we just needed some fresh air and we'd be good as new in no time. They were right. The Goose wasn't so lucky. We limped her over to Canadian Tire to get a new battery after the battery acid had cooled down a little bit. The next day, all set up with a new battery, we took her over to a mechanic to ask if he could check the output of the alternator to make sure that it wasn't the alternator that was misbehaving. He discovered an open diode in said alternator and decreed we needed a new one. Unfortunate since we just got one but also seemingly justified as the sulfur smell only started on this tour after the new alternator was installed. Anyhoo... we are now the proud owners of a brand new alternator and The Goose seems to be doing just fine. Don't worry moms, dads, friends and all... us humans are feeling just fine as well.
Our show in Edmonton was really fun. Mostly because we now have some lovely friends there. Until a couple of weeks ago at the WCMAs Edmonton had remained somewhat indifferent to our endeavors. Then we met The Provincial Archive and now we like Edmonton just fine. We played at the Blue Chair Cafe again and had quite a nice turn out. Many more people than last time. We also recorded the whole show and have some nice clips to upload to our youtube profile. Now we're driving through the prairies of Alberta, which are currently touched by a light layer of white snow, on our way to Lethbridge which always proves to be a memorable night in the tour. We're all particularly excited about the pizza and are hoping for a full house.
Sunday Nov 2 - Calgary AB
Well... the sulfur smell has reached monstrous levels in the Goose. Today on the way from Moose Jaw to Calgary we reached somewhere just passed Medicine Hat and had to turn the van into a tiny wind tunnel in order to blow the sulfur smell through as quickly as possible. With a window in the front open and a window in the back we had the situation reasonably controlled. Unfortunately, there is no heat in the back so Jenny and I had to bundle up in our sleeping bags to keep warm. Wind tunnels are cold places.
When we got to Calgary the gang dropped me off at my aunt, uncle and cousins' house where my mom and grandma were having dinner and where we tuned into CBC Radio 2 to hear The Gruff on the radio. Terri, Jenny and Adam continued on to the McAlister's house where they too listened to us being famous along side Four Chords of Wood and Plow from Victoria and Vancouver respectively. It was great to share the show with our friends even if we didn't really fit into the bluegrass theme as well as they did. Everyone's all snuggling down into bed for the night now in preparation for tomorrow which will hopefully bring some new song learning time and some figure out what's wrong with the van time. (Not only does she smell bad but now she's having trouble starting too... we had to jump her twice this evening.... Send happy van thoughts!)
Saturday Nov 1 - Moose Jaw SK
Last night we were mummies and this morning we had to wake the dead to get us to Moose Jaw for our OSAC sound check. I accidently hit the off button on my alarm instead of the snooze button so Jenny, Adam and I had a mere ten minutes to get in the van and go. We got here just in time. Last night was super fun. There were lots of people in costumes and plenty of jello shooters going around. Mario and Luigi showed up as did a couple of witches a Hudderite man, a girl with a stuffed dog stuck to her bum and a lost dog poster stuck to her back, a ghost, Gene Simmons and a bunch of others.
The number 2 highway through Saskatchewan is one of my favourites. Its really straight too which made it nice and easy to get to Moose Jaw this morning. Sound check went well and then it was off to Debbie MOM's hotel room to recharge a bit since our motel wasn't ready for us yet. Terri and Jenny had a swim in the mineral bath (Debbie stays in the nice hotels...) Adam walked about and found coffee and I uploaded our newest video to youtube. Check it out!
Our showcase was great. The audience was really nice and receptive and clapped and sang along. They even started clapping at the beginning of Hallelujah as soon as they knew what song it was. We had dinner at Nit's the famous Moose Jaw Thai restaurant with The Bottom Line Duo, another MOM group, making them..... our brother and sister? We're now settled into our very own Super 8 room watching First Wives Club (the remote is broken...) and getting a bit of well deserved down time before we head out to see some of the night time showcases and then head to the hospitality room, aka big party.
Friday Oct 31 - Nokomis SK
The show in Mortlach was great. The Wagon's West Cookhouse was packed and everyone had a great time. We stayed the night at the mayor's house along with his son who came down from Saskatoon to see the show, woke up and had breakfast and hit the road through Moose Jaw and north on the number 2 to Nokomis. Today for the first time ever, Adam drove the Goose. It was exciting. The first thing he did was run right past a stop sign... but we were in Mortlach so it didn't Really matter. After that it was smooth sailing and now we have the capability to do really long drives with less driving fatigue. And a large green magnetic N on the back of the van.
The show tonight is in the beverage room of the Nokomis Hotel. Its going to be a Hallowe'en party! When we got here all the little tiny Nokomis kids were trick or treating in tiny little cute costumes. There was a unicorn and an elephant and a princess and a white animal with a pink tail... maybe a cow? Anyway... cute! Our new is painted on the windows in orange and black paint along with all the info about the Hallowe'en party. There's going to be a costume contest and prizes and all sorts of fun stuff. Unfortunately, I think my camera is broken so I'm not sure how the picture thing is going to work... we might be able to take pictures on Terri's camera and upload them through mine if that part of it still works..... hang in there for now! Cross your fingers its just the batteries....
Wednesday Oct 29 - Brandon MB
Today we drove from Mortlach SK to Brandon MB. It took about five hours and it's pretty flat so my brain, which is normally satisfied by watching the road and listening to the music, needed something new to keep it entertained. No turns or hills made watching the road kinda boring and the speed limit is faster so I really couldn't hear the music. Instead I counted. In the five hours of driving we passed over 50 semi trucks, about 15 victims of road kill, and exactly five trains. We stopped four times. Twice for gas, once for tea and once to let the biggest oversize load we've ever seen turn onto the highway (it was a whole barn!) We also saw a very very large group of tiny birds hovering over a field off in the distance. It was quite amazing... they looked sort of like the ribbons of butterscotch in Butterscotch Ripple Ice Cream. Birdie Ripple Prairie Cream. And we also saw one field fire. We're pretty sure it was on purpose....
The Goose is stinky these days. All of a sudden it smelled like someone has really gross sulfur farts. Every denied dealing it very convincingly and then it kept happening so we phoned our mechanic. He thinks the Goose has a loose tube or a busted flap which is near and related to the carburetor. At least that's what I got out of what Terri repeated to us. Anyway, all you really need to know is that it stinks. A lot. And that it probably will keep stinking until we get back to Calgary and have it looked at in five days or so. Tonight we played at Lady of the Lake in Brandon. It's an interesting place with an antique shop, a sporting goods store, a restaurant and a pub all in the same building. Guess how many people came to see us. Four! And then two more happened in on us and stuck around for the show. We were fed a really wonderful meal and got a few bucks in the tip jar. Unfortunately we had to rent out Jenny to pay for gas so we can get back to Mortlach tomorrow.
And when that wasnt enough we put me out there too......
Tuesday Oct 28 - Mortlach SK
My apologies for this terrible Tour Journal faux pas... no picture today. We've arrived in Mortlach at our friends Andrew and Amy's house where we're hanging out in the living room drinking sleepy time tea while Andrew is playing us all kinds of great bluegrass and country stuff off his computer. We spent yesterday in Calgary at the McAlister's house. Terri's bass has been acting up lately so she and I went on a little adventure through the city to a bass repair guy. It was exciting. We had to turn a couple of times and catch tricky exits. Then we narrowly avoided a dreaded Calgary car trap. They're crazy! Like great big cattle guards but for cars not cows. We stopped to ask a lady directions and she told us all about how people get trapped in it all the time despite the copious amounts of rather large signs posted saying "Do Not Enter! Road Impassable!" with a picture of a car nose down in a large hole. We were lucky enough to be smart but in our rearview mirror, as we were driving away, we saw another less fortunate driver fall right in. We chuckled at their expense all the way to the Calgary Long&McQuade where Old Man Luedecke happened to be returning some gear on his way to the Yukon. It really is a small world. This morning was nice and slow. We took our time getting up and getting the bass and getting to Mortlach with a stop in Swift Current for dinner. Tomorrow we're Manitoba bound!
Sunday Oct 26 - Golden BC
What a great time we had last night! It was our first of two Halloween gigs and the initial run of the great mummy adventure. We've learned some important things about mummification such as the trouble areas and how to build a diaper that works and are all set for real Hallowe'en. Not a real diaper of course although that might have come in handy..... The party was great fun. Lots of people came and they were mostly all dressed up. After wards we headed back to our host house for a couple of beers and the extremely relieving moment of removing the mummy garb. Now I know why mummies always seem to be in such a bad mood. Check out these great shots by our photo taking friend Cory Bialecki! We're in Golden again now recovering from staying up extremely late last night. We've got a few days off starting today during which we have to get ourselves to Brandon Manitoba for our next gig.
Where's Phaedra?
We've received some mixed feelings towards our little video... Our apologies if it offends you... we're working on our next batch of covers for Covers For a Cause and this is one of them. If this version offends you, don't check out the original.....
Friday Oct 24 - Lake Country BC
We slept in today. Almost like we were up late recording ourselves jamming The Bloodhound Gang last night. By the way... in the first take of that video the pizza man showed up right near the end of the song and walked right on into the frame. It was video genius really but we screwed the song up and had to do it again. Our lovely camera man, Cory, has all the footage on his computer though and is thinking about trying to edit that part in somehow. But alas, I digress. We played at the Creekside Theater in Lake Country tonight. It was a nice theatre and the high school students who were our tech crew were really great. Five people were in the audience. Until four people from our Vernon crew came. (Thanks guys!!) That made nine. It was a pretty big theatre and so definitely felt empty of bodies but not of energy. We had a really great time despite the lack of bums in seats and in true Gruff fashion we rocked anyway.
Thursday Oct 23 -Vernon BC
Ok... so... this is what The Gruff does on a night off...
We've received some mixed feelings towards our little video... Our apologies if it offends you... we're working on our next batch of covers for Covers For a Cause and this is one of them. If this version offends you, don't check out the original.....
Thursday Oct 23 2008 - Vernon BC
Our show in Kamloops was really fun. Sound check felt kind of early but after a University Cafeteria breakfast we were all set to go. The theater wasn't packed but quite a few people came to see us including a friend from Victoria and a bunch of friends from treeplanting who we consider die hard fans. Fans who listen to our album over and over again in planting trucks for six hours at a time. One of these fans is pictured below in his Gruff t-shirt that he purchased last year in Fernie, got us to sign and wore for a season of planting. He pulled it down off the wall in honour of our appearance in Kamloops, wore it to the show and had us all sign it again in preparation for next years planting season. Now we've arrived in Vernon and are going to lay low for the evening.. order some dinner.... geek out on the computers for a while... probably fall asleep early... a Gruff night off.
The 2008 signatures
The 2007 signatures (ew)
Wednesday Oct 22/Thursday Oct 23 - Kamloops BC
The Falkland Pub
We're living the high life tonight. We just returned to Kamloops from Falkland where we're being put up in this major swank hotel on the TRU campus in Kamloops. Holy glamour Batman! We're on the top floor and they gave us two 'loft suites' each with a separate bedroom, huge bathroom and living room/full kitchen separated by a tall stool bar and containing a full office space, giant flat screen tv, pull out couch and an amazing view of the city of Kamloops stretching out way below us. We played in Falkland tonight at the pub which is already all decorated for Halloween. The tree planters aren't in Falkland right now so the pub was full of locals and the show finished somewhat early. Since we didn't get to enjoy this amazing swankness of hotel as much as we'd have liked we decided the best way to make due would be to return here from Falkland with a six pack of Vitamin P and chill out for a bit before climbing into those glorious beds and going to sleep so we can wake up and drive 30 seconds down the ring road on campus to the Clock Tower Theatre for sound check tomorrow morning.
The view from our swanky room
Wednesday Oct 22 - the TransCanada between Salmon Arm and Kamloops
Today I'm having a little I love Canada party in the van. The van is pretty loud when we're on the highway and our front speakers are busted so the music is always really loud in the back in order for the driver and front passenger to be able to hear it. I made a little playlist this morning while feeling exceptionally hyper after a cup of chai from Jita's Cafe in Golden which started out with such ridiculously fun songs as More Than Words in Hawaiian and Bad Touch by the Bloodhound Gang but gradually settled down into some choice favourite songs from some of our favourite Canadian artists. Now I'm gazing out the window and admiring British Columbia and Canada. It's so awe inspiringly beautiful. All glorious autumny goodness in red and gold and brown and green and yellow and orange framed with the grey of the road and the blue of the sky. We've got Luke Doucet and The Great Lake Swimmers and Corbin Murdoch, Corb Lund, Angie Simms, and Eliza Gilkyson (an honourary Canadian if you ask me and have ever seen her live...) on the stereo and life is good. Let's have a round of applause for Canada! Right now we're headed to Kamloops where we're staying the night in preparation for our show tomorrow at the University there. We're just going to check in and drop off some stuff before heading to my Okanagan home-Falkland BC for a show at the pub after which we'll head back to Kamloops to catch some zzzs. We're crazy like that.
Monday Oct 20, Golden BC
Our showcase in Alberta went well. We were kinda tired but fifteen minutes isn't too long so we managed to pull it together. Michele MOM was very happy with it and is now waiting for the Albertan offers to pour in. We headed back to Edmonton after a quick stop at our pal Timmy H's for lunch and figured out that we're going to drive the highway between Calgary and Edmonton six times on this tour. Three times north and three times south. Upon arriving in Edmonton we checked in chez Jesse, Debbie MOM's oldest real son where we were being put up for the night. We didn't stay there long though as we were due downtown to meet Debbie and Michele and Debbie's other two sons and daughter in law for dinner. We put on our dresses and boots (even me!) and jumped in a cab like glamorous people do and headed to Whyte Ave where we all had dinner at a Mexican place. Peters family dinners are fun. After dinner and a pitcher of margaritas we headed over to the theater for the WCMA awards show. The show was pretty fun although it was quite long. Jian Gomeshi was hosting and he was on fire. The Weakerthans cleaned up and The Deep Dark Woods played one of the best Leonard Cohen covers I've heard. After the show we all headed back over to the conference hotel for the reception where we partied it up with all kinds of friends new and old.
Gruffies, Debbie MOM and John Mann from Spirit of the West
We got to meet John Mann, who is lovely, and almost got up the courage to give Corb Lund a copy of our CD. We decided to call it a night after we got kicked out of a party in Spirit of the West's hotel room by an angry Spirit of the West member in a bath robe. We slept like babies and got up this morning for a cheesy eggs breakfast a la Debbie's middle son and hung out with the family a bit before loading up and heading back to Golden where we get to spend a couple of nights catching up on lost sleep and getting ready to start the normal part of this tour with a show at the Falkland Pub.
Gruffies with Mark Berube and his band
Sunday Oct 19, Red Deer AB
We rolled into Red Deer this evening after spending the day on Whyte Ave in Edmonton. We had breakfast, walked around and spent the afternoon at the Black Dog Freehouse watching a solid line up of Vancouver bands. The drive down was awe inspiring. I know I've said it before and I'll say again, there's something about the clouds on the prairies that is just mind blowing. The sun was setting as we left Edmonton and we were racing a wall of black storminess almost the whole way to Red Deer. The fields of dead grass and hay bales were all in muted colours and the layers of clouds in the sky were all different shades of pink and grey. I would have taken a picture but there was no way my camera could have captured the beauty of it so you'll have to imagine. Grey doom in the rear view mirror and soft pink hues ahead.
Gruffies and Michele in Red Deer
We stopped at the grocery store on the way into town and picked up a bouquet of flowers and a birthday cake for Michele our second MOM who is representing us here at Alberta Contact and whose birthday is today, spent some time in the contact room meeting some folks and had a couple of drinks with cake in the hospitality room. This morning we woke up really, really early for our 8:00 sound check at the theatre at Red Deer College. Our showcase isn't until 12:30 or so, so were back at the hotel now like a little band of zombies watching Sunday morning television with bellies full of buffet breakfast hoping we'll wake up in time to wow the folks of Alberta.
Friday Oct 17 Edmonton AB
Today we went from here:
to here:
in a matter of hours.
Now we're in Edmonton getting ready for our showcase at the Urban Lounge on Whyte Ave. The drive over the mountains into Alberta was pretty well....normal. All in a days work. It was kind of snowy and there was some construction so we got into Edmonton just in time to check into our hotel room (which had been given a "complimentary upgrade" to two double beds in a tiny room... I'd hate to see what it would have been otherwise...) and head down to the restaurant for some food. Just setting foot into the WCMA main hotel was exciting. There were musicians and music people everywhere! It took us about twelve minutes to run into about six people we know from Victoria or Vancouver. There's so much going on here tonight that we just don't know what to do after our set. And some fun news! Debbie managed to get us tickets to the Awards show on Sunday night so we get to come back to Edmonton from Red Deer, get all dressed up and pretend we're famous.
Thursday Oct 16 Golden BC
In typical Gruff and Vancouver style we went out for breakfast with our friends from The Nautical Miles before taking to the road once more. We are on our way to Edmonton for the WCMAs and are spending the night just over halfway there in Golden BC. The drive out of Vancouver was beautiful and autumny. It was sort of rainy and all the leaves along the highway are turning. I (Phaedra..) was driving first shift out of Vancouver which isn't a shift I normally end up with and the change in perspective from passenger seat to driver seat was a nice one. We expected to run into snow at some point of the trip, possibly on the Coquihala but didn't see any of it until Rogers Pass after we stopped in cute little Revelstoke for dinner. We arrived at home in Golden later on in the evening and were quick to boil the kettle for tea, search for wireless to borrow, and get to bed at a reasonable hour.
Wednesday Oct 15 - Interstate 5 North of Seattle
Were on our way back to Canada now. Its late in the afternoon and were comfortably full of a nice meal at Dennys hoping that the border wont take too long. Last night after we waiting for copious amounts of text messages to come through letting us know what kind of government we could expect to come home to, we played our twelve minute showcase. It went really well! We were up after an act from Vancouver called The Wet Spots. They were hilariously funny and we thought theyd be a tough act to follow but we did just fine. We were invited to play at a party on the third floor and went with our new friends the Montreal Guitar Trio. We stayed up really late and woke up really early for breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Our stay in the States was very brief but we learned a lot about the difference between Canada and the States. Jenny ordered a rye and a ginger at the same bar that I tried to order a Caesar and not only do they not have ginger ale in the States, the server didnt know what rye was. Terri discovered that a Long John Doughnut is a Maple Bar in the States even if its not maple flavoured.
Jamming at the after party.
Tuesday Oct 14 - Eugene OR
We arrived in Eugene last night at about 9:00 after a little Subway dinner stop somewhere near Portland and met up with Debbie in the hotel bar. Were staying at the Hilton which is the ArtsNorthwest conference hotel and its pretty fancy. Although for all of its fanciness the wireless internet isnt free (thats why you havent been able to see this til now) and theres no continental breakfast. Our friend Howard Johnson isnt looking so bad right now. Anyway. I officially outed us as Canadians at the bar trying to order a Caeser. Apparently Americans dont drink Caesars. Must be the clam juice. Anyway, I made do with an American Caesar more commonly known as a Bloody Mary. We hung out with Debbie for a while at the bar and met some of the MOM family as will as the Montreal Guitar Trio whose showcase were going to catch this afternoon after checking out some of the sights and deciding what were all going to wear tonight.
Subway dinner break.
Monday October 13, 2008. Interstate 5 South
The Gruff take the USA. We just crossed the border into the States. It took about an hour or so to get to the front of the line but once we were there it was super easy. We were all nervous and prepared to have to answer questions and provide proof we arent going over to make any money but the nice (and very large) man at the border just checked our passports and let us over no sweat. Were on our way to Eugene Oregon where we will meet up with our MOM Debbie at the ArtsNorthwest conference where we play our twelve minute showcase tomorrow night in the after hours showcases on the Canada stage. So far the US seems pretty much the same as home except for the copious amounts of American flags and the speed limits being in miles. Its even raining.
Me with Tiffany the turkey.
Last night we had Thanksgiving dinner in Vancouver with our lovely Vancouver music community family. Jenny and I cooked a very successful, juicy and tender 13lb turkey named Tiffany and tons of good food and fun was had by all. We finished the evening off sharing songs in the living room around our picnic style table which was more like a table cloth on the floor complete with candles and a festive centerpiece.