3) Ok, we made it to Castlegar…………..

(…written in the hotel in Calgary………..)

Ok, this all off the top of my head……….

4) Last week in Edmonton……………..

Last week, Scott flew out of Victoria, ‘cause he was gigging there, and Richard Nott (stage manager and guitar tech) and I flew out of Nanaimo on a sea plane…….well, ‘cause we drove to a ferry at 4:30am that was not running. Winter schedules, don’t you know. Richard has one favorite little word that he uses a lot to express dissatisfaction in these situations, and it never helps move stuff along, but he likes it. So we drove back to his house, and got online to book seaplane tickets and eat olives with crackers. I am OK with all this, ‘cause I am a big fan of strange events at strange hours.

The seaplane is more fun than Disneyland on your birthday. Not that I know. It is best to go to Disneyland on a cloudy day (or Superbowl weekend)……the seaplane flies really low and you can see what is going on with the little boats and island cottages. You can see details of the ocean. I hear these planes take off in the harbour every morning. And yeah, I love that too…..and the train honk honk. I especially love huge spooky boat horns at night. So I think Richard had a good time. It was his last show with Trooper, as a full-time guy, so it was important that it be special.

We went to Edmonton to play John’s surprise 50th party, in a warehouse, put on by his company, AXE MUSIC. There were a lot of techs and rock musicians there, and an open bar, so I figure Richard had a good gig, along with the invited audience. Other than being kicked out of a cab, and having to walk to the 7-11 at 4 am, he was fine.

5) A mini Richard tribute…………..

I will miss Richard. Hey, another reason I didn’t write road reports is ‘cause I was too busy talking with Richard on every trip over to Vancouver. He is brilliant; a really funny conversationalist. Anything you throw at him, he can summarize and throw back with a twist. He can quote the Bhagatta-vita, but Krishna knows where Richard left his cell phone. We rode every long ferry ride, and waited every missed sailing, together (along with Scott of course!) and I watched him eat a ton of Chinese food.

Richard became famous for leaving things everywhere, like his pack sack on the floor, in an airport. He left all his keys in his hotel room after his last show. I will miss watching him search for Scott’s truck on the ferry. Trooper has been so blessed with such extraordinarily great crew people. Richard is great. He lives about 2 blocks from me, downtown Nanaimo, and I bet that I could start his car with any one of my Toyota keys that I amassed from my old cars over the years………..

Richard is also a great rock guitar player, as Smitty let the crowd know at the last gig.

Richard was waved onstage, handed Smitty’s Les Paul, and he got to trade-off tasteful solo riffs with Sean Verreault, as we jammed along with Saf on drums. This is 2/3rds of our fun-fave band WIDE MOUTH MASON, of whom we have become quite close. Sean opened for us, as a solo act (along with Connor McGuire and the Lives of Others), and Saf, the drummer, has told me about his side career as a lawyer during a bus ride on another trip out last summer. Cool cats, and no dummies either. No, they ain’t no dummies.

Sean is amongst the greatest of Canadian rock singers, along with Ra, Bill Henderson, Larry Gowan…….and others perhaps less known Chriss Cumley (Megalicious)……Ricky the Nobb…Darcy Deauche………….Gary Gillespie……..

So much has gone down, what an amazing busy and successful year………we have been on 50 flights every summer, and I think that our schedule is the reason why Richard had to leave his position with the band. After 4 years, he found himself pretty busy at home as well, being the front-of-house guy for the Cowichan Theatre and in-demand tech at the Port in Nanaimo. He works all the time, also as a guitar builder, rebuilder. He just got back from a tour of China with Michael Kaeshammer, in fact, and tried every strange food that he could think of. Richard is busy. We were very much blessed to have had him for so long, and he is forever a Trooper brother, in fine, fine company with many of the finest techs and players in Canada. And yes, I am proud to still be here as well.

6) Trooper is special…………..

Trooper is a very special band in this land of ours. I feel it at every airport, every hotel check-in, and oh, yeah, at every gig. It is very much a loving vibe. A Mobile party of good times……..and I refuse to live life any other way. To play such music, from such a great nation, with such fun people………amazing. I think that anyone who reads this far into this road report can feel that.
If you were new in Canada, you could go to any Trooper gig and make a whole lotta new friends, ‘cause that is where the fun people are.

Over any given couple of years, we play with every great Canadian classic rock band, in one form or another, or at least go out and visit them at different venues. Red Rider’s bass player, Jeff Jones, invited me to the Cummings/ Bachman gig in Victoria…(I am such a HUGE Guess Who fan)……… And we get to hear all the fun stories…..Robbie King, bass player from the Stampeders, lays on the goods every time we see him. Last time, he had Jose Feliciano and Wolfman Jack quoted in a hotel party story……

I really like all of these guys, and am proud to be this closely associated with folklore. I would say that my best band run-in all summer was FOGHAT at the Vancouver airport, everyone waiting at special baggage together………..

7) Fun in Airports…………..

Every time we see musicians in airports, well, anyone with instrument cases, we get to find out where they are going, and what is going on……and where they have been…..

Of course, anyone can chat up musicians at airports. I just happen to be in airports a lot, and I like to chat with musicians, ‘cause I find it really interesting how people approach the scene. How they deal with this life in the arts. I ran into a 7-piece Cuban band yesterday, and the sax player had 5 times as many effects pedals as Smitty. I wrote down their name, on the boarding pass, and I am sure I stuck it in some book about Mother Mary, in my backpack.

(No, it was in my back pocket…the Lexi Borows band………..let’s YouTube search that one).

The most fun I had recently with traveling musicians was coming home from the last show in Edmonton, where the band followed Ra into a HARVEYS, and I spotted a lady setting up a harp. I introduced myself as she plugged in, and she said I should jam along. Well, I just kinda wanna hang back.

8) The Harp Chick…………..

Sometimes it is nice to give people their time and space, and not feel judged, like I always did at every family reunion. I don’t exactly feel that way any more, but I guess my years at music education and classical dance festivals, where there is a table of adjudicators, it was hard to shake the idea that people are all critics……… but 2 songs into it, I said, “Can I really play along?” ‘cause I figured I could follow her patterns and progressions. She was delighted……. and there was a full digital grand piano right next to her (!)….so I got to fake my way along 4 songs with her until I was pushing it with getting through security.

I could have played with her all day.
She was having so much fun that she was laughing.
Me too.

Laughing means different things to different people, you know.
In Indonesia, people laughed when they were nervous.
Here, I take it as bliss.

www.harpchickcanada.com
Beautiful flowing music. I held back when I was unsure of anything, as we played together, of course, and Scott said that it sounded like we had practiced and that it was all arranged music. I countered some or her rhythms and arpegios, avoided cliches, and played melodies with trills. And I held down some bass notes, but not all the time. Not too much of anything, you know. Sprinkle ideas and techniques like you are making a delicious pizza. My kinda fun. It is a real ear test not to mess up something that is already so undeniably and remarkably beautiful.

A nice crowd gathered, and the airport people liked it enough to take a nice picture for their website. The harp lady told me about the symphony she plays with, and all the tons of gigs a harpist gets. I always thought so. If you play a harp, you will NEVER be out of work. Cool. Could you imagine living with a harpist? With that music playing in your house? Talk about a no-stress life, for the listener anyway……..those things are way more difficult than they look.

I totally wanted to play violin with her as well, and I was carrying the one that I just inherited from Uncle Tony, who was the best musician in my family (my Mom said). He passed away from bone cancer 3 years ago. I am ultra-honoured to have his perfectly set up 100-year-old French violin. It sounds amazing. Especially when someone else plays it!

But I practice, and at the Edmonton hotel, the bow broke, actually exploded while I was playing it. Right by my head. Freaked me out, for real. So no bow, no sound. No jamming with the violin and harp. Arrrrrgh.

Yeah, I like artists.
I like musicians.

Remember Scott and I in a hotel lobby in Toronto while this new band, Nickelback, tells us about their record company negotiations? Neat, hey!