Yeah, we meet really neat people all the time, and that is about my favorite part of traveling. Not just industry people, but locals. 2 days ago, in Whitehorse, Yukon, as I walked outside to visit the paddlewheel boat that I could see from the hotel room window, and I walk along side the Yukon River to that National Historical site, I chat with a 90-year-old lady who has lived in Yukon since 1947. Brilliant person. I love to ask elders about their perspective, how impressions change, and how spirituality affects people over time.

And some famous people are cool too. The guys from Dr. Hook were our total buddies the previous gig in upper Edmonton, at a Lions Club Rodeo. I met the guy Vanilla Ice, and his groovy DJ outside of the hotel. We had some laughs. We were all pictured on the same laminate, and that was funny itself, anything is funny. Instant brotherhood with traveling music people. I stayed late to see their show, was fun, but I go back to the hotel for quiet, Clayton usually stays.

Have I even written about Clayton Hill ? I know his old bass player in Nanaimo and he told me “everyone who has ever played with Clayton says that he is the best drummer that they have ever played with………” And I go yeah yeah, groovy, but it ain’t a contest, and besides, have you heard the guys that I have spent the last 12 years staring at?

But, wow, what a great musical drummer! And a really funny guy, like a dry comic, and about the most honest guy I have ever met, meaning he always totally tells it like it is, despite any social barriers. Was kinda shocking at first for me, but I really admire that. He is not always trying to say the RIGHT thing, but in his approach, what he says IS right.

I totally enjoy his drumming, he really knows how to get a tone. He is so humble. Great singer, writer, guitar player. Not that he underestimates his talents, but he just doesn’t boast. That is my job, brag brag brag!

Of course Lance Chalmers is like that as well, (awesome and humble) and the 7 years I spent touring with Lance are some of my favorite musical moments of a lifetime. I do feel so blessed to play with some of the best drummers on earth like this, and to become such great friends with them, but I am so sentimental, and changing drummers is always an emotional experience. ……..And of course……… Frankie, one of the most influential and important people in my world over our great touring years. I still talk about Frankie all the time, he is SO funnny, and way more wild than I could ever dare to be. A total inspiration that way for sure!

I love these guys, and look up to them in so many ways. Drummers are agressive physical people, they have to be. I am not that way. I just stand there and go, yeah man!

Yeah, playing in a band is all about the people, the band people, the people who work at the venues, and the people we meet and dance at, smile at and sing at. It takes everyone to make this magical experience every night……….And the guy who drives the limo. In Yukon, the guy looked so much like my dad, Ken Gogo, (who passed away 5 years ago,) and I had to tell him so. He laughed, shaking his belly, his white beard and long white hair. He asked where Ken is from, I said, “Oh 3rd generation Nanaimo, but his grandfather was from somewhere along the Russian Border, Hungary, Austria?”

My fake Dad look-a-like suggested, “well he had white hair when he was born, right ? then it went dark, with some red, and white again, of course when he got older, that is the Finnish mixing with the Vikings……..” This coming from a guy driving an old black lincoln limo, looking exactly like my dad, at about 3 am whith the sun still shining.

I didn’t wanna tell him that my Dad has passed on. That could be bad mojo for a big old guy who drives around all morning.

Pretty-much everything on the road with Trooper is so surreal as that. So often Ra and I just look at each other, not saying a word, knowing that we both understand the moment. And I would suggest that Smitty is even funnier now than when I first met him, in 1985. He is way less high-strung, he just walks around being funny, and then playing some of the most experimental and mean greasy rock guitar by night. The guy is made of music, born to play.

And Scott Brown……….I guess at this point he is a veteran of the scene. And about the coolest dude and funkiest groovin’ bass monster in Canada.

I know tons of great guitar players, and a few bass players, and Smitty is like a King to all of them, including Scott. Never mind a veteran of the scene; Smitty is a Pioneer!

And I know some pretty darn fine rock singers too. And Ra is like the living professor who started the whole thing, and the man who keeps the flag flying as a huge inspiration to all of them.

These are the guys I play with.

And our crew is golden. I told you about Randy Bergner from Germany, the most technically-minded and big-hearted tech this side of Europe. He cares, almost too much. How many times I have seen him laugh so deeply, and so many times I have seen him steaming under all the pressure of steering this big heavy rock and roll ship on the road.

Makes us rock and somehow this rock can float like a bird.

Now, you know, we have Paul Cloutier back with us, soundman, road manager and full-time comedian. Probably the funniest guy I have ever met, because he is so consistent, and yes, he also tells it like it is. He called me down to his hotel room the other day and gave me a speech about his quest to cut about a thousand pounds off of our touring rig. This is a project that Mike Pacholuk , Dave Hampshire, Mike Sutcliffe and Randy Bergner have all worked towards over the last 10 years. (all road managers for Trooper) When I first played with Trooper, in 1995, filling in on a NewFoundland tour for Blaine Smith (keyboard player) wow, the stuff they carried then….Blaine had 2 keyboards, a stand and a rack the size of a ‘fridge, with a ton of nice lights. I have narrowed it down to ONE keyboard, the new YAMAHA weighing in at 10 pounds. Amazing!

But I gotta get a lighter and smaller case for it, if such a thing actually existed! My rig is so cutting-edge that the case manufacturers have not even caught-up yet! But Ra and Smitty bought me the most light-weight strong case, with wheels, and other than me replacing the handles………….the whole deal weighs 35 pounds……..and even Air Canada has to think that is amazing………

That is technology over time. Of course, Trooper live gigs has worn out 9 of my keyboards to date, and I keep replacing keyboards, and cases, and I now have a collection of useless cases, and it goes on……..(this, by-the way, is what rock musicians talk about when not discussing other musicians and funky clothing.)

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Letter on the road #5:
…….the casino is owned by Caesars palace, or so I am told…and it is unlike any I have seen in Canada, bigger than all other Canadian casinos put together, as grand as any big Vegas monster in big monster Vegas, about 2 entire city blocks, HUGE, gigantic domed ceilings, statues, fountains, nobody under the age of 19 allowed in the entire complex, exercise facility that has never been used (no surprise) and our event was a gig in a ballroom full of people all dressed exactly the same, all employees of a HUGE distillery, all pissed as rats, eerie Zombies, really funny gig…..and I did walk away with about with about 20 MAD magazines from 1964 to 1975 from the comic book store. One is actually from the ’50s. Amazing, I have never seen one like that before, anywhere, even in museums. Not that I have been to many MAD museums, but of all people in this country, I am starting to look like the guy who should start one. I had high-graded 3 full cardboard boxes that had just arrived before the store owner had a chance to put prices on them. So I made a cash offer and walked off with this amazing stash of RARE MAD magazines. I look for vintage MAD magazines everywhere, and this is my best heist yet…..and then up at 6, and outta there  at 7am, 5-hour drive through Toronto multi-lane highways……onto airplane, flying on the anniversary of 911, and the security at the airport? They breeze me through no problem……4.5 hour flight, watched about as much TV as I plan to watch over the next month….and onto the ferry and suddenly FREEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

Free from sitting down, that is!

Wow, the weird summer so far, so many people, so much noise. Watching the sun set from the ferry deck, is HOT summer here on the West coast suddenly, and I get a free violin lesson for virtuosos that I meet on the ferry…cool! Home now, tired as a Zombie …..and loving it….
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Over 50 flights last summer (mostly West Jet), and we have 16 coming up this next month. Yeah cases are a big deal. Gotta get ones that the baggage handlers can’t break, no matter how hard they try.

So yeah, here I sit in my Nanaimo studio, watching the ferries go, and the sun set, and planning to repair that latest case, because nothing better exists on the market, and Paul Cloutier, despite being very funny, is very serious about light-weight cases, and I gotta get this together.

Other than that, my Trooper responsibilities consist of  keeping healthy, not hurting my hand when building the rock wall, and keeping a good vibe all around. No problem. Yes, and getting to the airport in time. Scott Brown usually picks me up at about 4;30 am, then we grab Richard Nott and hit the first ferry.

Richard, of course, is runner-up for funniest guy I know. No matter what you throw at him, conceptually, he will add to it and make it huge. He is great with words, can stay awake for days, keep the vibe, eat like a giant, play funky guitar, and some say is the best guitar tech on the coast. I think we are so blessed to have him, of course we are.

First tour days are pretty long days. I love it. Richard is about the nicest guy to ride the ferry with.He is brilliant and loves to discuss world religion. He has a good grip on Catholicism, which I am quite deeply studying, but won’t talk about here…. I go to meditate in the church at 3 am on Tuesdays when we are at home, and I think it is really working. Of all the things I have tried, read about & studied, this is the one. OK…..I won’t go on here, but ask me sometime if you want to. Some things are more fun if you don’t go at them alone. And you go at them full-out.

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Road letter #2:
1:30 am, 5 hours until the lobby call for the next flight……about 3 or 4 thousand people outdoors tonight, but pretty far away ‘cos big stage and a big gap full of  volunteers with security shirts on, have never seen so many people with security shirts, a mob of them at the t-shirt booth, good gig, nice sandwiches, talked to a teenage girl who plays bass and a teenage boy who plays violin, and has no idea how cool it is, in fact because of my fun violin obsession,  i was called a “GEEK” by the wife or a promoter  who drove us to the gig in his big macho hummer truck, and I asked “what are you talking about?”, i couldn’t get an answer on my question of “if a violin has a stigma” , or any instrument for that matter…it’s MUSIC for Pete’s sakes!

A geek is actually someone who eats bugs and crap in a Victorian Carnival, I always thought,  not someone who plays and studies a beautiful traditional acoustic instrument, let alone the violin, the voice of god, for Pete’s sakes……(lucky guy that Pete)….but there i was in the back of this big silly car (which was actually kinda neat) On the ride I was trying trying to encourage this teenage kid to play more electric violin with his turntable band.

Anyway, i saw a wonderful movie on tv this afternoon about the baseball legend Babe Ruth, and John Goodman was the star of the movie, love that guy, great movie, brought a tear to my eye for sure…………yeah, i guess you can tell by my tone that i can use a week off, what the heck hey, by the winter i kinda start to miss all the people yelling all the time……..i do love big outdoor gigs…………and the best thing i did the whole time was stand on a sandstone edge by the ocean and watch the wild waves gently roll up and gargle under my feet, i can do that forever……
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I made a list somewhere of neat people I had met over the last year, and Lord knows where that list is. I know I didn’t write about the Stanley Cup game we played at, the pro-hockey players we meet, the elevators full of championship football players………the Jerseys we got with our names on them, the Grey Cup shows for tens of thousands of people…….

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Road Letter #3:
8/18/07
Right now i just wanna babble.Ok, past midnight here in a small town outside of Edmonton, in fact from the 6th floor hotel room I can see Edmonton, right behind the row of tee-pees, past the several hundred cars and trucks in the casino parking lot…this is a reserve, with a joint-venture casino hotel, between the Cree and some people from Vegas.So what we have is a REALLY nice Marriott Hotel, pretty-much up there with a Hilton Hotel, just a little less marble in the can.

I figure that I have averaged about 100 gigs a year since I started doing this kinda work as a teenager, and at this point I know a nice hotel when I see one, and count the pillow on the bed. Every grade of pillow, and soon I will put them all to the test.

So I leave home at 7:30 am to catch the ferry, sleep………two buses to the airport, sleep, and get here with a couple hours until we are to play in a HUGE tent, the size of an arena, attached to this big grand brand new hotel.So I go there to warm up my fingers on the keyboard a bit, see a HUGE stage with huge production, but nobody to tell us what the dinner deal is, because it’s gotta be awesome you know. I starved enough through the ’80s. Well, by B.C.-boy  standards. I take a look at the buffet in the restaurant, and it is really the most beautiful buffet I have ever seen, mainly seafood, and here we are a couple thousand miles from the sea ………….funny how seafood is always the deal in the prairie towns, kinda neat………but no time to get into it, because you can’t go onstage all stuffed, you know.

So I get ready, play the gig, and we are told that we broke attendance records, and that there are 1600 people there.Well, I have had great opportunity to become a crowd-counter, and I saw at least 3000, more like 4000 people……….so it was a constant roar, big rock show, place full of fog, spotlight over everyone’s heads, just like we all see in the movies, except this one is a bit louder, totally fun, and yes getting a bit hungry by then………..meanwhile backstage, beautiful sandwiches and veggies and I eat tons of fruit.

The manager, all happy, young guy, says “hey I pulled some strings and we have $60 steaks lined up for you!” and I think, “Ywow, but yuk, not my thing” but i decide to go along anyway for a laugh, and the casino is PACKED now with the after-concert crowd, huge party and I am getting pats on the back constantly, everyone so happy ………..funny perspective here in the eye of the Party, I guess……so we can order ANYTHING, as this beautiful restaurant stays open late, but closed , just for us…….So I ask for some nice seafood, anything, not too much, and he gives me some crab cakes…..and this is the real thing, open kitchen at the Marriott YAHOO!!! It is one thing to have this honour in a small hotel in a small town somewhere, but this is something quite special, this is big fancy big bucks kinda snackin’ at this kinda place, and here we are mowing it all joyously, and Richard, the guitar tech, man can he eat, and laugh, what a gas, a great moment for the all guys.

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We meet the best people, at airports……………yesterday, Chilliwack, Smitty hung out with Fred Penner, today Charly Majors and his band, the bassist telling me about his cello studioes………trading tips and notes………

Riding in the back of pickup trucks up way up North, Limos in the City, learning singing technique with the singer from HELIX, hotel violin jamming with his band guys in the luxury hotel lobby in the wee hours…talking Gulf Island life with Barney Bental, laughing about hilarious whatever in the limo with the Deputy Prime Minister next to me, and I think, well. I shouldn’t play favorites, but I really liked talking with the singer from Blue Rodeo, Jim Cuddy, he sang with us in Ottawa outside of the Senators game, and I ran into him in the public washroom at the airport the next day. We sat and waited for the plane, he going East, I was going West, and we talked up and down about music, life, stage costumes, ambitions & inspirations. Really neat guy, if he lived closer I would want to hang out with him all the time.

I also enjoyed hanging out backstage at a theatre is Cobalt Ontario with Lee Marshal. I heard this big booming voice behind me, as I was attacking the deli tray, and before I turned around, I imagined what that voice would look like. Certainly not the big bearded long-haired forest-professor that I did turn around to greet! Lee is a broadcaster, and he is THE voice of CTV…..”this program contains coarse language and violence, viewer discretion is advised….” every time I watch Law and Order now, I say Hi to my new friend.

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Letter of the road #4:

……….we were hauled of to see the “Gibson bus” which is a huge tour bus all done up with paintings and sculptures of Gibson guitars, bus has a studio, all wild custom guitar memorabilia, can’t believe they didn’t give me one :-) very strange, don’t know why we were there, but they sure took enough pictures, was fun, and then back to the buffet, which was “taken away” despite the caterers saying “it will be here until midnight”…so when April Wine and Loverboy arrived (who had been traveling all day), there was only ruit and cookies left for them….Sad I say considering there were THOUSANDS of people paying to see them………..Mike Reno, Loverboy singer, is a great big teddy bear that I love, everyone involved are real good friends, so we sat around ate cookies and fruit and laughed a lot…..

………. the sun it out and it is far less gloomy, i avoided getting hit by 2 cars walking the 1 block (with 3 crosswalks over here) ……………..my sister came out to the big awesome corporate gig
with her man, she somehow looks and acts younger than she ever has, since she was a teen, was really funny and had a really great time, we stood up front for Loverboy as I love to do. I can’t help but feel happy about everything………….

The gig the night before, for the super rich guy in the big massive masion part of town was a great festive blow-out…and  Scott Brown gets a text saying that the opening band, Glass Tiger, or was it a gig by the singer of, ?) has lost their bass player, it is a total tragic story; their bass player has a seizure, so they got an ambulance, so Scott and I hopped into a cab, found the palace, with blocks full of fancy parked cars, and walked throught the door, tons of cops (all hired as security) and there is a real live black womans gospel choir in robes, singing their hearts out along each wall of the grand entrance, I was quite blown away by that, thinking wow this is a class act!!!

………..the house had a red carpet from end to end, and big white shiny drapes covering the rooms where people shan’t be going, with the carpet leading past the pool, fireplace and into a HUGE white tent, all lines with white satin, covering the tennis courts, where the skimpy bikini girls played covered in chocolate and rows of caterers served what I could call Football food. Fries…big gross hot dogs (?), unspectacular sushi, average Canadian Chinese food and curry chicken or pepperoni-on-a-stick. Not so big on fruit, cheeses or veggie trays.

…The Glass Tiger guys wrote quick charts for Scott Brown and he quickly hit the stage, and I went up front to listen to his playing, which was great, so proud of him, yet the crowd TOTALLY ignored that band, embarrassingly so….or so I feel, anyway, but it wasn’t a concert, it was some kinda social, not a dance, but a chit chat, so the band wasn’t so loud, it was a background kinda situation, which performers of this caliber are not really designed for…..

…….so back downstairs to the dressing room (the house was a big 3-year old colonial-style 4 floor high ceiling monster) and I thought it was a big ol’ 100-year-old beauty……….and we were lead downstairs into the “TV room,” i guess, which was about 60 ft by 40′ with about a 30′ leather couch and a wall of projection TV with 4 other screens, which joins onto a full ultra-modern gym, sauna showers, massage room. Good place to relax, but both bands shared this space, which is also unusual.

The gaggle of real cops, and the army of servers, security and staff all make appearances in the giant TV rumpus room, and for a while it was a mystery as to when we are going on, but somehow we walk up the canvas-covered fancy stairs, around the pool (and it is raining like a demon) and past the fancy model girls and football stars and into the giant beautiful back-yard city party tent.

And the GOGO-dancers swayed, which I loved during my keyboard solo, and as soon as we got off stage, a car whizzed everyone away, but I stayed ‘cos the whole scene was unusual enough to be really interesting, and also, by then I had mastered the HUGE remote for the Giant projection TV thing. I figured that if I go to the hotel, that is what I would be doing anyway, and this was I can chat up the serving people and hear about their dreams and deep party chit chat..

I like the super rich house, but it certainly does not take away my love of my own homeland. So far away at this point in the night. And the guests all left, a mess, and we took a cab back to the Hilton, Theatre gig to follow the next night, and i have met 2 guys that have become friends who are coming out tonight, so that will be fun. This hotel is now FULL of football people, our floor is full of cheerleaders, every team in the league has sent all of their cheerleaders out…….they are very nice i am sure.

Ok, going for yet another huge freezing walk of this city
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Letter I sent at that time to a friend:

………am in Sudbury now, checked into the Howard Johnson, is raining, have an outdoor gig ……..6-hour drive today, slept and made 2 mini-books ………..yesterday in Ottawa stayed in a really elegant Marriot right downtown with a 14th floor view of the parliment buildings, i was tired again, had a nap on the most luxurious bed with the nicest velour blue shawl, i think it is a blanket, i liked it so much that i bought one from the front desk to take home, is nice to have a collection of fave blankets for winter nights, or fall evenings by a campfire, or late summer in the hammock ……….

So I bought the hotel blanket, rather than just take one from Richard’s room hahahahahahahahahahahahahahah.

……so i did wake up and go for a walk around the vibrant capital city and it was so hot out,. SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   and i walked right into the Parliment building, got very politely kicked out, went to a white tent and got a free ticket for a walking tour, went through airport-styler security and enjoyed the wild architecture and brilliant limestone sculpitung of the huge stone masterpiece, including the library of parliment, with the best inlaid floor i have seen, what a hoot, took a swim and sauna at the hotel, the best 5 fastest elevators on earth, and then the limo arrived for the gig, a brand new lincoln SUV limo, high ceiling, the nicest car i have seen in years……….totally fun…

………..the gig,
outdoors had about 100 people, turned into several thousand when we started……………outdoors, mini-concert stage, surrounded by a carnival, 3 ferris wheels, unbelievably beautiful…………after the gig, the people at the t-shirt booth were really polite and complimentary, so i guess we are finally back in the modern world…… i met a girl and her boyfriend and their other friend, and invited these really fun alive and funny people on a free trip through the carnival, one of my best tricks, to get free rides after gigs, hahahahah, well, I get invited, so it isn’t really much of a trick, just an honour…..first on the ferris wheel, joined by drummer bass player and 3 others, it was a real 1970s fun hang out with people you dont know, all instant friends..and i NEVER go on anything other than the ferris wheel, this time, the drop of doom, a new huge beautiful swing thing, the boat that goes insane and 2 rounds of bumper cars…..and
then free pizza………back to the hotel……SLEEEEEEEEEP…..

…………what a great great day……….and tomorrow the closing of the Pacific Nationl Exhibition in Vancouver wheeew.big profile gig……..for real…ok, gonna find a can opener, or go to the grocery store and get a new one, add it to my collection back home, still have the food i bought for the trip to the reserve up north……no point in just looking at food…..
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I have been playing in 3 different rock bands over the winter, mainly to play more electric violin live, which is also really fun for me, such a difficult instrument, but somehow I enjoy the challenge. I need a challenge, and it is pretty hard to fake a violin, especially at rock band volume. It cuts above everything. I also play a one-hour accoustic set every week for special needs kids, when I can, is a challenge to get them to all focus, but wow can they dance! Got those wheelchairs a-shakin’.

I suppose that after 10 years of Trooper road reports, I need a little break just to relook at some stuff. The reports to date I am very proud of, and I always wanted them to be at a certain standard, which sounds funny, but for me writing is a lot of effort, you know, I am not a real typist, and a terrible speller.Sloppy. And It is really tricky writing about a rock band on the road and not offending anyone, which I do not wish to have happen. Sometimes I would send a report to H to post, and the only response was from someone angry about something I had said, which was TRUE, so I ask H to edit, and yeah, that takes a bit of the fun out. One guy was not happy that I didn’t spell the name of his town fully, and used initials. Am I complaining, no,  just being honest, which I always wanted all the reports to be.

Everything I write is true. May not be how everyone else sees it, but this is all pretty real for me, in a life where I prefer to float over details and let the spirit move everything along. But sometimes my little truth is a drag for some people, and not very entertaining. I mean I was the guy who had to pull a dude out of the ravine and drive him home after the gig, and I can’t say his name ? He is also one of my best friends for life, so no, I can’t…and I shouldn’t have. (No offence, just first example that came to mind.)
Sorry, I tell stories the same way I would around the campfire, believeing that anyone who wants to go to a Trooper show, or read this stuff is in on the brotherhood………….

I have actually gotten people in trouble in their careers by saying funny things that happened to them, that I was later told, I shouldn’t have told a name. I should not have mentioned the airplanes…….I can’t get disclaimers from everyone, about everything. And it has affected my thinking. Stuff happens at airports, this airline grilling us on a detail, and I shouldn’t write about it, ‘cos it is businees and not entertainment at that point. The only reason I have ever written a road report is for the heck of it, and it has to be fun for EVERYONE, including myself.

I don’t want to upset anyone, and I don’t want all my paragraphs to start with “I’.

So what I think I’m gonna do is not try to be so clever, and just let it fly from now on. I will take notes on the road and just blast it out like I am here, as Tracy talks to the cat, the computer hums and the cat wants yet more food.

Tracy-Lyn and I are taking the night off, here in the fabulous SUNPORCH studio……..
..you know that Nanaimo is the SUNPORCH OF CANADA…
………..we just cruised into town for pizza.
RAISE A LITTLE HELL was playing there,
even on a tiny speaker, it made me proud.
So I thought I should write……….

Mr. Chriss (my life-long buddy) has a huge air compressor in his wine shop. He says that every time it kicks on, it sounds like the opening chord for “Raise A Little Hell”. We are everywhere, I tell you!

I do love the band. It’s been so long since the last road report, I don’t even wanna look and see how long, but time doesn’t exist so I guess it doesn’t really matter, other than I miss hearing from new friends at the T-Shirt booth after gig, how much they got a laugh out of the last road report. It has been over ten years that I have been writing here, you know, and this report has a pretty wildly huge readership. And everyone who read it is likely a Trooper fan, right? So they can’t all be so bad! It’s been my plan to update; I even looked through a huge box full of papers, I know that I have a ton of old road paper notes:.scribbles from the tour vans, buses and limos……….

– sings stan Rogers
– $800 watch thrown into parking lot
– kids beyond barricade
– crew there huge lasagna
– kids had to pay for every room that complained about the noise they made

..tons of this, papers full of momentary expressions of wildness…….
……but what any of it means, and when it fits into the story, I dunno.
But I do know WHY…because it’s fun!
Details: I dunno.
Live for the moment…and it is one big wild moment on the road.
Being on the road with trooper is one long funny event.
Cutting it into bits and transferring to word on a computer screen has always been a challenge.
Ok, challenge me!

I think that I lost my groove on the road report after a summer tour when an entire report, which I worked on and detailed on the days off, got mysteriously deleted. I told you about that, I know. That did kinda break my spirit. And it is difficult to recapture stories after a tour, when I get back, in the summer, when everyone is nude and jumping around into the sea. Or the river, or the lake. The party does not end at the airport, for any of us.

I still don’t bring a computer on the road, in fact I am the one guy in 8 who doesn’t. And this old mac (…he plays one.he plays nick-nack on my bum………) here has No spell check, and most websites are white, YOUTUBE doesn’t even work anymore. So why don’t I just get a NEW ONE!!!!!!! Come on Gogo, I will walk you the 3 blocks to London Drugs!

……..Just haven’t, yet, I’m restoring old violins…..having my old synthesizer collection rebuilt, dwindled down to about 20, after I dumped the ’80s and ’90s synths…..it has been observed that I must enjoy restoring stuff back to life……. in fact the TIMES COLONIST newspaper in Victoria is writing an article about my groovy old keyboards this week. (Article links: 1, 2) And I am likely to haul a load of drywall over to Protection Island tomorrow. I like to do some things the old-fashioned manual way, for now, for the EXPERIENCE of doing it.  Lots going on…..real estate deals…….boat being rebuilt……….nice avoiding the computer issue hey……….I think there is a word for people like that.

And I can say that I have not been chatty, taking a vow of silence every night, but I did manage to post 1852 stories and comments, cartoons and funnies onto my favorite electric violinist’s fan forum (Eddie Jobson) and in doing so made new friends from all over the world, great friends too. And I think that by being so supportive, I made a nice impression on Eddie himself, who just sent me his 1974 Barcus Berry Blue electric violin as a gift of appreciation. It has a broken neck, resulting from a theatrical stage event, and I love it. I think that one of the greatest things a person can be is supportive of those who you respect. And I respect everyone equally, or I try.

I would like to be more giving as well, and it is becoming an actual hang-up……….but let’s not talk about that.

And I get tons of inspiration from those whom I admire. The stuff I learn from the guys in the band, and in being a fan of a great violinist, I am inspired to get up early and get 3 hours violin practice in every morning before thinking about anything else. Any other playing and recording after that is bonus. This is my kinda fun.

I walk around town playing scales. At this point, I have been the violin street-walker in many great Canadian towns. People smile, honk. And I am NOT doing this for attention, I just don’t wanna sit in a hotel room for several hours when I can be outside. I spent my kid and teen years sitting at a piano, like a big ol’ desk job that you don’t get paid for, now I just wanna go outside like the other kids, so I picked up a portable instrument. Life can be liberating if you let it.

I tried walking around and playing scales and arpegios when I was 14, to and from school,  and some greasball yelled at me , called me a fool, and it seriously broke my spirit. I gotta stop letting things get to me, doncha think.

I try a lot of things over the years, lots of looking into different religions, ideas, connections to things that I consider to be great or important, and this winter having taken a far greater interest in the one I grew up in which is the Catholic Church, with a very deep and rich culture. Both sides of my family are Catholic back hundreds of years, my Mom’s side traceable to 1400 whatever…….My mom was honoured last Sunday for having played organ at the same church (and 12 at another one before that). So yeah, that is the music, the culture and the dedication I grew up with, and I enjoy it these days, good people, and our new priest in a young Polish fellow, really cool. I like him, I feel that he is actually a real holy man, and that makes all the difference. A parish need a good priest like a rock band needs a good lead singer. I can talk on about this when I see you, if you want. Not right now, or we will never get onstage…..Is all fun.

Aug 1st to 4th

Fly back to Edmonton, night in hotel, fly to Inuvik, 8 flights in 5 days. We are talking double breakfast. First Air. They just keep feeding you, then they gave us a monster bag of chips, snacks and waters for our stay up North. Everyone is at Peace. This is our second time in Inuvik, Nunavut, (we are talking Arctic Circle here) and it was wonderful to see the people who treated us so well the first time up. This time, summer, I got bit to death by bugs playing violin in the park, and chatted to every passing Northerner. It is such a trip to be there, just to go to a grocery store (THE grocery store) marvel at the high prices and see everyone having coffee in the same place where they get their $10 orange juice, and new boat engine.

My first  ZEN concept was to try to swim in the Mackenzie river. Last time we were here, this river was 8′ solid ice, and that was our highway to Tuktoyutuk. This time, it was as warm as the Nanaimo River, but quite brown, murky, strange. I enjoyed sitting around with with some very peaceful locals, who said nothing, as nothing was needed to be said, until they finally f-ed off and I could go for a swim.

The sun was up all night. The drummer from another band negotiated his deal with a manager in front of us backstage, where the deli-tray was warming in the sun under a window. Hot, unbelievable. Everyone was some kind of manager or something in this wild town. The place is cosmic, I tell you. The hotel where we stayed was brand new, and a bit unfinished. The fire alarms were being tested, almost constantly. Strange place, charming, totally. What a gas, proud to be there.

Fly To Fort Saint John, over Vancouver. OR did we fly to Prince George? Either way, I had never left the Vancouver airport and gone straight NORTH before, right over the city of Vancouver. Breathtaking. I would pay just to do that, but not too much, cos I gotta get my new cabin finished.

Aug 5 Tumbler Ridge

……outdoor gig, tons of kids. 8-hour drive, rock and roll spectacular. Dave Hampshire, tour manager, always there to greet us with his huge smile.

Aug 6 Edson

…….. kids upfront. This is what summer concerts can be, and are, when people care to make them so magical for all to share.

And then, Bonsai trees are my new love. A guy that I sat next to on a flight got me going on it, and the town we landed at, and played, had a huge bonsai display in the town centre. Inspired.  I wish to get some small cedars displayed. (I have since taken a course, and read-up.)

Oh yes, trailers backstage, super nice guys from opening act, the drummer retrieved a stage shirt that a girl had stolen from me when I was not looking onstage, during a power outage. I left my stage shirts in my keyboard case, and the road crew set them up with my gear. I never even thought that some prick would decide to rip me off. I have since considered that some very rare people love to steal from bands, like it is some sick status thing. Very uncool. I appreciate this drummer being a good scout, and getting my psychedelic shirt back. Sorry to sound harsh here, but really.

Then, the biggest ball tournament in North America. Softball, hardball, I dunno. But a sea of camper-trailers. The woodstock of RVs. Driving into this was surreal, of course. Lots of women at that gig. All baseball girls, I guess. Amazing. What a gas.

Drive to Edmonton airport, fly back in time for evening ocean swim. Life. I’ll take it!

August 2006………

2 days off…..Tracy went out of town with Mom Rose, who is terminally ill, to see about a lung transplant, and I was late picking them up at the bus depot, and they were both grumped out, and I left on the road on a bad note, never a good thing. Fly to Ottawa…….drive to Arnprior, beautiful town, went to the venue early and played violin scales…then, at an outdoor gig where some people were surprisingly and uncharacteristically rude at the T-shirt booth, and one 12-year old boy repeated “can I have some free stuff?” Someone did make their way onto the stage, when nobody was looking, I suppose, and take my best 3 stage shirts. I am actually embarrassed about how pissed off I got about this, but I don’t even want to think about this. OK? Oh Lord, I still have a pile of scribble notes here.

10 000 people outdoors Saskatoon, electric, Smitty was amazing at that gig……….delay at the airport, too much static, Frankie walks around, hours in airports, Scott with headphones on listening to Frank Sinatra, Ra and Smitty on laptops, Richard looking for pre-packaged sandwiches. Honestly, my notes are such a mess, I don’t know if I even wrote about the tour when I brought an old ukulele and we all jammed in the van, Scott being the master of the Spanish Uke. Smitty was really quite amazing on the thing, actually.

I have not talked much about Brian Smith here. Years ago, he was more high-strung, I don’t know why, but he is a hyper guy, and he is a lot more relaxed these days, which is great. He is a very understanding guy. He remembers every story ever told to him and conversations can continue much later at the same speed. And since I am now spending so much time with a stringed instrument (violin) I can see even deeper into what a great player Brian is. A true natural who breaths music.

I almost got into a fight on the ferry on one trip over. I went into the cafeteria and picked up a tray to put tea cups on, and a big arrogant super redneck grabbed to pull it out of my hand, and I was quite surprised, and I am also an arrogant super redneck, if need be, so I didn’t let it go, and the guy mouthed-off, this unexpectedly at 7am, and the guy was huge, and I can only guess that he thought that I was butting-in on his burger line-up, so I told him that I am not “butting-in on his burger line-up” and he mock surfer-talked some sarcasm at me…later walking around the ship he refused eye contact. …which is good cos he could have killed me…..and I was wearing the full Jesus outfit at the time……and then a different angry guy totally road raged Scott and I on the way to the airport, and Scott laughed, man did he laugh.

There were random days off at home, zodiac to the Islands…swimming the crystal clear Nanaimo River every day…..my bug bites from Nunavut slowly healing……thinking about the lake where Nunavut people had suggested I swim, cos it was warm, and then other people telling me ” NO! Boot Lake is where we dump the garbage!”…and then staying over night at the hotel in Richmond for early flights, walking round playing scales as people fight other cars to drive into Costco………fly to Ft. Saint John, see forest fire damage,  snooze in hotel with rotted-out bathroom wall, box of chips backstage, cold, violent movie on TV, sleep in back seat of big Chev SUV for 8-hour drive, watch the crew hit a deer, organize group photo shoots, get ready to gig with people all around the backstage trailer, cheers when we step outside, gig sounds like a lions den, front-end speakers fall over and one girl stand there like “this wouldn’t happen to me.” Lucky the huge cabinets fell backwards, cos I don’t need to see people get crushed…….And then Richard trying to get the attention of the local crew to put them back up, and then a fool climbs up there again, and Richard climbs up to get him down..all this as I play and sing along…………

Ok, I see there are notes here about the Maritimes……..swimming at Prince Edward Island…and stories about my attempt to write a book about making wine at home, (when I was a kid), and my very successful attempt to make beer in my bedroom……… taking all the light switches from condemned houses and building a monster light show when I was 12, before I got to play organ at hockey games……..those fun stories I tell other kids sometimes…………and I see a midnight clock here………how about I email this to Heather and see if she wants to post this as the start of the new road report ?  OK, here it goes, zzzzip………….thanks for being here, these shows would not have happened with out you, the concert goer, and we love you for it……… back soon!

love

gogo

Saskatoon, last gig

Frankie and I still talking about the cosmic butterflies as John, the nice cop, is driving us from the Ramada to the Saskatoon airport. 2pm lobby check-out. I had been at the lobby computer, chatting with the guys from Sweeny Todd, walking around with the violin, thinking how I never get in trouble bringing this instrument, with its long pointy bow, on airplanes as carry-on. Sometimes they look at the rosin and decide that it is not a liquid. There was a big freak-out this summer about bringing liquids aboard. It always amazed me how I could drag my HUGE old backpack full of orange juice aboard for a flight home, to the fridge. How do they know its orange?

The only problems I ever had bringing liquids through airport security was in Toronto once when the guys decide that they should take some of the wine off my hands. What can you do? Airports always make me nervous. I feel it as soon as we drive into Richmond. Butterflies. No reason. I just start to think; ID? Wallet? Keyboard pedal? What am I forgetting?

July 29 Edmonton

4000 people, outdoors, Ra’s son, Connor, and his band, The Dead Rat Marionette Theatre (DRMT). Connor’s new rock band of which I am fully in support of, played a couple of scary good rock anthems during our set. These have got to be about the most fun, and accepting bunch of teenage rockers I have ever met. They were so much fun, backstage, in the parking lot, passing the violin around, joking like old road warriors. I love these guys (and 2 girl singers!) Lots of good lobby laughs. Can we keep them with us, PLEASE !?!?!?!?!?

–fly, rent van, drive to ferry…….repeat. You would not believe the stack of ferry receipts I have. Gotta get these into the office, lemme count them, just to be bizarre…….yes, Smitty, if you read this before we chat again, I have sent them to the office OK, all 35 of them. Let’s see, the ferry ride is almost 2 hours, times 35, that is 70 hours on the ferry, not including receipts I have already sent in. I love it. That is a lot of tea. At 3 cups of tea per crossing, which I maintain, 210 big cups. As soon as I hit the ferry, coming back to Vancouver Island, I feel like I am instantly at home, or heading out, I feel ON THE ROAD. There is no turning back!

July 30 Sechelt

…can I say this is my fave gig of the summer? This is about where Joni Mitchell lives, I hear. Funny thing, when I look out any window here in Nanaimo, such as the one where I live, the one where I grew up, I look across the Strait Of Georgia, and I see the lights of Sechelt. But I have NEVER been there! This time, I got to see the lights of Nanaimo from the other side. This is pretty neat.

I have spent so little time on the mainland Sunshine Coast, and I always thought it was way more redneck than it actually is. For Pete’s Sakes, hey. It is stunningly beautiful! Bowen Island Gambier……shocking. Paradise.

I had my own condo by the sea at the Sechelt gig, a short violin walk to the grocery store, where I over-stocked the kitchenette in anticipation of Tracy (and Oline) taking the ferry over, hung out with Gary Vanderhoeven and his sons, while Tracy and Oline sat on a bus, intending to meet up with us, which they did, and we (the band Trooper) picked them up on the side of the road to the outdoor festival. There was a food tent closing down, a trailer where everything had to be moved to a tent, some friends (Rob Becker, bass viruoso) playing with the Lisa Brokop band…….and a huge crowd.

Rocky Mountain Sound supplied a concert P.A. system, and Randy, our soundman (from Germany!) told me that they were the ONLY company to deliver MORE sound reinforcement than was asked for. He was delighted! Nice to see him so happy. When Randy works shows in Europe, there would never be a throw-together system, rickety stage, bogus light rig at any show. People are way serious over there, I guess. Sometimes we play places that are quite remote, and concerts a rarity, such as waaay up North, and if there is a non-European-standard technical situation to deal with, Randy tells someone in the band about it. He is a great, guy, great talent, he sometimes just takes is too seriously. No, I didn’t say that. Kidding. He is SUPPOSED to take this seriously! God bless the man!

So I made the late-night burritos after the beautiful Sechelt gig, after the band van sped down an airport runway at full speed..wheeeeee…and I had the Lisa Brokop people over in my condo-suite, jammed a bit, slept in, let the band leave without me, touristed around, caught a city bus right to the ferry, took a picture of MOLLY’S REACH (from the 1970′s TV show The Beachcombers) and made it back home in time for a hot sun afternoon skinny-dip in the river. The perfect day. Summer is blessed.

I remember this ferry trip, because I spotted a guy with a banjo case, and I met up with him and a guitar player on the upper deck for a fake bluegrass jam. I have a picture of this, and you wouldn’t believe the look on the beard-face of the hippy-who-hates-me on banjo. I am not kidding. The guy was a stiff player, and I jammed around his progression the best I could at that time, and he tried to hide it, as a crowd gathered, and despite the fact that he invited me to play, he hated me being there. Poor guy. I guess he decided that I killed his moment of attention. Hard to day. I can not figure this guy out. So I went back to the cafeteria for tea #3. Don’t think I am going to call him up at any point.

Ok, I lied, it is night time again. Think back……Summer in Toronto, that is my thought. Super hot out. I went for a walk for hours and ran into every guy in the band, either on the street or in a store. Our crew went to the huge radio station before the band, set up drums, keyboard, guitar stuff, while the host, Kim Mitchell chatted with them, had a good vibe, and more laughs when we arrived. We ran through Raise a Little Hell with Kim on guitar, and he riffed-out smoothly in the run through and then into the live to air performance, Brilliant, wow what a great player. Effortless. The radio station, right downtown Toronto, has a huge huge-huge audience. I don’t quite know what it was all about. Perhaps this was connected with Ra’s book promotions. Much was afoot with Ra’s book.

Man, I am so proud of Ra. His reading in the Ottawa Public Library was indeed a surreal moment in Canadian history. A little theatre full of people asking Ra questions, and him answering them like the ultra-hip scientist that he is. Scott, Frankie and I sitting in the crowd, me asking him a totally unrelated question, for him to recite my favorite story (not in his book) and once again hearing the story, and visualizing Ra’s conversation with a strange man, in Stanley Park, in the late 1960s, who sings opera, waves his hands and adjusts all the colours in the landscape. Ra asks him, as they quickly walk, “Who gave you that power?” “HIM” is the man’s answer as he points to the word GOD on the passing pavement. And then the man waves his magic arms as Ra sticks out his hitch-hike thumb, and the first car takes him exactly to where he is going, far away……….Ra told the story in vivid detail, and someone in the audience later thanked me for asking for that story. Brilliant stuff. All true, cosmic, and my gift, just for ever having met Ra McGuire.

I learn a lot from Ra. I think that if I had never met Ra, I would be in many ways a different person today. I quote him at least twice a week. Seriously. Ra always understands.

One reason why I have lasted longer than any other Trooper member (other than Brian Smith) is the concept that these guys don’t try to make me behave or think any other way than I already do. I don’t feel as if I have to compromise who I am around them. This is not the case with some other groups I have been with, and it is not true of many groups that other people tour with, to this day. We have a lot of personal freedom. And a lot of it gets really funny.

We pretty-much spend the days trying to come up with the funniest stuff we can, talk of ironies and get the most out of the moment we all share. Most of the van talk is of a spiritual nature, and how to get the most out of life. It is all personal connection stuff. We don’t just sit around and gossip. In fact very little is said about former band members, other than an update of good news on their behalf. Yes, just lots of cosmic talk of how it all works in the big picture.

I like trippy cosmic talk, and I enjoy input from all people I meet. Richard Nott, our new stage-managing merch man and guitar tech all in one…..this man always gets the joke…dude has read up on more religions that most people would care to hear about. So, of course, I gotta get him going on the subject whenever I can. At 3am, downtown Toronto, one block from the longest row of derelict ghetto slum male housing that I have ever been scared to drive through…..I decide that it is time to go all the way across the street and check out the deli. So I ask Richard (who is scared of NOTHING) and (Soundman) Randy (who can scare anyone with his German language) to go along with me. So we avoid one big street guy with blood all over his face, and the other yelling guy on the sidewalk, and enter the fabulous (seriously!) gourmet all night deli! It was there that the new religion was born.

Richard, looking into the deli case was the first to spot the Baba Ganoush.

Baba (being the LORD) and Ganoush (being a miracle).

So we spent the rest of the summer praising the most delicious of all deities, and waiting for the next Ganoush.

Richard and I were (ARE) still seeing converts, renunciants, and at one gig in New Brunswick, we did, in fact, convince one fellow to become a born again BABA-G.

All things start small.

You still with me here?

And then, one day, at one airport, I complained to Richard about a restaurant where I had once become the house band (with my Dad) for 6 months, with a popular seniors menu, and of my growing disappointment with some of the old folks in the crowd. I always thought that the elderly were extra wise, super enlightened, and peaceful…..and I found this popular Nanaimo restaurant to have an aging clientele of boring ill-tempered old red necks. This is the kind of crud that I was telling Richard one fine morning as we waited for yet another plane. Another day, another plane……..another rant about something……….ever notice how everyone has something to say about something?

And the small plane is FULL, and I sit next to an 81-year-old man. He is chatty. And he is REALLY smart, he is an Order of Canada recipient, he is a business consultant, he is the man who got compensation for the merchant marines……….so I ask him about LIFE. He restored my faith in today’s elderly. Aurele Ferlatte, Canadian Merchant Navy Veterans Association Inc. Good memory, hey? Kidding, I have his card with these notes.

My notes ! Did I not learn anything at school?
How can I squeeze a story from notes like THIS? :
1) Big Ken
2) People walk through sand
3) string bean
4) sailor at dock F-off
5) yes tree falls
……all junk,
………you don’t mind if I keep random time with this report…….

No one has ever asked me why, love doesn’t fall from the sky…la-de-dah-dee-dee-dee…….OK, I can take the headphones off now. I can not believe how the winter is flying by here…….Totally fun……..

Yes, I think about Trooper often when we are on a break. Like this morning, for example, when I got my Air Canada Prestige card in the mail. Free upgrades, free lounge visits……sounds like a lotta free booze. Kinda nice ! But it all still makes me think about my high-tech-keyboard, in it’s case, unattended on the moving conveyor, dropping 4′ onto the tarmac. Airports…….seen one you seen ‘em all.

But really, this summer was an amazing maze of flights, and we always got there, and back, didn’t we! I actually am quite grateful of this amazing rock and roll experience here. And to the mystery man who booked all those connecting flights, I salute your genius.

There is no way that I can detail the last Trooper touring wildness in great detail, lately. My notes are always abysmal, and there is this approach to life which attempts to live in-the-moment rather than try to capture and analyze ….OK, lame-o excuse, but also please recall the last attempt at a road report, I spent the entire epic complaining that I had deleted a masterpiece, and that my notes are all junk, oh it is all junk, what to do???

All day I think silly thoughts.
I live in a dream, or so says every girl I ever dated.
P-is a dora.
The door is ja: Nothing is what is seems.

Did I cover all of this already?

Did I cover my big TV rant?
…….we get to watch lots of TV on the road. This is something that I never do at home. I have had cable in my studio for the internet for the last, what, 5 years at least, and I finally got the inspiration to split the coaxial signal and hook it up to the TV. Now I get Law and Order, bastards, all out there doing bad things.

You ever notice how guys always grab girls arms on TV and pull, forcing the entire girl-body to respond to whatever the guy’s issue is? This happens on TV all the time. I even saw John Boy Walton do it once. And never ONCE have I ever seen a real guy, in real life, grab a real girl’s arm and pull at her. I know my girlfriend pretty well, and if anyone ever grabbed Tracy’s arm like that, they would be laid-out on the ground as embarrassing rugby wreckage pretty quickly. It is a good thing that we don’t spend our lives copying TV behaviour. Otherwise I would have a new car and way too much ice cream to eat.

And horses ! My GOD ! Every time I see a horse on TV, and this happens in the best, most credible movie, the horse ALWAYS makes that big frightened horse “NAAAAAAAYYY.” No horse mouths moving, but some post-production audio-editor-dude hits the big horse sample and there is that sound “NAAAAAAAYYY.” Come on. I have spent enough time with horses to know that they are pretty darn quiet. Grandpa Gogo’s horse only got mad when my big brothers threw apples at its dink. But not on TV. Horses are always yelling. Drives me crazy.

OK that is my road report this year. Thank you for being here!

love Gogo

PS, Ok more notes:

-The Trailer Park Boys gig, really nice guys, shy in fact. I lost my glasses.
-Rolls Royce sightings, brand new one in Kingston.
-spaced out with Buddhist skater girl guru
-spaced out on the Detroit River
-toured scary ghetto housing in Toronto
-radio show with Kim Mitchell playing with us
-Scott tending my laundry in luxury Ottawa suite
-Scott takes a break for touring
-Larry Church gigs on bass guitar
-Larry walks everywhere with his mandolin playing ‘turkey in the straw’
-Randy flies in from Germany to do our live sound mix
-Randy says “Canada has the highest cheese prices in the world.”
-Dave Hampshire joins as tour manager
-Mike Pacholuk returns as soundman and tour manager
-Lance tours as drummer as Frankie takes a break
-Lance’s family attend with thousands in the rain at Ottawa’s Tulip Festival
-Lance is one of the great musicians of planet Earth. He is my Guru.
-Craig leaves the merch gig, visits us on the road
-Richard Nott takes the merch, stage, guitar tech gig
-Richard starts a new religion………….
-big sing-along backstage with Fred Turner in Winnipeg, girl tells him “without you, BTO is just BO!”
-I visit every church I can, just to hear the crazy music, same as at home.
-I decide to learn the violin for real this time…….
-long walks every day to find outdoor violin practice space walks.
-heard rumour that both Grandpa and Grandma Walton were gay……
-had a guy rent my mountain cabin when I was away, the guy had more problems than he was willing to disclose and disassembled the place…left tons of garbage, wrote all over everything, typical crazy speed-freak crap..I still have to restore the place. Disappointed.

Yes, this is what my little pile of notes looks like…..Arena gigs-hockey change room deli trays…what about it? I dunno. We saw lots of them, I know that much.

Frankie left the band. He is getting married soon, his life is complicated. I think so. I love Frankie. His last outrage was in the form of big loud howls in the van, laughing, imitating big loud Japanese samurai…. hooraghaaaaahhhhhhh……Frankie, I should have recorded you. Miss you Frankie. Ra said that Frankie’s huge energy will be totally missed. I have never met anyone like Frankie, and I never suspect that I ever will again. He noticed the things that I always pass by. We would zone-out on all the butterflies on the road. Details. He would talk about his favorite tree in Manitoba a few miles before we passed it on the highway. He remembers everything, every play he ever read. In some ways Frankie is the smartest guy I have ever met. And the funniest. And every time we got to a town, airport, anywhere, he would take off all on his own, spend hours walking all by himself. And talk on the phone late into the night. Every night, every detail. The guy is a machine. Frankie’s mind is a national treasure.

Can I tell you about the new religion that Richard Nott and I started?

It is midnight here in my studio, as I write this…….. I will start this up in the morning.

……scales scales scales, can I take a break now, please………..I ask myself……….

Hey Cats,
Been a while since I posted a Trooper road Report, hey?

Guess what ? I DID write a huge detailed essay on our summer 2006 tour, complete with one trip to the Buddhist temple, 2 trips to Newfoundland, a few trips to the salad bar, tripping over cables beside the stage, trippy stuff…….but it — IT being the entire report, which took about 2 weeks to type out and edit — IT got deleted on a friend’s computer.

Eaten by hell.
Who loves computers ?

Kinda broke my spirit, a bit. But I vowed to start up again as soon as the West Coast summer fell to fall. Here we are, rainy night, headphones on, British Prog Rock, 2 fingers type on….but where are my notes ? Do I have to search through this huge pile of crud under the piano ?

Ok, I lied. It is now winter, the snow has the studio buried, the sky is strangely pink, the pumpkin soup is half gone……….can I start now ? Ok, this from the fall………

I think we are going to test my memory, which is great, but I don’t pay attention to stuff when it is happening, so to recall…….easier to write about the dream world I live in……but….2 days ago, flew back from Edmonton, drove from Red Deer, stale sandwiches, out for 3 days, played an air force base in Cold Lake Alberta, met men that were going over to Afghanistan, signed huge pictures of regiments after a great-sounding gig……..woke up at 5:30 am to the sound of Scott brown’s green VW bug horn outside of my studio, grabbed my coat, grabbed my hat, Richard took a bus, no room in the VW, had my keyboard in its case. Richard is our new stage manager. He doesn’t like taking the bus.

………………Remember Mike Pacholuk ? He is back !!!! Soundman – road manager. He replaced Dave Hampshire, road manager, smiley-face Prince-of-a-man and known here on the Island as the MEGALICIOUS drummer. Dave he replaced Randy Bergner, soundman and road manager, who flew in from his home in Germany every time we had a few gigs to play………..and Richard replaced Craig on merch and stage managing… and now we have Harvey Windsor, my old friend from Junior High School, and Gabriola Island, who is also a bass player and gardener extraordinaire…….working to take over Mike Pacholuck’s duties in the New Year………………..wow, how am I even going to star in this year’s story ?

Let me start with Richard Nott.
– Merch manager, stage manager.
– Don’t room with him cos he snores REALLY loud.
– Falls asleep in the bathtub.
A guy that I knew as a teenager in Nanaimo. His brother is my age and was a nice guy in school, and ended up boxing. We have all our friends in common, and Dave Hampshire brought him into the Trooper touring crew based on his experience as a soundman. He also plays bass, guitar, sings, and can recite doctrines of most world religions.

I don’t like to pick favorites, but I really like touring with Richard. He really gets every joke and laughs wildly at my stories about my dad, to the delight of everyone else in the airplane. (I used to always know where Frankie was on a plane cos he laughed so loud.) Richard looks a lot like Frankenstein, but is a whole lot more agile. He can drink and never lose his balance. I would not want to fight this Irishman, cos he could very well outrun me as well. Richard also works construction during his off time (with Tony Thompson, master builder), and wow can Richard ever eat a lot, and often. He is a tall lean calorie burning machine, and he does the BEST Smitty impersonations I have ever seen.

Richard, Scott, Harvey, all from Vancouver Island, all bass players, all big dudes………….

---

Harvey’s not going for the second 3 days outing. He had a really close friend pass away……so Scott and Gogo (ME!) meet Richard on the ferry, Scott gets Richard a bus ticket, we all see the rest of the band and crew at the airport as we have done many many times over the summer. I have never flown so much in my life. Every weekend there is somewhere to fly to. 3 Saskatchewan fly-outs in a row a few weeks back. That is a lot of tomato juice, no ice please.

I think we are going to get our Prestige Flyer Card again this year. And you gotta see this stack of ferry receipts. Actually, I gotta get them into the office.

What a year of travel ! The people I have sat beside on the airplanes !

• Guy with an art shop, told me how to make bonsai trees. (and then we played a gig with a fenced off bonsai section right in the middle of town, whoooo)
• Huge tattoo-arm geologist, told me about water problems of cities, and cage fighting .
• Old lady with 1930s jokes. Yuk Yuk Yuk.
• Guy with the worst BO on earth. Show-off.
• And after complaining to Richard about so many old people being disappointingly unenlightened, I meet a 81-year-old Order of Canada Merchant Marine, business consultant, who told me all about life.

And then the man whose company sent him to the Queen Charlotte Islands for a fishing holiday. His Company ? Why, Old Dutch Potato Chips, of course. !!!! WOW ! Did I ever tell you that I am CONNECTED. And that prayers DO work !?!? Old Dutch just bought out Humpty Dumpty; I got all the gossip. Dude is going to give us a tour of the plant in Calgary, next time we venture out, and he shall load us up. What did he say ? 35000 pound of potatoes cooked there every day, the starch hauled away in semi tractor trailers? Lots of secrets. I will tell them to you at the T-shirt booth, but not here. Let’s just say that the snack food business aint
goin’ broke real soon.

The nutty stuff. Missed a flight on the road 2 days ago, despite the entire band getting up at 5:30am (crew at 3:30) a 4-hour drive turned into about a 12-hour travel day. All because some 36-year-old ya-hoo stole a huge semi tuck and ran over the cop’s spike belts, rattled, grinded at high speed past us, chased by 20 cop cars, and we get stuck at a road block. The spaz finally pulled onto a side road and tried to run away on foot.

I like the word spazzzz.
Did I tell you that Frankie left the band ?
I really miss him.
A lot.
I always missed Frankie as soon as we had a touring break.
His energy is really strong.
A laugh a minute.

Clayton Hill is our new drummer. He is from Vancouver Island as well, (lives on the mainland now) and strangely enough I had only met him once before. He has played much in Europe over the last 10 years and is a great, great, solid and imaginative, and totally symphonic player, and a funny guy, lovable as can be, great guy. I am just getting know him now, so no offence to him, but I miss Frankie, of course, who wouldn’t.

Frankie is about the highest energy funny man ever invented, and I really enjoyed all his nutty drumming stuff. My kinda fun. He has a family, a full solid life, and he became so busy that he was unable to continue to fully commit to our band. There were dates that were not fitting his schedule. So much so that Lance Chalmers, Gentleman of life and monster drummer of the Universe, filled in for most of the summer. We all love Lance as well. We are so blessed.

What do I do for a living, well, I travel, but for fun, I stand there and watch some the best drummers on Earth play. I sit beside them for their solos, feel the stage shake. This is my reward for all the travel, and I feel very blessed.

……Yes, so I was sleeping in the van when the clanky, stolen semi rolled by, and I immediately came up with about 5 funny thing to say that NOBODY in the band even replied to or acknowledged at all. Funny stuff like “Oh the monkey must be driving and the trucker sleeping,” and “Oh great ! Another remake of the Blues Brothers!”

No, just a stolen truck in Alberta, just another long drive after we miss the flight………

Oh well, I have my own problems. Before the last trip out, my new side project did its (our) first amplified gig. THE CAMPFIRE GIRLS have played acoustic gigs all summer, and while driving home from the after-party drive through, on this welfare of all autumn Wednesdays, one of the 4 cop cars littering the streets decides to follow me, pull me over and remind me that my car insurance has expired.

I remember writing about this last year. I promise I will never do this again. I gotta keep track of time. I admitted to the cop that it it totally socially irresponsible, and that I rarely use the car, and never know what day it is cos I am a MUSICIAN (like we sensitive artists have an excuse for everything!) and he said “It’s OK, I recognize you, I know who you are, I don’t think you are the criminal type, in fact your music is an asset to the community.” So instead of the $600 fine, and the fine for wrong address on drivers licence, and the fine for no sticker, and the towing fee, and the storage fee, and the driving suspension, and the points, and court appearance……..he gave me the minimal fine and escorted me home. Should I be writing this ? I PROMISE I will not push my luck any further.

How did he recognize me? The Vancouver Island Exhibition gig this summer killed what anonymity I had going for me in my home town. Not one day goes by when I don’t catch a good vibe and compliment about that gig. 6000 people outdoors, hometown, perfect summer night, HUGE lights and PA, band at peak performance. The ladies at the Credit Union say “Oh now I know what it is that you do!”

The same cop was at our last Megalicious gig. I drove home from that one with a broken fan belt, the car was steaming and it wouldn’t turn off. 3 am loud stuff. So decided I could fix it, and spent about 2 weeks stripping the same bolt. Our 19-year-old neighbour dropped by, moved the alternator and got the belt on. He refused cash. Tracy gave him some canned pears, the same ones we gave NAZARETH.

---

Did I tell you that I play violin now ?
Wanna hear my violin jokes ?

How do you know that the violin teacher is religious ?
Every time you play, she closes her eyes, looks up and says, “Oh Lord.”

How many violinists does it take to screw in a light bulb ?
1) Only one, and the world revolves around him.
2) “None ! We’re above manual labor!”
3) One to change the bulb, and four to complain that it is ELECTRIC!

How do you keep a violin from getting stolen?
Put it in a viola case!

How do you know a violin player’s kids are on the playground?
They can’t swing.

Two members of The London Symphony Orchestra walk past a bar…
Wait, it could happen!

A violinist’s funniest joke:
Why was Mozart so hungry?
Cos Beethoven was Haydn his Chopin Liszt.
Ha haha ha

What do violists use for birth control?
Their personalities!

Ok, I am stalling, gotta start this road report…………

…….Ok, let me dig through and see if I have any notes, scribbles from this summer. I don’t expect to detail every gig, but let’s try to recapture the general vibe…………back in a wee bit, wish me luck……….

Digging through old papers, Christmas lyrics……..I am so sorry about this, wishing that that road report didn’t get deleted. No doubt I threw away my notes then as well. This year has been so busy. Yes, I bought an old old old violin at an antique store at the side of the highway one day. I was sitting in the lobby of Tracy’s chiropractor, reading the local Ladysmith newspaper, all about the fabulous player pianos, so I decide take Tracy on a cheap date to this antique store, blow 25 cents, and we hear a player piano go plink plink so charmingly, until Tracy spots an old violin case in the corner, unopened, unloved, and under priced. $300 crossed out, $200, so I offer them $100, settle on $140.

Don’t mean to be rude, but have these people not heard of EBAY ? So my constant companion has been an actual Baroque instrument, a 200 to 300 year old gorgeous German violin, and when the people across the street on Protection Island built a new house and moved in and told me “Oh I am a violin teacher,” I looked to the sky and said “OK, I get it. I am gonna learn some violin scales!” So here I am, Trooper keyboard player, road warrior, violin student.

But could they make the violin any more difficult ? Every Chromatic scale is fingered differently, and different again descending.  When God was handing out brains, I thought he said Trains, and I jumped out of the way.

Hey, how do you know if tuba players are smarter than horses?
If they don’t poop during the parade.

I spent the summer walking around playing grade 3 pieces, scales, getting a tone, loving it like I have never loved an old piece of varnished wood before, and hey, I am getting a tone ! Difficult, yes. We had 3 days off in Prince Edward Island, and trying to get out of the hotel and away from the lovely tourists, I found the perfect concrete stairway, and the odd person would look in, the old security guard finally asked me to leave. That is the trick, find a nice-sounding stairwell. I also got booted off of a church porch, playing scales in the rain in Sydney Cape Breton Island, home of the largest illuminated fiddle on Earth, and I mouthed the guy off a bit, couldn’t help it. Not quite the vibe I was looking for. That is the other trick, find a nice church where nobody hangs out, and mouth-off anyone who tells you to f-off.

Other than that, Canada has been very tolerant of my new violin. And one old man even held out money for me as I walked around at night playing G Harmonic minor. Yesterday a guy asked me if I had had lunch yet. So far 5 people have apologized for not having money. I think they figure I am busking. Walking, no case, busking……….is art dead in Canada, or are the people just really generous ? Whatever, at least I know I have a different career option if I get tired of arena and theatres full of people slapping me on the back, so lovingly.

Some people pull their cars over when I walk down the street playing scales, and they ask nice questions. One lady ran down from her balcony and said “I was sitting there so depressed, and your music touched my heart, and I realized that I still have a heart, so I thank you. ” I think I was playing B flat major.

I played the violin when I was 14 as well. Some greaseball yelled at me from his porch. Called me a fool, right in front of all the other kids. Freaked me out. I stopped playing violin on the walk home from school after that.

Music does funny things to people. When I go for a violin walk, (and who wants to sit indoors practicing all day !?!?!?) people either say “COOL!” or they act like I am the devil from HELL. I figured it out, too. I think that outdoor music has been so closely associated with poverty, and that as soon as some people notice an acoustic instrument being played outside, they AVOID lest they be judged for not giving money to the poor slob (me). I don’t know. I can only guess. Thank God most people leave me alone. Money: the patron of the arts, the killer of the arts.

Life wasn’t always like this, you know. When I was kid in the 1970s, people sat around and strummed guitar everywhere. People camped on the side of the road, traveled with arts and craft fairs, and playing instruments was like talking, or dancing. No big deal in public. That is the world I grew up in.

Now I meet hundreds of kids at T-Shirt booths, and I ask them all what instrument they play and it is always GUITAR. GUITAR. Ok, fine, A million teenage Canadians play GUITAR. But where ? I counted 3 people playing acoustic instruments for the hell of it, outdoors, all summer. One was a crazy old nut on the BC ferry who I jammed with, very poorly. I sounded like a 100 year old bad fiddler who forgot how to play. Oh well. Another guy played banjo with dirty fingers and dirty expressions, caught on a photograph of me jamming, on the BC ferries again, with the hippy who hates me. The guy just HATED me. Commented that I was good fiddler, to my surprise, despite the fact that he is the hippy who hates me, and the sentiment was streach at the time. My scales are way better now ! Oh, and I saw one other guy playing a penny whistle. I invited him in to play and recite poetry for some special needs people one day. Other than that, a million guitar kids, all playing indoors, I guess. Please, anyone, feel freeeeeeee to prove me wrong anytime.

Life at home.
Now we have 2 house guests, until their house is completed on Protection Island, Olene, and her 7-year-old son, James, are staying at our house, and I walk James to school everyday, playing scales, while his Mom works in a bakery. Yum. So I have the Larry Church’s (ex-Trooper bass player) Jig down with a groove, and I crank it up after school, and all the kids start to dance, and the secretary runs over asks who I am, what I am doing there, and that the teachers are concerned cos they have never seen me there before. They have never seen me, after 3 months of violin walks? They have never seen the kids dance ? They aint keepin’ track. She was really freaked out. Music has a wild effect on some people.

Ok the road report:
1) wake up
2) drive to ferry
3) 3 teas
4) drive to airport
5) meet the guys
6) feel nervous, for no reason, going through security
7) sleep on plane, eat pretzels
8) wait for bags to unload, van to arrive
8) driven to town, hotel
9) practice, groceries, soy milk, nap, wake, get ready
10) van to gig, laugh with the guys
11) deli tray, install in-ear monitors
12) play the gig, have fun
13) sign stuff, laugh with the guys
14) drive back to hotel
15) flip around TV channels, looks for Turner Classic Movies
16) sleep, dream about the violin scales

This times a few dozen, Frankie left the band, Dave Hampshire left too.

The End.

Love Gogo

………..Ok let me try again tomorrow………the 1914 KIMBAL piano is sitting beside me and I feel an arpeggio coming on…and what about popcorn, and sleep………..life at home is in many ways not so different from the road, one big day life is……………….lets see, think, what happened this year ? Clayton dumped a coffee on his pants, took them off and threw them in the garbage, Richard got the Arabian Suite at the Fantasy hotel at the West Edmonton Mall, had florescent lights and mirrors by the bed, Richard walked into Scott’s and my hotel room at 5 am, thought we were 2 girls, complained to the front desk guy who came up and banged on the door, yelled “WHO ARE YOU?”, good luck sleeping, Mike walks into our room 2 gigs later at 5 am, front desk guys giving out wrong keys………I never leave my violin in the room. Crazy to take her on the road at all…naaaa, crazy is all relative. And I missed my crazy relatives cos we gigged right though my family reunion.

Good news !!!! I looked through this basket beside this IMAC and I FOUND a pile of old scribbles from the road from all of last year……..now that it is raining on the west coast, and the river is too cold, and dangerous to swim, I will step by step unfold and start typing, tick tick tick, WARNING, nothing will be very chronological, or logical, it will be abstract, but, let’s face it, life is but a camping trip.

Meanwhile, Heather, oh grand webmaster, could you please include this blob of words, as it is, one big mess, as an example of what my first draft road reports look like: (thanks)

I went onto the ferry with my bass player, stage manager, and merch manager…..all bass players……..all big galootes, huge dudes, unlike myself…………had tea on the ferry, sat on an old couch in Harvey’s van, first time I had ever gone for the couch ride in his roadie, van, then off to the hotel, through Vancouver City, and the Hotel was this HUGE pink building with the cheapest of all componects warped beds, cheap curtaions, cheap bathtub, and it was FREEZING in the room, I mean totally frozen, so I cranked the thermostat, and went with the crew to the town hall we were play (a coast gaurd fund raiser, ….) and I stand in a stairwell for a few hours doing scales until Scott and my other guitar player (Burke from Megalicios) appear and I go with them and end up at the condo where Burke lives, and he wants to play violin, and I think he should, so I show him a bow hold, and he can’t play loud his building, so back to the hotel, and Scottsecured a new room, much much nicer, but he always likes it so cold in the room, I turned up some heat and tried to sleep and the road manager knocked on my door wanting to use the shower, so I get a nap, and it is still cold when I wake up, get ready, and Clayton picks Scott and I up in his van and he has yet ANOTHER bass player with him, and it is snowwing like crazy, for the first time all year, and it is sticking, and the gig is PACKED, and tons of people back stage, including another bass player Larry Church, who gets up and jams, and the singer gives everyone new IPODS for Christmas, which is really cool and I am super excited about this, and Ra’s son Connor does plays a beautiful song, and after the gig I got more compliments on the show than I did all year, I couldnt walk throught the crowd without everyone going WOW WILD SOLO, which is super nice, and I thought it was a bit sloppy and long and strange, but I can take a compliment, including one from John Rothorn, a great musician, technical man and studio owner who I quite admire, which is really cool, and there is about 20 or 30 people linked up to go backstage, and some are all loaded for my liking, and I run into a guy that my sister used to date when I was a kid, and I told him that his pinao playing was a big big influence on me at the time, and he didn;t really manage to care aobut that at all, then I told him a detail that I admired about his  band from 30 years ago, he has been out of the bizz since, and he didn;t care about that either, so I went into a quiet, well, quieter corner and played violin for myself, and the guy, who I also quite respect, being that he was such a huge inspiration for me, and comes up to me, with his wife and requests Jesu Jpy Of Mans desiring, which was my Dad’s fave tune, and hey, I am on my time, not performing, and everytime I bring a violin out people think it is a cue for them to talk to me, so I played the big famous riff, guessed at it and nailed it, ot my surprise, and I am so funny and asked if that was the key he was interested in, or should Iplay it in G. And then a girl who was strange, talked about being an artist, and I can talk art crud with anyone, and she was not at all interested that I came up with the kind of questions that every artist wants to hear about what media, oh styrophoam ! what density, blocks, what size or it injection foam into moulds….and her answers were all very vegue like she wasn’t too interested in the conversation, and then she wants to play the violin, and I vowed not to let any freaks touch my really really old nice violin anymore, but mr nice guy lets her hold it and twist the bow in the most unatural way, and the guitar player who visited earlier just stood there and watched, and then I wondered if he thought I was trying for his girlfriend, which is insane, but a milion things run through your mind every second, you know, and the deli tray was old thin sandwiches, and Ra was so happy to be in his hometown and had dozens of people around him, so happy, and he brought in 30 more beer for them, And I was so happy that he is so proud, love the guy, and then the artist girl found pictures to show me of here styrofoam sculptures, and then Scott said he was going to the hotel, so I put the violin away as quick as I could and the girl said, “I will wait until you say good bye to your friends,” and I said, “I AM GOING WITH THEM !,” and I slipped out the door, down the stairwell where I had spent the afternoon alone, and it was totally snowing outside, and into the Smitty’s new luxury pick up truck, back to the hotel, meanwhile Richard and Harvey got stuck down a one-way street, this town is a big hill right into the sea, a really expensive beautiful sea side town right beside Vancouver, and nobody wanted to slide into the sea, so back to the hotel, still cold, so I watch a bit of a nice move, crash out and early morning we leave, back into the roadie couch van, driving very slowly and seeing lots of vans that have slid off of the highway into the big ditches, and made the ferry on time YAY !!!!! Sat by a gas fireplace in the ferry lobby, and even that was cold, and on the ferry saw yet another bass player, who was returning from chili with his wife on their honnymoon, which is strange cos I was the last person they saw before they went and the first person they saw when they came back and they told me about their trip and it sounded dreadful yet very romantic, and they were with a guy who raises money for mining companies and he cut me off of things I was trying to explin, which I am Ok with, and I sat and had 3 fruit teas with my other 3 bass players, and the ferry , huge 500 car ferry was going slooooooow cos the sea was rough and there was an annoucment not to go on the deck, and if you stand up you get bounced around, which I LOVE !!!!!!!!! and then I went home, and I think there was a lot more strange stuff that I forgot about already, it was all snoowed in at home, towns with no power for a few days, which is really unusual cos all the infastructure here is new and modern, you know………….and then the gaurdian of one of my nephews, who is doing so well on guitar, and who really looks up to me, well, they almost drown driving an ATV thing into a lake, and on and on, and too many phone calls to return, so I take that slow, and dont let anyone shake my PEACE, and my Mom brings home a huge tray of funeral sandwiches, and I make more sushi, and I drive Tracy-Lyn to stay with her step Mom who is really ill, and is getting worse and worse, we dont know if she will make it through the night, seriously, and I went out to visit her today, and she was up all night sick, what she has is terminal, and who knws if she will bounce back, and I have to get a flu shot tomorrow cos I am considered a caregiver at this point, yiles, I hate needles, and then the father and of my excellent nephew, well, family member, shows up soaked last night from being in a puddle, which is nuts cos everythign is frozen, even my ropes were frozen to the dock, (but the sauna still works!) and 3 of the car doors are frozen shut. (this is a very rare cold snap, it is really mild here, really !) so ya my deadbeat family member appears andI give him some socks, and he stays in the den, and he has always beena really nice guy, and I have always really liked him, and the next day he walks my mom to church holds her arm the whole way so she doesnt slip, and he doesnt see his son this time and goes along on his way cos he is a heroin junkie, yikes………….and nobody wants a junky to stay around too long, I guess, which is a shame cos I have known him his whole life, used to give him my hand-me-down after I had gotten them for 4 guys before me………..whew…….

Ok I am going to start to look at these road report notes…….

back in a wee bit.

Love Gogo

September 7th, 2005    Cambridge, ON    Little Big Horn

September and it is still swimming season. I insist. I refuse to let this summer end.

7pm, Scott and Dave show up at my studio and to the ferry we go, 3 teas later, the Alercorn hotel, sleep. Oh we sat with Boink, a great soundman we know, and Dave Hampshire, our new road manager made a great new friend. I brought music notation books to read, thinking that I should do SOMETHING other than swim, eat and music, well, this is music I guess. This trip wasn’t to be a whole lot of sleep for the crew, but a major opportunity for relaxation for me, the fab and over-relaxed keyboard player.

I met a yoga teacher at the Toronto airport. A brilliant young man. He had studied with his father in India, leads canoe adventures on the off season, and back to Mexico to teach yoga teachers again. He told me some great yoga ideas, not all which I fully understand, but did anyway. This guy could not stop smiling. My super-happy yoga master dude. Cool! I wiped his permanent smile off of his face when I told him that Gilligan (Bob Denver) just died. It was true, and I had the newspaper magazine to prove it. So the Yoga guy and I mourned Gilligan at the airport and everyone got their luggage from the carrousel. The Gilligan death is heavy on us. I fear mass Jonestown action on Protection Island. The whole way of life there is based on Gilligan. I guess we are all on our own now, to live the teaching of Gilligan in our own way. I think I have been doing a fine job so far. I gave up on trying to be the Professor long ago, even though he does it with Mary Ann. THIS I understand.

So some girls danced onstage to my purposely bizarre keyboard solo in Cambridge. I played the most insane stuff that I could muster (never used that word before!)  Mike Pacholuk joined us in doing sound for this tour. The other Mike soundman left the tour, and the organization in general, and we are all still friends, and he is still an AMAZING sound tech with an international career. He wasn’t having a good time with us. I am.

Pacholuk wore a Southern rock cowboy hat, smiled the whole time and spoke fondly about the brotherhood, and he did a wonderful job of front of house sound. He is a serious vintage bicycle collector and restoration man, so I listened closely to great moments of advice.

Also, I was thrilled when Ra informed me that he had assembled booklets of 50 campfire songs, just as I had, not knowing that each other had the same idea. How serendipitous is that? I can’t wait to see his selection.

Here is a bit of my campfire selection from my book:

IRISH
…Farewell to Nova Scotia
…Cockles and Mussels
…The Unicorn Lyrics

FOLK
…Red River Valley
…On Top of Old Smoky
…On Top of My Pizza
…Home on the Range
…If I Had A Hammer
…Go Tell Aunt Dodie
…The Bear Went Over the Mountain
…Yankee Doodle
…Sweet Betsy from Pike
…Clementine
…Found a Peanut
…There’s a Hole in the Bucket
…Take Me Out to the Ballgame

SLOW
…Land of the Silver Birch
…KUM BA YAH
…All Through the Night
…Bicycle Built For Two
…Amazing Grace
…You Are My Sunshine
…Camptown Races

AFRO AMERICAN
…Oh! Susann…
…the blue tail fly
…The Horse Went Around
…Short’nin’ Bread
…The Old Gray Mare
…I’ve Been Working on the Railroad
…In the Good Old Summer Time
…Old Folks at Home
…little brown jug
…in the good ol’ summertime

WILD
…The Williams Lake Shuffle
…Oh, You Can’t Get to Heaven
…brand new key
…Love Will Keep Us Together
…He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands
…When Johnny Comes Marching Home
…Alice the Camel
…Runnin’ Bear
…Oh, Dear! What Can the Matter Be?
…The Fox
…If You’re Happy and You Know It
…This Old Man (Knick-Knack Paddywhack)
…hurdy gurdy man
…honky tonk man
…mellow yellow

PIRATE
…Michael, Row the Boat Ashore
…Blow th’ Man Down
…Sloop John B Lyrics
…Row, Row, Row Your Boat
…Gilligan’s Island Theme Song
…My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
…The Paddle Song
…Jamaica Farewell
…Sailing, Sailing
…Banana Boat Song

September 8th, 2005    Liverpool, NS    Astor Theatre

Craig drove a vintage bike onto the Theatre stage during the drum solo. Craig was really funny during this outing. He didn’t stop smiling. I had NEVER seen him smile before. He is kinda mono-mood. Scott was all excited about the idea of having a piano sing-along at the pub at the historic hotel we occupied, so at the right moment I entered the pub at the hundred-plus year old haunted hotel, to great cheer, and ran through my little list of favorite tunes. It is a serious maritime moment to have an entire pub singing FAREWELL TO NOVA SCOTIA. Kinda proud of that.

September 9th, 2005    Glace Bay, NS    Savoy Theatre

Mini van. 6-hour drive, music notation. Great theatre crowd. People here really listen, and react, and that makes me play better music, play music better, both. Best laugh of the whole tour backstage when the stage camera got a shot of the manager bringing us a pizza backstage. Why that was so funny, who knows. We all laugh like mad men backstage, all the time. Delicious wet pizza. Ra held his pizza with a towel. That was funny too. Mike had a wonderful time laughing with the boys again.

I drove the van back from Glace Bay to Sidney and stopped at the the World’s largest illuminated fiddle so we could all dance around. I had spent a bit of the afternoon at this huge metal structure, during my waterfront jog, watching a video of the giant fiddle being made and became the perfect tourist.

September 10th, 2005    Bouctouche, NB    private corporate function

Drive up to Moncton, hotel swim in excellent outdoor pool all day. Actually meditated in the pool, total zone out, deep enough to dive. Great pool. No one around. 45 minute drive to gig, a historical Accadian village Island with a wooden bridge connecting it to the town. A totally silent old Maritime guy drove us across the bridge in an oversized golf car limo, and I almost passed out when I saw about 60′ of tables, all covered in wild food. I believe an oil company put this gig on for their employees, and we were told that it might rain, so they spent $20 000 on a tarp. I say let it rain, my keyboard is insured, I will use an umbrella, give me the cash I say. YAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The stage was wooden, the entire floor of the amphitheatre wooden, and the side walls historical buildings, like a mini city scene from a different century. Quite beautiful. Some people were moved to tears by our show. Unfortunately for me, the guys in the band wanted a quicker leave from the venue than I, so I made them wait a bit, cos we were given the green light to the food tables. I insist on having MY moment, being the keyboard player and all, you know. Enough gourmet food to feed a thousand people, and there was perhaps 300 there. Salmon skewers, wild nachos, prawn kabobs, so I packed some party cups to take with me. This was the jackpot of food parties. Where was this in the ’80s when I needed it? I have to make up for my starving days all at once.

Late 2:45 leave. I had quiet time at the hotel, zoned in the pool again. Read music books. I even watched a movie on TV. Every movie had Robin Williams in it. Did you know that he lives on Salt Spring Island?

We followed the sunset home. The plane took forever to get home. I sat by Frankie. We destroyed our headsets and made punk rock hanging mobiles out of them. Other passengers were happy about our modern hanging junk art sculptures.

I probably didn’t capture 1/3 of the funny stuff I saw on this tour. I know that I lost some pages with scribble notes, so several shows are lost into my summer sunburt memory. It is all one plane ride, one crowd, one salad bar. .

Oh, this is good:
Did I mention the flight where I looked at the seat behind me and thought “Hey, that is the guy from the Irish Rovers!?” Easy to recognize if you ever watched Canadian TV in the late ’70s. He is the guy with the Irish hat.  So I said “HI Will Miller!” And he instantly turned into my best friend. At the next airport we were still hanging out, he telling great stories of Peter, Paul and Mary. I just love that guy. I have the greatest respect for veteran musicians and LOVE to get the chance to hear their stories of life. He was quite concerned that everyone be aware that his last drummer was pulled through a chipper and mushed to death. “All that was left was the boots”

Yes, it’s all true.
It struck me recently that I could write any crap here, make stuff up, and it would be easier than remembering details of passing moments. But you know, Ruth is stranger than Richard, and who would even think of raunchy school bus bouncing over moon-scaped roads in Northern reserves? I think this stuff is really fun, and I am proud to be a part of it.

What a great summer! This is my simple little window into this touring world, one simple little perspective. The soundman would write a completely different story, same place, some of the same people, same music, but angles.

We are blessed to see the greatness of this land, and to share it with the great people.

Before I split, let me show you what music has been playing on my ITUNES while I type this>>>>>>>>>>>
Do You Feel Like I Do? – Peter Frampton
Battle of Evermore – Led Zeppelin
Pantagruel’s Nativity –  Gentle Giant
Shine On Silver Sun –  Strawbs
the four seasons – Vivaldi
Love My Way – Psychedelic Furs
Carpet Of The Sun –  Renaissance
Eddie Jobson Violin Solo -UK
After The Ordeal – Genesis
Hello Hurray – Alice Cooper
Blues for Organ – Jimmy Smith
Funny Ha Ha – Slingblade
How Deep Is Your Love – Bee Gees
Midnight Cowboy – Harry Nilsson
Out Of The Blue – Roxy Music
Motor Head  - Eat The Rich
Puppets -Curved Air
Songs From The Wood – Songs From The Wood
Utopia Theme – Todd Rundgren & Utopia
Free Bird – Lynyrd Skynyrd

Thank you for being at these shows.
May the Angels continue to guide over you.
love Gogo