….Must come to an end.
Well folks we made it home from a ten week tour alive. We had good times, some great shows (like our tour finale in Quebec City with two standing O’s) and of course had the flip side to all that as well. Before I get to the meat of this post I want to thank everyone who gave us food and shelter along the way and of course all the clubs who gave us shows and peeps who came to said shows!
However….
It is with a heavy heart that I announce the parting of Shawn Bastard from our current line up. Shawn and I have played together for 13 years so believe me when I say that this is not an easy time in my life right now. I’m sure it won’t be but a blink of an eye before you see him rawking a stage somewhere with someone and considering he is one of Canada’s best on the low end, I’m sure he’s already in demand. Karl Gans and myself will continue to make music in some fashion or another over the coming months. Spring tour and band shows are still scheduled as planned for 2012. You can check Karl and I out in Duo form this weekend in St Andrews NB. Of course, since it won’t be the same without Shawn I’ll be dropping the moniker “& The Sufferin’ Bastards”. You’ll be able to find all things related to me musically under my very own name. Not too clever i realize but it works. Website will remain the same but eventually the band Facebook page will go away and I will have a new Ross Neilsen Music related FB page.
Currently I’m booking my solo tour for the first quarter of 2012 and there are a few shows listed in the tour dates section of this site now. Stay tuned for more shows in Ontario in March. I’m also going to be woodshedding hard to get ready to head to Memphis for the International Blues Challenge where I’ll represent Harvest Jazz and Blues Fest in the solo/Duo category. I’m very excited to head back to the land of Blues and BBQ! There will be a fundraiser event at Dolan’s Pub on January 18th at 7.30pm. I hope y’all can come and help a fellow out so I can afford to head south with out too much overhead. It’ll be two sets of solo material spanning the past 6 years and who knows, maybe a guest or two?
Before I go get into “the medicine” I’d just like to say what a pleasure and honour it’s been to have such a great band and even more so, such a loyal base of friends, family and fans. I really do believe we wouldn’t be anywhere without the support we receive from y’all and while we weather this shit storm I just want everyone to know that we’ve appreciated every single time you’ve been there for us. While right now I am struggling to control my emotions, know that I will turn this into an opportunity to re-collect myself and continue to put out new and exciting music with the same high quality shows/music you’ve been used to in the past.
Your’s in music,
Ross