Hello friends
Well we’ve been out for about three weeks. We’re currently in Lethbridge Alberta at the man with no name’s house. We’re chilling before we load into the Slice for tonights rawking!
We have had a great tour so far. LOTS of nice weather. Last trip we discovered a great way to get around northern Ontario and we did the same this trip. Nice and slow, stopping in little towns to play shows in the evening to kill our expenses and keep us driving short, day light, hours to the next show. It takes twice as long but in the end it’s much more relaxing and we’ve met some wonderful folks in these towns. After our second show of the tour we stayed another night in Lavigne to relax before we got into the meat Northern Ontario. We got a lovely tour du lac from Jo and Manfred. Again, it was a beautiful day on lake Nippissing.
The good weather didn’t stop there. We had low twenties all the way around Superior which prompted Shawn Bastard and I to take a dip in the Great Lake. It was cold, I can tell you that, but refreshing.
We played our way out of Ontario in a new venue for us, Shooters in Kenora. Fun joint. We’ll be back here again on our way home. After that it was a long haul to Regina for our show at the Gaslight. This one was way better than our last and we look forward to playing here again next tour. The road then pointed us towards Saskatoon where we always play the amazing Bud’s on Broadway. Mid week shows can be tough but we’re grateful to have them at all and we always have fun at Bud’s with the staff and patrons. Big thanks to Al from the blues society for wrangling a few folks out on a Wednesday. Thursday we did a house concert in Stoon in our pal, John’s, basement. We met John in Jasper last tour and hit it off. Before we knew it wed booked a show with him for this tour! Nice little crowd and a whole lotta fun. I went all out for this and rented a big amp specially for the show!
We were real spoiled all week in Stoon as we stayed with my cousins family and Kris’ home cooking was it’s usual amazing! We arrived for Thanksgiving and didn’t seem to stop eating great food till the moment we left! Thanks to family! So awesome!
After we vacated Saskatchewan our first Alberta stop was the Mainliner in Medicine Hat. We discovered the Mainliner through our pal Geoff Lightenin’ a few tours back and it’s become a real awesome spot to hang for the weekend. Great owners and staff and a real appreciative audience. We always have a ball and can’t wait to see them again in the spring!
After the Hat we cruised to Cowtown to hang with our pals from Fredericton at the Vista Commune. We got deep into a great HBO show called Game of Thrones and enjoyed one helluva nice day on the Vista patio. It was so warm the hornets were waking up and hanging around. The boys have a great view of downtown Calgary and in the morning you can clearly see the mountains. Nice foreshadowing for this week. We caught a great sunset too!
Last night we rolled into Lethbridge to stay with our pals who we know from Fredericton. These cats are always a blast and treat us with the hospitality that the Maritimes are known for. We had a wonderful night of telling tales and enjoying great alberta beef with some tasty wine!
Tonight we rawk the Slice and then move on to Canmore tomorrow. This part of our Alberta trip wraps up next Monday before we roll into BC. Looking forward to all the adventure and fingers crossed for more excellent weather.
Yours in RAWK,
Ross
PS….I posted a few new tour dates for our trip home. Check em out and tell a friend!