HERE'S THE QUICK VERSION: I played in NY, PA, and MD, blew out my back playing football with a dog, met a bunch of great people, including a fair number of lesbian jewish-wiccan couples (who for some reason, really liked my song, "My Mother's Lesbian Jewish-Wiccan Wedding") and won first place in the Susquehanna Music and Arts Fest (SMAF) songwriting contest! And I did a somewhat drunken interview for
acousticmusicscene.com. Then I came home.
HERE'S THE LONGER VERSION:
Last week I toured down into the States. I'd won my way into the finals of a songwriting contest at
the Susquehanna Music & Arts Festival. 10 finalists would be attending, each performing 2 songs for 10 minutes - the winner would win a cash prize and a spot on the mainstage the next night. But honestly, I wasn't sure how worth it this was - it's an 9 hour drive for a 10 minute show... anyway, I decided in order to make it worth it, I'd set up a tour through NY, PA and MD - nothing major, but enough that I could cover gas and not feel like an idiot if I didn't win and just had to turn around.
This would be a nice tour - I was hitting Binghamton, NY - where my wife's cousins and their families lived - and then Lancaster, PA - where my aunt and uncle lived. Lots of family time - but unfortunately Irene couldn't come with me because she's a ridiculously busy actress.
NEW YORK
The drive to Binghamton was uneventful - my dual citizenship greases me through customs and it's only 5-6 hours away - we should really visit more. Especially since it's immediatley warmer and greener south of the border. I've done this drive a million times but still almost drive around Buffalo twice. I crossover the Susquehanna river, which I'll be playing along in 2 days, and realize that my US geography is sadly lacking...
In Binghamton, I head to Joe & Becki's place - they have 3 adorable kids, Devon, Hanna and Gabe, a cute cat, and a gigantic slobber machine name Boogy. They have dinner ready and afterwards we play football out back. It's super nice, except for the part where I almost killing myself avoiding Boogy and jumping for a pass.
We head out to bar. I literally picked a bar a random on the web to apply to - so I have no idea what the "
Cyber Cafe West" will look like. But it's amazing! It's a maze of little rooms and huge one with a stage in the back. Packed with videogames, a chess group in the back, and pool tables upstairs, it's a pretty sweet little venue. Plus there are enough regulars on a Wednesday to make it feel like a good show. I play for two hours, playing a bunch of Canadian covers (6 hours south of the border no one knows who Blue Rodeo or the Tragically Hip are - and they've heard of the Barenaked Ladies, but have never heard One Week... it's like an alternate universe where the music I grew up on never happened). Anyway, the show is great. The chess club calls out requests from the back and everyone seems to enjoy it.
Jeff, who runs the place, says it sounds great. I thank him for booking me on such short notice and he says something like, "I knew you'd be good. You're Canadian. All Canadians sound good."
After I play, Joe & Becki and I explore around - apparently, the bar was recently doing work out back and accidentally broke through into an old prohibition still - still filled with old moonshine equipment. Very cool. I sell a couple CD's (one to thess club) and then we take off.
Back at home, Joe & Becki break out the karaoke machine and sing me country songs that I've never heard, as I chill out. Then we play pool and Joe, who is an ex-navy marksmen, kicks my ass all over the place.
The next morning, we head out for breakfast to Denny's - Joe and I are stupidly excited about Denny's and we have a coupon from his bowling magazine. Joe gets bowling magazines because Joe runs a bowling alley (coolest job ever!). Later, Joe takes me for a quick tour of the bowling alley (coolest bowling alley ever!). Sadly, I have to get going...
PENNSYLVANIA
There is something wrong with me and Pennsylvania, because I get lost a LOT finding my way to Lancaster. Even though my uncle and aunt, Ken & Judi sent me pretty specific googlemaps, I am still stupidly lost. I weave back and forth across the Susquehanna - at least I'm going in the right general direction!
Finally, I make it though and end up at their place, which is plastered with Obama signs all over the front lawn. Ken & Judi are, as far as I can tell, the special ops of the Lancaster, PA democratic movement and have done an amazing job of promoting Obama in a relatively Republican town. They're also wonderful family members - I don't see them enough, so it's nice to get to spend a couple days with them.
There wasn't enough time to book a show in Lancaster, but Judi's found me some open mics, and I'm hoping they'll be alright. We finally find parking at the Alley Kat bar only to be told that the open mic that they advertise on their website isn't actually happening... so instead we head to the neighbouring town and roll up to a tiny pub way off the beaten path, next to rail line.
Inside, there's a band setting up for an open jam - I rarely do these, but like them well enough. We sit up front, a little hesitantly since it could easily end up being a painful, loud night. Because it's "killer beef night" I order the "killer beef" which sounds scarier than a roast beef dip ought to.
The band plays a short set and is fantastic - I love finding pockets of awesome blues musicians in the strangest of places - these guys are killer players, but just play at this funny little pub - and are totally happy there.
I'm first up and get a solo set to warm up - I play some upbeat tunes - Jetpack, Caroline and One Week (bringing the Canadian content wherever I go) and then the band joins me for some tunes - Magic Carpet Ride and Brown Eyed Girl. Ken & Judi sit happily up front tapping along. Everyone applauds - I sell a couple CD's and give out comics - and the drummer from the band tells me I'm going to make it big.
Afterwards, Judi says, "we haven't been out to see live music in years." "Decades!" Ken says. And they had a great time - it's a real treat to be able to drag them along on my little rock'n'roll adventure.
MARYLAND
The next day, I head out to the festival. Ken asks me if I'm nervous, and I'm not, but I get more and more stressed heading down into Maryland. My back, which I hurt playing football, gets worse and worse from stress and so much driving.
The festival is just across the Susquehanna dam - a huge expanse of water on your right and a trickle on the left. Past the bridge you turn onto unpaved, country roads and follow bright, beautiful cardinals through the trees until you get to a summer camp in the woods.
I unpack, check in my merch, and join the other songwriting competition folks in front of the stage. Sherry walks us through the competition. There are 10 of us - we each get 10 minutes to play 2 songs. The judges will judge us on originality, lyrics, whether the music suits the lyrics, and whether they want to hear the song again. We all draw numbers and I get lucky number 6.
I scope out the competition - it's a good looking professional bunch and I'm a bit nervous. But we all introduce ourselves and everyone's so nice that the fact that we're competing kind of disappears. I thought I'd be the one coming from farthest away but Emily is from Alaska and Mark is from the West coast.
We've got some time to kill, so I wander around - it's a big beautiful summer campground with a barn, pool, tennis courts, cabins, etc. Unfortunately, it's drizzly and cold, but on a warm day, the fest will be amazing. I cross my fingers for tomorrow and rub my hands together to keep warm.
Finally we go up - the crowd is pretty good considering it's rainy - I get the feeling that the songwriting competition is considered a fun time and the hosts, from the band We Are About 9 are totally fun. I honestly don't remember the order we played in, but everyone was great. I got totally intimidated by some amazing numbers crossing over folk, country, politics, and singer/songwriter-ness. We all agree that we should make a compilation album later. If you're interested, I totally recommend checking them all out. Here's their websites:
Friction Farm
Lara Herscovitch
Jenny Goodspeed
Janet Bates
Emily Kurn
Hungrytown
Mark Ward
Alicia Keister
The Milroys
My back is killing me by this point. I wish I'd brought painkillers, but there's nothing to do but stretch and move around. I finally get to play - I sing Subway Sparrow and Where's My Jetpack? It's kind of a quiet crowd, so I have no idea how these go over. Subway Sparrow is folky enough for a folk festival, but Jetpack is probably the biggest rock song of the night so far, and really, it's about me wanting a jetpack - it's not exactly shakespeare - so I quickly convince myself that I've lost. After that, I enjoy myself a lot more, hanging out with new friends and wandering around.
We finish playing at 7:30 and they don't announce the winner until 9:30. A couple people have come up to me and said they liked my tunes, so I start to feel better. And one guy comes up to talk to me about Jetpacks! Don, a military pilot, apparently always wanted to build one. He just got back from Iraq too where he was "flying a desk." So if he couldn't fly there, he decided to turn to another love, music. So while in Iraq, he enrolled himself in some Berkely internet music courses, shipped a piano over, learned to play, and started a band.
Don mentions some of the anti-war songs that have been played and, since this is his first folk festival, he wonders if he's welcome. I suggest that the people here can differentiate between the war and the soldiers.
Suddenly in the middle of our conversation, they announce the winners. I honestly missed who got 3rd (Hungrytown) and 2nd (Emily) or forgot, since my mind apparently blew up when they announced that I won first place. Don had to say "hey! That's you!" and push me forward. I wound up onstage accepting a cheque and stumbled back down to get congratulated by the other performers. Although I'm thrilled, I'm kind of stunned and feel bad for everyone else and haven't thought of what to say. But they're all amazing sports and pat me on the back. I buy a couple other contestants beers, since my tour suddenly went from being in-the-hole to being in-the-black. Suddenly my back feels much better.
Lots of people come up to congratulate me. I meet a ton of nice folks from the folk scene who all say they were rooting for me and some of the judges introduce themselves. Nice! One of the organizers asks tentatively, "umm.... you're okay to play a half hour set, right?" I still have mixed feelings afterwards - everyone was great and totally deserved to win, so I sit by myself and listen to the music.
After a terrific set by
SONiA and Disappear Fear, we all wander over to "The Barn" (built in 1876 - 100 years before me!) and have a songwriting circle. I am fall asleep at my guitar, but play Lost Together by Blue Rodeo - and surprisingly a bunch of people know it here.
I get lost coming back in the middle of the night, but get a thorough tour of Lancaster.
PENNSYLVANIA & MARYLAND - PART 2!
The next day, Ken & Judi show me the sites of Lancaster - which is a gorgeous city - a "tree city" as apparently it's known - filled with green streets of old victorian building. Built in 1718, its claim to fame is that it's the birthplace of the worst President in the history of the US, James Buchanan (apparently worse than Dubya). It was also the capital of the country for a brief period.
We head to a giant garage sale that Ken & Judi are taking part in (they sell 4 tires) - then Ken and I drive over to the market in the center of town - filled with Lancaster Amish delicasies of which I try (A) a red beet egg (basically a hard boiled egg, soaked in beet juice - yummier than it sounds), (B) wet-bottom shoo-fly pie, which is sort of like pecan pie, without the pecans (which basically leaves pie crust and liquid sugar) and (C) something called "chow-chow" which is a sweet relish of vegetables.
This time, I'm don't get lost heading back to the festival. And I realize that my back feels excellent - must have been the stress of everything yesterday. I arrive in time to a harmony workshop - featuring some amazing artists - and then see a fellow Toronto-ite,
Lenore, perform as part of the "Country to Country" workshop, which features artists from other countries (including Texas, for some reason...). Unfortunately, there isn't a huge crowd, but they still play amazingly.
I wander a bit and eventually end up back at the mainstage, where I get to play that night. Judi & Ken have arrived and we watch some excellent folksy acts.
I'm not really nervous about the show that night, but there is a certain amount of pressure to be more than just a 2-song trick pony. But it all goes great - the crowd is very receptive and laugh in all the right spots. I dedicate My Eyes Wide to Ken & Judi, who have been dating since high school and have never broken up with anyone!! "My Mother's Lesbian Jewish-Wiccan Wedding" goes over like a house on fire - afterwards, at least 5 people come up to tell me that they have either been in, or attended a lesbian jewish-wiccan wedding - and one person told me that they attended a lesbian jewish-buddhist wedding. We all decided we should start a group of some sort.
Anyway, my set finishes nicely with Dear Aunty Emm - everyone sings along and I'm pretty happy leaving the stage. Lee, the stage manager, invites me to play in her house concert series (May 2009). She says, "you know why I think you won? Apart from having good songs and performing them well, of course. All of your songs sound different and original - each one sounds new." I've never thought of it that way before - probably kind of a double-edge knife, but it's nice to hear. Terry, the producer of the whole shebang, comes up and invites me back to the festival for 2009 (also in May). And a lot of people buy CD's, which I sign happily - and some new friends take me out to their car, where I get rum & coke from their trunk.
Afterwards, I do a interview with Michael Kornfield, from
acousticmusicscene.com - I am, as many of you know, a cheap date and am a bit buzzed, but we have a nice conversation about how you define music (folk/rock/guy with acoustic guitar...) and Michael's a great guy who I hope to run into again. I also meet Paul Mischler and Gordon Nash, who are part of the
Budgiedome (hard to explain - kind of a meeting place/performance spot at the Falcon Ridge Folk Fest - and run by big time Moxy Fruvous fans - who knew??).
And that's that - I sell some CDs, hang out with Ken & Judi. We watch a bunch of great performers. Dylan Visvikis, a teenage up-n-comer,
Anne Feeney's great political folk tunes,
Dan Warner's Australian rock, and
Tret Fure's beautifully powerful songs. My favourite though was the closer,
We're About 9 who do incredible harmonies and quirky offbeat songs like my new favourite, Nobody Flying This Plane. All worth checking out.
Afterwards, I trade CD's with everyone and then I head back to Ken & Judi's. Once again, I get lost and circle Lancaster, but I finally make it home and pull into their driveway, just in time to see a deer in their backyard.
BACK HOME
The next morning, Ken & Judi suprise me by offering to buy me a GPS system - apparently they couldn't take me getting lost anymore. =)
I head back home - listening to all my newfound CDs - breaking record time to get back to Toronto in 8 hours - just in time for Mother's day. I have 5 mothers, so this is a day filled with dinners and phone calls. And this time, I have so nice news and stories to tell them.
