[in which, I wear a cowboy-shirt for the first time, rock out acoustically and virtually, and it snows...]
For the first time on tour, I don't get lost - I actually have an address and my GPS guides me neatly past a stadium packed with people to Allison and Paul's place. It's a beautiful house with an AMAZING shower downstairs (more on that later) and a nice dog named Mocha. Allison is a doctor, and we bond talking about standardized patient tests. Paul, her husband and another doctor, comes back with their son Evan from a Stampeders game - the Stamps have won and are heading to Montreal for the Grey Cup - pretty exciting. I should mention how nice all my hosts have been so far - house concert hosts are great people. They make you lasagna and welcome you into their home as if you were family.
After a brilliant lasagna dinner, we set up for the show and people start to arrive. Dave, a friend of theirs arrives early, apologizing for not being able to make it due to a wedding, but dropping off flowers and $20. Dave rocks.
The crowd spans a fair age range, from 20's to 70's - I meet a bunch of them and tell Paul that his friends are all nice - he replies that he has "no idea who half these people are." I love house concerts.
The show, I think, goes flawlessly. My voice is a back and feels great. Plus, what a great crowd - the biggest yet on this tour - and happy to sing along or get really quiet when I whisper. One man asks nicely before hand if he can put a microphone for his hearing aid up close to me - it's amazing that he came out to this and I hope he enjoyed it. Mocha wanders through the crowd getting petted - I should bring a nice golden retriever to all my shows. I introduce the show as the first I've ever played in Calgary and the first I've ever played in a cowboy shirt - everyone seems to approve of the shirt except for one woman afterwards who is convinced that I'm colour-blind and have no fashion sense.
Again, I improvise a verse for "Victoria" which goes:
They say Calgary's a wild one
And she'll take you for a ride
But I think I'm going to like her
And I hear that the Stampeders won tonight
The crowd goes wild.
I even get an encore, ending the show with Guilt Trip Song, which (thank god) goes well. I've played it once or twice to completely silent audiences who all suddenly think that I'm a psychopath.
Afterwards everyone's very nice, buying CDs and chatting - there are lots of Canada and world travellers in the crowd and we bond over cities we've seen. Finally the crowd dribbles away and Allison, Paul, Evan and I rock out downstairs on Rock Band. I'm okay on guitar and vocals, but kind of suck at drums. Finally I head to bed, but at 1am, Dave shows up again to apologize again for missing the show and to buy a set of CDs. Did I mention that Dave rocks?
The next morning, I wake up to a thick blanket of snow outside. Oh god. I was hoping for snow to start much later - if at all - this does not bode well for my little Suzuki Swift's trip through the mountains.
On the plus side though, I get to use Allison's infamous shower - which is a steam shower with a rain/overhead showerhead plus a normal showerhead, PLUS has 3 little side jets that I have no idea what are for except to really clean your stomach and back well. There are about 14 knobs to control it all. I stay in it for about half an hour.
Paul makes me amazing raspberry crepes. He also gives me a Stampeders hat, which is pretty close to "white hatting" - a tradition where Calgarians give newcomers a white hat. I'm a pretty happy touring musician.
I head out and am halfway down to Medicine Hat when Allison phones to tell me that I've left my itinerary there - I've now played 3 shows and have forgotten things at 2 of them.
I spend a day down in Medicine Hat visiting with my Dad, his wife, and their two cats. Thankfully all the snow melts away as I head south. I wash clothes. We go out for dinner and watch football, while I make more CDs. A nice day off from my grueling travels, playing guitar, taking steam showers and getting fed crepes.
