Today is the last day or our tour and it seems like we just left Salmon Arm yesterday. Time fly's when you're having fun! The Ontario Council of Folk Festivals Conference is crazy! It's a 3 day event held at one of the nicest hotels I've ever been in and it's full of workshops, seminars, and musical show cases. People from all over the world are there. I have never seen so many musicans in one place before. On Thursday night we played an opening show case set and it went very well, along with the rest of the gang who followed. Friday was very interesting for me. I got up early and went to a German case study about touring Germany. It was 2 hours long but jam packed full of helpful information. Touring in Germany sounds alot better than touring in Canada (sorry but it's true), musicans are treated much better and with alot more respect over there. They look at us as artists.. NOT just entertainers. Now I'm not saying that all people in our country look at us like that but hey; we've all played those gigs where the house is full but ony 2 or 3 people are actually paying attention... as far as I have been told that doesn't happen in Germany. Though on the other hand I am just going by what I have been told... in reality I could be dead wrong. 

After the case study I sat in the lobby of the hotel for about an hour and a half just observing people. Watching all the musicans and others come and go, meet and greet, and some just plain busking in the hotel lobby tyring to get noticed. It was very strange for me to sit back and take this all in. One thing I noticed (and I still don't really know how to take it) was that everyone was there trying to be so different and to be that one who stood out. They/we are all there for the exact same reason, and becasue of everyone is trying to be so different it made everyone EXACTLY the same. Very strange feeling.  I needed to take a brake from the high traffic of things so I caught a cab back to the B&B to have some time alone to reflect on what I was experiancing. I ended up writing a new song in about an hour,a nd then felt completely collective and calm.

That evening was when things really got interesting. All of the main show cases were over and people started heading upstairs for the hotel room show cases. Yup that's what I said.. HOTEL ROOM show cases. They had floors 4 and 5 all designated for muscians to perform in. Every room was decorated and done up like a concert hall. Everyone tried to make theirs the most interesting as to draw in more people. They were giving away CD's, beer, candy, etc... It was nuts!!!! By far the coolest thing I have ever been a part of. In every room there were different types of people performing and everyone was so nice! The vibe was awesome! I have never been around that many people who were drinking that were being that calm and respectfull fro the entire night. Anyway it was awesome! I even played a few songs solo that night.

Today we get to go do this all over again. We are all going to head back over to the hotel to catch more seminars, then there is a big galla dinner for all the people tonight. Along with all of that there will still be more show cases during the day and then the hote rooms will start back up later in the night.

Tomorrow everyone leaves to go home, except I will be on my way over to KItchener to see my family. Can't wait to see them. Again I hope that everyone is having a great time back in Salmon Arm or wherever you're from! Cheers!!!!

Our show in Kingston went awesome! Again we had Old Man's Beard headline the evening, and Graham Playford opened up the night. I met up with a friend of mine  auther/poet Bob Mackenzie, who is launching his new book  "Ghost Shadows - Unfinished Sins" today in Kingston! We chatted alot throught the evening, we swaped CD's and I baught his new book from him. Very cool dude.

www.soundbytes.wordpress.com 
www.facebook.com/canadian.poet  

Our tour has almost come to an end. We arrived here in Ottawa yesterday afternoon and are staying at this beautiful Bed & Breakfast along with friends Old Man's Beard, Graham Playford, and Bill Bourne. We will be here untill sunday and then everyone goes their own way. Today is a big day for all of us. We are all particapating in the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals Conference that is being held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel (soooo nice! I have never been in a hotel that fancey before) Musicians and buyers (etc) from all over the world will take part  this weekend. Cam and I are the first to showcase at the conference tonight followed by the rest of the crew. Needless to say this entire weekend (starting today at 4pm for sound checks and set up) is going to be crazy! I really have idea what to expect for I have never done anything like this before. So as we wait for the evening to arrive we are just chillin and pracitcing our sets for tonight. I must say though it's very cool that I have my own room and my own bathroom for the rest of trip lol! I love it here! Ottawa is so cool! Untill tomorrow... best wishes to all!

www.billbourne.com
www.grahamplayford.com
www.myspace.com/oldmansbeardmusic  
www.aimielaws.com

After a well needed rest and a Thanksgiving dinner we are on our way to Kingston to meet up with Old Man's Beard at the Mansion for tonights show. We spent the last 2 days with Cam's family out here in Newcastle. They are very cool people who welcomed us with wide open arms and all the turkey we could eat! We played a bit of a house concert with Graham, Ted, and Bryan (from the band Hail The Villain), along with his 5 year old son Phallen, who showed us all a thing or 2 about playing the guitar! It was so cute!

www.hailthevillain.com

Right now we are all getting packed up and taking care of a few last minute details before we hit Kingston and the over to Ottawa. Tonights show should be really fun. The last time we played with Old Man's Beard it was a blast!

We are all very excited to get to Ottawa and play at the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals Conference at the Crowne Plaza (one of the reasons is because we get to stay in one place for longer than a day lol)

My suit case is getting harder and harder to close (we have a battle every morning) and my cell phone is ready to end it's life, so if we fall behind on updates stay patient lol.. they will come as soon as we get to a computer ;)

Thank you to all of you who are following us along this journey, your support is greatly appreciated :)

Thornbury was great! Beautiful town! The Bridges Tavern was really cool! Great food and great service. The sets went awesome and the people were more than happy to have us there for the night. We made many new friends yet again and they were very vocal about expressing their excitement during the show!
Today we are on the road to Newcastle to go spend Thanksgiving with Cam's family. 2 days off to enjoy the holiday!
We wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!! On Tuesday we hit up Kingston to meet up with Old Man's Beard again at The Mansion!

So the show last night was awesome! We hit maximum capacity 3 times during the evening! The bands were rockin and the crowd loved it all! Graham Playford & band along with Old Man's Beard & ourselves were overly accepted by the gracious crowe in Toronto! The show was a hit! The room was done up like a fairy tale and the sound guy Frank offered to record all of our sets for the evening wich made the night even better. We all made quite a few new friends through out the evening. People were dancing all night and when the night was coming to an end they were not ready for the bands to leave... So Old Mans' Beard called Graham and I back up on stage for one last rock out before we packed up. It was so nice to be in Toronto and see people from home up on the same stage. After the show we embarked on a journey to try and find food at 3am... So we drove to a diner that apparently you needed to be on "the list" to even get in!! I guess that's Toronto at 3am Lol! 
So instead of trying to get into the Lakeview Restaurant diner we headed home for the night and ordered pizza delivery again ;) it was great lol ... We stayed at a few of Graham Playfords' friends house (they were out of town and offered their home to us for night) after driving around in circles a few times Graham finally found the house ;) ... We didn't make to bed untill about 4:30am or so...(like usual) but woke up well rested. This afternoon we are on our next journey over to Thornbury to play at Bridges Tavern tonight. I hear it's a smaller town so since I'm a small town girl it'll be a nice change of pace from the city. So again we have the van packed full and the 5 or us are back on the road for another night of music and waking up not remembering what town you're in lol! (being on the road it sometimes can be a challenge to separate your days and to remember where you are at times!) :)

Well our show at the Centre St-Ambroise was great. The crowd was good and the room was cool. Thank you to everyone who made it out for the night. We also met up with some of our (my) new friends - Brittany, Reid, and Mathew from the Cirque du Soleil (you guys rocked) who invited us again to come out and take us on the  Cirque du Soleil tour but we unfortunately (again) don't have time :(

This morning is the earliest we have had to get up outta bed so needless to say we are all super tired and are about to embark on a 6 hour journey (with the 4 of us plus our luggage and music gear all in one vehicle of course) out to Toronto, where we will be meeting up with Old Man's Beard! We are all playing the Cameron House tonight and we are all very excited about it. I have heard this place is very cool.

So as we get ready to say good bye to Montreal we are getting ready to say hello to new friends and new adventures.... who knows what this night will bring :)

www.myspace.com/grahamplayford
www.myspace.com/oldmansbeardmusic
www.aimielaws.com

Yesterday Cam and I left our home town to start off on our very first tour out to Ottawa... And our first stop is Montreal! We left on our flights with west jet airlines (who treated us well on our flights by giving us free beer as a good luck send off) We landed at the airport last night at about 11:45pm (Montreal time) where we were picked up by Montreal artist Graham Playford and he has set us up at his apartment. When we got there we all dropped our luggage (literally! My suit case is 49.6 lbs! Lol) and Cam, Ted (our manager),Graham and I all sat around the kitchen table and had a few beers exchanging stories into the early hours of the morning. Today we have free to go out and enjoy the city!!! Tomorrow night we play! (stay tuned for more to come!)

Well last night was very cool! We spent the day just jamming and relaxing after all of our flights to get here. In the evening we went just across the street from where we are staying over to the bar called Honey Martins, and there we ran into Senja Serjeant who is a part of the band Ladies of the Canyon. She was playing with her solo band and they rocked! They played mostly cover tunes for the party goers that were out looking for some fun on that Wednesday night. Senja rocked!!! Her vocals were amazing! She was sporting a crazy pink wig also to show her support for breast cancer for part of her set. My favorite song she played that night was Bobby Magee (by Kris Kristofferson) and oh my god she killed it!!!! The entire room was mesmorized!!! Very inspiring! After the bar we all came back to the apartment (Cam, Ted, Graham, his girlfriend kristina, and I) and jammed some more but then had to shut it down... I guess some people generally don't appreciate live music at 3am coming from the above apartment lol ;) Cam and I decided to go ahead and order pizza for delivery! yup that is what I said pizza delivery at 3am! That is unheard of back in good old Salmon Arm, BC! But they had no dips!!!! What kind of pizza place has no dips! Haha! (I only say all of this pizza stuff because as some of you know Cam and I work in a pizza joint)

So today we are all just getting some last minute things together before our gig tonight at the Centre St-Ambroise at 8:30pm. Ted and Graham are figuring out all the details for tour posters to be printed out here in Montreal. And Cam (well to be honest he is still in bed!) so I am just chillin' on the computer updating the blog. We were actually invited to come and watch a rehearsal for the gang at the Cirque du soleil but unfortunately we wont' have time today :( would have been amazing to go! So once everyone is up and ready we will start postering the city and hopefully fit in a practice before sound check.

I will write again either tonight or tomorrow letting everyone know how our gig went.

Don't forget to check out the Ladies of The Canyon!

Here is their facebook link

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/ladiesofthecanyon

Hope you all have a wonderful day!