Hey folks! I'm currently writing from a cabin on Prince Edward Island. I'm at "The Dunk"! A famous place in musician circles, a place for house concerts, pie, and relaxation. As you can probably tell, my East Coast tour is going swimmingly. I picked the perfect tour companion in
Sarah Beatty, who you must check out if you haven't yet. What a voice! You may recognize that voice from a couple songs on my new album, the most impressive being "Some Nerve".
Before I get into the tour a little, let me take a moment to talk about digital music, and no, this isn't a tirade about illegal downloading. As most musicians do, I released the album digitally (as well as on CD and vinyl!), since there are so many places to send the digital files to, I decided to make my life easier and pay a company to deal with it. They sent the files out to all the obvious places (iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc...) and some smaller places as well. But unfortunately they sent the wrong music. Yes, the info is all correct, you get 10 songs correctly labeled with the right information, cover art, etc... but the music is that of a punk rock band. I don't know how this sort of thing could happen, it seems like they had one job, but I can't change the past. On their end, they fixed the mistake and sent out the right music, but now I have to wait for each site to change it on their end, which, if you've ever dealt with iTunes before, could take a while.
So please, if you are interested in purchasing my new album "William" digitally, do so at
my bandcamp site linked here. Do it for 2 reasons; 1. it's the right music! and 2. I get all the money (as apposed to say, iTunes, who take $3 from every purchase. Oh I guess there's a 3rd reason, you can order the album on CD and vinyl at my bandcamp page. One stop shopping!
OK BACK TO THE TOUR! (sorry if this seems rushed, but the road keeps beckoning... I'll try to hold it off...)
So far we've played a great shows. Not a clunker in the bunch! Peterborough was a beautiful start, and opener
Nick Procyshyn was wonderful discovery. I also had the opportunity to sing for my supper at the local Shawarma joint! That was a first. Next we found ourselves in Ottawa at Raw Sugar, and what a lovely venue. We had a full house too. Opener
Claude Munson, was another great find, soaring impassioned vocals and some beautiful melodies.
We spent a day in Montreal, Sarah played a set at Grumpys Pub, which is now one of my favourite bars in the world. Seriously, I think I watched 4 couples fall in love at that place. We followed our day in Montreal (with the prerequisite stops for bagels, and smoked meat sammies), with a very long 12 hour drive to PEI. Because sometimes that's how tours are planned.... poorly.
Today we're heading into CBC to record an interview/performance with
Karen Mair on Mainstreet PEI! That should be up between 4pm and 6pm today, and you can listen
here. Then we're off to Gahan House to play some beautiful folk music (and drink many beers from the PEI Brewing Company!)
We still have Halifax, Kentville, Pictou, Moncton, Fredericton, Edmundston and Belleville to go, so keep checking in!
OK, I'm off to eat some lobster rolls and record my first ever CBC interview! Talk soon!