People in other parts of Canada tend to get pissed off at Quebec on a regular basis. It is such a different culture, a different attitude towards the way one lives a life, they are just so darn different from us: and people tend to get pissed off at things that are different from them. The thing about Quebec is that its mere presence, its simple confoundedness, is what makes Canada unique, different, special. It’s why we are who we are.
We are thinking about doing an album in French and touring though Quebec, exclusively, for the next couple of years. Leave North America without leaving the continent, come to Quebec.
Quebec City is such a beautiful and sophisticated place. If ever a city could be called “charming”, this is it. Even the overabundance of souvenir shops can’t take away from its charm. It’s the most unique city on this continent. If you are looking for a destination for that ever elusive romantic weekend getaway, look no further, you won’t be disappointed.
We had an amazing night. We played in a beautiful theater (La Palais Montcalm) and had a surprisingly large crowd (we’ve only played here once in the past twenty-five years and that was at a festival). The audience was not only large, but incredibly enthusiastic and attentive. We played two sets and they stuck with us through both.
Tomorrow we head back to Toronto for a couple of days before we climb on board a bus and head north into the real Quebec…north into the unknown…Rouyn-Noranda and Val D’Or, here we come.
I had my morning coffee in a small café off of Sherbrooke Street, serenaded by that penultimate Quebec songbird, Celine Dion. If it’s Celine this must be Montreal.
Technically, this is our hometown…at least it’s where we grew up. Once a Montrealer, always a Montrealer. Its part of our genetic code. The thing about Montreal is that it never seems to change. It’s an old city and set in its ways; sophisticated, urbane and confident. Sherbrooke Street always maintains its old-world class; Ste Catherine never rises above its slightly sleezy strip-club chique; Old Montreal is always the perfectly preserved glimpse into a very distant past; Crescent Street is always hopping come nightfall; tight jeans and bad ‘70s rock never goes out of style; the Decarie Expressway is always jammed.
Another thing about Montreal that never changes is that it is always a great city in which to perform; the audiences are always knowledgeable and enthusiastic. I don’t think we’ve ever had a truly bad show in this city. This time through we had two shows over two nights at a new club in town, The Astral, which is run by the Montreal Jazz Festival and part of their new headquarters. It’s not a bad little club, a bit sterile, but that might change with time. It’s got great production and is intelligently laid out. We had two pretty good shows, the second night was a notch better than the first, and we debuted three new songs, Stranger Here, Staring Man and Little Dark Heart. Overall it was a nice way to start our Conquest of Quebec Tour, in a familiar environment, before we head deeper into the unknown.
Sherbrooke isn’t exactly heart-of-darkness territory, but it’s an introductory taste to small town Quebec. We have never played here. The town is located about two hours east of Montreal in the Eastern Townships, which is an area of lakes and ski hills that was, at one time, the play-land for English Montreal. Our grandparents had a cottage in Magog, about 20 minutes from Sherbrooke, where we spent a lot of time in the summer and winter. There is still a healthy mix of English and French in these parts, but the sophistication that one finds in Montreal does not travel off of the island. Our lodgings tonight were at La Payesanne Motel. The rooms had that 70’s porn flic décor and they smelled like…well…they smelled like old motel rooms.
The gig tonight was at Centennial Hall, located on the campus of Bishops University. A little run down, but not a bad venue. It was an odd night on stage. The audience felt kind of distant, both physically and mentally. We did a kind of low-revving, heavy, kind of show. It was hard to tell what it sounded like in the audience or how it was received.
Our good friend Lee Harvey Osmond is beginning to make noise and get noticed down in the good-ole USA. Here is a recent review from Blurt. If you haven’t yet checked out the album…why not….??
LeE HARVeY OsMOND
A Quiet Evil
(Latent)
Let’s see here… released on the Cowboy Junkies’ own label; produced and recorded by the CJ’s Michael Timmins; features both Michael and sister Margo, with the other members of the Junkies making guest appearances; includes a cover of an obscure CJ tune, “Angels In the Wilderness”; even mastered by the Junkies’ longtime cohort Peter J. Moore; must be a Cowboy Junkies side project, right?
Not exactly. LeE HARVeY OsMOND is the brainchild of Tom Wilson, from Blackie & the Rodeo Kings, who conceived of the project as a kind of Canadian musical collective – hence the involvement of the Timminses et al, not to mention fellow Rodeo King Colin Linden, members of the Skydiggers and a handful of others. Wilson wrote or co-wrote most of the material and sings and plays guitar, so it’s clearly his baby, although as the notes above suggest, Cowboy Junkies fans and band trainspotters will find much about A Quiet Evil to cheer. In fact, several tunes have a familiar opiated twang and nocturnal ambiance: the spookywoozycool “Blade of Grass,” with its hushed vocal and backwards guitar swirl; the quietly intense, fuzztone-flecked blooze of “Summer Girl”; and of course pedal steel/B3-powered weeper “You Drove Me Crazy (Now I’m Gonna Stay That Way)” – how’s that for a great song title – which features Wilson and Margo Timmins in classic country duet mode.
All that aside, A Quiet Evil ultimately lives up to its titular suggestion; there’s an understated quality here barely masking a lurking sense of desperation and malevolence. From the simmering “Lucifer’s Blues” (check Wilson’s part-spoken, part-sung vocal, which with his deep voice suggests a cross between Chuck Prophet and Dave Alvin) to a searing, edge-of-psychosis cover of Lou Reed’s “I Can’t Stand It,” the record’s steeped in a kind of gothic noir ambiance. This is only made all the more unsettling by the demented cover art, a Satanic-looking dog/rabbit mutant with sharp fangs and jutting phallus. And what’s up with the upper/lower case lettering scheme of the band name? Is there some kind of subliminal messaging going on?
Wilson may or may not have spent time in that part of Canada where the weird sunlight schedule has been known to drive folks a little bit crazy, but on the evidence of this album, he’s definitely a lotta bit twisted, so beware. Twisted in a good way, of course…
Standout Tracks: “Queen Bee,” “Blade of Grass,” “Angel In the Wilderness,” “I Can’t Stand It” FRED MILLS
We have just re-released Whites Off Earth Now!! on 180 gm vinyl. It’s also in a gatefold sleeve with some very detailed liner notes by our friend Dave Bowler. This was re-mastered by Peter Moore. Peter went back to the original master tapes and went through them with his typical attention to detail. It sounds freakin’ awesome. If you want to check the bottom end of you sound system, then put this platter on and get ready to RUMMMBLLE!!
We have added a new song to the “neath your covers” section in Exclusives (or you can just check out the song on the player below). It is a cover of the Tim Buckley song “Once I Was” and it is being released today on a CD called, “The Village: A Celebration of the Music of Greenwich Village”. The album title pretty much explains the concept for the album. It also includes covers by Lucinda Williams, Rickie Lee Jones, Shelby Lynne, Marshall Crenshaw and many others. You can find out more details about the album by going to the label 429 Records website. In the meantime take a listen to our version and if you like it…buy it.
Barbara Lynch will be performing a rare show this week at The Dakota Tavern at 249 Ossington St in downtown Toronto. The show is this Thursday, October 29 and it starts at 9pm. Our brother John will be performing with her and it should be a great night of music. If you haven’t had a chance to check out her album, please do so…I think you’ll like it… then make a date to come on down. I hope to see you there.
A cold, rainy day in Virginia, spent on the grounds of Wolftrap. The rain kept us inside.
A beautiful venue tonight (The Barns at Wolftrap) with a completely wood beam interior and a top of the line sound system. It was also a sold out venue. Unfortunately we didn’t have a very good night on-stage. Sometimes even the most beautiful sounding venues (and this was a very nice sounding room) have sound issues on stage. We just couldn’t find each other. It may have come off ok in the venue (Jared said that it sounded great out front) but it was a tough night on stage. The audience was also a little reticent: whether it was due to our own reticence on stage or an audience that wasn’t getting what they expected, or didn’t even know what to expect when they bought the tickets…who knows. The odd thing is that I’ve noticed that the audiences at The Birchmere, which is very close to here, have a similar standoffishness (almost as reserved as a roomful of Canadians). I always thought it was that venue, but maybe it’s a DC audience thang. I’ll have to investigate further. In any case it was a disappointing night for us.
Another rainy day. We seemed to have used up all of our good weather karma. This was our first time in Blacksburg and it would have been nice to explore a little bit, but I didn’t have the energy to fight the cold and the rain. I did manage a brief walk through the Virginia Tech campus in between rain showers. It’s a spectacularly large campus. Right in the middle of the campus is the enormous Commons area, which was built around (or near) Drapers Meadow the site of a particularly nasty mid 1700s slaughter of early settlers at the hands of some locals. One of the settlers was decapitated and his head was delivered to the neighboring settlement as a warning. Sometimes it’s hard to not believe that demons, evil spirits, inhabit a particular place and are waiting to let their presence be known.
Another sold out show and a great sounding theater. The audience tonight was amazing, definitely the best one on this tour: lots of give and take, we had a great show. It was certainly the most fun that we have had on stage in the past couple of weeks. We will definitely be back.
After the show the streets of this town were filled with young sorority girls and their fraternity pals selling pancakes, drunk out of their collective skulls.
The final day of the tour and we find ourselves on a mountainside in North Carolina at the LEAF festival. A full on pitch-the-tent- break-out-the-tie-die-time-to-sell-the-jewelry-that-I’ve-been-making-in- my-basement- lets- pray-for-lots-of-mud-how-many-types-of-massages-can-I-get-in-a-day-where’s-my-hoola-hoop hippie fest. It’s a beautiful location for a festival and its definitely fulfilling a need in these parts, because the weekend is sold out. Unfortunately the weather is probably a little colder than the norm for this time of year, but that didn’t seem to dampen the spirits of the campers. The festival has the feel of a very large extended family reunion. It’s obvious that this is an annual ritual for many. Overall a very laid back vibe
I don’t know exactly where we were today, somewhere on or near the Jersey shore. We could have been in any small town in America except we were apparently only about 15 minutes from Manhattan….you could have fooled me.
An odd venue tonight. Not a bad little room, very utilitarian, but with decent sound. It was a very slight audience, but the promoter was relatively pleased because it was the largest crowd they have had this season. We have been hearing this all over the country. It’s been a tough year for the live music biz (as it has been for most biz’zs). Hopefully these little community theaters are able to ride out these tough economic times….hopefully these little indy bands are able to ride out these tough economic times.
We had a really good night on stage. Jeff rejoined us and inserted another level of weird into the sound. It’s a shame that Jeff wasn’t with us from the start of the tour, it would have been interesting to hear the variations that he, Aaron and I could have created….maybe next time.
It was a bad day for our crew. Jared, Dave and Mike are all from Boston and today their Red Sox were swept from the playoffs by the Los Angeles Anheim Angels of Californialand (or something like that)and their Patriots suffered a surprising loss at the hands of the Denver Broncos.
We had a day off yesterday in Easton, Maryland. It also happened to be Columbus Day and Canadian Thanksgiving….so we gave thanks and then went about spreading our disease. Easton isn’t a bad town to relax in for a day. A few square blocks of the downtown has been given enough of a facelift to entice tourists driving through to stop for lunch or to check out one of the many galleries in town. It’s not exactly a town bursting with energy but as a place for a day off it worked just fine.
The Avalon Theater is one of our favorite venues these days. This was our third time here in the last few years. It’s a beautifully reconditioned vaudeville theater that has warm sound and a great relationship between the stage and the audience.
We had a pretty good night. This was Aaron’s last show with us. He has added a really nice dimension to the sound. Hopefully we’ll be able to get him back out here with us soon.
We had a very welcome day off in Chapel Hill and then two shows over two nights in neighbouring Carrboro, so we had the luxury of staying in the same place for three full days. We also happened to be booked in to a very comfortable hotel (The Franklin), sometimes the stars align. Chapel Hill is home to the University of North Carolina, which in turn, is home to those ass-kicking-basketball Tar Heels. It’s a very easy place to spend a few days, a classic University town with lots of used book stores, music stores, coffee shops, restaurants and co-eds strolling the strip. It’s hard to believe that these young people are college age; it’s hard to believe that I was that young when I was in University…. I am so old.
The two shows were at the Arts Center which could use a major retro-fit, at the very least they could spend a bit of cash and put a decent sound system in to the place. Despite that we had two very good nights, with two very good audiences.
David Wiffen, who wrote Lost My Driving Wheel and a whole mitt full of other great songs and who had one of the great baritones in folk music suffered a serious heart attack this weekend. We sent positive vibes his way with a closing version of Driving Wheel, as did Lee Harvey Osmond with their cover of Wiffen’s “Lucifer Blues”. We wish him a speedy recovery.
We used up all of our good hotel karma in Chapel Hill. We pulled in to our hotel (more like a motel) early this morning, the only things awake were Bobby our bus driver and the cockroaches running up and down the stairwells.
Never mind those West Virginia jokes, Lewisburg is located in a stunningly beautiful part of the world. It was one of those perfect Fall days, when simply inhaling is a pleasure. Stepping off the bus into the streets of this town (actually we stepped off the bus into a hundred and fifty year old graveyard) was like stepping in to another era. The church across the street from where we were parked was built in the late 1700’s. Even though the main street has been fully occupied by local retailers (coffee shops, art galleries, bakeries, antique shops, etc..) they have somehow figured out how too not swamp the street in cliché and overkill. Perhaps that day is somewhere down the line, but for now it’s a beautiful little town that has preserved much of its heritage. There was some kind of fund raising Fall festival on the main street today so the town had a special vibe.
Sitting above the town is a Civil War graveyard where the bodies of 95 unknown Confederate Soldiers where re-interned years after the end of the war. They were originally buried in an unmarked mass grave on the orders of an obviously, nasty Union general. The current site is also a mass grave laid out in the shape of a giant cross…very eerie…a very good location for the start of a Confederate soldier zombie movie. There must be so many ghosts wandering around this town: it was the site of a notable battle in the Civil War as well as the site of a major Shawnee Indian raid on the original settlement, which saw dozens of settler’s families slaughtered along with a subsequent slaughter of dozens of Shawnee families. There has been lots of blood spilt in these hills.
Tonight we played Carnegie Hall. There are three Carnegie Halls in the USA, and we have now played them all (ok, there might be four, but who’s counting). We played a very cool set of music: very low revving, simmering grooves. Aaron seems to be settling in to the music.
This is why one tours… even after 25 years on the road….for nights like this on stage and for occasionally running into special little towns like this one. A very good day.
