Tour Diary – Canmore, Alberta (Aug 3, 2014)

It's not a bad way to spend a weekend…shoulder to shoulder with the Rocky Mountains, wandering along the Bow River and playing a bit of music….and that is exactly what we did. We flew to Calgary on Saturday afternoon and then made the short drive down the Trans-Canada to Canmore. This town use to be the place that people settled in if they couldn't afford the prices in Banff. Banff is pretty much full at this point so Canmore, just a few miles away, has taken the overflow….and it ain't cheap anymore. Most of the hippies that hunkered down here in the 70's have long gone, or cut their hair, or invested wisely and have become the town elders. It's hard to imagine a town located in a more beautiful setting, but the rapid expansion has pretty much robbed the place of any claim it once had to quaintness. But man, those mountains and that river, can't be beat.

I got up early on Sunday and Monday and walk the banks of the Bow with my fishing rod in hand. The river was a little blown out so I didn't hold up much hope for an encounter with a Bow River trout. Sure enough I had no luck, but I spent a couple of hours each morning watching the sun rise over the horizon and bounce of the peaks of The Three Sisters….fishing is not always about whether you catch something (actually, it rarely is…).

We were in Canmore to play the local folk festival. This country is chalk-a-blok full of folk festivals during the summer and Alberta probably leads the pack. These are always weird events for us, they can be fun to play because they are so surreal at times and you occasionally get to catch up with a touring friend or two. But they are generally about compromises, because like most outdoor festivals, you rarely find yourself in an environment that you can control and so much of one's show is spent battling the sound and rented gear and an audience that has been overwhelmed with music or who isn't generally interested in the music you make. This was pretty much our experience in Canmore. We were treated great and we had a not bad, not great show…..but man, those mountains and that river…..