Holy toledo, a lot has happened in the last 3 weeks. An amazing rhubarb tour, Television pushing us into the public eye, affirmations from famous people who like our stuff... and for me, guitars, guitars, guitars. It started at Kate Wolf festival, spun away by Bruce Cockburn and his beautiful solo set. Made me want to practice and practice, discover these joys I was hearing with my own fingers. Then we went on tour with A Prairie Home Companion, and Pat Donahue was so encouraging and generous, I got a bag of tricks to practice from him and inspiration to boot. He is so revered in guitar circles, such a calm yet passionate artist, and I am one lucky little aspirant. Then we got to Winnipeg Folk Festival, and Bruce Cockburn was back, beautiful again and giving us such a boost of joy with his presence, his direct appreciation of our music. Blew our minds. Watching him a second time sealed it. Guitar, I love it. It is an endless fountain of discovery. I sat watching his final set, so moved, as the huge moon rose over the stage. Art Turner sat beside me. He is our photographer, and the most knowledgeable finger-style guitar player I can call friend. His enjoyment and ideas brought home the depth of what we witnessed. And finally I also got to see our studio guitar dude extraordinaire, Kevin Breit, live. He played all over our album, but as it goes when life is busy, I'd never even met him. A strange sensation indeed, considering the intimacy of a song. As I headed home from the festival, I ran into him talking to Jack our manager, just past the security gates of the airport. Seeing him jam out madly on a workshop stage, and meeting him in person supported for me the profound nature of his involvement in our recording, and the potential evolution of our own playing as a result of it. He is raw guitar power, and as we seek to refine our live presentation, just the three of us, I have this incredible resource to dive into, his free form flight on the fretboard. So I'm home for three short days, guitar in hand, discovering. Firecrackers are going off inside me. We head back to California on friday, and then on to merry old England.~ Ruth
Touring Australia and Finishing a Record
There are parts of Australia that feel like they ought to be the wild west, scrubby wide fields and cows, little towns with painted signs.And then there is the collosal grandeur we recently witnessed on a jaunt along the Great Ocean Road. The wind flew hard from our cliff top view and the stormy sky parted for strands of sun that glistened on the broiling sea. The waves smashed enormous but were dwarfed by the incredible towers of cliff known as the twelve apostles.We are well past the halfway point on this long journey through Australia, and it has been amazing and beautiful and challenging. Challenging in that we are touring and finishing our record all at once, which is a helluva thing when the hub of it all is back in Canada, and we are remote satellites, negotiating time zones, communicating via internet, picking up signals on our laptops wherever we can hunt them down. Quite magical that we can do this, but it's definitely not without it's technical, physical and emotional challenges. Just the other day Grant and I recorded violin tracks for Nicky's song Starlight in the airport where Ruth's cousin Jeremy works... an unlikely recording studio, but we got something, and eventually, a few towns and various wobbly internet connections later, found a way to send the audio files back to David in Toronto while we slept.As we travel, David madly works away on the final marathon of stereophonic wizardry that is shaping our new bunch of songs, sends us the mixes and awaits our responses. We've spent much of our van time with headphones on, making copious notes and discussing what is taking shape. It was actually quite a relief to take the headphones off and start burning cd's of potential song order to listen in the van. The charms wore off though with our deadlines passing and hard decisions needing to be made. This could only be done by listening to the many possibilities top to bottom, over and over.The huge night sky thick with stars in Yackandanda really helped me with some perspective. We could see a strand of our spiral galaxy spoking across the sky. So many stars! It was liberating to contemplate the vastness. Easier to come back to the microcosmic universe of the Jennys new CD. It gets more and more real every day. Surges of excitement shoot light through the ordeal. Ron has sent us artwork to proof, final changes are almost complete and our record labels are eagerly awaiting the finished goods so they can get the thing made and out there.And in the meantime, we are travelling far and wide, seeing beautiful sites, being hosted by lovely people, oh yeah, and playing tons of shows! Our hackeysack skills have improved considerably on this trip. It's been a great way to shake out the stiffness of travel when we stop to gas up. It helped having Caro, a former soccer champ, pro coach and bundle of good vibes, along as a road manager for the first half of the tour, and Grant has picked up the slack for the second half.We were in Melbourne for the commonwealth games, where Caro had befriended the mission staff of team Canada, so we ended up hanging out with Jennifer and Monique at the athletes village one day, had a meal with Charmaine Reid, Canada's number one female badminton player, and then sang Oh Canada to honour the previous days medal winners. Very cool. It was wild to stand next to the young gymnasts, see their humanity and focus, and then watch Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs win a gold that very night. Amazing.We are going looking for kangaroos tonight at Pebbly beach, after spending the day working on the record in Ulladulla. We fantasize about the celebration we will have when this record is finally finished. We will smoke cigars and smash bottles of champagne. We will run around exploding firecrackers and shooting guns into the air. Nicky will shave her head. There will be solid gold dancers.... By the ocean I saw two wedge tailed eagles soaring into the dusk driven sky. Needed that, thank you universe. Happy to report we also saw about 25 kangaroos! Boing boing boing!~ Nicky
Farewell to A Beloved Bodhran and Thank You UK
We're just home from our UK tour. Wow, what a trip. I had a depressing start on this one as my beloved bodhran got left in a cab in New York City (I still can't bring myself to use the active tense) and I flew to England without a drum. It is like a sort of a death when you lose an instrument, and this one had been with me for 7 years and seen a lot of shows, going back to the Scruj days. I was pretty devastated. Frank Lewis and Norbert Eckermann both came to the rescue by loaning me their drums for the tour. THANK YOU!!!! They are both fabulous drum makers. Thanks especially to Norbert Eckermann for making me a replacement so quickly - I should have a brand new Eckermann drum in time for the Australia tour and all will be well again.The tour was amazing. Unfortunately we all got colds and Nicky ended up on crutches for most of the tour (an old recurring injury), but hey, we are a hardy bunch and we made it through. Unfortunately we never managed to find a cream tea (I know, it's a tragedy) and we will be on a mission when we return in July. It all feels a bit like a dream now in some ways but many things are very vivid: The amount of curry we ate, the amount of fish and chips we ate, playing to a packed house at the Borderline in London, the ocean in Brighton, partying at the BBC Folk Awards with our fabulous agents Ken and Sue Bradburn and Charles Devlin (and Nolene!), York Minster, The beautiful energy of the audiences in Southport, Froome, and Newcastle, (among others...), our lovely hostess Anne and her beautiful Georgian house just outside New Milton, our tourist speed-walk through London with Charles, SOHO, and my hilarious bathroom at the Kent Hotel in London (stay tuned for pictures). I am sated to say the least, and I can hardly believe we are off to Australia (my 'homeland'!) in 2 weeks for more adventures. My senses are going to overload soon if I'm not careful.Thanks to Emerging Music for taking such good care of us over there, you guys are awesome and we can't wait to see you in the summer.Peace
P.S A number of people have written about wanting the sheet music for 'One Voice' so I thought I'd mention that it will be available very soon through the website. Thanks!
Introducing the Newest Member of the Traffor Library
Hello everyone,I am proud to say that I am now a member of the Trafford Library in Hale, Manchester - apparently there is no internet cafe in town so this was the next best thing. Plus, I can get a book the next time we are through. These British keyboards are something to get used to, though. Anyway, just wanted to touch base and let everyone know that we are in England and about to embark on a whole wack of shows on the island. We arrived in Manchester from New York the other day and the journey felt a bit easier than last year. Last time we had been recording a demo until pretty much the moment we stepped on the plane so jet lag was harder to shake off. We were quickly reminded of a few of the culinary perks of England as we tucked into an English breakfast and drank some tea - it will only be a matter of time before we hit the ale. We've promised ourselves a full cream tea and are going to make sure it is a meal in itself instead of dessert this time. I can already feel my clothes getting tighter.We spent the earlier part of our first 2006 tour in the U.S. and had some great shows in Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois. Performing in Minneapolis at the Cedar was an emotional show for us. Bob Feldman (the founder of Red House), had passed away only a week before and we were feeling his loss acutely as we prepared for the show. The last time at the Cedar had been a completely different experience with Bob bounding around excitedly and making sure everything was perfect for us. This time, the rest of the team at Red House were there to keep it all going. Everyone at Red House had been so busy keeping the fort strong that the show was a chance for all of us to stop for a bit and reflect on why Bob's presence was so sorely missed. He was a bright light and we did our best to sing to that and celebrate who he was. We miss him very much.In general though, there were many little highlights to the U.S. tour. We ate amazing Cuban food in Chicago, played a fair bit of hacky-sack in parking lots across Minnesota, witnessed some spectacular karaoke in Minneapolis and had a good amount of time to hang out with our Red House family in St.Paul. This time, both vehicles were returned to Enterprise and National with no dents or scrapes and we only got lost twice. We also arrived at airports more than 10 minutes before our flights this time (yay!). We ended up in New York city for the final showcase of the season and then Annabelle, Grant and I hung around NY while Ruth went back to Toronto to finish her parts on the recording. It was hectic but well worth it.So now we hook up again with our faithful UK agents, Ken, Charles and Sue and prepare to wave to the same flock of sheep several times as we criss-cross the country in our van. Back in Canada, our team is working on finishing up all aspects of the new record - it should be out in the spring right on time. We'll keep you posted!Take care, everyone.~ Nicky
Town Hall & A Prairie Home Companion
A Prairie Home Companion high we are all on. Town Hall! New York! It was our fourth time with the show, and the cast and crew are starting to feel like old friends. They are so supportive, and so inspiring to work with. Garrison Keillor keeps upping the ante with us, so yesterdays show was an incredible experience in focus, awareness, and being on the ball. There is nothing like a brilliant creative visionary to push you beyond what you thought you could ever do. And while it was incredibly sad that Pat Donahue had the flu for the show, it got me playing rhythm guitar with the Shoe Band for one number, and wowǃ_ that was a strong cocktail of adrenaline and the present moment. And it also made me realize I gotta practice that fingerstyle country-blues pickinǃ~ Ruth
Poutine and Climate Care
Sorry for the long gap between journal entries - we start off with such good intentions and then life takes over and our literary offerings wane. Just a little while ago we were in beautiful Montreal - Annabelle was literally bouncing off her seat in the car when we were approaching the Metropolis-like maze of highways leading into the city (only outdone by the crazy highway system of Duluth, MN). The show on Saturday night at La Sala Rossa was really wonderful - what an expressive and warm crowd! After an equally lovely show in Peterborough the night before, we weren't sure how we were going to follow that evening but we were lucky once again to have a room full of enthusiastic people. Thanks to everyone who came out to both shows. Of course, the night had to be capped off with a plate of poutine so a few of us headed over to La Banquise. Jeremy Penner (one of Ruth's old bandmates from Scruj) decided that cheese curds and gravy were an insufficent addition to the fries so he opted to throw some bacon, mushrooms and onions on top of that. Even I stop short of adding more grease to this traditional delicacy but Jeremy claimed it was delicious.I am now back to Toronto finishing up some parts on the new record and then I fly home to Winnipeg. Yay! I am also getting very excited about our trip to the east coast of the U.S. I've never been to Boston and my time in NY was too short the last time I was there so 5 days will be great. Christmas in NY will be a site to behold and the idea of playing at the Town Hall at that time is pretty awe-inspiring.By the way, if you have never checked out the "Links" page on our site, it can be found on the drop down menu under "Resources". We add new links fairly regularly - sometimes it's a new band we've discovered or an organization we support, and sometimes it's gear we endorse or friends who are doing interesting things. We just added a new link to Climate Care. org. A long time ago, Cara brought up her concern with flying so much and the impact that flight travel has on the environment - we all shared these worries about climate change but were unsure of how to rectify this. Since we need to fly quite often, it has always been a somewhat unavoidable hit on the environment but after reading an issue of Utne Reader, we learned that there are organizations that offer ways of offsetting carbon expenditures. Many organizations (both for profit and not) now offer ways of calculating the carbon output of flights and drives and offer a way to balance that pollution by purchasing "carbon offsets". Climate Care is one of those companies and starting January 2006, the Jennys will move one step closer to being "carbon neutral" - for every flight we take, we will purchase the equivalent amount of carbon offsets to make up for our air travel. Our money will go into funding either technology projects that reduce emissions at source or reforestation projects that sequester CO2 from the atmosphere. Examples of projects currently being undertaken by the organizations include disseminating efficient cooking stoves in Honduras , providing finance for renewable energy cooking stoves in schools in India and installing efficient lighting in households in South Africa. It's a small way of trying to balance our energy consumption and I'm excited about all of the work this company is doing. We are going to keep trying to find ways to reduce our band's "ecological footprint" so please let us know if you have any information you would like us to consider.Well, time to get back to practicing.~ Nicky.See ya later!
Forced Shopping
So much has been happening. This tour started off in St. Paul with two shows at the Fitzgerald theatre with 'A Prairie Home Companion'. We flew from Toronto and unfortunately our favorite Canadian Airline lost Annabelle's and my luggage again. In order to avoid performing in our sweats we made a 45 minute emergency trip to the mall. Thanks to Jill Brooksbank for the emotional management - forced shopping is not as enjoyable as one might think, and the Mall of America is a scary place. Each of us equipped with new pants and shoes, we made it back in time for soundcheck. It was a blast to be involved with the show once again and to get to know the crew a little better. What a great group of people. The first night was a non-broadcast event and it was a little more casual than what we'd experienced before. The second night was magical and electric and we were all nervous in that good way. Garrison Keillor taught us a pretty little old tune called 'The Colorado Trail' and we sang it on the show - with him taking the verses and us the chorus. I think it was my favorite moment in the whole show.Later we gathered with friends and some of the folks from APHC to celebrate and ran into the parents of Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls who happened to be at the show and really enjoyed it. (Her parents, not Emily herself...) Annabelle's grin was big. They were lovely. Much fun was had that night and somehow we managed to score a temporary endorsement deal in travel-size hotel toiletries (thanks Stephen J.). Sometimes it's worth having over-weight baggage.From Minneapolis we flew to Eugene, Oregon for another showcase. We'd heard great things about Eugene and we actually got a chance to explore a little. We ate some yummy food and stocked up on healthy snacks and groceries. The showcase went pretty well and I think even our agent, Mr. Herschel 'let me make a suggestion' Freeman, was happy. We ran into Po' Girl who, unbeknownst to us, were showcasing at the same event. It was nice to see some familiar faces.From Eugene we flew to Alaska, and have been here for the last five days. It is stunningly gorgeous here. On our first day we saw the tallest peak in North America, Mount McKinley (whose native and more respected name, we learned, is Denali), as clear as day, which, apparently, is a very rare thing! Usually it is hidden by clouds. Last night we got to enjoy the freshest oysters and halibut we've ever tasted. We are being taken care of by Mr. Mike Morgan, who was the force behind getting us up here in the first place and is now acting as road manager/tour-guide/provider of joyous vibes. Thank you Mike! The shows have been amazing, we can't believe the love in the audiences up here and we are so grateful to have had this experience.I have just boarded a flight heading to Seattle. One of the security-people saw our Anchorage show. I think that's the first time that's ever happened. I'm sure there are so many other things I could mention (Alaska, Alaska, Alaska!) but I think I'll sign off now and post this as soon as I get some internet access. Thanks so much to everyone who has come out to support us on this tour. It's been truly amazing and we are very lucky.Peace.