I hit the road with Towers and Trees this spring to support my record. I’m currently sitting in a van driving from Edmonton to Regina. We have a day off today on this Monday and it’s quite nice to knock an 8 hr drive out and not play actually. But we just had an amazing weekend in Alberta.
And I’m not one to exaggerate.
It feels good when there is more energy and in the ebb and flow of the wave, you are going upward or feel the momentum of it. I actually talked with Joe Nolan at our show in Edmonton at The Buckingham about this. Probably in any walk of life you could make the analogy that life or business or a project is a wave. I think for the past 2 years I felt at the bottom of the wave, and now finally it’s kind of picking me up and I’m starting to surf it, and it’s not that I wasn’t doing anything. I’ve been paddling and prepping and writing and thinking.
It’s just finally my wave came in.
And I think this is the record. I was ready to put it out, things kind of fell into place and now I am here doing what I’ve been waiting and planning to do and that’s release this album.
I say that this has been an amazing weekend because Alberta treated us really well. Bo’s in Red Deer, AB was so hospitable and provided us a decent show but treated us amazing. That actually goes a long way.
Friday we played in Linden, AB – my hometown. I actually just throw this show in sometimes and I always really enjoy it. I would love to play a real hum-dinger there sometime soon, but the last 2 shows I have played in Linden, are pretty down home. I’ve just brought the band and thrown a PA up in the coffee room to Linden Alliance Church and got Larry to throw a few posters up in the town. It’s enough to get about 75 people out, and I really love these people. They are my people, and I hope they know this.
We played a boisterous show in Edmonton at The Buckingham with Scenic Route to Alaska. It was fun. We lost our van keys. We still don’t have them. It’s actually all my keys, even the carabineer Thad Cortez gave me years back in San Jose. I saw some great people there and had a good time for it being a rowdy crew juxtaposed with my quieter songs.
Also on tour when you make a little bit of money and sell some new records and people have listened to it and are excited about it, that makes things really special, and that’s what this has been.
Sunday Night, probably the highlight of this weekend and the start of this tour. We played in barn in Winfield, AB. I wrote a post of Facebook 6 weeks back that said ‘Hey friends! If anyone would like us to come play a show in late April or May we’d love to set one up. Your bathtub, kitchen sink, your barmitzfah, heck your dad’s barn I don’t care. Hit me up!’
Nate messaged me and said he wanted us to play in his barn. So we did.
From the front end loader loading our gear into the barn loft, to the firepit, pilsners and hot dogs late after the show, it was the real rural prairie experience. There was a lot of boot stomping and my favourite moment was while we played our song ‘Thought About July’ and everybody just started two-stepping. I turned to the band with a huge smile on my face and said ‘Alberta!’
It’s been good and thank you all for the support so far, I feel lots of energy and am so excited to share this record with people and I hope it mean something to lots of y’all.
Mike.