Tour diary: introducing Shawna Caspi to NS

I’ve been thinking about Sense of Place, lately.

I spent most of the last year on the road, windows down, music up, hair blowing, seeing new stuff. Connected to nothing but the zen of the journey itself. Seeing many places and things I never had. Tofino. Cathedral Grove. Kitsilano. A bear in Jasper. 4 trips across the Prairies. The hoserlicious pleasures of Northern Ontario. Fi’ n’ chi’ at the Ship. On and on.

But it’s time to siddown. I have songs scratching at the windows to get out. I need to reconnect with my back yard. I wanna spend time in a kayak. I am gonna have a beachbum summer.

Enter Shawna Caspi.

She called up recently, and said, ‘So if a girl were to find her way into a plane ticket, ya think, there might be some shows to be booked?’

I booked it to show my buddy around a bit. We’re calling it the She Came On A Whim And Couldn’t Go Home Tour. We played The Scuttlebutt in Lunenburg last night. What a wicked little place. Wolfville tonight, Tatamagouche Thursday, Shelburne Friday, Halifax on Saturday. Then I’m off to Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, and Toronto, but that’s about the extent of my touring plan. I think you’re gonna have a sense of whatever place is home, of course, and no place is really better than another. But as Denis Ryan says, one of the great things about our job is that it has more than its fair share of homecomings. If anyplace will fill my well again, this is it.

Nice to be home!

By geez, have I got stories for you…

I’m just back from a month in Germany, where I was playing bass in Jennifer Roland‘s band, as part of the Irish Folk Festival, which is a gig that’s been traveling around Germany for some 30 years. CRAZY.

We started at the Cologne Philharmonic, the most amazing concert hall.

I got shown a recently discovered hiding place for wartime Jews at our venue in Pforzheim. Played a circus in Munich. Stayed in the Reeperbahn (the world-famous red-light district) in Hamburg, saw Tower of Power (!)…

…then Grandmaster Flash, the same night. Arrived in Berlin the night of the 20th anniversary of the falling of the Wall. Only-on-tour stories, I call’em.

And must say: toured with amazing folks. Besides my colleagues Jenny, Keithy, Buddy and Jason, also had a blast hanging out with Tommy O’Sullivan, Niamh Parsons and Graham Dunne, and The David Munnelly Band. A finer bunch you couldn’t have on the road. I miss ’em all like crazy.

So, now that that’s done, we’re getting back on this record releasing thing. The date is just about confirmed, for mid-January. I’ll have more news before too long…

Hey, if you’re in the Halifax area, I’m playing tonight at the Rose and Kettle, out at the Cole Harbour Heritage Farm. Also, Saturday night, at the Lunenburg County Winery with my dudes Steve Bowers and Fleur Mainville. I haven’t seen either in 6 weeks. Like I said, great to be back.

xo,
K