The lucious west coast

For the first night, I sleep in utter luxury at a friend's home in Calgary. The house is up on a hill, overlooking the city, with huge windows to watch the moon travel, a slow train across the sky. The show at the Marquee is groovy, with sexy red lanterns and lots of friends. A delicious start.

The next night I am in an RV, parked among the trees and mud at the acreage that will be transformed into a music festival by the next day. The grounds are expansive, with an enormous pond and those thick BC trees drooping over it, hovering above the water. I'm performing at Jammin' 4 Jay in Langley, a festival that commemorates the life of Jay Drew. The festival is organized by Jay's passionate parents who are determined not to let reckless driving continue to take the lives of children. So it naturally caters to children, with stilt walkers and horse rides and an enormous blow-up fire engine to slide down. I join the six year olds in line a get a pony ride in between my sets. But I'm not so brave as this one for the stilts....



The RV is totally deluxe and I'm quite happy there during the festival, but by the time I arrive in Victoria, I'm ready for a hot shower and plumbing! My next bed is in a hostel downtown, where I'll camp out for a few days and work with some local musicians before the next show. The hostel is tiny!! The walls touch each side of the bed. At the foot, there is room to...stand. My suitcase is stowed under the bed, the head of which touches the base of a large window. Thank god for windows! The rooms are small. The walls are so thin that I can't help but overhear the ecstasy of the woman in the next room. Vive Victoria! Ah, such displays of passion seem out of character for this conservative, colonial city known for its retirement community!

Can't wait to tour around the island up to Nanaimo for a show tonight with Wynn Gogol and Katherine Dennison. Wynn and Katherine are great friends, and they'll start the set tonight doing some songs together. They gave me a taste of the music they do, singing together in harmony and gazing into each other's eyes while they play. The song, the performance is so intimate that I feel as if I should turn away. But I can't! I'm drawn into the chemistry of these newly weds and am hypnotized by each note on their lips.

Which makes me long for my own lover. And the longing is sweet and delicious and will be rewarded by his arrival on Thursday for my show at Hermann's. Vive Victoria indeed....

Trout Forest Music Festival

Swimming in a lake. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a transcendent experience. The very being of summer. The Trout Forest Music Festival is located in a park, right on the edge of a lake. So while we jammed away on the main stage, we could see festival goers splashing in the water. Some actually watched the concert from rafts floating on the surface. And between shows, I got to indulge my summer fantasy in the frigid water.

The music was fantastic—Sam Mitchell came out to back me up on flute and mandolin and turned into a crowd favorite, particularly during some crazy jams with Big Boogaloo and The New Meanies. We danced to the fierce groove of the New Meanies under the northern lights, shining green and pink and purple, and watching a flock of lanterns float along the water at midnight. Life is good.

On the way home, we stopped in Forget SK, another sanctuary far removed from city life. To get there, we drove across the prairies, watching in awe as a brilliant summer night storm evolved before our eyes. Sheet lightening lit the entire sky as we barreled along the highway, giving us a spooky and spectacular light show before the rain finally poured down in buckets. We arrived at the Ananda Arts House to visit Don and Shannon and spend the night in this cozy little B&B. Rushing in the rain, we grabbed only the essentials and burst into their house during the fervor of the storm. It didn’t take long before we were settled in the kitchen with glasses of red wine, talking late into the night. Our conversations were punctuated with gasps and aaaahhhhss at the lightening and thunder and sound of rain outside the screen door. And in the morning over breakfast, we got to taste the first batch of honey from this season, infused with chamomile and made with love in Forget.

This weekend was all about losing myself in the groove, in the flow of the moment and turning off my brain. I think it’s getting in the way of my wisdom and could use a vacation. I wonder how many people at the folk festival were seeking a similar reprieve.