May 19/2008
This tour has been filled with some eventful experiences. We travelled to Los Angeles, opened for some awesome artists and even went camping in Texas. We have been living quite the lifestyle down south.
Los Angeles was hot, shiny and bright. Lots of tanned, beautiful people walking along streets filled with gigantic billboards with more tanned, shiny people posing. These billboards seemed to take over Sunset blvd. We had the pleasure of sharing our hotel room with Scott and Joanna (Scott Nolan Band) for the week. We had a great time catching up, dining, walking the strip and having schmooze contests. ( I think we won by the way) We made some new LA friends and saw a bit of the beach and city. Venice beach was a highlight. We all filled our belly’s with some coney’s and then walked the strip. We passed by many artists selling creations of all sorts. Muscle beach was also full of beefcakes as I’m sure it always is. Dave paid one dollar to Zoltar for a wish. He was warned not to wish to be made a “Big” kid. You’ll only get this if you like Tom Hanks.
Texas has been a blast so far. This has been our first real tour of this state. We had a run of really great opening slots with Jimmy LaFave, Amy Speace and the Quebe Sisters. All 3 acts were top notch and fine people.
Jimmy and Amy will both be at Kerrville us. We have been told time and time again that we will have the time of our life at that festival. It’s too bad we only have one day to spend as our friend T. Nile is heading down cause she is a new folk finalist. We are really excited to play the mainstage on the first weekend of the festival. I’m crossing my fingers for good weather.
We spent 2 nights camping on Lake Procter, 2 hours south of Fort Worth. My expectations were set a little high I guess coming from Canada and doing lots of back country camping. We were less than impressed to see the concrete pads at every site, the lack of trees, and the well manicured grass surrounding the campsites. We didn’t end up swimming in the lake as it seemed much less than inviting. The shore was covered in garbage, glass and plastic. I wanted to tell one of the 6 people who were cutting the grass to go along the shore and clean up the garbage. All that aside, we had an enjoyable time. We accepted our surroundings and did our best to relax and connect with the nature we could. On the second night a massive storm system came in. It lasted from early evening to early morning. We got little sleep that night as the wind was blowing so strong. At times it felt as though the tent was going to collapse. It held up all night though and we remained dry! There were puddles in the corners of the tent in the morning.
The previous week we spent in Wimberley, TX with our friend/musician Kelley McWee and new friend Kevin Welch. The town and it’s surroundings charmed us so much that I found myself looking into prices of the land around the area. Keep the apartment in WPG, have a winter home on some land in Texas? Sound tempting. Feeling that pull from the town and the community led us to much conversation about the reasons for living somewhere. There really is much to consider. We are pretty lucky to see all these places and get a sense of what life would be like. In a few years we can take all the things learned and make the big decision.
Highway Prayer continues to bring in great reviews and radio play. It was #1 on the Folk/Roots Satellite radio in Canada for the month of April! It has now been officially released in Europe by Corazong Records. We are receiving playlists daily from spins it’s getting across the pond. Spins in the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, and the UK. We are excited to begin this relationship with this label. We will travel there for the first time for 2 weeks in early July.
As artist do, we are already thinking about the next album. Thinking about who we would like to work with, the kind of feel it’s going to have. We have a collection of new songs that have a different sound and feel than the songs on HP. Our writing is constantly developing and changing and I think that will be evident upon hearing the new material.
Until next time.
Much love,
Brandy
-- Brandy
May 19 2008
