Hi again. It's been a while. I've been MIA for the last couple of months and I'm finally resurfacing.
As soon as I arrived home safe and sound from the Ontario tour, we started doing some renovations around the house. Among other things, we pulled down a chimney that ran right up the middle of the house in order to make some badly needed room in a closet and the basement. Let me tell you how long fingernails last when you're chiselling bricks out and tossing them into the dumpster. Not long - think nanoseconds. The whole project lastedmany weeks and in that time, the guitars stayed mostly in their cases and I hadn't been playing much at all. At the end of a hard day, I had virtually no energy left to play.
The good news is that the reno is complete and the only outstanding task is painting. The previous owners painted every room white so we're adding colour to the place. My nails are almost back to their pre-reno length and playing is a pleasure.
For the last few weeks, I've been playing in a song circle at my friend Art's. It's a fun group - some guitars, some fiddles, some flute, some keyboards all making for an eclectic mix on a Wednesday evening.
Coming up in the near future, I have a fun evening ahead tonight. One of the local inns, The Rum Runner, has a kitchen party on Friday nights. It's run by one of Lunenburg's many amateur musicians (who is also a town councillor and a local business owner) and he invites three or four others to play with him in a workshop/song circle type of environment.
It's probably not held in the kitchen but I'm finding out that East Coast kitchen parties are a big thing. Parties start in the kitchen (probably cause that's where the fridge is) and music usually breaks out and a good time is had by all.
Another event coming up that should be fun is the Bridgewater Growing Green Festival on August 21st. There will be a farmer's market, music, local book readings, art displays, food & drink, kid & family activities, community group booths, skills demonstrations and workshops. I'm not sure of the schedule yet but I'll be busking for part of the time and playing a set on the farmer's market stage.
In between, I'll be joining my erstwhile partner in rhyme, Jives, to head back up to Northwestern Ontario for the 8th Annual Live From The Rock festival. If you're up in that part of the world August 6/7/8, don't miss it. Red Rock is a great little town and LFTR is one of my favourite festivals. I'll be part of the sound crew again this year, running the Fish and Game Stage, hosting the Open Mic, and hosting Thursday night's campfire.
And finally, news on what's been going on with the website. I discovered an error in the pull-down menus that omitted a link to the Live at The Rose and Kettle page. The menus have been fixed so you can now get to the page from the Music/Lyrics menu. Also, I've added a new video page. While I was in Ontario, I had the good fortune to be asked to record a segment for the Hamilton Community program Hamilton Life on Shaw Cable 14. They sent me a DVD of the segment and I've put it up on the website for those of outside of Shaw's Hamilton feed. It's under the Music/Lyrics menu on the website.
Cheers, Bob
