GTA Blues- In Which the Bad Boys have a Quiet Night

Being in my home town for 48 hours doesn't change much- the beat goes on, as they say. It is kind of strange. When I got into music I imagined my "office" would consist of a coffee pot, a turntable, and a bunch of records. Now the laptop, the cellphone, the digital "cloud," and the web keep me company everywhere. The Lincoln has a pretty good stereo, but I do miss the coffee pot, the turntable, and late nights with Bix and Charlie Patton...

I picked up Big Dave at Pearson Airport last night. We're taking care of odds and ends, repacking the car, trying to stay on top of the books, the schedule, and the detailing of this lengthy Tour.
We are stuck in traffic and arrive about 20 minutes late to our Burlington, ON, Long and McQuade guitar clinic. About 30 people have come out for the event, and we have an excellent question and answer session, playing several songs and talking about open tunings, slide guitar playing, finger style guitar, resophonic instruments... It is a pretty nice location, although way out in the rolling sprawl of GTA suburbia.

Dave and I head into Oakville for a bite to eat, do the drive through promo across downtown, and then head over to tonight's gig. We are playing the Moonshine Cafe. It's a little, 75 seat venue with good sight lines, good sound, and very friendly staff and owner. We've played here in past years and it has been good. Selling out this venue is more practical for us than several other alternatives. This is to be our only stop in the GTA, so we are hopeful that some of our fans will come out from the surrounding regions.

Showtime- and we've got nine people in the audience. They are good folk and fun. They all buy CD's. But this reminds me of why I spend 275 days a year on the road. Quite a difference from the Marquee shows in the other regions of Canada. Ah, ya never know. I'll be back to try it again next year! But I can't promise to have Big Dave McLean in tow. I'm really sorry Toronto did not get to hear this show. Dave continues to be amazing every night. Tomorrow the Tour heads east, and we need to make more than gas money.