6 posts tagged “calgary”
On Sunday, February 17th, tune in to Energy 101.5, today's best music, in Calgary to hear an exclusive interview with me, as well as 2 tracks from my new album Doublespeak. In the Calgary area, just tune your dial to 101.5 FM at 9:30 p.m., MST. For fans outside of Calgary, or those who want to listen online, go to the Energy 101.5 website and click on 'listen live'.
The interview was entirely unplanned and off-the-cuff, but it was a fun time, and I'm glad to have the support from radio. It was also nice that they sought me out. For those of you in the UK, I know that the show will be on at 4:30 a.m. on Monday, so I don't expect that you'll be listening! But I will try and get a copy of the interview, and post here or on my website, or both.
And I have lots more to tell about my Nashville trip, and I'm going to write about a very good friend of mine who knows the music business incredibly well. She's got some great advice.
I've been in Nashville for nearly 3 weeks, and I've been having a great time. I've met some great industry people, I've made some new friends and caught up with old friends, I've performed with my sister Holly a couple of times, and I've enjoyed being here. There may be an opportunity for me to extend my trip, which I would gladly do. The people here have been really friendly, and the southern way of life gets to be very attractive. Life seems to go at a slower pace here, and politeness and manners are not lost or forgotten the way they can be so very easily in a wildly busy city such as my hometown of Calgary.
Yesterday, we took a drive out to the Loveless Cafe for lunch. This famous cafe and former motel on the outskirts of Nashville is touristy, but definitely worth the trip. Like many southern-style restaurants, they serve things like fried chicken, meatloaf, country ham, and all-day breakfast. The meal starts with biscuits, hot and fresh, with butter and preserves. But these biscuits are famous, and well-regarded as being worthy of a challenge from celebrity Chef Bobby Flay. Rarely do things live up to their hype, but in this case I have to say that the biscuits were incredibly good and worthy of their praise. My question is, are the heart attack rates in the southern United States higher than in other parts of the country or the world? I mean, a meal of biscuits with butter and jam, fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese, and possibly a slice of delicious pie, while delicious, is not exactly what could be considered healthy. But it most definitely can be considered delicious. And if you ever find yourself in Nashville, you will find many southern restaurants, diners, and cafeteria-style meat-and-threes at which to eat this kind of food. You will also find any other type of food from around the world, and healthier options, in case you're trying to maintain your rock star figure.
After lunch, we decided to go for a drive. To Alabama. It was a beautiful, warm sunny day, do we hit the interstate and drove as far south as we could while we still had daylight. It was cool, but we didn't get to see too much. On the way back we drove through the countryside. The scenery is nice around here, but not nearly as nice in winter as in the other seasons. There are lots of great day trips to do from Nashville, such as a drive to Memphis to see the King and the home of the Delta Blues, which we have already done. Or a drive to Lynchburg to the Jack Daniel's distillery, or to Kentucky, Missouri, the Carolinas, Louisiana, Florida, etc. In about seven hours, you could be in New Orleans, or on the white sand beaches of the Gulf Coast.
It's a cool place, and I wouldn't mind living here, especially when I get word from home that the temperature has reached -30 degrees today. And with wind it feels more like -50. Meanwhile, I am loving Tennessee in short sleeves.
Soooooo sleepy... Yesterday my sister and I were supposed to fly home to Calgary from Nashville on United Airlines, connecting through Chicago. We boarded the plane in Nashville, and just before we were to pull away from the gate, the attendant informed us that, due to weather, our flight would be delayed for an hour. No problem, I thought, because we had a 3-hour layover in Chicago anyway.
But the hour delay turned into 4, and I was starting to worry. The dude at the gate assured me that the flight to Calgary would be delayed as well, so we would make it. On the way, we received no information, except that we were supposed to check the departure screens at Chicago O'Hare airport for our gate. We arrived in Chicago, got off the plane, and headed for the screen. The place was Mayhem, as the entire airport had been closed to all incoming and outgoing flights because of the weather. On the screen, next to our flight, it read "closed". Not good. We had missed the flight.
The United customer service lines were ridiculously long, so I went to an automated kiosk. It had a phone next to it, and the screen instructed me to pick it up. I finally got to talk to a customer service agent, who told me I needed to go to the check-in counter, and they would re-book me there, as they couldn't do it over the phone for an international flight.
Once I got to the check-in line, I saw that it was incredibly long and slow. By this time, we figured out that many people were in the same boat, having missed flights, and so we began scrambling for a hotel room whilst waiting. More on that later.
After 45 minutes in that queue, I grew tired, and stepped out of line to another automated kiosk. This time, the agent on the other end told me that all I needed to do was call the toll-free United number and they would re-book me by phone. This information was welcome, but about 2 hours late. I wish they had told me that in the first place.
I called United reservations, and got a booking dude on the line within minutes. I gave him my confirmation number, and he launches into some speech about how I was meant to be on the flight from Nashville to Toronto to avoid the delay, how someone from United was supposed to tell me about this, and how it would have been smooth sailing had I only been on that flight. That wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear. I was a bit irritated by this point, as you can imagine.
Finally, by 9 p.m. last night, I had a re-booked flight for today at 9:45 a.m. But I wasn't able to claim my luggage, and was informed that it would be forwarded on to my final destination, with no indication of when. The only hotel available for miles was the Drake downtown, for the very reasonable rate of $395 for one night. Not wanting to sleep in the airport, we took it. One $40 taxi ride later and we were there. Thankfully my sister has travel insurance that will cover those costs for us, though I personally think United should bear some of the cost for neglecting to tell us to get on that flight to Toronto.
At least we got to sample some authentic Chicago deep-dish pizza from Giordano's. That was our dinner at about 11 o'clock last night.
Because we had to stay so far from the airport, and because Chicago traffic is so bad, we've been up since about 5:30 this morning, so we could get a taxi to the airport and make our flight. Now we are sitting in the waiting area outside gate C1 at Chicago O'Hare, and that's where I write this from, using the airport wireless and my laptop, fueled by crappy McDonald's breakfast, and operating on very little sleep.
Here's what I look like right now:
The trip to Nashville was excellent; I will write about that another time. For now, I really want to get home.
Yesterday I had a photoshoot to get some new pics for my new album and associated press materials, album artwork, website, etc. The photographer was the very talented Koz, with whom I have worked before. We always have fun, and yesterday was no exception.
We did some of the very standard-type photos: wide angle, sunglasses, guitar, rock star type stuff. The only thing missing was the fan, for that wind-blown look! I tried my hardest to take myself very seriously... But I think we got some cool shots, and I'm looking forward to seeing the results of that part of the shoot.
Later in the day, however, we did something that was much more fun and ridiculous. We decided to leave the studio and venture out into the streets of downtown Calgary at the height of rush hour, to ride the trains with the commuters, and get some shots. Of course, I couldn't just wear the same outfit that I had worn for the studio shots. No, something a bit different was in order.
So I put on the bear costume.
Some people were amused, and some people stared and made comments. Others ignored me, or tried not to stare. I think some people were angry at me for wearing a bear costume and having my photo taken. If you've never tried it, I highly recommend donning a bear costume and wandering around the city.
I wonder: had I tried this in London on the tube, what would the response have been?
It was very enjoyable, and I'll be sure to post some of the final prints when they are done.
Happy Monday! June fast approaches, and the weather in Calgary is not going to warm up without a fight. But after today's wind and rain, we are supposed to have increasing temperatures as the week goes on. For now, I thought I'd post a couple of rainy-day tunes. 'Somebody Else' is from my upcoming release, and 'Thinking It Over' is from my first album, Things You Never Thought I'd Say. They are similar in time signature, and somewhat similar in style, but not in subject matter. The idea with 'Somebody Else' was to do folk-electronic - see if you think we've succeeded.
Tomorrow I'll post something more summer-y.
It occurred to me that my chances of getting me some sweet, sweet UK A&R luv are inversely proportional to the distance I am from London (the straight line distance between Calgary International and London / Heathrow Airport is approximately 4363 miles or 7021 kilometers). As I move closer, my chances improve, so it would be better for me to gig in Reykjavik than in Montreal, using this analysis.
I want to tour the UK, and I thought there might be a way to do that by way of mutual help among Vox-ers. So if you're interested in playing a gig in Canada, and particularly in my city of Calgary, then you should contact me and I'll help set something up. You bring your band to town, and I'll arrange a place to crash, a decent venue, and tell you all you need to know, and then we'll share the gig. This works particularly well if my audience would also dig your music. In this way, I act as your booking agent and promoter, and I deliver you a ready-made audience. I've done this before within Canada, and in fact on June 16th, I'm doing a gig with a singer-songwriter by the name of Melanie Joy from Toronto, and that's exactly how we set it up. I could help out with cities other than my own, but the ideal thing would be to find other artists from other Canadian cities who want to join our club - The Vox Gig Exchange.
Once I get a few good bands from the UK who are willing to set up reciprocal gigs for us to share across Britain, I will make the trip over for a ready-made tour. You tour here, I tour there, and everybody wins!
So, how about it?
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