Road Journal part whatever

Hi There! I'm in Cobourg Ontario getting set to head out to Grafton for the Shelter Valley Folk Festival (www.sheltervalley.com). It's been a magical month that included such memories as breakfast with Lynn Miles and Stephen Fearing, camping on the shores of Boshkung Lake (near Haliburton) and of course playing lots of music. I've met with Ken Whiteley to talk about the new CD project and spent a night in the sleazy Lotus Motel in Cobourg. (it wasn't that bad but what a name!)

I gotta tell ya I am looking forward to coming home. I'm tired and all I can think of is not driving anywhere or moving my stuff around every day. I start the big trek home on Monday and will hopefully be in my own bed by Wednesday.

Sales at the previous couple festivals have been marvelous and I will definately need to order more CDs when I get home. No complaints there. I've been planning the new CD so I may not reproduce the current CD untill I'm ordering the new one up. Who knows?

Until the next journal entry...adieu.

Life in the great wide open

Hey there blog fans! I'm on Manitoulin Island waiting for a ferry to Tobermory and found an internet cafe so I thought I'd post an update.

The festival went extremely well despite mother nature drooling all over us. The shows were very well recieved and I am proud of the outcome. Since the ending of the festival I've been driving around the north shore of Lake Superior in a lesiurely bid to get to Owen Sound tonight.

About half the CDs I made have sold and it's a good thing too. My palm pilot died and I had to buy a new one. The good news is that I was able to get all my data out so I won't be scrambling to find the rest of my shows on this tour. The bad news is that I might not be able to buy that new resonator guitar I was looking at. It will all depend on sales over the next weekend. Keep your fingers crossed!

See you in September. H

Music in the Woods!

I've been camped out here for three days now and we're almost ready to put on the festival. The acts start arriving tommorow and the show begins at 6pm. I can't wait. Today has been cooler and a little rain. Get it over with now I say.

I have some great pics from the sunrise this morning, showing the mist over the river and last night the metor shower was amazing to watch. I am always stunned by the beauty of the night sky when I can see it. Out here there is no city lights to block the stars. Only the deep and lovely dark. And over by the campfire the strains of a steel guitar....

Ahhhh Music in the Woods!

Life after Red Rock

The "Live from the Rock" folk and blues festival is over and I had a wonderful time. It amazes me how a place can get under your skin. I love this town and the people and it isn't summer without coming home to the Rock for the festival.

I had the pleasure of performing in some wonderful workshops and capped it off by swimming in Lake Superior twice over the weekend. The water was magnificent and it sure made the hot blazing sun more bearable.

Today I toured old Fort William the site of the Northwest Company's fur trade headquarters. The names of the partners resonate in my head as names from streets and towns in Manitoba. La Verendrye, McGillivary, Wolseley, Simpson, Le Fleur. These men made a lasting impact through their involvement in the fur trade. And all of it for the sake of a hat!

Tommorow I'm off to Ear Falls to prepare for the Trout Forest Music festival. I'm looking forward to a couple quiet solitary nights in the bush where I can play guitar and hopefully write a new song or two. Oh and I'm going to buy a new resonator guitar. Ciao for now!

In the wilds of Ontario

I leave tomorrow on the festival tour. Four festivals and two house concerts in five weeks. There will be camping on English River, Lake Superior, Lake Huron and Lake Ontario. I will be swimming in these great lakes and rivers and loving every minute of it.

I have to admit that I'm not much of a backwoods camper anymore though. I quite prefer to be camping in a fairly groomed site with a bathroom facility and preferably showers. But I do enjoy the outdoors and the quiet of a morning beside a lake. When no one is up but me and the wildlife. I enjoy listening to the water, the wind and the birds. I think I'm just too lazy to carry all the stuff needed to enjoy a much more remote place. I'm too cheap to buy a good portable stove and who wants to carry that much water and food anymore?

When I was younger I'd go on long (1 week) bush hikes. One of my favorite destinations was the Mantario trail. 60kms of bush trail on the border of Manitoba and Ontario. No way in or out but to hike or canoe. So me and a buddy would hike in and camp in the dense forest and commune with nature. Usually by the end we were exhausted and smelly but completely happy. Now I prefer a more gentile camping situation. Something where there is a nice affordable diner nearby and a groomed beach. So that I can pretend I'm in the wilds but still have my creature comforts.

New Website

I launched my new website today. It's at www.manitobahal.com in case you didn't know. The site is much the same as before but with more emphasis on the new project. You can download your own copy of my latest CD for the low price of $10.00USD. The site is Paypal enabled so folks can do the ordering on their schedule. I will be adding a photo gallery sometime after the summer as well. In the mean time check it out!

Countdown Continues

Four days remain till I begin my journey eastward. I find it hard to believe it is already upon me. There is still so much work to do to be ready. I haven't even begun my 'to do' list yet. YIKES! :o

Anyway it is going to be a blast and I can't wait. I have been lots of places in this country and I can't imagine a place that is better to spend the lazy days of summer than on the shores of the great lakes in North Western Ontario. My friends will be with me and we will sing and celebrate late into the night and then watch the stars till we sleep. The smell of a campfire and the aroma of BBQ makes my heart sing and my soul feel at rest.

Yesterday I went to watch the Goldeyes play and it was a blast! As I was about to buy my ticket a woman came up to me and offered me two tickets she couldn't use that were right behind home plate! So I went for free! The Goldeye's won and all is right with the universe. Plus I drank forty seven slushies and ate a hot dog. Okay I'm exagerating, but I did have three slushies cause it was a hot day and I was sitting in the sunshine. What a way to begin my summer tour!