As I am still employed as a PE/Science teacher I have been marking the final exams and getting the marks together in the past few weeks (in addition to organizing the Tarkin CD release show, moving out of my apartment and a visit to the dentist) and haven't updated on the life of a folkstar. Here a summary of my first mini-tour to Calgary with my new band Damanta May 23-26 (which took place the same weekend of Tarkin's show at Northwest Folklife in Seattle!)
The weekend started for us on Thursday when Damanta's master minstrel, Elegwen, picked me up at 9am. I had been in to school to take delivery of some t-shirts at which were meant to make the trip pay off but unfortunately they were not what we were expecting. The lesson here kids is: always have them make you a sample first.
After various errands, including picking up our fiddler Jess Herdman at UBC, we were on the Trans-Canada headed for points east at 11:30am. This was significantly later than planned but we had two days to get to Cowtown so we weren't too bothered. Our vehicle was The Pooka, a 1973 VW Westphalia with a '74 engine. When you get The Pooka up to fourth gear it morphs into THE STEED and we were humming out towards Hope, BC in The Steed.
We took the Fraser Canyon route, which I haven't traveled since the mid '80s and I loved it. It is mostly a two lane road that follows the river and then some high plateau farmland to Kamloops. It provided many sharp images that will make their way into our video blog of the trip when we get the CD production business taken care of. We made it to Shuswap Lake and a boutique campground where we sang songs around the fire. I was thinking I could really get used to this vagabond/minstrel lifestyle.
Friday morning we hit the road early intending to be in Calgary around 4pm. There was a stop in Golden for food and gas and I took the wheel for the first time just before Rogers Pass. I have only driven a manual tranmission about 15 times in my life so I was a bit nervous getting my hands on the wheel of The Pooka. Being quite box-ish, having a solid if subdued power train and no power brakes, steering or windows I found it quite a different experience from the Dodge Caravan I cut my teeth on as a young driver. I quickly learned that The Steed does not climb hills-apparently it is not in the contract. The Pooka accomplishes this task in third gear. The Steed can also get pushed off its line by a passing transport truck or a strong crosswind if you don't have firm grip on the reins.
As we pulled in the Banff for the last fill up before Calgary The Pooka stalled as I was attempting to turn into a gas station. Apparently being a fairy, it is narcoleptic. No big deal, really. I grew up in The Ozmobile-a blue 1975 VW bus that my mom stalled ALL THE TIME. Except for when I went to re-start The Pooka there was nothing--no click, no turn over, no dashboard lights. We pushed it in and filled it up in hopes that we could do the Little Miss Sunshine push start and still make to Calagary. I also did this a lot when I was a kid.
Unfortunately, the resort part of Banff is flatter than Moosamin, Saskatchewan and we couldn't get enough speed up in the four attempts--including one with a recruited Austrian tourist and one attempt from the height of a CP rail crossing. It did provide a lot of entertainment for a locals wedding party and three of girls from Calgary who took pictures and video as we pushed The Pooka back into the gas station 45 minutes later. I was somewhat stressed, to say the least, but Elegwen, who excels at making lemonade from rotten lemons, sold our new favourite Calagarians t-shirts (from a different source than mine) bundled with the digital files of our new CD.
Jess seemed less than impressed that it seemed we had brought her on tour to push the van but as I understand it a van breakdown is pretty much part of the touring band experience. She called CAA for us and her brother came down from Canmore to help us out. Without the two of them despair would have overcome us and we might have abandoned the tour and jumped into the car with the three lovely lasses from Calgary.
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