good god almighty i am so happy to be back in BK. as this blog entry's title would lead you to believe, yes we drove 10,603 miles since we left boston on august 23. i set the mini van's odometer to zero at
izzy stradlin's house the day after Mr Brownstone rocked the bejesus outta the paradise the night before. amazingly it was exactly 1000 miles from boston to northbrook, illinois, the town where carolyn grew up. i just have to say the trip was an amazing experience. we saw deserts, moose, coyotes, irrelevant theme park motels, wild canadians in their natural habitat and Boss Tweed rocked the great white north.
some pertinent stats:
10,603=miles driven in the Silver Bullet from august 23rd-oct 5th
167.371 kmh=104 mph that we averaged through the middle of nowhere canada
53=cd's we outfitted the van with for our trip
24=towns able to provide for our carnivorous taco/guitar/record store appetite along the way
13=towns rocked by
Boss Tweed4=venues that hooked us up with sweet potato fries vs. standard white starch french fries
2=times i was pulled over and let off with a warning by canadian cops (they're so nice!)
1.6=new drummer(s) able to rock with the Tweed (jeremey was larger than life)
1=human finger we saw chopped off at the biker bar, the happy hog
.8=saskatoon-based tv channel that featured Boss Tweed on their daily culture show (let's up the production values here, eh fellas?)
here's some photos. entering jasper national park in the canadian rockies:
downtown canmore, our first show in canada:
some shots of our drive up through the national park to jasper:
jeremey scopes the view on one of our many stops along the drive to jasper:
a
giant crow on the top of a car where we stopped to check out a waterfall. this thing could have weighed 20lbs:
the waterfall:
main street jasper:
everything is big in canada... we encounter a giant elk on way home after the gig. his giant elk head stood taller than mine:
racking up a game of pool before the gig at the slice in lethbridge:
more pool... jeremey sets up for the break in calgary:
on to exotic moose jaw. this town in saskatchewan is famous for the tunnels beneath the city streets which were once used by al capone and other prohibition-era bootleggers. we stayed at the famous gangster's theme motel. i wonder if his family sees any money from the use of his name and reputation? i doubt it:
at this point in the trip both carolyn and i were getting pretty shaggy and decided it was time to get our hair cut:
the front of our fan collected an impressive collection of bugs. we should have sold these off as lures to fisherman:
in saskatoon we were interviewed on a regional tv station:
the green room... classy:
the venue in saskatoon. we played a killer show for the folks here... lots of students and our first encounter with
poutine:
making the long trek to thunder bay right on lake superior, we stopped and played a gig at the apollo. great venue and a great host... thanks, sheila!
checking out an old wurlitzer jukebox in the basement:
taking care of some wifi biz before heading out the next day:
boss tweed rolls into tottenham, about an hour north of toronto, to play our second to last show at the happy hog. our host, a gregarious biker named gar, told us some wild stories of his trips to the big biker rally, sturgis and showed off his harley. it wouldn't translate here but we did witness one of our new fans lose the tip of his finger in a bizarre seating accident. ask us about it sometime. outside the venue:
gar's hog: notice that he installed a sword for the gear shift... whoah:
after our last gig in toronto, we dropped jeremey off at the train station in albany and headed to portland, maine to see our friend sarah stebbins get hitched:
and to round the trip off, we made it down to delaware the following weekend to see our long reigning drummer, eric reed, tie the knot with the lovely amanda. amanda and her father walk up the beach for the ceremony:
the newly weds cut the cake. well done guys:
whew! and that's about it. lots of driving over those six weeks and now we're getting reacquainted with brooklyn. good to be home.
the late show was western swing whiz, smokey hormel. you may know him from his work with tom waits or beck. he's an incredibly diverse musician. as a young picker, he learned western swing-style guitar from none other than jimmy wyble, one of bob wills famed guitar slingers. folks... bob wills is western swing and through a multi-decade career, he featured a number of ground breaking instrumentalists, most notably his guitar players. we've seen smokey a number of times and he is just a dynamite musician leading a cracker jack outfit: upright bass, drums, clarinet and steel guitar. smokey throws western swing classics into the modern world and the crowd loves it! btw- dig the unusual gretsch he's playing here... momma!
these are just two of the many great musicians playing on a regular basis here in brooklyn. if you live in the area, you owe yourself to check out these increidible guitarists!
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