Uke on the Rails tour - Feb 2012

Tomorrow is a big day for me. Tomorrow I begin my journey west by rail on the Uke on the Rails tour. It's also the first tour with my new CD Flirting With Mermaids. This tour is made possible by the good folks at VIA rail and their On Board Entertainment Program with special thanks to Genvieve Beland for putting this together. I'll be performing in the lounge car a few times as I head west and again when I return home. Lucky for me I managed to secure a sleeper berth so I'll have plenty of time to read, write and explore train travel! It's my first time on a train trip since I was a small small boy. I vaguely remember taking a train once in California on a family vacation.


First stop on the tour isn't by train though. I play tomorrow night (Jan 27th) in Lunenburg at the Scuttlebutt Restaurant. Traci and Rob have gone out of their way to bring quality music in and it's a favorite place of mine to stop and play. I'll be starting at 6pm so if you're in the area please come by and have some of their great food!

Saturday night (Jan 28th) I'll be part of the 3rd annual Night of the UKE concert in Halifax. This concert features myself alongside, Hank Mumps, Nigel D'Eon and Crash Flagg in a concert designed to fill you with uke dreams. The show kicks off at 7:30pm at the venue that is it's own address 1313 Hollis.  It's gonna be a great time.

I'll be boarding the train in Halifax and if you should desire to join me on my journey, I'll be on Train #15 to Montreal departing at 12:15pm. I'll be spending a night in Montreal before heading on with my good friend Ian Gray. Ian is a singer/songwriter from Montreal and he's promised me a good smoked meat sandwich. Yum.

The next show on this journey (Feb 3) is a uke workshop and house concert in Cobourg, Ontario. It's being held in an old jail. I wonder if they're trying to tell me something? That night I will be playing at the Hobbit House Concert in Cobourg. It's a small show and from what Lesley Bolieau tells me it's sold out! I'm thrilled to know that folks will be there to enjoy the music.

On Saturday Feb 4th at 2pm I'll be teaching a uke workshop at Broadway Music in Orangeville, Ontario. Broadway Music is the home of steller vocalist Heather Katz and Micheal Griffin. I love coming to this awesome place because they are wonderful people AND they have more ukes on the wall than any other store I know.

Later that night at 8pm, I'll be performing with Mo' Kauffey and Larry Kurtz at the Blues for Food Fundraiser. We'll be kicking it up at the Westminster United Church. Tickets are only $15/door plus any non-perishable food items. Come on out and support great music and a great cause.

Sunday afternoon Mo' Kauffey and take to the stage at the Woolwich Arrow Pub in Guelph for the "Once Upon a Blues Sunday" show. This is part of the Nighthowls tour. The Nighthowls is a duo that I'm in with Mo' Kauffey. It's a fun show because really neither of us knows what the other will do. We fly by the seat of our pants but it works.

On Monday Feb 6th the Nighthowls head to Oakville to play the Moonshine Cafe for their BBQ show. Good eats and good food oh my. Showtime is at 8pm y'all.

Thursday Feb 9th the Nighthowls will be performing in Woodstock in another wonderful acoustic house concert. George Douglas has opened his home up to us so that we can fill his house with the sound of acoustic guitar and ukulele together doing rootsy blues songs. The show starts at 7pm and you can get your tickets by calling 519-608-3231.

Friday night (Feb 10th) we'll be in Toronto at the O'Hara House Concert series in Parkdale. Joanna Mills is an old high-school friend of mine and she's created a wonderful concert series in Toronto. She's also a creative programmer. She has me doing a uke workshop early in the evening at 6:30pm where I cook for the participants and then we discuss all things ukulele.

The Nighthowls play later that night at 8pm. Tickets are $20 for the uke workshop/supper and $15 for the house concert. Tickets can be reserved at http://oharahouseconcerts.webs.com.

The next morning I get back on the train from Toronto to Ottawa where I'll perform at Westboro House Concerts. This concert is sold out and I'm really looking forward to showcasing my new songs for this crowd. The Ottawa community has been very supportive of my music this past year and it really makes me happy that they'll get to hear me perform this stuff in an intimate special environment. One of the real perks of this show is that the original painting that graces the cover of the new CD (painted by Léanne Colbeck) will be on display and the artist herself will be in attendance.

My journey on this tour ends with two uke workshops for the Ottawa Folklore Centre and a drop in at the Bytown Ukulele Group's monthly jam. It will be so wonderful to see all my friends again and to enjoy the sounds of their club strumming away.

I'll see you out there! Keep the baby faith!