the Back to School update!
Happy September amigos! new backpacks? pens? friends?! i have some new friends on twitter! (follow me?) No school for me this fall (well, i’ll probably get schooled by John Prine & his band actually… but anyway, i’ll save that for later…) here’s a quick note to let you know what’s coming up next -
Next week I head to Toronto to finish recording with Belle Starr. We had an unbelievably fun August at Revolution Sound in Leslieville with Josh Finlayson (of well loved Canadian band The Skydiggers!) at the production helm with Saam Hashemi’s impressive engineer ears. Enginears? The consistently comical character of Joel Stewart was there most days rounding out the support staff and supplying us with a daily monologue… and what a band! ”The Men of Belle Starr” round revolution consisted of Lyle Molzan on drums & percussion, Maury LaFoy on bass, the aforementioned Josh Finlayson on acoustic guitar & baritone ukelele, and the Breit Brothers! no talent in that family let me tell ya. WOW Kevin Breit on guitars and cosmic magic and stuff and WOW Gary Breit on keys of all kinds. really really really super fun.
After that, I’ll fly back west, grab my passport & duo partner Dustin Bentall and head down to the United States of America. It’ll be Dustin’s FIRST EVER show in the US. crazy! and not a bad way to start if i do say so myself…. we’ll be playing 4 shows opening up for a mutual hero – John Prine!!!!!!! Eugene Oregon, Spokane Washington, Missoula & Butte Montana. It’ll be my first time playing most of those towns too… although I’m pretty sure I once rocked a pizza parlour in Eugene with The Paperboys sometime circa 2005… (which was rad too actually). Details are the shows section – and please come enjoy these nights with us if you can! I’ve been so fortunate to have opened 2 shows for John Prine a couple years ago playing in Chip Taylor’s band… so I know John’s stories & show are really special. His trio rules (John, with David Jaques & Jason Wilber.) oh i can’t wait!!!!!!!!!
Then it’s back to Vancouver Island for the wedding of my dear friends Adam Dobres & Elspeth McLean. He is a guitar wizard who i’ve had the honour of playing in many bands with over the past 10, oh 15 years… there’s a good chance you’ve seen him play if you’ve seen me (be it live or youtube) and his wife-to-be is a phenomenal artist. Check out her stuff, it’ll brighten you. (She also does art sales every so often, so i’d advise ‘liking’ her on facebook so you can take advantage!!) I’m really looking forward to the wedding, I think it’s going to be so beautiful & I know i’ll get to see a ton of great old friends. Nothin’ better
In October we hop a plane and head to Europe! The Netherlands!! (we may still try to add a few small shows in Germany or Scandinavia, just keep your eyes on the tour dates)… but mostly it’ll be a mixture of beautiful theatre shows and a few more intimate venues. It’ll be myself & Dustin Bentall sharing songs and we get the honour of touring with a Dutch rhythm section backing us up. Most of the dates are already posted, but there are a few more to be added so please check back. It’s a part of the Americana Treasures series, this one is called Country Classics, so we get the chance to brush up on some old Hank Williams, Buck Owens, Louvin Brothers, Loretta & the like! We’ll mix a few old covers into the night. Big thanks to Bert & the folks at Continental Record Services (CRS) and Marcel Van Zijl at Vivesco for bringing us over. I love Holland!
I have some more big news brewing on the solo-album front…!! a string of Alberta shows (Halloween – early November)… then Grand Cariboo Opry season is upon us… a new band album with The Dustin Bentall Outift… and Belle Starr release news… so I shall leave you here for now. Thanks for checking in, I’ll post again soon.
See you down the road (thanks greg keelor. good line)
xoxo kendel