July 14, 2014
Well, this is rather late coming, but I played a lot of amazing gigs over the last month, and now that I have had a chance to catch my breath, I’d like to catch you up on all of them.
The weekend of June 13th I was in Regina, SK.
I rode all the way from Calgary by bus, and the other passengers knew me as the girl with the ukulele and the magnificent tricorn hat. I played one of my Kickstarter house concerts on the Friday, which was well-attended, well-received and positively nerdelicious. I played a lot of my Filk and Cookies material publicly for the first time. I also had a wonderful visit with my gracious hosts and their six-year-old daughter, who is my littlest fan and a complete delight.
On the Saturday I had the honour of playing as part of Queen City Pride. The rain made things a bit interesting. The tables and chairs were sinking into the grass, and there were holes in the tent over the stage, which was thrilling – we set up an umbrella over the sound board. The people were awesome and beautiful, though, and so appreciative. I love playing for people who are committed and enthusiastic enough to stand out in the rain.
June 21st was the Water Valley Celtic Festival. It was my third time playing there, and it’s always memorable and special. I recommend it very highly. Water Valley is a tiny little town that gets stretched to the seams every year for this festival. Almost every freestanding building gets taken over for a music venue, and tents sprout up like mushrooms after the rain. Once again I played in a duo with Sora, and we used the occasion to pull out some of our new material and oil it up before the Sun Wheel Festival. It went wonderfully, and we took in some other great acts, but my favourite part came last: I followed my nose to the Fallentimber Meadery tasting tent and played It All Winds Up in the Glass for one of the owners. He loved it so much that he gave me a beautiful bottle of oak-aged mead. I do love it when people water the bard!
June 27th and 28th was a very intense weekend at the Sun Wheel Pagan Arts Festival which I will never forget. I’ll skip over the part where I got to meet and spend time with Damh the Bard, one of my major heroes, because I wouldn’t know how to write about it without gushing. On the Saturday, I played a set on my own, then enjoyed the music of Mojo and then Damh the Bard under a perfect sky. On Sunday afternoon I did a full-out performance with my wonderful women, Sora, Linda and Jean, all of us wonderfully garbed in Greek peploi created by Jean, who took it upon herself to dress us in beautiful matching costumes for the second year in a row. I loved it, they loved it, everyone loved it – and then as soon as it was over, I raced back to my tent to throw on a coral lace dress, ran back barefoot clutching my pink high heels and leapt back up on stage to serve as Sora’s backup singer, guitarist, and mandolinist for her featured performance. She picked all my favourite songs, as luck would have it, and it was an honour to help her bring her lovely songs to life. Three outdoor shows in two days, wow! And such a good time. The weather was with us, and everyone was perpetually smiling.
July 3rd I played at Critical Hit, a fundraiser for Alexis Smolensk’s new book about running tabletop games. It was a nerdy variety show with burlesque, dance, music, and sketch comedy and was a lot of fun. Another chance to whip out some of the Filk and Cookies material before my CD release. I had such a good time I actually cracked up several times during my set. Mandi Schrader and her amazing group of dedicated souls did a great job making it happen.
In my next post, I will write about the great pile of sugary fun that was Cookie-Con!
