March 25th, 2002
Toronto, Ontario

Happy Spring!!! Had my first day in the studio recording the new album. What a day... George Koller came to play. He is AMAZING. George will be playing a multitude of different basses on about 8 tracks, I believe... and I have even convinced him to sing a Gregorian Chant. We'll be recording an excerpt from "O Quanta Qualia" a hymn written by Peter Abelard in the 12th century. Abelard is famed in history for his tragic love affair with the lovely young Heloise. Their secret (but not secret for long...) relationship lead to his eventual castration and their independent sequesterment (is that a word?) in a monastery and nunnery for life... The song is from a selection of hymns called "Hymn for Heloise" that Abelard wrote during their long separation. Back in the studio tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next day...

January 16th, 2002
Ontario brrrrrland...

I've been quite the winter hermit ... been up at the cottage on lake Huron writing and writing and gazing out int the frozen waves ... there's bunnies and a gopher and a lovely fireplace ... working hard on finishing up new tunes for the record ... here I go ...

December 18th, 2001
London, Ontario

 

Hello strange and beautiful world,

It has been such a busy past month. I've been recording and writing and housesitting and businessing and running through the forests with Raven the dog. I am now officially on Christmas vacation (which means it's time to shop and clean and organize and sew and cook and label all my endless amounts of Remington Steele videotapes (...yes i have a small 1980's detective drama problem.) I will be in Ontario until the new year at which point I am heading south south south. Going back to Virginia for a spell and then onward to North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. I'm gonna hit Jacksonville for this year's International Folk Alliance conference. Yay Folk Alliance and all my friends I haven't seen in a year and total overwhelming sensory overload- hooray! And hey, any good reason to slip south in February is so totally welcomed. I am looking very much forward to Spanish moss and snapping turtles and warmer-than-here-ness, but I think I might forgo the whole Florida Epcot experience this time. (But, I must admit the Norway Viking boat log ride with flashing trolls was officially extremely fun.) Come the new year I will for sure be playing lots more gigs. I've also got some radio and television plans so I will keep you all posted!. Until then I will be stewing in my artist's shell and working hard on finishing writing for my new album "Root, Heart & Crown." I will be recording sometime in the spring and then hitting the road to sing and play my brains out in every little corner of the continent... so watch out.

October 19th, 2001
Toronto, Ontario

I'm in crazy Toronto at my dear friends Katie and Masina's house listening to the streetcars go crash-bang-boom outside the window. I am o so very tired and recovering from a long long long but amazing week. Had a great time at the OCFF conference last weekend and then intensely began working in the studio with my wonderful producer Ken Whiteley, bassist George Koller, drummer Davide Direnzo and an fiddle player Anne Lindsay. It was so great and everything sounds so amazing and I am so very elated right now. I'm gonna celebrate by having a big ol' bath in kt and m's giant beautiful bathtub and maybe sipping a wee bit of tequila while they're off at the bar watching Peaches sing. Tomorrow I'm heading back to London to see my parents off to Hong Kong, Thailand and Japan. But first, I need to zip down to Queen Street to score the one item I most desperately need to add to the aesthetic collection of my life...I mean, how can I resist a giant flaming pink mosquito net with crown velvet trim...impossible I think!!! I will be hiding out in London for the next month or so working hard on grant applications and writing writing writing...

October 4th, 2001
London, Ontario

Hey y'all

I am back safe and sound in Ontario after a somewhat insane adventure. I survived a couple tornadoes, the worst bad ass rainstorm I ever drove through, a bad bout of nasty poisonous insect bites and/or systemic poison ivy, my new van deciding to blow up in the middle of the mountainous nowheres and the list of insanities just goes on and on... believe me. Finished off the trip with a journey into the full moon bowels of Washington DC. Saw the incredible moon rise above the Washington Monument and then drove straight into the Hood. Went to see sweet Dar Williams at the 9:30 club in DC. It is always nice to see Dar. I am back in Ontario for a while. I'm gonna hit the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals conference next week in Toronto and then house-sit for my parents while they're off on a Southeast Asian adventure. Hoping to get lots and lots of writing done and maybe have some fun too. Let's hope! I got a new heart shaped ice cube tray that I'm real excited to try out. Bring on the margaritas. I deserve 'em.

Self portrait at Manassas National Battlefield, VA.
More photos here!

 

September 24th, 2001
Sperryville, Virginia 

I'm in crazy beautiful Virginia with the walnuts and the wild grapes and the locust trees. I can go outside and walk five feet and stick my head in the beautiful river that runs down from the Blue Ridge mountains. But you gotta be careful cause there's poison ivy and ticks that like to fall on ya and every once in a while a crew of F-16 bombers will haul ass through the sky and scare the hell out of the turkey buzzards. It is an intense time to be in Virginia. Where I'm staying is about 70 miles southwest of Washington DC in the Appalachian mountain range. It is so very lovely with the rolling green hills and the trees all changing colour...and yesterday I got to go stick my foot in the Shenandoah river and practice guitar. Now that's a good time!!! I will be here for another week or so and then heading back to Ontario to start pre-production for my new recording. Yeehaw!

Goodbye Esmeralda!

August 21, 2001
London, Ontario 

After seven and a half years of grand adventures (and nearly 300,000 km...) I said goodbye to Esmeralda the van today. Thanks Ezzie. You were such a good horse. She really wanted to be driven off the side of the Grand Canyon but I figure they'd probably catch me for that and wouldn't be very nice about it to boot. My new van is a sleek (yet still slightly soccer mom) Plymouth Voyager. Her name is Maybelle and she's a very delicious shade of burgundy. And her engine is young and she's excited to take on some mountains soon... I'm getting ready to head up to Lake Simcoe and Eaglewood Folk Festival next weekend. I'm excited for a little Ontario cottage country before I head south again. Then, back to Virginia for a little more sleazeball motel writing quarantine in the beautiful Shenandoahs...