Yesterday

Yesterday, I cooked scrambled eggs with purple onions and red peppers with home fries on the side and ate them on my deck in the sunshine with an old friend and a new friend.

Yesterday, I finally listened to some of the tracks from my live recording in Lunenburg. It's been a month and a half since we laid it down, and having found out about a major technical problem in the meantime, I wasn't sure what we were going to wind up with. But the news is good! It sounds alright. I think we'll only lose one track, or two at most. And for those who know me as the sensitive solo songwriter, it's going to be a real ear-opener to hear me with a band. At least it is for me.

Yesterday, I got final costing on the new boxed set project. I've decided that the best way to proceed is to package the 3 live recordings I've done since last December, plus the one I'm doing in November, as a 4-CD set. I'm working on a seasonal motif- I was thinking "Around the Sun" was a cool title, but now I'm working with the more practical "4 Seasons in Song." Much mulling remains to do.

Yesterday, I got invited at the last minute to host the Songwriter's Association Songstage at the Renaissance... but couldn't do it.

Yesterday, I played one of the worst sets of my recent life at Groovy Mondays. It was a real treat to see so many of Toronto's songwriting set in one place, including host Jennifer Claveau, Jory Nash, Ian North, and more others than I can count or remember. Headliners were Michelle Rumball (ex of Grievous Angels) and Linda McCrae (ex of Spirit of the West) who were joined by James Gray from Blue Rodeo on fiddle. See, it sounds like a great night... and I guess it was, but not for me. I stank. I got nervous for no reason, my fingers were cold, my guitar was brash in the monitor... ugh. Two songs, two brutal moments in my life I can't get back.

Yesterday, I made up for stinking at Groovy Mondays by heading over to the Auld Spot Pub on Danforth Ave in my neighbourhood. Host Emily Garber runs a really warm, friendly, and somewhat wild open stage there. I stepped up to the mic, fessed up that I was in recovery from a bad performance, and proceeded to rock the house. It led me to conclude that if you fall off your horse, you need to get right back on... a completely different horse.

Yesterday. Quite a day, really. And that was just the musical stuff. Oh yeah, and the eggs.