Magic Numbers

Yes, it seems like the Tour has finally reached the Magic Numbers. Over 100 stops! So, this is good. I still have a very few dates I'd like to fill: a couple on the East Coast, a couple on the West Coast, a couple in Quebec, and a couple in Ontario. The Prairie has got one date left. So, I could fill seven more shows over the duration... These won't make the poster. DPI Graphics gets the print work in the morning with 100 stops, and these posters will be up all over Canada before you know it!

Diva's working on the Tour Jackets, including some special orders already in... We're counting down. I'm booking flights and trucks. Can't wait to see you all out on the Blues Highway!

Long & McQuade Joins Tour

I'm really quite proud to announce that Long & McQuade will once more be a participant in the National Steel Blues Tour. With Long & McQuade on board we now have over 100 stops scheduled for this year's version, the National Steel "Century" Blues Tour. Big Dave McLean and I will be visiting select locations across Canada to present workshop/masterclasses as part of our Tour schedule.

Long & McQuade is Canada's largest music retailer, with over 30 locations across Canada. More than a store, Long & McQuade provides a full range of services including rentals, financing, and music education. I've been a customer since the early 1970s, and as a hard traveling musician I've had a chance to visit many of their locations across the country. It's more than a business. They participate and contribute to their communities in many ways, helping to nurture and support a broad based music scene and aiding a wide variety of social causes. I'm really impressed with how they run the business. Great employees, many who have been with the stores for years and years, and who really seem to love their jobs. They know how to treat their people. How cool is that? I'm very pleased to endorse Long & McQuade, and am actually excited about conducting these workshops. I had some wonderful experiences last year, so I'm looking forward to these stops.

Our visits will be laid back and social. We will focus on resophonic guitars, fingerstyle playing, open tunings, slide stylings, various equipment and accessories, set-up, mic techniques, the history of resophonic "dobro" guitars, and the history of the blues. We're relaxed enough to go with whatever skill levels or interests present themselves. Last year we fielded questions that took us in some interesting directions: touring, songwriting, the future of the blues... Muddy Waters, Son House... Come out and visit with us at one of the following Long & McQuade locations—

Ottawa, ON, Saturday 12 September
Fredericton, NB, Thursday 17 September
Charlottetown, PE, Saturday 19 September
Halifax, NS, Thursday 24 September
Calgary, AB, Saturday 24 October
Kamloops, BC, Saturday 31 October
Nanaimo, BC, Saturday 7 November

WCMA Nomination for Big Dave

Wouldn't you know it? ANOTHER nomination for Big Dave McLean! The West Coast Music Awards announced nominees earlier this week and Dave's latest CD "Got 'em from the bottom" is nominated for Blues Recording of the Year. Congrats to Dave, and to the other nominees. The Awards and Conference will be held in Brandon, Manitoba, September 17 through September 20th.

During the Awards Dave and I will be playing in Fredericton, NB, at the Harvest Blues & Jazz Festival, and doing a masterclass at at the Fredericton Long & McQuade location. Then we'll be moving on to Nova Scotia where we'll be playing the Bicentennial Theatre in Middle Musquodoboit (great venue!), after which we'll be playing the Dunk, at Breadalbane, Prince Edward Island, and giving another masterclass at the Charlottetown Long and McQuade store. So we won't really have time to sit around worrying about how to pack a trophy in the Tour truck. We hope to be in Brandon on the 25th of November, so I guess if Dave wins maybe they can hold it at the front desk until we get there.

Western Canada has a great music scene, and I am always struck by how the artists there tend to support and promote one and other. If you are not familiar with the western Canadian music scene, check out the nominees for these awards— I'm sure you'll discover some artists who will impress and inspire.

Big Dave McLean is a Stony Plain recording artist, and his much nominated recording "Got 'em from the Bottom" is available worldwide.

Tour Gears Up, Jackets, Logo, CD, Sponsors

Odds and ends are slow this year. With the close to 100 dates on the go I've really got my hands full here in the virtual, National Blues Tour office. Here's what's up—

Tour jackets are being manufactured— artwork finally delivered after some hardware/software issues were resolved. These are the nice, white stripe, east LA street gang style, satin jackets. I love these coats, and they sell out on every tour. Do you like this year's logo?

Licensing is complete for the new CD, and I had a session with Andy Krehm at Silverbirch Productions in Toronto— just reviewing the master and making sure it's good to go to the plant for manufacture. It's a really nice little mastering studio, and there are very few people with as much experience as Andy. I always come away from Silverbirch with a positive spin, and better informed than before my visit. Cover art should be done over the next week, and then it will just be a waiting game. The release will be held at Hugh's Room, Toronto, at the gala kick-off of the Tour. I expect that I will get copies out to all of our radio friends well in advance of this.

Ran into Jimmy Bowskill at Silverbirch where he was finishing up the artwork to his new CD. We compared notes about opening shows for Johnny Winter. Jimmy's not little anymore— and I like him better since he's stopped dressing like me! Seriously, he's working in more of a rock format now, but you can bet that his blues roots will be re-visited time and time again. Always nice to run into him and his Dad.

Posters are all-but ready to go to print. I've been holding out to get location confirmations from our corporate sponsors, but I fear I may need to do a second run of posters in a few weeks time if these don't come in right away. It's a long list of towns and cities this year, still fluid with late adds to Atlantic Canada and Quebec... but this will need to be announced and go to print very soon. I probably shouldn't have waited this long— still hoping to get 100 stops on the poster. I think we're up to about 91 entries at the moment.

For any geeky, arts business types out there— I've been revamping the Excel spreadsheets I've developed to track and project the Tour. Every year this gets a little better. I can't stress enough that independent touring artists need to keep track of all their data for each Tour or project. You gotta know where your money comes from, and where it goes. The spreads travel along on the laptop and are updated continuously to keep track of all aspects of the Tour.

And hey, all you runners who followed last year's blog— I'll be running across Canada again this year. I'm hoping that my favourite shoe company and my favourite sports retailer will get on board as Tour sponsors. I should add that I don't accept sponsorships from companies I don't actually use, respect, support, ordinarily promote and recommend! Mizuno makes the greatest runners I have ever had, so it would be great to see their logo along on the Tour.

I've been running High Park in west Toronto pretty much daily, as well as doing some longish runs up the Humber River. This morning I did 15- 20 km and actually saw a couple of deer down by the Humber. This is in the middle of a big, big, city— so that's why I mention it. I've also seen fox and probably coyote in High Park. Life is good, and these runs give me time to plan my days, and cut down a little stress.

Other news: I was invited to the Riverboat Coffeehouse dedication in Toronto's Yorkville a couple of weeks ago. Met my old partner Mose Scarlett, visited with David Wilcox, Dan Hill, Murray McLaughlan... Finally met Gordon Lightfoot, and had an uneventful chat with him. Mose and I have mostly seen one and other at funerals of late. We attended the memorial service for Tom Evans of the Original Sloth Band perhaps three weeks ago, and tomorrow, sadly, we'll be paying our last respects to our dear friend, Jackie Washington. But on a brighter note, here are some pics my pal David shot at the dedication—

In Action

Welcome back! So, here we are, getting ready for action. I was going to put the new tour logo up here but something messed up, and the jpeg looked very different than the eps. Anyhow, y'all need to wait until I get that sorted, and then I'll put it here.

We're not up to the target mark of 100 shows yet, but I'm on the case and hope to have the little spaces all filled in. It's definitely shaping up to be a pretty exciting tour. We're going to do a gala tour launch in Toronto at Hugh's Room. We'll have copies of Dave's most recent, Juno-nominated CD, "Got 'em from the bottom," and we'll be releasing a new, live McLean & MacLean CD called "Big Road Blues." This is the CBC recorded material that was so popular on "Canada Live," "Saturday Night Blues," and "Concert on Demand." Next we'll head out into eastern Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada. We'll be playing some great venues including the Harvest Blues and Jazz Festival in New Brunswick.

The West is mostly sold out, and we have some North dates this time that are going to be really neat. CBC North was going to record us doing some shows, but when their budget was slashed we decided to go anyway. I'm not going to let Jack White play more Canadian territories than the National Steel Tour! And, who knows, maybe we'll figure out a way to record anyway!

Big Dave to Junos in Vancouver

Called Big Dave this morning to wish him luck at the Juno's tomorrow night. His cab was waiting as we spoke, so hopefully he made his flight to Vancouver! I'll be following the Awards as closely as I can over the next couple of days. I sure wish the Saturday stuff was broadcast. It might help the artists get at least a few miles out of these Awards. Prime time for pop stars just kinda cements the status quo, doesn't it? Surely we could cycle through the less commercial categories annually and at least present a couple of them each year during prime time?

For the international readers: the Juno's are Canada's big music awards. Sort of like the Grammy's, only on a Canadian scale. They are held in a different Canadian city each year, with Vancouver being the 2009 host.

Myself— again spared the burden of nomination— I'll be busking Toronto's Queen St. district on Saturday and Sunday. Blues for people without TVs or internet? Actually, the weather is supposed to be warmer at last, so I'll be selling CDs, telling stories, singing songs... Keep your ears open if you are in Toronto over the weekend. I know all of you Vancouver music fans are going to have a great time. Meanwhile, my sincere best wishes to all the Nominees this weekend. Every one of them is a winner.

It's been a few weeks since I posted. The Tour is getting bigger! Well, not bigger than Century size, but we ARE about 70 percent booked now. That's a good thing, but I still need to bring in another thirty dates! The West is mostly booked, and we are playing just about everywhere EXCEPT Vancouver. So, what's with that? Make me an offer, please... Medicine Hat and Swift Current are both in danger of maintaining their status as "blues free zones." Actually that's probably not true, but it seems silly that we can take the blues to the arctic, but not to Medicine Hat. If you are in Medicine Hat and are a blues/roots fan, drop me a line. We need to talk. I've got a date for you. Yes, we will play in your cousin Fred's bowling alley...

Speaking of arctic and sub-arctic— we set aside a few days for Northern adventures this year and are busy negotiating details to make it work. CBC was (and hopefully still is) to be involved recording some of these shows, and I'm going to the Canada Council with my hat in hand for a travel subsidy. You know, it's pretty strange. We could go and play some European shows for less cost than going to Nunavut. And, of course, the western arctic ain't cheap either. But this leg does seem to be coming together. I think we can. I think we can...

I'm way behind on the Atlantic coast, but expect to see the dates fill in fast once I get on it. We've sketched out a loop in late November to Kenora and Thunder Bay. The Tour will almost certainly return to Ontario for about ten days in early December. Is that wild or what! A cool 100, back to back shows?

Finally, I signed a License Agreement with the CBC in order to be able to release a live CD of the last tour Dave and I played— the Big Road Blues Tour. This will be a limited edition, and will be available exclusively at our Century Blues Tour dates. It's a great recording, made for Canada Live and Saturday Night Blues, and it really captures the show at it's best.

I'll get the developing schedule up in the sidebar soon, so check back and see how we're doing.

Juno Nomination for Big Dave!

Juno Nominated Big Dave McLean

Last week's big news— Juno Nominations! Guess what? Big Dave McLean's new cd, "Got 'em from the bottom" has been nominated for "Blues Album of the Year." Way to go! This recognition means a lot to Dave. The Juno's are held yearly in Canada. It's an awards event which recognizes achievement in Canadian music, kind of a small scale Grammy Awards. It's a big deal in Canada... So, yes, we are thrilled and excited.

I guess the Nomination may have had some impact on our bookings... I've been busy enough that I have not had time to update the Blog until now. We're up to fifty shows at this point— half sold! I'm pretty sure we're going to make it to the magic number. So keep those emails coming, folks— I've still got fifty shows to fill!!

I'll get the developing route schedule up here in the morning, or at least soon, so you can read along. We now have shows booked in every province except Newfoundland (and I'm working on that). I'm hoping we can hit some of the Territories this Tour, but we are short on contacts. Why doesn't someone invite us to play some of those northern bases?