It's a Tour. Way over fifty dates now now. Nine provinces. Two coasts. One big ride on the Blues Highway. It'll be hot when we set out in September. The blacktop shimmering in the heat. Waves of baked air rolling up like a strange surf from the horizon. Fast roads without much traffic. School in, and the tourists changing like the leaves on the trees. Slowly, slowly. The changing of the colours, the changing of the guard. And then. Suddenly they'll be gone. The Tourists. The travellers. Like the hummingbirds, fleeing south at the hint of cool. Then these roads will belong to the Tour. The Lincoln sucking back the miles, the kilometres, the gasoline, as it was born to do. Me, and Albert Frost: we'll suck back big black coffees. Red wine, reefer. Fred McDowell and Big Joe Williams crackling in the back seat. We'll share this Blues Highway with the big trucks. "Breaker 1-9 for information, breaker 1-9."
Before I owned a car, or was old enough to drive one, I thumbed these places. Some of them. The TransCanada. Like a snake twisting and turning it's little stripes. It could swallow you up. There were places on the TransCanada where you could get stuck for days. Wawa, Ontario. I bet there's other people out there who remember that sorry stretch of road. I used to play harmonica for coffees. Now I bring the Blues to the mill towns, and pour the money into The Lincoln: a ton of chrome and glass that rides the old snake. There's old stories out here, too- and stories that haven't been told yet. The harvest of adventure. The dreams of a toad. Blue lights moving in the forest at night. Places where the land is burning, burning, burning outside the Legion Hall. Places. Places where somebody knows my name. Places I might- or might not- ever visit again. Places with a poster in the gas station window. A poster like this one.
The National Steel "CanAfrica" Blues Tour launches on Wednesday, September 5, 2018 at Hugh's Room Live, in Toronto, Canada. Reserve now!
Thursday, September 6- the Moonshine Cafe, Oakville, ON
Friday, September 7- Take Note! Music House, Barrie, ON
Saturday, September 8- Legion Hall, Morin Heights, Quebec. Tics at venue.
Sunday, September 9- Smoke Meat Pete's, Isle Perrot, Montreal, Quebec. Rush seats only.
As the Tour rolls out, this Blog page does more to tell the story, than to advance it... For ongoing, detailed listings I suggest you visit, Like and Follow my Facebook artist page:
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