It's A Tour! Riding the ol' Snake

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!

https://hughsroomlive.com/event/doc-maclean-albert-frost-aka-canafrica-blues-tim-bastmeyer/

Thursday, September 6- the Moonshine Cafe, Oakville, ON

http://www.themoonshinecafe.com

Friday, September 7- Take Note! Music House, Barrie, ON

http://www.takenotepromotion.com/house-concerts/

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:

https://www.facebook.com/docmaclean.deltablues 

Most Concert Dates now Sold

Counting down now now. Only a few more weeks before the National Steel "CanAfrica" Blues Tour launches at Toronto, Canada. Albert Frost and I will be rolling across nine of ten provinces, coast to coast and in between. At this point dates are over 90 percent sold- just a few spaces left here and there on the Canadian tour map. Can you help to fill one of these blanks?

Rolling out CanAfrica has been a learning experience. People and paperwork. Building bridges between two countries. There's always new stuff surfacing. Visas. Taxes. Airports. Gear. You see the best and the worst of cultural infrastructure. Trends that are helpful, and trends that are troubling. Things are changing on the ground- as they always do. For a lot of reasons, this has been the toughest tour to assemble of the last thirteen years. This tour doesn't run on grants and record company advances. It doesn't run on the silver spoons of festivals, either. Not that we wouldn't like that, and quickly adjust to such a life. But because it is what it is. It runs on guts and determination. Hope and dedication. No venue too large, too small, too grand, or too humble. We travel a thin strip of blacktop and gravel in all weather- and bring the Blues to Your Town.

I'm very excited about having Albert Frost partner on this tour. Firstly, because we always have a great time hanging out and playing music, but also because he is the first arrival of the many independent South African artists I've encouraged and invited to tour Canada. Those who get to hear him are going to love him! I can hardly wait to introduce him to the friends and places that make up the great, Canadian portion of the National Steel Tour. I haven't had as much fun since Colin Linden used to sit next to me. Meanwhile, Albert and I are honoured to have been invited by the government of South Africa to participate in the gala, Mandela celebration concert at Ottawa in September. See the updated schedule in the sidebar!