Descending into Hope


<- Similkameen sage

I was dreading the end of last week. Wanda had been asked to do a gig in Kaslo. The dough wasn't particularly good, but expenses would be covered. The main impediment was the bloody long drive to get there, 9 hours each way at the least. On the other hand, the organizers of the Kaslo Jazz Festival would be in attendance and this was a fine opportunity to get our foot in the door.

There were a number of early signs that we shouldn't take the gig. I won't bore anyone with the details, but there were a few miscommunications between band members, and with just over a week to go, we discovered that our bassist and pianist both couldn't make the trip.

We knew from the jump that Chris, our pianist, couldn't make the gig, so I got guitarist Rich Rabnett, now living in Nelson, to fill in. Rich and I have done a number of free improv things in the past, but nothing straight up, so I was looking forward to this gig. I had to ask him to line us up a decent acoustic bassist who could read down our arrangements, of which there is exactly one in that neck of the woods. So now we had to hire two subs. Paying them what they wanted in order to make the drive to Kaslo cut into our share, but what the hell.

Then last Tuesday, while in the depths of that cold bug that was going around, I realized that Wanda doesn't drive, and without our bassist Mark coming along, I would have to do all of the driving in my car, not Mark's van as originally expected. Plus I got a note from my daughter's school that Friday would be a Pro-D day, no classes. That meant that I had to line up some care for her for the day. For various reasons, none of the usual group of classmates' parents could help me out, so I was going to have to pay for daycare for the day.

Then my wife suggested I arrange for a rental car (we are a one-car family) in order for her to deal with all of the necessary family logistics while I was away. As ever, Clara has supported me unconditionally in taking this road trip, so if she asked me to line up a car, I'd do that gladly. Now the trip was going to cost me out of pocket. I had to decide on whether or not to bail, in which case Wanda would have to cancel the gig at the last minute, or just take my lumps and go.

I've always maintained that I'm not in music solely for the money, so I decided that I would look at this as yet another investment. I also decided that I would take a good attitude into the trip, despite the cost, the 20 hours driving, and the energy required to make it happen. I always have a choice in these matters. I could decided to be miserable, in which case the whole trip would be guaranteed to be miserable, or I could make the most of it.

Every year at Banff, during his music business lecture, Hugh Fraser has talked about how he handled similar situations, often on a larger scale. He talked about when he self-produced VEJI gigs that he knew were going to lose money, or cancelling an entire recording project mid-stream. In the end, he always found that if you are coming from a place of musical and personal integrity, these events would have a payoff greater than the momentary loss. Sometimes that payoff would come from unexpected quarters, but it would always be there in the fullness of time.

With this in mind, I decided to soldier on, despite the perceived roadblocks. I also knew this gig was important to Wanda.

So we set out for the Kootenays at 6:00am Friday morning. Driving through Langley, it was all we could do not to show up at Mark's door and say "We're here, let's hit the road!" He would have felt so guilty from this prank that he probably would have come along. We didn't do it only because we wanted to make good time, but we regretted not pulling this one on him.

The weather was perfect and the roads were virtually empty. I've done the drive to Nelson many times in the past, always on long weekends in the summer when there was considerably more congestion. I discovered a few secrets to a successful road trip which I am willing to share here. #1 - Drive a new car with a decent stereo. My old Volvo was getting to the point where I was uncertain if I could reach the out of town gigs without a major breakdown - not good for the nerves. And it didn't have a cd player.

<- Copper Eagle, Greenwood

#2 - Know where the real coffee and the decent food is. I am a typical Vancouver coffee snob and I need to have multiple fixes of serious caffeine, especially when I'm doing all of the driving. Those Bunn carafes of diner coffee don't cut it. The Copper Eagle in Greenwood is recommended. The Omega in Grand Forks is not.

#3 - Know when and where to gas up. Of all places, Princeton had the cheapest gas of the whole trip. Many years ago, I literally had to roll down the mountain between Grand Forks and Castlegar, all 21 kilometers of it. We hit Grand Forks too late at night to find an open station and I ran out gas right at the summit. We coasted into the Castlegar Chevron at 5:00 am.

#4 - Make sure you drive through the Similkameeen and Okanagan areas during business hours, not for the fruit stands (which are great), but for the winery tastings. We discovered this time that a well-timed glass of wine (avoid the plonk!) certainly made the trip go smoother. And they have nicer bathrooms than at the West Hedley Mall.

#5 - It almost goes without saying - pick your tunes. We had quite a range of music going on in the car, from Ella to Hard Rubber Orchestra. But early on in the trip, we started to have a series of times when the randomly selected music perfectly matched the setting in which we were driving.

<- Abandoned farmhouse west of Keremeos

The first time it happened was driving through Keremeos on to Osoyoos. I threw on Bill Frisell's sublime Quartet album, with Eyvind Kang, Curtis Fowlkes, and Ron Miles - one of my desert island picks. I now know it also works beautifully with desert valleys. The match was unreal, and when it happened, I knew that our trip was going to be much better than expected.

<- Spotted Lake, just east of Osoyoos

Past Osoyoos, as we crested the intriguingly named Anarchist Mountan, it was time for Marvin Gaye's Greatest Hits, and we hummed along the almost deserted highway. Well, the car hummed, we were gettin' down.

The capper was on the return trip, descending into Hope along with Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now. Vince Mendoza's orchestrations are just so goddamn magnificent, combined with Joni's voice, Wayne Shorter... I could have veered off the cliff and died a happy man. As it was, we just had to drive in silence for about a half hour after that. Even after that length of time, I had to be careful what I put on, choosing Ellington's impeccable Such Sweet Thunder.

Listening to these cds at volume on the open road is so much different then having them play while I'm navigating through traffic in the city. I could really listen to so many of the details that make all of these albums so great, even though I've heards them many times already. I have little time when I can just sit and listen at home, so this was a real treat and almost enough incentive to take another road trip next weekend.

We arrived in Kaslo well ahead of schedule. Wanda's friends Jim and Barbara met us and took care of us the entire time we were there. They had two spare bedrooms in their lovely house and fed us at every opportunity possible. We got to the Langham Cultural Centre in Kaslo ahead of schedule and set up before dinner. That was a good thing as our hosts kept us overly long at dinner and we only hooked up with Rich and bassist Rob Johnson just before we had to go on. With no time to go over Wanda's arrangements, there were a few rough spots, but I doubt anyone in the audience noticed.

The deal was that we were to play a brief set, then take a 40-minute break, during which there would be a presentation about the SS Moyie, the restored paddlewheeler docked in Kaslo. Short story long, this guy droned on for an hour and half in the most excruciating detail possible. That meant we had to wait around to start our set almost at the time we were scheduled to finish. Rich and Rob were very gracious about it. They were having fun, so were willing to wait around. My major concern was that the Kaslo jazz festival people missed the first set. They arrived when we were scheduled to start the second set. Wanda chatted them up over complimentary drinks. I would have been truly pissed off had the left due to this boor not being able to keep to a schedule, but fortunately they stuck around and liked what they heard.

<- Langham Cultural Centre, Kaslo

I killed the time by exploring the building. It struck me as being somewhat similar to the Western Front in feel, and also as it was home to a nice little theatre space, a gallery and numerous artists' studios. The Langham building is about 100 years old and has the dubious distinction of being the place in Kaslo where the Japanese-Canadians were interned during the 1940s. There was a museum documenting this sad chapter of Canadian history. I read through the exhibits, feeding my middle-aged white guy's guilt, dreading that I may find a family name that I recognized.

Thus invigorated, we played a decent second set, though we lost most of our audience due to the delay the speaker caused. He had the theatre doors closed so nobody could escape during his somnolent talk, talk, talk. When everyone had a chance to get to the bar, they went and many never returned.

Regardless, Wanda and I immediately felt that the trip was a success. We had made a good Nelson connection with Rich and Rob. We shared the bounty of the Kootenay harvest. We had left what we hoped was a favourable impression on the Kaslo jazz folks. We'd also made a good connection with the people at the Langham and we now know the costs involved in self-producing a gig there in future. Combined with a gig in Nelson and another in the Okanagan, we feel we could now set up a modestly profitable mini-tour.

Most of all, we felt the appreciation of the all of the people involved with setting up this gig, particularly our hosts Jim and Barbara. Yeah, it doesn't pay the rent, but it's always a welcome change from indifferent or sometimes worse treatment that seems to be the norm in many of the places we have played in Vancouver.

We hit the road Saturday morning at 8:00 am. I chose a longer route through the wierd little ghost town of Sandon, then on to New Denver (great cafe, but passed on the Nikkei interment museum - enough guilt already, thanks). The drive through the Slocan valley was beautiful. Wanda and I had enough time to discuss plans for the band, fix the US administration and deal with the Middle East mess.

Our only bad meal of the trip was at the aforementioned Omega in Grand Forks, unless you're a fan of overpriced soup and brown caesar salad. FYI the cheapness of borscht is now pegged at $6.95 for a small cup. Next stop was the Nk'Mp winery where we picked up a nice bottle of merlot - they have a great operation there. Then on to Keremeos to load up at the fruit stands. Finally we rolled on to Vancouver to the sounds of Joni and Duke, getting home at 8:15.

<- Keremeos valley

<- Obligatory fruit stand visit

I was pretty beat the next morning, gathering only enough energy for a family stroll along the dykes at Steveston. It was another beautiful day, as if I needed reminding what a beautiful corner of the world we have the good fortune to inhabit.

Next up, ion Zoo returns to the Western Front on Tuesday evening.