There’s something about old school country music to give the atmosphere of “being on the road”. That and Brylcreem. Both were subtly represented as our stylin’ Acadian Lines bus driver navigated us through the gray and drowsy Island early morning. It was an appropriate start to an approximately 30-hour trip that will deposit me in France tomorrow afternoon.
This trip will be centered on Meteo Mulhouse, a longstanding festival of exploratory music in Mulhouse, near Basel Switzerland. I’m flying blind on this one, not really having any connection to the place, other than them accepting my application to one of their “Stages”, with French bassist Joelle Leandre. Nova Scotia Communities Culture and Heritage sponsored my trip through a professional development grant. It’s all part of the master plan to get to Europe each year to play music, develop more contacts there so that when I am there, I can get some concerts, and to learn more French!
It will be interesting. The Stages in only in French, so the immersion will be in full force, the concerts will be free, so I’ll get to hear some music, and I’ll get to work with Joelle Leandre. I have met her once during a Skype conversation about coming to Halifax to play for suddenlyLISTEN. Form that brief encounter I can tell you she is force of nature - There is a certain intensity at play there for sure! These are the kind of people I like, so I look forward to having my playing challenged and my ideas about music sounds like, expanded!
I’ll keep you posted on things as they develop! Watch this space.
Now I’ve got to go download some Loretta Lynn or something. A little dab’ll do ya!
Aug 20, 2011 at 14:25