Montreal Continued...

Now for Saturday...

My beer gut was calling out for grease in the morning. Lindsay, Yael, Lenny and myself were all feeling rather groggy and conversation over breakfast wasn't all too exciting. We all pigged out on eggs, bacon and toast as the hotel staff all looked cranky for having to serve all of us folksters. I guess it would be a bit much for a fancy hotel like the Hyatt to have their hallways, elevators and rooms taken over by a bunch of party animals. We were no exception! That didn't seem to bother us though and we kept on eating until we were all stuffed. That would be our only meal in our bellies for a while...

Later that afternoon, we were preparing for our showcase, telling just about anyone who would listen about it and posting our bookmarks everywhere. We finally got a hotel room on the music floor and it was a really sweet spot, right by the elevators where everyone could hear us. I checked out a lot of great performers in SAC's Beaver Sweet Suite that evening. They had an incredible lineup, too many to name. I watched Arlene Bishop, Andy Stochansky and FRUiT. I could have stayed for the entire thing but we had lots to get ready ourselves! We ran into a really cool guy in the elevator named Dylan who we ended up going out for dinner with. Dylan and us girls had a lot of laughs as we ate our Asian noodles and talked about what it's like to live up in Canada's north. Dylan just happened to be involved with The Dawson City Music Festival, a festival I have heard lots about from the Constantines and Elliott Brood guys. It just goes to show that you never know who you're going to meet in the elevator!

Lindsay was a very smart girl later that evening and noticed that there was an hour break after Andy Stochansky's set in the SAC Suite. She went to the sound guy and asked him if we could play. He totally thought we were nuts at first and then started looking into it for us. Thanks to Lindsay, we were able to do a 30 minute set in that room and got to play for some very important people. It was so last minute that none of us were even warmed up. We literally ran to our hotel room to get Yael and her guitar. She was on the phone but hung up immediately and ran back to the Beaver Suite with us. People seemed to really enjoy our set. We got a few offers for interviews and most people were smiling.

After that, we were all so excited about our showcase-to-come. Yael called one of her funky Montreal friends to help us decorate our room. Marguerite showed up at 11:50pm, just in time to set everything up for our midnight start. She was amazing! She had brought all the perfect stuff. Our room transformed into this exotic, funky, super chill room with more style than you could ever imagine. We were so excited. Then the people stared to pour in and our room was packed for most of the night. We had some awesome people come and play and we met some really interesting folks. Most people who came to our party stayed for hours. It was a lot of fun. I got to play some guest flutin' with most of the people who played in our room. There was one blues artist named Mark ? (told you I was bad with remembering names!) who just knocked me off of my feet. We had a blast playing together! Lindsay and I were offered a tour in Spain from a music director from the region. We'll see if anything comes of that.

After our party closed down at 4am, I ended up jamming with a bunch of amazing musicians in the hallway. I have no idea who they were but let's just say I wish that I knew! We were playing lots of reggae, funky jazz, a little blues, folk and just about anything we felt like jamming out. I had some very special moments playing duets with Linsey, the sax/flute player from Galitcha. We were having so much fun all playing together that we only stopped when security came to shut us down. Then, it was off to another party where I played a huge solo with Justin Rutledge and other fine folks on the 10th floor. The room was packed with lots of Canadians as the sun was bringing on a new day outside.

At some point, I just crashed. Bed was calling out my name. By the time I got back to the room, I think it was 7am!!! Too bad it had to end as Saturday night was one of my most favourite nights of my life so far. You see, this whole tour including our time at the conference has taught me that I am doing the right thing, that I am meant to be a musician, that I do fit in and am considered to be worth listening to. Kind of like an Alchemist moment. It has encouraged me to persist with my dreams and has taught me that all the hard work I constantly put in is good preparation for putting me in the right place at the right time.

Someone once said to me that success happens when your hard work meets opportunity. I believe that and will continue to dedicate all of my energy so that I am ready for the time when those opportunities start coming my way...

Well, that's it for the tour. There's lots more but I fear that I may bore you if I continue with the rest. At least you know the important stuff. There's never a dull moment in my life so the stories will keep coming...

Love Rozalind

Belleville and Montreal...

With desserts in containers-to-go and smiles on our faces, we headed out of Hamilton first to Toronto to drop Jennifer off and then to Belleville, where Lindsay's Mom lives. Lindsay and Yael propped their eyes open long enough to get us safetly there. We were all so tired when we arrived at the house that it took just about everything to get our butts into bed. Lindsay's Mom was such a sweetie and had put aside towels, chocolates and a cute keychain for all of us which I thought was so thoughtful of her! I was all concerned going to bed because of my recent snoring habits. I don't usually snore but being all congested on the road has made me a bit of one. Since Lindsay and I were sharing a bed, I certainly didn't want to keep her up all night with my snoring. That's always been one of my biggest fears - to be a snoring person. No one likes to sleep with someone who snores, that's for sure. My Oma and Aunt Marion both snore but I don't want it to be me! Guess next time I have someone special in my life who is sleeping with me, I'll have to ask them if this is something that I regularly do...I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I don't.

So the next morning, Yael and I did our bookkeeping. I have learned that us girls are both very good at that although talking about money naturally brings some tension into the equation. We also had to figure out what we were going to do for our hotel room showcase at the Montreal Folk Alliance conference. Lindsay is wonderfully creative and came up with the most perfect bookmark to advertise the event. It was bright bluish green with a yellow flower...simply gorgeous! If I had a scanner right now, I'd show it to you but I don't so just imagine the beauty of it. Jennifer Claveau had suggested to us that we do an open stage concept which fitted well with the whole Nostalgica theme. So we had it all figured out and by 3pm, we were out the door getting our thousands of errands done...We went to a new Value Village which was an absolute blast! Imagine the three of us going nuts around the store finding funky and sexy clothes. It was so much fun to play dressup for a day and we all got some really cool stuff. I got an awesome brown hat which is making for an awesome hat collection. Hats are so useful on the road when you don't have the time to spend doing your hair.

By the time we had left Value Village, we were running quite late. It was worth it though as we had so much fun! We got to Montreal by 11pm, just in time to drop off our stuff and party it up. Friday night was a lot of fun! Lenny from Nostalgica had met up with us and we were in full force promoting our Saturday show at the main hotel bar. There were so many people everywhere and it totally felt like one huge family. I met some really cool people that night and heard some amazing shows. I even ran into some musician friends from my U of Toronto Music days! It's always good to see other folks I studied music with still plugging away in the industry as a lot of the folks I went to school with are now in totally different occupations. Sad how that happens. Guess music's a tough one and a lot of folks give up before they get to see the benefits of continuing to live their dreams.

One of my fave bands to watch perform that night was the Bills. They were a blast - so much energy and a truly fun show. I also got to check out and play at some really fun hotel jam sessions. Funny how I hardly knew the names of who I was playing with! It's a small world so I'm sure we'll meet again and I'll get to learn their names. There were people from all over the world there and I kept thinking about how fortunate I was to be there. Music conferences are the best because finally, us crazy folks get to hang out with folks of our own kind! It doesn't happen that often so when it does, you gotta savour every moment of it!

Friday ended up being a very late night, with me heading back to the room by 5am with too much beer in the belly. Lindsay, Yael and I shared a king sized bed that night as the hotel had messed up on our sleeping arrangements. We were keeping our fingers crossed that by Saturday they would have a hotel room on the music floor...

More to come...

Love Rozalind

The Staircase Experience in Hamilton

I'm finally catching up with my blog! Lots of time has passed and with every day that has passed, I have too many stories to share. Let's start with our show in Hamilton first...

So Hamilton was such a great time! We performed at the Staircase which is such a wonderful venue. Booking agent Rob Newberry and the staff at Staircase treated us like we were absolute royalty. It was quite something. It's all those little things that make the difference while you're on the road, like the beautiful and tasty hot meals we were served before the show, our own special locked green room (you'd think that was the norm but it's not!), dessert-to-go for our long van trip to Belleville and so much more. I was totally impressed by our Staircase experience and am very much looking forward to performing there again soon. We even had the show recorded by recording engineer Ian Gibbons of Campfire Ditties. He was awesome to work with and I can't wait to hear the recording. All the girls played really well, especially Jennifer Claveau who's tunes have been circling in my head ever since that magical evening. And don't get me started about the full moon that night! It was pure magic to watch the brightness of the moon shine through the window onto the stage while we were performing.

More stories to come soon...

Love Rozalind

On to Hamilton...Bye Toronto!

What a great day so far. The touring workshop is done and it was a blast. I learned so much. I now feel like I'm ready to start writing some Canada Arts Council grants for touring.

I saw some great shows last night. Went to the Rivoli for their Cabaret Night and it was so much fun! They had spoken word, film and music. I can't wait to move back to Toronto so I can be more part of the artistic vibe here. Toronto's got some really special stuff. Gentleman Reg and Picastro both performed awesome sets last night. I really like Gentleman Reg's songs...and Picastro is an old favourite. I remember meeting those folks a while back in Ottawa at a hole in the wall bar called Bumpers. Kinda cool to see them again and to still feel as connected to their tunes as I did then.

This morning, Lindsay, Yael and I went to teach a music career workshop at an alternative highschool called Cityschool. It was great - we got to play some tunes and talked lots about songwriting, cool performing and learning experiences as well as giving advice about a career in music. It was a really fun experience for us and I think a lot of the students got stuff out of it as well. If any of you folks are reading this, I wanted to say thanks for having us. Can't wait to do something like that again!

OK, I'm being told that I gotta get off of the computer. We're all in a rush to leave for Hamilton but I wanted to at least touch base and let you all know how it's going. We are soooo looking forward to our show tonight! I'll write about it when I get to a computer again...

See ya!

Love Rozalind

Too Early in the Morning!

I'm sitting at an internet cafe in the Annex. It's 8am in the morning and I'm trying to catch up on emails before I attend my last day of the touring workshop I've been taking in Toronto. The workshop was organized by the Canada Arts Council and it has been an absolutely amazing experience! I have been asking lots of questions which the facilitators have been so helpful in answering. I'm learning so much about the music industry these days. Everytime I attend one of these workshops, it emphasizes in my mind how much more I need to learn about the industry in order to truly succeed financially in this business. It's a crazy world out there and every little bit of knowledge helps.

So we had a really fun show at Holy Joe's last night. Thanks to everyone who made it out. It's funny how different the vibe is at each place we play. The Holy Joe's show was a totally different atmosphere than the Island's Rectory Cafe, that's for sure. Lots of couches, funky lights and dark walls. It was nice to see so many familiar faces at the show and Shawn Sage definately added a quirky element to the performance. I was pretty stressed out before the show mostly because I had yet to hear or see Shawn Sage perform before. He was supposed to send me a CD to practise to over a month ago but I never received it. Murphy's Law had it that I was to play with Shawn on the spot. That's ok when it's only for one song but more than that makes me feel a bit uneasy while performing with them. I think songwriters often don't realize how much pressure there is in accompanying them, mostly because their tunes are so easy for them to perform because they wrote them. Especially with this tour, I have had to learn so many new songs that it has been a real challenge to get them all into a comfortable place for me. When I perform, I like to be able to forget about the structure of the song and just have fun performing.
Next time around, I will make sure that noone goes on tour with me unless I have a copy of their recordings and at least one rehearsal.

At this point in the tour, I'm totally comfortable playing with Lindsay and Yael. We're having a lot of fun working on vocal harmonies and are even talking about a future tour together! It's been a blast and I really love working with those girls. They're truly special and beautiful people.

Well, I gotta go! I'm getting late for my workshop! I'll write again soon...

Love Rozalind

Toronto Island and CHFI!!!

Wow wow wow! How else do you describe the magical times that I have been having while on tour. There really aren't any words to describe it. I feel so special and truly fortunate to be performing with so many gifted musicians. And what a magical evening it was at The Rectory on Toronto Island! The place was full of warm and friendly faces...all familiar ones too which was so nice. I had a special guest, actually many special guests and there were many very touching moments. The girls: Lindsay, Yael and Jennifer sang their beautiful hearts out! They inspire me and fill me with so much happiness when I play their songs. Lindsay, you are a star. Yael, you are an angel, Jennifer, you are a tuly beautiful soul. I want to thank everyone who came out to our show tonight. Your support was so wonderful.

Yael and I had a fun trip back to the city, just in time to get to CHFI FM radio for our live performance. We were practising in the warm Ongiara ferry cabin as Ken smiled and quietly listened. Our song had to be two and a half minutes long an we had ten minutes to get it just right...do you know how tough that is? We did it though and it was a beautiful performance. I can't explain the pressure both of us felt just before we went on - it was so intense. What am I saying? It was super intense, knowing that so many people were tuned into the show. It was a special and beautiful moment.

Well, I am off to a workshop for the Canada Arts Council tomorrow at 9am. I'm still wired from all that just happened but must get to bed.

Mom, you rock. Thank you!

Love Rozalind

The Tour Begins!

Wow! What an awesome night I just had performing at Café Nostalgica with Yael, Lindsay and James. It's 11am on Saturday and us girls are on our way to Peterborough this afternoon. We officially started the "Love Songs We Can All Relate To..." tour with a bang as we played and sang our hearts out to a packed bar of friendly faces in Ottawa. Café Nostalgica is always such a great place to perform and our songwriters' circle with flute was a huge success. I just love it when I am able to help make a room full of people smile! Last night's show totally set a perfect vibe for the rest of the tour. It's gonna be a special one...

Well, on that note, I gotta get back to packing. Lots to do before I leave. That smile from my face last night is still there and I have a feeling it'll be there for a long time to come. Life is so special these days and I'm cherishing every bit of it!

Love Rozalind

This is gonna be fun!

I'm new to the whole blogging thing but my Toronto In Support of Living bandmates tell me that it's the way to go! I guess it's not much different than writing an entry for my journal page of my website so here it goes...

For blogging purposes, I have decided to share my stories and very personal thoughts about my life as a musician. Definately lots of high and low moments so if you're not into that sort of stuff, run quick! We're moody folks, that's for sure but our lives can be pretty exciting. There's never a dull moment in my life, that's for sure.

Tonight, I'm wide awake, fighting a huge nasty cold. Haven't had my normal voice since last Tuesday and I even had to cancel a CBC radio interview that I was really looking forward to yesterday. That really sucked as I have been sending press releases to CBC radio for so long now and my time had finally come to share my story! Oh well, that's what happens when you ignore your body and keep working 16 hour days with no stopping. It certainly taught me a good lesson. At least I will now start my "Love songs we can all relate to..." tour in good health.

On that note, it's time for bed. My pillow calls out my name...

Love Rozalind

Rozalind playing her new D bansuri made by Montreal flutemaker Francois Landry. It's made out of plastic/partical wood so that Rozalind can take it on tour and not worry about it cracking on the road...So far so good!