Category Archives: Uncategorized

New Traynor Travel Amp packs a punch!

We’re exploring our new toy, perfect for bands on the run.  Never knowing the exact acoustic situation where we’ll be playing, it’s sure nice to have this wedge in the back of the truck.  We’re using it for Andrea’s stick bass at the moment (Yamaha SLB 200) in addition to her Galleon Krueger cabinet.  The take-anywhere, play-anything Traynor TVM10 Travelmate successfully mixes versatility with portability. Perfect for small gigs, rehearsals or street corner concerts,  it allows quick connection to a microphone, instrument and CD / MP3 player.  It’s a complete and ultra-compact sound solution, so we can even practise in silence (the Headphone jack disconnects the woofer and tweeter when you plug in).  The best feature though is the rechargeable battery.

It’s the ultimate irony:  pairing the largest orchestral string instrument with a wee amp.  Love it!

 

The Lost Slipper of Monte Lake

Willy Blizzard’s third summer of touring is coming to an end, replete with memories of meeting amazing people and partaking astonishing sights and scenes.  Our trusty Class C motorhome, the 31 year old truck-with-a-carburator, was our home on wheels.  It functions as our cargo bay, our kitchen, sleeping quarters, mobile office and green room.  With generous helpings of thick gooey motor oil, the rumbling beast safely delivered us to gigs in Alberta and B.C. from the Rockies to the Okanagan, Prince George, Vancouver Island, as well as metro-Vancouver.

One of our favourite adventures took place at our gig in Penticton’s beautiful Dream Cafe.   That celebrated music venue is in the old downtown core, near a stream that empties into Okanagan Lake.  Unbelievably, in an adjacent park there is a massive osprey nest, complete with chicks.  What a privilege to witness the mother’s hunting prowess rewarded with a victorious delivery of fish for her nestlings.

An odd spot was the time our bass player, Andrea, decided to wash her hair in Monte Lake outside Kamloops.  In the water close to shore, she realized too late that she was in the company of a dead fish, as well as a piece of rusting iron from industry gone by.  In her anguish, she then lost one of her water shoes.  There it was, floating on the surface, increasingly out of reach.  Rather than risk an accident, Andrea just gave up on the lost shoe.

But the slipper was not gone forever.  It was rescued by another swimmer of the canine variety.  The old dog obeyed its master’s call to “Fetch” and sure enough, Rover caught up to the lost slipper and delivered it as an offering at Andrea’s naked foot.

Not only that, her hair turned out great!

 

Alive and Well in Revelstoke

Willy Blizzard is in the middle of another road trip, privileged to play our music in the most amazing places.  At the moment, we’re stopped in the beautiful BC mountain community of Revelstoke (http://www.cityofrevelstoke.com).  We’re wondering why we feel so great in this town.

It’s something beyond the obvious natural beauty of the surroundings, and the history of the town site itself.  We think it might have something to do with the 100 year old houses with very funky tin roofs.  Or the number of fixie bikes we see around town, making our velo-mouths water.  Enjoying the hot tub in the city swimming pool pondering the view of Mt. Begbie, we figured out what makes this town work.

It’s good governance.  It’s preserving the green belt, the wetland, the public access to the river front.  It’s their amazing summer concert series in Grizzly Plaza, providing a focus for the summer tourist traffic.  We have played live music in this series for the past few years, and every time we come back, we feel more alive.

Kudos to the citizenry of this wonderful town.

Guitar Hero Doc Watson R.I.P.

Doc Watson has been a profound part of our musical development.  Anyone who has even a passing knowledge of Americana roots music in its purest form needs to know about this man.  He died at age 89 on May 29.

As former U.S. President Bill Clinton said, in awarding the National Medal of Arts “There may not be a serious, committed baby boomer alive who didn’t at some point in his or her youth try to spend a few minutes at least trying to learn to pick a guitar like Doc Watson.”

I was privileged to meet this gracious man when he was 55 years old, at time in his life when we was already highly sought after and highly regarded as a guitar player.  I made a point of seeing him and Norman Blake in the 70‘s at Spring Fling in Schaefferstown, Penn. It’s hard to describe the feeling and the influence of watching those two players.  It was a combination of awe, and a sense of history even at that time.  For them, it was probably just another show.  But for me, wow.  A powerful memory.

The true Guitar Hero