2007-02-01 // Take the Train Eh?

ON the train from Toronto to Halifax – mid Bluebird North tour.
Why would one take the form of transportation that takes 28 hours instead of two hours on a plane? I guess for the same reason I’d do it on a bicycle if it wasn’t the middle of winter, I hadn’t abandoned Julia at home, and I wasn’t carrying a small caboose full of equipment and instruments. Barney Bentall and I each decided we didn’t want to fly home from the Ottawa Bluebird North show only to turn around 2 days later and fly to Halifax, so after Julia and I attended the Songwriters Hall of Fame Awards in Toronto, I sent her home to return to school and I stayed at Blair Packham and Arlene Bishop’s beautiful little home just North of the Danforth. This morning Barney and I boarded the train and so far, it’s fantastic. It’s a gorgeous sunny day and the Lake is spectacular.. There’s really nothing like it – this sensation of looking out over the Canadian landscape. In the cities and towns it’s often through the backyards and back lots and in the long stretches between it’s an untouched wild land of frozen rivers and lakes and birch trees. I’m in heaven.

All is underscored like a movie with great music – a Christmas present from Julia – an i-pod she thoughtfully loaded with all my favourite music – and some she thought SHOULD be my favourite music.. Here we’ve raised a whole generation of kids whose whole lives are lead with music running concurrently with their visuals. And now I get it – it does enhance certain experiences.

It was excruciatingly difficult to resist bringing Julia on this part of the trip. I’m so hard wired to share every experience I can with her. And she was out with me long enough to feel that familair pleasure of abandonment of responsibility of one’s life at home to which traveling musicians have come to be addicted. When I recognized the syndrome I thought better of enabling the inevitable addiction and fought the urge to keep her with me. So she boarded her first solo flight home and I got to return to a taste of life on the road alone. Something I’ve given up by having her in the band. She’s SO much fun to travel with, but there’s something particularly rich about being out in the world on your own. I LOVE IT. I only have to stave off the ache I’ve felt for the past 16 years since she was born – whenever she’s not with me.

Later…