Just a quick note to say what a lovely time I had at my very first folk festival this week, Home County Folk Festival here in London, Ontario.

Memorable moments include playing a "Next Generation" workshop with fellow kids-of-folkies Catherine MacLellan and Nathan Rogers. After I led up with my dad's song, Dance Hall Girls, they did a tune each by their eminent fathers: Catherine played Gene's "Snowbird" (which I've never heard sound so pretty; sorry, Anne Murray) and Nathan did one of Stan's great songs, the title of which alas escapes me. We then did some of our own tunes, and if I do say so myself, the kids are doin' it for themselves just fine. I felt humbled to share a stage with those two.

Also did a couple of workshops with my pal Alex, who, although her new work with her band is quite amazing in its ambitious innovation, I think is just as great all by herself with her little nylon-string guitar. She just keeps writing these interesting, catchy, smart little songs, and her voice is like frayed velvet. Hard to keep from envying! It was great to play with her again.

Then my showcase on Sunday went really well, I felt. The rain held off, blessedly, and the ever-wonderful Jonathan Davis did his magical one-snare-and-brushes job by my side as I played about eight songs. Won a few new fans over, and mostly just had a nice time. 

So I'm grateful to the good people of HCFF for inviting me this year, and hope this will be the first of many festivals for me. It's a beautiful way to experience music. My thanks, too, to those of you who listened and came to say hi. I hope I'll be seeing you again soon...

Love,

Kaya

Coming back after some shows on the road usually involves some degree of letdown, usually prompted by exhaustion more than anything else. So I'm not too surprised that, arriving back in hot, humid London, Ontario, I'm feeling somewhat down. This trip was particularly tough, though; things did not go as planned...in fact, they seemed to go awry at almost every opportunity.

The first and perhaps most difficult snafu for me was a very poor turnout at my Montreal show. Now, I want to make it clear that I'm not writing this to whine or make my Montreal friends feel bad; on the contrary, when one is one's own booker/publicist/everything else, one feels pretty much totally responsible when things don't work out. So, even though the show was fun in its own way, I felt bad that I'd brought my guitarist all this way to play for about 6 people; I felt bad that we made such a paltry amount of money (particularly since I am about to take a coffeeshop job, or whatever I can get, due to total broke-ness); and I felt sad that this was probably going to be my last Montreal show for a while, since I'm heading out to the west coast by the end of the summer, and have no travel money before then. So, a big, heartfelt thank you to those who came out, and to the people at Centre St Ambroise for taking such nice care of us that evening. But I can't help but feel sad that that'll be it for a while.

Then Huntsville had to be cancelled, because we had no money for the bus. So Blair and I headed off to Toronto, which at least was very pleasant this weekend, rather than hot and awful. Then the hopes I'd had for my band to join me there unraveled, as various elements conspired to keep them in London. Finally, due to some personal circumstances, my guitarist had to rush home, and I was on my own for the show. This was disappointing, but fine: I'm used to doing solo shows, and in the end it was probably for the best, because the turnout, while better than Montreal's, was still pretty meagre, and it wouldn't exactly have been a lucrative night, if profits had been split several ways.

I did have a nice time in Toronto, but I spent the weekend away from my husband and dog for what ended up being a rather frazzled, costly enterprise. Again, I reiterate my gratitude to those who showed up and supported, and to those who put us up and showed us generosity. And I realize that this is just the way the game is, a lot of the time. Besides, who is holding a gun to my head, making me do it? During the many hours I spent on a Greyhound, in a station, or hauling my bags and guitar around hot city streets over the past few days, I've had Gillian Welch's song "Everything is Free" in my head... "Someone hit the big score / they figured it out / that we're gonna do it anyway / even if it doesn't pay"...

I love doing this, I need to do this, but if anybody every tells you that it's fun and easy all the time, they are lying. Sometimes the reason why I persist gets a little fuzzy in my mind.

Oh well.

Love,

K.

Well, I hate to tell my Muskoka friends this, but the Huntsville show is cancelled. Due to a poor turnout in Montreal, we didn't have enough cash to make it up there (this is the reality of the small-time musician's life: have no illusions, kids!). But there will be a next time, don't worry.

Meanwhile, I'm in Toronto--which I must say is looking very fine right now, all summery and comely--getting set for the show tomorrow (Sunday) night at the Smiling Buddha. Shawn Clarke, auteur of the fabulous new blogozine Birds Too Tired to Fly (http://birdstootiredtofly.blogspot.com/), will be on the bill too, and a few sticks of Lazy Dynamite may well be joining me. So come on out! I can't wait to see you; it's been too long!

Love,

Kaya

I just got back from doing a very fun interview with the charming Alan Neal of CBC Radio One's Bandwidth. I'll be featured on the show this Saturday at 5 PM EST. It plays on CBC Radio throughout Ontario except Toronto (sorry, Hogtown kids). But you can also listen live online: just check out the show's homepage:

http://www.cbc.ca/bandwidth/

The theme of the show is Father's Day, so I talk about my very talented Dad and his music, and then two covers of his songs that I just recorded (thanks to my favourite photographer-cum-recording engineer, Joshua Hakin) will be played. I'm pretty excited about how it all turned out, so please do tune in if you can.

Love,

Kaya