The Last Minute Gig

On Tuesday, November 15th, 2005 I received a phone call from Steve Bowskill. Steve is the father of the multi-talented Jimmy Bowskill. If you haven’t heard of Jim, all you need to know is that he is a fantastic blues guitarist/songwriter/singer who also plays a multitude of other instruments very proficiently (including harp, bass, upright, organ and banjo). It should also be mentioned that Jim is 15 years old, but that is a non-issue. He is just a great musician.

Anyhow, Steve was inquiring about my availability for the upcoming weekend to play bass on 3 dates with Jim. I told him that it would a scramble but I felt confident I could learn Jim’s songs in time for the weekend. I quickly consulted with my Big Daddy G bandmate Tortoise Blue as Tortoise had already done some gigs with Jim and I wanted to get an idea of what was in store. In fact, it was Tortoise who recommended me for the gigs, so he obviously felt I could handle it.

Well, as it turned out, the drummer on the gigs was a man named Al Cross, who played on some of my favorite Canadian albums, so that got me excited. What’s more, the gigs were in British Columbia, which afforded me a chance to visit with family and see a beautiful part of the world. How could I not want to do it? Did I mention that I was excited to play with Jim as well?

Anyway, I spent some time waiting for the logistics to be ironed out, but in the end, I got the gigs. I quickly set about learning the material and frantically packing for the trip. I knew that this would be fun, in spite of the fact that I had a few hours to learn all the songs.

Day 1-Victoria-Central Bar & Grill
Our flights left Toronto at 7:35am. After a sleepless night of worrying about my lack of preparation time, I dragged myself to the airport where I met Jim and Steve. Tortoise showed up and we left for Vancouver. Al had commitments that forced him to take a later flight directly to Victoria.

The flight was a great chance for me to get to know Jim and Steve. I was thoroughly enjoying their company so much that the flight actually seemed short. Upon arriving in Vancouver, Steve immediately took on the road manager tasks and picked up the rental van. First task was to drop off some promo material to a TV station in Vancouver who were preparing for an interview with Jim on Sunday.

I found out that Jim and I are very much alike in that we love looking at guitars, which is what made us late for the ferry to Victoria. After pushing the schedule to the limit by window shopping in music stores in Vancouver, we got on the ferry. Upon getting settled onboard, Jim quickly set about playing one of his guitars for most of the trip.

The club in Victoria was well appointed and staffed with very friendly folks who even accommodated some band members hefty diet restrictions. One fan was kind enough to approach Jim for an autograph and gave him a CD. Once we settled into some backline issues, Steve picked up Al at Victoria airport. The gig seemed to approach quickly and the house packed even quicker. Even with a few of my rookie mistakes, the gig went well and was quite thrilling.

Folks were dancing and receptive. Jim didn't disappoint, and Al was an absolute pleasure to play with. I can always tell when I'm going to feel comfortable with a drummer that's new to me within a few bars of music, and Al felt incredibly easy to play with.

By the end of the night, the stress of performing my first date well, along with the lack of sleep the night before had caught up with me. We walked a few blocks into what seemed like a questionable area of Victoria to retire in the Strathcorna Hotel. Making it there was a game of "avoid the sidewalk vomit" which, thankfully, I won. After Tortoise donned his sleeping glasses, earplugs, headphones, wave machine and found the most appropriate pillow in the room to use, we were down for the first night.

Day 2-Duncan-Duncan Garage Showroom
When I awoke on day 2, I decided on walking through Victoria and seeing the sights. The time change forced me to wake up with way less sleep under my belt than I wanted. This was going to be a grind.

After breakfast, I met up with Tortoise and we toured some more together. The city is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. It is also overrun with homeless people who managed to persuade me out of over twenty dollars during my walk.

Later that day we made our way to the venue which was one hour north of Victoria. On our way there, Toroise talked about touring the area some 15 years before and meeting up with a friend who had just moved there from his native Ottawa. His friend, John, had just moved to Duncan and organized a last minute gig in the town at a local establishment. Tortoise said it was one of the best gigs he's ever done and wondered if John still lived in Duncan.

You can imagine Tortoise's surprise when we arrived at the venue and found Ottawa native and friend of Tortoise, Longevity John, was not only still in Duncan but running the Duncan Garage Showroom, the place we were playing.

What managed to supersede the shock of John running the venue was the sheer beauty of the venue itself. Located upstairs from a quaint, but large, cafe, was a miniature theatre, complete with graduated seating. Surrounding the seats and modest stage was bare wood rafters, hardwood flooring, one brick wall with gentle lighting and tapestry, and a stage that had a home-like feeling thanks, in large part, to the rugs adorning it.

The gear provided was a bit of a stretch. Al had to contend with a snare drum that had a huge hole in the bottom skin and only one cymbal that resembled a trash can lid being dropped when hit. Toroise had an organ that didn't emit an organ-like tone. My bass amp, which Longevity John and I rescued from a trailer behind the club, was Peavy from the 70s that kicked out a paltry 100 watts, 300 watts less than I was used to.

However, the kindness of the staff and the beauty of the venue made it easy to deal with the gear issues. The soundman was kind enough to give me a line out of the board to make a mini-disc recording of the show, and even managed to figure out how to stop and start the recording and mark the beginning of each song for me. Not only that, but the end result sounded remarkably good.

John gave us all nose flutes, and instrument that he sells there. The idea is to press it against your nose and blow into it with your nostrils and manipulate the notes coming from it with your mouth movements. Tortoise and I tried in vain to make something musical happen with them, but failed. Jim, in what was the first of several things that amazed me about him, began to figure the darn thing out within minutes and was quite proficient at it after a half hour.

A short time later, John handed Jim a miniature five string banjo to try, which Jim quickly set about putting on a banjo clinic with. Turns out that he is incredibly proficient on banjo as well. So much so, in fact, that the banjo became his instrument of choice for one song in the show that night. Incredible.

All the issues we had with backline gear quickly faded when we played. The atmosphere, coupled with the packed house of attentive people, turned this into one of the most fun gigs of my career. John told me the concept behind the venue was a simple one: make a place for people to enjoy music, and a place where musicians were appreciated as much as the audience. By placing the seats, all the seats, facing the stage, people were forced to listen and watch the performance. What's more, he said, there was no liquor license. He felt alcohol forced people into a different state that was not conducive to enjoying music. The concept was a good one, and worked very well indeed.

Coffee, tea and snacks were available at the back of the room and the atmosphere was a cross between a theatre performance and seeing a band in someone's living room. What a great place to play. When it was over, Jim left with the banjo, complete with an autographed dedication written inside it by Longevity John. The banjo hardly left Jim's hands through the rest of the trip.

Once back at the hotel, Toroise and I tried in vain to sleep, but our Toronto schedules woke us at 4am, two hours after we went to bed. Once more, the grind was setting in. We still had one more day in Vancouver and an all night flight home to contend with.

Day 3-Vancouver-The Yale
We met in the lobby for 9am and left for the ferry ride to Vancouver. This would be our final day and it was action-packed. Once landing in Vancouver, we drove to the downtown core and began preparing for our 4pm gig at The Yale. We were to play two one-hour sets and rush to the airport to catch our 9pm flight. We made it to the Yale at 2pm and set up. My aunt and uncle showed up to visit. Roger and I were more like brothers than uncle/nephew growing up and began our musical careers by playing in bands together. He now resides in Surrey and plays with his wife Mary in a duo called Take Two.

Unfortunately, my time with them was not as focused as I wanted. I had left my charts for the gig on Vancouver Island, so my time with Roger and Mary was spent focusing on rewriting makeshift charts for the gig. Then I had to leave to get a sub at a shop down the street. On my way back, I spotted Jim being interviewed by a TV crew on the street. I stood behind the cameraman and watched some of the interview unfold. When they finished, I pretended not to know Jim and said "Hey kid, I hear you're good". The woman interviewing him said "He's awesome. He's playing across the street at 4.

You should come."

"I'll may do that", I said, still pretending to not know Jim. Thankfully, Jim played along.

A short time later, the woman interviewing Jim came into the club with her cameraman in tow and spotted me sitting at a table with my aunt and uncle, eating my sub.

"You came!" she said, seemingly pleased that she talked me into it.
When we took the stage before the packed house that afternoon, I looked directly at her to find that she got the joke. Probably a cruel thing to do to her, but she saw the humor, thankfully.

The show was among the most high energy shows I've done. One thing about playing with Jimmy is that he is packed with strength and energy and the best thing to do is to keep up. I suddenly felt about 15 years old as well. The crowd was with him right from the first note.

After a short break we did a second set and rushed out of the Yale and to the waiting van. At the airport, Jim wondered around, new banjo in hand, entertaining the waiting travelers. Soon it was time to board the plane and fly to our connector flight in Calgary.

I managed to sleep in Calgary airport for about an hour, but the red-eye flight home was impossible to sleep on. I was being serenaded by a chorus of snoring folks, including Jim on one side of me and Steve on the other. There's nothing more frustrating than turning to see every passenger on the plane sleeping except YOU!

We arrived in Toronto at 6:35am and I left immediately for work. What a weekend.