A Day in the Life of The Stringbuster

Tonight I was supposed to Open for Alfie Smith at the Free Times but the way I heard it, Alfie ended up opening for a big show in Hamilton (turns out it was April Wine).  Who’s to say which would be a better payday. There was not a big crowd at Free Times. Alfie’s last minute sub was a wonderful singer called Laura Aidanblaise. We swapped CD’s (always a delicate bit of backstage etiquette – when you ask someone to swap you put them on the spot...) We were done at ten so I headed over to Jerome Godboo’s regular Thursday at the Delta Chelsea. Jerome had invited me to come and sit in. I should know these things – being the (barely)managing editor of MapleBlues – but Fathead was filling in for Jerome that night and I figured I’d just brought my guitar for nothing. But then, talking to the boys on the break, Al said he had called me up to the stage but I guess I was in the washroom. Anyway I did make it up in the next set and did a couple of tunes. Wow, sitting in with Fathead...we’re in the big time now! It’s great that the Delta (the biggest hotel in the city) has supported the blues with this regular Thursday night of blues for a year now (they call it the “Delta Blues” of course). I would hope that blues lovers from out of town would make the Delta their hotel of choice in Toronto. Hey, I think I just wrote a commercial...haven’t done that since my ad-agency days in the late 60s.