Got to know the Homeroutes crew a little as I camped out in their office working on the October Maple Blues. Their office is in the back of a very classy hair salon. I was tempted to get a wash and trim from them especially considering the pipes had burst at Mitch & Ava's where I was staying so no showers and very little water consumption otherwise.
Had a nice lunch in a Danish restaurant with the gang and folk songwriter Jay Aymar who was kicking off his Homeroutes tour from Winnipeg. He is a genuine road warrior and he had taken advantage of VIA Rail's programme which swaps a berth for some entertainment in the club car. Not an ideal audience but hell, it's a free ride.
Our first show was not that well attended but Allan brought along a harpist (Dianne?) who sat in on Dance Hall Girls. Real hard-core folkies at this one. I pulled out a Steve Goodman song, Chicken Cordon Blues, and everyone knew it. Turns out Steve was a favourite at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. Mitch talked bout how sometimes an artist becomes part of the "glue" for a festival and Steve was that for the Winnipeg Folk Festival. Michael Cooney was the glue at early Mariposa and I suppose Dave Brubeck was the glue at Downtown Jazz.
One guy even came up to compliment me about my version of "Chicken Cordon" but added "it's supposed to be a 'regular' fella" Apparently I was just singing "fella".