Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Count Down to the Road


Counting down. This Tour will be mobile in just less than a month. Time flies when you are having fun. It moves right quick when you are working hard, too! Booking is now pretty much done for the upcoming National Steel "Vagabond" Blues Tour. The closing end into Ontario is still a little ratty, but that's typical for my backyard territory. Once a few more early December spaces are filled, it will be edging on 100 shows. Ten provinces and about the same number of states. Maybe 40 thousand km. Of driving. That's a whole lotta miles. Tommy Johnson mostly worked local. If I could stand on my guitar and play it at the same time, maybe I would, too.

It's been a bugger to book this year as the majority of my Canadian emails no longer reach their destinations. Shaw and Telus, who together dominate western Canada deliver virtually nothing. I haven't found the work around yet, unless that's Facebook. I still don't like it, but it largely enabled me to book the west. As it is, fewer people have been visiting the Blog in recent years– preferring Facebook updates. I'll be doing these as well on both my personal and Artist pages, links to be found in the blog Sidebar. Meanwhile, if you are a Shaw customer, you might want to reconsider your relationship with a company that makes content decisions on your behalf. You probably won't get email from me.

On the home front, somebody ran into the front of my car this morning. And took off. I'm guessing that the overall damage is probably more than I've made in a whole summer of street singing in Toronto. Just like opening a vein in my arm and squirting blood down the sink. So, there sure won't be any new shoes again this year. Glasses, harmonicas, and PA gear still not replaced after the wreck nearly two years ago. Maybe that'll be all the bad luck I get for a while. I sure do need to fill all the dates now. I'll buy a lottery ticket every week or so and see what happens. Meanwhile, I hope lots of you buy tickets to my shows! Then perhaps I'll be back to this same point again by next year. The point I was at before the guy ran his truck into my car. Out in the morning to begin the restoration process...

Tour posters are in the works. I've held out to get some dates firmed in. By the time you read this, you can probably download them from the Links section of the blog Sidebar. First snail mail posters will go out this week. The schedule will also be found in the Sidebar. On August 5th the Tour will roll out of Toronto, across the top of the Great Lakes, a couple of prairie dates, and then a concert at the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival. That's a big Festival! Check it out. I'll probably play to more people in a single day than in a whole year of touring. Next I hit the Canadian west coast for a couple of weeks. Labour Day I'm jamming through the Rockies to pick up Alberta and Saskatchewan shows until mid- September. Then I head south of the border. Libby Rae Watson will be on board for the American shows– we had a great time playing "in the round" last year on the Maritime portion of the Got Lucky Tour, so we are quite looking forward to doing it again.



Highlights of our deep southern dates include appearances at the Highway 61 Blues Festival in Greenville, MS, and the Sam Chatmon Festival in Hollandale, MS. Canadian dates quickly resume- a month of shows in the Maritimes, a week in Newfoundland, and then back into Ontario for late November, early December finishing shows.

2 comments:

  1. Hey Doc . cant wait to see ya. Hell of a tour lined up. So that's how its done. SITTING ON TOP OF THE WORLD . Is one of my favorite songs. Delta blues man is on his way to Thunder Bay .

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  2. Yes this is Big Bad Bobby Blues and the Doc Maclean show is on for Aug 8th in Thunder Bay , Ontario. Delta blues right here in the Bay.

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