Dear all,
I write to you from a very sunny Prince Edward Island out in Canada. It’s been a marvellous couple of days. The journey was pleasingly hassle-free, largely. There was a little bit of a sweat on making my connection at Halifax Airport as the plane was a little late, the turnaround time wasn’t great, the queue for security was mammoth and they wanted to question my motives for coming! Anyway I convinced them I was just here to play the banjo (maybe that was the problem?…) and made the hilarious 24-seater flight to Charlottetown in a plane that it seemed doubtful would remain level in the sky but make it I did.
I then headed out for food with lovely Canadian people who have made this trip possible and was greeted with the most outrageously large portion of chips I have ever encountered which were jolly nice. I also tried a clemato, a quite bizarre drink of vodka, tomato juice, clam broth and spices. It was a nice sensation but pretty heavy after half a glass!
Anyway next up after a sleep was the process of writing songs with the fabulous Meaghan Blanchard. It worked pretty good – we both had songs in the making but that had got stuck and were driving us crazy. So we brought those to each other and ended up with two finished songs – the sign of a good songwriting partnership I feel!
What was also great was Thomas Webb of a seriously phenomenal band called Gordie MacKeeman and his Rhythm Boys (seriously you must see them, often) was around and we had a great night jamming, chatting and drinking some strangely cheap Bruichladdich whisky which I found…I say found I mean I did pay for it I’m not saying I stole it or anything, it was just surprisingly cheap.
The gigs start on Friday and basically don’t stop til I leave so I’m all set for some great gigs. The people here are really super-friendly and the island is beautiful and enchanting. I’ll have to come back and take my parents who I know are rather desperate to see this place! Anyway I have to say a big thank you to EFDSS and Music PEI who have made this possible and especially Neil Pearson from the former who is mainly responsible for my trips to India and Canada this year.
I’ll blog more before I’m out!
Very best wishes,
Danjo