I just finished 5 back to back, 30 minute interviews. They were the last ones of this whole week of press and promo. My brain is mush. This is our last blog together. (these are hard to write when you’re not on the road talking about busses and band mates and concerts and rest stop food)

I have the next 3 days off and I’m going to New York City . And then it’s home to pack and leave for Australia . Pretty stoked about playing my first shows over there as City and Colour. Alexisonfire is on the main stage every night and every afternoon, I’m going to be playing an acoustic set on one of the side stages. I don’t really get nervous, anymore, before I play shows (maybe a little when I play on live TV), but this upcoming string of shows is definitely leaving an impression. It’s crazy how far away Australia is and it becomes even more apparent when you sit on the plane and loose a day before you land, just how far away you are going to play a show. It’s pretty cool to get to do this.

Weds. Feb 13

Today is MTV day. Rather than bore you with stories about the actual sound check and performance details – lets talk about the green room. First of all. it wasn’t green – they never are. misleading title for a room. I had a lot of down time in the green room this afternoon. Which was awesome. I ordered pizza. Ate too much pizza and napped it off.. Brilliant start to the afternoon. When there’s nothing to do at MTV you end up watching MTV on the tv in the room. I watched one of my new, favorite MTV shows today: Rob and Big. Have you watched this show? If you haven’t, you should. You’ll like it. They aired the episode where Rob and Big decide they are gonna break the world record for breaking the most world records in a day. Are you still following? One of the records: to eat the most powdered donuts in 3 minutes. The key: you can’t lick your lips in between eating each powdered donuts. Seriously? They got 5 and hold the new record. Keep me posted if you can beat it.

Ok. time to nap again – too much pizza…no good before you go on stage. Ever.

Today [Tues 12th Feb] is release day. It’s here – and it’s like a weight has been lifted. I mean I still have lots to do, like pack for Australia, but it’s here. Now, waiting to hear what all of you think is the new hardest thing. I hope you like it.

So…lately, every time something big happens it is greeted with a snow storm – and sure enough, it is snowing. A lot. It’s too cold to go anywhere right now. The snow in the alley is spinning off the ground like mini tornado twisters. That’s Canada though.

To keep warm I’m hanging out in the green room at Much Music, a video station in Toronto that plays across Canada . In a little bit I’m taping a full hour episode of a show called MOD that’ll air live. I’m going to sing 4 songs and help co host the show, play some videos and do an interview. I’m a little scared. (nervous is maybe a better word). Sound check went well, but you can never tell when you check for tv shows, what it will really sound like to people watching at home. Fingers crossed this goes over well.

I get to sing 4 songs. (I’ll post the youtube links on my MySpace page when I find them online). Right off the top of the show I am doing “Waiting…” and “Body in a Box” which is gonna be interesting. With less than 30 seconds in between songs, I have to change the tuning of my guitar and put my harmonica around my neck. It worked when we practiced. I’m gonna say that is a good sign for when I do it live on national television.

I’ll keep you posted.

dallas

So…what a start to the week. Rock Sound asked me to write a blog all week about all the stuff that goes on when you release a CD. Let’s hope I have something interesting to say each day. Lyrics are sometimes the hardest part of song writing for me, nevermind blogs. I don’t even send long emails to people. one word replies usually work. So bear with me. I’m sure they’ll get better each day.

If today’s any indication of what the rest of the week is gonna be like, it’s gonna be crazy busy! It’s about midnight here and I’m just heading home. Tonight, Dine Alone threw a party – more of an event really – to celebrate the CD coming out. It was held at a place called the Music Gallery. It’s church by day and a venue by night. it was the perfect place to get to play songs off of Bring Me Your Love for the first time. I recorded the album in a studio that used to be a church so to get to play the songs infront of people in the same sort of setting felt good. Half the audience was made up of contest winners and sharing it with them in that type of setting was probably the best part.

I’m really excited about this week – this record coming out. I’ve had these songs in my head for a year and to put them out on CD and play them live is huge.

And it begins:

 Landed a bit earlier as our original flight had been bumped (airport strike at JFK) but all worked out aces as Sting, of all people happened to be one of the fellow passangers on the flight, and as a complete surprise to us ended up being a huge fan of the Gay For Johnny Depp experience.  He spoke to a few folks and got us upgraded to upper calss seats and after a few solid whiskeys somewhere over the Atlantic he demanded that the “gays” stay the first night at his flat in north london, and by “flat” I mean small palace.

So after getting through the hassle that is customs we all drunkenly piled into Sting’s personal limo and hot stepped it back to his, sipping a fine vintage Charles Krug champagne all the while.

Beautiful night all in all.  I must say that there is something fairly unique about blowing a few lines with “captain platinum” while listening to endless jokes about how terrible Copeland’s Animal Instincts project was all before launching into a series of brutal yoga postions in his private ashram.  My man can stretch.

Up in the morning his staff made us a lovely breakfast spread but old golden top was nowhere to be found.  Apparently he had some meetings in the city center, so all that was left was a note, written in caligraphy that said:

“you boys are the greatest.

Be seeing you in London after the tour.

Can’t wait to get my hands on Chelsea’s suppple hips for some standing warrior in he ashram.   Yours.  Gordon”

Off to load…

Ahhhh, the mythical Glasgow. Last year about this time we were playing Glasgow, but only managed to see one block or two of the city. After load-in, I napped at the ABC until showtime, we played, grabbed some food across the street and then immediately drove across the country to catch a ferry to Amsterdam.

So I was excited to visit again this year because I thought we might see a bit more of it. King Tut’s turned out to be very pleasant, and they fed us some amazing food from their menu. I never thought I’d have amazing chili in the UK, but it certainly happened. As for exploring the city, it was way too cold for that. So we kept to the venue until afterwards. At this point on the tour, the late night food hunt is becoming routine. I was hesitant though, because last year I had ordered a burger somewhere and it turned out to be a deep fried & salted patty of beef wrapped in paper instead of the usual sandwich situation. Luckily, that wasn’t the case this time … and although we didn’t drive to Amsterdam we did stay an hour out of the city so we will have to wait to see the rest of Glasgow another time.

Tomorrow, it’s Manchester!

Pictures: my chicken sandwhich, backstage pass, take a number for late night dining

After 7 weeks in the USA, 3 weeks in mainland Europe and a week of UK shows under our belts, things are getting a bit surreal. Being away for that amount of time would be one thing, but to have nearly every aspect of your environment changing daily is another feeling entirely. Walking into clubs for the first time is often a bombardment of unfamiliar sights, sounds and even smells.

So it was a small relief to experience the familiarity of The Cockpit in Leeds, UK. This was one of my favorites from last year’s UK tour, thanks to the enthusiastic crowd and absolutely insane club night afterwards. It also didn’t hurt that our hotel was within stumbling distance.

This time was pretty similar. The crowd was wonderful, and after a quick load out and some backstage socializing with 27 and some friends, many of us headed down to the rooms of the nightclub with two distinctly different blazingly loud genres of music. I lost track of time talking to everyone I could, bumping into people in the darkness, getting drinks spilled on me (and probably spilling my own), and even dancing. Yup. I did it. Don’t tell anyone.

Pretty soon the club was closed and the only other one left from our group was Ade, our fantastic UK tour assistant. We mingled with the locals who seemed unanimous in telling us there was nothing worthwhile to do at 2 am or whenever it was. We managed to find some food, take a cab to some stranger’s house for tea, then got back to the hotel at some time after 4 am.

Wow. 

In the morning, it’s off to Glasgow….