Not in Kansas Anymore?

Well Toto, apparently we aren’t in Kansas anymore. The grocery stores are just not the same are they boy? And well, speaking of wells we haven’t seen an oil well anywhere have we boy? Where do you suppose they get all that oil? They are driving all over the place in their cute little cars. They rented one to me that gets 50 miles on a gallon of their gasoline. Maybe it’s special fuel? Huh boy? What’s that you’re saying? A lot of the dogs look a lot like you? I can see that. Hey boy, how about that cigarette package? I haven’t seen one like that since we smuggled our CDs across the Canadian border and bought a big bottle of Dramboui in the duty free store on the way back. I guess when you get free health care they are more concerned if someone is poisoning you to death.

 Really though Toto, we do enjoy the grocery stores, the scenery, the people. It’s great to be someplace where everything is exciting. Here in Yorkshire there are some places, like right outside our window that look a little bit like Kansas if you imagine an oilwell, or a fracking station on the horizon.

On the other hand Toto, don’t behave in such a naïve fashion. They have done mining here in the UK for a very long time, and have in fact done fracking here as well. It isn’t Wyoming Toto, but it does speak to a certain commercial mentality that isn’t unique to Kansas. You know Toto, it isn’t too surprising that the tornado put us down here either. England is a very windy place and tornados, though not commonplace here, are far from unheard of.

 Cosmo’s Dream was in North Shields last Friday. We went for a very successful sing-a-round where we were accused of being quite too professional and asked to apologize for the same. The venue was Belden’s at the Exchange and was run by the family of Gerry Belden. Gerry turned out to be a real prince which makes a gig ever so much easier and fretless. We also had our good friend Val Montieth-Towler there to keep us company, always a real pleasure. Gerry took Val, Kristi and me to lunch for fish n chips. We sat in a parking lot on the Tyne River and watched the water, saw a very large ferry head off for Amsterdam and chatted.

Sing-A-Round

 Gerry is a musician and it turned out that his children are quite talented as well. He had lights, a PA and, as I recall, we had a fine time filling that room with sound. There were a few folks who had been at the afternoon sing-a-round who turned up to cheer us on. Kristi tells me we actually have some fans as a result of our adventure there. When we took our break Gerry and his daughter played what is called “a floor spot”. He invited others to do the same but had no takers. His daughter and his son both have lovely voices and family harmonies filled the room with North American songs that you might expect to hear from Neil Young (“After the Gold Rush”), and Leonard Cohen (“Alleleuia”) + more. When the evening was over Gerry assured us that he would be more than happy to book us back. The next day (Saturday) we had the day off from playing.

Gerry  Belden having a chat

We all drove to Yorkshire to check into an Air B and B. Those of you who know Kristi and I well have probably suffered through our little chat about what Air B&B really means to a marketplace, and the people who are participating throughout the world. I won’t put you through that here. I may actually be wrong about how I see this paradigm. That aside, the B&B turns out to be the single most deluxe accommodation we have ever had in the UK. We have two bedrooms with separate bathrooms, a large fully equipped kitchen, parking across the road, a large screen color TV with a DVD player. The kitchen has laundry facilities built-in as well. We would generally think this was more than we could afford, but we are sharing it with the other members of our party and it isn’t that much. It is in the pleasant Yorkshire countryside with stores just a walk away. Great. It is a very restful place to be.

Our B n B in Shepley, Yorkshire

We played at a place called “Joule’s Yard” in Market Harborough, Leicestershire on Sunday.

Kristi talkin' to the boss man

Here is the guy talking to Kristi, Gen, and Rebecca. He is apparently the owner of this establishment. We actually had a good time playing here as the PA was pretty good and nobody gave us any grief about being too loud, or not playing “Free Bird”. We even got a few tips and we didn't even play their favorite songs. They just plain and simply liked us.

Dave - front house manager

 This is Dave and he put up with my initial grumpiness, even taking time to cultivate a relaxed feel in our working relationship. He is the “front of house” manager. I think that’s the title he gave himself. I went away thinking he’s a pretty nice guy who made a sincere effort to make us feel at home. He said they would have us back if we come back to the UK.  There was a jazz guitarist who came on after us. His name is Steve Fearon. He’s a very nice guy and an excellent guitarist.

Joules Yard is something of a complex. There is an indoor restaurant and then the place where we played which has a window at the back to order drinks. What is really amazing is the back room where they have wood stoves for sale.

 Here’s a picture of the stage where we played at Joules. Like I say, they had a very reasonable PA system and people were polite on the Sunday afternoon when we played. We even sold a few CDs. The drive to Market Harborough was easy and reasonably uneventful. We were all exhausted by the time we got back to the B&B in Shepley. More about that later. Keep the home fires burning.