The Potato Pickers and Orillia

One of the few folkie friends of mine (that are around my age) is a fellow by the name of Isaak Bonk. He spends his days busking at subway stations around Toronto. The two of us met up the other night at the TRANZAC for a beer and some bluegrass. We ended up stumbling into a tavern with an appropriate name for a couple of down-and-outers such as ourselves: Pauper’s Pub. There happened to be an open mic going on upstairs, so we hung around for that and played a few tunes. Next thing you know the owner came over and booked us for a gig! Well we quickly came up with a title for our duo: The Potato Pickers. We’ll be playing at Paupers on October 2nd at 8PM. The night could go south, but hell it’ll definitely go east!

As I write this I am in Orillia, ON. I just finished playing a house concert at Jack and Helen’s place; two folks that I met on PEI this summer. They have been very generous to me, driving me out to Orillia, feeding me, and showing me around the town. I really enjoyed playing the concert tonight. I met some great people and reconnected with others. I’ll tell you, as lonely as I feel in the folk world, I have met a lot of truly wonderful, friendly people in this business.

Orillia is the birthplace of Gordon Lightfoot and the Mariposa Folk Festival. Tomorrow Jack is taking me around on a kind of unofficial Lightfoot tour. As a longtime fan of Lightfoots’ music, I am excited to see some of the monuments honouring the legend himself.