If we come, they'd better build it . . .
We’re off to Hoquiam, Washington, leaving tomorrow morning. (I didn’t know where it was either.)
We leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow, drive 12 hours, and stay with Ralph and Kelly and their kids.
We will eat. We will play music. We will have peace.
Funny how things kept bouncing around, not knowing where they were going to land; even our plans with Ralph and Kelly changed in the past 18 hours since we first talked about it.
Time to start getting things ready. Hope we don’t forget anything!
What’s the worst thing you’ve ever forgotten behind on a trip?
We quickly reached 99 downloads of Camel’s Lash/Not Just Believe. Except, not really.
Turns out 49 of them went to the same IP address in Mauritius. (If I’m hoping to travel the world, I should find out where that is. Ah; there we go, just off the coast of Madagascar, which is just off the coast of Africa, but then, you knew that already. Population: 1.2 million. I guess now most of them have my song.)
I reset the counter to the 50 real downloads, and we’ll see where it goes. Somewhat deflating to realise that half my new fans are all personalities in the same head, apparently.
And now I’m concerned that maybe the tool only goes to two digits.
In February of 2009 I wrote and recorded a pair of songs about my desperate need for travel. We thought it would be nice to share them will all our supporters, so here, absolutely free, is the MP3 of Camels Lash/Not Just Believe
Inspired by a photo I saw of a caravan of camels, taken from the air. Miles and miles of red sand, and those camels trudging across the waste. Something inspiring and grand about it.
Other than cymbal, mandolin, vocal, and egg shakers, this is all my cheap Casio keyboard. Since I’ve never been able to make looping work, I actually played all repetitive percussion tracks (eight of them) all the way through. Assisted on the egg shakers by Fiona who was 4 at the time.
Camel’s Lash is the instrumental introduction to . . .
for Robyn Davidson (and myself)
A long time ago in I heard someone on TV talking about how restrained their life had been, how they’d read about far off places but never been anywhere. She summed it up by saying, “I want to know, not just believe, the world is round.” It struck me, even then, that I’ve always felt that way.
I could make these liner notes into a book about how badly I suffer from wanderlust.
They never seem to tire as they make their dusty way
Endlessly they circle ’round and ’round
They never take me with ’em on a journey far away
To see the things that Marco Polo found
I want to know the world is round
Not just believe
I read about those far off lands and wonder what it’s like
To wander through a market in Peru
To taste the precious spices of Madagascar‘s coast
And ride a camel into Timbuktu
Let me see the sails of a flying clipper ship
Grow on the horizon as it nears
Show me what the jungle’s like in darkest Africa
And the beauty of the garden in Algiers
I want to know the world is round
Not just believe
With Slocum and with Dana, two years before the mast
Help Amundsen find Scott in frozen lands
Then warmer climes with Ibn Battuta, out of old Tangier
Learn wisdom’s seven pillars in the sands
I want to tramp with Halliburton that romantic road
For seven years I’ll ponder in Tibet
Fly with Saint-Exupéry into the desert sands
And make a mark no one will e’er forget
I want to know the world is round
Not just believe
© 2009-2010 Joel D Canfield
So, if I’m going to do some house concerts I thought I’d brush up on some covers; haven’t played many since I started focusing on my own music a few years ago.
You might never have guessed that Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” is so easy on the mandolin that it’s almost like it was written for it.
Bearing in mind that nothing’s final until noon on June 28th, here’s the tentative itinerary should this Canadian shakedown cruise take place:
(If you know why you’re here you can jump right to the survey; otherwise, read on!)
As Best Beloved and I plan a life as nomads, we’re looking for ways to create mutual benefit; the proverbial ‘win/win’, for ourselves and the other lives we touch, or could touch.
The folks who are putting us up on our first trip are getting business coaching, cooking (I’m very good) and music (all modesty aside, or shoved under the mattress even) I’m a great songwriter. We get something precious to us (a bed at night and a home cooked meal) and they get something they value.
It’s always nice to have a little extra in the travel fund, but traditional sponsorship won’t cut it here. We don’t want to wear jackets with a swoosh everywhere we go, or be seen publicly drinking from a silver beverage can or any of that.
We want to find sponsors to whom we can offer something they value, something they can get best from a traveling family of remarkable people, and who’ll consider the material contribution small by comparison.
Win/win.
I’ve prepared the World’s Shortest Survey to gather ideas. A few ideas have already been floated, but ideas are a great big ocean. Float as many as you want.
Could I possibly end up performing in St. Helens, Oregon, Everett, Washington, and Vancouver? (Edit: St. Helens is out, this trip.)
House concerts beat coffee shops hands down. Coffee shops are really a place to go practice, knowing that absolutely no one is listening.
But show up to someone’s living room, where they’ve invited all their friends, and everyone brings something to drink and a snack, and you’re the guest host of a very cool party. When the hat is passed, literally or metaphorically, even a few drachmas from each guest turns into more than I’ve earned in every coffee shop I’ve ever played in.
There’s more than you really want to know about my house concerts at my tunehenge site.