Too Much Blah, Not Enough Blog.

Been shooting videos and cats... OK, well not the latter. Though sometimes....
Trust everyone had an enjoyable, non-denominational specific, alloted time.
Let's start up where I left off.
I arrived in Edmonton after an exhausting over night trip from Vancouver Island. I wanted to give a better update when I arrived but I was just too blah and not enough blog.
So I'm in a rec. hockey league. I play on the "Yellow Pencils". We're winless in 13 games. We play on Sundays but I've missed the last 6 weeks due to being away on the road. Now we are breaking for the holidays so it will be 9 weeks without playing a game.
So when we started to play shinny a couple weeks ago, I was mighty happy.
The beginning of the month, I was sent out to Montreal to shoot the video for, "Give Me Your Love".
Winter travel always has a certain "Je ne sais SUCK" to it.
In this particular endeavour, I was to fly out on Friday, shoot over the weekend and fly home Monday morning. Now I must say, it did actually happen that way, but the in between part was not expected.
We got DUMPED on. Described as the worst storm in 60 years, the whole Eastern part of Canada and the Eastern Seaboard in the U.S. was slammed hard. We're talking Foot upon Foot of snow in a matter of hours.
Naturally, the video was scheduled to be shot outside.
Needless to say, it was cold. Like, " I grew up in the Yukon and this is freezing!" kind of cold.
The outdoor scenes were naturally where I was playing guitar, a physical act that requires the player is NOT wearing gloves. My hands swelled up and turned a colour somewhere between Maple Leaf Red and Fleur de Lis Blue.
But the crew was great and we got through it with minimal amputations.
The video also required scenes where I drank. The first shot was where I sauntered up to the bar, ordered a shot, slammed it and left. After the first 5 shots in 2 minutes, my saunter turned into more of a stagger and we soon substituted whiskey with watered down cola. But it was too late. I was quite drunk for the whole shoot. The other shots involved slamming beers and we all know that there is no good substitute for beer...
Look for the video in early in January.
We'll have some new concert dates to announce soon too.
I'd like to congratulate my dear friend Jonny and his wife Elly on the birth of their baby girl, Molly.

Home

Back home now after a very successful tour. We played a handful of dates in B.C. and after a 16 hour trip, we made it home ths afternoon after we drove home last night after our final date of the tour in Duncan.
Thanks to everyone who made it out to the shows!
For those of you in Kelowna, Sun FM is playing the single: "Give Me Your Love". Please click on the link to request it:
http://www.kelowna.thesun.net/shows/requests

Drunk drivers and other idiots

So, as per my last entry, touring in Canada often requires long drives. In the case of our current gig, it was a two day drive. Last night we were about 45 Km. outside of Canmore when we nearly rear ended some jack-ass who was stopped dead, straddling the two lanes, passed out with his head on the steering wheel.
We managed to miss him and pulled over to the side of the road and Dave and Nathan went to investigate while I called 911. Sure enough this guy was completely obliterated, drunk.
Meanwhile a semi, nearly slammed into the back of this guy, missing him by inches.
They managed to get him to pull over and some mysterious person who claimed to be the guy's sister showed up. The cops assured me they were coming so we left him to his destiny.
Today we followed some other idiot who swerved back and forth with a utility trailer in tow. Suddenly, smoke started pouring out of this guys trailer tires and he proceeded to blow out two tires. The shocking part came when, despite my attempts to get his attention by honking and flashing my lights, he still continued to drive, ON RIMS, for at least 20 more Km. finally we came across a place where we could pass the guy and flagged him over. He gave us a knowing nod as though, "I know, I know".
What a Jack-ass.
We're resting at the hotel getting ready for our two sets tonight at The Minstrel Cafe. Sound check went well and I suspect it will be a good gig.

Winter touring in Canada

Ah, the joys of touring in Canada, in winter.
Most countries, touring involves at most, a two hour drive between shows. So one can rise whenever they are so inlined, get in a vehicle (which doesn't necessarily need to be road worthy due to the shortness of the trip) arrive at their venue, soundcheck and still have time for a meal before they take to the stage.
This is NOT the case in Canada. With the exception of Southern Ontario, most of Canada's major towns of 50,000 or more are separated by at least 6 hours. Now, when you factor in the fact that you are 5-6 people traveling in a van, with various needs for bathroom breaks or junk food or simply the fact that the mysterious van "odour" is just too much, a 6 hour drive can easily stretch to become 8 hours. We, in the James Murdoch Band, lovingly refer to this wasted time as "Clown Time".
Now, in order to make your 4pm soundcheck, you need to leave at 8 am. Now assuming that your vehicle didn't break down, you woke up on time and you went the right way, 8 hours later and $200 in gas later, you arrive at your destination.
Now you get to wait for 2 hours before the sound guy arrives because "the bands never arrive on time". After an hour long soundcheck you are free to check in to the one hotel room, to be shared by the 5 of you. But don't take more than 40 min. because you need to get back to the club for your gig. Now you play your set, get off the stage and hopefully there are fans there to socialize with. You don't want to snub anyone and go back to the shared accommodations too early as you might offend or bore them and they might not show up to the gig the next time you play there.
So, you'll probably get to bed around 2am, with a few too many drinks in your belly only to wake up 5 hours later, hungover, off to do it all again. Only this time, it's Thunder Bay and its a 12 hour drive... And there's a snow storm....Awesome.

My dog's paws

Eva, my Yellow Lab is 96 pounds. Her paws are enormous. Freakish. Definitely not in proportion to her body. This is something to be expected from a young puppy, but she is almost two now. Whenever I return from the road, she sits at my feet and stares at me for days on end.
I returned last night from a quick stint down to Lethbridge, where I was performing at the local Chapters. I was invited to stop by CBC in Calgary for an interview with Katherine Duncan for the program "Key of A". The interview will air across Alberta on Saturday, Jan. 5th at 5pm.
I've been in the studio for the past two weeks working on a couple different projects; finishing up Dave Aide's new record which is essentially ready to mix now and secondly, starting the much anticipated "Songs From the Ave" record. This project involves 12 artists from the Alberta Ave/Norwood, neighbourhoods. The project asks the artists to write and record a song about the Ave. Writers include: Chris Wynters, Captain Tractor, Joe Bird, Paul Bellows, Corb Lund and of course, yours truly, James Murdoch.
O.K. that's all for now.

New Blog

Hi Kids!
Here is my new blog.
I'll be posting my thoughts for the world to now see.
I don't have many thoughts at the moment. But I will....