Can You Hear Me Now?

Friday morning we got up earlier than we would have liked to, because the FREE Continental Breakfast included in the cost of the hotel was from 7:00 to 10:00 a.m. and I don’t think wandering out to the lobby in flannels is acceptable. We showered and dressed and I got a head start on my coffee from the little pot in the room, and prepared to stuff ourselves (well, I did, because I thought I knew what a Continental Breakfast consisted of) with a variety of muffins, danishes, fruit, etc. When we got to the breakfast area at about 9:45 the only thing we saw was a coffee pot and apple/orange juice dispenser, and a counter with crumbs and little peanut butter and jam packets. I went to the front desk to advise them there was no breakfast left, and she shockingly said “no croissants??” and scurried off. She came back and re-filled the croissant tray. THE CROISSANT TRAY. That was the extent of our Continental Breakfast: croissants. No choices, no fruit. Welcome to Econo-Lodge!!

So we ate a croissant and juice before heading out for our big day at the downtown Eaton Centre. I knew I wanted to go “somewhere” on St. Catherines, and I checked in advance to see if there was a major mall there that would allow me to borrow a wheelchair for the day. No problem, and we could leave the mall with it to wander around if we wanted to (but we never did, it was cold out and Eaton Centre is big enough!) So I left my walker at the customer service desk and traded it in for a wheelchair and Emma pushed me all over that place. I spent a fair bit of money that day, lots of shower gels on sale and body butters to be had. I bought a cute square glass thingy that has a sun sort of floating inside, and you put it on a base that lights up and changes colours, and it is very cool. We went into Old Navy where they always have grrrrreat sales (but I rarely get to one in Calgary) and I bought a few pairs of flannel pajama bottoms for $3.97 and Emma bought THREE hoodies that were about $6 each. Woo hoo!

Emma thought it was strange that I wanted to take pictures of the phone booths, but I thought they were cool.

The mall

Emma took this cool one

Me in my new pink sweater

We went to the food court to have lunch, and I came very close to hitting Edo Japan because that’s just what I do, but I decided I should try something different, some vendor we don’t have in Calgary. There was a Thai place, which I thought to be very cool, and they had a curry dish, and I love me some curry, and really, how often do I get curry?? So I ate the hot curry chicken dish which fulfilled my curry consumption needs, for a couple weeks anyway.

We went back to customer service to return the chair and get my walker back. Emma noticed they had this card advertising these free Montreal travel bags (a nice big black bag, perfect for carry on luggage) if you could prove you are from another province and that you spent at least $100 at Eaton Centre. Hell, yeah! So I waded through my purse and bags to find all of my receipts, showed ID, filled out a detailed form, etc. etc. etc. and after all that was handed a tiny plastic pouch with travel size shampoo and stuff like you get in hotels. I asked “what about the big Montreal bag?” “Oh, those are out of stock,” he tells me. All that for a pouch of useless crap. Anyway…

We needed to be at the Hyatt Regency Hotel by about 5:30, and the initial plan was to go back to our hotel after shopping, drop off our bags and my big walker so I just had my cane with me at the Hyatt. But it was already after 3:00 and we decided to just head straight to the Hyatt; why spend the extra cab fare? Plus, there was a big Folk Alliance conference happening there, so music would be happening all day even if Lindy didn’t go on until 5:55.

The Folk Alliance Conference. I had no clue this was going on when I booked my flight, and that it was connected to the LTA showcase from the night before. This is a huge annual convention that has been held in cities such as San Diego and Nashville the past couple years. The fact it was going on in Montreal the weekend I just happened to be there was too amazing for words. I didn’t know what I was in for!! I had found out a few weeks before that Arlene Bishop was performing in suites 1102/1104 of the Hyatt on Saturday afternoon as part of some Folk conference, but I did not know exactly what the conference was and how big it was. Then Lindy emailed me a couple days before I left to tell me exactly where he was performing while in Montreal, and it was the same suite as Arlene, and Melissa McClelland would be there too, as Paquin Entertainment (Lindy and Melissa’s agent) was showcasing. Then finding out last night that Live Tour Artists were represented and it was all connected, all a part of this HUGE conference, it started to click that this was a major event. I still didn’t realize how major until I got there though.

We walked into the Hyatt Regency and took the elevators up to the 11th floor, where the “Sweet Beaver Suite”, rooms 1102/1104, was located. When we got off the elevator we were faced with walls of flyers and posters advertising all the different musical events happening in the hotel. It was so cool! I was like a kid in a candy store. We started walking up the hall, and realized every room was being used to showcase artists and had a different theme. One was even the Alberta Dot Cow room, featuring musicians from Alberta. The Beaver Suite was at the end of the hall. Behind a curtain in front of the window was the perfect place to park my walker and all our shopping bags and coats, so we did that. Outside the door to the suite was a poster outlining the schedule:

Recognize any names?? Huh? Do ya? If you ever read this blog, you sure do!!!

My mouth dropped open when I saw Andy Stochansky’s name and I swear tears started forming when I realized he would be on at 7:40 the next day, and we were getting picked up at 4:00. Waaaaaaaah!! Oh well. Life goes on, right? I’d handle it, I’m an adult. Hmph.

As we were looking at the list and I was oohing and ahhing over the names, an older man with long white hair was standing nearby agreeing with me as we talked about the greatness of many of them. I mentioned Lindy and he said “ah yes, he recently toured with one of my clients, Serena Ryder” and I oooohed and ahhhhed about that (I LOVE Serena Ryder!) and asked this man who he was, and when he told me Richard Flohil, you could have knocked me over with a feather! I started babbling about my days in Toronto 18 years ago when I worked with the Phantoms and some of the people we had in common (six degrees of separation and all that). I was thrilled to be in this man’s presence after so many years of hearing his name, he is a legend to me and does for a living what I was planning to do 20 years ago (got a little sidetracked and stuff. Emma, you live my dream now, okay??). He’s 70 years old now and has so many stories… he started telling one about a gig he was doing with some old blues greats and I told him he should write a book - he was all “oh, no one wants to hear what I have to say!” but I beg to differ. Anyway, he looked at Emma and I all out of place in this environment and said “the way to tell the difference between a homeless person and a person in the music industry, is a laminate” and handed us laminated Beaver Suite passes to help us look official. I proudly pinned mine on my sweater and felt like I belonged now!

Inside the adjoining suites there was one room for the live music with about 16 chairs for people to watch (talk about an intimate setting!) and the other suite was like a backstage area, with several guitar cases, bags, chairs, and a table with beer on ice. Kurt Swinghammer was hanging about and I chatted with him a bit (another name I knew about 18 years ago… I have this cassette tape of his from 1988! He looked quite different in those days, I never would have recognized him if Emma hadn’t met him first and pointed him out) and he borrowed my sharpie to make a sign telling people to donate a couple bucks for beer so they could have money to buy more for the next day (I guess the free beer went pretty fast the day before). Heh.

My old Swinghammer cassette from 1988!

Emma and I sat in the performance area and watched a few great ladies perform (Lori Cullen, Kate Schutt, Andrea England) while watching for Lindy out of the corners of our eyes. Him, Sally and Melissa arrived literally minutes before he was due to start playing. We wandered into the adjoining suite to say “hi” and I reminded Melissa of when we met in Calgary back in June, and she remembered because I also sent her a gushy email afterwards with our picture.

Before Lindy started I saw a familiar face in the hall - Dave Bauer, a musician I know from Calgary. He was all shocked to see me and said “Pete’s here!” (Pete, being my old friend and room mate from 12 years ago, and a super musician/singer/songwriter in his own right although he has semi-retired from all that with the marriage/kid/career/house in the suburbs and all). Turns out Pete was here playing bass with Dave McCann and the Ten Toed Frogs, performing in the Alberta Dot Cow room. Dave said Pete was coming by for Lindy’s set. (I told Pete about Lindy’s music as soon as I heard his first song at Orange’s website; Lindy’s style reminded me a little of Pete’s and I knew he’d like him). I told Dave not to tell Pete I was here so I could surprise him.

Lindy went to start his show and Emma and I were right in front of him and Sally. I mean, right in front. It was so cool, like a house concert but even more intimate! Dave was in there, but no Pete in the room unfortunately. Lindy played several songs from his latest CD as well as a couple new ones, and a couple fun ones that he saves for live shows only. It was fab-u-lous.

After Lindy’s set we wandered over to the adjoining suite again to chat a bit and I took a picture of Emma and Lindy:

That girl is stealing my moves

Then it was Melissa’s turn to perform. She joked “I am very happy to be here performing for the four of you”, as Emma, Lindy, Sally and myself were the only ones in the room. I said “come on, you guys, get in here!!” and a few more people came in, but I knew there would have to be more once she started singing because her voice is like an angel. She sang a few new songs I had never heard and one from her CD, “Glimpse Into Hell”.

She is simply stunning

After Melissa’s set I got a couple more pictures:

Lindy, me, Sally

Me and Melissa

Now Emma and I were hungry! We had not eaten since we were in the food court at about 1:00 and it was almost 8:00. I asked Lindy if he knew anywhere good to eat nearby and he said “yeah! Indian! Let’s go!” as Sally and Melissa were getting their coats on. Emma and I got our coats on and gathered up our stuff and were ready to go when I heard Lindy tell Sally he wanted to catch Pacifica’s set first (friends of his), so would we all mind waiting? So we settled ourselves in against the wall in the hallway, me sitting on my walker seat and Emma on the floor, taking in the ambience and furiously writing in her notebook and snapping pictures of everything and everyone around. All of a sudden there was Pete walking by! His mouth dropped open when he saw me. We chatted for a bit and I introduced him to Lindy (Pete thought his set was upstairs somewhere else so he missed it). I want those two to write songs together someday!!

Me and Peter

Pacifica’s set ended at about 8:45 and immediately myself, Emma, Lindy, Sally and Melissa headed downstairs. Emma and I waited in the lobby while the musician type people went to put their instruments in the van. While waiting, Emma continued taking pictures of random people and wondered aloud if anyone would mind that she is taking pictures of them. A man sitting in a chair next to us said “only if you sell them and make lots of money and don’t give them any.” We started chatting with this guy, and I asked him his name, and he replied “Joe Songwriter”. I was thinking, hey, give yourself a little credit ha ha but he really does go by the name Joe Songwriter! He was really nice and absolutely adored Emma (everyone did!) He was in town from New York to showcase at the conference too. Lindy, Sally and Melissa returned and suddenly we were walking along St. Catherine’s in the middle of some sort of festival with loud music, lights, and funny looking blue and white snowball people dancing about. Lindy started singing “oh, Donna, oh, Donna!” (that makes twice in two days I am serenaded with that song by cute guys, how cool is that?) and Melissa mentioned the “Donna” in that song was her mom’s best friend! Neat. We now have a six degrees of separation to Richie Valens story. We arrived at the restaurant and it was an Indian food buffet. You know what that means, right? Curry. Ha ha ha It was delicious, and I will never complain about eating curry twice in one day! Someone wanting to kiss me might, but not me.

The members of Pacifica and their manager also joined us, and two friends of Sally’s arrived about half an hour later, so we were seated at a long table in the middle of the restaurant. Melissa was across from me with Sally and Lindy to her left, and Emma was beside me across from Sally. When I wasn’t choking on my chick peas laughing at Lindy’s comments, I was deep in conversation with Melissa. We found something in common and bonded over that. At precisely 10:24 p.m. Lindy announced “it’s 10:24, I’ve got 6 minutes to get back to make Danny Michel’s set!”. I gasped “Danny Michel!?!? I LOVE DANNY MICHEL!!!!!” (I didn’t know he was there! Omigod!!) So Lindy said “do you want to go? If we leave now we can make it!” I had no clue what our bill was going to be so I tossed $40 at Sally and said “hopefully that covers it” as Emma and I gathered up our stuff and got our coats on as fast as possible and hurried back to the Hyatt. I, of course, am slow with my walker and all, and Lindy is 6′7″ and has very long legs and could easily walk 10 times faster than me, but he was so great that whole night. On the way to and from the restaurant he always stepped back and walked beside me when others went ahead and carried my walker up and down any stairs we would come across. That just solidifies to me the kind of person he is. I loooooooove him!!!

We make it back to the Hyatt and find where Danny is; he is performing as part of a Songwriter’s Circle in a large suite on one of the main showcase floors. It was the same concept as the Bluebird North show I saw awhile back. We quietly snuck into the room and Lindy made eye contact with Danny and gave him two big thumbs up as Danny smiled. Lindy and Danny are great friends, Lindy has sung on Danny’s albums. We took chairs near the back. This was being presented by Musiqueplus so there was a whole lotta French speaking going on. This woman was talking and talking and talking in French and I had no clue what she was saying, I think she was talking about each of the songwriters and who they are and stuff. Lindy was laughing and shaking his head (he wanted to HEAR MUSIC too) and he finally leaned over to me and whispered “I can’t stay, I have to go up to the 12th floor to see some people for about half an hour, but I will be back” and he took off. Emma and I tried our best to stay awake (it was close to 11:00, and last night had been a late night with little sleep, and I remember saying earlier “we’ll be okay, it won’t be a late night tonight because Melissa’s show will be over by 7:30-ish…”) while listening to Ms. Frenchie speak, and when she did finally speak in English we learned that Danny Michel had a terrible cold. He struggled through his first song (but still sounded great!) and then left the stage for a bit. He was a few seats away from me so I took the liberty of going over and telling him that Lindy had to leave for a bit but would be back and he smiled and thanked me (sighhhhhh… I forgot to say, “and my name is Donna and I LOOOOOVE YOU!!!”)

Danny Michel singing

Another singer/songwriter in this showcase was Jeremy Fisher, who I absolutely loved too. I had never heard him before but he made a great impression on me, and you may know his song “High School” that is getting airplay on radio and Much More Music.

Jeremy Fisher singing

Danny sang his third and last song and although the show wasn’t over, Emma and I could not keep our eyes open so we decided to leave right away, Lindy or no Lindy. Bed was calling us!!

We cabbed it back to the hotel and our card keys didn’t work. I went to the front desk and they had to re-program both of them, I have no clue why. Then once in the room, I noticed the coffee pot was not cleaned or the coffee and styrofoam cups replaced. What will I do in the morning if I can’t have my coffee until after I am dressed and ready for the big continental breakfast?!?! So I went to the front desk again and asked for a new coffee thingy and cups. While the staff frantically tried to find some, I went back to the room, cleaned my coffee pot and noticed a pile of wet towels on the floor behind the door. Classy. There was a knock on the door and a manager had my coffee, and I told her about the towels and as I handed them to her, she told me they had been “getting a few complaints about housekeeping”. I should say so!! I may not be paying $300/night for my room but I still expect decent service. And more than a friggin’ croissant for breakfast ha ha ha

It was late. We were tired. And we still had to be up early for our FREE CROISSANT and to pack, check out, and head back over to the Hyatt for Day Two! I thanked the Gods of Fate that I had my walker with me that night so I could run around with everyone and for putting me in Montreal at this exact time. Woo hoo!!