It’s a 4 hour drive to Toronto from Detroit, and after leaving at 12pm, and taking a long break at a Gas stop to do some online research and book the accom, I get in later in the evening, I drive the Gardiner Expressway right by the southern part of the city and Lake Ontario. It’s a pretty city by night. I contemplate going out, but as nothing specific came up I decide to get to the Accomodation and get settled.

Another swing dance event happens in the Bloor st area at Dovercourt House (3 stories of dance lessons, styles and social) so I head there for the intermediate lesson, and social dancing after.  Get heaps of dances in, and more local contacts for other dancing, music things, venues, and Toronto independent culture.

Next day I try to explore other areas of the city, and one area that keep coming up was Younge & Eglinton area which, granted was more website recommends, but after a look around it’s not much of an area.  More commercial and has cafes and shopping areas, but seems just like a regular type of area that perhaps was creative and trendy a while ago, but has been lost to commercialism.  There is also plenty of road construction going on around Toronto which makes getting around a bit hectic at times.  Toronto does seem to have a lot of large scale street art and sculpture, and seems like a fairly cultural, progressive city.

I also have to do some housekeeping and find Yummi Cafe Laundromat, best thing! laundry, food, and wifi!  I get to some blogging, while stinkiness is washed away and get a great freshly made salad roll. It starts to get rainy in Toronto, and I feel the Autumn (Fall) coolness and upset weather starting to close in.  The idea of chasing summer is looking more appealing as the thought of enduring minus temperatures at Christmas compared to the Aussie Summer on a beach is no comparison.

Cameron House is exactly like the sort of music venue I will eventually open one day.  Just the right size for medium-sized touring performances, great decor, 2 rooms of different sizes for multiple preformance styles, and just a great vibe! Its situated right in the heart of the Queen West Neighbourhood, Bars, cafes, vintage clothing, and generally a funky area full of historic (read: old, not quite bought out by developers yet) buildings.

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Decide to do day things Tues, so don’t stay out too late just a midnight-ish sort of night :) plan to do the tourist thing for a day and head off to Niagara Falls for the day. The sun is out, and it’s only about an hour drive down to the border. Niagara is as impressive as you think. The area is so well developed, perhaps too well, but nothing overshadows the awesome spectacle and power of one of nature's wonders. Niagara is celebrating it’s 150th year? I stand on top of a railing to get a shot of this sign and the falls in the background (otherwise the sign blocked the Falls: Marketing fail), and while I was balanced up there and young Asian tourist hands me his camera to take a shot for him… I obliged of course ha ha!

Niagara is simply an amazing amount of water falling down a cliff. Definitely take the time to just experience it for a while if you ever get there.  I see a lot of people rushing along the edge taking a photo and then rushing off… or worse still just driving along the road and getting a gawk from afar. Sure the parking costs money, and the tours cost money… but its not that much and the most enveloping experience for me was taking the Journey Behind the Falls Tour.  You can also take a boat cruise right up to the falls, but the Journey is only $16.75 and gets you close right beside the bottom of the falls with spray in your face (and a souvenir rain Poncho ha ha) and you get to see some of the infrastructure behind the falls, which is less spectacular than it sounds, but standing outside only metres from (peak rate, so go in spring) 6400 cubic metres (225,000 cubic feet) of water falling per second! was a pretty amazing experience. Just stayed and literally soaked it up for a while, while others came and went. Nature is pretty amazing, the amount of ions or whatever is happening there with all that broken water is invigorating.

Sometimes really taking the time, makes earning the money all worth it… why else do we earn money? it's just a means to these ends...

I hung around for a quite a while and took a walk further up the head waters as well, so saw it while the sun was shining, rainbows, and also when it was cloudy and forboding, the water took on a amazing deep green as the sunlight abated. If you‘re in the area it’s worth a look.  I didn’t know, but as expected the whole area attached to the Falls is one big tourist attraction, and insanely so… I never expected the streets around town to be like this:

Sweet jeebuzzz… commerciality gone wild! I s’pose it’s good for the kids? after they have seen a wonder of nature to get some modern reality into them while forking over some of their parents cash ha ha… Frankenstein with a burger… really!??!

I wander the late night streets of Toronto, I am running out of days so have to limit and use my time well in each place from now on. There is so much World to see, after getting a late night hotdog at a stand just up the street from The ‘Shoe, I see this “art" in an alleyway… well I thought it was worth a pic, strange how my lighting brain works:

Daylight burns my eyes, and my accomodation is so adequate they’ll only be getting 3stars on AirBnb. The 5 Star rating for any of the App services has become collateral, so use them wisely. On this trip I used Bookings.com so much and actually wrote the odd review that I got upgraded to “writer” status which opened up some other priorities and specials. But there’s nothing like the truth to burn through some of the commerciality of accomodation wroughting by companies.

Karen invited me to Toronto Island for some kayaking, and I wouldn’t have normally bothered getting out to an island, but like everything on this adventure, when an opportunity presents… I didn’t even know about Toronto Island, and it’s basically an adventure park of an island just a short ferry ride across the bay.  Think boating, nature tours, frisbee golf, and a small Coney Island rides park that is open in the Summer.  There are beaches and walks/hikes etc.

But I totally forget that I have an American phone, and solo have been using wifi all over the place (there is free wifi everywhere) and don’t realise that the phone can’t call out to Canadians… and I can’t find any wifi on the Island, as it’s off-season and none of the businesses are open.  I find one coffee shop, but it doesn’t have wifi ha ha so I have trouble getting in contact with Karen once I am on the island. I thought it would be a small place that I could find her, but it’s actually a series of islands, with multiple roads, and small community/holiday houses and theme parks and beach places. So after a while trying to find Karen I just end up having my own adventure discovering the islands while I am searching.

This place would definitely be a-buzz with activity in the Summer months and school holidays I am thinking. It has some lovely developed areas, waterways in between the group of islands for kayaking and rowing, and lots of adventuring opportunities. The beach is a bit rough by Australian standards, but I’m sure would be well used when there’s nice weather.

I totally forget to this point that I have another friend Renata, who I lived in share house in Sydney way back in the early 2000s, while she was over from Toronto doing her Masters I think with an Australian University. I message her on Facebook and line up a meet up at Faye’s bar on Bloor St which is just down the road from where Renata lives now. We have a great catch up, filling in what has happened in the last 15 years… ha ha It’s always fun to reconnect with people who were fun positive people in your life, especially in person on the other side of the world!

I do a gas/petrol stop and get a bite to eat, even the roadhouses in Canada have healthy options. I use the free wifi to research some music, jams and swing dancing in Montreal. There are a few options, and Montreal strikes me as a creative place, as many people have said along the way.  I photograph a few addresses and events, and head on into Montreal, start to hear the French language and accents, & I wonder will I be able to cope with a language barrier again (it’s been a while)

Anyway I book the AirBnb, but won’t be arriving when Adriana my host will be there, so she just leaves a key in a spot for me.  I must have a good rating on AirBnB (I do, I have glowing reviews ha ha) as hosts are quite ok with trusting me and making arrangements that work. I get to Montreal and do a drive around the city, it’s raining and gloomy. The Fall has definitely set in. I check out a the city, it is smallish, about 1.7 million people, so about the size of Brisbane in Australia. Big enough for city things, but small enough to retain some friendly country town vibe.

It’s gonna be a huge night, so I have a late morning, rest up, finally get out of the house after lunch.  But rightly so, check out some more of the city, and know that tonight is the ZOMBIE WALK in Montreal so I figure it will be big, and then there is the CAT’s CORNER LINDY HOP EXCHANGE (which is a huge swing dance festival!) so its gonna be a late one.

But now it’s become a more commercialised things, and have gotten more involved and whole cities are putting on festival like versions. Montreal went all out and seems to be a full council festival. The main part of the city has screens everywhere a big stage, bands playing, faux-derelicte street furniture including fire bins (with safety rims) and smoke machines every where… its hilarious. And it’s really packed but with normal people who’ve just come for a look.

But in a way it’s sort of ruined the effect of it all, as now there is about 50,000 more people than the maybe what seems like a couple of hundred zombies… which I think I have missed it as I can’t see any zombies anywhere, but eventually a small path is opened up through the crowd by security, and a handful of zombies stroll through a barrage of gawkers, phone cameras, Dslr cameras, video cameras, so it sort of becomes a bit of a farce.

But in some ways that was more effective, as people didn't know it was happening, and looked up from there paper or coffee on the street and there was 80 chaotic zombies in front of them. ​Some people genuinely were startled or frightened, others clapped, some laughed. But it seemed more like the ethos of it because it was in public, unexpected. Anyway Montreal put on a show, and it was good! It was good to see mainstream culture embracing some fringe in their lives, even if it was a bit overproduced, was a great night out for the kids ha ha!

I head back, after some commercialism of fringe culture, through the city and to the edge of the city to where St Laurent Boulevarde.  There is some great street art in this city.

I drive the strip, and it’s impossible to find a park near to where I need to be, its Friday night in the cafe/restaurant area… arrrhhhggg! I eventually find a semi-legal spot a few blocks away around a corner in a one way street. Good to see city parking & driving are the same everywhere, & after living in Sydney for 8 years, all the same tricks hold you well in any city.

The first dance I have is awkward, getting used to new areas is always just a slight adjustment, as each city (re: teachers) have their way of dancing, so if you are some random from across the world, and also have been learning steps/style from all the cities you have travelled to, you don’t usually fit the local establishment exactly.  It’s been really fun actually having swing dancing as a side adventure alongside music on this journey. You get to meet a totally different subculture of a city/town.  Also you think it’s “Swing Dancing”, but New Orleans, Louisianna do it differently, say to Austin, Texas… and Montreal also have a different thing to say Chicago, or Melbourne…  The Basic/Foundation steps are usually all the same, but like a lot of things in life, the subtitles are what make it interesting. Dancing is a lot like jamming in music, it takes an intuitive and responsive person to have a great dance. If they try to force you into a way of dancing, ultimately you have an “awkward” dance. Now this may because they are a limited dancer, or they have an inflexible personality, the song is the wrong tempo for them or maybe they are just nervous. And all the same applies to you as well. But sometimes you just find those people that you gel with, and listen and feel, and the music the band playing is just the right song, and then dancing is the most magical thing in the world. It’s all about being absolutely present in that moment, especially in Swing, where there are moves, but the composition of the dance over time is completely ad-libbed by the partners in the moment, reacting to the song. It’s amazing and intimate when both people are present and enjoying it. 

I gradually work my way into a few dances, and get back from the brink of the first awkward one, and have a couple of really great ones, and one really delicious slow dance. You also get to interact with many age groups if you’re not biased. The dance community have also become a very safe environment for interaction.  All groups and events that I have been too have a Code of Conduct policy too, and don’t tolerate sexual harrassment etc it’s just a dance.  There is nothing more to it, than just a dance.  You can dance with the same person again if you want to and they want to, you can go and only dance with your partner (if you have a dancing one), and you can feel free to refuse dances, which everyone in the community expects and respects, not everyone is going to say yes everytime, or they might be tired from just dancing the fastest dance ever, or maybe they are waiting for someone they want to dance with, or maybe the tempo of the song is wrong for them.  It’s actually very freeing, especially as a traveller to just have a 3.5min interaction with someone where virtually no words are exchanged, but you discover lots about someone without even talking, and that might be all you do with them all night. Of course some people you end up chatting with all night as well, and make new friends for life. Some people you might end up dancing with many times, as they are the fun-est person ever, and they like dancing with you too.

Dancing, esp Swing dancing is also energetic, so for me it’s creative and exercise… ask me if I like to jog…. bamp-bow!  I end up staying really late, Swing dancers like to party, and I end up in the small room with a great jazz band, a few great dances, and one with a gal I wanted to dance with all night, probably a little above my level of skill, but hey you don’t get better by dancing with people who are worse than you right!  As the night winds down, I roll out the door at like 3.30/4am or something… ha ha Swingsters how I love you...

After a while blogging, and eating, I notice one of the guys drawing is looking at me, I look at him and his face is familiar, but I go “I don’t know anyone in Montreal?” we have a chat across the room, and then I go over when I get another coffee.  It turns out he was the sound guy at the Popolo gig, and recognised me. We have a great chat about the gig, then the music scene in general in Montreal, and they seem to be going through the same stuff all musicians are going through.  But he runs a radio show, and a record label/co-op, and I dig some underground Montreal dirt out of him. I also fill him in on the Australian independent music scene, as he doesn’t really know anything about it, and is very interested to find out that we deal with very similar things, albeit with some slight differences.

It seems like the mission of the place has been fulfilled, as lots of people just meet up here and eat and have meetings, and do art, and listen to music, and the kitchen also seems like a locally sourced, locally run affair with really friendly staff. The food is great too.

It’s my last night in Montreal :( so I try to find a jam to end on, and it's a Saturday so it's not a jam-ish night… but there is an acoustic Open Mic, BoOO! and I find one other that has drums and amps supplied. I head over to Bar De Courcelle in the Saint Henri area of just south of Montreal CBD along the river.  It’s a low key neighbourhood bar, and pretty quite when I arrive, but I am slightly early, have some food and a beer.  Soon they setup a drum kit and backline, and the PA, and a few more musos shlep in and sign up.  It turns out to be a more solo/singer songwriter night, as not many people seem applicable to jam… but eventually I get a run as a drummer ha ha, I can drum, especially to simple singer songwriter stuff and blues and cover songs. So that is fun and unexpected.  There are some pretty talented singers and players at this jam, and some totally wacky ones as well.

Mostly spent a lot of time on lyrics and melody skills in vocals and guitar-ing… but forget about rhythm. ha ha It’s still good, and then sometimes you find singers with really great tone and timbre to their voices too. Always nice when their voice can grab you with just it’s quality. He accompanies the host for next week, who belts out a tune or two.  These other crazy gothic cowboys also play some pretty cool, dark country sounding stuff.  Other singers are completely weird, hilarious, not-sure-if they-are-serious-type bedroom heroes singing Johnny Cash etc. But I admire anyone who can get out and up in front of people and play their music, that takes guts in itself, and a lot of people can’t even do that.

Sometimes the hours driving in the car are my meditation, where I don’t have to be interactive with anyone or use my brain.  You just get a few hours of doing nothing and sitting quietly with only the white line fever hypnotically bringing more natural sights, sounds and smells, like an ever-changing screen saver washing over your conciousness. Alert but drifting.

Until eventually you run into the USA border and a gruff guard, is demanding your ID, and gets alarmed that you’ve been travelling longer than 90 days! (who does that right?!?!) ha ha he gets quite present and his security face comes on… but I direct him to my 5 year B1/B2 visa to the USA, and suddenly a wash of friendliness comes over his face and I turn back into a warm Aussie to him.  Hello USA again, hello Vermont! This is Bernie territory.  The Fall has definitely set in and Vermont IS beautiful this time of year, just like they say in the movies. Only just over a week before it’s all over, I’m soaking it all up. I’m heading to New York, but doing a side trip just for a day or 2 to Boston on the way to see a musical acquaintance.

After my drive out of Chicago, I cruise the edge of Lake Michigan on the i94, I’m not really in a hurry.  So when the opportunity to pull off for some dinner and a quick view around some other areas, I get into a sunset over the lake at Stevensville in Michigan. The drift of time is catching up with me, but that is no excuse to not smell some roses when being a solo traveller allows the privilege of choices. Circle through the town to a couple of areas that front the lake, but unlike Australia where most beaches. rivers and lakes all have public shores… this area seems to be more like privately owned.  The first spot is just houses in a tree’d area, but I stop and bush bash my way though some trees and a track to where it opens to a mavelous view of the sandy lake shore. 

Have a good online chat with the owners, and organise to arrive late,  I follow the GPS into Detroit, bypassing Kalamazoo, Battle Creek and Jackson all of which sound great, and Ann Arbour which I have heard of. But it’s dark by then and can’t site-see anything, and this is a music trip so I h​ung-it to Detroit. Drive in and it’s getting later, Detroit brings up the thoughts of a ghetto-city, dangerous, poor, lost place where everyone else in other USA cities have said “WHY are you going there?, There is nothing to see, DON’T go there…” so many different voices were ringing in my ears, let alone what I know from the news and TV.

I have a good chat with Alex and Jenny about their place, Detroit, and the world with them and all the occupants of the stay. They all seem like interesting people. But this is a musical trip so it’s time to get into the obvious stuff and work my way downwards from there.

Detroit today shows a lot of evidence of these rags to riches, American dream, boom or bust, everything or nothing.  The Hitsville Museum sits in the new centre of West Grand Boulevard, a leafy double wide street, near the Hospital. But as pleasant as it sounds some of that neighbourhood is run down, there are the disparate terms on which Detroitians live. On hope boulevard where the billion dollar Motown industry is founded, today people 1 block down are selling their clothes on a street market, a homeless guy walks up to me and asks for money. I don’t give him any. 

Detroit was a haven, and then a underground network for slaves to leave into Canada.  The irony of this history through current times is not lost on me. A lot of people have a one-eyed view of Detroit, and in some ways there are some truths to the hype. It does still have run down areas and neighbourhoods that feel a bit edgy. You can have a burnt out house next to a run-down house, next to a renovated house. There are still run-down neighbourhoods, but there are also renewing neighbourhoods, and lots of community creative things happening around too.

Out of all the US cities that I visited though, it felt like the only city that was in an upswing. It has already had its lows, layed in its own vomit in the gutters of bankrupted industry and stared into its own abyss. Since the lows of the 80s and 90s it’s hit a renewal of creativity and an explosion of some sort of grass-roots community renewal.  Perhaps the “swamp” thought it so unprofitable that it was abandoned rather than drained, and all that was left were the people who rolled their sleeves up, and the arrival of people now with hope of a cheap new start.  Detroit still has its problems, but the vibe from the people I met, and the musos, creatives and punters I met in dive bars all over the city was a good sense, dare I even say hopeful sense of where this phoenix has to rise.  It’s got plenty of grittiness and a-ways-to-go, but compared to a lot of other big cities that I visited (which were stayed and stagnant and established) Detroit seemed like it was ready for change, and was doing something about it, no matter how small or big.

Another thing that gets me about Detroit after I see it in the daylight for the first time, in my mind Detroit was this crowded, closed in industrial city, with a claustraphobic dark cityscape, where it only rained… (the thing of movies).  But like this centre of the city picture, Detroit is almost the complete opposite of that, spread out, wide boulevard streets lined with trees, sunny warm days, plenty of grassed area, just a bit of high rise in the CBD, but most of the city is single/double story buildings… perhaps it’s just the days that I arrive, but totally not the feel for the city I expected.  After a bit of a musical tour, I head into the CBD and have a walk around, see the sights, check all the newly added art and beautification remodelling for some 100 year celebrations. The centre of the city is being transformed into a pedestrian haven with alfresco living.

The Bathtub Pub is just a single width terrace, graffitti on the walls, a little grimy but has a nice feel to it, I am the only customer in there at 4:45pm, so I say hello to the bartender, Keon, he is friendly and speaks with a thick Detroit accent and slang that I have to concentrate to understand him, this is my sort of bar.  After a beer, Keon talks me into $4 spicy chicken wings and chips, who can say no to $4 spicy wings! he hand cuts his chips, and makes the spice, they are delicious. It seems like Bathtub is not the first choice of a lot of Detroitians, but eventually a few more business people and randoms wander in. Keon introduces me to another hip hop mate who comes in, everyone who comes in gets to sign the walls. 

It’s low key, so I walk to the side of stage and stow my bass, ask if there is a list, there isn't one really… I go to the bar and get a beer from the friendly and cheeky bar-lady and a pencil to put my name on the paper. The house band cracks into some blues, I hang at the side, and then the back, but once start chatting, as everyone recognises me as not local, I gradually talk to Tosha Owens who is the singer in the house band and also Jane Cassisi who is part of the Detroit Blues Society organising committee. I let them know I’m here to play and that I play blues, but also funk, groove, ska, reggae etc.

We have some great blues jams, and it rolls around wonderfully with a few different players. I shake the shamans hand… we have a small chat.  I later find out from the other players over a beer that he is JC “Billy" Davis, who played with Hank Ballard & the Midnighters in the 50s and 60s, and later with Jackie Wilson and Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, and touring with Sam & Dave in the 80s.  But it was in the early days that Billy played a tour to Seattle in ’59 where the young Jimi Hendrix hassled to see Billy & learn some guitar licks.  Jimi took Billy to meet his dad. It’s pretty crazy to meet guys like this in jams.

Stacy gives me a few tips and a contact for local art projects! and a Sticker Trade Market over the other side of town happening later that day. I give her a blues jam that I am going to at the Blue Goose Hotel northside on Thurs night.

It’s SO great to be standing in an art project that I saw on an art show on TV about 8 years previous.  Tyree has been working on the project since the mid 80s, and it hasn’t always been smooth sailing.  The council has been both ways on the project and have nearly shut it down twice in it’s history, but it project has managed, and stayed, and now employs a few people and as with people who stick at things for the right reasons, Tyree has become a world renown artist.

After a reaally long and beautiful chat with Stacy, she let’s me know that Tyree is actually here today, he likes to keep it low key, he is tending a few pieces and after wandering around I briefly say hello and shake his hand, and let him know that I’m from Australia and have followed his project for 8yrs and it’s pretty amazing to be standing here in it. We have a brief chat and I leave him to his work.

So Stacy’s Sticker Swap Meet doesn’t seem to be happening, but I met Emanuel (A Photographer from Switzerland), who is also photographing the park and a local Detroit-ian skater Steve. We have a chat about Detroit and art and all things worldly.  Emanuel is keen to hear about New Orleans, or was it Austin? we have a friendly little world chat, and then Emanuel’s partner in crime, yells at him out the car window and then drives off! after photographing a few more things I ask him if he needs a lift anywhere… he says she’s always like this, and will come back. Just as I am driving down the road, she does.

A surprise! as Stacy Risner shows up to the gig and gets to see me play, which is awesome, after I mentioned it at Heidelberg, the pub is around the corner from where she lives, and she didn’t know that music happened there, ha! informing the locals… it’s cool to see people more than once on trips like these.

I see a bit more of the city and find the Play Space recommended by Stacy, run by Michael Feld a musician and technologist.  He created his own studio space, art centre/creative hub, that provides facility and opportunity for up and comers. I do find the place but just can’t quite link up with Michael, so we email a bit. I head over to another place Stacy put on my list, Hamtramck Disneyland! 

Completed by Dymrto Szylak from the Ukraine but moved and worked for General Motors for years in Detroit, and completed this folk art in his yard after he retired and needed a hobby, it’s now owned by a Art conglomerate who rents 3 of the units on the property to cover costs, & one unit for an artist in residence.  Detroit certainly has its share of crazy grassroots art & artists.

Unfortunately this is my last night in Detroit… I stay the next morning, head to the Eastern Markets area again for coffee, breakfast and more blogging, I was only going to do a stopover in Detroit, but ended up staying a few extra days (sorry New York and Boston) but it’s great to cram so much into such a short time.  Some huge musical icons, local jams, getting to know some creative people, getting to lots of areas (good & bad), most of all finally having a 3D personal view of what Detroit is ACTUALLY like, the rest of USA you don’t know what you are talkin’ about, Detroit is a must see in my books :)

Great connections, great people, I’m sure I will be back, Love ya Detroit Rock City! then it’s over the river into Canada heading to Toronto and Montreal. I can feel the Fall temperatures starting to bite, as the leaves are all starting to turn brown.

Ok So I ditch out of amazing Memphis, crazy amazing musical experiences. I head on down the road to St Louis, a nondescript city, with little to no hints from people along the way… are you a black hole St Louis? where no light escapes… I can assure you St Louis is a musical, creative city that seems to have gone under a lot of American’s radars.

I drive across 2 state borders and end up in Missouri, an honestly didn’t know what to expect, but the musical and swing dance trail always offers a doorway into the world that is the unknown. On the road I stop at a roadstop on the way and find a great AirBnB to stay at with Laura in Tower Grove South, on the southside, little local area with small 3 story apartment blocks. She’s a great host and is a Blogger and entertainment person, hence why I picked her place, and also the price. The area is not the best area, but that is part of it. Not to be in the glossiest, closed off version of the city. It’s to find the people, the stories, and the music and in only a short space of time to be emersed in the reason why, not just the showy end result.

Basically it’s a 10 stories of constructed madness, weird areas, tunnels, castles, underwater themed areas, a treehouse area, caves, slippery dips, ladders, spiral stair cases, and secret tunnel openings in every floor connect areas.  They are themed areas with rides, and the roof has bus overhanging the edge, enclosed welded, wire tunnels you can climb through to get to other areas. Forget commercial disneyland, get to City Museum!

This would be a 5 - 16 years heaven I think, and those young at heart (also there are areas for younger children too if you have many ages… rightfully so, when the wristbands get attached on entry, there is a space on your child’s for your phone number, as you will lose them in here. There is just too much to describe, if you ever get to St Louis this is a must DO!

They do live music a few nights a week, and I have a beer with the band loading in, I receive a flower in my hat for my conversation. I have a great chat with some other locals/tourists and end up with a few more things for my Chicago list.

Anyway I watch 2049… In one of the most historic, glorious theatres in St Louis ( I looked it up especially, and if any of you know by now I don’t really do mass culture and cookie-cutter megaplexes) This theatre is so great! they have a classic snacks bar, and the alcohol bar and a separate free mini-cinema lounge was playing classic cheesy movies! (for bladerunner 2049 Total Recall was playing)

We look at each other, get in the car and head round the front real quick (these are the closest angry gunshots I have ever heard, and did feel a little unsafe in that moment)  Other gunshots I have heard in New Orleans, Memphis weren’t as near or behind buildings, or I was in a building etc, so I wasn’t worried at all ha ha.  I think, would that Beretta have helped right now? probably not… dead is dead right...

I stay in an AirBNB south of the city, with Katibu, he is Chicago through and though, he bought his house 30 years ago, and has gradually been doing it up.  It is a great older style house full of character.  Katibu is semi-retired, but still occasionally does specialised work on medical machinery, with radioactive materials! ha ha we have some great talks about programming, and computers, but he also is an avid dancer, and does country-line dancing on Wednesdays.

Second day I've done my research and end up with jammy things everyday! Chicago you BE crazy! Monday I do more of a cruise around the inner city, but also check a few outer-lying areas where music venues are.  It’s great being independent and being able to drive. It always has its disadvantages of what to do with the thing in cities. But on a universe driven adventure its advantages outweigh any minor costs.

I find some goodies and oldies, some of my favourites, some of Stacy’s favourites, and play them all! But I can’t waste a lifetime here like I did in my youth, as this trip is about music. So after a great afternoon and evening, of square eyes, record setting, and ruminating memories of a past era (it’s funny what things trigger in your memory),

Julia goes, it’s you! ha ha nothing planned so I just play a funky groove, and some hip hop dudes jump up with me and throw down some rhymes, and another cahon player does a beat for us. It’s heaps of fun, we go all over the place! several  rappers kick it. I play with another guy. There are also some other great singers/songwriters, and a few average ones, and a few weird ones… great night for a tuesday.  By the closer to the end, Julia and me decide to head over to The Green Mill which is a jazz joint that is on my list and is open late.

This place seems to be steeped in credibility, as it’s low key and the vibe is about the music, it’s not as touristy as Buddy Guys. But I’m here to play, so put my bass up near the stage and make it known I’m here to play! ha ha after a great house set, and another guest or 2, I get put on stage with a blind drummer, and the 2 other white jammers in the place.  Gulp. we get this singer, but he seems to want something specific. (and as the jam goes on, I think he is disappointed that he got put on stage with us), we play the intro, he trys to indicate a few things, we play the feel he wants,  just as we get into a good riff, and he is looking shaky, the drummer drops a stick (as he is not use to this kit, and it’s set up a bit differently to a standard kit), but the singer doesn’t see that.  

Great and funny supporting cast, with some great emotional twinges and innovative 4th wall stuff that holds over from the book.  If you haven’t seen this movie, SEE IT… it’s an insightful relationship entanglement, told as a comedy, to an amazing soundtrack. So here I am, down on the corner of Milwaukee and Honore St in Wicker Park in Chicago, standing outside “Championship Vinyl”, “Rob Gordon’s” record shop…"I own this store called Championship Vinyl. It's located in a neighbourhood that attracts the bare minimum of window shoppers. I get by because the people make a special effort to shop here. Mostly young men...who spend all their time looking for deleted Smiths singles and original, not rereleased - underlined - Frank Zappa albums. Fetish properties are not unlike porn. I'd feel guilty taking their money, if I wasn't... well... kinda one of them.”  17 years on, Rob’s neighbourhood has upgraded and been gentrified, as what in the movie was a rundown suburb of north Chicago, is now a popular and trendy cafe and clothing area, and Championship Vinyl is a upmarket bike and clothing shop with a cafe built into it… ha ha I have a little nostalgic episode on the sidewalk looking up at the street signs.

That night I take the long way home, and drive the city edge, check more places, drive the under-railway roads and soak up what it is to be a late night Chicago-ian. How do you soak up more, every moment… I want to feel the city.

It’s friday night, and as it rolls on the rain continues in, and as I am heading to one of the cities big swing dance nights, the rain is of New Orleans-ian proportions. Some of the under railway roadways start to fill up with foot deep pools of water. Earlier in the week I had gone to a couple of swing lessons with one of the local troupes and that is how I found out about this big dance event.  I rock up, and it’s in a funny location, a warehousey area. In the rain I duck in quickly and head up the stairs. At the top I find a room full of people sort of dressed up, some guys with braces on etc so I presume its the swing night, but it just looks like a waiting/bar area. Some of them look at me funny, I take my jacket off, and swap my boots over for the shoes I can dance in, and stow my bag. I look around and out in the hallway, there doesn’t seem to be a dance floor?

They add out-of-towners to that mix, and as an Australian I am from the furthest away! It’s a great dance, but just as I get to one of the gals I wanted to dance with (she is a great active follow, and dances the way I like), I guess I am trying too hard, and I blow my knee out in the dance with her… ha ha (I have an old knee injury from years ago from fire-twirling, and every once and a while I twinge it) I fall on my ass… and she laments that she has broken the guest! ha ha. but it’s fine. The troupe takes care of me, and an ice pack, and I am up and dancing (a little more carefully) for the rest of the night. I have a couple of great dances with some late-comers. 

And as a bass player waveforms that are long and move your body not just your ears. Things that reach down into the soul that makes you up, ticks boxes in your sub-conscious, and makes your ass move and makes it impossible for your feet to stay still.  I have alway enjoyed active music, no matter what style, that has a tempo that is above your heart rate whilst sitting.  Once the tempo does not allow you to comfortably sit still or relax, it forces the animal instincts that you have supressed to bubble to the surface. For live music that story dynamic has always interested me (and how I try to connect with tribe).

I get shrimp mixed, and this is actually the best tasting Mexican food I have tasted in the whole of the USA. It turns out the be the best Mexican I eat, bar none…! for a small place they balance the spiciness, tastiness, amount of food, delicious sides, crispy corn chips, a selection of side salsas. I can’t fault it.  I would _nearly_ say the best meal I had in the USA. I have stayed out really late, I think it’s another 4am night by the time I get home.  Chicago you are upp-ing  to the ante of New Awlins… Sat I am a bit wrecked, and opt to have a rest day, hang and chat with Katibu in the afternoon, and do some more online research about the city.  Decide to have a night off, & stay in the suburbs, & arrange a things for the next days.

I wander the city a little to and see it’s shape. Chicago is another city that passes my gauge for a big city, when you are walking on the street - people don’t make eye contact - you know it’s a big city. But Chicago doesn’t have and aggressive vibe like Sydney or Nashville or New York. It’s big, but it still seems to have held onto it’s working class roots, it’s proud of its ethnic heritages, and the definite communities that have formed because of it.  Sure it has corruption, a little danger, but I think it has retained it’s spirit, the reason why… and managed to not sell it’s soul completely, yet.

Couple of other players get up with the house band, and gradually heads into jammer territory. Sonia and the boys are known to the Jam host Linsey Alexander.  You have to understand, Kingston Mines has been a blues club since 1968, and was recently rated best blues club by Chicago Readers in 2016, and Most Popular Blues Club in the Chicago Music Awards in 2016 (again)! So playing here you are playing in an esteemed and historical blues house.

We plow through a short set, it’s up, the energy is up, and Sonia’s vocals soar over the top of us. The whole room lights up. Big cheers after each song. We have good interaction as well, moving and grooving, and reacting off each other.  I have a great time with Sonia, the drummer and the keyboard player.

Besides having a great time playing, seeing the cities that developed the music styles I like to play, it’s the getting to hang out with musos at that local level and just chatting about the state of things, what they deal with on a day to day level, not the perceived infamy of it all, but what they actually have to deal with in those cities.  The real and gritty reality of playing music in New Orleans, Austin, Memphis, Nashville, St Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, Boston, New York… and like everything the reality is far from it’s famed gloss.

I was msging Mike from a jam earlier in the week, and organise this session.  I send him an old version of the track, and then a reworked version so far with no Guitar lines on it so he can have a listen and work out a few things on it.  Dan Norman is our engineer for it. He’s really enthusiastic about the track as it is an unusual project.  Recording parts along the way with people that I meet in life, and getting them to put their story into the song.

I like to direct my musos, with feeling words, maybe emotions, and try to connect them with the story of the song. We do about 14-15 different takes with 2 mics, it’s a great session! We pack up, Dan back ups/transfers the session onto my USB, I  transfer a copy onto my hard drive there in the studio (and later this is Time Machine backuped onto another portable Harddrive I have on the trip, 3 back ups, call me a computer nerd) but this stuff won’t be able to be redone. I may be flying by the seat of my pants on this trip, but there is still method to the madness.

Mike has to work, I on the other hand have no such responsibilities… so stay longer and listen to more music.  I meet Maddie and Jeff at the bar, who are creatives and musos with friends jamming… we chat about Chicago. Eventually we get to my list, and they revue the things I have done, and my other Chicago places.  One thing on the list I forgot was Mallort! A Chicago-specific liquor, that has been described as old socks in rusted metal, off pineapple in bin juice, "just don’t have it…!" ha ha so I have to have one… Jeff shouts us all a round, and I buy the beer chasers! it’s no-where near as bad as some people described, and definitely more palatable than some of the backyard alcohol I had in parts of Europe. 

Have a regular coffee, but as I end up there chatting for a while, get talked into a complimentary Vanilla Burbon coffee from their latest experimental roast. It was strange but delicious, had great conversations with the gals, about Tupelo, and what it is and not. And of course the thing that Tupelo is most famous for is it’s where Elvis was born… I’m not really on an Elvis pilgrimage, but its seems the universe is pushing me that way.. ha ha. They tell me a few other things that are happening around, and eventually I head off to another Elvis land.

So end up back in Memphis, I have done all the touristy stuff so it’s time to capitalise on the music. It’s Monday, I check what’s on, not much, so head to a venue on my list The Lafayettes, which I find is in Overton Square (and area that also kept coming up on my list from people)

I chat with the bar staff in the front room and some other band locals, during the night and get some great tips for my list of things to do and see.  They are also impressed with what I already had, which was a lot of places they would’ve suggested.

The food in America is something to be deisred, deep fried fish cake on a white bread roll, with can coleslaw, soggy chips with packet ketchup.  While it’s cooking, I decide if it’s culturally appropriate to buy a stocking do-rag… (I don’t buy one). All of the cities I have been in there seems to be this crumbling infrastructure, areas of the American dream that have been left to disintegrate, to wither back into the plains they were stolen from.  I am not sure how long the USA can stand tall, when it’s own root system is weakened and rotting.

I lie in the park for a while, my body needs a rest. Various fitness people, tourists and locals canter and bike by.  From various positions in Memphis I have seen the glass pyramid (in the picture), so decide to travel the foreshore to see what its about. It turns out to be an Outdoor Fishing, Camping and Shooting complex taken over I presume from whoever was crazy enough to build a pyramid.  The indoor area is the craziest mall I have ever seen, including many outdoors shops in a swamp, bayou, stuffed animals, live fish tanks place with shops in around the area, and checkouts dotted here and there.

Full embrasure of the hunting culture, camping yeah… but mostly hunting. There a lots of huge catfish in display ponds and stuffed animals (bears, deers, turkeys, ducks, goats, antlers etc) in every nook of this display/mall.

There are plenty of camping things, touristy T-shirts, camouflage-ware, canoes/kayaks, boat shop, fishing lines, bow and crossbows complete with a firing range, and of course the gun shop… no stop in ‘Murica would be complete without a stop at a gun shop for an Aussie.  It is a sight to behold, I have never seen so many guns in one place in my life.

It’s pretty nuts to think I could have walked out of the place with a pistol in my pocket for about $189… if you wanted something more powerful, about $350, and top of the line about $800 for handguns.  If I wanted a semi-automatic machine gun it was about $1800-3500. Sobering… but I later look at the Beretta Compact Carry, and think Hmmm maybe I should… ha ha

The music starts and it’s Karen Brown with an all-star lineup of RnB/soul band. They are funky and play a lot of song the crowd knows (and sings along to), but I have never heard before.  It’s pretty amazing to be sitting in front of the Lorraine Motel and hearing a celebration of Civil Rights concert surrounded by people just enjoying themselves.

Strangely like a lot of things I have come across, I am but one of about 50 non-black people in the entire crowd. It is unnerving what the details of daily living in America are doing to my opinions of racial issues. I catch a set of music but as they break I head off to a swing dance lesson just half a block away, as that was my reason for coming to the South Main area.

​I get to the lesson, but even though it looked really good online, and very promoted by a local dance crew Red Hot Swing, it is very sad… one old male teacher, and 2 couples that have walked in off the street. I stay, order 2for1 margaritas as it’s happy hour, to get me through this.  Another guy from the local crew shows up, a steps in as a follow.  I am used to this, as most dance circles have same sex couples here and there, and usually if its it a rotating class you end up dancing with the the guys too. But it is funny in this situation where the tourist guys find themselves not dancing with their girl but with this other guy ha ha.

Just as it’s starting to get a little hairy, Someone calls my name! I look around and it’s Chick from the Stage Stop Jam, he says he used to own this park and street… but he talks him AND me onto the park stage from the band there, so I guess he must have… we jam up a storm in Handy Park. Chick also mentions he has a late night gig @ Ernestine & Hazels Sat Night and invites me to come. Crazy night!  I end up at the taco window on the edge of the park, chatting to Roland from Ghana.  I get 2 Tacos from him and we chat about music and travel, he likes that I am a straight shooter from Australia.  I still haven’t found this Rockabilly band, so I send msg to Red Hot Swing, to see if I can get more details.

The Highjivers are also a great band, playing in Memphis, but they are mostly from Nashville (just 3hours up the road), the singer has an amazing husky whiskey soaked voice, and she knows how to work the stage, very vivacious. The band is solid too, and the guitarist is one of the most electrifying rockabilly guitarists I have ever seen. What a crazy great night! I dance later with some other ladies who are not swing dancers, but really enjoy movement and dancing with someone who can actually lead. fun fUN FUN!  Later I head back to Handy Park for another Taco.

I hang while I eat, and chat, people and clients come and go, Roland intimates to me that he doesn’t like a lot of the American black people, especially the lazy ones that hang around Handy Park. It’s a slap for me, but it’s a reality, Roland is a black guy from Ghana, has travelled all over the world to escape things and create opportunity, he speaks Ghanian, English and Italian (as he lived in Italy for 8 years), he is supporting 5 kids, and they are in or heading to University.  He is doesn’t like a lot of the attitude of black American’s who hang around. He’s seen a lot, and has worked his job here for years, so I believe him. We have great chats about travel and music and things in general. I thank him for his hospitality!

A bunch of sweaty friends, in an indoor venue, and a larger outdoor stage with a backyard-feel party surrounded by a ring of merch tables of all independent bands, and a keg party all rolled into one.  It’s absolutely glorious! I think that Tim Ireland from one of my old bands would love this line up.  I stay at Goner fest all arvo/evening until I have to find some food.

I check my list and one of the other places that is on it and is nearby is "BBQ Shop", finally have some good ol’ Memphis BBQ!.. the diet of the American’s is piling on a few kilos, but hey I can adjust back when I am home.  I don’t think I have ever eaten so much meat in my life.  I remember that Chick’s gig is on at Ernestine And Hazels and head over the South Main and take my bass.

I hang with the band in the break, and sit in the drummers car as he smokes a jay.  We hear gunshots, which sound around the corner and about a block or two away… nobody even flinches. ha ha Memphis how I love you!  Eventually I am too tired, and leave after the next set, the band still has one more to go. They play from 11.30pm - 3am in the morning…! so toughen up Australian musicians, in Memphis the gigs are gunned down and late…  ha ha.

Sunday, and another couple of weeks finally catches up with me.  I decide to have a day off, and just stay in the hotel, watch movies and documentaries from bed, and then order a delivered pizza. It was a great day!

I spend tues morning setting up some stuff for the recording on my laptop for transferring files, and just practicing the bits I want to do. It’s just a little bit exciting to be recording @ Sun Studios! Ples also offered on monday, seeing that I am hanging around longer than I was going to, to take me on a tour of Ardent Studios (which is the massive studio in Memphis, his dad worked there as an engineer for 40 years, and Ples grew up as a kid around the studio) Ardent started in the 50s but throughout the years recorded bands like: Led Zeppelin, James Taylor, Stax artists including Isaac Hayes, Sam and Dave, the Staple Singers, the Bar-Kays and Booker T. and the MGs, later ZZ Top, Freddie King, Cheap Trick, Joe Cocker, and the new crop being the Replacements, R.E.M., the Georgia Satellites, the Gin Blossoms, the Afghan Whigs.  Finally the new school also entered into recording there: Three 6 Mafia, Juvenile, Al Kapone, Cat Power, the White Stripes, Bob Dylan.  We had a good look around and chatted to the current crop of producers and engineers. Great to see the place!