One half of Peterborough-based fuzz-folk alt-country duo Mayhemingways, Josh and bandmate Benj Rowland embarked on a cross-Canada tour from Peterborough to St. John’s to B.C.

This is Josh’s final report from the road. Read part one, part two, and part three.

It is so nice to be writing from home. After a month on the road, there is nothing like your own bed, your loved one, and familiar coffee shops.

I must say, without sounding too dramatic, that this is a crazy life we lead. Town after city after town. Meeting new friends and seeing old ones all over this vast country. Different beds each day. Four hour drives being routine. Cutting across wide swathes of Canada and seeing the bits and pieces of this big, diverse and beautiful land.

It’s hard work (yes, it is work!) but we love it. Glamorous? No. Satisfying? Yes.

Reflections on the Badlands

I was lucky enough to have my partner Alisha fly out for a part of our trip. She got to meet some very good friends of ours out there and to see some unique and beautiful parts of Alberta.

One of the coolest places we got to visit together was Twin Butte. Home of the Twin Butte General Store — a Mexican restaurant, venue, post office, and liquor and convenience store. Among musicians, it is a gem of touring. Where the prairies meet the mountains. Where the owners Jeny and Phil treat every touring musician like gold. And you get to stay at a bunkie overlooking the Rockies with views of a coulee, golden hills, and horses.

We also decided to take a road through the foothills to the Cowboy Trail. We drove our rental car to beautiful vistas and winding roads. This was ranching country where cows still roam and the landscape inspires “wow” moments with each turn.

Lastly we got a chance to check out the stark, layered beauty of the Badlands. Specifically we drove to Drumheller and the surrounding area.

We took the opportunity to go to the Royal Tyrell Museum as well. It features one of the best collections of dinosaur fossils in world, many of them from that area or just further southwest from Dinosaur Provincial Park.

Stampede, Sheepdogs, and Recordland

I’ve been to Calgary a number of times, but this was the first time being in town for a big chunk of the Stampede. What I hadn’t realized in the past is that it’s basically a 10+ day bender with a bunch of rodeo events.

Stampede breakfasts happen all over the city, with hotels usually offering up alcoholic beverages as early as 7 or 8 a.m. By noon there are some happy people walking around Calgary, and by evening it’s definitely a party.

We had an off day on the same day that the Sheepdogs, currently featuring Bailieboro’s Jimmy Bowskill, were playing the Stampede. I got in touch with Jim and we were able to hang pre-show. We went record shopping at one of Canada’s best record stores, Recordland. Rare LPs, CDs, cassettes, and they currently feature a $1 vinyl sale. Four huge shelves, maybe 40 feet long with records from floor to ceiling. All for $1. I could have spent days and still been finding gems. It was amazing.

After the Sheepdogs show, I was able to get backstage and hang with the boys for a few beers. As I was entering the backstage area I heard someone say, “Josh?” It turned out my cousin Misty was working security for the stage area. What a small world.

Then we ventured to new-country artist Brett Kissel’s trailer in the backstage area of the Stampede and continued on to some other “VIP” areas. It’s a bit of a blur at this point, but it was a whole other side of The Stampede … and it sure was great to see Jimmy and the boys.

Final thoughts

Every time I go to Western Canada, it captures a little bit of my heart. I’m not sure why it does that, exactly. It could be the prairies, the mountains, the people, or maybe a combination of these and more. One thing that they certainly get out there is the appreciation of live music and the musicians who bring it to them.

Touring Canada can be exhausting. The sheer distances between destinations could make some folks crumble. But I like the challenge. It comes with rewards. There were a lot of thankful people on this tour; thankful that we overcame distance and the inherent difficulties.

In return, I am so grateful for audience members who support live music. The reward for us is the grace and hospitality we are showed at most of our stops. It’s rejuvenating and reminds me why I choose this crazy occupation.

Thank you to everyone who supports us at home and on the road. Until the next time!

Ennismore Homestead Theatre has been on my radar each summer but until this year I’ve never been able to go — because getting a ticket to one of their shows is much like getting one of Willie Wonka’s golden tickets.

Theatre patrons to the theatre reportedly begin lining up at 5 a.m. to purchase tickets when they go on sale, and tickets sell out within a matter of hours. I’ve never been a morning person, so I considered myself very lucky when I was invited by Paul Crough to sit in the audience for the opening of his new original play Paper Planes.

Directed by Bea Quarrie in her first production for Homestead Theatre, Paper Planes has a powerhouse cast of local talent and Paul’s well-crafted script takes the audience on an emotional rollercoaster of laughter and tears. It’s a story about a son remembering his father, a father remembering his mother, and the struggle to remember anything at all.

Narrated by Eliot Greenwood (Maximillian Czmielewski), Paper Planes is the young man’s telling of the difficult times his family faced during the summer of 2006. As family patriarch Kai Greenwood (Paul Crough) struggles to finish his latest novel, he becomes more and more emotionally removed from everyone around him — especially his wife Nicole (Megan Murphy).

Things become more complicated when Kai’s unstable brother Russel (Kevin O’Neill) comes to live with the couple when he finds himself with nowhere to go.

As the communication between Kai and Nicole continues to break down, it becomes apparent that Kai has a secret that only Nicole’s best friend Janine (Kate Brioux) knows. Entering into couple’s therapy, truths begin to rise to the surface as Kai begins to remember long-repressed memories from his childhood involving his mother Helen (Lisa Devan) and a traumatic night when she and her sons made paper airplanes.

An emotional family drama, Paper Planes‘s success finds itself in the delicate balance between drama and humour. Although it’s too dramatic to be called a comedy, the show is often quite funny. Bea Quarrie builds up the tension in a scene, only to tear it back down with laughter.

The result is a powerful emotional experience, both on the stage and in the audience, that continues to intensify as the play reaches its conclusion.

At the centre of the show is Paul Crough as Kai Greenwood. Although his character is involved in his own head, Paul still manages to create a powerful emotional dynamic with whomever he is on the stage.

Whether fighting with his son, trying to connect with his wife, or repressing himself to a childlike stage in his memories with his mother, Paul brings emotion and meaning to the character he creates while fully giving himself to the other actors.

Kai can be a frustrating character to watch at times, and it’s initially easier for the audience to sympathize with his suffering wife Nichole. But as truths begin to emerge in the show, Kai becomes the most beloved of characters. Paul Crough gives a powerful performance of a difficult character.

Whereas Paul’s character is often emotionally removed, Megan Murphy’s character Nicole wears her heart on her sleeve. The emotional crux of the show, Megan creates a woman who is strong and independent, but very much alone in a marriage with a man she doesn’t recognize anymore. Trying to find meaning in her marriage, Nicole will do anything to make it work again. However, when she delivers an ultimatum to her husband, life seems to get in the way again.

Once again, the emotional connection between Megan and Paul is unmistakable and the two of them are wonderful together on the stage.

After a four-year absence from the Peterborough theatre community, Lisa Devan returns in the role of Kai’s mother, Helen Greenwood. A lovely woman with a thick southern accent, Helen works hard and tries to be a good mom to her two boys. However, that doesn’t mean she always does the right thing and she doesn’t always know what to do.

A woman with a shady past who is running from something, Helen is a tragic figure filled with love and sadness and cloaked in mystery. Lisa Devan gives a lovely performance of a fallen angel who lives in the fragmented memories of a son who struggles to remember her.

Maximillian Czmielewski gives an interesting performance as Eliot Greenwood, the son of Kai and Nicole. As the narrator of the drama, Maximillian plays the same character at different stages of his life, in 2016 and 2006. The result is that in an instant Maximillian changes his character from being an introspective and well-spoken young man to a cocky and privileged punk.

Playing characters much older than he really is, the frame of the show is put on the shoulders of this 15-year-old actor — who carries it without any struggle.

The show’s comedic relief is provided by Kevin O’Neill as Kai’s brother Russel and Kate Brioux as Janine Riverton. Once again, Paper Planes is all about balance, and Kevin and Kate provide the comedy whereas Paul and Megan provide the drama.

Perfectly coming in to a scene to relieve dramatic tension, Kevin and Kate can break the audience up with their bigger-than-life personalities and comic timing. Kate breaks the fourth wall on more than one occasion, and the liveliest musical numbers of the night fall to this pair.

Paper Planes also features Mike Judson in a small but important role in the show. A spectre from Kai’s past, Mike plays a cruel and overbearing figure named Shane Purvis. The jovial Mike Judson that we know from television is long gone in this role — it’s Mike as you’ve never seen him before.

Mike has really found a place for himself on the Peterborough stage and is proving himself to be a very good actor. It was great to see Mike in a dramatic role and hopefully we’ll be seeing Mike in more shows of this caliber.

While Paper Planes is not a musical, it does feature four original songs by Mac Morin and Paul Crough. Although the musical numbers seem temporarily jarring, the performances work — especially given the huge vocal talents of performers like Kate Brioux and Paul Crough.

Kate’s performance of “J’adore Paris” is easily the musical moment of the night, although the ’80s pop-inspired “Russell Revolution” featuring Kevin and Kate was my favourite number.

I want to give a quick shout out to the people involved in the set for Paper Planes, designed by Todd Willis, Michael Mott, and Paul Crough with Ellen Lueck, Colette Swift, and Lindsay Unterlande. The stage crew managed to put a modern living room and kitchen into an old barn.

This multi-level set looks nicer than my own apartment, and I felt that I could have just moved onto the Paper Planes set quite comfortably. The play’s set design is itself a work of art.

Paper Planes is a moving piece of drama created by some of Peterborough’s favorite performers. Bea Quarrie uses the wonderful talents of her cast to pull out all the emotional stops. Paper Planes is a show that will sit heavy in the hearts of the audiencehope and hopefully fully will be performed again and again.

For more information on Ennismore Homestead Theatre, visit their website at www.ennismorehomesteadtheatre.com.

All photos courtesy of Ennismore Homestead Theatre.

November 25, 1976. San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom.

For those who were there that American Thanksgiving night, it was magical as Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson, Levon Helm, and Robbie Robertson took to the stage for the final time together.

Close to 40 years later, the final performance of The Band, immortalized by director Martin Scorcese’s critically acclaimed concert film The Last Waltz, remains oh so musically relevant. No one knows that better than Lance Anderson.

It was back in 2010, for the Kitchener Blues Festival, that the two-time Juno Award-winning producer brought together a group of musicians to pay homage to The Band’s timeless music. On July 30th at Del Crary Park, The Last Waltz — with Anderson still front-and-centre at keyboards — will headline Peterborough Musicfest.

“Not only were we not ready for the audience’s response — people were crying, it was very emotional — but we had so much fun doing it that we went, ‘Well, we shouldn’t just do this once,'” recalled Anderson of that inaugural performance, in a 2015 interview with The Ottawa Citizen.

Among the band members is drummer Jerome Avis, the godson of Helm. The son of Bill Avis of Peterborough, the former road manager of The Band, and a side-stage witness on that night close to four decades ago, Jerome learned to play drums at his godfather’s knee. With Anderson, Jerome and Bill (Bill Avis and Son Productions) have developed, nurtured and overseen the tribute that has played consistently to sold-out audiences across Ontario and is on the cusp of branching out further.

“A lot of people say I play in Levon’s style, the way I attack the drums,” noted Avis in The Ottawa Citizen article.

“I’d always be at him to show me different things. I have a picture of Levon showing me licks on an old baseball glove when I was eight. I had it blown up and it’s on the front of my bass drum.”

Anderson stresses The Last Waltz isn’t a note-for-note impersonation of The Band. Rather, it aims to reflect the musical style of the quintet. For fans of The Band’s music, and there are still many, the set list is peppered with instantly recognizable favourites: “Up On Cripple Creek” (the opening song in 1976), “The Weight”, “Ophelia”, “The Shape I’m In”, “It Makes No Difference”, “Life Is A Carnival”, and “The Night They Drove Ol’ Dixie Down” are among the songs featured.

Aiding in that cause, and making The Last Waltz an event that transcends the typical concert experience, is a full backing band that features a four-member horn section comprised of Dave Dunlop (trumpet), Gord Meyers (trombone/tuba), Chris Murphy (tenor sax) and Simon Wallis (baritone sax).

The rhythm section, meanwhile, sees Terry Blersh (guitar), Dennis Pinhorn (bass) and Rob Gusevs (Hammond B3 organ) join Anderson and Avis. And yes, side stage, no doubt wearing his commemorative Band jacket, will be the elder Avis, just as he was all those years ago.

With the original concert having featured a number of the time’s popular music icons — Bob Dylan, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Van Morrison, and Ronnie Hawkins were among those who guested — Anderson, Avis et al have taken to featuring guest singers for each Last Waltz performance.

That will be no different this Saturday as the band is fronted by LumberJunk lead singer Matt Weidinger, blue music powder keg Johnny Max (John McAneney), Downchild Blues Band lead singer and harmonica master Chuck Jackson, and Quisha Wint, one of Toronto’s most sought-after session vocalists and a 2003 Canadian Idol Top 30 finalist.

While Anderson, as musical director, keeps the band on the same page technically throughout its musically challenging set, Avis’ emotional connection to Helm is as overwhelming as the day it was forged.

When a reprised version of The Band, including Helm, went on tour after the original group parted ways, the Avis family sometimes went along for the ride.

“My sister (Rebecca) and I spent summers on the road with the guys … it was a pretty interesting childhood,” recalled Avis in The Ottawa Citizen interview.

Years later in 2012, after the Arkansas-born Helm died of cancer in 2012 at age 71, Jerome and his father were among a select group invited to his private wake in Woodstock, New York.

“Levon was a beautiful soul … I miss him.”

The Last Waltz – A Musical Celebration of The Band

“The Shape I’m In” by The Band – performed by Lance Anderson and The Last Waltz

“Up On Cripple Creek” by The Band, from The Last Waltz (1976)

Peterborough Musicfest is presenting 19 free-admission concerts during its milestone 30th anniversary season, each staged Wednesday and Saturday nights.

Overseen by general manager Tracey Randall and staff, a board of directors, and numerous volunteers, Peterborough Musicfest’s stated mission is to “provide diverse, affordable live music to enrich cultural and economic prosperity in our community.”

For more information on this concert and/or the 2016 season, visit www.ptbomusicfest.ca or phone the Peterborough Musicfest office at 705-755-1111.

Every Thursday, we publish live music and performance events at pubs and clubs in Peterborough and The Kawarthas based on information that venues provide to us directly or post on their website or social media channels. Here are the listings for the week of Thursday, July 28 to Wednesday, August 3.

If you’re a pub or club owner and want to be included in our weekly listings, please email our Nightlife Editor at nightlife@kawarthanow.com.