How they do things on Salt Spring Island, BC

And…we’re back from the tour.  Well, almost:  we’ve been west, and we’ve been east – and next week we head back to the left coast to Victoria’s amazing UNO Festival for two more shows.   Then a handful more shows over the summer months here in Ontario.

Tour report so far?   The week on the east coast was beautiful!  Amazing weather meant great drives around Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and PEI;  in NB, we had the honour of playing at two renown, gorgeous theatres, The Imperial in Saint John and The Fredericton Playhouse (where Canadian Olympic athlete, women’s mountain bike champ Catharine Pendrel was sitting in the front row at our show! Eeeeeee!);  shows in small NS communities like picturesque Annapolis Royal, Saulnierville (on the French Shore) and Shelburne were a treat.  We had an unexpected celebrity encounter after the Osprey Theatre show, with Shelburne-summer couple, actor Jane Alexander and director Ed Sherin, who stayed after to tell us they loved the show:)   A gas station attendant in Aulac NB, right on the border between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, makes it her hobby to buy the CD’s of every travelling musician who stops at her gas station - as it’s right on the TransCanada hwy, she said EVERYONE does stop there – and bought our CD right from the trunk.  Everywhere we go, I meet amazing people, cyclists and cycling enthusiasts:  in Annapolis Royal, the local cycling group the “cyclopaths” came to the show, instead of going on their weekly thursday ride;  they are a self-professed “eating group with a cycling problem” who enjoy long rides to delicious eating opportunities.  Of course the pain of touring on a tight schedule is that there’s no time for riding around ourselves (next tour, i plan to get a foldy-bike to put in the van!), or much tourism.   But from peacocks on Salt Spring Island, BC, to driving over the longest bridge in the world (Confederation Bridge to PEI:  8 miles!), we definitely took in some glorious sights and views and windows into life in this vast, diverse and beautiful land of ours.   And of course in the end, the sweetest part of going away is coming home.  Where I am glad to be for another week before we go back west…

The song is based on a real letter, that I really received, from the real granddaughter of Annie  (first woman to ride around the world on a bicycle in 1895)  Londonderry, a few months after I released the SPIN CD in 2011.   What she told me in her letter moved me deeply, and eventually, I adapted her words to create this song that now is part of the ending of the show.   For me the most amazing part of receiving this letter was how it brought SPIN full circle. When I first discovered Annie Londonderry’s story, I was so inspired and blown away by it, I wrote my song,”The Balled of Annie Londonderry”, which in turn became one of the building blocks of my show SPIN.  Receiving this letter made me reframe my own understanding of who Annie was, and at the same time, it gave me a rare and profound moment of understanding and gratitude for how art can connect us, across time and culture and place, and how it can sometimes miraculously change our own understandings of our own stories.   I would like to thank Mary Goldiner for allowing me to use the words from her beautiful letter, and I am so pleased to be able to put this new song into the world:  the wheel turning another revolution in the amazing cycle of creative inspiration.

We’re on at the Cultch

So happy to have landed in Vancouver, at the beautiful Cultch, for a two-week run of the show.  It’s spring here, full of cherry blossoms and flowers, we’ve borrowed ourselves some bicycles to ride around on, Vancouver is full of bike lanes, and the show is getting full houses and enthusiastic audiences, so…I’m a very happy camper.

From the stage of the Thalian Hall, Wilmington NC

First stop on the spring 2013 SPIN tour is Wilmington,North Carolina.   After some epic packing to fly this show thru the air, we arrived late last night with all our bits in tact.  This morning I did a workshop at the University (for a gender studies class -very fun, although 9 am is admittedly probably not my best time…) and tomorrow we do the show at the magnificent Thalian Hall, a beeeeeautiful heritage theatre in downtown Wilmington.  It’s an old vaudeville theatre build in 1855, and has been recently restored to it’s original splendor.  I have to say this theatre wins the prize for the most fabulous space we have ever played in – it’s truly stunning.  There’s a gigantic chandelier which will rise as the red velvet curtain rises!   And many incredible and noteworthy artists have graced the boards here over the last century or so, including – must say this excited me – Oscar Wilde.  And hey cyclists:  if you ride your bike to the show, you get free popcorn!

A cool North Carolina connection:  Brad and I are excited to meet Jeff Carroll of Bluefield Mastering, who mastered the SPIN CD, and who lives in the state…we’ve worked together via the internet over the last couple of years, and finally get to meet tomorrow at the theatre, he’s coming to town for the show.     He’s also just mastered the recording of the new song from the show, “A Letter from Annie Londonderry’s Granddaughter”, which will finally be released as a digital download…next week!  woo hoo.  Next stop after Wilmington is Wingate, NC.   We’re only playing towns that start with “W” in North Carolina this time.   Next  stop after that, working our way backward through the alphabet, is Vancouver.

My grandmother was Annie Londonderry

My cousin Peter sent me your CD.

I have just finished listening to your ballad about Annie,

And I want to tell you what it did for me.

I had a loving relationship with my grandmother.

She died when I was sixteen.  But unfortunately for her children,

the repercussions of her exploits were not always of a positive nature,

and until today, I have struggled to be free:

of resentment at the impact of her journey on my family.

But they say not to give up on anything, as one might miss the miracle

They say not to give up on anything: one might miss the miracle

They say not to give up on anything: one might miss the miracle,

They say not to give up anything

Sure enough your Ballad about Annie made me realize, finally

the significance of her journey to the future emancipation of women

(Until today, I have struggled to be free)

The universe clearly moves forward with its own priorities.

And I am grateful to you for this opportunity to learn that it is NOT JUST ABOUT ME.

They say not to give up on anything, as one might miss the miracle

They say not to give up on anything: one might miss the miracle

They say not to give up on anything: one might miss the miracle,

They say not to give up anything

They say not to give up on anything, as one might miss the miracle

They say not to give up on anything: one might miss the miracle

They say not to give up on anything: one might miss the miracle,

They say not to give up anything

Sincerely and Gratefully,

Mary

c   evalyn parry SOCAN, 2013 / music by evalyn parry, words adapted from a letter from Mary Goldiner

In April, we take the bike on it’s biggest tour yet – starting off with two shows in North Carolina, followed by a two-week run at the Cultch in Vancouver, a night on Salt Spring Island, and then a week in the Maritimes.  From sea to shining sea!  I am so very excited to have this show stretching out across the country, it’s a dream come true.  Thanks to the Ontario Arts Council’s Touring Programming for supporting us in our travels this spring.

Also very excited to also announce that we’ll be doing a week of performances around the Northwest Territories next fall  - more details to come about that.

Speaking of the North – thanks to Tom Coxworth at CKUA radio in Alberta who played the (pre-release, burned CD of) “To Live in the Age of Melting: Northwest Passage Revisited” on his show last week.  Thanks to all the nice responses I’ve had to that single play!  The piece will soon be given a digital release.  As of now, it exist only in the hands of Tom and a couple other folk DJ’s who happened to get it from me at Folk Alliance last weekend in Toronto…but soon, soon…. soon there will be a download for you.  watch this space.   for now, i’ll just tell you there is some seriously beautiful cover art by Elysha Poirier in the works…and if you are in Toronto, come to the house concert on March 22 to see some live video that we’re creating to go with the piece, first public showing.

xo  evalyn

I’m biased, of course:  I’m the Director of the Unit .  But it’s truly a unique and special program, and I feel so very lucky to get to do this work.  Every year I mentor four young queer creator / performers (age 25 and under) through the creation of a one-person show, and this has been an especially interesting year. We’ve been working together since October, and I can tell you that they are quite an exceptional bunch:   each has a truly unique perspective and a fascinating, important and moving story to tell.   They’ve inspired and challenged and changed me though our work together.

The 25-minute shows are unveiled two at a time, first Katie Sly and Shaista Latif (Feb 23 and 24) and then Aemilius (Milo) Ramirez and Sina Gilani (March 2 and 3).    Four truly unique, insightful, fierce and courageous new voices that warrant your attention.

Sat Feb 23 and Sun Feb 24 @ 6 pm
Evil Love Songs by Katie Sly, guest director Jess Dobkin
Graceful Rebellions by Shaista Latif, directed by Evalyn Parry

Sat March 2 and Sun March 3 @ 6 pm
How to Store Pomegranates by Sina Gilani, directed by Alistair Newton
To the Other Side by Aemilius Ramirez, guest director Gein Wong

All performances are PWYC (pay what you can), or admission is included with your Rhubarb ticket. Hope to see you there! 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Then, I’ll be packing up my guitar and be booting over to the other end of town to take part in the notorious Wrecking Ball , a political theatre happening: this one is the Idle No More edition, with brand new works by Waawaate Fobister, Falen Johnson, Andrew Moodie, Yvette Nolan & Jordan Tannahill, Hosted by Andre Morriseau with Hoop Dance performance by Arik Pipestem & Song performance by Cathy Elliot.  I’m going to be acting in Jordon’s brand new script –  and I do mean brand new, since for the Wrecking Ball, playwrights are given a week and no more to write a new play on the theme.  Stoked! 

Also, there are those who’ve been asking:  when are you going to be playing a show again in Toronto? I’ll admit, it has been a while – i have been performing hither and yon with SPIN, but not much playing in my home town lately.  Well,  Sunday afternoon will be sweet and casual in my Parkdale neighbourhood, and then a week later on Feb 2, I’ll be doing a solo set at the Flying Beaver Pubaret (gets my vote for awesome venue name), sharing the bill with chanteuse Suzanne Nuttall.  Trivia Fact:  Suzanne produced my very first record, back in 2001 (Things That Should Be Warnings”).  She is wonderful.  She used to have a funk band called Sue de Nym.   Before that she had a folk band called Bare Bones.   She is now stripping it back to her solo thing – it has been a super long time since we have shared a stage – and I’m very much looking forward to it.