I have just returned home to Canada from a month long tour in Europe that took me all the way from Dresden to Milan and then up through the heart of Germany all the way to the Island of Sylt. Twenty dates in all, some larger gigs but mostly house concerts and seminars. Tours like this are often exhausting because I am travelling mostly solo and I am constantly in the close confines of living rooms mingling with strangers as opposed to waiting backstage somewhere for the show to start and then walking off to retreat backstage again after the show.




However, being a singer/songwriter has always been not just about the show but also about the people I get to know along the way. This is the best part of being an artist. I came back from this trip greatly impacted by the sheer amount of wonderful folks I got to know in the last month. Folks who attended or hosted a house concert who were strangers and then friends in one evening. I have amassed a huge fortune in relationships all over the western world because of what I do for a living. I feel like a rich man, so many great people. There was the optician who gave me a free prescription and a pair of glasses after he heard I had lost mine on the plane. The lady who owned a wellness spa who insisted I have a hot paraffin bath for my hands. The Syrian couple who always host me for a Syrian feast every time I am in town (I eat until I can’t stand up). The old Italian guy who insisted I take home a bottle of his best red wine and the man who took me sailing for a day on the Bodensee and many, many more. Kindness running rampant all the time on these small venue tours when I can’t hide behind any superstar image or stage lights and I have to look people in the eye. I like feeling less like a celebrity and more like a common troubadour. The crowds are smaller and the CD sales are less, but the perks are through the roof.

 
These days, when I hear someone say “God spoke to me,” my first reaction is to cringe. Just being honest here, but I have seen too many people say they have received directions from The Almighty and then try to use those directions to manipulate. Sure, I do believe that God speaks to those who want to listen but I think it might happen in surprising ways and the results are usually profound if not mysterious. In the first few moments of this trailer, former pastor and onetime Christian Right operative Ed Dobson says that God spoke to him and I believe him.

I had a friend of who died of ALS a few years ago. It was a slow and painful process. He kept an online journal that described his experiences in detail. Those of us reading felt like we were getting a rare glimpse of something very bittersweet and special. In my observance, many people who are in Ed’s position experience a clarity that is hard for the rest of us to obtain. The hearing becomes acute, the sight becomes keen. The themes are usually the same: a distillation, a refocusing…a sudden insight as to what is really important and what is peripheral.

Ed used to speak in front of thousands at a time. We would have said he was a man of great influence. He says now that spending time with people one on one is far more important. We would say that Ed was at the top of his game when he was struck down. He says now that he was blinded but now his sight his clear. We would say that Ed had purpose and was accomplishing big things. He says now that the things that compelled him were only distractions. There are some huge lessons here.

It takes a lot of courage and humility to have the attitude of Ed Dobson. Two attributes you would expect from someone who actually has heard from God.

Check out Ed's story here.

Definitely one of the more exciting things I have had the privilege of being a part of is the Hope For the Nations-Romania Project. My wife, Loralee , and I have served as Canadian liaison for this humanitarian effort for many years now and still travel to Brasov to keep ourselves updated and help out in any practical way we can. We recently had our friends and HFTN.RO Directors Mark and Correen Biech visit us in Kelowna for our annual budget meeting. These meetings are always extremely inspiring (yes, a budget meeting can be inspiring) and usually a lot of laughs too. This year they brought with them a special gift. Yes, it’s a bowl of crap! Nobody at the meeting wanted to open it, but we were told it was actually fish eggs.. some kind of caviar or something. Mmmm.

This bowl of crap is sitting on the year end report papers that outline what our project accomplished in 2011.  I’ll give you a few details on the newest sub-project, the Mobile Medical Unit (MMU).

Because of concerns in the rising incidents of Tuberculosis in Romania we decided to buy an RV and outfit it with donated medical equipment from Western Europe and among other things, use the MMU to start TB testing in outlying villages in collaboration with the Romanian Department of Health. As far as we know, this is the only MMU doing testing for TB in areas of the country where the average person might never even see a doctor during an entire lifetime much less take test for TB (which they couldn’t afford to do anyways) Out of 300 people we have tested roughly 50% tested positive for TB.

If these statistics hold true across a larger portion of Romania (which is probable) that would mean that our MMU unit is on the forefront of detecting what could turn out to be a major epidemic of TB. This could easily spread well beyond the borders of rural Romania into the rest of Europe. If left untreated, TB is a killer of 50% of those it infects; Men, women and children. The statistics we have been able to provide from our trips to the villages are shocking to the Romanian Department of Health and they are now implementing a treatment plan for those who whom our tests have diagnosed.




Another great project of 2011 was a organizing a successful medical training conference where doctors from Western Europe came to instruct doctors from the East in performing complicated congenital malformation correction surgery. Many children in Eastern Europe are still being born with defects as a result of the Chernobyl disaster. Over eighty children have had free corrective surgery by participating in conferences!
Loralee and I plan to travel in the fall back to Brasov to help with ESL training for children and other projects. Some of the people we visit when we go to Romania are living in conditions that most of us in Canada cannot imagine. It changes your perspective when you visit someone living in comparative squalor; someone who is trying to live a dignified life and yet cannot afford the most basic of what we take for granted every day here. Often it’s a glimpse of the nobility of the human spirit. You can read about it in a report (or on this blog) or watch it on TV but sometimes I need to step into the rarified space of a ramshackle shack in a poor village to really see it. I am grateful for that bit of perspective and as an artist who is trying to say something with his music… perspective is always good.

Here is a video of project Director Mark Biech describing some of the plans for the MMU. This was shot just after they purchased the RV and before it was sent on its first mission.

 
The gig was in a coffee house in Altensteig, Germany, which is a beautiful little hamlet in the Black Forest. My hotel that I had booked online was in a nearby village about seven minutes away. I didn’t realize it was in a different town, but hey, no problem. I had an hour to unpack, shower and get to the sound check at 6pm. All I needed to do was get the gig address from my online Google calendar. No sweat.

There was nobody at the front desk so I rang the bell and waited. The place was kind dark and musty smelling and there were two old guys sitting at the bar drinking beer and staring at me. Finally to my surprise, one of them got up ( I’ll call him Fritz) and started shuffling towards me muttering under his breath. I understand German perfectly well but Fritz’ Bavarian accent was off the charts. In my best German I told him I had a reservation under the name “Strauss”. He shuffled right past me, saying something about “reservation means nothing here”. Then as he randomly picked a key from dozens of keys hanging on the wall I understood. I was the only guest. Weird.
That was the beginning of a strange night. As it turned out, there was no internet in the hotel. Sure, there used to be, but it hasn’t worked for a long time and, no, there is no cell service here. If you walk across the street to the railroad tracks and hold up your phone you might get something. I tried. It didn’t work. (The old guys in the bar probably had a good laugh at that one.)

How was I going to find the gig? I ended up getting back in the van and driving toward Altensteig, and once I got cell phone reception, I phoned a friend who knew where the gig was. But not before Fritz stopped me in the parking lot to let me know that the hotel shuts down at 10 pm and if I was staying out longer he was going to have to show me the secret door. Secret door?? Crap. And I was almost an hour late for sound check already.

After the gig I found myself out in the middle of backwater Germany in the pouring rain. I was 12:00 midnight, and I was trying to find Fritz’s secret door in the back of the hotel somewhere. I finally got into the hotel but then I couldn’t find the hall lights. Seems they had also been shut down. I was on the first floor. My room was on the third. I was alone in this place.Thank God for my iphone which may not get phone reception here but it was now my flashlight and I read the room numbers by its ghostly light. I navigated through the maze of hallways and stairways--rooms 114, 116, 118….Where’s the elevator? Oh it’s turned off. Crap. Where are the stairs? Found them. Rooms 202, 211…. I was sure there were aliens in here waiting in the dark around the corner. I kept repeating to myself “I have a strange life, I have a strange life.”…250, 251…. “WHERE IS MY ROOM!”

Twenty minutes later I was finally in my room. It smelled super musty and my skin had that crawling thing going on; especially after I found a large spider on my bed. I turned on all the lights, swallowed two sleeping pills and prayed for sleep to come quickly. I tried to watch TV, but of course, no signal.

Here’s some good advice for all you touring musicians. Take it from a fool who knows; always have a hard/paper copy of your tour details and addresses with you. Don’t just keep them on your iphone or even worse, stored on your google account online. Especially when travelling abroad. Also, check and double check your hotel bookings. Do what I didn’t do in this particular instance; read the reviews.
How about you? Do you have a “got lost on tour” story?

by Norm Strauss
I get to travel quite a bit in the course of my work as an artist and it never ceases to amaze me how N.American music in particular has had such a profound influence in the last 60 years globally. And I don’t mean on just the music people like to listen to but even extending to political ideologies (or response to ideology) but also faith, philanthropy, philosophy and even science and technology. Aristotle insisted that poets were more important than politicians. It has often been said that the artists are more in tune with what’s happening in our nations than the government leaders. I think this has some truth in it, especially in our more globally aware age.
A few centuries ago the local folk music that had evolved through the centuries in each culture was pretty localized. There was some cross pollination of course, like when one country conquered another for instance..but the artistic spread was at a much slower and less encompassing rate. For music there was no recording industry and so the songwriters sang their songs as traveling troubadours or simply around the family hearth. Starting around the mid 1700’s music started to have influence throughout the civilized world by way of copied music notation and large public performances called ‘concerts’; a word developed around that time from Italian concentare (to sing together).

The center of the universe for music became Europe and in particular Germany, Austria and Italy. Bach, Handel, Mozart, Strauss ..let’s make sure we mention Strauss, Beethoven….these were in the influencers and a lot of the music exploration was funded by the church, or from wealthy benefactors. It was not dependent on how well many ‘units sold’, at least not initially. The result of this fostering was an explosion of incredible art and music that rocked the civilized world.

However in the mid 20th century it wasn’t so much the contemporary European songwriters that were influencing global politics and fashion but it had shifted to the United States. Why? Was it because American mothers gave birth to better and more creative writers and musicians? Of course not. I have another theory (shared by many others I am sure) and I think history backs me up on it. That is this; when governments, private benefactors or even churches understand that (good) art has high value beyond its immediate commercial value and seeks to responsibly undergird art without controlling the artists..really cool stuff happens. When those same agencies seek to control it through pressure of finance (record labels take heed).. really bad stuff happens. When they are indifferent …good stuff still happens but much more slowly and with much pain.

I have a songwriter friend in Germany whom I have often heard remark on the stunting of the evolution of Germany’s musical influence during the world wars. During the 30’s and 40’s the Nazis especially were uber controlling of the arts and were experts at turning art into propaganda. Any serious artists were either highly controlled or deported or worse (obviously not the first time in history this has occurred). However in stark contrast to Germany during this time was President Roosevelt’s New Deal Arts Program which went for 11 years in total starting 1933. This was a government financed initiative that was put in place during the great depression to bolster the American moral. What a daring thought in a time of great troubles!

Under Roosevelt’s multi-faceted plan millions of Americans went to a concerts, arts exhibits and plays for the first time. There were 225,000 concerts to audiences totaling a budget of 150 million. Plays and performances to audiences -total budget 30 million. 475,000 works of art and 276 full-length books were commissioned. Many artists became famous and had their careers launched during these days. Many of these works of art are still viewable in national archives and museums.

‘There was a time when the people of this country would not have thought that the inheritance of art belonged to them. . . .A few generations ago, the people of this country were often taught. . .that art was something foreign to America and to themselves—something imported from another continent, something from an age which was not theirs—something they had no part in…’
Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dedication of the National Gallery of Art, March 17, 1941.

Wow.

Did it work? Yes. It boosted moral I am sure (hard to quantify) but it also had further reaching effects.

There may be other factors, but I believe this is the primary reason why, only a decade or so later, American-birthed music such as swing, jazz, blues and rock and roll started to take the world by force while the former seminal music ‘wells’ like Europe dried up. This happened also in theatre and literature. Because someone with some money, insight and courage decided to act on instinct and thereby greatly enhance the artistic community in a time when that community was needed the most.

I have known several wealthy people in my lifetime who don’t even know this history but who feel the principle by instinct and have acted upon it. The result is that I have seen artistic and cultural ground plowed and re-planted while lives have been enriched. I am always amazed at this principle and like to observe it in action. I only hope our governments are also able to remember this.. but then I guess that’s our job to remind them as well.

Artists need time and support in order to explore and break new ground. It doesn’t work in a vacuum. Inventing new melodies, movement, color combinations, poetic rhythm, storylines.. all that stuff is risky and risk is not financially viable most of the time. Art has to be communal and valued within that community or it will suck. Not a new concept, but that part of the support process is often overlooked or misunderstood in the shadow of record deals, image making machines and financially forced artistic output.

As one important artist said once; Roll over Beethoven….

I used to be a scooter snob. Not in a serious way, but kind of. I have been a motorcyclist for many years, and when I was younger I even used to race 1/4 mile drag strips with my street bikes.  If you ride a street bike you know that there has always been this unwritten rule that if you meet another motocyclist coming from the other direction you either give a nod or slight wave. It's like a loose brotherhood amongst the 'riders in the storm'. But It used to bother me when Harley riders wouldn't give the nod or the wave. I used to think them  haughty when they would refuse to acknowledge a lowly Honda rider and that would irritate me. That is, until scooters started becoming more prelavent in North America and they started trying to give me the nod or the wave. Peasants.

Recently my wife and I and I joined our friends Mark and Coreen Biech (who live in Brasov, Romania) for a short holiday to Naples, Italy (aka scooter heavan.). I couldn't believe how many scooters there were. I think they outnumbered motorcycles by about 25-1 and cars by about 100-1. And they were all crazy drivers too. Weaving in and out of traffic on those narrow roads like an Italian Evil Knieval. Well, after only about 1 day there I started developing a strange craving for scooters. By the end of our 3 days I wanted one so bad I could taste it. I was dismayed at how easily I caved into the cultural shift. Kind of like when I was in Bali and bought some shirts that I thought looked cool in the moment but when I got them home I couldn't wear them.


Here's a picture I took of a parking lot in Sorrento Italy last month.

I am not a sociologist, but I am a songwriter and therefore by definition I have to be an observer of humans. (I wonder if a sociologist would give me a nod out on the open road). I am surprised at how we are the product of our culture on so many levels. How do you escape it? Folk musicians especially, are fond of being percieved as iconclastic.. Bob Dylan is the role model here. And yet I have been more than once at a folk festival where a performer yelled out onstage (for example), "Bush is an idiot." to the delight and wild applause of the audience. Part of me thinks, "Takes guts to say that.. right on." Another part of me thinks, "That's so weak. Say that at a republican rally if you want my applause for that." (There's nothing daring, creative or iconoclastic about preaching to the choir. I should know I have done it a million times.) That's why I am normally very reluctant to write songs that rail against any current political leader. It too easily slips from being important to being cowardly or from prophetic to conspiracy theory. I did however, just write a song about Ghaddafi and Bashar al-Assad. But that to me seems more black and white perhaps. I dunno.

Anyways here's some questions for you songwriters who want to write songs that matter;

How do I as a songwriter write important music when I am so influenced by what surrounds me. How do I escape the cultural gravity in order to write with real salt in my lyric? How do I reconcile, "I want to write prophetic lyrics like Bob Dylan." With "I hope they like my songs because I just want to be loved." 

And also, if I ride a scooter am I a shadow of my former self?

We didn’t set out at first to write a song for Prince William and Kate Middleton. It just kind of happened. Actually, in all my (almost) 30 years in writing songs I have never attempted to, nor even thought about, writing a jazz song about someone in royalty. I remember briefly thinking about writing a song about the Queen once but had I followed that one through it probably would have been a disastrous country/rock song. I wanted to write about Paul McCartney once. He’s not really royalty but he’s a ‘Sir’ now. That song probably would have been a bad idea as well. But this one feels right and it’s an example of what co-writing can be when it’s good.

Roadmap Music’s newest release is the charming story of William and Kate told from the vantage point of, well everyone and no one in particular. The lyrics are written like little snapshots (or paintings) of what their lives could be like.. not particularly right now, but maybe now; or, maybe when they are in their 70’s. It doesn’t matter; it’s just fun to imagine it. I mean they have to get out to their favorite café there in Kensington once in a while. For sure they would (at some point in their lives) dance around the room to classic movie soundtracks. I just know it.

The final lyrics were written and recorded just before their announcement that the couple ‘wanted to live the simple life’ so unfortunately we have no references to do with doing laundry or cleaning the kitchen; maybe in the sequel song? Written by myself and fellow Roadmapper Andrew Smith, with a little bit of help from Zach Smith and Edmonton artist Ann Vriend (who sang the lead on the track) this song turned out just right. What better genre to tell the story in than smooth jazz. I picture them dancing at their wedding reception to this song. At least I hope they like it when they hear it. We hope they like the video too. It’s here along with some other Roadmap songs that are not really about Royalty but are still pretty cool. www.williamandkatesong.com

As a songwriter and performer it's very important for me to listen to a lot of music. Even better is to go experience one of my favorite artists live. We all know that creativity begets creativity. It is always passed on somehow. A process that has been going on probably since Jubal first picked up the penny whistle. We inspire each other, it's as simple as that.

On Saturday night I had the privilege of watching truly one of the world's best blues and roots artists perform at the Kelowna Folk Club. What a great experience to see Eric Bibb perform! For me it was once again a study in what a great singer/songwriter does. It's about so much more than just singing or playing a song well. It's more involved than just mastering some riffs and emitting some on pitch sounds out of your mouth. Eric Bibb didn't just sing the songs, it was more like they kind of erupted out of him. I got the sense that there was not a cell in his body that was not totally involved in delivering the music. Maybe there were some muscles and nerve endings that were busy doing some side work, I am not sure, but you sure would be hard pressed to figure out which ones they were. This guy sounded and looked completely immersed in the art of telling the story through music and for those fortunate enough to be sitting in that room, the vortex created was pretty much irresistible.

This is why it always seems slightly self-abusive for a lot of us singer/songwriters to stand on a stage in some restaurant where only 3-4 people in the front row are paying attention while the rest are regarding you as background music for thier conversation. I mean, you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes but for me that scenario has always been a joy-killer. Is that slightly narcistic? I dunno.

Anyways, as I watched Eric Bibb, I was reminded that being a singer/songwriter is not about singing a song so much as it is about being the song.. sounds cliche and knd of sappy. But you know I think it's true. I don't ever want to be a performer that just comes out and sings some songs. I have been to concerts like that... great songs but who's the cardboard cut-out out up there flailing away? I think it should take even more investment than that. You have to share who you are with a crowd of strangers. If you can't do that you are not worth your weight as a good songwriting artist. It is a special skill to be vulnerable AND engaging. ( It is possible to be vulnerable and not be engaging or the other way around too.. but that seems empty to me)


Anyway, I'm still learning and I want to keep it that way.

Today I went into London Drugs to buy some blank CD's for my studio. I haven't done this for a long while because for the longest time I have been listening to studio mixes via a flashdrive and mp3 player in my car. Unfortunately I recently sold my car and there went the fancy-schmancy player that allowed me to just take a new mix from the studio and plug it for level comparison, equalization etc. I produce not only my own music but sometimes other peoples music as well. Having a consistant audio system to run mixes through (other than the recording studio monitors) is helpful to determine the quality of the mixdown. Especially if you are producing in a variety of music genres. Anyways, now its back to the blank CD, which somehow seems archaic to me. Which is strange because I am from the generation that at one time listened to 8 track cassettes in my car (because it was hard to use a record player on bumpy roads). My new pickup truck has a nice Pioneer CD player in it but no mp3 plug in slot. Sigh.

Well, the price of the 15 pack of CD's (with jewel cases) was $10.99. Not bad. Imagine my surprise when the total came to $17.18.

"Whoa." I said, "That's a lot of tax!"

"Audio levy." The cashier looked over the rim of her reader glasses at me as if I had just blown into town after living in a cave for a decade. "The recording industry imposes this levy so the money can go back to them to cover lost revenue from duplication."

"In other words, a general rip-off." says the old guy in the farmer overalls standing next to me in line.

Wait a minute. I am in the recording industry. That's me...when do I get my cheque? I just paid almost 50% of the total retail price of a pack of blank CD's which I actually use in the studio. Not for burning ripped off, downloaded versions of Mariah Carey but for comparing mixdowns.

How long has this been going on? Who's in charge here? With the advent of mp3 playing car stereo systems and a thousand other types of portable mp3 players why on earth would anybody even buy a blank cd anymore if the levy is that steep. Sounds to me like someone is shooting themselves in the foot (I mean besides me) and this 'levy' is doomed to cost more than it makes in the long run. What's next, a new levy on flash drives?

Okay this is more a rant than a blog, but I am mystified about this one.

On Monday night I was fortunate enough to have a gig at the Nyala Restaurant in Vancouver. Excellent Ethiopian cuisine, great atmosphere, packed house. But perhaps the best was the incredible jam sessions we ended up having together. At one point in the evening during one of these extended musical 'moments' I looked around me and was suddenly very aware of what a gift being a musician is. Not only for the listener but also for the musician. Music is such a communal art. Like all art, it is best when it is shared amongst friends. There I was, playing the conga drum at one point, Ezra Kwizera our singer/songwriter friend from Rwanda playing another drum with me on the my right, a guy whom I never met before playing the electric guitar, our friend from the UK Dave Moore on bass, Graham from the UK on guitar, Andrew Smith and myself representing Canada (I guess). We were playing songs that for some of us we had never even heard before in front of a live audience and yet it somehow worked. Later on the evening we even had Cheryl Bear, our First Nations friends who is an incredible singer/songwriter bring her sons onstage and sing some songs and beat the big Indian drum. The musical palette for the evening went from long jams in Swahili hip hop, to blues, to bluegrass, to First Nations folk music to jazz.

Soul filling.

It went late. The owner didn't want us to stop. I lost track of the encores. The spicy food and the great Kenya beer were incredible. The feeling of something special happening was very tangible and everyone was reluctant to see it end.

The gift of music is for bringing us together and helping us share who we are with one another. I think The One who invented music is very pleased when we experience that aspect of the gift. The whole evening was just another reminder of how priviliged we are as musicians to be part of the flow sometimes.