Snow cancels show

Winnipeg has plenty of snow. When I was there for the folk festival last summer it was too hot to move. Had a very memorable night at the West End Cultural Centre, where a sold out crowd give as much to me as I to them. Great to see friends like the Terri’s and others I have come to know here, and Russ Romaniuk’s family and friends came out in force. Was able to tell them that Russ had won man of the match against London back in Cardiff that evening. The news that Wales had beaten France in Paris was an added bonus.Just a couple of hours sleep before catching an early morning flight to Regina in Saskatchewan, which looked like a nice place but didn’t have much chance to check it out. Nice gig there then fly to Ottawa via Toronto where a snowstorm has hit the city. This morning I woke up in Ottawa to a blizzard and by the time Chris had flown in from Vancouver after a few days away, we knew we had a problem. After speaking to promoter Paul it became obvious that the sensible thing to do was cancel tonight’s show in Wakefield and try and get through to Toronto by car as soon as possible. I hate cancelling gigs, and have only ever dont it a few times in twenty years, but I will be back here as I play the Ottawa Folk Festival in August and will make sure I play the Black Sheep in Wakefield again (played there last Sept) in the not too distant future. So after a slow drive due to abnormal weather conditions we made Toronto where I play on Thursday. Tomorrow morning I will play for the staff of World Vision who’s works I have been pushing at the gigs here. They are a relief organisation with a big emphasis on child sponsorship and artists like Sarah McLaughlin and the Bare-naked Ladies have endorsed their work. Snow is still swirling and dancing in the wind outside my hotel. Back in the UK it would shut us down, here it’s just another winters day.