Jodie Ponto Photography

What most people don’t know is that touring musician is really a synonym for trucker. The vast majority of time on tour with a band is spent in a vehicle. Life becomes a series of whizzing dashboard scenes and you become more intimate than you ever thought was humanly possible with gas stations, CBC radio, side of the road pee stops, and creative methods for amusing yourself and staying awake on long-haul drives.

That said, here is what 7,500kms of BC and Alberta roads looks like through my iPhone and the Vangina windshield.

Banff National Park, AB

Jasper National Park, AB

Crowsnest Highway, AB

Crowsnest Highway, AB

Medicine Hat, AB

Kootenay Pass, BC

Highway 95, BC

Kootenay National Park, BC

Kootenay National Park, BC

Every once in a while there’s a tour stop that’s so much like a vacation you can’t believe you get to call it work.  For example, the past 2 days Miss Quincy & The Showdown and I spent at the Long Beach Resort Lodge in Tofino.

Home sweet rainforest cottage.

Cox Bay panorama #1. Click on the photo for a bigger & better view.

Cox Bay panorama #2. Click on the photo for a bigger & better view.

Winter Surfers.

Fun with bull kelp.

Pre-show cottage rehearsal.

Post-show cabin jam with The Poor Pistols.

Shari channels her childhood violin lessons.

Salt Spring Island is dotted with hundreds of little backyard farms of all varieties.  It’s one of the only places I’ve ever been where folks leave their fruits/vegetables/eggs/cheese/milk/meat/baking/etc. unattended in roadside stands with a price list and honour system style you take what you want, write down what you purchased, and leave your money in the cash box.

(To check out Salt Spring’s fall frenzy click here. To check out haunted postcards of Salt Spring’s spooky old trees click here. )

Here are a few of my favorite photos from one hell of a Lastival weekend at Music On The Mountain in Fort St. James, BC (August 24-26, 2012). You can view the entire 90 photo collection by clicking here.

Click on the panorama for a full screen view of Music On The Mountain.

Security.

Oven racked by Doug Koyama.

Steve Brockley Band.

Chelsea D.E. Johnson from High Society.

Wax Mannequin.

Shari Rae from Miss Quincy & The Showdown.

Lionel & Rosemarie Conant.

Curing an overhang with puppy therapy.

The Broken Mirrors.

Ole Sanchez sits in with Miss Quincy.

Blackberry Wood.

Blackberry Wood.

Dave Soroka & The Ragged Elite.

Holly Magnus plays the best walk-on song in the history of toy piano walk-on songs — The Imperial March.

MoM Finale.

A few long overdue photos of Seattle’s The Cave Singers and Miss Quincy & The Showdown rockin’ a sold-out show at The Royal in Nelson, BC on July 20, 2012.

Miss Quincy & The Showdown

The Cave Singers

In this summer’s second display of unprecedented sportiness (see Hiking Quincy Style for the first), Miss Quincy, The Showdown, and I spent the last weekend of July playing on & offstage at the Kumsheen Rafting Resort near Lytton, BC.

Room with a view.

View of White Canyon from our canvas cabin’s front porch (click on the panorama for a full screen view).

Inside our antique-clad, electricity-free, luxury wall tent (click on the panorama for a full screen view).

Shari feeling sexy in her wetsuit while Miss Q mopes about being given and XL sized one.

Whitewater rafting on the Thompson River Peruvian pirate ship style (photo by Timshel Jackson).

Celebrating Fiestas Patrias with Nice, Peruvian rafting guide extraordinaire (photo by Timshel Jackson).

First time I’ve ever watched Miss Quincy & The Showdown play while lounging in a hot tub.

Miss Quincy & The Showdown rock a late night rafting resort pool party.

Morning-after-whitewater-rafting partner yoga.

It’s not often you get to see one of your all-time favorite musicians perform at one of your all-time favorite pubs.  The musician in question is Toronto’s Corin Raymond and the pub in question is the Rolla Pub in the teeny tiny Northern farming hamlet of Rolla, BC.  If you ever find yourself in Toronto on a Thursday night make sure you stop by the Cameron House to see Corin.  If you ever find yourself near Rolla on any night make sure you stop by to see the historic gem for yourself.

Check out Corin’s music and the folkloric tale of The Great Canadian Tire Caper here: www.dontspendithoney.com

An old photo of the Rolla Pub dear to me both because it was one of the first photos I ever printed in the darkroom and the original sign is no longer.

Corin backed up by Brin Porter & Travis Charuk (The Party on High Street).

Patti (right), the Rolla Pub’s proprietress extraordinaire, and her daughter Sara.

Mr. Brinjamin Porter.

Corin à la happy song.

Corin à la sad song.

Although the fun killers at the liquor control board forced our rooftop cocktail soiree into the backstage basement bowels of the North Peace Cultural Centre, Miss Quincy & The Showdown‘s Like The Devil Does album release bash was still one hell of a show.

The ol’ pre-show transformation to stage hot.

Shari & Miss Quincy either admiring each others’ face painting handiwork or just about to make-out.

Toronto’s Corin Raymond opens the show.

The audience gets up close and personal with the band by being seated right on stage instead of way up in the theatre seats.

Miss Quincy & The Showdown.

I can’t even begin to express how wonderful the firstival weekend at Sweetwater 905 music & arts festival on the Mattson’s farm in Rolla, BC was (June 15-17, 2012).  Here are some pictures instead:

Behind The Firstival Scenes

Miss Quincy with 2 goblets full of G&C’s (gin & cucumber slices, that is).

Travis from The Party on High Street in a festival outfit fit for Abbey Road Studios.

Miss Q  brushing her teeth festival style.

Miss Q and Shari get ready for their set in the Vangina turned dressing room.

Twin Peaks rehearse for their set with Reno Fitch, Brin Porter (The Party on High Street), and Hazen Sage.

Picture The Ocean

Picture The Ocean meets Twin Peaks meets Miss Quincy & The Showdown.

Miss Quincy & The Showdown

Recently I spent a couple days hanging out in the studio with The Broken Mirrors while they finished recording their debut album at Armoury Studios in Vancouver.

The Armoury is one of the schmanciest studios in the entire city (and not just because of the roof-top patio I spent most of my time there lounging on) — it was originally built by legendary Canadian songwriter Jim Vallance and later served as the home base for rock producer Bruce Fairbairn whose gold & platinum records cover the place in lieu of wallpaper.

The Broken Mirrors’ website lives here: www.thebrokenmirrors.comT

Drew Pellegrin, recording whiz kid extraordinaire.