POEM
I’ve counted you infor the last time. Not out of anger.Not because the songs were bad.Not because the miles were too longor the hotel carpets too ugly. Something quieter happened. […]
possessed something else
For most of his career he understood the boundaries of his instrument. He built a modest reputation on conviction. His voice carried the weathered authority audiences expected from a middle-aged […]
“challenging” and “idiosyncratic”
The booking agent had spent thirty years predicting public taste. She knew which singer-songwriters could fill two hundred seats in Peterborough on a Thursday and which folk trios would fail […]
he saw practical things
The harmonica player first noticed his ability during a terrible gig in Medicine Hat. Halfway through a slow blues in E, he suddenly knew with complete certainty a waitress near […]
in the bassist’s estimation
The bassist had an unusual reputation in the music community. He never lied. If someone played beautifully, he said so. If someone played badly, he said so. If a song […]
lies
He told audiences he was thrilled to be in cities he could barely locate on a map. He lied up and down simultaneously. Told managers he believed in projects he […]
Leah and Leonard
After a week she noticed something else. Leonard, the opening act, did not only copy material. He copied confidence. Or tried to. The gestures were there but the gravity behind […]
no beer barrel
The accordionist believed for years that exhaustion was simply part of musicianship. Late-night polka gigs. Weddings where drunk uncles demanded encores. Endless driving across Ontario with coffee as both fuel […]
snow against a parked car
Touring had trained her badly. Late-night diners after shows. Gas station sandwiches at midnight. Hotel loneliness disguised as dessert. Years earlier the body absorbed these decisions with cheerful youth. Now […]
esmé at the fairmont
the child ahead of you walkingthrough a season you can no longer enter. The light belongs to them now. The way older musicianslisten to young players discovering intervals,The miracle of […]