this home

smells like cooking. it's christmas eve, and someone has been on the treadmill all morning and now into the afternoon. presents are wrapped, some in newspaper.
there is nothing to do now but fight with my younger brother over who gets to use the computer, and walk around the small town, waving at everyone who drives by.
the sky is that blue blue it gets like contrasted with everything sparkling white, and the snow blowing off trees and bushes makes glittering air.

23.

it's a huge internal celebration.
congratulations me.

free cd!

hey this band called dreamboat money made a cd. it's free. i'm listening to it right now.

go here: http://www.activemindsproductions.com/dreamboatmoney/dreamboatmoney_free_download.html

now we're both basking in their sunshine.

another day at the office

WTF.

Someone from Nova Scotia emailed me this photo, in response to a story I did about violence against women.
It also came with this link: http://g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/exclusives/64615/OFASTS-Gun-Apocalypse.html

holding julie fader lyrics up to the mirror

all around me, people traded people for something new

(blogging feels adolescent)

i guess it's christmas

At work today I was asked to provide my favourite Christmas songs for the paper. I so so so rarely get to write about anything related to the amazing music "under the radar", so in the 15 minutes between writing about H1N1 and recycling programs I sent this to the person coordinating Christmas music coverage:

Winnipeg's Oldfolks Home are releasing a number of Christmas songs as part of Oldfolks Christmas.

Their original song I Won't Cry at Christmas Time is available here:

http://pigeonrow.com/OldFolksHomeWeWontCryAtChristmasTime.mp3

From London, Ontario, Olenka & The Autumn Lovers released a Christmas single Red and Green Blues:

http://www.nxew.ca/mp3/redandgreenblues.mp3

And this old-timey performance by Jill Barber, singing The Christmas Song, Part of Zunior.com's charity Christmas release available for purchase at:

http://peanuts.zunior.com/

i'm freezing but i'm burning for the girl from saskatoon

just watched Coco Avant Chanel. An inspiring tale of a strong woman who leaves her small town for Paris, and um... becomes Chanel.

perhaps there's something to be learned.

who knows.

today, -40 with wind chill. it looks colder outside than that picture.

but, the sound of the ice moving under the bridge is incredible.

i think this song fits with the dream i had last night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmq3GXsMcHM

if stevie nicks was abba and she had a backup band

and i was accused of buddhist thinking by a serious man

i should hang with my superfan, surely he understands.

"your blog needs pictures."

i knew he was going to say it. i just had a feeling.
soon this blog will have pictures. and be redesigned.
oh heck. stare into my compass.

ouch.

not to be a bummer but guys,

this is happening.

NXEW!

I (we) got Blogg'd again. It's so gratifying. to know my bits are bouncing about the tubes!

Check it out:

http://www.nxew.ca/2009/11/live-video-jeanette-stewart-slow-down.html

Also, thinking about switching to Tumblr. Thoughts?
Oh right, you can't comment unless you sign in...

question of the day

what if we put that much energy into everything?
"we'd probably end homelessness or something."
we both sighed and went on our way.

some things

1) trains
2) football
3) where is winter?
4) homes made out of shipping containers
5) karma
6) the rain

Vids!

Tyson of Slow Down, Molasses just posted this video from PEI. A magic island, a lovely show.

Lite-Brite power!

What a day, what a year, what a life.

The madness of the last few days have made the blogging a little difficult.
The trajectory is a little too nuts to map, and maybe a few details aren't exactly blog appropriate.
It all started with a living room dance party, and now it's three days later.

The show in Duncan last night was great. Except for the part when I missed the bus off the ferry. That was bad. I thought I was going to hitchhike, but common sense prevailed. I got to the venue, thanks to my hosts in Nanaimo (David and Susan are HUGE music lovers and happily relocated from England), who not only let me stay in their amazing home full of records and books and lovely things, but drove me to, and from the gig, in order to sit at the Garage Showroom with three other people! It's nuts, but it was a really warm and lovely show. All the c.d.'s I brought are gone!

So now I'm back in a Vancouver coffee shop, sucking up the internets. My Victoria show got cancelled due to flu... and now I'm trying to decide what to do. The inevitable trip home is looming ever closer. Maybe I should stay here.

A couple nights ago I made a little record with a lovely new friend, and I'll post that soon.

Amanda Ash has also posted the interview we did upon arrival in Vancouver. You can listen/look here: http://theindiefiles.wordpress.com/.

Okay that's all for now.

xoxo,
- Jeanette

vs. The Ornery Umbrella

Last night I couldn't sleep because I was obsessing over what to blog the next day.
Now today I'm just tired, after walking and walking all around Vancouver in a rather chilly rain, battling an umbrella with a mind of its own. No complaining though, if this is winter I'm all for it. It's still beautiful here even on the worst days.

The show at Cafe Deux Soleils went amazingly well. It was such a warm environment to me, and that in itself is sort of funny. The bands I played with are used to smaller, intimate and unusual venues and I think for them the amount of noise and talking was perhaps a little disconcerting. Unreliable Narrator played a short, very different set than the one I saw in Saskatoon. After their set they asked everyone to go see them play in their living room.... they are so endearing. Scott from Buffalo Swans (who Slow Down, Molasses played with last year) did sound for us, and he did a really, really great job, like a warm blanket of good sound.

The best part of the set was Prophecy Sun's entourage, who had a ukulele and played, tapped and clapped along to my entire set. I also met Katy GoGo, who plays some incredibly endearing songs with said ukulele. The Vancouver scene has such great indie pop singers who write such clever songs. I'm not sure how or why that happens. The Unreliable folks are part of a group called The Safe Amplification Site Society. They are trying to set up an all-ages, drug/alcohol free venue, which seems like a great plan, especially if it allows for even more open outlets for the things that run outside the easily digested.

It really seems like as a whole, the music "scene" or what have you is trending more and more towards small, living room kind of shows. I've seen some of the best bands you've never heard of via small shows here, at places like Little Mountain, or in one instance on a rooftop deck. Perhaps it is a better way to play and hear music, although the randomness of an open bar show is so appealing.

Tomorrow I'm going to figure out if the venue in Duncan is still open. Apparently some extreme flooding is going on in the valley, so it's looking like I may only have one more show on this silly adventure. On the plus side, after last night I think future solo/Greyhound touring just might be a good way to spend the time between now and being a grown-up.

Somesortoftour: Day 3

* yes it really looks like this, and no i didn't take this photo

Walking up and down Commercial Drive.
Wishing I had a camera.
Waiting to play a show in Vancouver.

The bus ride was long, but passable. Bus drivers as a species are ornery, and seem to lack fundamental compassion. They bark the orders to the passengers as they are herded from one bus to another and given 15 minute rest stops at random mountain towns. Fellow passengers range from uber sketchy to slightly less so, with the occasional snowboarder and young tourist thrown in. Sixteen hours later I arrived in Vancouver, with the requisite bus hair and fatigue.

Today I did my first real interview, second ever counting CFCR's Afternoon Buzz. Amanda Ash is an amazing journalist, who works for Radio 3 and Exclaim! magazine. She's very passionate about women in music, which makes for great conversation. She'll post the interview on her blog soon.

Tonight I'm playing at Cafe Deux Soleils, only a couple blocks from where I'm staying with my friend Michelle. I'm so excited to play the venue. Besides being a killer breakfast place, the Cafe hosts some of the coolest bands in this city.

Tonight's show is a triple bill with Prophecy Sun and Unreliable Narrator, and should range from arty/obscure electronic noise to classic folk. Very exciting.

Stay put for updates from this beautiful city. I always forget how great it is, and am astounded again and again by the views from every direction, the harbour and the clouds misting the mountains on the horizon. The air smells like cedar and green leaves.

Glamourbus Tour: Day Two

Today I'm perched like a big bird in a glass cage atop downtown Calgary.
After breakfast at Nellie's I went back to my gracious hostess' apartment and promptly fell asleep for the next four hours. Aside from hanging out with some kitties I've done nothing all day.

Thanks for all the song plays on the myspace yesterday. Very encouraging.
The show went okay. Halfway through Bill the sound man brought me a shot of whiskey. I think I just needed to relax a bit. Afterwards a drunk Irishman told me my voice (note emphasis on voice, not guitar playing...) would take me far. I gave him a CD. Business skills? Help! Everyone was really nice about the show and the promoter took my disc to play on the radio here. They all said they want me to come back - with a band.

The bus leaves in a couple hours. It's a 16-or-so hour ride to Vancouver, another overnight trip which will find me waking to wander dazed and disoriented to the sky train station and then Commercial Drive, my heavy guitar case a precarious cargo. I'm a little jealous of this guy. I played with him last night and he brings an electric and acoustic in his car. Can't imagine driving through the mountains alone in the winter, but he's doing it. Maybe next time...

Greyhound Tour: Day One

The bus isn't the best place to get a solid eight hours. When the wheels roll, I sleep. When we stop, I wake. Pretty sure the two guys sitting in the back seat got hammered.

Arrived in Calgary excruciatingly early, and hung out at the station reading for a couple hours. It's funny how easily the station, with its hard plastic seats and sub-par cafeteria can take the place of a university library, hard cover tomes replaced by paperback books, engaged in a romantic fantasy of an unknown future. Can't help but feel particularly liminal in this space, and I doubt that will end for the rest of this strange week.

Already the universe is playing along with this madcap plan. The bus driver asks me if I'm a child or an adult, and only charges me $1.75. On the bus into downtown I meet a woman named Danielle. Her friend is the headliner tonight at The Palomino, and she's coming to the show. It's her birthday. She points me to the bar, and when I get there my name is there on the poster, opening band. "Jeanette Stewart and The Brodeo." No Brodeo, just me, and I do hope they'll like my quiet songs without the rock and roll antics.

Last night we finished editing and burning the Live @ Tanda recording from this summer. I'm posting some new songs on myspace as we speak, listening to Low and Willie Nelson in a coffee shop downtown. Calgary is all business and faux western wear. Loves it.

I'll keep updating this, so you know I'm alive. I miss the band, and the safety of a van, and all that. But this is pretty great too. Tomorrow, Vancouver.

coast to coast catches...

One month until tour.

the most...

http://www.myspace.com/hotblood

dear guitar...

i don't want to sell you.
you sound really nice.
but you're blue.

"if it's a liquid, it's going to be a good meal..."

"What's the best road food experience that you have ever experienced?" asks Craig Norris of CBC's R3:30:

"Restaurant food, as much as it's a nice luxury when you're at home, starts to become the last thing you want. We've developed a highly refined rider actually, ironically inspired by the Rolling Stones of all people. When we played with them at Madison Square Garden the first thing we noticed is they had this incredible juicer and a massive amount of vegetables and fruits and ginger and lemon. The great thing is you can mix those juices with anything you want to drink. I would say that the Metric policy is if it's a liquid, it's going to be a good meal. We try to get the beets in there, get the garlic and keep ourselves healthy that way, because there's only so much restaurant food you can eat."
- Metric's Emily Haines

we are going on tour...

this is me, this is a rock band...

i have a blurry face in this photo. maybe my face is actually blurry. who knows.
this blog is for rock and roll.