Hello World of Friends!

Greetings from Swiftcouver, winter of 2024 edition. Don’t have tickets to Taylor Swift’s final Eras shows in Vancouver this weekend? Shake it off! I’m doing a book signing! Phew. Weekend saved. Details below. But first…

Our payphone got stolen!

For the first time in many decades, change is afoot at the Okeover government wharf, our launching point for Desolation Sound. In coastal country, it doesn’t get any more end-of-the-road than the government wharf, the transient community centre for the ocean-bound. Its towering wooden gateway is the starting and finishing line for sea-going adventures that could last an hour or a lifetime.

As far back as I can remember, when my family rolled down Malaspina Road, Dad would drive our car right up onto the wharf, our tires thump-thump-thumping as they rolled over each plank. We’d burst out of the car, our nostrils filling with the familiar scents of salt air, seaweed, tar and gasoline. We had arrived.

All that is finally changing. The 75-foot pier, along with the tar-and-creosote covered pilings (bad stuff) and red-painting railings, are being torn down and removed for a more environmentally friendly floating drive-on wharf. 

Back in March, a removal notice was even dared posted on our beloved old payphone located at the very front end of the pier, which brought up all kinds of feels. Before there was cell service at the wharf (2022), a salty nut mix of neighbours, tourists, oyster farmers and loggers would line up at that phone to reach the outside world. Names and numbers were scrawled and scratched onto every surface. It was on that payphone that Nardwuar suggested to me that we call our band “the Smugglers” back in 1988, and it was on that same phone some 17 years later that I got the news that our band was effectively over. I did countless reports for CBC Radio on that phone. I found out my sister was pregnant with her first child on that phone (Paige is now 26), and that my grandfather had died.

And as I wrote about in “Adventures in Solitude”, the payphone was once even violently assaulted by my friend’s muscle car. I’ll paraphrase: Roger thought his Mercury Montego was in drive when it was actually in reverse. He punched it to take off for the ferry, but the car screamed backward instead, slamming into the then old-school Superman-style phone booth, which smashed right through the red-painted guard rail and into the drink below with a shocking splash… sinking down down down, lying face up on the ocean floor. 

(Roger and the car remained on the wharf.) [Handy Candy snapped a great shot of the phone booth at low tide in its watery grave, but we unfortunately can’t find the photo.]

The booth was eventually replaced by a stealth new model of payphone, sans actual booth, and it continued standing sentinel, providing reliable if more and more seldomly-used service. Sometimes, I would pick up the receiver just to check to see if there was still a dial tone. Always was.

But here’s the thing: after some of the locals and wharf employees made a call to Telus to convince them that the wharf payphone was a safety necessity. Telus agreed to allow the Okeover Harbour Authority to keep that working payphone, and have it installed in a new location. Then, at some point during the night of November 25, that beloved old payphone was… STOLEN! Somewhere, somehow, someone has our Okeover wharf payphone… and we want it back! No questions asked and no caller ID! We’re hung up on that phone!

To be continued… I hope. Thanks to old friend Rob Predinchuk for the heads up!

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Winter reading: Shaking It Rough: a prison memoir by Andreas Schroeder

Last summer, I had the honour of taking part in a 50th anniversary panel discussion celebration for my amazing book publisher, Harbour Publishing. The moderator of that panel was an author named Andreas Schroeder, who I was unfamiliar with. His pre-panel emails were well-written, funny, and detail-oriented, which peaked my interest. Who was this guy?

I discovered through a bit of research that Andreas Schroeder is a renowned author of many books, including his shocking debut called “Shaking It Rough: a prison memoir.” I was further honoured when, after the panel, Andreas gifted me with an autographed hard-cover original copy of this 1976 bestseller.

In the early-1970s, Andreas, then a young and somewhat misguided budding journalist / drug dealer hippie-about-Vancouver, was caught and arrested for two pounds of hashish possession for the intent of trafficking. Andreas was sentenced to two years in jail, and was immediately shipped to the notorious Oakalla maximum security prison. There, amongst some of Canada’s most hardened and violent criminals, the slight and bespectacled Schroeder had to very quickly figure out prison jargon, prison rules, and most importantly, prison survival. (“Shaking it rough” was jailhouse slang for someone’s inability to cope with prison life, also known as “doing hard time.”) 

From Oakalla, Andreas was transferred to the Haney Correctional Institute and a couple of mostly outdoor prison work camps in the rainforests of BC that were rife with failed escape attempts. Throughout it all, we learn how Andreas tries to avoid “shaking it rough” by finding his people, staying sane, educating inmates (he started a creative writing program that flourished) and focussing hard on getting out. It’s an extremely entertaining, funny, and frightening book, and an invaluable time capsule on life both in and out of prison on BC’s coast some 50 years ago. Highly recommended if you can find it.

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Concert: Green Day

My eleven-year-old son Josh has two big passions: hockey and punk rock. His favourite band is Green Day, so when it looked like the closest Green Day’s “Saviours” tour was coming to Vancouver was a show in Seattle, I decided to take him.

What an experience! Neither of us had ever seen a show that big before, held at the massive T-Mobile Park baseball stadium, home of the Mariners. !!!50,000 people!!! Walking the circular concourse was like wading through the world’s largest punk rock fashion runway, with every possible band shirt you could think of on display on every freak, geek, punker, and punter, all in one huge open air stadium. It was a celebration. It felt that, thanks to Green Day, the outliers had WON. 

And to a certain extent, Green Day’s incredible performance, and all that surrounded it, seemed to me like the original American dream come true… Here were three guys from modest lower income backgrounds that came together in Oakland back in the 1980s to form a punk band with a weird name, write a bunch of catchy songs, get signed by Larry Livermore to Lookout Records in nearby Berkeley, and start DIY touring North America in an old used Bookmobile.

Then came the major label signing, the smash hit album “Dookie” (the highest selling punk rock album of all time) and BOOM – Green Day have been famous and incredibly successful for 30 years – doing it their way, with a string of great records and achievements ever since. 

Before my son got into them, I never really counted myself as that big of a Green Day fan. Thanks to Josh, I am now. 

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Newish-kids book “Adventures in Desolation Sound”

My latest kids picture book came out in the summer and peaked out at number 3 on the BC Bestsellers list – thank you to all who have supported it! It’s been great to receive photos and notes of kids reading it from Newfoundland to the Philippines. The book is based on me and my sister’s real life first trips to Desolation Sound when we were kids. Barf, ferries, and barnacles. I’ll be doing a pre-Xmas live event signing of all my books in North Vancouver… details below.

And if you would like to order any of my books (four adult / two kids) for your loved ones for the holidays, you can do so here. 

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Jill Barber

(photo by Olaf Strassner, North Shore News)

Earlier this fall, my lovely wife Jill was able to live out one of her teenage-after-school-MuchMusic-fantasies by joining our good friend Chris Murphy live on stage for a rockin’ rendition of his perennial Sloan hit “Underwhelmed.” Chris’s all-star band the TransCanada Highwaymen played the Kay Meek Theatre’s 20th anniversary party in West Van and invited Jill up… Jill played Chris’s bass, but Chris is right-handed… and Jill a leftie… so Jill also performed with the bass… upside down! See incredible video footage here.

Jill has two brand new Christmas singles out for the season, available in both French and English: “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”, and “Sleigh Ride.” Get them wherever you get your jingle on! Jill and I will be performing at a huge two-night event together in Victoria in December, and you can catch Jill on tour this spring in Europe and this summer in Japan at the World Expo. Dates below.

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Grant’s Upcoming Events:

Sat Dec 7, BOOK SIGNING! 32 Books and Gallery, Edgemont Village, North Vancouver, 1pm – 3pm w/ illustrator Ginger Ngo (all of Grant’s books will be available for signing)

Sun Dec 15, A Midwinter Concert w/ Sarah Jane Scouten and Friends, St. James Community Hall, Vancouver (w/ Suzie Ungerleider, Mark Kilianski, Q Brooke Bachand)

Wed-Thu Dec 18-19, Daniel Lapp’s Home for Christmas, Royal Theatre, Victoria (w/ Jill Barber, BC Fiddle Orchestra, Folkestra!, Joy of Life Choir, Shiny H’ornaments, Swing’n Shepherds, the Strings of Lights house band)

Sat Apr 12, Grant Lawrence and Friends: an evening of West Vancouver stories and songs, Kay Meek Theatre, West Vancouver (w/ special musical guests 54-40’s Neil Osborne, Jill Barber, Shari Ulrich and the Luckies)

Tickets for all shows.

We are currently booking Stories and Songs shows for 2025 and 2026. If you would like to host an event in your town, or help out by volunteering, please get in touch! 

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Jill Barber Tour Dates

Wed-Thu Dec 18-19, Daniel Lapp’s Home for Christmas, Royal Theatre, Victoria

Tue Mar 4, zakk Halle, Dusseldorf, Germany

Wed Mar 5, Poppodium, Hoofddorp, Netherlands

Thur Mar 6, Karlstorbahnhoff-Saal, Heidelberg, Germany

Fri Mar 7, Ampere, Munich, Germany

July 1 – 8, World Expo, Osaka, Japan

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Happy winter, happy holidays, and I hope to see you soon.

All the best from the wintery west,

Grant Lawrence

Clerel, Hannah Georgas, Grant, Matthew Barber, Jill Barber, Miranda Mulholland at the Muskoka, Ontario Stories and Songs show in August 2024. Photo by Brian Campbell.

Grant is taking a well-earned break from his touring Stories and Songs shows, but will be doing a series of guest appearances around Vancouver and Victoria leading up to the holidays. At each event he will be sharing a story or two and signing books. Hope to see you there!

Sat Dec 7, book signing, 32 Books, North Vancouver (1pm – 3pm)

Sun Dec 15, A Midwinter Concert with Sarah Jane Scouten and Friends: A fundraiser for Farm Folk City Folk’s Medicinal Plant and Seed Project, St. James Community Hall, Vancouver w/ special guests Suzie Ungerleider, Grant Lawrence and more

Wed and Thu Dec 18 and 19, Daniel Lapp’s Home for Christmas, Royal Theatre, Victoria

Coming up in 2025:

Sat Apr 12, 2025, Grant Lawrence and Friends: an evening of West Van stories and songs, Kay Meek Theatre, West Vancouver BC

Tickets to all shows here.

Grant Lawrence Summer 2024 newsletter: goodbye Big Buck$, hello Cliffhanger… movie and book reccos… and lots of summer shows with great guests like Neil Osborne from 54-40! Hannah Georgas! Dawn Pemberton! Matthew Barber and more!

Hello World of Friends!

Greetings from Desolation Sound, summer of 2024 edition.

Bon voyage Big Buck$, ahoy Cliffhanger

As mentioned in an earlier newsletter, our dearly beloved old speedboat Big Buck$ took its last ride across Desolation Sound in August of last year. If you’ve read my first book “Adventures in Solitude” (thanks), you might remember that when our family purchased Big Buck$, a 1985 blue and white Hourston speedboat, it appeared so used, so faded, so beat up, and so old… back then… when our cabin neighbour Handy Candy saw it, she exclaimed “that’s your ‘new’ boat? Wow… I guess you better call it Big Buck$ to mark such an impressive purchase!”

And so Big Buck$ was christened, and for the next several decades, that beat up blue boat took us everywhere, from Savary Island to Prideaux Haven, Isabel Bay to the Curme Islands, Refuge Cove to the Homfray Channel, and countless trips to and from the cabin and the Okeover government wharf in all manner of weather, creating adventures and memories with every voyage. In the early days, passers by at the Refuge Cove dock would echo Handy Candy’s sentiments, referring to Big Bucks as “a true beater.” But after that first book came out, Big Buck$ surprisingly became somewhat of a celebrity vessel, getting us recognized in even the most remote corners of the Sound.

Her finest hour was probably in the spring of 2020, when Big Buck$ was the first-responder boat to rescue a drowning man in Malaspina Inlet. Thank goodness for her low gunwales, which helped me hoist a gasping dude much larger than myself up and into Big Buck$ (full story in “Return to Solitude”… plug). But the big knock on Big Buck$ was that… her hull was fibreglass in an extremely rocky ocean environment, and she was slowly falling apart. In one particular rainstorm, the boat’s singular windshield wiper was flip-flapping away when it flapped right off, never to be seen again… or replaced. The running lights stopped working sometime in the 90s. And in the last couple of years, when you looked down under the dashboard and through to the inside of the bow, you could see shafts of sunlight poking through the hull. Not good. When speeding up, I would do it oh so gradually, fearing that the sheer torque of the 90 horsepower engine would rip the transom right off the stern. Many cabin neighbours suggested it was time. We resisted. I resisted. We loved Big Buck$ like a family member, and we kept Big Buck$ for so long, that by the end, those passers by on the Refuge Cove dock were now referring to Big Buck$ as… “vintage.”

But it was last summer, during one particularly rough ride through a wicked southeasterly blow up in Okeover Arm that changed my perspective. That trip was so jarring, so spine altering that I remember thinking that

1.  I could cancel my upcoming chiropractor appointment.
2. It actually felt like Big Buck$ might split in half right down the middle like America’s politics.
   

As the waves pounded, I asked myself, “am I putting family nostalgia over family safety?” There was also another weird thing happening. My family was getting bigger but… Big Buck$ was staying the same size. The kids weren’t babies anymore – and neither were their friends. And now there was a family dog. But… Big Buck$ held out to the end. She never did split like the Democrats, nor did she ever even once break down.

She was sold in March – motor, boat, and trailer – to a rather tight-lipped man in Powell River who did not announce his intentions so I know not what has become of Big Buck$, though many this summer have asked. She may be collecting leaves in some backyard, but I’d like to hope that Big Buck$ is riding the waves somewhere as the sun sets over the Salish Sea, providing a new family with the same kind of countless adventures and memories that she provided for us.

Enter Cliffhanger, a 21’ foot, Hewescraft “Pro V” ocean boat, made for the waves, with a walk-through windshield, lots of comfortable seating for family and friends, working windshield wiperS and lights, and a big shiny outboard motor that doesn’t sound like a garburator with a fork stuck in it. Named for both the literary device and what we do with the boat at cliffside swimming spots in Desolation Sound, Cliffhanger is safe, sturdy, and most importantly aluminium. But… does it have character? Man, do we miss the rough and ramshackle Beachcombers charm of Big Buck$, which my kids used to loudly claim was “the fastest boat in the inlet.” She never was, but she seemed like it to them. Cliffhanger may be bigger and safer, but it sure has a lot to live up to.

Summer reading: The Wager

Keeping with the nautical theme, the summer book that I am currently ripping through is “The Wager: A tale of shipwreck, murder, and mutiny” by David Grann. I’m a sucker for a sea-faring adventure in far-off ports of call, and just like the subtitle suggests, this one has it all. 

David Grann has most recently found fame as the author of “Killers of the Flower Moon” that became the hit Martin Scorcese movie from last year. He’s an in-depth, well-researched non-fiction writer who knows how to take real life stories and turn them into page turners. The Wager is primarily based on highly detailed journals kept by shipwrecked English navy sailors circa 1741. I’m loving it. Hope you do too.

Summer movie: Singin’ In The Rain

Huge congratulations to everyone at the historic and legendary Patricia Theatre in Powell River BC (the largest town closest to Desolation Sound) on their grand reopening and restoration of this beautiful cinema that dates back to 1913.

That makes it the longest continuously operating movie theatre in all of Canada!! It’s so old that Nancy “The Cougar Lady” Crowther saw her first movie here in 1939! (“The Adventures of Robin Hood”.) Last month they replaced all of their seats (we snagged a couple of the old ones for our cabin) , refurbished the lobby, the main curtain, the aisles and the peacock murals… and it all looks and sounds really awesome.

For the grand reopening this month, they screened “Singin’ in the Rain” from 1952- which somehow I’ve never seen before. I was blown away by the awesome wardrobe, the choreography, the sheer athleticism of the actors, and the humour. It’s hilarious. My ten year old son was also laughing – a lot – which he didn’t expect to (he was hoping for “Planet of the Apes”). After the movie I told him that he was laughing at jokes written and choreographed SEVENTY-TWO YEARS ago. Funny is funny!! And Gene Kelly’s megawatt smile?! Wow. What a movie star.

Single-screen theatres are magical, special places… and the Patricia is one of the best.

Summer writing:

My next kids’ picture book called “Adventures in Desolation Sound” will be released on Harbour Publishing at the end of the summer. It features illustrations from Ginger Ngo, and is a kids-eye-view of what it was like for my sister and I to be dragged reluctantly to the cabin.  In 2024, many parents feel they are fighting a losing battle with screens. Well… guess what? In 1984, my sister and I were also addicted to a screen: it was called the television set. To get us away from endless daily re-runs of “The Love Boat”, “The Brady Bunch”, and “Three’s Company” et al, our dad would take us out to the wilderness. The book features our first meetings with real-life characters like the aforementioned Cougar Lady and Russell the Hermit. Expect to see the book at my shows in August and beyond, and at good bookstores everywhere.

Summer Shows:

Here’s my Stories and Songs summer tour… including my first-ever shows in Ontario… and two new shows announced in Fort Langely and Sechelt with one of my musical heroes.. Neil Osborne from 54-40!

Mon July 22, Laughing Oyster, Okeover BC, w/ Sarah Jane Scouten, Jill Barber, and Ashleigh Ball – SOLD OUT

Wed July 24, Hacienda Pascalito, Savary Island BC, w/ Sarah Jane Scouten, Jill Barber, and Ashleigh Ball – SOLD OUT

Thu July 25, Refuge Cove Dockside Gallery, Refuge Cove BC, w/ Sarah Jane Scouten, Jill Barber, and Ashleigh Ball – SOLD OUT

Fri – Sun Aug 16-18, Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, Sechelt BC 

Sat Aug 24, Opera House, Gravenhurst, Ontario (w/ Jill and Matthew Barber, Clerel, Hannah Georgas, Miranda Mulholland)

Sat Aug 31, Barbers at the Base, Sergeants’ Mess Hall, Picton, Ontario (Jill Barber, Matthew Barber, Grant Lawrence) – SOLD OUT

Sat Sep 28, Raven’s Cry Theatre, Sechelt BC (w/ 54-40’s Neil Osborne, Dawn Pemberton, Lindi Ortega) – SOLD OUT

Tickets for all shows.

Happy summer, happy life, and I hope to see you soon.

All the best from the watery west,

Grant Lawrence