A heavily armoured starfish from 300 feet under.

Chimo! I just finished up a lovely week in Desolation Sound, double-checking facts, legends, myths, and complete horseshit (all important elements for storytelling) for Adventures In Solitude as we get closer and closer to finishing the editing stages of the book for the fall release.

I just arrived in sweat-soaked Toronto which begins an extremely busy sched of criss-crossing of Canada over the next few weeks for me. Today I’ll be announcing the Polaris Music Prize Shortlist, the ten best Canadian albums based solely on artistic merit according to the critics. I love this Prize and I can’t wait to see the List. My picks included Jason Collett, Tegan and Sara, Hannah Georgas and a few others. That will be a live broadcast on Sirius 86 and CBC Radio 3. A Podcast will follow later tonight, and then I’ll be here in Toronto doing my live show Wed, Thu and Fri.

I’ll be in Calgary for the Stampede this weekend, followed by Folk On The Rocks in Yellowknife, which I am extremely looking forward to. It will be my first time in the Northwest Territories. Any tips? After that I’ll hit Evolve in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, then the Regina Folk Festival, followed by the Peak Performance Bootcamp in BC, and finally back to Desolation Sound to close out the summer.

If you’re in any of the above towns or cities, be sure to say hi and let’s tip a jar!

I just got back from the NxNE Festival in Toronto and I must say I had an absolute blast! One of the big reasons are the fantastic and gracious fans of CBC Radio 3 who are such a fun-loving, passionate, positive bunch of people that it just becomes infectious. Believe me, I haven’t partied ’til 5am in… awhile… and they had both myself and fellow R3 host Craig Norris out to all hours. And I think I can speak for Craig that he doesn’t do that too often either. There’s lots of video and lots of photos.

It helped that it was just full-on summer all weekend long, blasting temperatures of over 30 C, making cycling and hanging out in the park, and wearing little clothing, and drinking a lot, very easy. I even saw Saskatoon band The Sheepdogs perform in a giant tree in the middle of Trinity Bellwoods park, the most unique performance I saw over the weekend. My #1 show would be gorgeous Hannah Georgas, who brought her Polaris Prize-nominated record This is Good to loud rockin’ life at the Horseshoe on Saturday night.

I also picked up a beautiful original painting from The Weakerthans bassist Greg Smith (talented and gracious fellow) after seeing their new tour documentary We Are The Weakerthans We Are From Winnipeg at the NFB, met Chris Murphy‘s brand new three week old son Santiago, had my first Father’s Day with my father-in-law, announced the Polaris Prize Long List with Jill and other pals, re-staged meeting my wife at the exact location with Jian Ghomeshi, rode around town on the Bonecrusher, and managed to score yet another painting, this time a beautiful wedding gift from John “tb3” Teeter.

Who knows? Maybe the wife and I will be moving to Toronto sooner than later.

Whoa! I’m very excited to officially announce that my first book, Adventures In Solitude, will be published this fall! And while it is filled with music references (including the title), Adventures In Solitude is not a music book. It’s a book about the Canadian cottage experience from my perspective, both as a nerd kid and an adult, set on the wild west coast beyond the end of the road in Desolation Sound, BC. Desolation Sound is the central, bi-polar character of the book. The supporting characters are myself, my family, friends, and all the salty Beachcombers-come-to-life inhabitants of this lonely stretch of coastline where no roads lead in or out.

I am very much looking forward to introducing you to Desolation Sound fixtures like Mack the Knife, Roger the Dodger, Reverend Jim, Harvest Moon, Handy Candy, the Cougar Lady, Bernard The German, Scarface Mike, Prawn Bob, Help Me Rhonda, and my old pal Russell Latowski, Hermit of Desolation Sound.

Adventures In Solitude is being released this fall on Harbour Publishing, a fantastic west coast adventure publishing company that has been in business for over thirty years, and it was Harbour that I had in mind first and foremost when I wrote the book so I’m honoured they’re putting it out. There’s been some initial online coverage here and here and here which I totally appreciate, and I can’t wait to share more of the book with you, hopefully in your town this fall!

To read more about the release of Adventures In Solitude, an excerpt, and what other people have said, here’s the press release. Cheers!