jack
road trip
report:

Silver At
Sundown

by Cathy Petch

The Silver Hearts roll and roll, with our mighty sound we flatten the Rockies and skid all over the Prairies until you can't see it's unyielding sky. We have broken our collective boot off in the asses of Folk Festivals and bars from Orillia to Victoria. We sweat, bitch and froth at the mouth as we chase the sun to where it plummets, in Canada's west. Peterborough, we only say nice things about you, absence, heart, fodder.

How do we stand each other? All piled up on top, shoved in and out of vans, hotels, floors, apartments? Steady conditioning comrades. Dulling our brains so that the simple act of pushing our fingers in and out of our fists can amuse us to no end and help us forget our troubles. Moments of kindness, cruelty and simmering tensions fluctuate with each arrival and departure.

I'm trying knitting. Lord, help me to not stab out my own eyes. Canada is so bloody beautiful, I can hardly fuckin' stand it. I feel so decadent. All I want to eat is hot dogs. We talk of cock from town to town to town. Currently I'm concentrating on not puking. I love this country.

So like Billy Bragg's our new friend. We follow each other to festivals. Brian, Jesse and I were rehearsing by a duck pond and he came up to us and was like telling us how much he likes us and our album and I was like "That's great..... yeah.... uh huh.... Well we gotta rehearse Billy. Yeah great...... GREAAT." Rock Star points earned: 21. Lisa Marie Presley pounds gained: 10,000.

Playing Logan's Pub in Victoria, we huffed and puffed and blew the roof offa that place. At the same time I was feeling like if I talked to any of the boys there, someone from across the room would be like, "Woah, Cougar alert." Nanton, hosted by Lance, finally a bar with more guns on display than we have guitars. Heard over the loudspeakers on the ferry from Victoria; "There's a snack bar and a Mother's room on the 5th floor." I looked, she wasn't there. GORF!

Calgary, our last Folk Festival. After my swim and whirlpool, I am drinking Stella out of a chilled glass. What's a Montreal House? But home, home, home. No sauna or scheduled massages, can rock sustain itself inside a chilled glass? Yes people, it can. But I cannot be content without all I said goodbye to. All the things that make me smile and want to convey through the strumming of my saw. My friends, my family, my honey and a place to Jack off when I'm blessedly alone.