The first thing we did in Raymore was a pitstop at the Esso. I ran in first to used the facilities and left Dara eating a muffin and chees in the truck. I came back hungry and looking forward to my muffin ... but Dara had eaten both muffins and all the cheese!!! She thought they were all for her! Laughing (we do this a lot), she volunteered to buy me breakfast, so we went back into the Esso for granola bars and a bottle of Starbucks mocha.
It's quite astounding to see yourself on posters around town, so we took a couple of pictures.
We had to Silver Heights Nursing Home so Dara could visit her grandma, but on Saturday the activities director had called to see if we would do a set for the residents. Definitely! Why didn't we think of that ourselves? Maybe because we already had two concerts planned for that day, but we both love encouraging seniors and we needed to practice a couple of songs before being videoed in the afternoon.
Around 11:00 we arrived at Friends restaurant to meet documentary producer Ray Lacusta, who interviewed us and followed us for the day, filming our two concerts in Raymore (2:30 p.m.) and Strasbourg (7:00 p.m.). He intends to make a documentary and pitch it for the Saskatchewan Community Network's show "15 Minutes of Fame"! Both towns were like homecomings for Dara. She grew up in Raymore were people knew her by her maiden name, Schindelka. Dara became a little emotional seeing people arrive who had played such important formative roles in her life and she pulled me into a back room to sing a bit and pray and compose ourselves before the concert. We opened with a 'new' song. The night before, Dara had taught me the chords for "My Heart Calls Home," a song she wrote about the Raymore area. It's upbeat, with great harmonies on the chorus, and is a perfect way to open our concerts from now on.
In "My Heart Calls Home," Dara mentions the Alphabet Rail Line ("somewhere between the Q and the R there's a homestead..."), which got me thinking that I grew up near, Parkman, one of a number of Saskatchewan places named for poets (e.g. Lampman, Carlyle, Kipling). Not everyone from those areas is poetic, but it is a lovely correlation to the life I am living.
Before the tour, I had a concept for decorating our stage like a grandmother's house. Dara and I both sing a lot about family, particularly grandparents, so I thought this would be an appropriate way to dress up our stage a little.
Until Raymore, I hadn't been able to try this concept, but the Raymore Baptist Church stage had been completely cleared off, so I decorated! With three guys and one woman hunting all over the church for the right pieces, the end result was beyond my wildest hopes and looked quite like a drama set, with a living room corner and a tea corner and appropriately aged furniture pieces. In the second picture you can't really see it, but my grandmother's quilt is draped over the couch.
The microphone standing in front of the stage belongs to Ray Lacusta. His two video cameras were on either side in front of the stage.
In Strasbourg, the stage was bigger, but our decoration was much simpler (more in line with my original idea): a rocking chair draped with my grandmother's quilt, a side table covered with a coloured table cloth and a large crocheted doily, vase of roses, dark teapot, china teacup, and an old Bible. No pictures available yet.
Technologically, the Strasbourg concert was a dream.
Ray Lacusta and Don Schindelka (Dara's dad) had followed us to Strasbourg where Ray again set up his video cameras. My brother Jeffrey brought his two video cameras and his SLR camera and ran his Zoom digital recorder through the system for an audio recording of the whole concert.
Alvin Lofgren did sound system for us using the Alliance Church's system. We love the little Bose system we're renting (below), but we're almost illiterate when it comes mixing sound (in spite of my experience with a Juno 60 keyboard in my teens and early 20s), so having Alvin behind the controls was a relief and a comfort for us.
The lighting in Strasbourg created a really intimate atmosphere, with flood lights on the stage and dim lights in the main sanctuary. Dara and I felt so comfortable with each other and our set. Oh but we were tired by the end! It was all we could do to push out the triumphant notes and words of "Come Down" at the end.
We were stunned to receive a standing ovation at the end. Dara stood, reached for my hand, and we bowed together. This is my current hometown and church and Dara's former church and hometown crowd. We had been excited to perform for them and knew they would be warm, but never could have expected this. We left the stage and heard more clapping. Was it an encore? We weren't sure. And we were so tired that we couldn't think of another song to do. In hindsight, we both have two or three that we could have done, especially my song "The Wonder in it All" about being thankful for the ordinary things in life.
There was a lunch in the fellowship hall afterwards and Margie was there for us again (she had come with her husband) to take care of the CD table. She is always a Godsend.
Dara and I hugged each other at the end of the evening and confessed that we will likely cry when this tour is done next weekend ...
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