Mike St-Jean has been touring the world with the JW Jones Blues Band since April 2007. The notes have begun to arrive. Here is the first installment from the notes from the road.
Greetings from Europe. We finally arrived today, Monday, around 10am.
Saturday after waking up and checking out of the hotel, we spent the day in Ridgecrest California, trying to beat the 43 degree heat. After playing the last American gig for a while, we packed up the van and drove 4 hours back to Los Angeles where we met a family friend of Jesse’s, who has been kind enough to keep our van for the week. A few hours of showering and chatting and it was time to leave for the airport. The 10am flight brought us to Toronto which was a bit of a tease of home, despite still being 5 hours from Ottawa. A few hours later we caught the 8 hour flight Paris, which thankfully provided some time for sleeping though for anyone who’s flown before, you know how well those sleeps are.
Once arrived in Paris we were greeted by Martijn Lewis, the fearless alto saxophone player who will be joining us at the European festival and club dates. Another five hour drive ensued and we found ourselves in Cahors, France, a fairly small town who’s economic prosperity dates back to the middle ages. Because of its history, it has many great old castles and bridges, forts and houses. I am hoping to take some time tomorrow to check some of these cool historical landmarks out.
We’re in Europe for a week, playing the Cohors Blues Festival, Tuesday; Ingolstadt Germany, Thursday; Toussieu, Friday and Luxembourg, Saturday. Sunday & Monday we have off and will be adventuring around Paris before returning back to Los Angeles, Tuesday, to finish two more weeks of shows, driving north-east across America to Maine and finally home.
17|12 |