Category : News

Well hello all you gorgeous humans out there!

I won’t keep you too long here, I just wanted to check in with you, now that we’re tenting in this KOA campground which is fully equipped with WiFi, to let you know that Picture the Ocean is alive and well and looking forward to seeing you! So far, from Prince George to Jasper to Lloydminster to Saskatoon to Gravelbourg (my old stomping grounds!) to Regina to Winnipeg to Kenora, the the shows have been fabulous. I mean, they are generally fabulous, but this time, it’s been extra sweet and we’re very thankful to all who’ve come out to the shows. To new friends! To new and GREAT venues such as The Root: Community Emporium in Lloydminster, SK (right across from the AB side) owned and operated by the SUPER RAD lady, Amanda Amundrud. And, speaking of newbies, in the Peg, we finally met the NOTORIOUS Andrew Neville – didn’t make a single poor choice that night either! Thanks buddy! Enjoyed a few days off on a farm just outside Saskatoon – cooked & baked & played music & burned & even did some farm chores… not perfectly though… just ask my friend Joule. Now, down south of the border, we’ve been enjoying the beautiful ever-changing landscape of North Dakota and Montana. Holy cow. It’s hot & gorgeous down here.  We got a gig in Livingston, Montana so we decided to dip down early and take a new route back west after Kenora. SO glad we did.

 

And now, I’m writing you all from the comfort of a too-small bench in a fluorescent-lit KOA camp bathroom in Mile City, Montana cuz my computer died and so I can’t write it from my tent. I got some 40 Creek Whiskey keeping me company and the thought of all of YOU of course! It’s a strange thing to send words and thoughts, phrases and sentences, out into cyber space and trusting that they make it to your screen unjumbled and as succinctly as they were intended… Anyway, I’ll think of you as I lay my make-shift yoga mat out in the early sun and stretch the day into action, then later, as I ride my bike tomorrow morning around this pretty cute town. We’ll make breakfast and have coffee too before the shorter drive to Livingston and our debut down here in the lower 48. If they’re anything like the Alaskans, I think we’ll be just fine.

 

We’re back up in the homeland on Thursday for a lovely house concert at our pals’ Lynne & Garry’s place and we’ll be floating around the Kootenays and southern AB for the next couple weeks. Stay tuned folks! There’s always something happening ’round these parts!

Over & Out,

Jacquie B Cruisin

We are getting so close friends. The new record is through the final stages of mastering, and we just couldn’t wait to give you a little taste. Below are 2 tracks from the new record. Download and share to your little heart’s content!

 

 

Want to get an advance copy? Use the Paypal form in the sidebar to pre-order your copy of Picture the Ocean now and we’ll throw in a free digital download of Our Ghosts Will Fill These Walls!

 

 

Or, sign up for a digital pre-order and we’ll send the free copy of Our Ghosts Will Fill These Walls directly to your email!

 

 

Ho hummmm, ho hum. Where to begin?

 

 

I’ll try keep this as brief and to the point as I possibly can.

 

 

Atlin, BC – a house concert chez the lovely Rhoda. Small, quaint, cozy, sweet. Would have loved to have played the pub, but we were told it would be dead and that a house show would be the way to go. Cool. We love house shows. Except the opposite happened – the bar was rammed and the concert minimally attended. *shrug* What can you do right? We had a lovely time, the people present were gems of the north, and I trekked across the frozen lake afterward with Rhoda to check out this infamous Atlin Inn pub. Met a dude who won 16,000,000 bucks! He bought a Dodge Charger and is going to the Dominican Republic I think. All in all, a pretty neat place! I love the old small town saloons… People watching is kinda my thing, so that’s just what I did.

 

 

Whitehorse, YT – The Gold Pan Saloon @ The Gold Rush Inn. 2 night bender. First night – ROCKIN! Lotsa dancers and drunk people. Met a dude with 9 fingers, called him 9 Finger Dave – he lost it in a ski plane accident… showed us photos of his raisiny purple ripped-off finger that ended up taking the attached tendon with it. Gross. Nice guy though! haha Night 2 – every table is full by the time we start and they are ALL there to LISTEN. Gordie gets up and plays a few tunes with us. Met a ton of great northern folks. People are getting us stoked on Dawson City. Met a dude named Al whom we met in Golden at our house concert there who says he’s from Whitehorse and met a trucker named Trent from Rolla whom we met the last time we played there and said he’d come to the show in Whitehorse, which he did! Oh and a girl with pink hair whom we met in Kaslo, BC back in May Days was at the pub… she says “wow… your music really reminds me of the ocean… what’s your band called?” – I kid you not. haha Perfect.

Incident #1 Sitting around having post-show bevies and someone walks off with my iPhone. Brutal. I mean to them, it’s a glorified paper weight – to us is was EVERYTHING. Except in the north where Rogers has no coverage, it was a glorified camera… But still, not cool. I balled my eyes out.

 

 

Dawson City, YT – Bombay Peggy’s. A brothel saved from impending, sinking doom, fixed up beautifully and moved to a safe spot, open as a SWEEEEEEEEET hotel and cute pub. Ladies: claw foot tubs in every room. I kid you not. This troupe bathes and bathed. We stayed 2 nights. We played Sunday night to a wicked sweet crowd – not a single douche bag present! Dawson City is friggen RAD!! Although I hear for January and February the sun doesn’t make it to the streets therefor rendering quite dark… but in the summer months, Krissy the bartender says that at midnight the sun shines through her living room windows casting the most glorious light you’ve ever seen. JD and Blackie did some significant post show PR-ing, late night networking (while I bathed), and ended up scoring us a gig the following night at this place called Billy Goats – they met a man they dubbed The Greek and The Greek had to have us. Payed for our incredibly succulent and lavish greek meals, any drink we could ever want, created a shot called The Mermaid in celebration of our band name (some kind of blue concoction), covered our 2nd night at Peggy’s, and we played to the overly noisy post-hockey crew. Fun times.

 

 

Tuesday & Wednesday = driving days on the worst roads we’ve ever experienced. We crashed in Haines Junction on Tuesday night at Claudia’s gorgeous cabin – we’re playing a house concert there on Tuesday. We awoke at 5am to hit the road to Alaska to make the 1100km drive to Talkeetna in order to play a show THAT NIGHT at the Fairview Inn – infamous and haunted. Boarder crossing was smooth – as we’re handing in our passports, boarder patrol dude #1 says “So, what do you folks do?”, we say in perfect harmony “we’re musicians”, bpd#1 says “I’m sorry”. hahahaha Boarder Patrol Dude #2 says “Say… I know a few musicians… I’m good friends with Phil Collins – do you know him?… I’m also a drummer… have you got room for me?”. Yeah. Awesome. We were in and out in less than 1/2 an hour. Hello Alaska!!! Our American DEBUT!!!

 

 

Wednesday, Mar 14 – wild life count:

2 coyotes, 4 caribou, 1 bald eagle, at least a dozen moose – including a cute baby moose just sittin on the bank beside the highway.

Incident #2 The worst roads of all time included many patchy sections of very loose gravel. In other words, we got nailed and now need to replace our windshield.

 

 

Talkeetna, AK, USA – The Fairview Inn. Old hippy town. Very cute. Walk into the pub and ACDC’s blasting on the radio. “Oh great”, right? Yeah, I prejudged. And you know what? I couldn’t have been more wrong. I love it when that happens! It was the best night ever!! Thank you Toren, thank you Morgan (like the horse), thank you Marnie the bartender who pours a great shot of Jamieson, thank you Mark for your stories and overall awesomeness, thank you Monica for your exuberance! and thank you to everyone else we met and chatted with and grooved to our music – you made us feel so welcome! And thank you for not making us say “eh” and “aboot”. Oh and thanks to Denali for revealing your magnificence! Whoa…

 

 

Anchorage, AK, USA – The Taproot. Wow. Talk about an AWESOME venue. We were stoked to be playing an actual live music venue with proper sound tech n everything. Everybody knows how to get ‘er done there. Hats (and shirts) off to the incredible staff! But check this… There’s always something… We pull in to Rebecca’s (the owner) cabin and because of the RECORD snowfall here in Anchorage, we get stuck of course! High centered. So, out come the shovels and the rope! There goes the hour we were so desperate to enjoy in the peace and comfort of this quaint little cabin with the goats (we were hung over from Talkeetna).  Got about 45 mins of chill time, hardly enough, our bodies and minds are exhausted from the drink and the long haul drive we just did the day before. Incident #3 About to walk out the door and JD’s shoulder dislocates and stays out for almost a minute – excruciating pain.we get there, set up, everything’s great (besides his pain) mid set his whiskey glass vibrates off his amp and pushes up the volume, JD goes over to see what’s up, picks up the glass but some of the whiskey drips right down the jack and BOOM – the amp turns off. So, 5 min break, borrow an amp which totally alters our TONE (it’s not a tube amp), play the rest of the set. 2nd set, JD’s in crazy alarming pain, distracted, pops a string in the second song – good thing he’s got back up. A series of unfortunate song flubs ensues – nobody notices but us. Jeremy the heroic sound dude restrings JD’s guitar. 3rd set, people are dancing and having a great time – we finally gelled. So a totally strange first night but apparently everyone loved it cuz there are a many an Alaskan who’ll be receiving the new album in the mail next month!!

 

 

Can you believe this stuff??? This is just what happens sometimes. Rollin with the punches. What else could go wrong?!? But what else can go right?!?! I love this job.

 

 

Night #2 at The Taproot should be oodles of fun – if it’s anything like Gordie Tentree’s experience, it might be oodles of topless fun! I’ll keep you posted! Oh, and this just in, Jeremy the heroic sound dude found a replacement tube amp for JD to borrow tonight… Yay!

 

Brief enough?

~JB