This was a loooooong eleven hour drive. Until we were about an hour into Alberta it was a pretty boring drive.
Clusters of windmills we saw The Alberta Sign
We got to Red Deer and when I walked into the hotel I picked up this little art catalog (Red Deer has some insane murals downtown) and I saw my name in it.
DAY TWO: SYLVAN LAKE & TWO SHOWS
To start the day we headed to Sylvan Lake, after the long drive the day before a good walk was needed. Sylvan Lake is a cute spot, with super clear water and a lighthouse.
We walked through the little shops (picked up souvenirs) and I found my dream shirt in a shop that was unfortunately closed. We came across this little sculpture made for people to put locks on it.
Afterwards he headed back to Red Deer to start getting ready for the show. We ended exploring down town Red Deer before heading to the patio where I was playing. There was a cute little cafe with an art gallery in the basement.
ROSS PATIO SESSION: DOWNTOWN RED DEER
The patio session was really great, the weather was perfect to be playing in the sun. It was a welcoming very country crowd. We had about a half an hour to get over to the other venue, so this felt very quick.
VIN L DEN WITH AARON FROST & BOP N MOSS
Vin L Den was one of my favourite venues this year, a very rock record store with a stage (and a few couches) in the back. The owner was so chill and the girl who worked at the front was unbelievably kind – she took the fishbowl lensed picture.
Aaron Frost (another singer-songwriter from Brandon, MB – who I met at the beginning of July when I was playing in town, was so kind to set this up), his music has a very acoustic indie rock sound to it.
Bop n Moss consists of the cutest couple (it was sweet, it was their last show as fiancés) who play and sing, what I would consider folk rock.
DAY THREE: CALGARY, BANFF, AND TRAVEL DAY
We started the day driving from Red Deer Calgary to meet some family for breakfast (it’s been about two years since I’ve seen them, so it was nice) Afterwards we were so close to the mountains, we had to go and check them out.
Finally we hit Banff, we got a little market, took a little walk then started to hit the road home.
This was such a relaxing trip to end the busy summer.
There was so much packing and organizing to do (I am pro at procrastinating laundry, so laundry day). Top priority was getting my nails done.
Done by Karla (Reflexology by Karla, Langenberg, SK)
Day One: Starting close to home; Music in the Park, Binscarth, MB
A lovely little set in front of a listening crowd. It felt like I haven’t been onstage for awhile so it was nice to have this crowd to start this weekend. These little shows really help put into perspective on what I’ve accomplished in this past year. This time last year I played here and sang The Mountain Lion Song for the first time. We did another photo like the one from last year.
20252024 (the album cover of the first live performance of the mountain lion song).
Day Two: The Road Trip Out
The road trip mainly consisted of behind of the scenes work, making posters for shows, doing updates on my website, last minute set list changes, all that fun stuff. I added a piece of Merch this time around (that I plan on continuing) called Pocket Poems. They’re very small (four page) poem books that I hand sewn the spines too. I’m bringing two different issues out – Self Reflections of Twenty-One and The Garden Gnomes Smoke When The Streetlights Turn On. So excited to see how they do in the merch trunk.
Mac the Moose
We stopped in Moose Jaw to check out the world’s largest moose. On the way here I read through the history of this moose loosing and regaining his title. The information building was cool, I picked up a sticker for my guitar case, and looked at some local art.
Buffalo in Moose Jaw
We kept driving and hit Chaplin, we explored a little nature center on the side of the road. This was one of the coolest side of the road attractions I’ve hit, it’s right near a salty pond so all the shorebirds hit it on the migrations path for the shrimp that live there.
The amount of taxidermy birds found in this area is astounding.
Morse Museum – Morse, SK
When we got to Morse we hit a little bar to play some pool to kill some time. We got a private tour of one of the graduates from the Morse Museum (it previously was a school until 2009). One of my favorite parts of doing shows is the special opportunities I get to do like having a private tour of this museum. Performance wise this summer has been a lot of first time running into issues (breaking strings, technical difficulties, ect) in Morse when they were setting up the lights once it got dark – the lights blew a breaker. So, it made it extra interesting, but I think I played it off smoothly. I love a classic trailer stage but the cat tails behind me was one of my favorite stage set ups.
The lovely cattails behind the stage.They let me jump the fence to get this picture Another stuffed seagull (this was the 7th I saw in a day)
Day Three: SWT Theatre – Gull Lake, SK
We woke up in Swift Current and started the drive out to Gull Lake, once we got there, we had three hours to kill so we headed to the Eastend Dinosaur Museum. It was cool to see all the casts, and I ended up learning a lot about the history of Sask (never would have guessed there was crocs here at one point). I learnt about Scotty the Dino years ago in school, so it was kind of nice to see him in person. We passed through a small town full of murals, Shaunavon, that had a little coffee shop with the best coffee I’ve ever tasted there.
A little creek we stopped at on our way to the museum.
We headed back to Gull Lake, and it was a pretty quick getting set up and sound check until the show. This was my first theatre I got to play on my own and having my name on the sign was crazy. I discovered a Swift Current movie production company (Dead Prairies Production) which has a movie called “Gorephers”, a horror movie about killer gophers, which is on my list of things I need to watch this winter.
The crowd was smaller than ideal but a vibrant night, and I believe the folks who were there enjoyed it.
Day Four: Cypress Hills Winery – Maple Creek, SK
We started the day in Gull Lake and had a few hours to venture since I wanted to hit the little bookstore, The Yellow Canary, before we left. We hit a little cafe and found an ice fishing shack in someone’s yard that dad wanted to ask some questions about the build of it. Afterwards we did hit the bookstore. Lovely little place, really love the small-town businesses. I bought a book that’s been on my read list for a while and then we hit the road again. We found a little church that turned into an antique store, and I found a throw blanket by Laurel Burch (covered in cats). Had to grab it.
The original stain glass in the church.
Maple Creek itself was such an old timey cute town. People were so friendly here, like anyone on the street would start chatting. We checked out the two busy streets with all the shops, someone told us that one of the toy stores has the largest collection of puzzles in western Canada – so we had to go and check that out.
The Cypress Hills Winery itself was the cutest little place – a long curvy pathway that bring you to the front doors (where two wooden bear statues greet you). The artwork in the winery was all oil paintings of livestock and wild animals which I always appreciate. I believe this winery is ran mainly by a mother-daughter duo – it was such an experience getting the behind the scenes of how the wine is made and of course trying as many wines as I could in a night. One of the waitresses hoped onstage and sang while I strummed along with her (which is something I want to start doing more, I love when other people take the mic for a while).
What was SO cool was someone from the Cypress Hills Grasslands Area organization came out and took a few videos.
It was a busy weekend, and an even longer drive home the next day but overall Western Sask is such a nice place to be.
Kolby Clunas 