After releasing 3 albums in the last 4 years, touring from coast-to-coast in Canada each of the last 3 years and thru a dozen states in the lower 48, the time has come for an extended stay at home in Alberta. With a catalogue of new songs building and a strong desire to write more it’s time to put aside my obsession with traveling and performing and focus on the thing that drives it all.
Besides, how are you going to miss me if I won’t go away?
I’ve placed the songwriters call at the forefront of my life and because of this (I believe) I’m able still to write and compose material of quality at a pace reserved for those much younger than the fellow who looks back at me in the mirror these days, and for this I’m ever grateful. I have sought always to protect and nurture that part of myself which makes this possible, although in truth I have no real idea of what that piece of myself actually is. I do know that there are times when it requires solitude and reflection, and others when the stress of the stage and the endless miles of controlled chaos on the road is necessary in order to orient the disjointed fragments and jumbled chords into the flowing lyrics and melodies that make up the songs.
These are the things around which I have focused my life.
Now, with more than 10 years and somewhere in the neighborhood of 1500 performances behind me, the time has come to step back for just a while and catch my breath. There are repairs to be made; to myself and to my tools, which require me to spend some of my time closer to my home and to those people and places that I will need in order to prepare for the next few years of challenges, and thus I plan to spend at least a few months tending to those things prior to returning to the road in the spring.
Entropy is real, and maintenance is a requirement of survival for all things and all people, even the man from Harwill!
For a survivor is what I have been and seek always to be. In spite of the changes, the odds, the disappointments, the ever-changing reality of this life and yes, this business in the 21st century, to survive and to continue to do it, in my own way and in my own time, has been my focus. The fact that I have been successful (so far) in doing exactly that is a tribute to those of you reading this and to my own bull-headed commitment to doing it my own way, and for this I thank us both. For no amount of nepotism, cronyism, cliques, fakes, phonies, wannabees, government grant-seekers, artistic committee-members, or so-called experts has anything to do with the creation and performance of real music. None of these things has a bearing on the creation and performance of real songs, no matter how many of those whose livelihoods depend upon them claim that they do. For and because of this I have and plan to continue to persevere in my quest to deliver music to those of you who choose, like myself, to take the alternate road and to make up our own minds about what represents music worth supporting, rather than be fed the pablum of the cliques and suffer the tyranny of the masses.
Some things are worth dedicating ones’ life to, and to this music is what I’ve dedicated mine.
Thus a time of reflection and rest has come upon me, and for a while I won’t be going down the road nor walking among the friends and fans upon whose support my life and career resides. How I do hope that you’ll be there when I return, because it won’t be long and I’ll be missing you strong when I get back to the road and to your warm embrace. The fall will turn to winter and the winter will turn to spring here in Alberta, and before you know it I’ll be there, with some songs and some stories, some laughter and some heartbreak, to share with you the endless love song that makes up our lives together.
Stay well and love each other until my return my friends and know that I will be missing you.
Thank you as always for checking the calendar here for the latest updates and see you at the show!
– TH, 23/10/2012