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Rehearsals begin today and run until Thursday. It will be good to play again, see Rich, Chris, and Pat, and meet Rick, who will be teching for me this summer. Rick’s main gig is doing guitars for Angus Young when he’s not running Wizard. I’m looking forward to trying out his Vintage Classic Combo, which he said he’d bring down.

I think the list of songs we’re going over tops out at around 45 or 50, but I’ve no inside info as to what we’ll be playing this summer. It’ll take the next few days to determine that I would think. I might try and do more solo acoustic stuff during encores though. Ever since I recorded the acoustic portion of In A Coma I’ve been inspired to do an acoustic tour sometime next year. Me and Pam Kapoor, a friend and 10+ year veteran of the Canadian NGO scene, have been talking about turning the tour into something more than just an acoustic show. I think it would be a great way to host small public forums all over the country where people could come together to discuss a variety of issues, with human rights obviously being one of the more prevalent ones. But that’s not to say that even Canadian political debate would be out of the question.

Anyway, before I go I should quickly address a few popular questions that are being asked.

First: Oh Be Joyful! is the name of a song that will be featured on In A Coma and that will be at radio in the last week of July. The day that’s it’s released you’ll also be able to stream it here and watch the video for it as well. More details regarding the upcoming release will be spread throughout the summer, but I’m rather pleased with how it’s turned out. I wanted to make sure that there was a version that long-time fans would really enjoy and I think that Universal has really accomplished that.

Second: Some have emailed me asking if this release will signify the end of my musical career. My answer to this is – quite the contrary. I decided to undertake In A Coma for two reasons. The first is because a lot of my biggest musical influences released records of this nature in the middle of their careers, the most important one for me being Bob Dylan. Had it not been for Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits, which was released in 1967, I would never have gotten into him and probably never picked up a guitar (it was the only Bob Dylan record we had around the house when I was a kid). Greatest Hits Volume 1 was released prior to my personal favourite Dylan record, Blood On The Tracks, which featured monumental songs such as Tangled Up In Blue, Shelter From The Storm, and Idiot Wind. Actually, Volume 2 of his Greatest Hits came out before it as well.

The second factor has to do with the fact that, four years on, I want to make a clean break with my past. For me, I feel that this release will allow many to come to terms with the fact that the band was just one period of my career, the beginning.

Updated: I actually didn't meet Rick today because he's back east. Someone got their dates mixed up. And for those looking for show information, try the Shows page.