The Bastard Love Tour Highlights SO FAR
10 May
I’ve decided that the tour for The Foundling should be called the Bastard Love Tour. Sounds right and true to me. So from here on out, as the bastard love tour rolls in circles around the circular globe we all live and love on, I will try to update this blog and share highlights of my experiences as I present my new songs to folks around the world in places big and small. My first round of shows for this record were in Australia with my friend Ed Romanoff. We spent a month running around the land of Oz without much time to stop and think. I played bars, theaters, rock clubs, folk listening rooms, dozens of radio shows, record stores, a performed a song with the house band for a TV game show at a huge sold out legendary theater in Sydney for a TV show called RockWiz LIVE. Flew across the continent(5 hours) from Melbourne to Perth with only three hours of sleep to play a festival for 50 minutes. Got our feet wet in the Indian Ocean.
Taj Mahal, Me, and Ed Romanoff at the Perth Blues and Roots Festival
Everywhere I went people had their own stories to tell. It turns out Australia has a long troubled history around adoption but has gone to extraordinary measures to make up for prior wrongs. Adoption activists there actually got the government to apologize for practices that removed Aboriginal children from their birth families. Over and over again people told me their stories, and it was amazing for me to witness the same emotional processes in people on the other side of the world I’ve gone thru in the good old US of A. We humans are all so much alike the world over. Whats the old cliche? People are people. Turns out, we are all exactly that. The same.
I got back to Nashville jet lagged and weary, but soon enough I was ready to take on the next leg of the tour, which brought me to the east coast of America, Boston, NYC and upstate New York. Tania Elizabeth, the amazing Canadian fiddle player/vocalist, joined us at The Iron Horse in Northampton,MA, and is now an official part of my touring group. She played all over the record, and having her on the road with me is a huge treat. She’s a road dog of the olympic gold metal variety, having been on the road non-stop for the last 8 years with the Canadian band The Duhks. She knows her way around soundchecks, airports, festival stages, hotels and CD tables, and she is mesmerizing on stage. It’s a thrill to have her up there with me. Tania, Ed and I opened several shows for The Cowboy Junkies, and played our own shows in upstate New York ( where Woodstock locals Rachel Yamagata and Tom Pacheco came by to say hello, two of my favorite singer songwriters writing songs today).
We then went on a three show run with Mindy Smith, played Minneapolis and Chicago and Cedar Rapids Iowa (near the hallowed halls of the Iowa writers workshop where Flannery O’Connner studied writing as a young woman).
Mindy Smith, Lex Price, Ed Romanoff, Me, Tania Elizabeth in Cedar Rapids Iowa
Tonight I am in London, where I will be for the next week doing radio and press interviews. It’s cold tonight, they say a frost is possible, but Ed and I are going to walk to Chinatown for some hot and spicy food no matter what.
The bastard love tour is not afraid of a little frost…..in mid May. Not afraid at all. If I can get my feet to Chinatown in any town for some spicy salty squid and sauteed Chinese green veggies, I always will.
Hi Mary,
When you come back to Australia it would be great if you could time it to be here for the Cygnet Folk Festival in Southern Tasmania in early January each year. Lots of music here and Tassie is sensationally beautiful. It would make a lot of fans very happy. I saw you in Brunswick and was so moved that I only let myself play The Foundling when I am very still and can be completely focussed on the music.
Hi Mary,
Just wanted to say a huge thank you for a terrific gig at Bury Met the other night. From the moment you came on stage with Tania it was electric, soulful, funny and above all mesmerising.Your music and the words has such a depth its like being drawn into a story one that everyone can relate to. The violin/fiddle playing by Tania Elizabeth makes the sound amazing as well as adding a new dimension to it. The whole evening including Ben on support was brilliant
Thanks for a great night in Groningen.
I think you ” Tape one of these live shows!”
This is great stuff, just you and the violinst.
Hope we can meet again.
Fank
Hallo Mary,
It was so good to listen to your music in this theatre in Groningen last night.
2006 I was in Chicago and heard your music.
I bought all your CD,s with your sign.
Thanks and have a nice tour.
Hi Mary
Missed your visit to Australia, but heard your cd The Foundling playing in a music store and I was told it was you. I bought the cd and continue to play it as the words and music resonates with me.
I was watching Rock Wiz last Saturday night and you were on it, pity you did not get to sing your own song.
It is difficult to buy your music here, I checked out Amazon in uk is where it is available rather than Us.
Look forward to your return to Australia so I can come to a live show. Enjoy your music
regards
Joy
HI Mary,Heard you interviewed on BBC and heard you play. Touched me deeply. When you said we are all orphans, and that you didn’t know what pulled you out of addiction – something called ‘grace’, I felt my heart respond. It would have been so easy for you to see your story as a special case justifying bitterness and hatred. When we can see our troubles and our pain as shared by everyone, and linking us to the human race, we are nearer to bringing heaven on earth. We need more like you. Thankyou.
Saw the show in Chicago at Old Town School of Folk Music. It was a truly amazing masterpiece. I was pulled into the music and felt like I was living Mary’s life. Thank you for sharing…I hope it is a healing experience.