Lupercalia was a great success this past weekend – it’s safe to say that the little local music festival that filled the streets and packed ten venues in Owen Sound is the first of many – also safe to say that it will grow. Thanks Josh R, your promoter skills are much appreciated.

I played twice – three times if you include the 3.5 hour recording session with Tyler Wagler on Sunday morning. The other 2 were 6pm with Willi Henry & Patrick Dorfmann @ The Ginger Press, then at midnight crammed in with Tyler and Joel Morelli.

I was not playing my friend, the last cello made by Edouard Bartlett, the one I’ve played every morning these past 2 months – she hates the winter cold/hot/dry of this place, and has come apart on her shoulders. Her voice squeaks where it always sang – so I took her to Sibylle Ruppert, a fine luthier and friend from Paisley, who let me borrow this new girl….:

 

I miss my friend – we have grown into each other these past 10 years.  It will be a while before she comes back to me here.  In the meantime, I play this sleek little otter-girl, and we get to know one another.  It’s exciting and sad and weird, and unsettling and challenging all the time. Will I get along with otter-girl?  Will she work with me, will her voice grow even bigger and mellower than it already is?  Will I find a way to keep her?  Are we meant to work together?  hmmm.

I know I’ll never sell Ed’s cello, though I might rent her to a student I trust.  Could I have two?

Somebody should do a study on the complex, intense bond between a musician and his instrument.