Driving away from the Main Stage at North Country Fair, Matt (our bass player for all the shows in Alberta this summer, we still have yet to find a permanent replacement for Colin Cowan) pulled to the side of the dirt road to give an oncoming mini-van a little extra room.
Well, he gave it too much room, as we gracefully glided down into a ditch.
It took a second for everyone in the car to register that we were, in fact, in a ditch. Trying to back out, it was clear the tires were also stuck in the mud. Todd slid out the window, I snapped a pic of him as he shimmied, and then I opened the door and jumped into the briers.
Just then a guy on a bike went by, saw us, and said he would fetch the tractor to pull us out. We laughed, thinking how funny it was that some random old guy on a bike would just know where to get a tractor to tow us out of our dilemma!
Car kept passing us, and one slowed. I thought I recognized the lads in the car as the band The Deep Dark Woods (who I had read about in Penguin Eggs as a big up and coming Saskatchewan group.) To be sure I asked who they were and I was right. After chatting we planned to meet, drink and jam with them later at their far-off campsite.
Just as they pulled away, a car passed them and slowed. The driver, an Asian man with sunglasses and a stylish hat asked if we wanted a push. We chatted and discovered he was the Ory No*Man Band (www.orynoman.ca)
It was 3am Sunday morning (Saturday night in the common speech), and I was in the sídhe as you might say, and came upon the Family Stage in the middle of the vast North Country field. There was a psychedelic site. A man with his black tied back, wearing a wife beater and hammering on the guitar belted melody to the famous In My Time of Dying song, covered by Dylan and Zeppelin, most famously, but of far older origin. Beside him a man with a mushroom like hat played the double bass which lay almost on its side. I think someone was on drums and there may have been another singer doing back-up, it is hard to remember through the haze of the experience. All I know is this...
I stood spellbound.
For probably two hours as this changeling-like man and his faerie host played spellbinding aubades as the sunrise breached the midsummer night and the cheers of the listeners continued to inspire the band to keep playing. *You all better buy our last 15 cds,* the singer cried, as he launched into In My Time of Dying for possibly the 5th time.
THIS was Ory No*Man.
Well, watch our 6 minute debut video blog and see and hear for yourself: a little snippet of what this all was like.
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