Harper and Midwest Kind July Blog

Hey everyone,

I hope you are enjoying the summer.  My band Midwest Kind and I are on the road in beautiful Oregon and Washington, USA as we speak.  We have been hitting the road pretty hard this summer, but it has been a lot of fun.  In late June we had a very cool tour to Colorado for some Australian Didge-ucation Library performances then on to amazing Utah.   We performed at the fabulous Groovefest in Cedar City, Utah.  Great audience, loads of cool vendors with interesting jewelry and clothes.  We had a fabulous show and really enjoyed the Reggae band after us called "Stranger".  Then it was on to The Utah Arts Festival in Salt Lake City.  This festival was huge with multiple stages and an eclectic mix of music, art and theatre.  We saw the Australian theatre group who perform on stilts called "Strange Fruit" which was a unique experience.  Our show at The Park Stage, closing the festival was a huge buzz.  Big crowd and good vibes all round.  We really enjoyed playing The Wine Cellar in Ogden, Utah, so nice to catch up with owner Mitch and his awesome staff.

Then it was Salt Lake City to Ottawa, Ontario Canada.  Not the best routing but the festivals were amazing.  The Ottawa Bluesfest is beyond huge, up to 30 000 people per day, multiple stages and many many amazing bands.  We performed on the Black Sheep Stage with the Honey Island Swamp Band.  They had big screen jumbo trons at the back of the stage.  It was kind of bizarre to look behind you and see yourself ten times bigger than life.  After our set Bobbi and I rushed over to The Bell Stage to catch up with bass player: Ross Valory after his set with Journey.  There were literally 30 000 people in front of the  Bell Stage.  We had special Journey back stage passes, so we had a really close up view of the band.  It was cool to hang out with the wives of the band and to see the band after their killer set.  Our Saturday show on the Claridge Stage was fun.  This stage was huge, complete with even bigger jumbo trons on either side of the stage.   The sound, back stage crew, hospitality at this festival were fabulous.  We hung out with Matt Anderson and JJ Grey back stage.  Had a lot of fun. Even got to see Lady Gaga drop a load of F bombs during her performance..  Despite that, she did put on an extravagant  show with her 24 tour buses and 150 person crew and entourage.  The next day we headlined the final day of Sab Stock in Pembroke, Canada. This was a very nice ending to a great tour.

The next week I performed ten shows in seven days- the highlights were Jamming in Jackson, Briggs Farm Festival and Blues in the Vineyard in St Catharines, Canada!!!   No Rest for the Blessed!!!! Hope to see you out on the road this summer.

Thanks and Peace,

Harper and Midwest Kind
www.harper.biz (Official Harper Website) CDs
http://www.harper.biz/workshops.html    Australian Didge-ucation
www.youtube.com/harperband (for live video clips)
www.facebook.com/harperandmidwestkind
www.facebook.com/pages/Harper-and-Midwest-Kind/163124467948
www.musicpage.com/harper
www.reverbnation.com/harperandmidwestkind