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Published: August 30th 2011
International bridge
Sault Sainte Marie border crossingIt is good to be in Canada again. We have travelled over some of the high points of the west previously and this time we want to see some of the east. The country has played a significant role for members of my family. My Mum was born here, 89 years ago today, but her family left reasonably quickly thereafter, seeking a better life than could be found at the time in Regina, Saskatchewan. My father's great-grandfather, William Simpson, was also here for a time but a lot earlier of course. He also decided that there was a better place to be and tried to get there under his own steam. Fortunately, the wonderful British justice system of the day stepped in to give him a hand, packing him off to Australia and telling him never to leave. Checking out where William lived might have kept us in Kingston for a day. The Limestone City Blues Festival kept us there for four. It's all about priorities.
Fort Henry was built between 1832 and 1848 with the job of maintaining British access to important trade and communication links – the St Lawrence River/Seaway, and the newly constructed Rideau Canal – and
to keep that land grabbing mob from south of the border precisely where they were. William, as far as we know, arrived there in 1831 and was a very small fish in this pond. He was a private in the British Army having been, in some manner, 'enlisted' in the 15th Regiment of Foot which was sourced from the landless young men of Yorkshire. Five and a half years later, having been somehow transferred to the 24th Regiment of Foot – a Welsh Regiment – William apparently decided that enough was enough. He left. Unfortunately, he didn't bother to obtain approval and was swiftly returned to face a court martial. Given it was his first offence for his entire time in His Majesty's Service, he was spared the death penalty and just copped 21 years in Australia with the proviso he never leave. He had been gone from the Fort a little over 12 hours.
Having a convict ancestor used to be something rarely acknowledged in Australia. These days, though, we are more aware of the realities of life in the early 19th century. Our guide at the Fort, and others that we have met here, found it a
little difficult to understand that we might be interested in William. He did say though that the Fort is a pretty rough place, even now, in the fall and winter. Soldiers, in the 1830s received less than 12 pence per day with half of that being taken to pay for their keep. Their food was the same every day – meat, potatoes and bread. Six out of 100 soldiers in any regiment were allowed to marry and have their wife on post. You were required to serve for 21 years. Desertion was a constant problem. Those with poor records who were found guilty of desertion were normally sentenced to death. When a soldier did desert, a signal bell rang and the locals then hunted the deserter down. They were paid for each one they delivered back.
Fort Henry is worth a visit even if you don't have a convict ancestor who served here. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it is set up well. The restoration work has been well done and the presentations given by the guides are excellent. As you move around the Fort you have 'soldiers' in uniform carrying out a range of functions,
training, lining up for pay and generally being ordered about by their 'officers'. No whippings though.
The Limestone City Blues Festival was a stroke of luck. It required that we move quickly through Ontario from Sault St Marie around the coast of Lake Huron, skip Toronto and get ourselves to Kingston. While a series of storms and tornado warnings livened up the trip and the country is pretty enough in parts, it really seems to be 'drive through' country and that is what we did. We missed the first day of the 3 and a half day festival but were there bright and early to pay our $10.00 each for the whole of the remainder. $10.00 no less. And you could have seen and heard plenty for nothing at all. It wasn't Byron Bay but this turned out to be an excellent deal.
This was the 15th Festival. I don't know how the earlier ones operated but this year they had a stage in a square between the City Hall and the lake. Each day 6 acts were on stage there. At night the headline performers played at other much larger venues - a car park and the
market square. After the nightly concerts you could pick up acts you wanted to follow up at any of a fair number of clubs, pubs and bars around the city area. The system worked very well for us.
For us, a lot of the performers weren't people we had heard about. Some of the local acts were much better than average and at least one, the Lynsey McKitrick Trio is one to watch. Lynsey is young, about 15 years old, but with a lot of energy and some real talent. Double Double, Wicked Grin, Al Wood and the Woodsmen and Little Bobby and the Jumpstarts were well worth listening to while sitting comfortably in the sun with a lot of people who clearly appreciated good blues.
Among the headline acts Grady Champion was, for our money, the best performer. He is from Jackson, Mississippi and, as he told us more than once, he is a winner of the International Blues Challenge and has tracks at the top of the American Blues Charts. Grady undoubtedly is a good self promoter but he matches it with his performance. He spent a lot of time wandering around in the crowd out
Fortification
one of the Martello Towers built as a defence against the US of the spotlight and must have driven his sound people mad. It was a high quality show.
Among a lot of excellent harmonica players, Grady was no slouch on the instrument. John Reddick was also excellent but his vocals, while perfectly reasonable, made you want him to get back to his harmonica. One of the best acts were 2 brothers and a sister from Missouri, making up the band Trampled Under Foot. Well worth following.
We were impressed that the great majority of the acts we were able to see actually played the blues. Some blues performers slide readily between blues and jazz - and one of us is less than keen on jazz. There were a few here that slipped across for a few songs of a set but the majority stayed reasonably pure. Trampled Under Foot were the only ones we found that slipped into more poppy songs a couple of times in their set but I am prepared to forgive them given that; when they play the blues, they do it very, very well.
The only real downer of the event was Walter Trout. He is an old rocker and blues guitarist who has
Evening crowd gathering
Market Square, Kingston played with Canned Heat and John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. No doubt a brilliant guitarist but we weren't really there to see what clever things an old bloke can do with a guitar and some very good sound equipment. No matter what song he started to play – and for a few bars of each song it sounded hopeful – he quickly headed to the highest notes he could find on the E string and played riff after similar riff focused right there. Walter successfully cleared out the largest crowd that had apparently been seen at the Festival in any year, with about half being gone following the first 4 songs. We were harder to shift than many but we still left before the end when it was clear he was very happy doing his thing and wasn't going to change. A pity.
Grady talked a lot about being on the road for 77 days so far this tour. And Walter mentioned he had been on the road for 40 years (but not continuously we assume). That reminded us we were going to mark the 1000th day since we drove out of our former home. So we did a
quick calculation and found we missed it - the 1000th day of this trip was in July and it is nearly September! But perhaps it's a good sign - we're not counting.
We normally take the weather as it comes. Lately, though, the weather has been of more than passing interest. On our trip across Ontario from Sault St Marie to Sudbury and then down the eastern shore of Lake Huron to Parry Sound we were picking up storm warnings and being told that areas were on tornado watch. You are never too sure how seriously to take some of this stuff. Official weather warnings we do, of course, pay attention to, but there is often quite a bit of hype that goes along as commentary. On the way east to Sudbury we didn't see much of the storms that were predicted and, to be honest, the sky didn't seem to me to be particularly stormy. There was a little rain and occasionally that became heavy but nothing really to worry about.
When we turned south and south east towards Parry Sound things intensified and, by the time we were coming into Parry Sound, where we had decided
Toronto towers
another photo for your collection Pete to camp the night, we had made the decision to find a hotel. When we turned on the TV we found that the official warnings had hardened up and we were now on a tornado red alert. It was very quiet on the streets that night. You definitely had the impression that people were taking it seriously.
Of course, now we have had Hurricane Irene, now downgraded to a tropical storm or even just a depression, go past in the east. We have just been watching what it did to parts of New York, Vermont, Maine and Quebec. Obviously, the damage being shown is the worst that the TV channels can find but it is still significant. We puzzle a little that so much damage and flooding can be caused by what are strong winds, but not that strong, and rain that is heavy, but not spectacular, but then this is not the tropics. This is a very long way from the tropics and they just aren't set up for this sort of stuff. Interesting that in all of the coverage I haven't heard 'climate change' mentioned. Perhaps they should start looking hard at their strategies pretty soon.
We have just made it to Quebec City where we will spend a couple of days. From here we plan to drive over to the Maritime Provinces, but unfortunately not Newfoundland.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
How fortunate
The two of you have been very lucky on this trip running into great concerts and music venues. I guess you bring that to you. Continued good luck on avoiding bad weather.