I’m sitting in a chair in Montreal for the first time in two months, and I need to do laundry like never before. Yesterday Tamara Lindeman (The Weather Station), and I drove from Woodstock, New Brunswick, and T rocked the wheels.

Our drive marked the end of a wonderful little tour in the Maritimes, just a small fragment of the “non-stop tour of now,” which is the term I now use to describe my life.
On this jaunt I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Tamara and Willie Stratton, who both blew my musical mind. Listen to them. Willie likes to read horoscopes before shows, just to align with the stars.

……Rewind back to the end of March, just after South by Southwest in Austin, when I landed in Edmonton to meet up with Anais Mitchell and the Hadestown Orchestra. We rendezvoused at the Arden Theatre and had a whirlwind rehearsal day before staging the production the next evening. Singing’ the part of Persephone in Anais’ folk opera was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. Though the term “opera” suggests a sort of compexity, in reality Hadestown is just a group of singers standing in front of a crackerjack band singing an iconic love tragedy in song cycle form, each singer taking the lead on a few tunes. My good buddy Stephen Tchir took on the role of Orpheus and did a phenomenal job.

It was such an honour to sing with Anais, the Hadestown cast, and her incredible band on a theatre tour through Alberta. F***in’ rights. We even got to stop in Banff to hang out with some elk.

After sadly parting ways with the Hadestown cast and crew, I headed to Calgary, Edmonton, and Saskatoon to play some shows of my own, including two with the lovely Rose Cousins and one with my very good friend Theresa Sokyrka.

Antics.

After a last blast of prairie sky I teleported to Toronto on April 10th to play at the Horseshoe Tavern with Mr. Ryan Granville Martin on the drums. The ‘Shoe is always a good time, and this was no exception. I followed it up with some more Ontario shows and then headed to the Cornfield family farm where there was some planting to be done.

So that, plus the adventure to the Atlantic, pretty much brings us up to date.
I’m home for a little over a week before heading down to Vermont, New York City, and Boston with my friend Chesley Walsh for some good ole USA shows. Check the shows page for deets!
This summer is shaping up to be a great one for festivals and the like, so stay tuned for some announcements in the next week or so.

Rock and roll.

The last month went by in a flash. It feels like just yesterday I was in Montreal trying to stuff everything into my suitcase. Right now I’m in Edmonton enjoying a sunny day off, listening to the sweet sounds of Bahamas‘ new album Barchords. Last night I had the pleasure of warming up the stage for the one and only Rose Cousins at the Haven Social Club. It was great fun, and I’ll be opening up for her again in Calgary on April 2nd at the Ironwood.

So where can I possibly begin? On March 5th I celebrated my impending Montreal exit at the Sala Rossa opening up for The Wooden Sky. I was joined by hotshot comrades Kathryn Palumbo (bass), Sam Rosenberg (percs/vox), Evan Tighe (drums), and special guest Leif Vollebekk (geetar). It was a good way to go out.

Then I left on a bit of a songwriting sojourn in Nashville with my Dad, Eitan Cornfield. He’s a pretty cool dude if you ask me, and after finishing up some major work at CBC Radio 2 he had some time to join me on an adventure.

We hung out with some awesome people from SOCAN who are holding it down in Nashville cranking out hits. I did my first official co-write (a country song no less), played a gig, heard a ton of incredible music and even got the chance to play Elvis’ piano…

From there I parted ways with Pops and made my way to Austin for the madness that is the South by Southwest Music Festival. That week is pretty blurry now, though what I do remember is that I heard a lot of amazing music, met some incredible people, and played a bunch of shows, including one on the street.

There were many Canadian pals in Austin, including my friends The Balconies
Here Liam and I compare style notes:

In addition to playing my own tunes, I hit some drums for Mr. Ben Caplan and the Casual Smokers, which was a blast as per usual.

Luckily I had some time to whip around town and check out music with little brother Joe Cornfield, who was there taking photos for a Montreal newspaper.

SXSW was a week of madness and I still feel like I’m digesting everything I saw and heard.
That’s part of why I’m going to split this tour blog into two parts and post another thing soon, with photos and words from these last two weeks in the Canadian prairies, the Hadestown tour and more!

This is my last day in Montreal before a two and a half month touring odyssey that begins in Nashville, Tennessee. I’m fighting off the late-winter bug everyone seems to have, loading up on ginger and Vitamin C, taking advice from the wise elders of colds and flus.

Some of you may know this, but for the past few months I’ve been writing a song a week using a mix of material people send me and stuff from my own brain.
The results are over at http://youtube.com/charlottecornfield. Give a gander. Let me know what you think.
It’s been a really interesting process for me writing with a self-imposed deadline and using other people’s ideas, but it’s proved an incredible learning experience.
Here’s one of the tunes,

Please check out the shows page for tour dates. I’m going to be hitting the prairies, Ontario, the East Coast and the US of A in the coming months. I’d love to see you in your town.

I’ll be using this here page as a blog, with photos, videos and anecdotes from the road, so check it our der, eh?