The Bownesians went on tour on Saturday night. We left Bowness to take it on the road all the way to Centre Street, namely, the Studio Cafe.

Opening for the Appleman Collective, we were the crowd warmers and the Studio seemed like the perfect place to come in from the cold on a bloody cold night (-30 freakin' degrees!)

The Appleman's crowd were ready for some rhumba-ing once the Collective started, and I caoptured this video of the Appleman's gal and a friend dancing with wild abandon. As evidenced by the footage, a good time was had by all.

Oy vey, the next morning we were up with the birds heading over to the Bowness Community Centre's Community Association celebration. We mainlined coffee and made it through - and no clowns were injured either. This was a milestone.

Rosemary's doin the mambo...

Tiki Bar Mayhem...

So one coldcoldcold, snowy December night, an artist named Robert Turriff invited the Bownesians to play in the midst of his magical art installation at ACAD - a make-shift but incredibly authentic looking tiki lounge! The weather outside might have been nothing short of frightful, but with a video loop of a beach scene playing outside the fake window, and a crowd that was eager to believe that they were drinking mai tais in a tropical paradise (instead of inside the Alberta College of Art with the windchill at a record -50 outside) the atmosphere was pretty damn balmy...

Photos by Kenneth Locke

Get some tequila for your voice

...that was the advice given to bownesian vocalist Leah by her pal Sam Masterton. "And get the good stuff, too", Sam cautioned. This seemed to work well last weekend when Leah was tracking her vocals in the Audities studio. We listened closely to the 'before tequila' and 'after tequila' tracks, and really, there was no comparison. Of course, the 'after tequila' listening was, well, AFTER tequila so there may have been some bias...

Recording Good Times

The Bownesians had the amazing opportunity to record at the fantastic Audities Studio this weekend. Owner, engineer and audio-phile extra-ordinaire, David Kean, is producing our 6 song EP and we really appreciated his expertise. With six of us in the band, it's no easy feat organizing our complicated little arrangements, let alone corralling us all and keeping us on track ("like herding cats," David was heard to say)!

Anyway, we're not finished yet, but what an amazing experience so far.