Ambley Rambling

Vancouver, BC (Canada): The weather was literally PERFECT and the scenery was out of a made for TV movie as I made my way to Ambleside Park to see two of my favorite artists, who also serve as two of my touring mentors.



Sarah McLachlan organized a benefit concert for her charity and had invited Sheryl Crow to join her (along with Neil Young, Luke Doucet & others). As we (my current band leader & I) made our way towards the outdoor stage, visions of Lilith Fair twinkled in front of me.



In typical Lilith-fashion, Sheryl took the stage first, only to invite Sarah to join her on one of her sing-along hits and without being too overly dramatic, had I not been in front of my band leader and a few thousand some Candians, I might have wept. (ok, a little dramatic... but true!)


Lilith Fair was my first tour and set the bar on how I thought touring life was (or at least should be) and was a magical time when I realized I could watch and listen to live music for a living.

During Neil's set, we went back to see my sweet friend who hooked us up with passes (thanks, A!). While we stood by while she get Sheryl's band ready to go back onstage for another performance, Sarah appeared from her trailer. It's moments like these that I have an internal struggle -- I don't want to be THAT girl and bother anyone backstage, especially before a performance, but what if this is my only chance to say that big important thing I've been waiting 11 years to say?


With a deep breath (and a physical shove from said band leader), I slip over to her, wait for a moment to interrupt (ugh), confirm eye contact and.... verbally vomit... about how I was the biore sponsor rep on the lilith fair '98 tour... and now I am reba's tour manager... and I learned so much on lilith... and attribute so much to you... that I really do think it's gotten me to where I am today... (deep breath)... and thank you so much... and, oh, I'm also going out with the indigo girls in october at the end of october (because i obviously like to repeat myself when I'm talking a mile a minute).... I felt like a babbling idiot, but she did her famous Sarah gracious namaste head bow to me, which made me feel at peace and was enough for my head to explode at the same time.


After a bit more chit chat, we returned to our seats and I put aside the deep thoughts of backstage (since, from the photo above, you can see Sarah had video with a bit of Deep Thoughts herself) and simply enjoyed the fact that I was there, on this beautiful Vancouver night, with some amazing musicians and how very, very lucky I am to be able to be a part of all this mess.