1978 was an interesting year. After leaving the Kootenays, I had spent quite a few months playing solo
in some of the toughest bars in BC and Alberta, and came back to the West Coast completely exhausted and discouraged.
It was almost as if the whole back-to-the-land interlude had been just a dream...

While sharing a tumbledown old house in Kitsilano with my high school buddy, Michael Heiden,
I started playing a lot of music just for the fun of it again. I was still studying jazz on my own, and
enrolled in a music theory class at Langara College to try and figure out how it all worked.
(It didn't stick, though...I'm still functionally illiterate when it comes to lead sheets!)

Michael was busy making guitars and playing in a bluegrass band, and I was singing in front of liquor stores with our roommate
Robin, picking up some spare cash to make my car payments. We were all pretty broke, but happy.
(I was really happy about not playing in bars anymore.)

Click on the picture below to find out what happened next...