Damn, Toronto. This is total ‘from the bottom of our hearts’ kind of stuff: thanks for the amazing weekend. Thanks for packing into the Horseshoe and making us feel welcome (and a tip of the hat to Grant Lawrence for reminding us that NXNE was also our return to playing on Canadian soil for the first time in months), and for somehow letting us go over the written-in-stone LIVE ON CBC / NXNE set time allotments. And oh, the whole surprise live-on-air awarding of the NXNE Galaxie Rising Star award thing was an added beautiful surprise. We’ll come back any time you’ll have us, Toronto.

As for the rest of our trip, that too was grand. Boompa Erin and I tried to take in as many Pad Thais as possible over the course of four food-stuffed days. The Red Room gets points for being nice and spicy (and cheap), but I think I’m going to have to proclaim Queen Mother the winner in the Toronto’s Best NXNE Pad Thai Race 2009. (And when it comes to breakfast, Sandro Perri revealed the incredible Café Lula’s poached eggs on cheesy polenta as one of the city’s finest morning offerings).

It was great to see so many friends again, and exciting to walk past so many artists recognizable from our music collections at home. A festival like NXNE is a rather heady, panicked, and overwhelming experience (so a special thanks to the pal who let me use her apartment ever-so-slightly off the beaten path this weekend), but at least in this particular instance, everything went off without a hitch.

PS. Cheers to the Woodpigeon NXNE 2009 band: Annalea Sordi on Nord, flute & vocals; Foon Yap on violin, Mandobird & vocals, Paul Aucoin on vibes, Arran Fisher on bass, clarinet, percussion & vocals; Garrett McClure on guitar, and Dean Martin on drums. And oh. I’m Mark. I wore extremely white trousers which Maggie MacDonald spilled a full pint of Coca Cola on in the Red Room right after our show. From here on out, whenever I see a faint brown stain I’ll think fondly of Toronto.

Thanks to everyone who came out to our last round of shows in the UK, Ireland, and Sweden (the very first Woodpigeon shows in Scandinavia, yo). Extra Special Thanks to the great new bands and performers we met and shared the stage with along the way — Music for Dead Birds, Dag för Dag, Beardfish, Stuart Silver, Serafina, Murray Lachlan Young, and on and on … It was great to premiere a couple of new songs for everyone, and collaborate with some new pals too.

I rode my pal Hampus’ bike through Stockholm the other day, and wandered through a children’s library, looking at the best-designed kids’ books I’ve ever seen. We planted potatoes in Hampus’ garden allotment with Phoenix on the portable stereo, and found ourselves dancing until the wee hours of the morning to Daedelus at the Normal Books publishing party. Three weeks before, we stopped through Bulgaria in search of gypsy folk music and hand-knit slippers, and a visit to the rather awe-inspiring Rila Monastery up in the mountains. En route to Ireland, we took the ferry from Holyhead, Wales, a tiny settlement worth exploring if you ever get the chance. In Cardiff, our hosts Liz and Ryan of the band The School took impeccable care of us (including a visit to Spiller Records, the world’s oldest record shop).

Woodpigeon’s coming back overseas for some nice festival (and otherwise) action in July and August, and we’ll announce all of that soon. First up, however, we’ll be broadcasting live from NXNE on CBC on 20 June from The Legendary Horseshoe in Toronto, then heading home for our first hometown show in ages at Sled Island 2009 (sharing the stage with The Alberta Rural Advantage, our friends Knots, and long-time hero-figure Mt. Eerie). It seems like we’re playing London more than Calgary lately — and it’s time to make up for it.

It’s nice to see the sun out in Calgary, and the bike paths full of cyclists. Hope it’s sunny where you are too.

Anyway. On to business: WP’s first proper tour of Ireland, and our first date in Wales, as well as a spot on the annual Phrased & Confused tour, focused on lyric-writing and the collision between words and music. It’s a chance to hit some of the UK’s smaller centers, not to mention an interesting opportunity to premiere some new works. For the first time on a tour longer than 3 days in duration, our producer Arran Fisher will also be coming along, so we’re sure to have some interesting recordings to share with you all at some point in the summer.

But! Before we get ahead of ourselves, here’s the P&C dates:

09 May: South Hill Park - Bracknell, UK
10 May: Cross Kings - London, UK
11 May: Norwich Arts Centre - Norwich, UK
12 May: Arc - Stockton on Tees, UK
13 May: Assembly Rooms - Derby, UK
14 May: Exeter Phoenix - Exeter, UK

Secondly, WP will be appearing once again at this year’s Great Escape festival in Brighton (May 15-16). You’ll most likely find us down on the beach throughout the days (and nights) of the festival.

Then it’s off to Ireland (and Wales):

18 May: Roisin Dubh - Galway, IE
19 May: Auntie Annie’s - Belfast, N. IE
20 May: The Academy 2 - Dublin, IE
21 May: Cyprus Avenue - Cork, IE
23 May: Clwb Ifor Bach - Cardiff, WALES

As for the summer, there’s a few things coming up that we’re rather excited about, but for the time being here’s just a hint of what we’ll be up to (first up, for our Canadian friends):

17-21 June: NXNE - Toronto, ON
24-27 June: Sled Island - Calgary, AB
17-19 July: South Country Fair - Fort MacLeod, AB

(And then for our European ones):

25 July: Trowbridge Village Fest - Wiltshire, UK
15 August: Way Out West Fest - Göteborg, SE
16 August: Summer Sundae - Leicester, UK

And yes. There’s more to come. Join us, won’t you?