Canal tour
Jamestown musician is paddling his way through the state
Christopher Bell figures he has to learn one more song before he plays The Yard at Rock Harbor Village on Saturday: the old folk song, “Erie Canal.”
After all, that’s where Bell, a 22-year-old traveling troubadour from Jamestown, will be spending most of the next six weeks.
Bell is doing his “Canoe Tour” of the Erie Canal and Hudson River, starting in Buffalo and heading east and eventually to New York City.
If it sounds quirky, Bell says it’s the kind of thing people have come to expect from him.
“I’m the friend that does strange things,” said Bell, who grew up in Frewsburg. He said the first summer he got a bike as a teenager, he put 900 miles on it.
Now, with the cost of gas eating up most of what he’s making playing small coffee houses, bars and house concerts, he’s decided to do something different again.
“Just being a musician, gas prices are getting outrageous,” he said. “But part of it is the adventure of it: to say that I’ve canoed across the whole state.”
He’ll be playing at 7 p. m. at the Yard at Rock Harbor Village, the new venue on the site of the student housing project in development at 57 Tonawanda St. (near the Scajacquada entrance ramp from the 190).
Bell has already drawn the attention of NPR for his creativity in responding to gas prices, and the New York Times was on the line this week as well.
He figures he should be able to average at least 20 miles a day on the canal, five more than Sal — the mule in the song.
He’s got some extra days built into his schedule in case he should run into bad weather.
He said he’s traveling light. He’s got a baritone ukelele that he says he can adapt most of his songs to — and it’s small. He’s got a sleeping bag and a tent.
“I’m not going to be bringing a lot of things with me,” he said. “When you’re traveling so everything you own can fit in a backpack and two hands, size is a big concern.”
He said he doesn’t have too many places to stay along the way — hence the tent — but figures he’ll have plenty of friends by the time he finishes his trip.
Bell will be putting into the water at 8 a. m. Sunday at Isle View Park in Tonawanda.
He has 11 shows planned for the tour.
He’s been making his living as a traveling musician for the past two years, since he graduated from Full Sail University in Orlando with degrees in music business and recording technology.
He’s recorded on CD, “I’ll Be Home” on his own Silent Home Records.
Bell said he’s planning on cutting back some on his touring, largely because of gas prices.
But that’s not a worry on the canal.
He said he grew up canoeing on some of the streams and rivers around the Southern Tier. Although he hasn’t had time to do much canoeing in preparation for his trip, he has tried to get in shape for it.
“When you’re on the road,
it’s hard to get to a canoe,” he said.
Some of his friends are a little concerned, he said.
“I’ve got one friend who’s incredibly worried because I haven’t done a lot of canoeing over the last six years,” he said. “She’s like ‘you’re gonna tip, you’re gonna crash.’
“But I’m friends with a lot of musicians, and they’re all pretty encouraging.”
PREVIEW
WHO: Christopher Bell
WHEN: 7 p. m. Saturday
WHERE: The Yard at Rock Harbor Village, 57 Tonawanda St.
TICKETS: $5 INFO: www.myspace.com/thechrisbell
