Last week I was in New Brunswick, Canada, visiting my family. It’d been a while since I had gotten out there, and I’m one of the few Furrows to have left our part of the world. After the trip, I’m feeling reconnected to my family profound way.

Moreover, I was excited to bring my saxophone back to New York with me.

I’ve not really talked online about my past as a musician; I studied piano and saxophone from ages 11 to 18. And I was, like, really into it. Even after taking a half-time job at RadioShack (aww yeah) I kept up with both throughout high school. Here’s a recording of the jazz band that I was a member of in high school. I played one of the saxophones, and take the first saxophone solo you hear (at the 1:50 mark).

But shortly after starting university, I gave up. I had my saxophone with me, but I was working hard to maintain my scholarship and without a band to play along with, it was hard.

But I do have free time now, and guitar has been awesome for me, so why not dig my sax out of storage while I’m home?

Okay so first of all it was wild how quickly things came back to me. I picked it up, wet the reed, and bam I was playing the Concert B-flat blues scale. I had to buy a weaker reed (my embouchure isn’t what it used to be) and I definitely need some practice, but it all came back to me pretty easily.

I wanted to record a cover of a great song from The Weakerthans; the song has two trumpets but I managed to recording a duet with myself near the end of the song. It’s nothing complicated, a fun experiment with recording over myself on different instruments. I really like how it all turned out.

I don’t really know what’s next – I have another week of vacation, I’m learning new songs, practicing the sax, and even picked up a old, used clarinet. I plan to keep recording covers of my favourite songs (sometimes with assistance), develop my skills on vocals and reed-based woodwinds, and (primarily still) the guitar.

I’ve got an itch to play with other musicians, but I’m also feeling pretty introverted and shy lately, so who knows. In any case, I’m having a tonne of fun. And it all started with a ukulele.