Faire Wind and Song
A Global Community Initiative
Faire Wind and Song
A Global Community Initiative
Where are WE going??? Yes that is correct, I said WE!
SEASON ONE - EPISODE ONE
Quebec to Casablanca - QUEBEC CITY
Season One begins with the refit and renaissance of our expedition sailing vessel, The Faire Wind — in Hamilton, Canada. The Faire Wind is being converted into a world-class, self-contained production and post facility with a hybrid analogue-digital recording studio, rehearsal room, a professional, camera-ready galley, and multicamera 4K switching and live via satellite streaming capability, all designed to operate independently under sail and hybrid-electric power. Propulsion, production, accommodation, water, and waste systems are engineered to eliminate environmental impact. Fresh water is generated onboard. Wastewater is treated onboard and returned in its cleanest possible form. Interaction with oceans and inland waterways is deliberate and controlled. Our Faire Wind has a job to do, and she is engineered to perform it without leaving a negative footprint on our Earth.
While the refit proceeds, Kevin, our Chef, our band, and our core team travel around Southwestern Ontario, visiting musician friends, wineries, craft beer breweries and hopefully some food or... This short tour will serve as a tune-up for the larger mission ahead. The project Kickoff takes place in Toronto, home to our host Kevin Brauch, our director, and many of our musicians and crew.
From Toronto, the route moves east to Kingston, a city central to Canadian music through figures like Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip—who grew up there—and Zal Yanovsky of the Lovin’ Spoonful, who spent his later years in Kingston. From there, the voyage exits Lake Ontario eastward and enters the St. Lawrence River system.
Downstream, the route reaches Montreal. Oscar Peterson, Maynard Ferguson, Charlie Biddle, Leonard Cohen, and Gino Vannelli are some legends from here. Internationally known chefs Chuck Hughes and Spike Mendelsohn also hail from there.
Further downriver, we reach the capital, Quebec City (Season One, Episode One), a centre of Rock Progressif Québécois, where food remains tied to origin rather than reinvention: Oka cheese, first made in 1893 by Trappist monks at the Oka Abbey, washed down with Quebec cider.
SEASON ONE - EPISODE TWO
HALIFAX - ST JOHN'S
We depart Quebec City NE on the St Lawrence.
North of the St. Lawrence lies Manicouagan, the eroded remains of a 214-million-year-old meteor impact structure.
Crossing the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the route reaches the Îles de la Madeleine and Cape Breton, then runs south along the Nova Scotia coast to Halifax (Season One, Episode Two). Nova Scotia gave us Sarah McLachlan, Denny Doherty (Mamas & Papas), Brian “Too Loud” MacLeod, Matt Minglewood, and Sam Moon. There are lobster sandwiches everywhere, and donairs are best after the bars close.
Cape Breton is a world of its own—here, the Cape Breton fiddle has a unique fire, shaped by generations of dance halls and ceilidhs, distinct from the Scottish Highland style. The Highland sound is rooted in formality and march; Cape Breton’s is looser, more rhythmic, and lives in kitchens and community halls.
From Halifax, the route turns northeast, first reaching Saint-Pierre et Miquelon—a French outpost holding onto bread, cheese, and café culture from France, adapted to North Atlantic weather and supply runs.
From there, we cross to Newfoundland. St. John’s is the gateway, with an accent that is its own weather system; the island gave us Rick Mercer, Gordon Pinsent, and Shannon Tweed. Folk music here is Irish by way of cod and necessity. Accordion and fiddle drive the local sound, whether at a kitchen party or out on the water. Rituals like kissing the cod and drinking Screech define belonging.
The voyage then moves north and west to L’Anse aux Meadows, where the Vikings landed and made camp more than 1000 years ago, and whose possible routes we are retracing. Logic and landscape both suggest they travelled inland and along the coast, raising the question—still unanswered—of whether their paths ever crossed with the ancestors of the Beothuk, Dorset, or other unnamed Indigenous humans.
SEASON ONE - EPISODE THREE
REYKJAVIK, ICELAND
The Labrador coast is the rugged, eastern shoreline of Canada, marked by the cold Labrador Sea, glaciated landscapes, deep fjords, abundant wildlife, Inuit and Innu communities, historic sites like Red Bay, and the dramatic Torngat Mountains.
North for a thousand miles and we come to Iqaluit, where throat singing and drum dancing fill the air, and The Jerry Cans play for people who need music to last through winter. Bannock and seal are not for show—they keep people working, moving, and alive.
Six hundred miles east across iceberg alley brings us to Nuuk. Chefs like Inunnguaq Hegelund work with musk ox, fish, and wild herbs, while music and food both serve as a form of survival in a town of 20,000 that almost only knows winter.From Greenland, the voyage makes landfall in Reykjavik, where rímur ballads and tvísöngur harmonies are still sung, sometimes in the same clubs where Sigur Rós and Björk first broke the silence with sound that could come from nowhere else. Fermented shark is for the brave; pylsur hot dogs with remoulade are for after the sun goes down—if it ever comes up, or ever goes down depending on the time of year.
SEASON ONE - EPISODE FOUR
EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND
From Reykjavik, the route runs south to the Faroe Islands. In the Faroe Islands, Norse language, law, and the chain dance survive in daily life; sung ballads and village gatherings still follow Viking rhythm, and the weather dictates everything.
Heading due south for 300 miles, we reach the Scotland's Outer Hebrides Islands, and Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, Vikings established Stornoway, named Sjornavagr (Steering Bay). Stornoway Castle was built as early as 1100 by the MacNicol family. We head north and east around the top of maniland Scotland to Inverness. Here, bagpipes call the ship home and out to sea, and for us, that means family too.
Scotland means Boards of Canada’s electronic landscapes, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band’s theatre, Nazareth’s hard rock, and Bruce Fummey’s stories—history and irreverence with a pint of Tennent’s in hand.
SEASON ONE - EPISODES FIVE-SIX-SEVEN
5-OSLO, NORWAY
6-COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
7-HAMBURG, GERMANY
From Edinburgh begins our final northward push of some 400 miles with stops at Stromness in the Orkneys. Perennial home to the old Norse sagas and local songs. Bere bannocks are baked for sea or home, and the blockships of Scapa Flow rust quietly where the British fleet once held the line.
At Lerwick in Shetland, Viking fire festivals outlast the winter and the music, in all forms, remains king.
Headin due east across the storm laden 200 miles to the mainland, of Norway. Bergen is a city of rain, Grieg and Wardruna, and salted lamb ribs (pinnekjøtt) in winter.
From here we head south and east around the Norwegian riviera to the capital of Oslo.
Oslo land of Munch, the Nobel prizes, death metal and A-HA! JA!
And we can experience what is referred to as the Norwegian Food Manifesto.
Now again south to Gothenburg, and Sweden in general, where you get the best of metal—Opeth, Katatonia, and more. Have some Grimfrost mead, Gravad Lax, Köttbullar, and a nap—you’ll need it.
Copenhagen brings contemporary pop bands like The Asteroids Galaxy Tour. Pickled herring is drinking street food—eaten standing up, chased with beer or aquavit, and repeated without ceremony.
South across the bay to Szczecin, Poland to visit what was Pomerania, the ancestral homeland of our ship's Pomeranian mascot, KAIDA!
Travers the Kiel Canal to Hamburg.
In Hamburg, the Beatles found their sound, and Currywurst and beer are what gets eaten after work, not after show. Germany gave us Wagner’s thunder, Stockhausen’s experiments, Tangerine Dream’s synthesizer journeys, and a tradition of innovation that still shapes the edges of music and sound. The city’s maritime economy has always set its rhythm.
SEASON ONE - EPISODES EIGHT-NINE-TEN
8-AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS
9-LONDON, ENGLAND
10-BORDEAUX, FRANCE
From Hamburg we travel north to the Wadden sea and visit Cuxhaeven, Emden, and the Fresian Islands which stretch all of the way to the Zuiderzee and just inside lies the great Eurpean capital of Amsterdam. In Amsterdam, music from metal like The Gathering, Within Tempatation, to house and techno still shake the floors at Paradiso, a church-turned-club where legends and locals trade sets. Café Gollem serves beer like a religion, and the city’s Indian, Surinamese, and Indonesian food—born of empires and migration—may be the best outside Asia.
A short stop in Antwerp brings Flemish painting, jazz in basement bars, and stoofvlees with frites and mustard.
London:London is where progressive rock defined itself onstage and on record—the Marquee Club on Wardour Street hosted The Who’s “Maximum R&B” marathons, Pink Floyd’s first longform experiments, and the first London shows for Led Zeppelin and Genesis. This is ground zero for King Crimson, Yes, ELP, Gentle Giant, UK, Porcupine Tree, Haken, Tesseract, Ozric Tentacles, Blackfield, Anathema, and Allan Holdsworth—where layered harmonies, shifting time signatures, and technical audacity became the new normal. The best curry is found near Paddington station and tastes even better washed down with Young’s ESB from the wood, if you can find it.
Down the Channel, Hastings is where 1066 marked the end of Anglo-Saxon England and the beginning of Norman England. One of history’s turning points—now a sleepy, seaside town with a winched-boat fishing fleet, stubborn old shops, and a bit of British grit under the postcard gloss.
Portsmouth is where the Royal Navy built and broke empires—naval dockyards, shanties, and bread and cheese still packed for sea.
At Guernsey and Jersey, languages and customs shift with the tide. Dairy, potatoes, and hedge veg stalls matter more than anywhere else.
Crossing to Brest and Saint-Nazaire, Breton music still stands against the Atlantic—carried by the sound of the bombarde and biniou, the sharp, double-reed pipes of Brittany. These are not museum pieces; Breton bagpipes are played at fest-noz dances and village gatherings, where cider and crepes keep pace with the music and the ocean’s edge is never far away.
Bordeaux is built on wine, but the canelé—caramelised custard—is the real daily staple in a city that keeps both cellars and kitchens working.
Ahhhh Bordeaux...... what can I say.
SEASON ONE - EPISODES ELEVEN-TWELVE-THIRTEEN
11-LISBON, PORTUGAL
12-BARCELONA, SPAIN
13-MARSEILLE, FRANCE
From the grey Atlantic into the blue Mediterranean, this stretch of coastline has launched empires, built ports, shaped cuisine, and set rhythm to music that still plays.
Past Bilbao’s brutalist artistry and A Coruña’s ancient lighthouse — the Tower of Hercules — we arrive in Porto, where the river and the ocean meet beneath wine-dark cliffs. In Lisbon, stone streets slope steeply to the water and grilled sardines scent the air. Our chef finds the white wine of the Azores — crisp, volcanic, and impossible to replicate — and brings it aboard. At sunset, Faire Wind rests below
Turning the corner of Europe, we pass Cadiz — older than Rome — and reach the Strait of Gibraltar. The Pillars of Hercules are real: limestone on one side, Morocco on the other. Inside the Mediterranean, everything changes.
At Valencia, we find paella cooked over orange-wood fires and street parties soundtracked by brass and techno. Ibiza’s white-walled calm gives way to sound systems that still echo down its canyons. On Mallorca, a café owner shows us the same piano once played by Chopin.
In Barcelona, Catalonia’s independence and identity infuse everything — from architecture to cooking to the rhythm of speech.
Past Perpignan’s hidden jazz and Montpellier’s thinkers, Marseille appears — carved into stone, burned by salt, and louder than any cliché. This is not Paris with palm trees. This is Marseille.
Metal and metalcore spill out of converted warehouses near the docks — Landmvrks, Eths, Dagoba. Punk and post-punk lives in backroom shows and basements: Catalogue, Technopolice. Massilia Sound System fuses dub, French rock, and Occitan verses — Marseille’s real dialect, not tourist French. This city does not care if you understand it. You listen anyway.
Bouillabaisse is still made properly. So is bread with tapenade. But what is poured matters just as much:
Pastis — Ricard or 51 — is not a trend here, it is protocol. Banned absinthe drove locals to invent their own aniseed spirits in the 1920s and '30s, and they never stopped. Order it properly: cold water first, then the Pastis, and never the other way around.
Faire Wind ties off at the industrial quay. Overhead, cranes swing above stacked containers. Down the road, metal bands rehearse in shipping bays. Pastis is poured without ceremony. Marseille is still a port — still working, still loud, still itself.
SEASON ONE - EPISODES FOURTEEN-FIFTEEN-SIXTEEN
14-NAPOLI, ITALY
15-ALGIERS, ALGERIA
16-CASABLANCA, MOROCCO
Faire Wind crosses from Corsica and docks in Napoli.
The city is dense, fast, and loud. Everything touches everything — sea, sound, traffic, language.
The chef makes a trade for lemons and seafood on the dock.
Napoli’s music is a mess in the best way.
Napoli Centrale made jazz-rock with Neapolitan swing.
Osanna pushed prog into Middle Eastern tones.
Pino Daniele played blues and built a movement.
Now it is indie, electronic, metalcore — Nu Genea, LIBERATO, Rising Storm.
Faire Wind docks in Algiers.
We follow the scent of grilled sardines and preserved lemon.
Les Abranis sang Kabyle rock in the ’70s.
Raïna Raï fused Raï with electric guitars.
Gnawa Diffusion pulled tradition into modern time.
Groove metal, black metal, thrash — it is all here:
Korsan, Jugulator, Lelahell, NKM, Paranoid Fantasy, Silent Obsession.
Final port of the season. Faire Wind arrives in Casablanca.
Mint tea. Couscous. Fried anchovies. Always bread.
Jalil Bennis & Les Golden Hands started it in the ’70s.
Hoba Hoba Spirit and Bab L’Bluz kept it local.
Kawn plays symphonic metal.
Ashur brings straight heavy rock.
Lazy Wall rides down from Tangier.
We wrap in Casabanca, without my friend Karima. :(