Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Thursday September 04, 2025 - Tillsonburg, ON

Road Blog
Tillsonburg, Ontario
September 4, 2025

For each of the last 15 years or so, except the Covid year, I’ve been playing a show in Montreal on this weekend, kicking off my buddy Kearns’ Hangover Golf Tournament with some music after their teams draft at Barfly. It’s the first road-run of the fall for me, and a lot of driving and fun. Crossing the border is always stressful, even though I’m always careful to not bring anything I shouldn’t and I’m not doing anything wrong. You just never know who you’re going to get, and it doesn’t help that tensions are high thanks to a certain orange turd who seems to think Canada is the enemy and needs to be under the thumb of the USA. They aren’t and they don’t and I don’t blame them for being ornery. And now I have to deal with cranky customs agents and no bourbon. But the Canadian people are the best, and it’s always a great (albeit exhausting) weekend for me.

Anyhow, crossing into Canada via the Ambassador Bridge has been a debacle the last couple years, and Chad Price and his band had a breeze getting in via the tunnel back in July for Buddies Fest, so I took the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel yesterday and I was through customs in less than a couple minutes. It was awesome. I drove through Windsor, stopped for some AirBB groceries, got a ½ pint of Jameson’s (no American whiskey for sale at the LCBO anymore) and headed up the 401 towards Tillsonburg. After London, I zig-zagged through farm country, massive corn stalks and silos, and the occasional horse farm, eventually landing at The Mill on John Pound Road. First person I always see there is Mandy, with a big smile and hug, and then my friends Trevor and Ira Gret for some food, beer, and conversation with them and their daughter, a talented film student in London. Some other friends arrived, including my pal Lee Roy, I gulped down an amazing turkey club, said hello to Patrick, and Trevor and I had to excuse ourselves to go load in and sound check.

Downstairs I saw the usual wonderful faces of Ben, Billy, Amanda, and Sadies. Trevor and I soundchecked and Billy had us locked in great in no time. Tricia and the birthday boy himself Jan-Eric arrived, decked out head-to-toe in a hot-dog print getup that took more balls to wear in public than I have. Great people and quite an entrance!

Trevor went on around 8:30 to a respectably sized and engaged audience and played for about 45 minutes. His songs are great and heartfelt, gifts to the people he loves, loved, and lost, and the emotion comes through as he finds the right balance between the sentimental subject matter and the loose fun of a live show like this. We’ve become good friends in the last couple years since we first met in Toledo when The Tucos opened for Two Cow Garage in…December of `23(?) and it was awesome to finally play a show together.

I went on shortly after and did about an hour to a good room that was hootin’ it up for the fast stuff and quieted down enough for the quiet stuff, a luxury I’m not often afforded. I’ve still got some pulmonary issues since I had Covid in 2022 (thanks Skid Row, Scorpions, and Las Vegas! But that’s another story) that have been acting up, so my voice cracked and croaked a little here and there, but I played ok, broke out a couple new ones for the first time, actually got called out for a rare encore, and had a great time. Offstage I sold some merch, chatted with the locals, did a shot of some amazing tequila-mango thing with Mandy, and loaded out. I’ll see some of these folks on my way back west on Saturday when I play London, but Tillsonburg and The Mill are special. I feel so lucky to be a part of this place.

My AirBB is in Dundas, about an hour and a half east of Tillsonburg. Traffic was light and thanks to a clear, sober head and a steady stream of stale gummy bears I made it without incident. I was greeted at the back door by a giant, yelping, 1-year old German Shepherd named Bear, but he was just letting the owners know I’d arrived, and he calmed down pretty quick. My basement apartment was great for my needs, I cranked the space heater, poured a Jameson’s (no American whiskey at the LCBO, did I mention that?), got caught up on some internet (I’m all-in on the new Nebraska box set! Did Jalen Carter spit on somebody? What happened? And why couldn’t the Eagles cover the spread? ?), and crashed out around 2am.

This morning I’m up and at `em, taking care of business, trying to stretch these 2 paltry shitty Kuerig pods as far as they can go, and trying to rally and hit the road to Quebec. I have a quick meetup in Toronto with my pal Woody to drop off some records, and a 6-hour drive. Looking forward to seeing all my pals at Barfly tonight and feeling great after the wonderful kickoff in Tillsonburg. Thanks for reading. 1 down, 29 to go before Christmas. Xx