It's no secret that I am a HUGE fan of KYUSS, the band that began with Josh Homme, John Garcia and Brant Bjork (No relation to 'Bjork' of Icelandic fame). By 1994 the band had released their third album, 'Welcome To Sky Valley'.
I've often described the band's music as laying far out in the desert with the Sun scorching your brainpan. Later Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri would shut down KYUSS and form 'Queens of the Stone Age' - Another personal favorite.... Albeit Homme recently kicked a female photographer in her face (well, kicked her camera and that hit her face), but that peace of Asshole-ery aside, the guy, much like Grohl of the Foo Fighter's (who did a stint on drums for QOTSA), Homme is a musical genius who could poop out amazing songs on a daily basis...
'Welcome to Sky Valley' was released in June of 1994 and by July not only had I acquired the album, but I was steaming along the Canadian railways towards Vancouver for my 5th time. This one was for good (or so I thought). My good friend Mike Fields and I had decided to head West, he had the film industry in his eyes and I had the World in mine. Mike didn't leave for the West when I did, but he came out a few months later by plane.
I've taken the train across the country twice, the second time I was much older, a tad bit wiser. By 1994 I had three bands under my belt; the first band 'K.G. Wolfe', the second 'Dreamkick' and then 'The Wasteland Zombies', music had become my life and my main plan for Vancouver was to secure a job with a lighting and sound company, a goal I achieved within weeks of hitting the West Coast.
The train is or at least was a really, truly unique and awesome experience. While we'd driven across the country many times by car, flown by plane and by myself on the evil bus (never, ever, EVER take the bus any longer than you have to, that trip took me 5/6 days and I think I left part of my sanity somewhere on the prairies...).
The train, again, is/was the ultimate party for a young person, VIA rail had this Con Rail Pass, that any student couldn't purchase. With this pass, you had 30 days to explore Canada. You could get off and on ANYWHERE you wished, stay as long as you wanted, as long as you got to your destination by the 30 days you were golden.
I was well familiar with the train rides, the partying, the horrible sleep (especially if you traveled coach) and often times the great friendships you'd strike up with fellow passengers.
On the way West I had stopped in Toronto to hang with my good friend Jay Wysoki, then I made no more stops until I hit Vancouver.
Traveling through the Canadian Rocky Mountains by train is a voyage I'll never ever forget, whether seeing the mountains from a distance or traveling by car, train or air they are the sleeping giants of the World, ages have past them and they exist in silent wonder, grand and foreboding, yet awe-inspiring.
While traveling through the Alberta, the train used to go to Calgary and I would have stopped there to see my relatives as I had done many times before, but I had no way to get from the train to Calgary and then back to it to Edmonton... So North we went, through Edmonton and then into the Rockies.
The train heads South Westward once you hit the mountains and you pass through Jasper and then through Kamloops.
We had no means of 'news' as we (my fellow passengers and I) traveled through the Rockies and had no idea that massive forest fires were burning until we reached Kamloops.
I completely remember that evening the train rolled into Kamploops, which like many towns and cities in the interior of British Columbia are nesttled in the mountains and forests of the Rockies...
Kyuss' song 'Odyssey' was playing as we rolled in and the hill and mountainsides were filled with an ominous red glow.
"Fire on the mountain
And it rages inside of your soul
The fire inside the belly of the beast
Well it thunderizes your soul" Lyrics from KYUSS' 'Odyssey'
What a sight, a couple of the pals I'd made on the train, a young kid and this gal from Australia saw as we stepped off the train for a few moments while passengers got on and off and supplies and luggage was moved around.
The air was thick with the smell of acrid smoke, the glow from the mountain side was awe-inspiring, magnificent and tragic at the same time and those lyrics were then etched into my brain with that acrid smell and that haunting redish/yellow glow.
The trains path from Kamloops didn't cut directly through the fires, but close enough and it was such an eerie time to travel through this part of the Rockies and one I'll never forget....
Please note: Photo's are not taken by me and were robbed from the Internets!
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