Gig by Gig on the Erie Canal: No Gas. No Mule.
James Rajotte for The New York Times
By MICHELLE YORK
Published: July 28, 2008
BROCKPORT, N.Y. — On a rain-soaked evening last week, a small group of people darted through the streets of this Erie Canal town to a large bookstore that anchors Main Street.
They sat on plastic folding chairs set up in the basement between Anthologies and Literature, waiting for a folk singer to begin his performance.
Most did not know the musician, Christopher Bell. But they had an idea about how he got there. Mr. Bell had paddled into town in his one-man canoe — a ukulele, 11 harmonicas, some energy bars and a few pieces of clothing stowed in the canoe’s crevices. “This is my attempt to stave off gas prices for six weeks and still go to work,” he said to the audience.
Mr. Bell, 22, of Frewsburg, near Jamestown, is on a summer tour across New York State. He started his tour from Buffalo on July 20, and plans to canoe 550 miles to New York City in time for a performance at a coffee shop in Manhattan on Sept. 4. Along the way, he is performing in small towns like Brockport, as well as in larger cities such as Rochester, Albany and Poughkeepsie.
Though he calls it his “great adventure,” it is also something of a necessity. Mr. Bell typically tours via his 1997 Toyota Corolla, traveling 40,000 miles over a seven- or eight-month period.
He earns anywhere from $20 to $200 a show, making him barely able to eke out a living even when gas prices were $1 per gallon cheaper. “I just get so angry about it,” he said.
This year, Mr. Bell cut short a tour in Southern California as gas prices surged to $4.67 a gallon, and headed to his parents’ home in Frewsburg, where he lives between gigs, to create a more wallet-friendly tour.
He thought about walking or biking, but a friend encouraged him to canoe. The Erie Canal, he decided, would be perfect. “I could do the Mississippi,” he said. “But the Erie Canal seemed like a better idea. This is my home state.”
Before this, Mr. Bell’s endurance level limited him to long bike rides with his stepbrother when they were teenagers. So to train, he bought bungee cords to use as resistance bands. (Besides their being cheaper than gym equipment, he can repurpose them.) He is canoeing about 22 miles a day, and wondered aloud how big his biceps will be by the time he reaches Manhattan.
At night, he pulls his canoe to shore and chains it like a bicycle or hides it under a camouflage tarp. Then he camps along the banks or flops on a couch if he is offered one. He keeps his cellphone with him. If he is too busy paddling, callers are greeted with a voice mail message that they have reached Chris Bell, musician and “all-around nice guy.”
The speed of the trip is 3 miles an hour. Since even large craft travel 5 to 10 m.p.h. on the canal, that leaves him time to chat with the other captains.
“I looked off the back of the boat and there he was,” said William Reed, who was traveling with his wife, Elizabeth, from Lake Erie to the Bahamas on a 42-foot Catalina named the Wendy Michelle. “I was a little concerned about his provisions at the time. He didn’t look like he had a lot in that canoe, so I gave him a gallon of water, some Power Bars and a bag of Fritos.”
A few days later, the Reeds docked in Brockport during the rainstorm and ran into Mr. Bell again. That night they caught his performance, bought a CD and posted on their blog a prediction that Mr. Bell would be famous someday.
Another boater, Lonnie Kephart, 54, who was traveling to Florida, where he lives on a newly purchased sailboat, Smooth Move, also showed up at the concert. Mr. Kephart told Mr. Bell that he had encouraged four Canadian boaters to come to the show, too. “I support the arts,” he said with a grin.
The next day, Mr. Bell noticed he had a funny tan line in the middle of his forehead and he ached from the chest up. But it seemed a small price to pay. He proudly reported he had spent only $80 on traveling expenses in the first week of the tour, which is less than half what he would have spent if he had set off in his Corolla.
He left Brockport for Rochester on Thursday. When another thunderstorm shook the skies, Mr. Bell hauled his 12-foot canoe to the bank and made a dash for a front porch across the street to take refuge from the downpour. An hour later he was back on the water, quietly paddling away.
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