Just got home from REO Fest 2013 – an amazing music festival / songwriting retreat at the REO rafting resort in the BC Interior. I could only make it for the weekend portion, which was great, but sure wish I’d been able to spend the week there – the people who did were sure fired up when I got there.

Reo Rafting Resort is an immersive and experiential wilderness retreat just a couple hours from Vancouver up the Fraser Canyon. The Camp is right on edge of a canyon forged by the millennia by the mighty Nahatlach River, an incredible setting that is so inspiring. There is even a full outdoor stage overlooking the river with forests and mountains as a backdrop. REO founder Brian Fogelman is an avid songwriter and brings world class talent to mentor and coach songwriters who travel from around the world to be here. There were songwriters who had travelled from as far as Germany and Sweden to be at the retreat.

The sessions were all great – went to an awesome songwriting class with Deborah Holland, a songwriter I’ve admired since driving around with an Animal Logic cassette in my old Celica. A session on recording and demos. A keynote by Jason Blume and a performance by Karen Taylor-Good and Stowe Daily Shockey.

We even got to get up on the stage and perform a few songs! The evening entertainment included a newly formed Van Damsel and the Greg Drummond Band. Deborah holland also performed a few songs, and she conscripted multi-instumentalist Mike Merionuk from the Greg Drummand band to accompany her!

Over all it was an amazing, inspiring weekend that helped kickstart me back into the world of music and song.