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Miss Quincy looking forward to Nelson reunion

Miss Quincy doesn't get back to Nelson very often these days — the last time she was here was to open for The Cave Singers last July.
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Miss Quincy & The Showdown play Kaslo's BlueBelle Bistro on Thursday and The Royal in Nelson on Saturday.

For Miss Quincy rolling into Nelson is like coming home.

Technically she and her blues band, Miss Quincy & The Showdown, have lived on the road for the past couple of years, in a nearly-constant state or touring. But the last time Miss Quincy (a.k.a. Jody Peck) lived in one place, it was in Nelson.

An alumna of the Selkirk music program, she fondly remembers her Wednesday night ritual of going to The Royal for open mic night. She played her first Miss Quincy show at that Baker Street venue.

"It was like my living room" she says, explaining she used to live two blocks from The Royal. "I would walk over there in my pajamas and see if I should go out for the night — then go home and change."

Miss Quincy doesn't get back to Nelson very often these days — the last time she was here was to open for The Cave Singers last July.

Since then, she's written music for a third album (which she says will be bluesy with more rock elements than her previous recordings) and is road testing those tunes before taking them into the studio this spring.

When we speak on the phone earlier this week, Miss Quincy is stranded in Lethbridge, Alberta. Highway closures have interrupted her Western Canada tour, forcing the band to cancel a show and hole up at a friend's place until the weather improves.

It's a rare break for a group who spends most of their time shoulder-to-shoulder in a tour van packed to the roof with instruments.

"It's a pretty intense lifestyle," Miss Quincy says of her life on the road.

But she's been doing it long enough that it's become second nature for her.

"You develop road expertise, like you know in every town where you're going to stop for food," she says.

She's also mastered the art of putting on makeup in bar bathrooms before going on stage and how to book a hotel room for one and sneak in three extra people. As well as where not to skimp: "We have a very reliable vehicle now," she laughs.

Miss Quincy will be rolling into the Kootenays on Thursday with a shows at Kaslo's BlueBelle Bistro on Thursday and The Royal in Nelson on Saturday.

In Nelson, Tofu Stravinsky will be opening the show. Miss Quincy and Tofu guitar-player Tyler Toews go way back — the pair toured together as a duo before she started working with The Showdown.

"I'm looking forward to it; it's going to be a bit of a reunion of sorts — not just with Tyler but all my Nelson friends I love so much," Miss Quincy says. "It's going to be an upbeat show. People should come ready to dance."

Tickets to the Nelson show are $10 and doors open at 8 p.m.