On January 17, a week before the songs are available for download, college and community radio stations across Canada will premier the first single of the new album, I Lost Myself. We’ve done a lot with these stations this past year, and we’re really happy for them to give you a first listen of this song! Below I’ve got a list of all of the stations in each city and their request lines, so if you listen to any of these or live in these cities, it would be rad if you could request I Lost Myself for us! See you on the road!

BRITISH COLUMBIA

CIVL 101.7 Abbotsford, BC 604.851.6306

CJSF 90.1 Burnaby, BC 778.782.CJSF

CFBX 92.5 Kamloops, BC 250.377.3988

CHLY 101.7 Nanaimo, BC 250.740.1017

CJLY 93.5 Nelson, BC 250.352.3706

CFUR 88.7 Prince George, BC 250.960.7664

CITR 101.9 Vancouver, BC 604.822.CITR

CFRO 102.7 Vancouver, BC 604.684.7561

CFUV 101.9 Victoria, BC 250.721.8700

ALBERTA

CSJW 90.9 Calgary, AB 403.220.3991

CKUA 94.9 Edmonton, AB 780.428.7595

CJSR 88.5 Edmonton, AB 780.492.CJSR

CKXU 88.3 Lethbridge, AB 403-329-5189

SASKATCHEWAN

CFCR 90.5 Saskatoon, SK 306.242.5002

MANITOBA

CJUM 101.5 Winnipeg, MB 204.269.8636

CKUW 95.9 Winnipeg, MB 204.774.6877

ONTARIO

CFRU 93.3 Guelph, ON 519.837.CFRU

CFMU 93.3 Hamilton, ON 905.528.9888

CIOI 101.5 Hamilton, ON 905-575-2175

CFRC 101.9 Kingston, ON 613.533.CFRC

CHRW 94.9 London, ON 519-661-3600

CFRE 91.9 Mississauga, ON 905.828.3447

CHRY 105.5 Toronto, ON 416.736.5656

CHUO 89.1 Ottawa, ON 613.562.5967

CFBU 103.7 St. Catherines, ON 905.346.2645

CKLU 96.7 Sudbury, ON 705.673.6538

CILU 102.7 Thunder Bay, ON 807.766.7207

CKLN 88.1 Toronto, ON 416.595.1655

CSCR Scarborough, ON 416.287.7049

CIUT 89.5 Toronto, ON 416.946.7000

CKMS 100.3 Waterloo, ON 519.884.2567

CJAM 99.1 Windsor, ON 519.971.3630

QUEBEC

CISM 89.3 Montreal, QC 514.343.CISM

CJLO 1690 Montreal, QC 514.848.7471

CKUT 90.3 Montreal, QC 514.448.4013

CHOQ Montreal, QC 514.987.3000

CHYZ 94.3 Quebec City, QC 418.656.2215

CJMQ 88.9 Sherbrooke, QC 819-822-1838

CFOU 89.1 Trois-Rivieres, QC 819.376.5183

NEW BRUNSWICK

CHSR 97.9 Fredericton, NB 506.453.4979

CHMA 106.9 Sackville, NB 506.364.2222

CFMH 107.3 Saint John, NB 506.648.5925

NOVA SCOTIA

CFXU 93.9 Antigonish, NS 902.867.3941

CKDU 88.1 Halifax, NS 902.494.2487

CAPR Sydney, NS 902.563.1492

NEWFOUNDLAND

CHMR 93.5 St. John’s, NF 709.737.7935

Thanks so much friends! I hope you’re all as excited as us about these new songs and album!

-Lauren.

First we have Mike Pardy who hails from London/Barrie, ON. He plays guitar and keys and keeps things interesting as our official hype man! You can follow him on Twitter @beholdmike and Instagram @mpardym.

Next is Aaron Fraser, who has played drums with me for a few years. He’s the oldest and wisest of all of us and plays mean drums (sometimes with funny facial expressions)! You can follow him on twitter @ajfreshfolk.

Then we have Hammer Clark, our resident bass player and Newfie. He’s the chick magnet of the group; I’m pretty sure girls across the nation will be falling for his suave looks and smooth bass playing. You can follow him on twitter @hammerinhishand.

And finally, we have Zoltan Szoges. Multi-instrumentalist, tambourine enthusiast, band manager, and my husband! You’ll be amazed at how many instruments he plays and how he plays them all together. It sure amazes me! Follow him on twitter @zoltanfoxx.

I give you...the FAIRLY ODD FOLK! (clockwise from top left) Mike Pardy, Aaron Fraser, Zoltan Szoges, Hammer Clark.

For more info about the “From Here to There” tour that starts Jan. 26, go HERE and see when we’re playing near you! See you on the road!

-Lauren.
Twitter @laurenmann
Instagram @fairlyoddlauren

Ivan and Katka in Pribor, CZ

At our next stop, Novy Jicin, we weren’t staying as long as in the other cities because we decided to take two days before we flew home to visit Prague. We stayed with the amazing Bily family, who are all (except for their daughter) professional musicians! Oboe, drums, guitar filled the air pretty much constantly while we were there. Our first night there, the rest of the band came over to practice Christmas songs. It was so inspiring! We got to jam after as well, and got to see them play a concert. It was a great place to end our ministry with NLI.

Playing a concert @ The Artifakt, Novy Jicin, CZ

After we left Novy Jicin, we headed to the capital of Czech Republic, the beautiful and historic city of Prague with David and Janka, the first church planters we stayed with. They had some holiday time left in the year, and we wanted to have a few days to relax and regroup before the journey home. Prague at Christmastime is SPECTACULAR. It’s a beautiful city at any time, but I found it particularly enchanting at Christmas. We walked through the shopping district in Wenceslas Square (yes, named after the “good King Wenceslas), walked through the Old Town Square, Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, and hundreds of little cobblestone sidestreets lined with quaint shops and old buildings. It’s definitely nothing like the small towns we stayed in for the month, so I was really glad we mostly got to experience the “real” Czech Republic. But the history and significance of Prague is definitely something to experience.

Mustek Station, Prague

St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague Castle

John Lennon Wall

We had two days in Prague and then we left David and Janka and took the train to Hamburg. We met our friend Lina there and stayed with her for the night and then continued on and got a flight from Hamburg the next day to Amsterdam, then Minneapolis, then Calgary. It was a long journey home but it was so nice to be back in Canada. After all that teaching about Canada in the schools, I was so appreciative of my country and glad to be back in it.

Final Thoughts.

I’ve always loved to travel, and so far this was one of the most incredible trips I’ve been on. Not because of the cool buildings and history and stuff like that (although that definitely has something to do with it) but because of all the incredible people we got to meet and get to know. All the church planters, and all the people they work with, were such a blessing to us and they’re the ones that made the trip so memorable. I think travelling is something everyone should take the time and money to do, even just a little bit, but don’t restrict yourselves to the typical touristy things. Meet people, get connected, and learn what the country is really about. It’s really incredible hearing and relating to stories from people of completely different countries and cultures, and still finding common ground with them.

Anyway, one of my New Year’s Resolutions this year was to blog regularly, so expect some updates coming up soon! We’re living at a farm right now in Acme, AB rehearsing for tour, which starts on Jan. 26!

See you soon lovely blog friends!

Zuzka is an amazing young woman. She’s only 25, but she is doing great things in the community of Jablunkov with children and youth. She is the leader of the local chapter of the Royal Rangers, which is similar to Scouts, but the children also learn about God, in addition to going camping and hiking and learning outdoor survival skills. And she’s building relationships in a community that’s very closed to Christianity and is starting a church from the ground up and right now they meet at someone’s house every week.

It was really fun hanging out with Zuzka and getting to know her. Our first night there, she took us…to POLAND! There’s a Czech town called Cesky Tesin that’s right on the border so we just walked across a border and we were in Poland! Because of the Shengan Treaty, many borders have opened up and you don’t need a passport to cross.

We're in Poland!

So we walked through a Polish town, went to a Polish castle, and revelled in the fact that we had just walked to another country.

The next day we had off, which was so nice! It was great to relax and have an adventure! This time Zuzka took us…to SLOVAKIA! No big deal, just going to three countries in two days. I find this fascinating.

So we drove to the Slovakian mountains and went on a hike through this canyon! It was very cold, but absolutely beautiful with the frost on the trees.

Slovakian mountains. The world is a beautiful place.

We left from where the car was parked without taking too much notice of the map, but having a general idea of where we were going. We followed the trail through the canyon and up these crazy stairs…

Can you see Zoltan at the top of the stairs? This place was magical...I felt like I was in Narnia or Jurrasic Park. Haha.

…And continued on over the mountain. We came out in a small town with some beautiful log hotels (definitely a vacation spot) and realized that to get to where we started and where the car was parked, it was a 3 km walk, and we had already been walking for at least an hour and a half. So…we started down the road and once we hit the main road, we tried to flag down a car so we wouldn’t be walking as it was getting dark. I should mention that in Europe, hitchhiking is a very common way of getting around if you don’t have a car. Lobos, our friend in Hlucin, told us how him and his wife went hitchhiking around Europe many years ago, and it’s still common to see people hitchhiking today. So anyway, a girl pulled over, and even though she wasn’t going the direction our car was in, she drove us there to help us out! So we got to the car and headed back to Jablunkov, tired but so satisfied and very hungry!

The next day we went to a high school and taught a few of the older classes about Canada and sang some songs. For their final exams they have to write an essay about an English speaking country, but many of the teachers have told us that they don’t have a lot of material about Canada, so the presentations really help them to learn a bit about Canada and some characteristics and cultural differences.

On Friday, after helping out with the Royal Rangers (what a great bunch of kids!) we went to a youth retreat! We spent the weekend with youth from Jablunkov and Trinec, a nearby city. There were about 15 youth and some leaders including Zuzka and her brother Honza, who is the youth pastor at a church in Trinec. They were an awesome bunch of youth, very passionate about God and hungry for him, and totally fun-loving. It was a great way to spend the weekend!

The students and us at the youth retreat!

So there you have it. Adventures in three different countries in a matter of days, and making many new friends. We will definitely be back some day, Jablunkov!

Lauren.

So after spending a few days in Hlucin, we headed to Orlova with Kamil, the church planter from Orlova. But first, we spent the better part of the afternoon walking around Ostrava, the biggest city in the eastern region of Czech Republic. We walked around the main square, common in pretty much every Czech city.

The centre square in Ostrava. On weekends there are little wooden buildings set up around the square for a Christmas market!

As you can see, it’s so beautiful with the old buildings and the feeling of Christmas in the air!

The city of Orlova is an old mining town and used to revolve around the coal mines. Many apartments were built to house miners who lived in the town, so there are about 40,000 people living there, but the infrastructure is meant for a much smaller population.

Orlova also has a large Roma community. The Roma people (also known as gypsies, but the term gypsy is considered politically incorrect) are a travelling people who live throughout Czech Republic and many other countries in Europe. It was really interesting learning about the relationship between native Czech people and Roma people. There is a lot of prejudice towards the Roma people, and they often have more social problems than other people.

Kamil does a lot of work with the Roma people in Orlova and many Roma families attend his church plant. On our first night there, we got to go to a home group at the flat (apartment) of a Roma family. They are a very musical people and it was amazing listening to them sing songs and worship God together. Even though many Roma people are poorer and have a hard time finding work, they have a very joyful spirit and are SO hospitable. I even learned a Roma worship song in the Roma language, and Zoltan took a video of it, so I’ll try and post it sometime soon.

On our second night in Orlova we held a concert for people in the community. We talked about Canada and showed some pictures, and then played some songs. I’m always amazed how even though it may be hard to communicate with words because of language differences, people of any language or culture can relate to music. It’s a common ground.

Anyway, we also got to go to some schools in Orlova and teach about Canada, and at one school they even gave us chocolate to thank us for coming! It was great to get to know some people in the church and learn a little bit about the story of Orlova. Kamil and his family are doing a lot to build relationship in their community and their church is growing.

John and his wife (they are leaders in the Roma community), myself and Zoltan, and Kamil and his wife.

John, myself, Zoltan and Kamil.

Thanks to everyone in Orlova for having us; we felt so welcome!

Next stop…Jablunkov!

Lauren.

After lunch (and I should mention that Eva’s cooking was INCREDIBLE. Nothing compares to hearty home-cooked meals) we went to the church that they planted a few years ago. For their services and church events they rent a really old church that is now a gallery and community space. I led some worship and Zoltan shared a word and we got to know the people quite well.

The next morning we started bright and early and taught at one of the schools in Hlucin, talking about Canada and what it’s like to live there, and what we do and play some songs. I love going into the schools and hanging out with students. It’s always a really fun experience. We did that on Tuesday and Wednesday as well, and on Wednesday we were at a high school and we got to do a little concert after school as well. As well as going to schools, we helped with “Youth Club” on Monday night with youth (and a bunch of young kids, too), playing games and sports and talking about God, and we held a concert at the church, which was really fun!

Every night we had dinner at Lobos and Eva’s house and had great chats with them about life, food, the church, and even Communism! Czech Republic was a communist country up until 1989, which isn’t very long ago, so it’s still fresh in the minds of the older generations.

Lobos told us about his old life as a rebel in the Czech underground. He was a musician and played the saxophone in bands, but because playing music was banned without a permit from the government, he had to evade the police by practicing in the forest and holding secret concerts in people’s basements. In communist times, sports were highly encouraged but all things arts were not allowed, even illegal. Lobos and his friends helped spread music and literature through the underground and he showed us a copy of George Orwell’s 1984 that one of his friends had typed up on a typewriter, bound, and then distributed throughout the country. It’s crazy! Life like our generation could never imagine, and yet this is how people lived just over 20 years ago.

Needless to say, we learned a lot about Czech Republic while with Lobos. I love learning about the history of different places, because it really helps to define how things are in the present.

Here are a few pictures from our time in Hlucin.

Zoltan and I in our new fairlytale home. (Lobos took us to this little piece of paradise where a few people have summer cabins near the lake.)

A tank right beside a trench from WWII. This is where soldiers stood in the snow, rain and mud and defended the border. It's pretty incredible to see this first-hand and it made it really real for me.

With some students from the high school. We hung out with them that evening and listened to their band practice for an upcoming show. I taught them one of my songs and we all jammed on it together!

Zoltan, myself, Eva, and Lobos. Our wonderful hosts. We hope to see you again soon!

That is all! See you again soon!

Just go to www.noisetrade.com/laurenmannmusic, enter your email and postal code, and it’s yours! We’d love it if you’d tweet or share it with your friends too.

Merry Christmas from LMATFOF!

Our first stop was the city of Opava, very close to the Polish border. It’s a city of about 60 000 people, lots of history, and not very many churches. We stayed and worked with a young couple, who are about our age and have been married for around the same time as us, Daniel and Janka. They’re such awesome people and are so passionate about what they’re doing. We were there for five days and during that time we went to a school and taught four different classes about Canada and what we do, taught an English class for the community, had a kids afternoon where we played sports and games with kids from the community, played a show, had a bible study with a youth group, and met a bunch of the church leaders and talked about church and Czech culture and how to show God’s love to people. It was awesome! We loved getting to know David and Janka and hanging out with them and we might even get to spend an afternoon in Prague with them at the end of our trip…

We also got to do a few fun things to including going to a World War 2 museum and a beautiful castle. It’s crazy that all the stories of WWII that I read about in school growing up happened right here! Anyway, here are some pictures from our time in Opava.

The castle we visited. Beethoven spent some time here in the 1800s!

The mister. This is at a castle with a beautiful park surrounding it so we went for a nice walk.

Zoltan playing "musical napkins" with a bunch of kids. I got out on the second round.

Well, that’s all for now! I hope you’re all doing well and loving life in North America. I’ve been getting into the Christmas spirit a bit already with some Christmas music and it reminds me of being home. Love to you all!

Lauren.

So anyway, we met up with Tim and his sister in Cologne and went to the Switchfoot show together (which was INCREDIBLE…more on that later) and then went back to the town where tim is from. The next day, after a very healthy sleep-in, we ventured out into the quaint German countryside. It was a beautiful day, perfect for walking around and taking pictures and along the way Tim told us lots about German culture and history.

Our first stop was the Munzenberg Castle. It sits atop a large hill and the town surrounds it so that, back in history, they would be able to see if the enemy was coming to attack. This would give them time to gather all the villagers and food inside the castle.

Munzenberg Castle

Zoltan went exploring and found a stairway...to nowhere.

Ruins are a great place to go exploring. There are innumerable things to climb over, crawl into and get lost in. Unfortunately this stairway didn’t lead anywhere exciting, but it did look pretty sweet!

Our next stop was a monastery, or kloster in German. In recent years it’s been turned into a restaurant and hotel making it a sought after wedding venue, which makes sense. It’s beautifully located and has an old-world charm to it.

The sign pointing to the monastery, and a cute cat sitting on top of the wall.

After walking around the monastery and looking at some memorials from WW2, we headed to the town of Liche, most known for its tudor houses and the beer that is made locally, called Licher. The brewery uses water from protected land that borders the brewery and is among the top 20 beers in the German beer market! There’s a little fun fact for you.

The Licher brewery in the town of Liche.

Germany has beer gardens too, but they’re not like the ones we’re used to in North America. In Germany they are an actual garden at the front or back of a restaurant or pub where people will come and socialize and drink in the warmer months. Much classier.

Tudor houses in the town of Liche.

Liche is a very historic place, with lots of really narrow cobblestone streets and tudor houses. Tim told us an interesting fact about tudor homes. Have you noticed how often they look crooked or something, like they’re from a storybook? It’s because when they were built, people would buy the smallest plot of land possible and then make each level bigger than the one below it. So they are in fact getting bigger as they get higher! I found that pretty hilarious.

After our tour of Liche, we headed to dinner with Tim, his girlfriend Caro, Vicky and Clara. Tim, Caro and Clara all worked at the ranch with Zoltan, so he hadn’t seen them since summer 2009. It was lots of fun to hang out and have a really nice dinner with them.

Dinner with Clara, Tim, Vicky, Caro

After dinner we went to a cafe in Geissen (it was a true night on the town!) and had coffee and desserts at Dach Cafe. The cafe is on the top floor of a building and from it you can see the entire city of Geissen. It was really classy and had some DELICIOUS desserts.

After-dinner desserts at Dach Cafe. The view from the roof looked over the entire town of Giessen.

And that brought us to the end of our evening. The next day we caught (barely) an early train from Giessen to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Nuremberg, a bus from Nuremberg to Prague, and another train from Prague to Ostrava! But more on all of that later.

Love to all our friends and family! I hope you’re all enjoying reading about our travels!

From Torrig we drove to Rødby where we caught a ferry to Puttgarden, Germany and continued to Hamburg from there. We had anticipated a really late night drive, but we ended up getting to Hamburg at 12:30am. Our train was leaving at 5:41am and Jon and Aaron’s flight home was leaving at 8:45, so we thought about getting a hotel room so we could all get some sleep before our respective travels, but Ebbe and Mathilde wanted to get a head start back to Arhus, so we went our separate ways.

Zoltan and I got a little room at this hotel near the train station and it was comfortable enough, but didn’t have a bathroom! There was a shared bathroom down the hall that everyone used. But we only had to be there for a few hours to get some sleep before our train, so it didn’t really matter anyway.

The train ride from Hamburg to Cologne was about 4 hours through German cities and countrysides. It was a beautiful ride, but we slept away most of it! It’s hard to believe that all this happened in the same 24 hours, and it was just this morning! We spent the morning and some of the afternoon walking around (with all our luggage….my back is really sore!) and found a 5 euro breakfast buffet at a hostel and some really tasty tiramisu next door. (And in the meantime Zoltan got us guest list tickets for the Switchfoot show tonight…no big deal!) We started to head back downtown to meet some of Zoltan’s friends from camp and met these two guys, Louis and Andreas who helped us get train tickets and carry all our stuff. We love travelling and seeing different places, but it’s the best when we get to meet people and hear their stories and make really random connections! That’s what it’s all about.

So that brings us to now, sitting in Starbucks, taking advantage of their free wifi and giving our feet a rest before we check out the most incredible cathedral I’ve ever seen. I think I have more pictures of churches on my camera than anything else, but these old European churches are absolutely incredible!

Anyway, hope you’re enjoying reading about our adventures. Love to all our friends and family in Canada!

Lauren