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In the past he may not be known for it, but Matthew Good is capable of looking on the bright side.
Even a head cold, which is fogging him up as he prepares to hit the road for a solo acoustic tour, is merely an opportunity, a frown turned upside down, a chance to turn a lemon into lemon gin, etc., etc.
"To tell you the truth (it) might be better," Good says of his illin'.
"That might be better -- it's fodder, something to talk about."
Not that Good has ever needed that.
But it's not as if he ever endeavoured on a tour like this before, one which will take him across the country with merely his songs, a guitar and his voice.
The idea for the tour, which hits Mac Hall tonight, also came from an attempt by the singer-songwriter to find the good in the bad -- pun intended.
During his last full-band tour to promote his greatest hits compilation In A Coma -- Best Of 1995-2005, a stop in the Canadian capital was transformed into a contest winners-only affair by his record label and a radio station.
"What I didn't know at the time is that I guess the label and the radio station had colluded together to do this contest, but it wasn't just to see me play," the Vancouver-based musician says.
"You could win a year's worth of gas and a car. So the people who were calling in weren't necessarily calling in to see my show, which caused my fans in Ottawa to be extremely angry.
"So what I did was is the night before in the market ... I threw a free show acoustically, and they turned like, 600 people away or something like that.
"I just sat onstage and strummed an acoustic and played some songs and had a complete conversation with people in the audience."
Since the current jaunt's inception, the singer-songwriter has spent his time preparing his older material for their naked unveiling, going "totally 1964" on obscure songs and fan faves.
Good says fans -- and the sell-outs and extra dates added indicate there are many for even a stripped-down version of the artist -- will get more than a few surprises.
"It will be just great even from a musical standpoint to just go, 'When I wrote this song, this is how it sounded ... You're going to hear how it sounded in my living room.' "
While he admits to finding a freshness in it, and notes his musical tastes currently lay more towards Johnny Cash, Nick Drake and Billy Bragg, he's still not certain if the acoustic route is one he'll continue on his next album.
"Usually you get asked that question after you make a record or a record comes out and usually at the time you're inspired by something you're into at the time to answer that question and go, 'Well, I do kind of know what I want to do.' " he says.
"I don't -- I really don't know what kind of a record I want to make."