The Great North Wind
stops blowing after 11 Years
"Say it ain't so Steve!The winds blow strong from the north then die down for summer, leaving the land to bake in the hot dry sunshine. The rocks of the Canadian Shield - some of the oldest exposed rock on Earth - have been worn down by glaciers, beaten by lashing rains and carved by the blowing of the winds. North Ontario, the land of rocks and trees, where you farm rocks and snow and eke out an existence at odds with nature's temperamental seasons. This is where I'm from, the land of the Great North Wind; after tonight those winds stopped blowing from the signal of CIUT.What say you and I open a donut shop somewhere up in Northern Ontario..."
James Gordon
For those of you who tried to listen to the program tonight on the web and found that the link had been severed, I'm sorry to say that it wasn't because of too many hits on the web site. Last week most of the staff at CIUT was fired and there's nobody minding the ship. I don't know if it was sabotage or just the fact that nobody was minding the store but the RealAudio link was down.
The telephone that is patched into our on-air board was also out. I was unable to put Lennie Gallant, James Keelaghan and Oliver Schroer over the air. For this I apologize. Apparently Holmes Hooke had pre-arranged this call and James and Oliver were going to sing us a farewell song from California.
But all was not negative! Indeed, the show was a wonderful experience. I must admit that I did have butterflies before going to air, something that hasn't happened to me in ages. But as soon as I got the program going I settled down with the fiddle tunes. James Gordon was the perfect guest to make me feel at ease as the minutes counted down: He was on Vicki Gabereau's final show on the CBC and tomorrow (Friday, June 18) he was supposed to sing a farewell song for John Cote on his CBC morning show. Obviously, this is the man to hire for your last show. He's well experienced.
And then in the middle of the interview with James, Holmes Hooke rang the bell. We have a black & white video monitor in the on-air booth and I watched him open the door, followed by an entire troupe of beings. I thought: "Oh no, how am I gonna deal with this?"
They ascended the three stories to the studio and walked in and stayed. And here I was facing my final hour on air all by my lonesome! What a better way to go out though. A great bunch of people. Hell, they even awarded me a Porcupine Award of their own: a poster of a real Porcupine eating away at spruce twigs.
So with this scenario in mind, read on and picture in your mind the grande finale of The Great North Wind.
LARS
EASTHOLM: Wind, low - moaning; Wind - whistling
Sound
Effects - Volume 9: LP, date unknown,
Total Records TRC 909
[From time to time I'd bring along this LP that has some great wind
sounds. Odd as it may seem to some of you, getting a recording of the wind
is one of the most difficult things to find. I searched through dozens
of sound effects recordings all in vain until I chanced to come across
this one recorded in Vancouver]
THE
GRIEVOUS ANGELS: The Great North Wind (C Angus)
Toute Le Gang: Cas, 1988, Moose Records 001[When I changed the name of the program in 1989 to The Great North Wind I asked Chuck Angus if he would allow me to use this fabulous song he wrote for his band, The Grievous Angels. He was more than happy to share this with me and I've used it ever since. Glen Reid is currently recording this song for his up-coming CD and he told me that someone (who's name I shall not mention) said "Steve should consider using your version - his sounds dated." Well, pardon me! No offence Glen (I sang in the chorus on his version!), but this is a fantastic rendition and has served me well for all these years. I'd never abandon Michelle Rumball's pristine vocals no matter how good any one else's version was. Well anyways, the show is gone now so no need for another version. The critics be silenced for ever!]
higrade@nt.net
GRAHAM
TOWNSEND: French Canadian Reel Medley: Ronfleuse Gobeil / Le reel de 
Champlain
/ The A Minor Reel / Reel du pecheur (all trad)
The Fiddle: LP, 1975, Rounder Records 7002[I made so many friends over the years of guests who appeared on the program. Graham Townsend was one of those friends - he used to listen to the program religiously. When he died last fall we were left with nothing but memories and his recorded music. He loved the 'frenchie' tunes, as he called them, and so here is rendition of tunes his idol, ti-Jean Carignan, would have played]
JAMES CHEECHOO: Elbow Swing (trad)
Shay Chee Man: CD, 1999, Kwisiekan Productions Kwis 001
PO Box 216, Moose Factory ON, P0L 1W0
[I once
had the honour to interview and record Sinclair Cheechoo, a James Bay Cree
elder fiddler, in his home on Moose Factory Island. He told me that there
are many Cheechoos and Loutits who play music in this remote section of
Ontario - the first English settlement in the province founded by the Hudson
Bay Company. It was the Scottish and Orkney fiddlers who traded fiddles
with the Cree and taught the Native Peoples how to play their tunes. They
came from over the ocean in their shay Chee Mans (big boats) and their
presence is still felt in Cree communities to this day in the form of fiddle
tunes. However the James Bay Cree modified the tunes and used them for
many of their traditional drum dances played at festivals and other rituals.
James is a relative of Sinclair's and is performing his very traditional
style of fiddling at Harbourfront Centre this weekend in the Aboriginal
Voices Festival]
World Debut
JAMES
GORDON:
That
Old Cedar Strip (J Gordon)
Pipe Street Dreams: CD, 1999, DROG Records / Wind River Records WR4008
http://www.drog.com or http://www.folkera.com/windriver
[James Gordon knows
of the Cheechoos: when he was with Tamarack they spent some time in Moosonee
and Moose Factory conducting music workshops with school children. James
has had a wonderful career with his band Tamarack which he has just left
after nearly 21 years. The band, originally started by Ruth Sutherland,
Jeff Bird and James, has been transformed into a trio with Molly Kurvink
and Alex Sinclair who will now carry on with two new players. James is
here tonight to launch his two brand new CDs, a custom that was started
several albums ago with Tamarack. They made the GNW their home show: from
here it spread in the form of hype and tours, leaving Inverardon or the
land of rocks and snow, via Frobisher Bay and Muskoka for a 15th anniversary
after travelling down the banks of the Grand at Christmas for a concert
of even number 13 - yikes! But I think that this was the first time that
the CDs were ready: I used to have to use pre-release cassettes and CDRs.
So we took a little ride in a cedar stripped canoe to start things off]
World Debut
JAMES
GORDON: The Dolphins Are Leaving (J Gordon)
Songs From Basic Black: CD, 1999, Pipe Street Records PSR1[The title of this song may not sound too funny but let me tell you that everything on this CD is funny - it had to be - that's what James was paid to do. He would listen to Arthur Black's CBC radio show, Basic Black, and have to chose a subject, write and record a song and send it in for next week's show. And it had to be funny. So here is a collection of humorous songs from that program]
http://jamesgordon.cjb.net or gormorse@sentex.net
World Debut
JAMES
GORDON: Too Canadian These Days (J Gordon)
Live In Studio[Doesn't seem to matter who you are or how good you are: somebody's gonna knock you, or at least, they'll try. So here's this good looking guy who couldn't scare a baby and goes around singing songs about Canada. How do you knock him then? "Ah, James Gordon, man: he's just too Canadian these days." Ya, right. So what about Stompin' Tom then? So being the sensible, professional songwriter that he is, Gordon uses this to his own advantage, turns this hit into a possible hit from his new album. This guy is smart]
World Debut
TAMARACK:
Campfire
Light (I Tamblyn)
Demo CD: 1999[It was interesting watching James listen, for the first time, to a new Tamarack track Jamesgordon-less. Realizing that it will be an up-hill battle to replace someone as unreplaceable as James, Alex and Molly decided to go about it with two new Tamarackers: fiddler Shelly Coopersmith and mandolin/accordionist Sandy McKay. But there are two things that must be considered when trying to replace someone like James: His good looks and his being too Canadian? No: let's say his songwriting and his musicianship. Alex also writes prolifically but being down one songwriter they decided to pursue some covers. This is not a problem for Tamarack; they've been offered songs for years but didn't know what to do with them since they had so many of their own that just couldn't fit into their repertoire. Here's one of Ian Tamblyn's excellent songs. And it sounds great!]
http://tamarack.cjb.net or bellevue@soonet.ca
World Debut
JAMES
GORDON: It Was A Perfect Little War (J Gordon)
Live In Studio[So this is when all these people invaded: the uninvited guests. They swarmed in like bees looking to trash the joint, probably because there wasn't any beer. Perfect time to ask James to sing another song then. This one is brand spanking new, about the grim realities of the war trade and those who profit from it, even the enemy. We're talking Kosovo this time. Where will it be next?]
World Debut
JAMES
GORDON: Coke Oven Brook (J Gordon)
Pipe Street Dreams: CD, 1999, DROG Records / Wind River Records WR4008[In Sydney, Nova Scotia, at the northern tip of Cape Breton there is a pool of sludge that pollutes the lives of people living just across the road. This is the former site of Sydney Steel where the slimes from the coke ovens spilled out with their contaminants and no one did anything about it. Lately there's been some great talk about cleaning it up but so far it's still just sitting their. Bogged down in bullshit, which most governments are great at creating, the federal and provincial governments are promising great things. But still the people live there, unable to sell their homes, unable to find another place to live while their children and elderly are sickened with the exposure to this horrendous mess. And now there's a new election called in Nova Scotia as the Liberal party has seen its budget defeated - a budget that promised nothing for cleaning up the sludge. Thank you James Gordon, and thank you for this song. My last official guest on the GNW]
http://www.drog.com or http://www.folkera.com/windriver
Phone Call from Lennie Gallant from Halifax, NS
LENNIE
GALLANT: Fisher King (L Gallant)
Lifeline: CD, 1997, Force Ten Records 02 50735[Lenny is swinging through Ontario this weekend. Too bad I couldn't patch him through on air. A great songwriter and a really nice guy, I first met him in the early 90s at a folk festival in Sudbury after purchasing his Breakwater cassette down in his native PEI]
http://www.chatsubo.com/lennie
MOSE
SCARLETT & MENDLESON JOE: Bye Bye Blues (B Owen / C Grey / D Bennett
/ F Hamm)
Live At The Nervous Breakdown: LP, 1979, Nervous Breakdown Productions NB - 001[I was planning on playing this rendition from this obscure LP and who shows up but Mose! He was elated to see the cover of the album but leery about the contents: who does it sound? No fear Mose, it sounded great, with Mendleson Joe seconding Scarlett on guitar]
MAC
BEATTIE & THE OTTAWA VALLEY MELODIERS: Northern Ontario Blues (M
Beattie)
25th Anniversary: LP, 1968, Banff Rodeo RBS 1299[I sang this song on the program last week with Mainline, one of Mac Beattie's finest. Still, I wanted to play his version tonight to bring home a little sweetness from the land of the GNW]
TOM
CONNORS: Carolyne (T Connors)
The Northland's Own Tom Connors: LP, 1967, Rebel Records CLP 1067[From his first LP before he was Stompin' Tom, just the way I used to hear him play on CKGB in Timmins back in '65: T-I-M-M-I-N-S: That's gonna be my new address / coz I just got me a new job in the mine / Hollinger Mine. No folks, I'm not going to work in no mine. It's just that Timmins is my spiritual home and medicine just for the thinking. I tribute Connors for having turned a young rocking head to Canadian music]
STEVEDORE
STEVE: Log Drive On The Pickerel (S Foote)
Hard Workin' Men: LP, 1971, Boot Records BOS 7102[So many times while driving up north, crossing the Pickerel River, I'd slip this song on the tape deck and sing: Roll, roll, you mighty Pickerel River / It's a logging river drive to the bay / Georgian Bay! / Roll, roll, you mighty Pickerel River / It's a logging river drive to the bay. Stevedore Steve, a personal friend of mine, has inspired me over the years, and encouraged me to do the things I have done on the GNW]
GLEN
REID: Hard Rock Miner (G Reid)
Heritage River: CD, 1996, Royston Road Music RRM96CD01[I didn't know who Glen was when I picked up his record in a second hand store 10 years ago. But it was called Hard Rock Miner so I just had to buy it. I played it on the show and because of that we've become great friends. I just laid a vocal track down on his new album! I encouraged him to get back into the music thing after having left it as a broken down mess in the late 1970s. This CD was the result with a reworked version of this excellent song]
hrtgrivr@onlink.net or http://www.interlog.com/Decent.htm
DANIELLE MARTINEAU & ROCKABAYOU: Zarico Charivari (D Martineau)
Rockabayou: CD, 1992, Les disques Bros BROS-2001-2
[I've been known as
a washboard player, among other things, but this is the best washboard
sound I've ever heard. Danielle and I have been friends for a long time
and when she asked me to play on her first CD I caught the train to Montreal
with a backpack full of washboards. Okay, so I did my thing, laid down
some noise, went home and waited to hear the final product. I was truly
amazed! It was the best sounding washboard ever - the playing wasn't that
bad either]
THE BLACKFLIES: Le Veuve de pendu - The Hangman's Widow (J C Mirandette)
Gabriola: CD, 1998 - Unreleased[No more radio show - my band broke up in April - what else can go wrong? Well let me say that it isn't so bad - I'm looking forward to the freedom to decide, soberly, what I want to do next with my life. But that's not why I played this piece of music. I played it because it's the only recorded version of one of my favourite pieces of Quebecois music from the mind of Jean-Claude Mirandette, a seven part reel. We recorded this in an all tube studio called the Island Tubeworks on Gabriola Island, BC last summer but never released it]
MAY IP: Nam Pang Yao - My Boyfriend (M Ip)
Very Personal: CD, 1994, no label - no serial[May Ip was in Canada only two days when I met her in Peter Jellard's basement in downtown Toronto, practice place of the blackflies who were then the Cajun Ramblers. She was into Cajun music, had her own band in Hong Kong called Asian Cajun. She stayed long enough to befriend a lot of people in the Toronto folk community before returning to her home on Lamma Island, Honk Kong where she recorded this CD on a DAT machine. You can hear the birds and barking dogs which is always a nice thing. This song is sung in Cantonese and is just beautiful. I dedicated it tonight to her current nam pang yao, Gary. She promises to be at the Eaglewood Folk Festival in August with her new child, another one in the oven, and Gary. Looking forward to seeing her there]
May Ip <mi@maya.dyn.ml.org>
TIM HARRISON with LISA WEITZ, SHELLY COOPERSMITH, MOSE SCARLETT, JIM LAYEUX, JORY NASH, PETER & CAROLE ROWE , HOLMES HOOKE, FRANCIS FOUGERE, MICHAEL WRYCRAFT, BILL HEFFERNAN and others: Sammy's Bar (T Harrison)
Live In Studio[These were the gate crashers who I decided to put to work. After saying all kinds of nice things about me and giving me my poster of the porcupine, they gathered around the mics and sang this a cappella song lead by Eaglewood's AD, Tim Harrison]
ANITA BEST & PAMELA MORGAN: Two Sisters (trad)
The Colour of Amber: CD, 1991, Amber Music ACD 9008
amber@nfld.com or http://www.nfld.com/amber
[I'm going to
Newfoundland for a vacation in a couple of weeks which will be an excellent
way to wean myself from the GNW. Looking forward to meeting with Pam and
Anita there. They were winners of a Porcupine Award for this CD, one of
the most beautiful CDs you could ever hope to have in your collection]
JAMES
KEELAGHAN: Never Gonna Stop This Train (J Keelaghan)
A Recent Future: CD, 1995, Jusin Time / Green Linnet Redbird Series JTR 8453-2[Everything that begins ends. We are born to die. But I don't think anyone's got the power to stop this train till it ends. This is a wonderfully bright song, one of so many from the pen of James Keelaghan that captures the emotions I am feeling tonight]
http://www.jameskeelaghan.com
GEORGE WADE & HIS CORNHUSKERS: Flowers of Edinburgh / Ricketts Hornpipe / Money Musk
78 rpm: circa 1932, RCA Victor 216580-B
I used this opportunity make some thanks:
I wish to thank you, the listener for turning this program on, whether weekly or just out of the blue, for the many letters, emails and calls I have received over the years, and especially for dipping into your pockets at fund-raising time to support the program.
I also wish to thank the hundreds of guests that have appeared on the program - I loved interviewing them all, learning about their lives and their artforms, befriending them, and for making the GNW extra special for playing their music live over the air.
I also want to thank my many past and present colleagues at CIUT who have been so supportive over the years, many of whom have become life-long friends.
To Chuck Angus, Michelle Rumball, Peter Jellard, Pete Duffin and Tim Hadley of the Grievous Angels for the use of The Great North Wind as my theme song.
But most importantly I want to thank my family: my wife, Maggie, who taped hundreds of my shows and has always encouraged me in this endeavour.
To my son Dawa who is currently touring in Spain, and my daughter Tenma: they've had to put up with countless hours of fiddle music.
To Señor Paul Lyon who first turned me on to the music of Jean Carignan.
And lastly to my spiritual uncle Karma Thinley Rinpoche who has inspired me, encouraged me and has always been proud of me for what I have accomplished here.
May the spirit of The Great North Wind never be forgotten. May it blow
happiness and tolerance down from the frozen northlands of North Ontario.
GEORGE WADE & HIS CORNHUSKERS: Waltz Medley: Sleep Baby Sleep / Memories
78 rpm: circa 1932, RCA Victor 216582-A[The only song recorded by the band, vocalist unknown. The usual thing for the band to do was record an instrumental set of reels or a waltz on one side, a called set on the other. This is a lovely crooning melody set to a waltz which hushed up the studio audience with a tear or two glistening from their eyes]
THE
GRIEVOUS ANGELS: Having To Say Goodbye (C Angus)
Waiting For The Cage: CD, 1996, Jimmy Boyle Records 1996[Again, the Angels to the rescue. A classic song from Porcupine Hall of Famer, Chuck Angus]
(re-released on DROG Records)
Phone Call from James Keelaghan & Oliver Schroer from California
JEAN
CARIGNAN: Le Rêve de diable (The Devil's Dream) (Trad)
French Canadian Fiddle Songs: LP, Legacy / Everest Records LEG 120[The first cut on the first show was this piece of music. I was wondering what I should play to start this journey off, so I thought of Paul Lyon and played this one. And this is the way I wished to end it tonight, bringing things full circle again]
THE DOORS: The End (J Morrison)
The Doors: LP, 1967, Electra EKS 74007[The very ending of the song: "This is the ennnnnnnnnndddddddddddddddddddddddddd. Had to do it]
Steve Fruitman, over and out, for the final edition of The Great North
Wind
