Category: 2008 Performers

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2008 Performers Concert Country and Western Festival Memories

Adam Olmstead

A.G. Olmstead Closes ANE with Memories of Jimmy Rodgers

[from August 2008]

Remember Peach Pickin’ Time In Georgia? In The Jailhouse Now? Keep On The Sunnyside? California Zephyr? Or Gonna Sing, Sing, Sing?

If you love the songs of Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family and Hank Williams, Sr. then you’ll revel in the Atlantic National Exhibition’s Closing Concert by A.G. Olmstead & His Old Time String Band tomorrow night, Aug 31, 8 to 10 p.m., on their Building One main stage.

Hailed as a new Jimmie Rodgers on CBC Radio One interviews and concert segments and by leading Nashville session players, who thrilled A.G. when several volunteered to back him on a debut CD a year ago.

“I grew up knowing most of the older artists’ repertoires,” A.G. told me early this spring, “especially Jimmie Rodgers’ because Dad played his records almost every night. Jimmie was his favourite singer and I guess he just naturally became mine, too.”

And, although Jimmie was born in Mississippi and A.G. (Adam to his friends) far north of the Mason-Dixon line in our Maritimes, with St Stephen now his home base, he does sound a lot like the ‘father of country music.’ Even the songs A.G. writes have a Rodgersesque feeling that is nostalgic. Songs about trains, tragedies, drinking and home that he’ll mix with old favourites in concert!

And, although A.G. never railroaded as Jimmie did, he’s has worked blue collar jobs, built logging and construction roads, rambled and lived in many of the same parts of the US that Rodgers did.

At 15, A.G. left NB for a US school with a music curriculum, after graduating, busked for three years in New York where Rodgers was formally signed by RCA, then spent three years playing California clubs, then a three year residency in Texas which was Jimmie’s favourite state and where he lived during his years of great fame. Then travels in Europe, followed by a tour of our Canadian west, a year back home writing and refocusing. Then two years in Nashville, playing clubs, haunting recording label offices, sitting in on jams and backstage parties, getting to know a lot of musicians, some very famous, although he didn’t realize that at the time. Then a recording session at O’Banyon’s Terrace Studio, and a CD of a dozen songs that he’d penned, produced by Alan O’Bryant and recorded, mixed and mastered by Tim Roberts, two prestigious names.

And, amazingly, one of the Nashville based musicians who backed A.G. on that recording, Chris Henry, is making the trip up to play mandolin with A.G.’s band Friday! Chris’s high energy vocals and blistering mandolin solos bring audiences to their feet every where! And Toronto’s Foggy Hogtown Boys fiddler John Showman, a 2004 Juno nominee is joining them: On upright bass there’s Sam Petite who plays with two renowned Toronto string bands. And on banjo NB’s multi-instrumentalist and 2005 ECMA nominee, Al Scott.

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2008 Performers Album Release Concert Country and Western

Stew Clayton’s Yodeling My Way Back Home CD Released!

Stew and Juanita Clayton
Stew and Juanita Clayton
Stew and Juanita Clayton giving an impromptu performance

Seldom have I seen an audience rise so quickly to sweep in a wave across an auditorium floor to a CDs for sale booth than at intermission during the Stew and Juanita Clayton Concert at Exhibition Park, September 1. The nearly 800 rose almost as one to meet the father and daughter duo as they reached it and, at 5 a.m. when we drove them to the airport their CD cases were all but empty.

Seldom, either, have I had as many calls after a concert for a recording stars address saying “well, I bought one but I’d like to get a couple more” or “I bought Juanita’s because I only had enough for one, now I’d like to get one of her father’s” or “there were so many I couldn’t make up my mind. How do I contact them?”

That’s right, the long reigning star of Winnipeg’s Sunshine Record label has recorded over 30 lps, cassettes and CD’s in the past half century and he said while here that he was thinking of doing another.

That one Yodeling My Way Back Homearrived Christmas week! Stew records the old fashioned way: He walks into a studio with backing musicians and wings it the way Wilf Carter always did! And if you think that didn’t work for Wilf in fairly modern times…well, toward the end of his recording career in the early 1980s, Wilf’sWalking The Streets of Calgary RCA Camden lp according to a survey by a Sam the Record Man Halifax store manager, Jimmy Dean, of their outlets and other national distributors was the top seller of its release year but when R.P.M. Magazine, compilers of Canada’s Top 100 records at the time, didn’t even list it, their answer when he inquired was: “Oh, we don’t chart anyone over 60. They’ve no career left.”

Anyhow though it may never officially get its dues either, Stew’s new CD Yodeling My Way Back Homewill be a joy to the ears of anyone who remembers the great years of Country & Western music. An eleven times international yodeling champion Stew explains his choice of songs for this CD in this way: ‘For many years I have been asked why I don’t put more yodel songs on my recordings. When doing shows, folks who stop by my booth will nearly always ask ‘which album has the most yodel songs on it?”

“Well, on this new release there is only one selection…the Johnny Cash Song …that isn’t a yodel song. I sincerely hope all my fans and all those who have ever felt bereft at the lack of yodeling on records now will enjoy this recording. I made it especially for them.”

The yodel songs are: The Old Harvest Waltz, I Love To Hear Her Yodel, The Yodeling Trucker (a comedic demonstration of voice dexterity and endurance), Answer To My Little Yodel Lady, The Yodeling Farmers Song, Blue Mountain Yodel, My Little Artic Sweetheart, Yodeler’s Waltz and the title song: Yodeling My Way Back Home. All ten were penned by Stew.

Copies of it are available by calling him at (204) 242-2670. You will likely get the message: “Hello, this is Yodeling Stew from Manitou. If I’m not here I’m most likely out doing a show somewhere but leave a message and I’ll get back to you.” Which he will do! Or write: Stew Clayton, P.O. Box 147, Manitou, Manitoba, Canada R0G 1G0

Categories
2008 Performers Concert Country and Western

Patti Page Sold More Records Than any Woman In History!

Do you remember How Much Was that Doggy In The Window?

At The Imperial
At The Imperial

… a #1 chart hit for Patti Page?

How could anyone not know of the singer who in the past 60 years has sold more recordings than any woman has in history? I talked with Patti for an hour a few days ago and her voice was so vibrant and young it amazed me. It was like talking to someone I’d known a lifetime, as I have nearly…her voice.

Still wintering in San Diego, she will soon be winging north from California for a concert at Saint John’s Imperial Theater Thursday, Apr. 10 at 7p.m., one of two in Atlantic Canada. This rare Patti Page Canadian Tour starts in Halifax the day before.

Miss Patti Page, The Singing Rage, as she has been known since 1946, sold over a hundred million copies of such hits as Allegheny Moon, Old Cape Cod, I Went To Your Wedding and many more….an incredible 111 charted hits from over a hundred albums and an amazing 16 of them Gold.

Born Clara Ann Fowler in Claremore, Oklahoma, population 4000, if country fans now think of Patti as only a pop singer, they should remember her recording of Tennessee Waltz sold over 10 million copies and topped Country, Pop and rhythm and Blues charts, for three months, one of a very few by either a male or female artist to ever chart on all three. That was in 1950. In 1951 she made Top 10 hits of both Mocking Bird Hill written by Vaughan Horton (Wilf Carter’s US manager), and Hank snow’s Down The Trail of Aching Hearts. She, also, made giants hits of Mister And Mississippi, Detour (a big 1946 hit for Spade Cooley), Changing Partners, Cross Over The bridge, Poor Man’s Roses , and in 1973, Hello We’re Lonely, a duet with Tom T. Hall. Also South of the Border, Y’All Come, No One To Cry To, Mom and Dad’s Waltz, Old spinning Wheel, and many more.

But, my own favourite Patti Page recordings are I Want To Be A Cowgirl’s Sweetheart, written and recorded by an old friend, Patsy Montana, in 1936, the first disc by a female singer to sell a million…Patti yodels beautifully on it…and I Wanna Go Skating With Willie.

She also made hits of such folk era songs as Jamaica Farewell, Danny Boy, Scarlett Ribbons, Try To Remember, and such movie themes as Boys Night Out and Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte. She starred herself in Boys Night Out and Elmer Gantry.

Patti only met Hank Snow once she said but told me … a real surprise … of hours on movie shoots with Elvis Presley. “I met Elvis first in Las Vegas”, she said. “He brought his mother into my dressing room at the Sand’s. I was her favourite singer, he said, and she loved my version of I don’t Care if The Sun Don’t Shine, a song he later recorded.”

“Then my husband, Charles O’Curran”, Patti said, “a choreographer at Paramount was assigned to work with Elvis on six of his movies. The first time I was free to visit him on the set was when they shot G.I.Blues. That was a year before I was signed for Elmer Gantry and it was sure a thrill!”

“Then, when Paramount shot Blue Hawaii in the islands, we’d get together at the hotel after dinner, Elvis would bring a guitar, others would get their instruments and the two of us would sing for hours. They were great nights!”

She’ll tell a lot of those stories during a wonderful recital of her hits when she appears at Saint John’s Imperial Theatre, April 10. Get your tickets now at their box office or phone 674-4100, if out of town call 1-800-323-7469.

Patti lives most of the year near Bath, New Hampshire where she and her second husband, Jerry Filiciotto grow and sell organic foods and maple syrup products.

“In fact, we spent Christmas there,” Patti said, “so I had a taste of the winter you folks are having!”

Patti was the feature act at Maine’s 2007 incredible Fryeburg Fair that I’ve visited several times as an ANE rep.

Last April’s Column

“She was The Rage back in the 50’s and the 60’s but what does Patty Page sound like now?” a lot of people have asked in recent weeks.

Well, the duets she did with Vince Gill on the Grand Ole Opry early this year answered that… her voice is just as sensational as ever, virtually unchanged by age! Tapes sent me of the satellite radio and Nashville Television coverage of those performances by Rocklands Entertainment Inc., the tour agency bringing Patti to Atlantic Canada … Halifax’s Rebecca Cohn Auditorium April 9 and Saint John’s Imperial Theatre Thursday, April 10, both at 7 p.m.,..for the first time ever, thrillingly verify that!

By introduction Vince Gill said of her: “ A finer woman or finer singer never graced this earth.” And Brian Edwards, Rockland’s president, says, “Patti looks much younger than her 80 years, a beautiful woman! In fact, time has added an even more thrilling depth to her wonderful voice!” Patti’s singing of her ten million selling hit that night, the Tennessee Waltz and her beautiful duet with Vince Gill on Home Sweet Oklahoma, a new song tribute to the state both were born in, are proof of that … both performances brought capacity audiences to their feet, wildly applauding! And so did her singing of another of her great hits Mockin’ Bird Hill !

Of course, Patti, has never taken a hiatus from recording. After years with Mercury and Columbia … two stints each … when she ruled the airwaves, she recorded with Epic until 1975, when she signed with Avco. Then, in 1981, she switched to Plantation, placing My Man Friday on Billboard’s pop charts in 1982 and several others on country charts!

Patti launched her own CAF label in 1998 and won a Grammy as Best Traditional Pop Singer. In recent years she has released Live At Carnegie Hall 50th Anniversary Concert, Child of Mine and others. They are for sale on her website www.pattipageproducts.com/hilltop or at her Hilltop Farm near Bath, New Hampshire.

Patti Page over her long career as a vocalist and actress has sold over 100 million records, more than other female recordings artist yet her April 10 concert at Saint John’s Imperial…her only N.B. concert … still has seats left, just $50, at the Theatre box office, by dialing 674-4100 or 1-800-323-7469.

Categories
2008 Performers Country and Western Festival Folk

Buffy Sainte-Marie to Open 51st Miramichi Folksong Festival

All the lights of Broadway don’t amount to an acre of green,
And I’m gonna be a country girl again.

gtbuffy08smEntrancing, wild, jubilant … like no voice I had ever heard before! So beautifully controlled yet so primitive in its passion, evoking visions of native village fires of long ago!

That is how I felt on hearing Buffy Sainte-Marie on radio in 1964 for the first time. It was a voice I required daily doses of for the next dozen years, as she released 12 vinyl LP records and two ‘best of” doubles, which I quickly acquired. Each had its treasures, the plaintive lamenting of Now That The Buffalo’s Gone, the wild exuberance of Cripple Creek, the beautiful soaring intonations of Gonna Be A Country Girl Again and the eerie haunting falsetto of Vampire…so many creations of her pen that no voice but her own will ever imbue with the same magic!

Then she released number 13, Sweet America, in 1976 and, as unheralded as she appeared on charts internationally, she vanished from the recording scene. It left me grieving I had not seen her live in concert, that, although born in Saskatchewan, she had never appeared this far east.

But that is soon to change! A bulletin from Susan Butler lists Buffy Sainte-Marie as headlining the Official Opening Concert of the 51st Miramichi Folk Song Festival, August 4, 7 p.m. at that city’s Civic Centre.

Born on a Cree reservation in Qu’Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan, Buffy, orphaned in infancy, was adopted by relatives, Albert and Winifred Sainte-Marie, and raised in Maine and Massachusetts.  Musically gifted she taught herself piano and guitar at an early age and on graduating university with a PHD in Fine Art and Oriental philosophy and teaching degrees, she quickly became known as a writer of protest songs. In 1962 Buffy hit the concert trail, booking her own venues and traveling alone, playing universities, First Nation community centers and concert halls.  In 1963 appalled by Vietnam campaign wounded returning, she wrote Universal Soldier, which included on her debut Vanguard album, It’s My Way, quickly climbed singles charts, leading to her being voted Billboard magazine’s Best New Artist in1964.

As well as her own phenomenal chart successes that followed, numerous songs she penned,like Until It’s Time For You To Go and Piney Wood Hills, became block buster hits for Barbra Streisand, Elvis Presley, Janis Joplin, Bobby Bare and Donovan among others.

By age 24, Buffy had toured Europe, Asia, Australia, the US and Canada, was showered with awards, medals, and many honours. And, although, opting to quit recording in 1976 she embraced children’s TV, joining the Sesame Street cast for five years.

Involvement with writing, Aboriginal teaching, computers and art followed.

In 1992 she recorded Coincidence & Likely Stories and in 1996. France named her Best International Artist in 1993 and the United Nations selected her to proclaim 1993 International Indigenous Peoples Year. Induction into the Juno Hall of Fame came in 1995. In 1997 she won a Gemini Award Up Where We Belong, released in 1996, and was made an Officer Of The Order of Canada. A resident of Hawaii for many years, she limits herself to 20 concerts a year so the Miramichi is greatly honoured. It’s her only NB concert…so don’t miss it!

Tickets are now available at Books Inn and Bill’s Kwikway, Miramichi Stitching Post, Bathurst, by calling Susan Butler at 506-662-1780, or emailing bb2@nb.sympatico.ca

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2008 Performers Album Release Blues Folk

Jackie Washington, Mose Scarlett and Ken Whitely

George Hector’s Son Jim Amazed by Jackie Washington

jackiecd11
Jackie Washington CD cover

I called Jim Hector in November about a matter not music related but found him still excited by a TV concert he’d seen days before. Jim is one of the late George Hector’s sons, NB’s legendary banjo man, “Had I heard of Jackie Washington?” he asked.

“The other night there was this guy Jackie Washington singing a song I never heard anyone else but my father sing..Save The Bones For Henry Jones. I never thought I’d hear it again!” Jim is a blacksmith who travels the province, when able, shoeing horses at riding stables, race tracks, and at many private owners barns. And although semi-retired due to a severe back problem he still manages to keep active. In fact, for decades Jim has been almost as popular with equestrians as his father was by music fans.

George Hector of the Maritime Farmers
George Hector of the Maritime Farmers
Or as George’s other son Ed, a mechanic, was with vehicle owners. The Hectors, including Jim and Ed’s sister Rhoda are a diversely talented family. “Another guy on that show sang He’s In The Jail House Now,” Jim said. “Another song Dad sang!” “Guy with a short black beard? I asked. He nodded.

“Mose Scarlett,” I said. “There’s a guy with a white beard usually with them, too…Ken Whiteley. But Jackie’s the only one, I guess, owns a razor.“ “He was there too,” Jim said.

“They record for Borealis,” I said, “Canada’s leading folk and blues label. They’ve CDs out solo and as a trio.” Jim’s enthusiasm rekindled mine. This trio of folk-blues singing musicians are so infectious, I’ve long intended reviewing their CDs but never, until now, found a window to do it.

Jackie Washington has recorded two CDs at the Borealis Toronto studios.

One titled Midnight Choo Choo includes such vintage favourites as: Street Of Dreams, Little Dutch Mill, Dinah, Triscadecaphobia, Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go (With Friday On Saturday Night?), Alabamy Bound, Save The Bones, the title song and ten more that, probably have haunted your dreams for years!

And, although Jackie does all lead vocals, his trio partners contributed their multi- talents along with 14 other musicians including J.P. Cormier on fiddle. His other Borealis CD, Keeping Out of Mischief, is a 19-track album, also, that includes such nostalgic hits as: At Sundown, Girl of My Dreams, Foolish Questions, Blue Turning Grey Over You, Drifting,Old Folks, Take The ‘A’ Train, the title song, a powerful version of Everybody Will Be Happy Over There, and 11 more. Ken backs him on guitars, mandolin, organ, piano, harmonies, Mose guitar, and another 13 musicians that include Nashville’s sensational dobroist, Jerry Douglas.

Mose Scarlett CD

Mose Scarlett is one of a kind! His self-taught guitar finger-picking defies categorization or comparison. Dubbed ‘stride guitar’ by experts, it’s so syncopated it beguiles. And over and under it slides one of the most unique, emotional bass baritone voices you’ll ever hear. It can reach to the basement of the vocal registry, yet come up floors so effortlessly without a pause.

Mose’s Borealis Precious Seconds CD, is a 15 song album running a time line from 1912’s the I Used To Love You But It’s All Over, to 1917’s Darktown Strutter’s Ball, 1918’s Somebody Stole My Gal, 1921’s Anytime, 1925’s Bye Bye Blues, 1927’s My Blue Heaven, 1935’s Lulu’s Back In Town, up to 1975’s Don’t Go Lookin’ For Trouble and Mose’s own catchy Muscatel Tale. In between are wedged Sweet Lorraine and four others including the longest version of He’s In The Jail House Now, I’ve heard.

Ken Whiteley CDS

Ken Whiteley is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording history is long, both as a solo artist, dueting with brother Chris, in trio with Scarlett and Washington, or with Gospel choirs. Ken plays mandolin, piano, ukulele, washtub and acoustic bass but the magic instrument in his hands is his National steel body guitar with its haunting dobro sound. He has a wonderful natural singing voice, that he can turn into a forceful gospel or blues instrument. Of three solo CDs he’s issued on Borealis my favourite is Musical Mystery Machines, a project of Mariposa In Schools that matched him with children performers to create learning programs for school curricula. Ken uses only his natural voice on this CD, enhanced by intriguing sound effects and a thrilling child chorus.

Another, Gospel Music Makes Me Feel Alright, recorded Live, into which he poured his soul. is emotional. You can feel the prophetic fervor of a Billy Graham in his voice on such songs as Let My Life Be A Prayer, the title song, Voice Of The Lord and Wilderness. But Traveling On sung in his natural voice is my favourite.

The Trio ‘s Borealis CDs

The trio’s three Borealis CDs … Where Old Friends Meet, We’ll Meet Again and Setting On A Rainbow…are the most beautiful and captivating folk blues I’ve heard. Their blended talents make rarities like Lady be Good, Mood Indigo, When You’re Smiling, Wait ‘Til The Sun Shines Nelly and dozens more, sparkle like new, take your breath away.

To learn more visit www.borealisrecords.com or phone 1-877-530-4288. Check out Ken Whiteley’s new One World Dance CD, too.

Categories
2008 Performers Folk Jazz

Making a mark (Hill) in time at Chet’s Convention

“What on earth is he doing?”

markhillphoto08smGuitarist Mark Hill’s Up Home Tonight audition in the mid-80’s probably still exists in the dark recesses of some ATV film vault. What is not recorded on it is went on behind the camera such as that query by producer/ director Barry Bramhill.

“Unbelievable, but he’s finger picking the melody on the treble strings,” the show’s host, Gordon Stobbe, an amazing instrumentalist himself, explained, “and a split second later, picking it on the bass strings with his thumb.”

“Is that humanly possible?” Barry asked.

“Well, that’s what we’re seeing and hearing,” Gordon said.

It was the first expression of utter amazement I’d heard in all the auditions I’d sat in on with them, auditions that brought so many extraordinary musicians and singers out of the proverbial woodwork.

markhillcdcover08It’s that rare dexterity of mind and hand that Mark exhibits playing his interpretation of Moulin Rouge, its fingered melody with the thumb picking that sounds like an overdub so exquisite I nearly forget how beautiful Zsa Zsa Gabor looked singing it in the original 1954 movie of the same name. It’s one of twelve instrumentals on his new CD A Mark In Time he took copies of to the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society (CAAS) Convention at Sheraton Music City Hotel near Opryland this week, July 9-12.

Mark paraded his great diversity before the ATV audition camera that day….classical, standard, Chet Atkin’s style country, Lenny Breau jazziness, Jerry Reid poker club blues picking!

That diversity and exquisite simplicity is what brought Mark to the attention of so many at the Convention last year after US reviewer Palmer Moore enthusiastically praised his 2006 release Mark Hill Picks On Chet. He rhapsodized:

‘I am so excited to announce a new name (and certified Chet nut) to fans in the Chet Circle… Mark Hill! He’s from the Canadian Maritimes and one heck of a picker. His dad taught him how to play Chet tunes early and, even though he has progressed through heavy classical and jazz studies, he never forgot his love of the thumb picking stuff his dad left in his head.

‘After years of professionally playing jazz, flamenco and blues with a fairly successful band he formed with his brother Steve (the Hills brothers Blues Band) it was his dad that suggested he might drop back and record some Chet music which he did.’ Which led to that review.

‘Will he ever have a loud stage act like Emanuel or Dykes and do world tours? Probably not!’ he continues. ‘Could he hold his own with either of those two or with Richard Smith? I’m sure he could! Will we ever see him at the CAAS Annual Convention in Nashville? I sure hope so and I hope he sells a ton of these Hill Picks On Chet CDs.’

Well, maybe Mark didn’t quite sell a ton last year at this event but he did sell a bunch and, more importantly, he says, met a lot of Nashville’s top guitar session players and was greatly encouraged by their interest and praise and the thrill of being invited back.

Mark’s new album, A Mark In Time is a mixture of up beat and slow tempo tunes, carefully chosen and brilliantly performed. Besides the title tune, El Senteio, Oscar’s Walk, Hubbard’s Cubbard (a little music word play on Mother’s Hubbard’s Cupboard) and the rollicking, joy filled Twin Pipe Papa (Ohio Romp) are all gems that reflect Mark’s genius as a composer.

And his interpretations of such world favourites as Paganini’s Rhapsody, Limehouse Blues, Three Little Words, Cascade and Don McLean’s Vincent are incredibly meticulous and inspired, his version of Paul Yandell’s Coming Home shows how well Mark can straight pick and then break into such great single line improvising.

Backing Mark’s elegant guitar work, his brother Steve plays drums, percussion and harmonica, Brian Baker bass and mandolin and Pete Belliveau, who engineered the CD, percussion,as well. It was produced by Dave Hill. The beautiful cover design is by Steve Hill, a former artist and cartoonist with this paper.

The Chet Atkins Appreciation Convention Mark is attending…it started yesterday and continues through Saturday…was founded in 1983 by an extreme Atkins fan Jim Ferron. It yearly attracts hundreds of the world’s best finger pickers so to stand out you have to have something special! Locally A Mark In Time will be available at Backstreet Records, Saint John.