This is my personal blog through which I share observations about my creative passions — and everything in between.
It was a winter like no other, at least in my lifetime, one year shy of three score and ten. Not since the Spanish flu outbreak of 1918 had the world been in the clutches of such a pernicious pandemic as the coronavirus of late 2019 and 2020. People around the world were sick and dying, medical resources were stretched to the limit, friends and…
Waterloo’s Princess Cinemas is kicking off 2020–a new year and a new decade—with a special Live on Stage concert featuring two of Canada’s premium acoustic-based singer/songwriters. Connie Kaldor and Garnet Rogers share the stage at the Original Princess Cinema Jan 5 at 3 p.m. Tickets sold like hotcakes—as the old saying goes—so the concert is SOLD OUT. The concert is part of a double-bill tour…
Season 14 finds Folk Night at the Registry sitting tall in the saddle of Waterloo Region’s traditional acoustic music horse. Giddy Up! Cambridge’s Mill Race Festival of Traditional Folk Music is gone after three decades. The Kitchener Blues Festival–including its acoustic blues component–is cowering in the shadow of its former glory . Co-produced by the Registry Theatre and Old Chestnuts Song Circle, Folk Night remains…
This book is not about heroes. English poetry is not yet fit to speak of them. Nor is it about deeds, or lands, nor anything about glory, honour, might, majesty, dominion or power, except War. Above all I am not concerned with Poetry. My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity. Yet these elegies are to this generation…
In the turbulent years between rock ’n’ roll and progressive rock, folk music provided the soundtrack for a generation of Americans against a backdrop of peace and civil-rights marches, urban riots, free love and the pill, Eastern religion, psychedelic drugs and back-to-the-land movement. Their numbers are dwindling, the recording artists who defined the Folk Revival of the 1960s. Tom Paxton is one of the artists…
Folk Night@the Registry’s 13th season is a blend of prominent established and exciting emerging talent from across Canada (Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland) and New York State. Presented in the partnership with Old Chestnuts Song Circle, Waterloo Region’s premiere folk series welcomes traditional folk artists and contemporary singer/songwriters who span a range acoustic styles. In addition to the 2018-19 season package of six…
Somedays you write the song Somedays the song writes you —Guy Clark The Blyth Festival’s last two of four main-stage productions of 2018 examine roots and identity. Both 1837:The Farmers’ Revolt and Wing Night at the Boot have deep ties to the theatre…
When I returned from my initial trip to Blyth this season, I texted my friend with a short quip: “Saw plays about pig farming and curling. How Canadian is that, eh!” Although the text was accurate, it didn’t reflect my true feelings about the festival I’ve been writing about and reviewing since 1984—a year more than half of my life. Although I’ve been retired from newspaper…
Unless you’re a fly angler, you probably don’t know that Southwestern Ontario is an oasis of piscatorial delight for those who cast fur and feather. The Grand River’s tailwater attracts fly anglers from far and wide in pursuit of hatchery raised brown trout. The Canadian Heritage River boasts a variety of sports species including smallmouth bass, steelhead and pike. The Maitland, Saugeen and Bighead rivers…
The Registry Roots Weekend showcases the best in East Coast roots music. Featuring singer/songwriters Laura Smith and Dave Gunning and award-winning multi-instrumentalist J.P. Cormier, the fifth annual celebration of acoustic music consists of concerts on consecutive evenings and a day of music workshops led by Smith and Tom Leighton. LAURA SMITH in CONCERT. Friday, April 13. 8pm. $25 advance, $28 at the door. Laura Smith returns…
Although Folk Night at the Registry concentrates on Canadian artists spanning the country, augmented with the occasional international artist, recent seasons have brought a variety of American performers to downtown Kitchener including John Gorka, Bill Staines, Joe Crookston, Peter Yarrow, Mustard’s Retreat and Brother Sun. Saturday, March 10 offers a Folk Night concert guaranteed to put smiles on the faces of Woody Guthrie and Pete…
Since first appearing at the Registry Theatre in the fall of 2012, Joe Crookston has become a fan favourite. And why not? He’s not only a gifted songwriter, vocalist and guitarist, he’s a really nice guy: intelligent, passionate, witty and charming. All of these qualities come across when Crookston takes the stage. The upstate New York recording artist, who is also a painter, made his…
My Sorrow, when she’s here with me, Thinks these dark days of autumn rain Are beautiful as days can be; She loves the bare, the withered tree; She walks the sodden pasture lane. Her pleasure will not let me stay. She talks and I am fain to list: She’s glad the birds are gone away, She’s glad her simple worsted gray Is silver now with…
Sonny and Brownie took that last train ride and they went to some place the rest of us cannot follow that train came by That last slow train leavin’ town That last slow train leavin’ town Brownie and Sonny been goin’ down — Sonny & Brownie’s Last Train by Guy Davis I first…
Norrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm! The one-word welcome is imbedded in the collective memory of a generation of television viewers. It was directed at the sad-sack tippler who planted his sardonic frame on the southeast corner of the square bar around which the hit TV show Cheers was built. Although Norm had a last name — Peterson — he really didn’t need one. Whether or not we recognized it,…
I pulled into Nazareth, was feeling ’bout half past dead I just need some place where I can lay my head Hey, mister, can you tell me, where a man might find a bed? He just grinned and shook my hand, ‘No’ was all he said. Take a load off Fanny, take a load for free Take a load off Fanny, and you put the…
There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun Long before the white man and long before the wheel When the green dark forest was too silent to be real —…
I read my merry way through the 1970s — and it shaped my life. I went to a secondary trade school and got a diploma in mechanical drafting. However an enthusiastic Grade 10 English teacher saved me by inspiring me to study literature. This was strange, considering I grew up in a home without books and had never read for enjoyment. Nonetheless I made up Grade…
It is utterly soothing to fly fish for trout. All other considerations or worries drift away and you couldn’t keep them close if you wanted. Perhaps it’s standing thigh deep in a river with the water passing at the exact but varying speed of life. You easily realize this mortality and it dissipates into the landscape. — Jim Harrison What did I know…
Season 12 of Folk Night at the Registry spans the expanse of Canada, but has a strong East Coast flavour. It launches its six concerts with a couple of traditional shows before settling into its familiar pattern of contemporary folk artists and singer/songwriters. It blends established names and old friends with rising stars and series premieres, from Canada and the U.S. As a special treat,…
Tonight my bag is packed Tomorrow I’ll walk these tracks That will lead me across the border. . . Where pain and memory Pain and memory have been stilled There across the border. . . For what are we Without hope in our hearts That someday we’ll drink from God’s blessed waters. . . And eat the fruit from the vine I know love and…
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold. . . . — The Second Coming by W. B. Yeats He was perched on a limb, high in a bank-side tree when…
Who would think that a musical drama about a ponzi scheme would be so entertaining? But that’s exactly what the Blyth Festival has with the world premiere of The Pigeon King. Its most surprising production of the season continues through September 23. The musical drama centres on Arlan Galbraith, the self-proclaimed Pigeon King who was convicted of fraud after bilking hundreds of rural investors in…
When I was growing up in London, Ontario during the 1950s and ’60s, Ipperwash was an Ontario Provincial Park where I went camping every summer with my best friend and his parents. It was adjacent to Camp Ipperwash, where the Canadian army trained cadets. My parents built a winterized cottage at Ipperwash in the ’70s. Consequently, I thought I knew Ipperwash pretty well. Wrong. Like…
I’ve spent a pleasurable summer in companionship with Henry David Thoreau as homage to the bicentenary of his birth on July 12, 1817. In addition to sauntering through Walden, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, The Maine Woods and Cape Cod and selections from his monumental Journal, essays, letters and poetry, I have enjoyed a trio of excellent biographies including Henry Thoreau: A…
I count myself among Canadians who are collectively blowing out 150 candles in celebration of the sesquicentennial of Confederation. I also count myself among Canadians who want reconciliation with First Nations peoples to continue during this significant anniversary. We cannot wait another 150 years. As a starting point, I would like two national disgraces addressed once and for all. First, we must solve the mystery…
I’m old enough to remember Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians bringing in the New Year from glitzy New York City. It was an annual ritual in our family every year — as it was for millions of people around the world for half a century, beginning with America’s first nationwide New Year’s Eve radio broadcast in 1929. When I was young, I watched the…
Pour a drink, light a fire and turn the page. I have a story to tell. — Keith McCafferty in Preface to Cold Hearted River … everybody needs something to live for, whether it’s a martini at six o’clock or one true sentence at ten. …
Steve Raymond is a gifted fly fishing writer living in the Pacific Northwest. A retired manager at the Seattle Times and an editor of a couple fly fishing magazines (Flyfisher and Fishing in Salt Waters), he’s written 10 non-fiction books including a Civil War history and nine angling books. A fisherman primarily of trout, steelhead and salmon for more than half a century, Raymond’s fly…
Tom Thomson went missing on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park on July 8, 1917. His body was recovered on July 16, 1917. To commemorate the centenary of the death of one of Canada’s great national icons, I am posting a blog each day throughout these days of mystery devoted to the painter’s life, art and legacy. The last of nine instalments, Casting on a Northern River,…
Tom Thomson went missing on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park on July 8, 1917. His body was recovered on July 16, 1917. To commemorate the centenary of the death of one of Canada’s great national icons, I am posting a blog each day throughout these days of mystery devoted to aspects of the painter’s life, art and legacy. The fifth instalment, Tom As Rock Star, takes…
Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. — Henry David Thoreau I’ve described myself as an armchair angler numerous times. I’m also an intrepid armchair traveler who gleefully circumnavigates the world…
Tom Thomson went missing on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park on July 8, 1917. His body was recovered on July 16, 1917. To commemorate the centenary of the death of one of Canada’s great national icons, I am posting a blog each day throughout these days of mystery devoted to the painter’s life, art and legacy. The eighth instalment, A River Runs Tom, is an account…
Tom Thomson went missing on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park on July 8, 1917. His body was recovered on July 16, 1917. To commemorate the centenary of the death of one of Canada’s great national icons, I am posting a blog each day throughout these days of mystery devoted to the painter’s life, art and legacy. The seventh instalment, How Tom Thomson Found Me, is a personal account…
Tom Thomson went missing on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park on July 8, 1917. His body was recovered on July 16, 1917. To commemorate the centenary of the death of one of Canada’s great national icons, I am posting a blog each day throughout these days of mystery devoted to the painter’s life, art and legacy. The sixth instalment, Painting Into the Mystic: Searching for Tom,…
Tom Thomson went missing on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park on July 8, 1917. His body was recovered on July 16, 1917. To commemorate the centenary of the death of one of Canada’s great national icons, I am posting a blog each day throughout those days of mystery devoted to aspects of the painter’s life, art and legacy. The fourth instalment, Epistles from the Grave, is…
But ain’t life a brook Just when I get to feeling like a polished stone I get me a long drawn look It’s kind of a drag To find yourself alone — Ain’t Life a Brook by Ferron May you cast your fly…
Bill Staines has been my hero since 1977. He carries on where Woody left off — carrying on the tradition of stories and characters you wish you knew. —…
Tom Thomson went missing on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park on July 8, 1917. His body was recovered on July 16, 1917. To commemorate the centenary of the death of one of Canada’s great national icons, I am posting a blog each day throughout those days of mystery devoted to aspects of the painter’s life, art and legacy. The third instalment in the series is an…
Wesley Bates is one of my favourite Canadian artists. I’m fond of wood engravings as an artform and I think Bates is one of our most accomplished engravers. The painter/printmaker/book maker and I also share deep appreciation of a handful of writers including Canadians W.O. Mitchell, Timothy Findley and James Reaney, in addition to American agrarian poet/essayist/fiction writer Wendell Berry. Bates kickstarted his commercial career in…
Although he never played the sport, my dad loved baseball. He not only watched it religiously on TV, he coached a very good community industrial fastball team in our hometown of London, Ontario for many years. I was the team’s batboy for a few years while attending senior elementary school. I even got a team jacket commemorating a championship season. I wore it as proudly…
I was first impressed with Dave Clarke in the spring of 2001 when I saw him in a house concert hosted by Jack and Lori Cole. At the time Jack had founded Old Chestnuts Song Circle but had yet to become artistic director of Folk Night at the Registry, which continues to prosper after 11 seasons. Clarke was in town as backup guitarist for a…
Those who glance at a map of southwestern Ontario might conclude — erroneously as it turns out — that Waterloo Region neither hears nor heeds the call of the canoe. Situated equidistantly between Lake Huron and Lake Erie, the region appears landlocked. Take a closer look and a different topography emerges, as you follow the historic, heritage Grand River and trace its watershed boasting myriad…
The Registry Theatre’s fourth annual Roots Weekend on March 17 and 18 has a Celtic theme in keeping with St. Patrick’s Day. The weekend’s musical festivities boast a Celtic concert, debut concert featuring Lennie Gallant and a pair of workshops. Gallant is a common name on Prince Edward Island, but the musical prowess of Lennie Gallant is unmistakeable. The award-winning singer/songwriter has not performed in…
I knew of Tony McManus as one of the world’s premier acoustic, fingerstyle guitarists before he moved to Elora, the village that’s also home to Kevin Breit, another world renown guitarist. After interviewing McManus in advance of occasional area concerts, album releases and annual master guitar workshops conducted in his hometown, I discovered how nice the down-to-earth, transplanted Lowland Scots was as a person. I…
Wildlife art — love it or hate it. It’s black or white; there’s no grey on this paintbrush. The battle line is drawn in indelible ink — the high art pundits and connoisseurs on one side; the general public without specialized training on the other side. It’s an art form that’s evaluated and judged through a narrow lens based on how a commentator interprets familiar…
I’m fascinated by the rich culture of Newfoundland. I love its music, its literature (poetry and prose as well as drama) and its visual arts. I have yet to visit Canada’s easternmost province; however, I yearn to cast fur and feather at homebound Atlantic salmon, revered as the King of Fish, on one of its beautiful rivers. David French’s Salt-water moon, the third book —…
Alex Colville was one of the Canadian artists I most admired. His unique existential realism appealed to me because of the quality of literary narrative that underlies and informs his work. Whether or not the artist intended, I have never been able to spend time with a Colville drawing, painting or print without trying to piece together the story to which he gave expression through…
Over three decades as an arts reporter for the Waterloo Region Record I wrote more about Ken Danby than any other artist, with the possible exception of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven. I visited him at his renovated Armstrong’s Mill home/studio outside of Guelph multiple times. I also visited his wife Gillian on a couple of occasions after her husband’s premature death —…
As Canada stands in silence, with her collective head bowed in respect, gratitude, sorrow and remembrance of the fallen on this eleventh day of the eleventh month in 2016, we also bow our heads in remembrance of one of this country’s great artists. Leonard Cohen — who died November 7 in his 83rd year — embodied the heart and soul of Canada like few other artists,…
I joined KW Flyfishers in 2008, a year after I picked up a fly rod for the first time. Like the great Groucho Marx who famously mused, ‘I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member,’ I’m not by nature or temperament a joiner of clubs. Nonetheless, I take deep delight in this particular organization, having served as a…
With few exceptions, fly fishing has been an Old Boys’ Club. Not any more. Increasingly women are discovering the joys of what is variously referred to as a sport, a pastime, a recreation, a passion, an obsession or even a contemplation (with a nod to Sir Izaak). Before proceeding I’d like to touch on a few of the exceptions to the fly fishing rule. This…
Safe home, sweet light, no longer of this world On wings, safe and sound are you carried No longer casting shadows, no longer counting days You are love and you are loved always — Safe Home, Sweet Light If someone were to ask who’s my favourite male Canadian singer/songwriter, I would not be…
I last spoke to Don Ross four years ago when he made his One Night Only debut at the Registry Theatre. His return November 26 (a week after his 56th birthday) to Kitchener’s thriving performing arts venue constitutes his Second Night Only appearance. Prior to his inaugural Registry concert it had been a decade since the award-winning Canadian, steel-string, fingerstyle, acoustic guitar virtuoso/composer/songwriter/vocalist performed in the…
Where man is not, Nature is barren — William Blake Men dig tons of earth to find an ounce of gold All things change to fire and fire exhausted falls back into things — Heraclitus When I first came eye-to-eye with Edward Burtynsky’s monumental photographs in 2002 I was reminded of Heraclitus, that wise ancient who remains as urgently relevant today as he did in…
I was recently purging my electronic archives in honour of autumn cleaning when I came across the earliest personal essay I wrote celebrating my passion for fly fishing. I was still working as an arts reporter for the Waterloo Region Record at the time. Reading it after a decade evoked pleasing memories which I’d like to share. I’ve added some current reflections for context in…
Folk Night at the Registry launches its second decade of co-presentations between Old Chestnuts Song Circle and the Registry Theatre. The partnership has been one of the most fruitful for the live performance venue, located in the heart of downtown Kitchener. Program artistic director Jack Cole has booked acoustic artists from England and the U.S. in addition to Canada. A couple of concerts cast a…
The Registry Theatre is my favourite live performance venue in Waterloo Region. It has the inspired and affordable programming, the staff starting with program director Lawrence McNaught and the warmth, accessibility and intimacy to satisfy all my entertainment needs. The vibrant performing arts presenter located in the heart of downtown Kitchener has unveiled its playbill for its 16th season. For less than $250,000 annually, the Registry…
I went out to the hazel wood, Because a fire was in my head, And cut and peeled a hazel wand, And hooked a berry to a thread; And when white moths were on the wing, And moth-like stars were flickering out, I dropped the berry in a stream And caught a little silver trout. — excerpt from The Song of Wandering Aengus by W….
Fly anglers and writers — not to mention fly angling writers — are fascinated by the evocative relationship between music and rivers. I’m no exception. One of my favourite fly fishing writers, W.D. Wetherell, who is also an accomplished author of novels, short stories and non-angling essays, reflects on the music of rivers in a chapter titled Symphony in Vermont River, the first volume in…
Like most kids, I grew up associating September with new beginnings. From elementary through high school and from university through graduate school, the month was the threshold we crossed to a new year — with all the excitement and expectation that passage entails. As an arts reporter on daily newspapers for more than three decades, September marked the beginning of a bustling autumn of entertainment…
I don’t know why I write these lines It’s not like I could send you the letter It’s that I love you more after all this time It’s that I wish I’d shown you better — Night Drive First there was Night Drive the song. Now there’s Night Drive the book. Both celebrate the love of one brother for another brother. Garnet Rogers released the song…
STRATFORD — The late Robertson Davies once observed that Canada’s two greatest writers were Anton Chekhov and Henrik Ibsen because both reflected a Northern sensibility. Symbolically speaking Davies was right on the mark — or so I believe. How you interpret the Stratford Festival production of John Gabriel Borkman at the Tom Patterson Theatre determines the depth of your appreciation. It’s often stated that Ibsen’s…
With friends like this, who needs enemas? — as spoken by Beralde, brother of the hypochondriac Argan STRATFORD — This might come as a shock to those reared on Hollywood film and television, but the penis and pissing, not to mention the rectum and defecating, penetrated comedy long before Animal House and Family Guy. These were common targets of low fun in the…
Inch for inch, pound for pound, the gamest fish that swims — Angling pioneer Dr. James Henshall’s enduring observation about bass in his classic The Book of Black Bass, published in 1881 Mention the Grand River over a frosty pint in a local pub and most fly fishermen assume you’re talking about the stocked brown trout fishery in the tailwater between Shand Dam at Belwood…
Early on I decided that fishing would be my way of looking at the world. First it taught me to look at rivers. Lately it has been teaching me how to look at people, myself included. Fishing should be a ceremony that reaffirms our place in the natural world and helps us resist further estrangement from our origins. ….
We must never take words for granted. There’s no such thing as happy endings; something always comes after. — Peg Dunlop BLYTH — The last two of four world premieres at the Blyth Festival have sent me barrelling down memory lane in a literary roadster. If Truth Be Told and The Last Donnelly Standing take me back to when I was introduced to Canadian arts…
My fly angling buddy Dan Kennaley has a fishing dog. His nine-year-old golden retriever Maggie spends hours trying to catch minnows in the shallow waters in front of the cottage Dan shares with his family on a postcard lake in Muskoka. Exercising the Two Ps of Fly Fishing Maggie’s methodology is a model of patience and persistence. With the exception of her wagging tail, she…
I’ve known Fred Eaglesmith for more than three decades. I fondly remember the first time I interviewed the fiercely independent artist in the kitchen of a farmhouse between Brantford and Hamilton he was sharing with his wife at the time. He had a thick blond beard and was wearing a plaid work shirt and denim overalls. We sipped cold beers as our conversation ranged far and wide over the musical landscape. Born…
If you play hockey and don’t score any goals, you lose. If you play baseball and don’t hit any runs, you lose. If you play basketball and don’t shoot any baskets, you lose. If you play football and don’t score any touchdowns or field goals, you lose. However, if you fly fish and you don’t catch any fish, you still win. ‘What?’ the competitive sceptic…
CAMBRIDGE — I’ve been attending the Mill Race Festival of Traditional Folk Music for most of its 24 years. In fact, the free-admission, three-day celebration of folk music held at the height of summer is my favourite festival. It doesn’t attract the big crowds of the Kitchener Blues Festival; it does’t have the high profile of Guelph’s Hillside Festival. But founding artistic director Brad McEwen…