THIRTY YEARS FOR RIVER VALLEY BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL VOLUME 8 ISSUE 1 JANUARY 2014 www.bluegrasscanada.caA Blast From The Past (Instrument decal courtesy of Tom McCreight)Table of Contents BMAC Executive President’s Message1 Editor’s Message2 Thirty Years With Tony de Boer3 Winners! 35th CCBA9 Ken Palmer Passes13 My Favourite Things14 Music on the East Coast15 Music on the Prairies16 Wildwood Flower16 Press Release: Crooked Stovepipe17 Open Mike18 Tom Mason & Angela Blackier19 Maritime Note20 Music Biz21 Winter Concerts22 Festivals, Clubs, Bands, Radio23 Advertising Rates25 Help Us Help You26 PresidentDenis Chadbourn 705-776-7754 Vice President Dave Porter613-721-0535 SecretaryLeann Chadbourn TreasurerRolly Aucoin905-635-1818 Directors Gord Devries519-668-0418 Murray Hale705-472-2217 Wilson Moore506-634-2221 Jerry Murphy902-883-7189 Sue Malcom604-215-2760 Mike Kirley519-613-4975 Notice to Readers We apologize for the lateness of this issue. The changeover of editors, from Leann Chadbourn to Mike Kir- ley has been quite an adventure for Mike, having to take over the reins of an ongoing enterprise, as well as learning to use very complex publication software along the way. In any case, the first issue is complete and you are reading the results of his efforts. As well as bringing on a new editor, we have decided to employ a new delivery method for the magazine. From now on, and with your express permission, we will deliver the magazine by internet download from our secure server at www.bluegrasscanada.ca. This has a distinct advantage for you. You will be able to download the magazine in full colour, read it on screen, or print it on your own colour printer. For those of you who have not registered a valid email address in your account profile in our Membership Directory, you will continue to receive black and white magazines in the mail. As you know, Canada Post has this year increased rates for mail delivery by a factor of close to 40%. This severely impacts our ability to deliver magazines by mail. In addition, printing costs have increased since we started the magazine back in 2007 - but our membership costs have not changed. We hope this new initiative will prove to be popular and permit us to continue delivering a high quality magazine without the necessity of a rate increase. For those who wish to continue receiving the magazine by mail, please send an email to: membership@bluegrasscanada.ca with MAIL MY MAGAZINE in the subject line.11 Howdy friends, Is it just me, or has this winter been like those of old? Seems this January we’ve had either deepfreeze, or blizzard conditions. Despite the weath- er, I’ve been busy here on the farm in Rutherglen. Just getting an agricultural feed business up and running. In addition to my presidential BMAC duties, I am now running two businesses. Thus the reason for the tardy submission of this, my article. My apologies to Mike Kirley, the new editor in chief. This is his first publication, and the presi- dent was late. I was tempted to intentionally plant some gram- matical errors, to test his proof reading skills…but he’ll be busy enough with the unintentional ones. Welcome aboard Mike. Life ain’t all work here at the feed shop. I converted my garage into a man cave…er… office…I mean. I hang out there with my two kittens, Kissy and Gooch; they’re my mousers. And they don’t mind when I pull out my back-pack Martin and serenade them with some bluegrass. It’s either that or go outside into the cold…so they put up with me. Grandma always said…idle hands are play things of the devil… so I tend to play a lot. Besides, it’s very therapeutic to bask in the warm glow of the fire, and croon away all stress. It’s probably the closest thing I’ll ever get to a meditative state. Looking out my office door, you would laugh. My loading docks look suspiciously like a bluegrass stage. I cut the rustic 8x8 rough timbers from my back 40, The roof is metal and slopes from front to back. The design is not unintentional. With all this work, I really have no time to tour around any more, so I’m bringing the music to me. I can practically see the lawn chairs and hear the bluegrass every time I look at that stage..uhh… loading dock. Agriculture and bluegrass; could there be a more natural fit? It will also be the perfect opportunity to expose more people to bluegrass…to plant the seeds so to speak. Let them come and make up their own minds. Art is so subjective. What one person loves, another hates! My previous president’s message, alluded to the fact that Randy Bachman did bluegrass an injustice, in his attempt to por- tray same. Bluegrass must be experienced live, first hand. It is incumbent on all of us to keep bluegrass alive and well. I say present it, and let people make up their own minds. Not every- one will love it. But if they have an honest, first-hand experience, they can base their decision on the truth. One of BMAC’s primary objectives is to create more opportunities to see and hear the truth about bluegrass. Warm regards, Denis Chadbourn President’s Message2 And now a bit about me. I was raised on a farm near Lindsay, Ontario. I taught Music near Tottenham at St. James and Father F. X. O’ Reilly Catholic Schools. My wife Janice was the first JK teacher in the area. When the grandchildren started arriving, we decided to move to Cambridge, Ontario and help with daycare. We call it “Lovecare”. (Marlowe and Carys are playing checkers behind me as I type this.) Shortly after I arrived in Cambridge I met Glenn George. He invited me to be on the executive of The Wa- terloo Wellington Bluegrass Music Association. That was over four years ago, and I am still going every Tuesday night at 7pm-10pm for the jams at the Galt Legion. This first issue of 2014 is “The Awards” issue. We have lots of photos of smiling champions for you. Congratu- lations to all the winners at The Central Canadian Bluegrass Awards last November. Tony de Boer and his family organize the awards, and we have included an interview with Tony for you. This is his 30th year putting on “The River Val- ley Bluegrass Festival”. Kudos to Tony and his army of help- ers. It is a great festival. In conclusion, please inform me of any errors or omissions. I’m going to sing “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” with my grandchildren. mikekirley@gmail.com Editor’s Message Well, I’ve been checking out Pete Seeger vids on Youtube every night, and it is really bringing back memories of good times on the farm back in the sixties. I remember seeing his banjo book in the Universi- ty Library. It was the first time anyone had tabbed out Earl Scruggs licks in a published book. My sisters and I sang “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” together many times. We will miss you Pete. Here is a song Tony Trishka put on the Bluegrass List, which comes out of the Univer- sity of Kentucky: Some say that humankind won’t long endure But what makes them so doggone sure? I know that you who hear my singing Could make those freedom bells go ringing I know that you who hear my singing Could make those freedom bells go ringing And so keep on while we live Until we have no, no more to give And when these fingers can strum no longer Hand the old banjo to young ones stronger And when these fingers can strum no longer Hand the old banjo to young ones stronger From Quite Early Morning Words and music by Pete Seeger It’s been a busy month. Very steep learning curve to this Adobe Ensuite Software, but I am getting the hang of it. I wasn’t sure I could do it, but with Leann Chadbourn and Gord Devries as coaches things are progressing not too badly. A fond adieu to Leann as edi- tor of BMAC. She did a fine job at a time when the magazine was still taking shape. We cer- tainly wish her the best in her future endeavours and thank her for all those hours in front of the screen. Here is a shot of Leann taking a break from the computer: 3 “Hi Tony, it’s Mike Kirley.” “G’day sir.” “Cold up there?” “The thermometer only goes to -40 degrees Celsius and it’s been laying there all day.” “You at the park?” “No, I have a house at the other end of River Valley now. And Tes- sie and I have the Restaurant in town too.” “So who cooks for the bands, Tessie?” “No, Joe does that. Bucky Beaver. And now that we have the restau- rant, we send the bands over there as well.” “That’s pretty handy.” “Joe has cooked for years. Bucky Beaver Joe. Yeah, he works for the Convention Centre in Burlington. He’s the head chef there. And that’s a big place. All the politicians come there.” “What’s his full name?” “Joel Ballantyne.” “Okay. When I first met him he was playing the washboard at the jams by the light of the moon.” “Ha Ha! Yeah, he still does that.” “He does?” “Oh yeah, he jumps on the stage too, puts a dress on and just jumps up there.” “I like the beaver outfit, when he runs away from the kids with his costume stuffed full of candy falling out all over the place.” “Oh yeah, the kids just love him. The candy, yeah. Now he’s giving them instruments to play. He’s got this amazing race thing going now every festival. Yeah, the kids just love him.” “And he’s the soundman too.” “Well, he helps on stage.” “He’s a pretty handy guy to have around. So, you are thirty years this summer!” “Yes sir.!” “Thirty years, wow. I remember you getting that property. Uh…did you have that property a year before your first festival?” “Well actually I found the place in ’84. Okay?’ “Okay.” “Yeah. Actually I was doing a show with Lost and Found at Trout Creek in March. And what happened was, that Pat Menard and Blackstrap at that time, they had a jam session going at the Armories in North Bay in February. So I just took a tour up there and… kinda to show my face and stuff? I Thirty Years with Tony de Boer4 was there and I was sleeping in a motel one night and picked up the paper, the North Bay paper there, and there was a little…two line ad there, in the Classifieds about this piece of property?” “Yeah….” “And man…it just caught my eye. And I ripped it out and put it in my wallet. And when I went up to do the show in Trout Creek I phoned the guy, and uh… said, “I’d like to have a look at this property….you know? And uh… so, I left very early and met him at nine o’clock in the morning in Riv- er Valley, and I just walked down that hill and saw the bush on one side and the river on the other side and the light bulb just went off and I made him an offer right there on the spot.” “Okay.” “Yeah.” “And that’s how it all started.” “And that was back when the interest rates were about sixteen percent you know, and he agreed to give me an open deal at ten percent. That was nice too, you know?” “All right. And that’s probably paid for itself a few times over.” “Well. You keep doing things you know. I don’t know if I’ll ever get ahead there, but it’s fun tryin’.” “Well… I remember when you first started you had put a notice in Canadian Bluegrass Review that anyone who helped clear the trees, that you would give them a lifetime camping lot.” “Well that’s what was great, you know. So many people came to help. To this day, you know, the people that came to help from Trout Creek and around, to this day they still have the same campsite.” “Yeah…well I remember being tempted by that offer. I was going to drive all the way up there. Somehow I never got up there, but I felt badly that I didn’t, because I felt that it would have been a good deal.” “You know every May 24th there’s an open weekend. Free camping and uh…come and help us clean up, you know, the park in the Spring. We have some potlucks and jammin’ goin’ on. Oh, a mess of people come in… probably up to thirty campers come in, we just all do this and do that, pick shit up, clean shithous- es, build shithouses. You know, clean the washrooms, rake all the grass. But it’s all volunteers that do that. Gives them free camp- ing that weekend, and they have no charge for extra camping all summer.” “That’s a good deal, yeah. Now, let’s talk about the stage for a minute. Where did you get the idea for that stage?” “Oh it just boiled up in my head. You know the first year we went there,we didn’t have a stage of course then. And uh…the Mac- Donald brothers, you remember them, eh?” “Yep.” “John and all them. And their father Louie, had a hay wagon. He was in Callander, which is south of North Bay. And we were gonna do the festival and Louie said, “You can use my wagon.” The boys brought that up. It took them eight hours to get it there. Haulin’ that old wagon down the highway. Ha ha!” “Ha ha ha!” “That was our first stage. The following year we started building one. I built it like a big speaker, you know. The sound that comes out of it is pretty good.” “It’s awesome. I know. It blew me away when I first saw it. And the words River Valley Bluegrass Park right across the top of it in huge white letters. It’s just…like, you know, big!” “Yeah, I know. A local guy did that with a router.” “Okay.” “A local guy had a mill going. He gave me the logs too. The locals really got into it. The locals are great around here.” “Alright. So it’s a real community effort.” “Yeah.” “Now tell me about the well. Was there already water there?” “Well no. We got water from a spring. And the guy from the Health Department came in in the Spring and told us that fecal matter could get in that and we had to build a well. So I had to drill the well. And uh…that was a nine thousand dollar project. I had to go down 430 feet.” “Was that like a sand bit…or…?” “No. It was granite. I had to go 5 through hard granite.” “Oh no. Granite. Holy Jeez! Wow!” “Four hundred and thirty feet of it. They told me I had water at about a hundred and fifty, but it was a crack and not enough. So I had to keep going. Right now my pump sits down three hundred and fifty feet in that well. I have a nice reservoir, you know?” “Okay, well these are the things you gotta worry about when you are setting up for a lot of people I guess.” “And then there was Hydro. I had to put about three poles in there. That was a lot of money too.” “Yeah. So the hydro was run from the town?” “Well, it was on the road, okay?” “Okay, alright then.” “In order to get where I wanted to be it took three poles.” “So you have a train that comes through there too, right?” “Not any more.” “No, eh?” “It got cut off in the early nine- ties. The tracks are still there, and that’s one of the main Skidoo trails now.” “Okay, okay. Let’s talk about Bluegrass. The bands you’ve had there! You have had a lot of first generation Bluegrass singers there. I remember seeing Jim and Jesse there, Mac Wiseman, Del McCoury, Larry Sparks, Jimmy Martin…um….did Charley Waller ever play there?” “Oh yeah. He’s been here. James King too. We’ve had pretty near everybody here I think. The first year I did it I brought in Bob Paisley. He was the only American act. Then I brought in Mac Wiseman. They love Mac Wiseman. I’ve had him here three times now. So the second year I brought in Mac Wiseman and then Doyle Lawson to show them what Bluegrass was all about. I think I lost about ten thousand dollars that year. But the point got across.” “Yeah, well his lead singer, Rus- sell Moore, could get the ladies interested too.” “Yeah, the harmonies. Doyle is not the same now, though, as he was back then. Much more commercial now.” “So…did you ever have anything happen with those guys? Bus breakdowns or anything?” “Uh….there’s always general maintenance. We usually can get them fixed here. But two years ago Larry Gillis blew an engine in his bus this side of North Bay. So he had it towed back here to the park. And it took three months before his mechan- ic could come up and fix it.” “So who’s the me- chanic on the site? You?” Well, those old buses, we all had one, and we all had different ideas. And there’s a guy that attends our festival that owned a truck dealership. And man, that guy is ace. He helped fix Larry’s bus.” “Okay. So you still have your bus? The Bluegrass Gypsy?” “Yeah, my ol’ bus is still here at 6 the park. We don’t take it out anymore. Patrick uses it on his campsite.” “Okay. I remember that old bus sitting on the hill by the stage.” “Yeah, we put a lot of miles on her.” “Now, another thing that im- pressed me Tony, about the River Valley Festivals, is that you were always open to female perform- ers. I remember White Water Bluegrass there. I remember Emma Smith.” “Mike Stevens was an outlaw playing harmonica in White Water, but I stood behind him. I got a lot of complaints from the bluegrassers. But I kept using him, and Jim and Jesse picked him up and put him right on the Grand Old Opry!” “He was unbe- lievable. I remem- ber him doing “Ghostriders in the Sky”. What a spooky night-time song for that untamed bush in Northern Ontario! Perfect. The crowd sang yippee aye ayyy right along with it. I’ll never forget that, Tony.” “He’s still at it, you know.” “Yes I know. He’s blown a couple of lungs doing it too. But you know the first woman I ever picked with was at River Val- ley, Emma Smith. You remember her?” “Yeah, she was from Ohio.” “From Ohio. Okay. And she wrote and sang that song, “Don’t Ne- glect The Rose.” “Yep. Yep.” “And Larry Sparks went with that song and he’s still using that song, and so did Lynn Morris, I believe. “Yep.” “That was a good one.” “Emma is still going.” “Is she?” “Yeah, very small scale, like. Local stuff.” “So tell me, what year would she have been there? Nineties?” “Oh…that was eighties I think.” “The late eighties. Okay. ‘Cause I remember that really well. One light late pickin’ with her and some others on the “island”. She picked up the stand up bass. She started playing the bass.” “Her friend played the bass…um… Sally. She was originally from here and moved to Ohio. She’s the one who brought Emma up. She was a big fan.” “It was a white bass wasn’t it?? “Yeah, right. She had a white bass.” “I’m trying to think of some of the others. Jeanette Williams!” “Yeah, Jeanette was up. And she’s coming back up this year.” “Is she?” “Yeah. I got Lorraine Jordan coming in this year too and uh.. Steve Dilling maybe. He left 3rd Tyme Out, eh? And he’s got a group called Sideline, with all-star pickers like Darrell Webb, the lead singer. Justen Haynes on fiddle, Skip Cherryholmes. Oh yeah. Bunch of all-star pickers! I got- ta talk to them tomorrow. See if I can get them up here.” “So, how do you keep track of these American bands Tony?” “ ‘Cause I know them Mike. I went down to SPGMA for so many years. And IBMA too. And if you hire a band they like you anyway, right? So we’re pushin’ to contact them tomor- row. I went to SPGMA for about 20 years. Then I hung around IBMA for about 20 years. You get to know them. And I was on the Board of Directors for IBMA for years and years. The first “foreigner” to ever be elect- ed on there.” “ They called you a “Colonel” or something didn’t they?” “Well actually it’s a plaque. I got Next >