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Idle Canadian
Many of you may know me as a comedian/satirist from my work
on CBC Radio over the past ten years. While I admit a fondness
for parody and satire—and an addiction to humor—my first love
has always been guitar and ‘socially conscious’ songs.
Songwriters like Bruce Cockburn and Joni Mitchell and more
recently Michael Franti. My all-time favorite musicians are
Steely Dan thanks to their genre-bending grooves, clever lyrics
and great guitar solos and I am simply in awe of Frank Zappa.
Not surprisingly, my distaste for most popular music has risen
steadily since my teens when, as the singer in the band, I had
to write out and learn the lyrics to the latest top 40 songs and
discovered that they were mostly about 2 things; “I’m so
great/in love” or “I’m so miserable”. I spent years writing
about how great I was and/or how miserable I could be! What a
laugh!! Who cares! That’s why I got into comedy.
While most people would agree that the world is in some fairly
serious trouble as a result of human activity, there seems to be
a lack of discussion on the matter in popular music. That is not
to say there aren’t a whole slew of artists out there working
for social change, it’s just that they are marginalized by the
mainstream media where the ‘I’m so great/miserable’ song still
rules. Try and find a song about environmentalism or
over-consumption on the radio and you’ll see what I mean.
Without getting too conspiracy theory geek on you, I would
suggest that this may have something to do with the fact that
the media is OWNED BY THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE THE MOST TO LOSE FROM
SOCIAL CHANGE. This is precisely the reason the CBC is under
attack. It is one of the only remaining voices for the people.
It still speaks for the downsized, the disenfranchised, the
farmer, the single mom in Saskatoon who feels connected to
Canada through her radio, and the protest songwriter in
Courtenay. To lose it is to lose the common perspective. All you
have left then is the corporate point of view. None of us want
corporations to decide what is in our best interest. Not if you
have half a brain.
By their very nature they are incapable of it.
I believe Corporate Music is just as incapable of choosing the
‘best music’ for you to enjoy. They have a very large vested
interest in the status quo. (This is why you hear endless
repeats and rehashings by Elton and Rod and the like. They want
you to linger in some nostalgic stupor of yesteryear, too
discouraged to DO ANYTHING ABOUT THE FUTURE.) They have the most
to lose…mostly your money in their pockets!
There is a lot of really great unknown music out there and
thanks to the Internet, the Big Companies no longer have a
monopoly on music distribution and are finding it increasingly
difficult to control what we can choose to listen to.
This is very good news for us! Especially me as this new CD
doesn’t have a hope in hell of getting commercial airplay.
Don’t get me wrong; I recorded these songs for purely selfish
reasons but, I suspect, they will prove a bit too political for
the corporate programmers. While there is a decidedly country
roots feel to some of the songs, I am almost positive the CD
will be completely ignored by country radio. In addition, there
are several cuts with screaming electric guitar solos which,
something tells me, will be passed over by the Rock stations as
my hair is a bit fuddy-duddy and I am 43 with a gut. I also
anticipate little or no airplay on Hip-Hop radio. No real
surprise there.
The point is that I am counting on you, Dear Reader, to spread
the word should you enjoy these songs because no one is likely
to hear them for the first time on the radio. (Unless they
listen to CKUA or CBC, that is!) Hey, even if you didn’t enjoy
the CD…maybe you have some friends that would? Thank you in
advance for this consideration.
I am nothing without you. “…that sounds like a Rod Stewart
song…”
Here is a little bit about each song on Idle Canadian:
Buy Now!
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