Fred Eaglesmith comes to town
Alternative country singer Fred Eaglesmith is one of a dying breed of a hard-living troubadours who still believe in the big powers of small town communities.
When his Travelling Steam Show pulls up outside the Nottawasaga Community Hall on Saturday, November 9, there will be no set designers, lighting crews or fancy refreshment stands. Eaglesmith, his band and crew all work together to tune their own guitars, set up their sound system, work the lights and put out the chairs.
“Do you know anyone else who does this?” he asks. “It’s how rock and roll was from 1958 to 1963, before big business affected it so much. Our show is just like it was… there is no business involved, no professionals. And at night, we just drive away…”
With an estimated 5,000 shows under his belt over a 40-year career, Eaglesmith, 56, is still passionate about bringing small music clubs and theatres, community and legion halls alive with songs about hard living and broken dreams – and the spirit of yesteryear.
Now, with the release of his 19th album, 6 Volts, produced by his ironically named record company, A Major Label, Eaglesmith is bringing his music to Duntroon Hall the old-fashioned way.
He first discovered the beauty of singing in community halls in small towns in this area about a decade ago. Since then, when he’s on the road in Canada, he prefers to play in community halls and legions.
Why? “Because it’s civilized!” he laughs. For Eaglesmith, these structures represent a sense of community that is in danger of disappearing. “People should go to their local halls to get married and have supper,” he says.
By playing in smaller, historical spaces, Eaglesmith says he is able to replicate the rock and roll shows that were happening when he was a child of six or seven, growing up in Caistor Centre, Ontario.
Never shy about speaking his mind, Eaglesmith blames municipal governments for destroying the community values these old halls represent.
“The story is the same all over the country. Townships amalgamate so that one mayor becomes the mayor of numerous towns instead of one,” he says. In Eaglesmith’s opinion, this is “baloney.”
He yearns for simpler times “when there was one mayor who used to be the mayor of one town, and if you didn’t like what he was doing, you’d go and punch him out!”
That may sound ungenerous, but Eaglesmith is anything but. At each show, he raises $250 to $300 for charity auctioning off pies. Last summer, pie auctions raised $10,000 for flood relief in Alberta. By taking about 10 minutes out of each performance he has raised money for such causes as Operation Smile, an organization that provides free surgeries for children around the world with cleft palates and facial deformities. This year alone, he’s raised $19,000 for the cause.
Eaglesmith also regularly raises money for “The music industry is a sin,” says Eaglesmith. “As I get older I want to do good things all the time.”
The Fred Eaglesmith Travelling Steam Show will be at Nottawasaga Community Hall in Duntroon on Saturday, November 9 at 8 pm. Advance tickets are $25 and available from Jim Campbell at 705-446-2506 and online at www.fredeaglesmith.com. Tickets will also be available at the door for $30.
