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Mulligan Stew July 27th LIVE At Calgary Folk Fest!!
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This Saturday I am coming to you LIVE from the Calgary Folk Festival!
Stop by and say Hi if you are there or please listen on www.ckua.com at 5-7 Saturday…
http://www.calgaryfolkfest.com/
GUESTS INCLUDE
Mary Chapin Carpenter
Blackie and the Rodeo Kings
Leroy Stagger
Joe Nolan
Richard Flohill
Dan Mangan
Whitehorse
100 mile
Mark Berube
And possibly Serena Ryder.
Times…
1. Whitehorse 5.00
2. Mary Chapin Carpenter 5.10
3. Leeroy Stagger 5.20
4. Mark Berube 5.30
5. Dan Mangan 5.40
6. Joe Nolan 6.00
7. 100 Mile House 6.15
8. Blackie (all 3 guys) 6.30
9. Richard Flohil 6.45
Mulligan Stew July 21st
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Saturday’s mulligan stew has several guests.
Two we expected…
Amy Hill from Interstellar Rodeo…she fills us in on who’s playing and how next weekend works.
One of the bands headlining is Blue Rodeo. Jim Cuddy describes the ever wild summer tours they do. Plus he’s also touring as The Jim Cuddy Band, which is how he’ll play at Edmonton Folk Fest this year.
And the special “what do we have here” guest is Edmontons Michael Rault.
He brings with his local dates and a new Release called Whirlpool!!
We’ll play a Staple Singers cover possibly for the first time anywhere.
Did I tell you the music playlist is posted and would go well with BBQ and a big honkin RED.
Enjoy
-TDM
Artist |
Song |
Album |
Lyle Lovett | If I had a Boat (live) | Live in texas |
Joan Osborne | St Teresa | Relish |
Sting | Driven to tears (live) | Bring on the Night |
Mofro | How Jr got his head put out (live) | Bonnaroo 2 |
Steve Cropper (L. Williams) | When I get like this | Dedicated |
Johnny Rivers | Memphis Tenn (live) | Live at Whiskey a Go Go |
Smokey Robinson/Miracles | You’ve really got a hold on me | The Anthology |
Martha Reeves/Vandellas | Dancing in the Streets | Greatest Hits |
Marvin Gaye | Too busy thinking bout my baby | 20th Century Masters |
Los Lobos (Mavis Staples) | Someday | The Ride |
Jim Cuddy | Interview | |
Blue Rodeo | Clearer View | Palace of Gold |
Matt Anderson | Devils Bride (live) | Live at Phoenix Theatre |
Colin James | I’m losing you | Take it from the Top |
ZZ Top | I gotsta get Paid | Single |
Mary Chapin Carpenter | We travelled so far | The Age of Miracles |
Leroy Stagger | Night time talks to me | Radiant land |
The Beatles | Eleanor Rigby | One |
Michael Rault | Interview | |
Michael Rault | Two Wings | Whirlpool |
U2 | Desire | 18 singles |
Amy Hill | Interstellar Rodeo Interview | |
Blue Rodeo | Try | Outskirts |
Randy Newman | Sail Away | Sail Away |
Lyle Lovett | Ain’t it Something | I love everybody |
Mulligan Stew July 14th
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[soundcloud id=’52545790′]
His book is called True North.
To read about Bernie’s life is to read about the birth of Canada’s music industry.
The first years of careers that are still being played out (Joni Mitchell, Neil Young)
Also, the re-shaping of Canada’s radio stations. It was Bernie who helped to shape Canadian Content, at a time when radio had no interest in supporting our own music.
He also recorded, managed and directed the careers of Bruce Cockburn, Murray McLachlan, Carole Pope, Barney Bentall, Dan Hill, Steven Fearing, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings and many more.
His record label was also called True North..which spoke volumes about a guy so talented that he could have stayed in New York and worked with Albert Grossman, the Manager of Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin etc. But he came home to Toronto and made us a better country.
Hour Two of Mulligan Stew this Saturday we feature an interview with a great storyteller Bernie Finklestein.
Artist |
Song |
Album |
Ray Davies / Bruce Springsteen | Better things | See my friends |
Citizen cope | Awe | Every waking moment |
Monkeyjunk | Tiger in your tank | Tiger in your tank |
Chris Isaak | Baby did a bad bad thing | Best of |
Paul McCartney | Smile away | Ram |
Blackie/Exene Cervenko | Made of Love | Kings and Queens |
Poncho Sanchez/Ray Charles | May Ann | Paste #6 |
Jimmy Vaughn | Just a little bit | Plays Blues, ballads and favourites |
Randy Newman | Sail Away | Live in London |
Clapton/Marsalis | Joe Turner’s Blues | Play the Blues |
Hour Two | ||
Bernie | Finklestein | Special |
Little Richard | Tutti Fruitti | Best of |
Neil Young | On the Way Home | Collection |
Bruce Cockburn | Rocket Launcher | Waiting for a Miracle |
Murray McLachlan | Pancho’s Lament | Song from the street |
Murray Mclachlan | Little Dreams | Best of |
Bruce Cockburn | How I spent my Fall Vacation | Humans |
Stones | When you’re gone | Some Girls (re-issue) |
Lyle Lovett | What do you do | Live in Texas |
Lou Reed | Walk on the wild Side | Collections |
Marvin Gaye | How sweet it is | 20th Century Masters |
Mulligan Stew July 7th
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Artist |
Song |
Album |
Little Feat | Mellow down Easy | Rooster Rag |
Los Lobos | Neighbourhood | El Cancionero |
Dave Mathews band | Mercy | Away from the World |
John Mellencamp | A brand new song | Life. Death. Love and Freedom |
Alejandro Escovedo | Bottom of the World | Big Station |
The Little Willies | Fist City | For the good times |
Parachute Club | Rise Up | Edmonton FF Sampler |
Stones | So Lonely | Some girls (reissue) |
Little Feat | Just a fever | Rooster Rag |
Stones | Keep up Blues | Some girls |
Joe Walsh | Funk 50 | Analog Man |
Leroy Stagger | Dirty Windshields | Radiant Land |
Sir Douglas Quintet | Wasted Days | Mendocino |
Jon Cleary | Everything i do – Funky | Occapella |
Hour Two | ||
Kinks | Lola (live) | To the Bone |
Ben Harper | Sexual healing (live) | Live from Mars |
Kd lang | Waters Edge | Sing it Loud |
Fera | I can handle anything | Advance single |
Elvis Costello/Attractions | Watching the Detectives (live) | Return of Special Spinning Songboard |
Blackie.Rodeo Kings/Lucinda W | If I cant have you | Kings and Queens |
Lowell George | Easy Money | Thanks, Ill eat it here |
Bob Dylan | Obviously 5 Believers | Blonde on Blonde |
Little Richard | Get Rick Quick | That’s all Right |
Little Richard | Money Honey | Mojo |
Zappa | Cheap Thrills | Cheap Thrills |
Van Morrison | I just want to make (live) | Too late to stop now |
Mulligan Stew June 29th
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Because its my birthday Saturday and Canada’s Sunday and the USA’s on July 4th I got in the party mood.
Aretha Franklin starts with a gospel rave up at the Fillmore
The Band
The Hip
Blackie and the Rodeo Kings
Eddie Vedder
Dylan
J Geils Band – Live – 2 cooking tracks
Gotye
Thomas Dybdahl
Mathew Good
Avett Brothers – who will be guesting on the show next week
Chris Isaak
Bob Marley
The Stones
James Morrison
Flo and The machine
Janiva Magness
Michael Franti
Albert King
Wynton Marsalis and Eric Clapton
Civil Wars
CCR
Not a lot of talking – just a lot of rocking.
Have a great weekend..and turn it UP
Artist |
Song |
Album |
Aretha Franklin | Spirit in the Dark | Live at the Fillmore |
Wynton Marsalis/Clapton | Forty Four | Play the Blues |
The Band | Ain’t got no Home | Greatest Hits |
Blackie/Rodeo Kings | How come you treat me so bad | Kings and queens |
Janiva Magness | There it is | Stronger for it |
Florence and the machine | Shake it out | MTV Unplugged |
Civil Wars | Billy Jean | Live at Amoeba |
Eddie Vedder | Dream a little dream | Ukulele Songs |
Bob Dylan | Chimes of Freedom | Chimes of Freedom |
Michael Franti | Sub Homesick blues | Chimes of Freedom |
Hour Two | ||
CCR | Run thru the Jungle | Cosmo’s Factory |
J Geils Band | Cruising for a Love | Live – Full House |
J Geils band | Looking for a Love | Live – Full House |
Gotye | Smoke and Mirrors | Making Mirrors |
Chris Isaac | Great balls of fire | Beyond the Sun |
Thomas Dybdahl | B A Part | Songs |
Bob Marley | Is this Love? | Marley soundtrack |
Mathew Good | Zero Orchestra | Lights of endangered species |
Stones | Honky Tonk Women | Live Licks |
Albert King | That’s Alright | Hail to the King |
James Morrison | Person I should have been | The Awakening |
Avett Bros | Do you love him | Live Vol 2 |
Blackie /Kings | Old Slew foot | Let’s Frolic Again |
Neil Young | Helpless | Unplugged |
Mulligan Stew June 23rd
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Hello all:
Saturdays guest is Liam Titcomb.
I spent a lifetime hanging out with and travelling the roads with his father Brent..many MANY years ago, when he was a member of 3’s a Crowd.
Liam has been signed to Nettwerk Records and has just released a four song EP called Love Don’t Let Me Down.
Liam seems to have learned the art of songwriting and performing very well..because these four songs appear to be just the tip of the iceberg.
Thus, we’re pleased to welcome Liam back to CKUA in our second hour.
Artist |
Song |
Album |
Little Feat | Get up Stand up (LIVE) | Live |
Bonnie Raitt | Right down the line | Slipstream |
John Mayer | Queen of California | Born and Raised |
Chuck Leavell | Boots and Shoes | Back to the Woods |
The Wood Bros | Twisted | Loaded |
The Who | Summertime Blues (very live) | Live at Leeds |
CSN and Young | Deja Vu (live) | Bridge School Vol 2 |
Robert Randolf | Memphis Beat | We walk this road |
Chris Isaak | Trying to get to you | Beyond the Sun |
Michael Rault | Let me go out | Ma- Me-O |
JJ Cale – Clapton | Danger | Escondido |
Liam Titcomb | Love don’t let me down | EP..love don’t let me down |
Liam Titcomb | Interview | |
Liam Titcomb | Map of me | Love don’t let me down |
Delbert McClinton | Maybe someday baby (live) | Live from Austin |
Bruce Springsteen | Shackled and Drawn | Wrecking Ball |
Annie Lennox | Waiting in Vain | Medusa |
Sam Cooke | Lil Red Rooster | Night Beat |
Ray Charles | I got news for you | Genus+Soul=Jazz |
Lyle Lovett | White Boy lost in the Blues | Release me |
Black Keys | Hold me in your arms | Thickfreakness |
John Lee Hooker | Mr Lucky | Mr Lucky |
Marvin Gaye | Pride and Joy | Best of |
Leonard Cohen | Closing Time (live) | Songs from the road |
Mulligan Stew June 16th
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We are slowly updating , inputting and reconciling our archives…please check back as we re-build our database of past playlists
This week on Mulligan Stew:
Colin James has worn many hats during his long and storied career. When Colin first hit the scene a quarter century ago, he became an instant rock guitar hero, mentored by the legendary Stevie Ray Vaughan. Since then, this iconic Canadian has topped the charts as a pop vocalist, recorded an acclaimed blues album and led the swing revival with his Little Big Band, which he both fronted and produced. He has performed for the Queen, sold multi-platinum many times over and continues to sell out shows coast to coast. Along the way, he’s written memorable hit songs and given us distinctive covers of timeless classics with his newest album teasing that the best is still yet to come.
This six-time Juno Award winner has come full circle with his latest album, aptly titled Fifteen. On the verge of 25 years since the release of his debut, this is Colin’s 15th release and it takes this Saskatchewan artist back to his full-blooded rock roots.
Colin James talks with host Terry David Mulligan about working on Fifteen with Ron Sexsmith, Tom Wilson, and Alan Doyle on the next Mulligan Stew, Saturday, June 16 at 7pm.
Artist |
Song |
Album |
Trombone Shorty | Orleans and Claiborne | Orleans and Claiborne |
The Meters | Cissy Strut | On the good foot |
Dion | Ruby Baby | The road Im on |
The Band | Look Out Cleveland | The Band |
Fleetwood Mac | Lemon Squeeze (live) | Shrine 69 |
Eric Clapton | Cant find my way back home | Live in the 70’s |
Police | Don’t stand so close | Every breath you take |
Bonnie Raitt | Used to rule the world | Slipstream |
Brian Dunn | Interview | |
Brian Dunn | Tv’s and radios | Tv’s and radios |
Neil Young | Get a job | Americana |
Serena Ryder | All for love | iTunes in Montreal |
Chuck Leavell | Wish me well | Back to the Woods |
Colin James | Interview | |
Colin James | Finally wrote a song for you | Fifteen |
Alan Doyle | Testify | Boy on Bridge |
Colin James | Sweets gone sour | Fifteen |
Colin James | Oh Well | Fifteen |
Colin James | No time to get there | Fifteen |
Joan Osborne | Shake your hips | Bring it on home |
Rory Block | Steady Freddy | Shake em on down |
Jon Cleary | Occapella | Occapella |
Spencer Davis | Gimme some lovin | Best of Steve Winwood |
Beatles | Lady Madonna | #1’s |
Tower of Power | I thank you | 40th Anniversary |
Righteous Bros | My Babe | ReUnion |
Memphis town | Back to the Woods |
Today's North Shore News – apparently I'm Not dead yet!!
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http://www.nsnews.com/
TERRY DAVID MULLIGAN IS NOT DEAD.
“Some people actually have the gall to say, ‘Hey whatever happened to you?'” the DJ vents. “Someone actually said, ‘I thought you died.'”
The actor, interviewer, author, former Mountie, and advocate for the free flow of wine across Canada is decidedly vital for someone who downed drinks with Janis Joplin in the 1960s and endured the relentless PR machine of glam rock giants Kiss in the 1970s.
Mulligan, 69, was recently named Broadcaster of the Year by the British Columbia Association of Broadcasters.
Speaking over the phone, the North Vancouver resident seems tireless as he recaps his colourful career while prepping the next instalment of his rock radio show, Mulligan Stew.
“I’m going to be editing and working while I’m talking to you if that’s OK,” he says, speaking with a swiftness that has not slowed in nearly 50 years on the air. “If I can’t do both I’ll admit defeat.”
While the whirring of audiotape sounds in the background, Mulligan tears into Canada’s liquor control board, whom he dubs: “True, bureaucratic bullies.”
Protesting a 1928 law that restricts the transportation of wine across provincial borders, Mulligan, the co-host of wine-swilling travel TV show Hollywood and Vines decided he would risk arrest to call attention to what he sees as an obsolete and unfair rule.
“I was just so pissed off,” he says. “The liquor control boards love to hit the wineries over the head with the threat of charging them in a court of law because they’re shipping wines from B.C. to Alberta.”
Heading from B.C. to the Banff food and wine festival earlier this summer, Mulligan hit the road as a bootlegger with thunder as his engine and chardonnay as his load.
“I sent two registered letters to the liquor control boards in Victoria and Edmonton . . . . and said this is what I’m doing and this is why I’m doing it, and if you have charges, go ahead,” he says. “The media showed up, and God bless ’em, they told the story.”
In Ottawa, the senate is currently considering passing a bill that would do away with the regulation and allow wine to be shipped across provincial boundaries, but Mulligan has not relaxed on the issue.
“Some of the provinces are going to play hardball because they’ve had their hand in our pockets for a long time and they’ve gotten very used to taking money from us and they’re not going to give up this pipeline easily,” Mulligan says, pausing. “Some of them are just going to be dorks.”
Growing up in the section of North Vancouver known as Skunk Hollow in the 1940s and ’50s, Mulligan has been dealing with bullies and dodging gangs since rock ‘n’ roll was called race music.
The son of a game warden, Mulligan found his father’s livelihood often put him in conflict with his schoolmates.
“My father was busting the same kids that I was going to school with . . . . they were carrying guns or BB guns,” he recalls. “I’d know when one of them got busted because they’d punch my lights out at school or pin me into a corner: ‘Your old man took my gun, man. I want it back,'” he says, imitating the schoolyard snarl.
Mulligan says he could sometimes promise his way out of danger, but other times, the future 21 Jumpstreet guest star resorted to more drastic moves.
“On occasion, when I thought I was seriously in trouble, I would take that BB gun and I would return it to its owner and my father, thankfully, never missed it,” he says.
Living near the intersection of Fell Avenue and 17th Street, Mulligan found respite from disgruntled firearms enthusiasts in his father’s collection of jazz records.
But as Red Robinson brought rock ‘n’ roll to Vancouver’s airwaves, the Mulligan family headed for the Interior.
“When I got to Kamloops, the only time there was rock ‘n’ roll on the radio was 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
When it was daylight out, and kids wouldn’t riot. That was the thinking then,” Mulligan explains.
But while Robinson was out of reach, another DJ, one even farther away, was within earshot, depending on the weather.
“If I took the cover off my radio and lay my alarm clock on a certain wire, it became the aerial and I could hear Wolfman Jack. It was fantastic,” Mulligan says, recalling the raspy-voiced disc jockey. “I had never heard anybody like that, and I’d never heard anybody play R&B and blues on the radio.”
After coming of age in Kamloops, Mulligan decided he needed to get out of Kamloops and promptly joined the RCMP.
In his autobiography Mulligan Stew: My Life. . . So Far, Mulligan writes about hearing Love Me Do by the Beatles for the first time while riding around Red Deer, Alberta in his police cruiser.
“The music had an innocence and a joy that brought such happiness to people. I can’t remember when that has happened since,” he writes.
He also writes about volunteering to stakeout a group of hookers who were working right next to a radio station.
The station was a converted two-storey house, and once inside Mulligan received a crash course in radio from DJ Hal Weaver.
Watching the DJ spin Beatles 45s on his finger and kick his chair like Jerry Lee Lewis convinced Mulligan he wanted to be on the air.
“Hal Weaver became my Wolfman Jack,” he says.
He soon left the police force, but when asked if the experience stayed with him, Mulligan replies emphatically.
“Oh God yes. Absolutely, totally,” he says, crediting the experience for instilling his strong work ethic.
Mulligan’s decision to leave the RCMP was cemented during a trip to Banff in the summer of 1964.
“I came across and spent time with all of the free spirits who were hitchhiking across Canada in that summer,” he recalls of the burgeoning hippie movement of the 1960s.
“On my way back from Banff to Red Deer I thought, ‘Who are you? Are you a Mountie or are you a free spirit?” he recounts. “That’s when I decided to leave the force.”
Mulligan overflows with enthusiasm when asked about the records he played during his first stretch on the air, listing tracks by The Kinks, The Who, and the long version of “House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals.
“Every day brought a new group and a new single that killed, just killed,” he says.
But while he still plays some of those tunes, Mulligan is careful not to neglect the present, a lesson he may have learned when he asked Jimi Hendrix about reviving the blues.
“It’s no revival, kid, because why go back into the past?” Hendrix replies in the 1968 interview.
Now blending groups like folk band Trampled by Turtles and Winnipeg singer/ songwriter Del Barber into his playlist, Mulligan seems to have retained Hendrix’s advice.
“The trap I don’t want to get involved in is just re-living my life through music, because there’s some really fine music being made today,” Mulligan says. “The problem is that Canadian radio is so lame that most of it goes un-played, which is why I ended up at CKUA in Alberta for the last 16 years because they embrace new music, they celebrate it, they play Canadian music without making any apologies, and I finally found my musical home.
I found the same station I heard in my head.”
Still, Mulligan has a particular fondness for many rock stars of the 1960s.
“Janis Joplin,” he answers when asked about his favourite interviews. “You had to drink with Janis in order to get the interview, and she would drink me under the table and would laugh me silly because I couldn’t keep up with her. . . .
There was no bullshit. She was just a girl from Port Arthur, Texas, and played no games, hadn’t been micro-managed, hadn’t been taken through polishing school like the Motown acts. It was like I was talking to my sister.”
Conversely, one of his most disappointing interviews was the leather-clad frontman for The Doors.
“Jim Morrison was totally bizarre,” Mulligan says. “He talked in tongues, these sort of half-sentences and bits and pieces of poetry and really never found out much about him at all. So much so that I don’t think I ever ran the interview.”
He had a different kind of disappointment when trying to talk with the members of Kiss.
“They were on their own planet, and they were going to say what they wanted to say no matter what question you asked them.”
Much like his father’s profession had endangered him, Mulligan’s four children were affected by his career, especially when he started playing music on TV.
“When they were going to school and I was doing Muchmusic . . . . they got smacked around by kids at school saying, ‘Your old man won’t play any heavy metal,'” he says, imitating that familiar schoolyard snarl.
“They kind of took it out on me in their own way,” Mulligan says.
The reaction from his children ranged from indifference to pawning his CDs, according to Mulligan, who laughs at the larceny.
“I’d go to play a CD, and there’s no CD in the thing. I’m about two minutes away from actually going on air and I have no music and so I’ve had to apologize on occasion saying, ‘I’m sorry, but it’s been stolen, and you know by who.'”
But while his sons converted music to beer money, his daughter started taking an interest in her father’s work.
Kate Mulligan credited her father’s musical taste and counsel for her own transformation in a piece she wrote for The Tyee called Growing Up Mulligan.
“My dad gave me my first record player. It was fully restored into an aged brown leather suitcase, with speakers on the side, making it portable and incredibly unique,” she writes.
Asked what’s next in his career, Mulligan is quick with an answer.
“Retirement,” he says. “Well, my form of retirement.”
While audiotape continues to whir in the background, Mulligan reflects on the criticism he’s absorbed, as well as that one guy who thought he was dead.
“You have to be prepared for almost anything whenever you leave the house,” he says. “If you wait for the praise or the damnation to show up, you’re not really living your life. You have to move on and just live your life, simple as that. I mean, you only get one shot. How pissed off would you be at the end of your life if you thought, ‘Well, I lived my life according to somebody else’s views of who I should be?'”
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Read more: http://www.nsnews.com/entertainment/Vintage+stuff/6786708/story.html#ixzz1xseaosS3
Bryan Adams defined by drive
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http://www.theprovince.com/entertainment/Bryan+Adams+defined+drive/6777871/story.html
Bryan Adams’ first cross Canadian tour in 20 years: 20 shows in 20 cities. • Rogers Arena • June 16, 8 p.m.
Photograph by: John Mahoney , THE GAZETTE
His nearly four decades in the entertainment industry are a study in how to do it right.
The Lynn Valley lad was just 15 years old when he joined Vancouver’s glitter rocking Sweeney Todd replacing departed vocalist Nick Gilder. With the single “Roxy Roller” ruling Canada, the band was a hot ticket. Filling in for the talented, more experienced Gilder couldn’t have been easy. Andrew Molloy of Victoria rockers Budokan recalls the young singer owning the frontman’s role.
“The first concert I ever attended was Trooper with Sweeney Todd opening in Victoria in fall 1977,” says Molloy. “If Wishes Were Horses had just been released with Adams singing on it and the band opened with the epic title tune. He came out in a top hat, long shag cut and was awesome. It set me on the course I continue to follow and its funny that chapter has been airbrushed out of his history and I don’t understand why.”
Perhaps the budding singer/songwriter was thinking ahead to what would follow the short glam explosion, anticipating the move back to jeans, T-shirt and leather jacket power rock. He may have wanted to tip the top hat to the past as he and writing partner, and Prism drummer, Jim Vallance set to making history. Three years after that concert, his solo debut and single “Let Me Take You Dancing” arrived to favourable response. The follow-up album, You Want It You Got It was certified gold in Canada. Broadcaster Terry David Mulligan was impressed by the Sweeney Todd-era artist, awed by what followed.
“You could tell, without ever even seeing him on stage, that he was going to do exactly what he wanted because he was so driven,” says Mulligan. “I began to look for that kind of drive in other artists because he wore it like a badge; determined not to be denied. When “Straight From the Heart” hist Top 10 in the U.S., I was in San Francisco and thought “holy spit, how about that.” By the time I got back to Vancouver in ‘84 it was his town to rock.”
That song and title track to his 1983 third album, Cuts Like A Knife, establilshed Adams as an international act. The writing with Vallance was honing in on exactly the singer’s best qualities — that gravelly voice, big arena choruses and lyrical directness — delivering solid song after song. Cuts Like a Knife went triple platinum (300,000) in Canada and platinum (1,000,000) in the U.S. Hamilton, ON., musician and producer Colin Cripps (Crash Vegas, Junkhouse) doesn’t mince words Adams’ influence on his career.
“30 years ago I moved to Vancouver to get a music career going largely because of Bryan since it was where he got started so I figured it might help me,” says Cripps. “After some months of getting nowhere, realizing how much harder it really was to get noticed no matter where you were, I moved back east feeling somewhat defeated. I could never have imagined that 20 years later we would become friends and work together.”
In 1984, Reckless sealed the deal. Huge in North America, Europe and Asia, it lead to Grammy nominations, MTV awards a string of JUNOs and sold out tours. Into the Fire (1987) didn’t match Reckless but it’s rare to see any act pull off such a coup in succession. There were still two top 10 international hits on the album, “Hearts On Fire” and “Heat of the Night.” The tide was beginning to change towards dance-pop sounds that weren’t his forte. From glam-mer to rocker to romantic was next. “Everything I Do (I Do It For You)” from 1991s Waking Up The Neighbours appeared in the film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and was his second Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit. In England, it spent a record 16 consecutive weeks at that position in the singles charts. A Grammy Award for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television followed. With ballads comes bad-mouthing and it isn’t hard to find people who weren’t loving the love songs. Veteran hardcore punk Joey Keithley of D.O.A. fame didn’t care.
“You know Randy Rampage (bass) used to jam with him when they both were kids in North Van,” says Keithley. “But Terry Jacks and Dale Weiss of Track Records got us and Bryan Adams together for a two night stand at the 86th Street Cabaret to raise funds and awareness about all the pollution mills were dumping in the ocean. It went great and I wish I had footage of Adams and I trading lines in a duet of “Stand By Me” on night two. He was really a regular guy.”
Perhaps that regular joe status is what allowed Adams to get up close and personal with supermodels and celebrities pursuing his passion for photography in the nineties with books Made In Canada (1999), Haven (2000) and American Women (2005). As his musical career motored on overseas, it had hit legacy status at home with those early hits still in heavy rotation but newer material getting incresingly less attention. Jack FM assistant programmer Terry Chan says that doesn’t mean he doesn’t matter. Adams remains relevant with works such as 2005s “Don’t Give Up” with electro-dance duo Chicane and his sold out acoustic tour and live album Bare Bones (2011).
“It’s all about the songs and songs such as “Summer of ‘69” are as relevant to listeners today as when it came out almost 30 years ago,” says Chan. “He also has maintained this nice guy image for all that time which, let’s be honest, not everyone has. My last point, most important, is that when he plays live whether it’s solo acoustic or with his band they just kill it. Even at age 50-plus, he’s stood the test of time.”
Live Nation Canada president Paul Haagenson says that the new cross-country tour will not only leave longtime fans smiling but likely win Adams some new ones. This tour is the exact opposite of the acoustic one.
“Lots of artists when they scale down like that solo acoustic tour give the impression that they won’t be scaling up again,” says Haagenson. “In his case, he’s doing 20 cities with the band, selling out everywhere with a bigger and better production from his usually modest one. It gives him more scope and grandeur than previously but it’s really the fact that the material, the performances and the energy are as phenomenal as they’ve ever been.”
Haagenson echoes Mulligan’s estimation of the musician saying that the book is far from written yet. It’s anyone’s guess what Adams’ next move will be. For the moment, he’s recycling the hard rocker and that’s a hit (again).
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twitter.com/stuartderdeyn
ENDURING INFLUENCE
Just how much of an enduring influence on local musicians is Bryan Adams? A lot based on the responses received from members of Marianas Trench and The Left.
Matt Webb (Marianas Trench guitarist): “Bryan Adams is a total legend. What musician wouldn’t want a career like his? 8 billion #1 hits, myriads of records sold, owner of the coolest studio in the world. He is someone we certainly look up to and has done wonderful things for Canadian music.”
“Many people aren’t aware that BA owns a recording studio in Vancouver which he rents out dirt cheap to musicians from all walks of life, using his success to give back to the music community. Having had the privilege of working there several times, I can say that Marianas Trench records sure wouldn’t sound the same without BA. So . . . thanks!”
Josh Wyper (The Left, keyboardist/vocals): “When I was developing my career starting out, there weren’t a lot of musicians who I could model my style and career goals after. After hearing his duet with Spice Girls’ Melanie C, “When You’re Gone,” and I thought that smoky vocal style was something worth striving for even if it isn’t as popular at the moment. Without going too far into it, his voice and his writing all have a very distinct feel that suit him and aren’t stylistically written to be hits. They are just classy and unique to his style.”
An Evening With Bryan Adams
Where: Rogers Arena
When: Saturday, 7 p.m.
Tickets: $20, $49, $69 and $95 at Livenation.com, Rogers Wireless Box Office, Ticketmaster.ca
Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/entertainment/Bryan+Adams+defined+drive/6777871/story.html#ixzz1xsfAXyqH