Ideas - Need some Stompin' Tom right now to celebrate being Canadian? We thought so.

Episode Date: April 10, 2025

At a time when Canadians are rallying around the flag, IDEAS thought we could all use a little Stompin’ Tom Connors to keep us going. Famous for his black cowboy hat, he was an original, writing hundreds of songs about what it means to be Canadian. He may have died 12 years ago, but his songs live on, and resonate today.

When they predict we'll fall, we rise to the challenge. When they say we're not a country, we stand on guard. This land taught us to be brave and caring, to protect our values, to leave no one behind. Canada is on the line, and it's time to vote as though our country depends on it, because like never before, it does. I'm Jonathan Pedneau, co-leader of the Green Party of Canada.

This election, each vote makes a difference. Authorized by the Registeredleader of the Green Party of Canada. This election, each vote makes a difference. Authorized by the registered agent of the Green Party of Canada. This is a CBC Podcast. Welcome to Ideas. I'm Nala Ayed. C-A-N-A-D-A. Tell me what's a Douglas fir? C-A-N-A-D-A Bet you never heard of Bobcat Purr?

C-A-N-A-D-A Have you ever seen a lobster crawl? In Canada we get to see them all We get to see the maple trees Maple sugar and the maple leaves, We got the biggest wheat fields growing tall, In C-A-N-A-D-A, Where we see the reversing falls, In Canada, we get to see them all. C-A-N-A-D-A, Have you ever seen a magnetic hill? C-A-N-A-D-A Or a lady on a dollar bill?

C-A-N-A-D-A Bet you've never seen the autumn fall In Canada, we get to see them all We get to see the maple trees Maple sugar and the maple leaves We got the biggest timber wood so tall In C-A-N-A-D-A, where adventure ever falls. In Canada, we get to see them all.

I say in Canada, we get to see them all. Now there's a voice like gravel in a bucket. That's of course the incomparable Stomp and Tom Connors, Canada's very own troubadour. Stomp and Tom died 12 years ago, but we thought this is a time when we could use a little Stomp and Tom, someone who could remind us of all the things that hold us together as a nation. A year or so before Stomp and Tom died, ideas producer Philip Coulter produced a documentary about Peterborough's favorite son.

So we dug it out of the vault. And that's what we're going to be playing on the show today. A shameless celebration of all things Canadian. And Philip Coulter joins me here in the studio. Hi, Philip. Hi there. For those who are too young to remember Stomp and Tom, can you give us a sketch of what he was, who he was, and why was he called Stompin' Tom?

Well, let's start with that. He was called Stompin' Tom because he used to kind of keep the beat on stage by stamping onto a piece of plywood. Now, it all started because he was doing this on carpets and people were apparently complaining that he was ruining the carpet. So that was Tom and why he was called Stomp and Tom. He got the name Stomp and Tom actually on Canada Day in 1967 when the bar man at a club in Peterborough introduced him as Stomp and Tom and the name stuck. And he was Stomp and Tom from that day on. Anyway, he was the Canadian man in black, famous big black cowboy hat he used to wear, born in St. John New Brunswick, adopted as a child, ran away from home at the age of 13 and traveled the country for 10 or 15 years after that picking up

odd jobs and playing the guitar. The big turning point for Tom was in Timmons one day in the mid 60s when he had run out of money. He was in a bar and he couldn't afford to buy a beer. The barman took pity on him and said, if you play us a couple of songs, I'll give you a beer. That was the turning point for Tom because he then got a residency, as we would now call it, at that bar and stayed there for 14 months, got a gig on the local radio station

and he was off and running. That was the beginning of his career. That's incredible. So why did you do a documentary about Stompin' Tom? Why was he important? I think he was important for a number of different reasons. First of all, he was a great storyteller. What he was essentially doing was telling the story of his travels across Canada. He's also a great storyteller in the sense that he wrote an awful lot of songs. Depending on where you look it up or who you're talking to, he wrote anything between 300 and 600 songs. Very prolific writer.

He's also unique in the sense that he doesn't sound like anybody else. Many performers, you can make parallels and say they sound a bit like somebody else or they're influenced by this, that or the other. Tom is a one-off. There's nobody who sounds like him either before or since. So that I think makes him quite unique. He also wrote wonderful songs. The lyrics were strong. They never meant anything beyond what they looked like on the page. And his melodies, he was a great writer of melodies, very, very strong. So he had the packages there. He created songs and a persona that were completely irresistible. But what's really, I think, maybe most interesting is that Stump and Tom Connors could only ever be somebody who was Canadian. He's entirely and honestly and only Canadian.

As an aside, does his Canada still exist? I think it does. And we've seen that Canada rear its head again, if you like, in recent months. And of course, one of the reasons why we're playing this documentary tonight and listening to his music again tonight is because it speaks to something that we now see in Canadians, which is an incredible pride in who we are and what we do. And there's a piece of music that starts the whole thing. What is it? Yes. So to get us started on the program, here's Thump and Tom, Canada Day, Up Canada Way. It's Canada Day, up Canada way, from the lakes to the prairies wide. Hammer shout and hurray, up Canada way, on the St. Lawrence Riverside

People everywhere have a song to share On Canada's holiday From Peely Island in the sunny south To the North Pole far away Oh Canada, standing tall together We raise our hands and hail our flag The maple leaf forever We raise our hands and hail our flag, The Maple Leaf forever! We raise our hands and hail our flag, The Maple Leaf forever! It's easy to take Stump and Tom Connors for granted. Seems as if he's always been here, like the great rivers, the endless plains, the mighty mountains. And like them them sometimes you forget how special Tom is.

He's certainly unique, and no marketing department could have dreamed him up, but somehow the skinny country and western singer with the crashing boot has come to stand for something bigger than all of us, an idea of Canada. Who else but stomping Tom Connors could have come up with a hit song about a trucker and a load of potatoes? It's Bud the Spud from the bright red muddy, rolling down a highway smiling. The spuds are big on the back of Bud's rig. They're from Prince Edward Island. They're from Prince Edward Island.

Born in New Brunswick, raised in Skinner's Pond, PEI, Stompin' Tom Connors is Canada's most popular country singer. And today on Checkup, we'll be talking with him about his songs, about his experiences, and about his view of this country. We want you to do the same, particularly those of you from PEI. It's Spud the Spud on the bright now with Stompin' Tom Connors our host and moderator Pierre Pascoe. Thank you very much Harry I don't need to introduce Stompin' Tom Connors I think his song did it just fine he's in front

of me did you ever expect but the Spud to become your most popular song? No I didn't Pierre, as a matter of fact it was a song that was written kind of quickly. I actually wrote the song in Peterborough Ontario and I wanted to write a song about the Prince Edward Island potatoes and a friend of mine who was another country artist, Bud Roberts, he wanted me to write him a truck driving song and the two songs were coming into my mind at the same time and I was trying to write one and I couldn't get it written and I tried to write the other one and I couldn't so what actually happened I put the two of them together and I got the potatoes on

the back of the truck and I was away with a song called Bundesbud. When you're writing a song do you know if it's going to become very popular? No there's no way of telling Pierre the song sometimes that you think is going to be the big one turns out to be the little one and the unsuspected is usually the one that goes places. What's your favorite song? Well, it'll have to be Budda Spud, I guess, because it's the one that was my first national hit.

It's Budda Spud on the brightBC phone-in show Cross Country Checkup back in 1973, talking with host Pierre Pasquot. We'll be hearing excerpts from that show and others for the rest of the hour, along with lots of Tom's music of course. Songs about hockey, Sudbury, Irish moss harvesters in PEI, the Burrard Street Bridge in Vancouver. You name it, if it's Canadian, odds are that Tom's written a song about it. Here he is talking to Peter Zosky on Morningside in 1988. Are you sorry about that, the part of you that is almost a caricature, you know, the thing that you said got them in the door?

No, not really. Did it ever cover up what you were really saying? You know? Sometimes you wish you hadn't done that? The media, yes. The media didn't see the serious side of Stomp and Tom. And I had problems with that. Because I didn't mind them talking about the boots, the boards and all that kind of thing.

As long as they would put 50% of the time the words in that I would have liked to have said. Instead of editing out of a lot of the conversations that I had, they wanted more of the, as I say, the boots, the boards and the hats and the shows and this kind of thing, rather than knowing who I was and what it was I was trying to do. I could tell you a story, I'll try to make it as quick as I can. It, right in the Maple Leaf Hotel where I started out in Timmins, I was playing on the stage there and there was a group of exchange teachers that had just come back from Germany. I sat with them and here's what they told me. They said we just come back from Germany. I sat with them, and here's what they told me.

They said, we just come back from Germany. And while we were over there, we were invited to many German people's houses and things like that, and sat with other teachers over there. And we had parties, naturally. And when it came time for entertainment, there was always somebody that had an accordion or something like this. And they would sing songs about different parts of Germany and this kind of thing.

And it was a nice rousing thing and everybody was happy. And then they'd look at us and they'd say, now, don't be shy, sing a song about Canada. Come on, join in. And we'd like to hear songs about your country too, and they said we were non-plus We were finished at that moment because there was no songs about Canada the only thing any of us could think of was old Canada and Now we were back from Germany after spending a year over there and now we come here and of all places We just came to have a nice quiet conversation

And we're sitting in the maple leaf hotel listening to the only guy that we've ever heard in our lives standing live on a stage and singing songs galore about this country. And when they said words like that to me just in a small little hotel in a town called Timmons that stuck with me and it made me know that I was on the right track. So the world has to hear about Canada and Canadians have to hear about Canada. Where would I be if I told you I'm standing on a hill, looking at the ocean all around to give my heart a thrill. Near the sky, away up high, if I look down and see, That little nook called Kitty's brook, can you tell me where I'd be?

Where would I be? Where would I be? If I see boats and buoy floats Horse drawn carts and friendly folks Capes of red that shed the rolling sea Where would I be? You tell me Where would I be? You tell me Cross country check up, or are you calling from? From Montreal. Yes sir.

Yes sir, I'd like to say Tom Batalma is doing a great job today. Are you from Newfoundland yourself? Yes sir, I am. Do you feel homesick when you listen to Tom? Yeah, I do. What touches you most in his songs? Mostly the natural way of bringing the song out is, you know, there's nothing, it doesn't seem to be anything phony about the, you know, it's so easy, like so natural.

Tom, if you're going down to Newfoundland, I have a message delivered to Newfoundland. Okay. Well, people down in Newfoundland, you'll soon be in for a treat to meet a good Canadian man who sings and stomps his feet. You'll just love his natural way that he sings his song so people down in Newfoundland be watching for Stomping Tom. Well, thank you very much, sir. Goodbye. Not at all.

Hello out there, we're on the air, it's hockey night tonight. Tension grows, the whistle blows, and the puck goes down the ice. The goalie jumps, the players bump, the fans all go insane. Someone roars, Bobby scores at the good old hockey game. Oh, the good old hockey game is the best game you can name. And the best game you can name is the good old hockey game Well, we have a tape of a Canadian singer, Tom Connors. He was interviewed last night at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto by Volkmar Richter.

And he explained some of these things about writing songs and where a country singer comes from and so on. And at the beginning of the tape, just before the beginning of the tape, Volkmar Richter asked Tom Connors, why is it that the Canadian country singers tend mostly to be maritimeers? They live close to the land and close to the water and they like music and I think this is probably the reason why there's some musical down the Maritimes. On the farm there, there was nothing much to think about except a simple life. The radio was a big source of entertainment for us and we used to listen to old Hank Snow and Wolf Crider on the radio when I was a kid and this is how I had the desire I always wanted to grow up and you know do what they did. Where did you get your first guitar? I bought it from a fella in a

boarding house when I ran away from home I was 13 and I bought it from a fella in a boarding house in St. John New Brunswick and he was a French fellow from Shippigan. And he sold it to me for three dollars, and mind you, I didn't get a very good deal, but I started plinking away on it. One thing led to another, and I started writing songs. I already had some written at that time, when I was 11 years old, as a matter of fact. I wrote the first one It was called my reversing falls darlin. I still sing it

How are you now? I'm 32 and how many songs should be written now over 400 now? How many of those do you sing? About 350 of them and They're all Canadian Pretty well, I'd say about 85% of them. And they're all Canadian pretty well. I'd say about 85% of them are Canadian content. When you write a song, what kind of theme do you write about? I write about the people that I expect to be singing to.

Like I might be walking down the street and see a street cleaner or a street car driver or a truck driver or something and maybe stop and have a conversation with them just at the time of the day and he'd be surprised some of the stories that they have to tell and then I digest it all and go home and as soon as I get in the mood I write two or three songs, sometimes a day. Hockey game is the best game you can name and the best game you can name is a good ol' hockey game Ho! Good ol' hockey game is the best game you canors and the Hockey Song. Titles don't get any simpler than that, and the song itself, raw and cheery, catches much of what we love about the game.

Tom was talking with Volkmar Richer on Robert Fulford's radio show in 1969. Stompin' Tom has written hundreds and hundreds of songs, just about all of them, as he says, telling the stories of people he might meet on the streets of Canada. Here's Tom on the CBC radio show, Summer Supplement, in 1973. Ottawa is a mighty good town, They never turn a maple leaf upside down. Here's to Ottawa and the land we love, can anyone here name the capital of British Columbia? Victoria! Victoria is a mighty good town, they never turn a maple leaf upside down.

I was short of nickel for a bottle of beer in the Maple Leaf Hotel in Timmons and the waiter said that if I took out my guitar and sang a few tunes that he'd give me all the beer I could drink. So needless to say that night after a few songs later I didn't remember too much about going to bed but anyway they put me up in the Maple Leaf there and gave me a job for $35 a week and I was there for 14 months. I wrote songs about my own home of Prince Edward Island with Bud the Spud about the potatoes and when I used to work on the coal boat over in Newfoundland and all through there.

I left Cape Britain on the coal boat for St. John's Newfoundland and I met a little girl named Sally and I took her by the little white hand she shook her little head and said no way Fred I won't go along with your plan you've been working on the coal boat boy and you're nothing but a dirty old man you've been working on the coal boat boy and you're nothing but a dirty old man. It was a big waiter down in the King George Hotel in Peterborough, and I used to stomp my foot anyway, and at that time I was carrying a board around with me so I wouldn't destroy the carpets in the hotels where I played otherwise I couldn't get a job. So anyway this waiter I come in one night and this waiter Boyd McDonald was

his name and he come in he says here he is folks once again Stompin Tom and from that second on I knew I guess forever that's what my name was gonna be as long as I picked up a guitar and sang. Hello friends. This is Tom and Tom Connors. And I'd like to dedicate this song to that old Alberta cowboy himself, Wolf Carter. De-o-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de- from the Maritimes to Boston, now the wheat fields of the West, and the plains of old Alberta, they just seemed to suit him best. Punching cows and breaking horses was the life he loved to lead,

and you'd always see Wilf Carter at the Calgary Stampede. And Wilf would always yodel-eed-a-lee on the streets of Calgary, with his yodel-eed-a-lee. The first three chords I learned, the three of them were wrong. A French follow from down in Chippigan New Brunswick taught me the first three chords in a boarding house down in St. John when I was working on the docks down there. And it was funny, you know, because he sold me the guitar too for $19 and the damn thing wasn't worth three, you know, that was my first guitar. After I started buying a couple books I realized these chords, they're non-existent, you know.

And then when the sound started coming to me I realized why they were non-existent. But I'm telling you, I used to have a big bar inside my bedroom door in the boarding house because all these fellas coming in and going to work, you know, they'd hammer on that door and they'd say, if we ever get a hold of you, we're gonna bash that thing right over your head, you know. And I used to sit in there just shivering and shaking, open that bar and hold. Down on old Prince Edward Island, When the winds are on the blow And the ocean water's rollin' Through the reefs and rocks below

And the Irish moss comes driftin' Where the white-capped waters roar With my scoop and my fork and my wagon and horse I'll be headin' on down the shore With my scoop and my fork and my wagon and horse I'll be heading on down the shore On old Prince Edward Island Cross country check up, where are you calling from? Turban Heights Yes sir, where is that? That's about 12 miles from Montreal

Oh, okay, yes I like to talk to Tom, Tom and Tom Yes sir Yes, Tom Yeah? Yeah, I'm from, I'm originally from Tignes From Tignish. From Tignish?

Yes, sir. What's your name? Joe Richard. Joe Richard? Yeah. How are you? Not bad at all. Lord God, what are you doing up around?

I want to congratulate you on your wonderful singing. Oh, thank you very much. It's really a pleasure to hear you down home. Listen, we got some folks from down home listening to the radio right now, too. Yeah, right? Yeah, so why don't you just say hello? Hello there, friends from Rhode Island, Tignish. It's wonderful Tom. I don't know, I don't remember you too much but my brother knows you well, Freddie. He's in Toronto. Oh sure, sure that's right. Yeah I've seen Freddie a few times. I think you've seen him on your way down at Christmas there at a restaurant. You were stopped there. Yeah. He was down there. He said he was talking to you. Yeah, that's true.

Well, you're doing a good job. Oh, thank you very much. And that's that Bud the Spud there. That's a wonderful song. Do you all islanders know each other like that by name? Boy, we're together, boy. Yeah, pretty well. Well, keep the good work up and i i i i never miss you okay on okay thanks a lot for calling thank you sir thank you bye there's an island is somewhere lonesome does he can't be a home today

they have a little sip of the moonshine and all another load away in the land of the great potato Where the lobster feeds her wild And we thank the boss for the Irish moss On old Prince Edward Isle We thank the boss for the Irish moss Down on old Prince Edward Isle On Ideas, you're listening to My Stomping Grounds,

a documentary from Ideas producer you're listening to My Stomping Grounds, a documentary from Ideas producer Philip Coulter celebrating the great Canadian singer-songwriter Stompin' Tom Connors. I'm Nala Ayed. When they predict we'll fall, we rise to the challenge. When they say we're not a country, we stand on guard. This land taught us to be brave and caring, to protect our values, to leave no one behind. Canada is on the line, and it's time to vote as though our country depends on it, because like never before, it does. I'm Jonathan Pedneau, co-leader of the Green Party of Canada.

This election, each vote makes a difference. Authorized by the Registered Agent of the Green Party of Canada. I've just been to Specsavers and upgraded my lenses to extra thin in light with 50% off. Now, what else can I upgrade? My cat? Wow. My scooter? Oh yeah! Get 50% off lens upgrades in the Specsavers Spring Sale.

Hey, I can upgrade my kids! You chill, Mom. I'll load the dishwasher. Awesome! Exclusions apply. See Specsavers.ca for details. Offer ends soon. Stomping Tom Connors was an original. A gravel-voiced poet of all things Canadian. An orphan with a hard scrabble early life, Tom Connors created indelible songs

about all the things small and large that make us distinctively Canadian. Our self-deprecating modesty, our quiet pride, and when necessary, our high sticks and high elbows. Tom Connors died 12 years ago, but his songs live on. At a time when Canadians are rallying around the flag, maybe we can use a bit of Stomp and Tom Connors to keep us going. Here's the conclusion of Philip Coulter's documentary.

You didn't have a very happy childhood. No, I didn't. I was quite mixed up from being born illegitimately. Then I spent my first years of my life hitchhiking around the country with my mother. Then I was taken away from her by the authorities. I landed in an orphanage for a couple of years and I was adopted from there to Skinner's Pond by Mr. and Mrs. Russell Aylward. Who are listening to you at this time. Yes, I'd like to say hi to Russ and Mum down there too if you're listening and I hope,

I understand Russ, you've had a little bit of trouble here, you've been sick or something for a while and I hope it doesn't last too long and get yourself back on your feet. I was born in old St. John, New Brunswick by the sea. Back in 1936 it was just my mom and me. And as she wandered through the land shunned by family. She often had to beg for bread while I was only three. She taught me to hitchhike and face the road alone and sing about what life was like for those that had no home. What about your natural mother? Have you been in touch with her?

Yes, I, matter of fact, coming home from PEI when I was down there for New Year's, I stopped by in Montreal and I seen my mom there for several hours and we talked about things from days gone by. I'm kind of still her little boy, you know. We really don't have that much in common anymore because it's been so many years since that I knew her, you know, as a mother. But she's very proud of me. At one time you had lost her completely. You didn't even know where she was. yeah how did you find her well yeah that's a thing in

itself after I I landed in st. John New Brunswick when I was about 13 going on 14 and I I always looked around for a woman with black hair and a thumb off at the first joint on the right hand. That's all you remembered of your mother? That's all, and I remembered her name, of course. And she often told me when I was a kid too that if we ever got separated or anything, that she pointed out to me about the birthmark on my neck, just a small one, and that she'd always known me by that. When I was thirteen years of age, I couldn't take no more.

I ran away from home one day and left my island shore. And while the Mounties everywhere were looking for their men On a merchant ship from old St. John I sailed for Newfoundland And away out on the Grand Banks the truths came like a knife A drifter I would always be upon the roads of life So the years ticked on and when I was fourteen in St. John I was standing on a street corner with a bunch of teenagers and just gabbing away as kids will do and I had always followed every woman up and down the streets that had black hair looking to see if she had a thumb off on the right hand. And anyhow, I was standing there talking, and this woman came by with two little girls,

one on each side, and the youngest one dropped her ice cream. And the hand of this woman shot down to pick up the ice cream cone and kind of clean it off, and I noticed the thumb was off on the right hand. Then one night in Timmins Town, North Ontario, they said if you can sing we'll keep you around for the weaker soul. I packed the place for 14 months and before they let me go, I'm driving a car, I got a new guitar and I'm singing on the radio from there this old hitchhiker he was on his road to fame with Bud the Spud from the bright red mud and the good old hockey game

so I walked up behind her and I asked her if her name was Isabel Connors and she said yes, you know, what's it to you type of thing. So I said, well, I think you're my mother and I opened my shirt collar up and she kind of lost her balance. I guess she fainted or something for a minute or so and I kind of grabbed a hold of her and of course just being a kid of 14 I didn't know too much either what to say or how to react either and the two little girls started to cry and they didn't know what was happening of course and I remember telling her not to

cry and you know I was really uptight and I hadn't seen my mother then after that incident for another good many years. And when the party was over I began to write this song and tonight you've heard me sing the words to the ballad of stompin' tom tonight you've heard me sing the words to the ballad of stompin' tom so are your songs basically stories that you tell? They are, yeah. They're all about the happenings of the man on the street. I just wanted to write about a man and his work. And there's always a story, a little bit of love or broken love in it, you know.

These are the things for some reason that people want to hear. Like mostly all your country and western hit songs have been, as you say, about broken love and you know, the sadder aspects of living and it happens to an ordinary person. How would you tell a country and western song apart from any other kind of song? What has to be there? Well, I think it's the story. It's a story pretty well from beginning to end. You can take from the words of it, if you listen to the words,

that something has happened and it tells the story from the beginning to the end pretty well how it happened it's something like like a folk song city people are listening because I'm singing about their cities and about them it's it's them I'm singing about and I know by the expressions on people's faces that that when they come in to sit down and listen, they're hearing something about themselves and they like it. You said it took you 15 years to get into this business. What did you do during those 15 years?

Well, I roamed the country and I gained a lot of experience. I sailed, uh, Merchant Sea on the freighters and tankers. And, uh, I rode the freight trains from coast to coast, uh, about a dozen times. And, uh, hitchhiked all over the place And I met people from small towns, cities. I met white collar people. I met bums. I talked to them all. And I just garnered a great deal of experience

and it's coming in handy now for writing. And I haven't had an easy time myself. So I know what the hard times are like and this is what I write about. I've been all across this country from the east coast to the west and I've been all across this country, from the East Coast to the West, and I've been asked about a thousand times what places I like best. Well I've had to base my answers on the friendly people I've found, and if you're inclined to take the time, this is where you'll find my stomping ground.

Just take a little piece of PEI and.I. and old Saskatchewan and old Scotia and New Runds. Cross country check up, where are you calling from? I'm calling from Maffet in the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia. Hello madam, you're on the air. Oh, fine. Hello Tom. Hi there, we've got another islander from the west coast, have we? That's right, and there's lots of us out here.

Yeah, I wanted to get out there to the islands when I was up last fall there and last summer, but I didn't get a chance to. You went to Rupert? But I certainly hope to the next time. Yes, next time you come up to Rupert, you'll have to come over. We're on an entertainment circuit up here now. Do you like stomping Tom Connors? Yes, and my husband is a bigger fan than I am, but he's too chicken to talk on the telephone.

Why don't you grab him and bring him we send tapes home we get tapes sent out from Prince Edward Island of all your records Tom oh fine and then we have them all playing in the mess here here's my husband Bill hello Bill how are you doing buddy just fine and dandy Jesus great to hear your voice same to you he's that's great to hear down homer yeah so how long you been out there now I've been out here I came up here about six months ago but I've been out west since 67 yeah I hope to go home in a couple of months for a little while oh good good to be glad to see you yeah Yeah, well glad to hear you Tom.

You're living in a nice part of the country out there too. Oh yeah, nice country but nothing beats Spud Island, you know. Ha ha ha ha ha. Thank you for calling us sir. Okay, thank you. Goodbye. Bye. I Just take a little piece of P.E.I. and old Saskatchewan... I knew very early in my career that there was no way I was going to get people into a hotel door by standing there and singing like the rest of people. I had to do something different.

And so, let's say the boot and the board got them in the door, because that made people talk. They said, you should come and see this guy ripping boards apart. And the sawdust flies everywhere and it's into your drink and it's on your clothes and it's all over the place and you can go up and get a matchbox full of sawdust just to prove to people that this happened and all this kind of thing. But the second time they came to see me wasn't to see me bang my boot into the board. It was to hear what I was singing. C-A-N-A-D-A, tell me what's a Douglas Fir?

C-A-N-A-D-A, bet you never heard of Bobcat Pur? C-A-N-A-D-A, have you ever seen a lobster crawl? In Canada they get to see them all. There's more to singing than just singing. You have to be an entertainer. When I was out there, I know for a fact that the people

in every room that I ever played, they became friends instantly because when I seen two tables sitting together and they weren't talking to one another, I would introduce them right off the stage,

one to the other, and say, hey, grab that guy by the hand, and because he's a fisherman from Newfoundland and you're a lumberjack from Northern Ontario, why don't you get to know each other? And I'd sing a song for each of them, and the next thing you know, Stomp and Tom was the go-between, and I'd say, well, it'll be down to have a brew with you after there or something. And so we'd go down and we'd all talk, and the next thing, they'd put the two tables together and from that time on they're friends. N-C-A-N-A-D-A, where adventure ever falls, in Canada we get to see them all.

I say in Canada we get to see them all. That stuff appeals to people who are the average working Joe. People on the street or in pubs or taverns or wherever you want to go or on the job, they don't speak guardedly. Whatever comes to their mind, they say, and it's just a natural thing. When you write, there's no fat in there, there's no extra adjectives, there's no noodling around. Do you write hard?

I come right to the point, yeah. Is it hard for you to write songs? No, not really. If I decide next week to write a dozen songs, I'll write a dozen songs. I don't have any problem that way. The bridge came tumblein' down, 19 men were drowned In June of 1958 in old Vancouver town Cross country checkup, where are you calling from? Yes, I'm calling from, uh, Terrace, D.C.

Hello. Terrace. Yeah. Tom from Tom there. That's me. Oh, hi. How are you doing, sir? Pretty good. Good.

What's your name? Tom Colford. What did you want to ask Tom? Yeah, I'd just like to say I like a couple of your songs the most because they're, they hit pretty close to home, you know? Like what? For instance, that one you put out about the bridge came tumbling down,

about the secondary's bridge. That's right, yeah. And among the twisted girders, one man realized down about the second-hand bridge. That's right, yeah. And he saw the fright of the darkest night in old Vancouver town With frogmen in the water This still happens, one of my brother-in-law's was one of the 18 that didn't survive that Oh, that's too bad Brings back a set of memories, you know? Yeah, I know what you mean, because I have met other people too who were directly involved in that

And it was quite a thing uh... uh... i you know like when i a when i wrote and sang the song i uh... i certainly you know didn't mean any uh... uh... harm or anything to the people who are directly involved but i thought that uh... these things in canada should be to be really brought out so that uh... the rest of the people in canada can can hear these stories

and to know that it was real life people involved in it, not just something you read in a book. highest rich or the men that built the bridge for the bridge came tumbling down and nineteen men were drowned but the other men came back again to lay the new beams down now if you're ever crossing this mighty bridge sublime and nineteen scarlet roses pass before your mind Remember and be kind The bridge came tumbling down And nineteen men were drowned So you could ride to the other side Of old Vancouver town So you could ride to the other side

Of old Vancouver town How do you feel when you hear the song, sir? I don't feel too bad. I think it's a well done song. Don't create any hard feelings or anything. Just bring back some memories. When I was young I had an old guitar and I learned to sing and play. From a book I fought on how to be a star written in the USA. And every movie that I seen had a message just for me. If you want to be a big country star, you go to Nashville, Tennessee.

That's my song. If you want to be a big country star, you go to Nashville, Tennessee. Stomp and Tom's songs are all about one thing, Canada, and in 1978 he took deep exception to Canadian singers who go to the United States to make their careers. The occasion was the 1978 Juno Awards, when the big winner for country music was Ronnie Profitt, who as Tom saw it, had lost his Canadian identity by working so much in the U.S. For Stomp and Tom, enough was enough. He packed up his own six Junau Awards and sent them back.

Then he stopped performing in public for 11 years. Well the main thing that I want to say is to all Canadians I'd like to draw their attention to the fact that the main reason why they themselves are not familiar with an awful lot of song that is being written about our country and about the people in it is because it's not getting played on radio stations. mention something about our country in a song, all of a sudden these same radio stations I'm referring to say, hey, that's too regional or that's too Canadian or that's too something. It doesn't fit our format. It's no good. When you turn a radio on in this country, you hear about every other nation in the world, but you don't hear about this one. And the girls heard out the bingo And the boys were getting stink-o We think no more to bingo On a Saturday Saturday night The glass is deva-pickle And our eyes begin to pinka

And we think no more to bingo On a Saturday Saturday night I want to go back to Timmons. I don't know the Maple Leaf Hotel. I did my beer drinking at what we call the Double L. Do you know that one? The Lady. You're damn right. It's around the corner. The Lady, Laurier, right?

And Timmons. Across from CKGB Radio. That's it, right. In those days, a young guy gets up with a guitar and starts singing those kind of songs, the songs that you were singing. People would listen, I mean they'd listen a bit. There was no shuffleboard, I don't think there was just to have a draft.

Oh I think if you're leading to what I think you're leading to, you're wrong Peter because as long as you got the heart and soul to do it, because I was laughed at then. I mean it became the talk of Timmons that every club in town, I mean I got tossed out of a couple of joints before I hit the maple leaf. Nobody knows about that, but that's the fact. When I got up to audition, I mean it was a laugh in stock. I mean they were used to having the New World's Most Free to a five-piece band in these hotels.

And I think really one of the only reasons that the maple leaf took me, they had no entertainment at all at the time, and they just said, well, we'll try them for a weekend. You know, what's it going to hurt? Some people were laughing at you, weren't they? Oh, definitely. Lots and lots and lots. And that never bothered you? Well, yes it did, but you don't care if they laugh at you or what they do. I mean, let them do whatever they like, because they're being entertained. If they're laughing at you, regardless for what reason, at least they're laughing.

You're there to entertain. You're a servant of the people. You're not above the people, you're a servant of the people. And I'll be living on a Saturday night Got a question for Tom, I was wondering, you've gone a long way since the mid-60s Tom, what's success doing to you? What's it doing to me? It's not changing me a damn bit for one thing. And I don't know, I still eat one meal a day and what have you. Why is that? Pick around. I never was used to eating when I was on the road in the rough times. And I still enjoy opening a can of sardines or something or a can of beans once in a while.

And I don't know, I eat very meagerly. And I'm still the same guy. Well now that you've become famous and important and all that, do you think it would be possible for you to go back and do the old jobs you used to do? Oh yeah, that's entirely possible because if everything fell through tomorrow, I wouldn't think twice of throwing my old guitar over my back and hitting the road again. What is the job you hated most in your life? Well, prime and tobacco in Tilsonburg was a pretty tough job and

I've done a lot of dirty jobs like, you know, collecting garbage and, you know, digging graves and I don't know I was a short-order cook too and that was a pretty sloppy job because I was the cook. How about living in Toronto? That sounds like it might be one of the dirtier jobs too. Well not exactly although the air isn't quite as clear here as down in Labrador but I have to make the best of it. Hey Tom, you ever been to Tilsonburg? Tilsonburg? My back still aches when I hear that word.

While away down southern Ontario, I never had a nickel or a dime to show. A fella beeped up in an automobile, he said you want to work in the tobacco fields of Tilsonburg. Well, I was just bumming the roads and I heard that there was such a thing down in southwestern Ontario as tobacco. I had no trade of any kind and it didn't look like in those days that I'd ever make anything from writing songs or singing, playing the guitar, nothing like that. That was a real hobo just roaming around the countryside. And any job that I got was usually a hard one because it was straight labor. So I went because there was more money priming tobacco for doing a day's work than there was at any other labor job in the country.

Now there's one thing you can always bet, if I never smoke another cigarette, I might get taken in a lot of deals, but I won't go work in the tobacco fields of Tilsonburg. Tilsonburg, Tilsonburg, Tilsonburg, my back still aches when I hear that blur. My back still aches when I hear that blur. My back still aches when I hear that blur. My back still aches when I hear that blur. My back still aches when I hear that blur My back still aches Are you a very tender man? Are you a very soft man? You seem to get touched by many things. Well, I am, Pierre, in a way quite emotional about things.

I really like to see other people when they accomplish things when they're doing something that that they're proud of and if I'm looking at it from the outside it really makes my emotions kind of run wild you know I I really get choked up when I see somebody else happy because of their accomplishments, regardless how small or how big. Are you a very sentimental man? Yes, I am, quite a bit. I like the down-to-earth type of things.

Some of the simplest things in life make me happy. I'm not one that goes for a lot of loudness or sensationalism or that kind of thing, you know, great noises and all this. It doesn't do much to me, but it's just the individual accomplishments that really make me proud. I don't know what it is about Stump and Tom Connors. In a changing world he's a solid rock. The songs today are much the same as the songs of 40 years ago, but in a profoundly changed Canada he still manages to be relevant. Maybe it's because some things never change – honesty, sincerity and above all the ability to tell good stories about the family. And like all family stories, you've got to be part of the family to really get them.

Can I ask you what you like particularly about Stomping Tom? He's got the beat. He's Canadian. Does it make a lot of difference to you that he should be Canadian and sing about Canadian themes? Yes, it does. An awful lot. Bet you never heard of Bobcat Purr? C-A-N-A-D-A Have you ever seen a lobster crawl? In Canada, we get to see them all On Ideas, you've been listening to My Stomping Grounds, a documentary from Ideas producer Philip Coulter

about the poet laureate of all things Canadian, Stompin' Tom Connors. On the program, you also heard the voices of former CBC Radio hosts Volkmer Richer, Pierre Pascoe, Harry Elton, and Peter Zosky. The program was produced by Philip Coulter. Our web producer is Lisa Ayuso. Our technical producer, Danielle Duval.

Our senior producer is Nikola Lukcic, Greg Kelly is the executive producer of Ideas, and I'm Nala Aya. I say in Canada, we get to see them all. I say in Canada, we get to see them all.