The Current - What did Joel Plaskett get for his 50th? His own music

Episode Date: April 23, 2025

Nova Scotia musician Joel Plaskett got a special surprise for his 50th birthday, a cover album of his own songs — secretly recorded by his friends and some of the biggest names in Canadian music, including Sloan and Arkells. Plaskett talks to Matt Galloway in Halifax about the album, Songs from the Gang, and why it was so fascinating to hear what other people hear in his music.

Fisherman John Coppock and his son Craig were hoping that their day on the water would finish with a good haul of cod. Instead, they reeled in way more than they bargained for. They had a net filled with fish and to their horror and surprise, the body of a man. I'm Kathleen Goldthar and this week on Crime Story, a body in the ocean untangles a sea of lies. Find, I'm Matt Galloway and this is The Current Podcast. One of the things that we're doing while we're out here is talking to people about what's going on in this city and what's happening in this city. One of the things that's happening, of course, is music. This is a great music town.

It is a town that is very, very popular. It's a very, very popular city. It's a very, very popular city. It's a very popular city. what's happening in this city. One of the things that's happening, of course, is music. This is a great music town. It is a town that lives and breathes when it comes to music. And one of the stars of that is the pride of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

His name is Joel Plaskett. What? Holy smoke. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Happy birthday Joel! Happy birthday! What? Holy smoke! Whoa! Whoa whoa! I've been hoodwinked on every friend. That's the sound of Joel Plaskett walking into a record store to meet his manager, Sherry Jones. She points to a poster on the wall advertising a new album. It's called Songs from the Gang.

It's a compilation of Joel's own songs, all recorded by his friends. People like Sloan, Jen Grant, Arkells, Jamila all celebrating Joel's 50th birthday the pair then head to a studio nearby to listen to this record 22 tracks chronicling his career and his experience as an artist in Nova Scotia I'm the lucky one Come on, teach him Teach me something I had a little too much to drink But now my love came down Like the burning warm home He was getting his coffee at Erickson's

Come on! You're a teenager Let's start a fight Holy camole, Sherry. Holy camole, indeed. Joel Plaskett joins us now. Joel, good morning. Good morning, Matt. How you doing? So, this video, people have cried and cried watching this. Well, I have too. I mean, I'm crying in it, I guess. But yeah, no, I'm really, I was really,

really, really moved by this surprise birthday gift that just completely floored me. I'm still, my jaw is still on the floor, to be honest. You really had no idea that this was happening? Yeah, I had no idea. Sherry had been, I guess, like planning this for a year or something. It was literally a year of work. There was a lot of people involved. I think there was like a hundred people keeping this secret in some fashion. So I was thinking I was gonna have a quiet little 50th birthday party. And it's this public event where I've got this tribute record and everything. It's incredible. It's kind of wild. I mean, part of it, nothing is a secret anymore. So it's amazing

that they managed to keep it a secret, but also this is a way of like looking back on your career thus far. When you look back on those songs and looking back as other people play them, what stands out to you? Sure. It's really incredible listening to other people sing them because, you know, a lot of songs are quite close to my heart and ones I've been playing for years and then all of a sudden they sort of take on this different sort of reflection or inflection point or however you describe it, you know. It's always interesting to hear what other people hear in your music,

if that makes any sense. So this was just incredible to hear back. So yeah, so, so, so honored. Chris Murphy from Sloan was on cue speaking with Tom Power about their recording of Love This Town. And he talked about his decision to leave Nova Scotia to pursue music, and you chose to stay in Dartmouth. I mean, the lyrics are, I saw your band in the early days, that idea of the understanding when somebody leaves and then holding the grudge because they left as well. Why did you stay?

I've been a small town person. I loved growing up in Lunenburg, and then Halifax always felt big enough for me. And I also had the really good fortune of being in a scene, many thanks to the Sloan guys in many respects. There's so much going on when they signed with Geffen and then they started their record label, Murder Records, and brought a bunch of bands along for the ride, my first band Thrush from it included. And so we walked out of high school and started touring nationally and to some degree internationally,

we did a lot of touring in the States in the early 90s. And so I got to see places and so didn't feel that sort of need to leave Halifax. It was always like I was away so much, you know, that it was like it was like coming home. And then at a certain point, you know, bands started to leave, Sloan left and lots of friends. I have, you know, I joke that there's I joke that there should be a neighborhood in Toronto called Little Halifax. But I've just always, I don't know, I think the community and the

space I was sort of afforded to kind of just do what I'm doing. Halifax for years has gotten to be kind of an expensive place now, like everything's gotten expensive, but it was kind of easier to dig in there. As you said, Halifax is an expensive place. The rents are crazy. There's like everywhere, it seems like, a cost of living crisis. And in those situations, it's the rehearsal spaces, and it's the studios that get pushed further and further to the edges and then kind of having to leave town, right? Yeah. Part of, I guess, staying in Halifax and then Dartmouth, we moved to Dartmouth essentially because it was cheaper,

and that's home. But everything's gotten expensive. The whole world's just ramped up. I think the arts are kind of getting pushed out of this urban centers into the fringes, which is really a drag because part of what makes a city tick is a lot of the time the artists and just what's going on culturally. And so I don't think that's gone, but I do think when cities get more expensive or just become more kind of like high rises come in and all of it, you know, there's just the sort of nature of things just kind of scaling up and it's sort of sometimes hard to hold on to the things that you sort of remember from when you were young, a lot of the buildings we hung out in are gone, right?

They're just gone. How would you describe the music scene in Nova Scotia right now? From where I stand, and I'm not in touch with... I'm not out in clubs much anymore. That's because you're 50. It's because I'm 50. We do have a studio there in Dartmouth. I mean, I think there's so much great music being made.

I still think Nova Scotia and the Maritimes, but in Halifax in general, it's just really always had such a strong, really kind of cool, diverse music scene where there's lots going on. But I do sense there's a pressure building to hold on to spaces, venues, things like that as the world and the city gets more expensive. The whole thing was around celebrating your 50th. What does that number mean to you?

I don't know. I'm at the point where I'm feeling the sort of difference in generations and things like that. I'm not a kid anymore. But there is a sort of being a musician means, you know, I produce, I've produced records for bands who were younger than me and artists who were younger and have played music with folks who are older than me. There's always been a kind of cross-generational thing with music where I don't, I don't think about age as much, you know, because I do

kind of find that it just sort of speaks across generations. Just a neat thing to be able to have a chance to look back. In a moment that's meant to celebrate you, which is just, that's a lot of fun. It has been a real gift that folks have given me as far as really feeling like connected, you know, which is one of the, I think one of the challenges in the world that we're in right now is that sense of like,

we're like connected, but we're not. And this is just was such a reminder of like, how connected I am to people, which is very, very meaningful. Happy birthday. Thanks for taking the time. Thanks so much. 50, life gets better after 50, trust me. Onwards and upwards, nowhere to go without.

Joel, thanks for this. Awesome, thanks. Take care. Joel Plaskett, The Pride of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.