Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Andy Maize: Toronto Mike'd #289

Episode Date: December 4, 2017

Mike chats with Andy Maize of The Skydiggers about the origins of the band, the highlights, the lowlights, Gord Downie and giving back.

Welcome to episode 289 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent brewery celebrating 30 years in the craft beer business. Visit GLB at 30 Queen Elizabeth Boulevard for $5 beers and propertyinthesix.com, Toronto real estate done right. And Paytm, an app designed to manage all of your bills in one spot. Download the app today from paytm.ca. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is Andy Mays of the Sky Diggers. Welcome Andy. Thanks Mike, hi. I'm going to tell the story right off the top because I found it very funny and I was telling my wife about it afterwards.

But okay, the same day we conversed on the phone and And for listeners, that was the day I recorded the episode with Blake, Blake Carter from The Move. So that very same day, the furnace died. And I got a guy, my wife's friend had a new somebody in the neighborhood. And his name was Hadi, H-A-D-I, Hadi. neighborhood and his name was Hadi, H-A-D-I, Hadi. So I had a phone conversation with him around the same time, maybe right like a minute later or earlier, I can't remember, as I talked to you. And when I, I guess you know where this is going, but when I had to put you in the contact, in my contact book on my phone, just like I did for Hattie, I got them mixed up. So your number went in as Hattie and Hattie's number went in as Andy. So now Hattie was here. He did some work and then

he left. And then there was an issue still with the furnace. So I'm calling Hattie back. But your voicemail, I believe it just says like, I'm Andy, leave a message or something like that. I can't remember. It's probably something like that. So you hear that, I'm Andy, leave a message. It really does sound like Hattie. Right. It's close enough. And I don't remember exactly, but I think I left you a voicemail and then I started texting you because I had visions of the kids are going to, it was a cold night, right? It was like. Yeah, it was cold. And I'm like, I need Hattie back.

Anyways. I felt badly. Did you consider coming over to help me with the furnace? Absolutely, I did. Or inviting us over. But your furnace would still be broken today if I had come over then. Oh, you're not a handy Andy. I'm not.

Not at all. So you're not Hattie at all. You're Andy. And I did eventually... It's funny because for a while I thought, why is Hattie ignoring me? And then, yeah, then it all came together. Thanks for doing this. My pleasure.

I want to thank Lawrence Nichols, lowest of the low. Did he pressure you somewhat? Not at all. No, he sang your praises and said, if you're interested in doing something with Mike, I'll make the arrangements and make the introductions. You should have recorded it when he was singing my praises.

That's right. I'd make that my ringtone. And playing the harmonica all at the same time. Fantastic. I'm so glad you're here. Big fan of the Sky Diggers. And I have a lot of questions for you, as you can imagine, and some audio clips to play. But a very brief story that has nothing to do with you. Very brief story. Okay. And I'll tell you though. So this is yesterday. Yesterday was a nice day and I wanted to go for a bike ride along the lake.

So I go for a bike ride along the lake. I have this new apparatus on my bicycle and no one can see my hands except you, but it goes on the handlebar and I put my smartphone here and it holds my smartphone in on the phone and I find it rather convenient and I use this thing, fine.

So I noticed yesterday it was really foggy and I could not see the CN Tower from the Humber Bay Bridge. That's the bridge that goes over the Humber River. So I'm on the Humber Bay Bridge and I'm thinking it would be fun to take a picture of the skyline because you can't see anything.

Like this is my thought process. So I take my phone out of the apparatus and I take this picture of the foggy skyline. This is just yesterday. And now I'm putting my phone back in the apparatus, which has this like spring thing. And I don't know how this happened, but I'm on the bridge and the spring thing jolts,

like it propels my smartphone, my Android phone, into the lake. Yeah, right where the lake meets the Humber River. So I'm watching my smartphone plummet into the freezing cold of Lake Ontario. It's basically Lake Ontario where the Humber River meets the mouth there. And I'm thinking, as it's falling, I'm thinking two things. I'm thinking like, wow, that was really, really stupid. I'm like, I feel this great,

like, oh my God. And then I'm thinking what's on that phone that I can't recover. And like, my brain is like going through the phone, like thinking, okay, the pictures are backed up. I have all the music somewhere else. There's no video that's just on the phone I need. And like, and I'm like all this, these thoughts of my head, I'm recording this bike ride, but I can manually input that later and all this stuff. And then I had basically no phone, which is an awful feeling. I don't know about you. Do you, do you have a smartphone? I do. You know, Ron Hawkins does not have a smartphone. That's because he's, he's living his own way.

Well, I'm envious of him because I felt it like five minutes about the phone. I was like, oh, I got to get a new phone. Like what if, what if my teenager has texting me right now and needs something urgently or whatever? Uh, so anyway, I went to Rogers and then they hit me with this interesting note. They said, uh, yeah, we gave you that phone for free. Uh, but it's a two year contract and you have to buy it out. And they gave me this quote where I basically said, like, they said, to buy out, you have to buy that phone back again, 400 and something dollars. And I said, like, I said, no, like, I don't even know if I have any leverage here. And I will wrap up the story very quickly,

except to say, they passed me a phone and said, I have to call some loyalty department at Rogers. And I did that. And magically, this credit was given. So it's reasonable, but that's my boring smartphone story. Next time I handle my phone near Lake Ontario, it's going to be, I'm going to be so protective of this. Did you lose Hadi's contact? I know because everything is synchronized

to my Google contacts. Phew. I might need, Hadi, it's getting cold out there. And a special shout out before we, I'm going to dive in quickly. Some people noticed it got really long before the sponsor mentions, but not this time. Cause I have to deep dive with you, but I want to say hi to my old high school buddy, Michael O'Riordan. When Michael O'Riordan heard that Andy Mays from the Sky Diggers was coming over. He wrote on Twitter,

Oh, my all time favorite band and front man. I must've seen them a dozen or more times, including many nights at the horseshoe. I have a lot of great memories with the Sky Diggers as the soundtrack. So I'm dedicating this episode to my old buddy, Michael Reardon. Hey,

Michael, you're his favorite front man of all time. That's very flattering. So eat, take that Mick Jagger. And, Michael. You're his favorite front man of all time. That's very flattering. So take that, Mick Jagger. And we already thanked Lawrence Nichols, who sang my praises, but

my concern at that time was that he basically had pictures of you in a drawer somewhere, and he's like, if you don't do Toronto Mike, these are finding their way to the Toronto Star. Do you drink beer? I might.

On occasion? The six-pack in front of you is yours. Wonderful. Thank you. Courtesy. Don't thank me. Thank Great Lakes Brewery. They want you to enjoy.

Great Lakes Brewery, they want you to enjoy. If you know, normally there's six cans, but lately they've been bringing over bottles, which are more. It's great. Nice selection here, a winter ale. Looks like a Canuck pale ale. All sorts of nice stuff. Thank you. Tis the season for the winter ale, so enjoy that.

Enjoy that. And when you're drinking that beer, you're going to want to put it in a pint glass. So there's actually a pint glass there, courtesy of Brian Gerstein. That one is my idea. Yes, the other one. Brian Gerstein wants you to enjoy the pint glass. He's from propertyinthesix.com. And listen up, Andy, because we have a special message from Brian for you.

This is for you. PropertyInTheSix.com. Hey, Andy. Brian Gerstein here, sales representative with PSR Brokerage and proud sponsor of Toronto Mic. Hope you enjoy your GLB in my pint glass. and proud sponsor of Toronto Mike. Hope you enjoy your GLB in my pint glass. I noticed that you have stayed true to yourself,

almost always wearing the same style and look in glasses, not conforming to what style was necessarily happening at the time. No doubt this is your look. Just wondering if this happened organically or by choice. I really enjoy your music as well. If you, your bandmates, or any of Mike's listeners have any real estate needs, feel free to give me a call at 416-873-0292 and check out propertyinthe6.com. So Andy, tell us all, is this, the look, is this, he wants to know if it's organic or?

The look, is this, he wants to know if it's organic or? Well, it's interesting. I figure if you don't change your style every 15 years or so, you come back into style. So I just, I try and buy well-made clothes that are comfortable. that are comfortable. And, you know, I'm a big fan of, you know, Vialla shirts and these glasses. You know, I switched the style of glasses for a little while, and I think I'm just more comfortable

with sort of the classic. You know, I don't even know what vintage they are. Well, I'm drinking you in right now. I'm soaking you in right now. See, I need glasses. For the first time in my life, I don't know, I even know what vintage they are. Well, I'm drinking you in right now. I'm soaking you in right now. And see, I need glasses. For the first time in my life, I need glasses. And I'm thinking, like, what kind of glasses? And I'm just checking out, because what you have, you're like my hair idol, okay?

You've held on nicely. Like, that's a thick head of hair you got. You know, the good Lord giveth and the good Lord taketh away. Is that like, oh, you got a little bit of white. I see now you got the other. Yeah, I've earned it. I think those glasses might work for me because as a fellow thick-haired man,

I think that might work for me. Yeah, well, you know, kind of the, I guess, 50s and 60s style. You know, I don't know whether they're called horn-rimmed glasses. But it's not like a Buddy Holly style, or is it sort they're called horn rim glasses but it's a it's not like a buddy holly style or is it is it sort of along those lines all right i can go i could be down with that i because i've been putting this off i've been procrastinating i've needed

i got the what do you call that you go in and do the eye test and then they give you the prescription right but i haven't filled it in yet i don't know why but my problem is i'm farsighted so uh now like when i'm speaking of my my new smartphone by the way the smartphone story is interesting in that uh we make we get the deal set and then i i just wanted my old lgg5 sorry lgg4 back i just wanted the same phone and then he said sorry we have to give you an lgg5 we have to give you a better phone so it actually ended up working out in my favor right so i just thought i'd just finish up that story. But yeah, so now to read stuff, it's like it's going further away from my face. And my daughter likes to make fun of me because I'm out like

this now and it's getting bad. I need glasses. So I'm going to get a pair like yours. So when we get our picture together afterwards, that's what I'll bring into the optometry place. And I'll say, give me the Andy maze. Yeah, the Brian personalized messages are working for me. So Brian, keep that going. That's fun. Thanks, Brian. And I want to tell everybody about Paytm.

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I know where I want to begin. And you tell me what makes sense beforehand. But I want to start by asking you about Directive 17. There you go. And I even have a little clip I'm going to play in a minute. And just before we hear from you, I'm going to read a quick note I got from Glenn McDonald. This sets it up nicely. Glenn writes, Andy Mays, I first saw the Sky Diggers at the Ryerson Picnic in 1989 and have been a huge fan ever since. I've seen them at least 40 times over the years, including pretty much every Christmas at the Horseshoe.

Not sure if you were planning on bringing this up, but I would love to know what happened with Andy and his first band, Directive 17. In 1985, Directive 17 won the CFNY Great Ontario Talent Search and won $25,000 along with a record deal. They also won a Casby Award for Best Independent Artist. Tell me about Directive 17, and then I'm going to play a clip from the Casby Awards in 1985. But tell me how things started with Directive 17, and why did you leave a band that seemed to be kind of progressing in the right direction?

I met the guys in Directive 17. They were playing as a trio, and I met them. I was going to McMaster, and I think two of the other guys were going to Mohawk College at the time. Anyway, I saw them at a pub at McMaster, and I really enjoyed it. At that time, I was really into the jam and, and a lot of British stuff. Uh, and I saw them and I really liked them. Um, and I went up to one of them after the show and I said, I really like you guys, but, uh,

but you need a singer. And, uh, and that's me. And so I, uh, so, you know, I, I don't think that they disagreed. Um, and, uh, and I actually hired a place to audition. Uh, and then, uh, we got together and we played, uh, I think our first real show was at Larry's Hideaway in May 31st, 1982. And we kept playing. We'd play in Hamilton. There's always been a vibrant music scene in Hamilton. It's a great place to develop and to be a part of a scene because there's no bullshit in Hamilton.

It's pretty much straight on. If people like you, they like you. If they don't, they'll tell you. So that's a good way to start. And we played for a number of years. The other guys were doing other things. We won the Great Ontario Talent Search on CFNY by phoning in more than anyone else did because it was a phone-in vote at the time.

There you go. So we would, I mean, at the finals, a friend of mine's father had a plumbing company with multiple phone lines. So a group of us went there with a case of beer and we just kept phoning over and over again to vote for ourselves. And we made a record with Michael Philip Voya Voda producing,

who went on to produce the first Berenice Ladies record, Gordon, and worked with the Rio Statics and any number of other people. So we made a recording with studio time that we won with some of the $25,000 that we won. And then we got more cash because we got a distribution deal with Quality Records. And they, I don't know whether they went out of business, not really, but they, they, instead of distributing the record, they said, we'll give you $10,000. So, so we had this money, which was great. We had this money, which was great. We made this record, which was great. I just actually listened to it. We actually got as

far as a test pressing. And after quality pulled out, the other guys said, you know, we want to wait and see if we can get somebody to put it out. And I really wanted to just do it ourselves. And this was, you know, 1985, 1986. It was just a few years ahead of the DIY, you know, Barenaked Ladies, Cowboy Junkies, you know, the Cowboy Junkies kind of set it all off with the Trinity session. So I got outvoted.

And at that point, it just wasn't, you know, I felt like we were all kind of going in different directions anyway. And it was just like, I can't do this anymore. And you met a guy named Josh. Well, I'd known Josh since I was about 10 or 11 years old. And Josh played in a high school band. We both went to North Toronto Collegiate. And he played in a high school band called the Ramblers.

And the Ramblers went, after graduation, they went over to England for a couple of years. And they did a little work with Bernie Rhodes, who was the Clash's manager. And Glenn Matlock, I think, might have—oh, no, maybe it wasn't Glenn. Anyway, they tried to sort of get into The Clash world, and after a couple of years, they came back. And Josh and I—you know, Josh had always had a great love of traditional music traditional music of uh you know traditional country music so we just started the two of us started playing together just i i think i was i think with director 17 the the the songs were so um uh you know we couldn't go like

30 seconds without switching parts. And it was all kind of, it just got a little frustrating. And we couldn't really write songs unless we were all together. Right. So Josh and I just started playing with an acoustic guitar and two voices, and that was liberating. Is that, you called yourselves West Montrose? Yes, West Montrose.

Montrose, yeah. After the covered bridge just outside of Guelph. Okay. I think it's the last covered bridge left in Ontario. Before we leave Directive 17, though, I have to play this clip. So, first of all, the Casby Awards.

This is, I guess, in 85 it was already Casby. Is it my brain? I thought it was still the Unos. Yeah, but I guess in 85 it was David Marsden's baby, I suppose.

And I want to play this clip. And while play it feel free to like you know when pop-up video you watch the video and then the things pop up you can feel free to talk over this clip and tell me these names okay you ready this is a time machine for you then let's go back to 1985 okay the blue jays were winning their first pennant, and the CASB Awards were held. Here we go. Your finalists for the Best Independent Recording Artists are... Directive 17. Ohama. Ohama Ram Rave Reviews

I don't know any of these names. I was going to ask you, should I be knowing these names? And Sandro Carlo Cameron Here's the moment of truth. Should I be knowing these names? And Sandro Carlo Cameran. Here's the moment of truth. The best independent artist is... And the winner is... Directive 17!

Yes. I don't remember this at all. What's funny is there's a moment here where the hosts are certain that nobody is there from Directive 17, but they are wrong. What's going on here? Directive 17. Directive. Winner's unhappy. Directive 17 isn't here tonight.

And Peter and I. Oh, here they come. Here they come. It's like a big surprise you have no memory of this that means you've lived an exciting life as independents, sometimes you speak because of your certain position. You speak sometimes from way back here, whereas sometimes people in other positions speak from right up here.

Oh, I remember this. So from way back here, we'd like to speak and thank some of the people who are way back there with us. Thank you very much. And particularly... It's like the Oscars. We'd like to thank CFNY for all their support, and particularly... That's me.

Liz Janik and Peter Goodwin from the streets of Ontario for supporting all the independent artists across Canada. That's a chance that some others wouldn't. Thank you very much. There you go. 1985 Casbys. You know what? I think I remember most about that.

I think what I remember most about that show was that they'd go to a commercial and there'd be a musical act on after the commercial. And I remember seeing behind the curtain, you could see someone spinning and jumping and leaping. And then they came back and it was Gowan. Oh, yeah, Lawrence Gowan. Yeah.

And I just remember thinking, wow, that was a lot of spinning and leaping before the set. Well, he's a criminal mind, you know. A strange animal. And a strange animal, that's right. Warwalker on Twitter wants me to ask you, I'll read it from him. Ask him to talk about the mid-80s when he used to appear Monday nights with Andrew Cash in the Cabana Room. I think Cash called it acoustic meltdown.

Just the two of them, great harmonies and one guitar in front of us, dedicated fans. So help me out with the timing here. So with Josh, you're Wes Montrose. So this is with Andrew Cash, not Peter Cash. Right. So tell me about this acoustic meltdown for War Walker. So, Andrew had come out of L'étranger and had been signed to Island Records. This would have been about 86, 87. Josh and I had already started doing stuff together. And then I was also singing at the same time with Andrew.

And he, Jim Ettinger, and myself played at the acoustic meltdown. And Jim played fiddle, and the three of us sang. And that's where Andrew was really working on songs from time and place. His first Island recording, which came out, I believe in 1988. And so at a certain point, Josh and I would actually do a song or two during those evenings. And Lazy Grace also would do a song or two. And Lazy Grace was Jason Collette and Kirstie McLeod and Catherine Rose. So we all gathered every Monday night and Andrew would do a couple of sets and I would sing with him. And then at a certain point in the evening, Lazy Grace and Wes Montrose would get up and sing a couple of songs as well. It was a great way to develop a repertoire and to just sort of polish what you were doing. And after Andrew left in 88, we had just started the Skydiggers.

I toured with Andrew on Time of Place. And at the end of that year, I went to Andrew and I said, you know, because Andrew introduced me to Peter as well. Sure. Peter is a songwriter. And so I went to Andrew and I said, listen, I've got to devote, you know, all of my time to Sky Diggers because it's feeling right. So I stopped touring with Andrew at that time. And we actually took over the Monday nights at the Spadina Hotel. And that's how Skydiggers got their start as well. Very good.

Where does the name come from, Skydiggers? From Andrew. That was in 87, 88. He was looking for a name for his band. And one name that he had considered and discarded was Skydiggers. And I said, well, we're forming a band. Do you mind if we use that? So I'm not even really sure what it means or where it comes from.

I was going to say, only because in 1989, the dome opens, and they call it Skydome. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That wasn't it. No correlation at all. I think there used to be a... There was a kind of a hippie group in California in the 60s called The Diggers.

And I think... I'm not sure whether they were promoting a utopian society or what it was. It's a cool name. I mean, it's cool. And I mean, Andrew's brother was in the band. So just to recap here,

because now we have Sky Diggers. So you and Josh are already kind of together. Yes. And you add Peter Cash, brother of Andrew Cash. And you add drummer Wayne Stokes and bassist Ron Macy.

Right. And now, you know, you've already kind of doing this acoustic meltdown at the Spadina Hotel that Andrew Cash was organizing. And now, you know, you've already kind of doing this, uh, acoustic meltdown at the Spadina hotel and that Andrew Cash was organizing. And now you are suddenly, you take, you say, Andrew, I'm taking this name. It's, uh, it's ours now. And you are the Sky Diggers. And we are the Sky Diggers. And when Andrew went off to tour with his band on the, on the record, he stopped doing the Monday nights and we took over. Uh, so that's how we developed, how we developed, you know, we developed a stage presence and a sound and a repertoire

by playing Monday nights. It's great having a regular weekly gig because it forces you, if you're going to get the same people coming back, you don't want to be giving them the same thing every time. So it was really an incentive to learn some songs and to write some songs as well. And in 1989, you release your self-titled, that should be easier to say than that,

self-titled debut album. And it has spawned some singles, but there's one that was all over the place that I loved from the moment I heard it. As a teenager in 89, I thought this was like the most stunning, beautiful song I'd ever heard at the time. And I'm about to play it and ask you about it. And then I'm going to talk to you a bit about Enigma Records because there's an interesting story there. Maybe not the best story ever, but we have to talk about that. But let me start by playing a cut

from your self-titled debut album, I Will Give You Everything. And we'll let it breathe for a few seconds, then I'll come in with the questions. I will give you everything That you've ever wanted With this promise I will bring you home again

I will bring you home again I will give you anything If you don't demand it With one promise I will make you mine again I will give you everything that you've ever wanted

I will give you everything You're not sick of this song, are you? Not at all. Me neither. Thank you. Can you tell me a little bit about how this song came to be? I will give you everything that you've ever wanted.

It's really, I guess I would consider it to be the first song that I ever wrote. I consider it to be the first song that I ever wrote. And I had come up with the basis of the song. And then I was a big R.E.M. fan. And I loved the rounds that they would do, you know, like a song like Harbor Coat. And, you know, when Mike Mills and Bill Barry, the drummer, would be singing a counter melody. And growing up in school, I loved counter melodies.

You know, the Titanic or One Bottle of Pop, Two Bottle of Pop. You know, I loved rounds. And so this is... And this is all over the same chords as the rest of the song. So there are three different parts going on here. And I didn't know whether they'd all work together because I would just sing them in the air myself. So I went over one day, I went over, Andrew Cash was living at that time with Mary Angus, Charlie, his best friend, Charlie Angus' sister,

with Mary Angus, Charlie, his best friend, Charlie Angus's sister, and they were living just south of Bloor Street on Lansdowne. And Andrew had one of the early versions of the Porta Studio, the cassette TASCAM or TIAC four-track Porta Studio. And I went over there one afternoon and he let me borrow it and so I lay down all the different parts to see if they would work together and you know I was thrilled to discover that they that all the different vocal lines work together and so that was kind of the beginning of and then I showed them to you know Josh and Wayne Stokes were living together at that time down on Massey Street and we would get together and we would we would write music and and that

sort of predated the the Skydiggers as well. I wonder what have you had to guess how many times you perform that song right there? Well we've performed it every night for the last 30 years. Wow. And what I love is, I mean, you said it's the first song you ever wrote. I mean, that would be like Austin Matthews scoring four goals in his first NHL game. That's impossible. It's like, that's a... Well, it's, yeah, I know.

I mean, it's just, you know, it's one of those things. I read somewhere that, not to compare the two songs by any means, but the first song that Ian Tyson wrote was Four Strong Winds. So there's, I don't know, sometimes it's just serendipity. And don't worry, you've put out 14 albums or whatnot. I won't go through each song in this detail, just a choice few. But I will give you everything. When I first, like literally the first time I heard that song in this detail, just a choice few, but I will give you everything. When I first,

like literally the first time I heard that song on the radio, I was a teenager and my thoughts were, what a gorgeous song. And if I hear it, and I heard it a lot this week because I knew you were coming over

and I went spinning a bunch of skydiggers and it holds up incredibly well in the sense that it doesn't sound like 1989. It just sounds like a tremendous song. It doesn't sound timeless, if you will. Thank you.

No, I should be thanking you. These songs are important to us, so thank you very much. But I need to talk to you about the label at the time. So you're the first Canadian signed to Enigma Records. Right. And Enigma, just for those who don't know, I'm just going to play something.

This is not from the Sky Diggers. But this is... I could enjoy Sky Diggers and Poison. I wasn't, you know, I was all over the place. But this is Talk Dirty to Me by Poison. But Enigma Records, they were out of L.A. and they were booming at the time, right? Because they discovered Poison

and I think they had Motley Crue there. Did they? I knew they had Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper, the Dead Milkmen. The Dead Milkmen, yes. And a Christian heavy metal band called Striper. With a Y, right? Yes.

Yes. And they wore yellow and black outfits. They sort of looked like bumblebees. Right, like the killer bees. Yeah. And to get to my, so you're basically signed Enigma, and then what happens? Something happens.

Does the label go bankrupt? Tell us what happens signed Enigma and then, uh, what happens? Uh, something happens. Does, does the label go bankrupt? Tell us what happens with Enigma. Well, what happened was, uh, we were signed by, there was, uh, uh, an office of Enigma in Canada and it was a three person operation. It was, uh, Derek Ross, uh, Mark Smith and Debbie Park. And they, uh, at that time they had, they had Mac computers and were doing their own advertising. I mean, they were basically doing the work of about 12 people. It was amazing what they're doing. And Derek was one of the premier radio promotion people in the country. They were fantastic. We loved working with them. We had great success together.

But the purse strings were being controlled out of Culver City in California. And what happened was, I believe, and not to—this is kind of timely, but they signed David Cassidy. And they spent a lot of money on David Cassidy. And they also, I think EMI invested something like $10 million in Enigma. And they went from this label that was used to having small success, but sort of on a reasonable level. And so they spent on a reasonable level. They were wise about how they spent their money. And then when David Cassidy came on board, I think they spent a lot of money on David Cassidy. They were going for a home run that would take them into a whole different stratosphere as a label. And it didn't

work. And they ended up closing down. They didn't go out of business, but they closed down the Canadian operation and we were affected by that. We couldn't really, we had a very popular recording in I Will Give You Everything. We were on tour with Blue Rodeo, 1991. Things were going very well, but the records weren't available in stores. And at that time, you didn't sell records offstage because there was still physical retail and they would be unhappy if you did that.

So it definitely, it did hurt our business for a while. Yeah, because you couldn't be properly promoted, essentially, by your label. Yeah, because you couldn't be properly promoted, essentially, by your label. I guess, do you have any bitterness at all? Any thought that there was a window there? And why not you? The content is exceptional. Timing may be everything.

I don't know. But do you feel like you just missed out on your moment? Yeah. And I carried that with me for a while, for a number for a number of years, just why, you know, it was terrible timing for us. But, you know, God, if you want to live your life carrying bitterness with you, it's going to be a shitty life. And one day, or over time, I just realized that, you know, One day, or over time, I just realized that it's not why we got into it. We got into it because we love playing music.

Josh and I love playing together. We're lucky to have been a part of a community over the past 30 years that is supportive and creative. All the other stuff just falls away. There's life and death and there's everything else. And it's a story I've heard. I mean, I've had, you know, be a member of Sloan or Ron Hawkins. Like this is a similar story

where there's exceptional material and there's something goes wrong with the label or something happens where you're not promoted properly. And then it's almost like that window, I would call it like the breaking in the States. I guess that's, I mean, you know, the Tragically Hip is always a story we talk about, you know, the hip never did crack the US market,

but are so beloved up here. Blue Rodeo to a similar lesser extent maybe, but still, but letting that go i think is uh key to your uh you know long-term happiness yeah as a human being absolutely absolutely and i mean the reason we signed to enigma in the first place was a you know mark smith was doing a and r as well as everything else and he was a great guy and and uh was great. Debbie was great. We loved them. But we also were getting a guaranteed release in the States, which never ended up happening. But everyone's intentions were good, certainly from the Canadian perspective. I can't speak.

I only met the head of Enigma once. He came up, I forget his name, Bill something. But he came up and, you know, we had dinner. I hope he paid and I hope you ordered extra steak. But I mean, that was all sort of inconsequential. And we're still friends with Derek Ross. And he's gone on to have a great career in the Canadian music business. And he's very supportive. And we see Mark Smith every so often. Lost touch with Debbie a bit. But these people were instrumental in getting us started.

So we'll be forever grateful to them. Ren Ro on Twitter says, do they still have the Now Magazine they wore in the I Will Give You video? Oh, the t-shirt. Yeah, Wayne playing drums, that was his. He always used to wear the Now Magazine t-shirt. And I think it was more or just as much because it said now in big letters. You know, and he wasn't shilling for Now Magazine. But if you're going to shill for something, the Alt Weekly is an okay. Oh, yeah. I mean, at that time we played a Monday morning hockey game and Michael Hollett, who was a co-publisher of Now Magazine, was a friend and was playing. But I think it was also, I think it was just the big red now,

you know, because that's an important concept as well. You know, it's like, this is right now. This is what we're doing. This is who we are. Now, this is the last time. I mean, I keep mentioning them, but I have the Do the Right Now. This is the name of the new Lowest of the Low album. There you go.

Do The Right Now. So you're absolutely right about that. Now you're 1992. Now, okay, so Enigma's gone, but some of the staff, I guess, is it called Free Records? Is that how you say it? FRE, yeah. Yeah, Flood Ross Entertainment.

FRE, okay. So Terry Flood came into the, I guess he came uh as an investor with derrick ross uh and so it was still it was still um uh mark and debbie were involved but it things shifted it became a different relationship definitely uh when terry flood became involved and this i'm going to play another track here from uh this is from the lead single from Restless, another gorgeous song. And then you can tell me what you can about A Penny More. A Penny More I will not give you a penny more than you deserve.

I don't know why you bother asking anymore. All of your time couldn't make me change my mind. I will not give you a penny more than you deserve. Can't you see I'm busy? A penny more, which when I read about it now, they call it your biggest hit. And in my memory, which is maybe faulty, i remember i will give you everything as being a bigger hit but what do i know i'm not sure they're both big hits i think i will give you everything got more radio play and certainly the video got a lot of play on much music yes exactly and that was a big deal for uh yeah for us. But tell me a bit about this great track, Pennymore. Well, this is a song that I wrote.

I was on unemployment insurance, which I considered to be, at that time, it was an arts grant. I thought of it that way. And I was watching two women sing on a cable television show one morning and they were they were singing it was like a Scottish folk song but it was acapella just the two voices and there was a drone to it like bagpipes that that really appealed to me and and so

this kind of came out of that Josh and I used to work at a flower bulb mail-order business called crookshanks that you know we would get paid in cash in seed envelopes once every couple weeks I mean it was very old-fashioned and I always imagined that we were being underpaid and that this you know I will not give you a penny more. That's what the response would be when I went to ask for a raise. And then there's the higher, higher section. I mean, they're kind of two different disparate ideas put together.

And it's a bit of an answer song to I will give you everything. That's how I interpreted it always. Because in one song you're saying, I will give you everything. And then you open up a penny more with, I will not give you a penny more than you deserve. That's not a coincidence. No, I'm also a fan of the 60s. It's my party, I'll cry if I... The answer song was kind of a tradition of late 50s, early 60s pop music.

So I thought that was kind of funny and that's always like a little bit of a like a treat for the fans if you will like uh I don't want to call it like an easter egg maybe a bit of an easter egg but it's like you know the fans will correlate them and tie them together and then it's like an ongoing history if you will yeah if you had to like I know they're like your children right you can't ask me who my favorite child is but if you had to like a penny more and I will give you

everything is it your love your first you never forget your first or like if you had you had to choose or could you not choose I would never choose

between them I ask the tough questions here but I but we sing them we sing them every night when we play we sing both songs and I

it gives me great pleasure to sing both songs. You know, there's nothing I wouldn't... What am I trying to say? You know, I enjoy singing them to this day. And you never went through a phase of like, hey, we're putting out new stuff still like people because i'm sure the crowd goes nuts for a penny more the crowd goes nuts for uh i will

give you everything this is how we're wired we love the stuff you know we heard that young growing up and this is these are the classics and we love them we love your new stuff too but we're not going to get up for them the same way as we get up for these old guys. Did you ever struggle with that concept the way some musicians do, or did you always get it? No, I haven't. That never bothers me. I mean, we're just grateful that there are people who are interested. You know, sure, we want to put out new material,

and we do put out new material, but you also understand the great thing about music is the connection that it has to people's memories. And, you know, we can hear a piece of music and we all have this. You can hear a song and it can jet you immediately back to a very specific time and place. You know who you are with. You know what you are doing. You know what it tastes and smells like. And it's the most amazing thing. And I think music is one of the only art forms that has created such a visceral experience and memory. And so, you know, if anything that we've done creates that experience for people, then we're grateful. Well, oh man, I actually have a series on this very podcast where people return to kick out the jams

and they basically, they tell me their 10 favorite songs of all time and we play them and then they tell us why do they love the song. And sometimes it's like, it is like a time machine where suddenly they're back in high school and they got a crush on Mary

and they get the stories. It's the most amazing thing. And we all have that. And yeah. It i love it it's amazing and the fun fact is the very last kick of the jams was toronto sun uh writer uh steve simmons who he revealed on the podcast and i didn't know this i don't think i knew it his cousin his first cousin is stephen page oh so small world small world story. That's great. Yeah.

You mentioned Gordon earlier this episode, so I had to tell you about Stephen Simmons. Now I'm going to read a question from Sid, and we kind of covered part of this, and this does take you back, because we just talked about A Penny More, which was from Restless, which might be one of your, maybe your biggest album. But let's, Sid's question is this. The Diggers were part of a pretty vibrant Queen Street music scene. I have fond memories of bands like the Lost Dakotas, Leslie Spitt Trio, Lost and Profound, all great acts that fell off the radar.

For every band that emerged from that scene, and he puts in parentheses, Sky Diggers, Blue Rodeo, et cetera, there were several who, for whatever reason, never made it. Can Andy talk about a band or two that were contemporaries of the Sky Diggers and either really made an impression or had an influence back then that didn't make it off Queen Street, but should have, would have gone huge if given the right break? That's from Sid. That's a good question, Sid.

Well, certainly the acts that you mentioned, I mean, Lost and Profound had released a couple of records, so I would say that they made it off Queen Street. I'm trying to think, and you know, we did shows with the Los Dakotas. Who else did Sid mention there? Leslie Spittrio. Oh, yeah. We did lots of shows with Leslie Spittrio. They certainly made it off Queen Street. They were signed by EMI just after we were signed. I don't know. I'm trying to, I've got the way back machine going and I'm trying to remember acts that, I mean, if there were acts that didn't make it off of Queen Street, certainly there were probably members of those acts that went into other, you know, to play in other combinations that did. Yeah, it's funny because, you know, I remember all of those acts. Maybe later in the episode,

something will jump in your head. We'll come back to Sid's question. Yeah, but it's a good question, Sid. Thank you. And you got some shitty luck, I'll tell you, with labels and such, only because this album, Restless, which has a penny more, something happens. Does F.R.E. file for

bankruptcy and then the album is pulled or can't be found? What happens there? Am I getting the stories mixed up? No, and then we'd made another record with F.R.E., which was just over this mountain, which was 93. Restless was 92.

And then I think they wanted to sell the—I think there was a move afoot to sell the catalog or the label to someone else. And I guess we just, at that point in time, we didn't want to be part of that move. And so, so there was a, there was some legal stuff that went on, but you know, uh, thankfully I, I probably 10 or 15 years ago, 20 years ago, I could have told you blow by blow. And I'm glad now that I don't really remember because it doesn't matter anymore. But at the time, uh, the big deal, I guess, was you wanted the master tapes. We did. Restless master tapes. We did, yeah.

And through this litigation, you don't end up with the Restless master tapes. No, they got sold to a Montreal-based company. But in 99, what you end up doing, which I found fascinating, is you basically re-record Restless? You remake it? No, what we did was we released the demos that we did for Restless, which is still Restless,

which is a clever title. We probably spilled a lot of beer coming up with that title. So yeah, because we didn't have any control over that. And it wasn't released for a long time. It wasn't available, Restless. So, yeah, we polished up the demos and released that. And you mentioned your last album with F.R.E. Records is Just Over This Mountain, which does win a ton of awards.

I decided to take a list of this. So you get a Juno Award for starters for Most Promising Group. That was for Restless. That was for Restless. Okay. And you can do that. You can win Most Promising Group

on your second release. That's right. You know what I mean? It's like what Alanis Morissette, didn't she win a Juno for Newcomer or something? I think so something in her second career? Yeah, I think so. I don't think that should be allowed.

So then you have to sign with, is it Warner? We signed with Kim Cook signed us to Warner. Our good friend and mentor Kim Cook signed us in 95 to Warner.

And what a roster Warner had at that time. You know, I think, no, maybe not 5440, but certainly Bare Naked Lady, Spirit of the West, Blue Rodeo, the Waltons. It's like, you know. Like my tractor. I'm telling you, that was my, one of my jams.

Fantastic. And so, you know, we were, we were really thrilled to be part of that, that roster. It was fantastic. Yes,

you've speared the West. That was a scene, man. I, I am guilty, not guilty, but even 2017, I still sort of like,

I just saw Rusty at the Mod Club and I'm going to go see, I'm going to go see I Mother Earth I think it's next week or something. So I'm still kind of living in this.

I call it with my younger friends. Like 90s CanCon universe or whatever. Just great stuff. And yeah, sadly, we won't be able to see Spirit of the West anymore. But great band, man. Spirit of the West? Well, he retired, right? Yeah.

Yeah. No, tremendous tremendous tremendous group yeah and you guys were right there too man and Blue Rodeo which they're still together they're still touring

like you guys are but my mom's one of my mom's favorite bands of all time so when I got married our first dance was to Try

beautiful from Outskirts which man classic Hank on okay I digress. So, Road Radio, that comes out from Warner.

Yes. And is that the album with the rock and track? No, no, no. Where's November in Ontario? When does that come out? Oh, that's on Desmond's Hip City. That's 97.

Okay, I'm going to play a bit of it, mainly because, you know, you have this like roots rock, sweet sound going, and this thing rocks. Like. I'm going to play a bit of it, mainly because, you know, you have this like roots rock, sweet sound going, and this thing rocks. Like I'm going to play a little bit of November since although it is now December in Ontario, I'm not sure.

It would be like if radio stations have to stop playing November rain, I think, when December hits. But... Like this is a... I won't use the G word, but it's a grungier kind of got a Neil Young influence going here. Like a bit of a...

Yeah, well, certainly, you know, the Tragically Hip were influencing everybody by that time, by the middle of the 90s. So, you know, I think I was part of it. Peter Cash had left the group at that point in time. This is the first recording we made. Peter Cash had left the group at that point in time. This is the first recording we made without Peter Cash. Gavin Brown's playing drums on this recording. Paul McLeod is playing guitar. So we recorded it with Daryl Smith at Chemical Sound in Toronto.

Yeah. And so in a way, it's almost like with cash departing, right? Because you guys had the harmonies going, and then there's no cash, so you can do something different or maybe try something different. This is different, but yeah, cool. November in Ontario, and you had a couple of tracks like this on Hip City? Desmond's Hip City. Desmond's, right. Desmond's Hip City. Desmond's, right. Desmond's Hip City.

Which was the name of the album. Which was a store when Josh lived in London, in Brixton. That was a West Indian record store. Might have even been owned by Desmond Decker. I can't remember. Let's fast forward a bit. You mentioned the Tragically Hip,

and I have some questions because I'm going to play your cover of the Depression Suite, and we're going to talk about Gord and the band shortly. But in mid-2006, you team up with the Cash Brothers. So Peter Cash and his brother Andrew, and you guys put out an acoustic album together. And so that, I mean,

you're so already, such history, like already, that that must have been just effortless bliss. It was really nice to do, and it was healing, because Peter and I had a falling out when he left the group,

through no fault of his, through just my insecurity and inability to deal with change. We had a falling out, so it was really healing and nice to sing together again. And Andrew has always been a part of my musical life and my life in general. But it was really great to make a recording with the two of them. I can't say I know you that well, although I almost had you fix my furnace.

But I know people who know you. Surprised that you could have a falling out with anybody unless this is the kinder, gentler version of Andy. Such a sincere, nice... Or the wiser version, hopefully. Well, they're often related. That's for sure. I'm glad that you could

team up with the Cash Brothers and find some peace there. Absolutely. I'm proud that Peter's my friend. We have a question from Basement Dweller who tells me that Handel is because he really does live and rent a basement. There you go.

Basement Dweller. Yeah. His question is, this is about Borrowed Tunes. Okay, so Borrowed Tunes was an artist doing Neil Young covers. Yeah. Speaking of Neil.

My growth from Sony put together. And when was that? Was that like 2013? No, no. Borrowed Tunes. Borrowed Tunes is way earlier than that. Yeah. It would have been probably around 90,

I would say 94, 95. It was before Peter left the group. And we did Mr. Soul. Yes, and he wants to know, did you choose to cover Mr. Soul on borrowed tunes into the black, or was that song assigned to you? How does that work? We actually chose Mr. Soul. There was another song that we were working on. There were a couple that we tried out, and I forget the other

song. But we ended up going with Mr. Soul, and we dropped a little bit of satisfaction into the bridge, and that had to get cut out. Clearance? Because, yeah, I mean, Alan Klein was still alive, and he would have wanted his pound of flesh to... Well, what's that song from The Verve? Yeah, yeah. Bittersweet Symphony, which I think was the biggest Rolling Stones hit

since in a long, long time. Oh, that's too bad. Oh, I want to hear that version. You got to email me that version. But that's awesome. I have another question. This is another question from Sid. So Sid sent a couple of questions. In the list of awesome things that the skydiggers did over their career,

where do the Horseshoe Tavern corn roasts rank? Hey, that's really interesting. Sid, you're a... He's on the ball. He's on the ball for sure. I forget what year we did the corn roast. I wanted to call it May's Fest, but Josh wasn't too keen on that. That's perfect. But it would have been, it was after, I think it was after Peter left. I can't, it was, you know, 96, 97, 98, somewhere around there. But it was a little festival that we threw one August at the Horseshoe. And Bird played, which was Jason Collette's group. The Good Family played, which were basically the Sadies with

Bruce and, oh gosh, I'm sorry, I've forgotten the other brother's name, the other good brother, but it was Travis and Dallas from the Sadies, their parents played as well. Renan played 16 Tons, who Amy Milan from Stars was the lead singer of 16 Tons. And it was a lot of, we had a lot of fun. Oh, Dodge Fiasco played, the Dignan brothers. Yeah. And we recorded all of that. And we've never done anything with the recording. So it's funny, just recently I was saying, you know, we should dig up those.

I mean, they're recorded on a format DA88 or DA, you know, a digital format that, you know, you have to hunt around for a machine to actually even. Right. So you can transfer them to digital files or, you know, onto a computer program or whatever. So, you know, one day they, some of the, some of the corn roast recordings might show up again. Just this past Saturday. So now we're recording on a Monday and on Saturday was the Lakeshore

Santa Claus Parade. So I took the family to that. Great Lakes Brewery had a float. The owner drives the truck. That's how they roll, which I thought was pretty good. He's been here to kick out the jams by the way. So it's the holiday music is now, I think it's now okay to be everywhere. I think that's the deal

once you hit December. I would say so. But, you know, any earlier than that, it's a little bit hard to take. Well, I like to get into December before I can hear a Christmas carol. But let me play Good King Wenceslas.

Wenceslas. You say it better than I do. On the feast of Stephen When the snow lay round about Deep and crisp and even Brightly shone the moon that night Though the frost was cruel When a poor man came in sight

Gathering winter fuel This rendition, when did you, for what album was this recorded for? rendition, when did you, for what album was this recorded for? Well, we actually, we were playing this song before we recorded our first album, and I think we recorded it around the time of Restless, but never, I don't know whether we released it around then as a special single or anything like that but uh we always play it uh around this time of year and uh love the song love the song well you put out that uh angels right? Yes. So that was only a few years ago. Yeah.

You had 11 songs on that? 10 or 11. Yeah. And so Good King was kind of the anchor of that. And yeah, it's a great song. You know, it's all about looking after those and looking out for those who are less fortunate than oneself. So that's not necessarily a seasonal pursuit.

It should be something that we all aspire to year-round. You and the band do a great deal of that. I mean, I follow you and I follow the Skydiggers on Twitter. And I mean, you're always doing benefits here and there. We do some. So we're trying to give back, trying to make the world a better place or help those who are trying to make the world a better place or help those who are trying to make

the world a better place. Well, tell me about, so I have my good friend, Rosie, she was at the Dream, you know, I'm having trouble saying words today.

The Dream Serenade. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I want to say serenade. Is it serenade, serenade? I would say serenade. Tomato, tomato? I would say serenade.

Serenade. The Dream Serenade. Yeah. And you played there with sloan and sam roberts and hayden yeah i know she told me jim cuddy shows up like this is uh yeah well hayden and his wife christie put on the the event and it is the most tremendously uh life-affirming and powerful musical event. Just fantastic. And we were so proud to be a part of it. And they're raising money for children with, as they put it, exceptionalities.

And for the school that they, I'm drawing a blank, of course, on the name of the school. And for respite care workers, for those parents who need a break every so often. It's a wonderful thing. Absolutely. I mean, Rosie knows all about exceptional children. And the cause is near and dear to her heart. And the lineup was tremendous. exceptional children, and the cause is near and dear to her heart. And the lineup was tremendous.

And you guys, of course, were a highlight. So that's tremendous. Hey, did you ever consider entering politics? And I ask that because, you know, Andrew Cash and Charlie Angus, these are a couple of federal MPs, right? Yeah, yeah. Did it ever cross your mind to not seriously change that way no because it's i've watched how hard uh how hard charlie and andrew work and uh and the you know it's they they are so dedicated and i admire them greatly but that that wouldn't be in that amount of that

level of scrutiny i i kind of like downtime. I like being alone, even in a crowd. So that kind of commitment is not something that I could do. Let's talk about the... Sin decisions leaving me misunderstood. Please believe me that I try. Push comes to shove. You can't take it anymore.

Beautiful voice. Thank you. Can't believe this guy's in my basement right now. Holy smokes. I might have to keep you here. He looks a little nervous right now. I'm looking around for shackles. Push Comes to Shove.

This is from Warmth of the Sun. And that's your latest album so this is a nice segue into because i want to i do want to talk about um gore downing uh but this tell me a little bit about this uh this is the first single and about the album and then uh we'll talk about gourd and the tragically hip in a moment here. So tell me about Push Comes to Shove and tell me about Warmth of the Sun, if you don't mind. Well, Push Comes to Shove is,

we've been, the last three or four years, we've been going out to Alberta in May to play some shows. And I've taken that opportunity to sneak away for a few days to the Banff Centre. And so I've been at the Banff Centre. I get a studio

and it's such a beautiful and creative place. And I've been taking songwriting retreats out there. And Push Comes to Shove is one of the songs that I wrote through Guelph. Through Guelph, through Banff. And Warmth of the Sun is our first album of all original or mostly original material

since Northern Shore in 2012. So it's just time. Josh and I started getting together last January and we mostly write, we come up with ideas separately and then we get together and kind of flesh things out.

That way someone will suggest a line here or a bridge there. And so that's really how we started. it's a collection of songs more so than there's i wouldn't say there's really an overall theme to the record but after you're done you kind of see the threads are there the threads are definitely there you know about compassion and listening and paying attention so and the song Warmth of the Sun

is a song that Josh wrote after he, or he, he, he and Gord Downie were very good friends and, and Josh was involved in,

in almost all of Gord's solo projects. And so he played on the Secret Path tour or the shows. They did a couple solo projects. And so he played on the Secret Path tour or the shows. They did a couple of shows. And I think, you know, it was a very powerful, very, very powerful experience.

Yeah, it kicks off with all I can say is let's make it right. That's definitely an homage to Gord's statements about the First Nation communities. Behind you, by the way, that's a print I bought. So the Secret Path,

the animator of the Secret Path sold those prints with all the money going to the Chenyuan Jack Foundation. Yeah, it's beautiful. Yeah, it is. It's beautiful. And it's been given

the prominent spot in the studio to inspire. So tremendous. You mentioned mainly new material, but here, let's... Since we're talking about Gord and the Hip here. This is...

So here, help me out, because I know this song is the Depression Suite. The Depression Suite is, I think, comprised of three different songs, and this is one of the songs. Right, The Rock. The Rock, yeah.

The pillow, a bear in my head, try to shut Chicago out. As it turns out There's a whole other world of sound Of perfect fifths Low skids and arctic howls All saying, are you going through something? Are you going through something? Under the pillow, a little room to breathe. The early morning lights, a pale cranberry.

I hear the ah. The Sky Diggers really are contemporaries of the Tragically Hip. Like, you sort of come up around the same time. Yeah. Yeah, they're a little bit ahead of us. Sure. But their big break, I guess, up to here, that's like, yeah, like 89, and your self-title's like 91.

But yeah, but you're coming up in the 90s, and, you know, you're pillars of the uh aforementioned uh can con rock legacy that that guys like me and guys and gals uh love today but tell me how well did you know gourd i know you mentioned josh knew him quite well but uh what was your relationship like ofing? I knew him very well. Yeah, he was a friend and I was always in awe of Gord. Just his capacity for words, for music, for performance. And it was, you know, the thing about Gord is that if you spent any time with him, he was far more interested in talking about you and what you were doing than talking about himself

and what he was doing. And he was very generous that way, and he was artistically generous and, you know, by no means perfect like all of us. You know, we all have our flaws, and that's what makes us human. But he was, you know, he's not gone. He's here. He's here every day. And that's, you know, he's going to be here every day for, I think, for a very long time.

And what a legacy he's left. About a year ago, on January 1st, 2017, George Stravallopoulos put together his collection of, I think he called it, for the HIP's 30th anniversary. He had like 30 covers. That's where our version of The Rock comes from. I'll let the studio version wind down here. Not my best editing ever.

But anyway, this is, so this is, yeah, this is part of, what we're listening to now is part of Strombo's, the Strombo Show's Hip 30. That's what it's called. The Strombo Show's Hip 30. Why this song? Well, Josh suggested it. He and Gord had been out in Newfoundland,

I think 2014 maybe. They did a festival just outside of St. John's and then drove across the island to Woody Point. There's a great literary festival and music festival. Is this the Stephen Brunt one? Yes, it is. Yeah, he was in here talking about it yeah and all i could think of is i got to go there yeah it's fantastic and and i went and joined them

so uh josh and i did a concert or two and then gordon josh did some stuff together and they were playing this this song as a duo uh and j Josh just suggested that it might be one that I would like to sing. And he was bang on. He was right. Again. Yeah, just the timbre of your voice. And it's kind of nice because, I mean,

you know, you can kind of name like, I don't know, 30 or 40 hip tracks that, you know, songs you hear everywhere, if you will. And then there's some lesser known, I would say lesser known, because this is from We Are The Same in 2009. And by that point, the guys who just want to hear,

they just want to hear, you know, Grace 2 again or whatever. Right. Some of them have... It's a beautiful song. Right. It's a gorgeous song. And you do do it justice so thank you for that all right you mentioned gords would want to hear about you so now i want to talk about the songs that uh influenced you and i'm going to play one

now so this is sort of like a teaser for the kick out the jams series that I have here. But let me play The Association. A song I recently heard on Breaking Bad. I was blanking for a minute. This one? Yeah. Wendy? Wendy? Tell me why you love this track.

I just, I mean, it's infectious. The great singing and just great melody. You know, I was probably about seven or eight years old when I first heard this song. And just, you know, it takes me back to my grandparents lived in Coburg. Beside them, there was a family called the Lovetts. They had actually four older daughters,

but two died in a car crash when they were teenagers. And then the younger two, we'd listen to music with my cousins. I was one of the younger of the cousins, so I was influenced by what my older cousins were listening to. And I just remember being out in the backyard playing tennis rackets to this song at about the age of eight. Nice.

I mean, it's real... It's really... It could easily be the Wrecking Crew playing on this. You know, you listen to the backing track. It's so good. And there was stuff... You know, Barbara Ann was another by the Beach Boys that we were listening to at about this time.

And then you said, I want to harmonize like that. I love singing. Yeah? Cool. There's nothing quite like voices combined in a song. The Sky Diggers are... It's amazing you had time to come see me here today because I was looking at the December schedule because, you know, tis the season.

Like, you're in... What is today, the 4th? Is today the 4th? Mm-hmm. I should know that. It is. So on the 6th, you're in London. Mm-hmm.

And then you're off to Kitchener on the 7th and Hamilton on the 8th. And then a little break. You get a little break, but then you're off to Meaford and Barrie and Gravenhurst and Ottawa on the 20th. And then, of break. You get a little break, but then you're off to Meaford and Barrie and Gravenhurst and Ottawa on the 20th, and then, of course, at the Horseshoe Tavern here in the

Big Smoke on the 22nd and the 23rd. And there's... Is... Okay. No, okay. So there... I have a note here about a Cowboy Junkies thing, but that was last summer, right? No, we're doing a show with the Junkies

and Lee Harvey Osmond at Massey Hall May 24th. Okay, why in my brain, Massey Hall is closed. Did I dream that? Is Massey Hall going to close, or is it not happening until after, obviously? You're not doing this with the wrecking ball around here. I think it's July of next year.

Okay, that explains it. Okay, okay. They're closing it for a year or two for renovations. And I think the last concert is going to be Gordon Lightfoot before they shut it down for the renovation. Well, it should be. Absolutely. Did you enjoy yourself here today? I did.

Thank you, Mike. No regrets. You won't be sending a nasty email to the guy who plays on this track when you get home to Lawrence. I close every episode. Every episode. This is 288, I think I said. Every episode closes with Lowest of the Lows, Rosie and Gray. You can't beat Rosie and Gray.

If they're going to close all their shows with it, I can close this podcast with it. Perfect. Andy, the furnace close this podcast with it. Perfect. Andy, the furnace is just around the corner. After we finish recording here, you can check it out for me. Thank you. Thanks, Mike. Thanks for doing this. Really enjoyed talking to you.

And that brings us to the end of our 289th, I think. Hold on. Let me go to the top here. This is very important to get this right. 89th. Yes, this is 289, not 288. Okay, great. Look, I'm ahead of myself here.

So, episode 289. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike. Now, Andy, you're not on Twitter. I am not. But the Sky Diggers are at Sky Diggers. I guess, yeah, somebody does. Somebody's doing it because somebody liked my tweet about an hour and a half ago.

Oh, good. I'm like, is that Andy? Who's doing that? Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer. Propertyinthe6.com is at Brian Gerstein. And PayTM is at PayTM Canada. See you later this week when Jill Deacon is my guest. Cause everything is rosy and green Well you've been under my skin for more than eight years

It's been eight years of laughter and eight years of tears