Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Banjo Dunc: Toronto Mike'd #565

Episode Date: January 2, 2020

Mike chats with Banjo Dunc about his work with Whiskey Jack and more before he kicks out the jams.

What up, Mike? Toronto. VK on the beat. Check. I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love. I'm from Toronto where you wanna get the city love. I'm in Toronto, Mike, we wanna get the city love. My city love me back for my city love.

I'm in Toronto where you wanna get the city love. I'm from Toronto where you wanna get the city love. I'm in Toronto,'d, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, StickerU.com, The Keitner Group, and Banjo Dunk from Whiskey Jack. I'm Mike from TorontoMike.com, and joining me this week is the aforementioned Banjo Dunk,

Duncan Fremlin. Welcome, Duncan. Thanks, Mike. banjo dunk duncan fremlin welcome duncan thanks mike it's really great to be here and i can call you banjo dunk because that's what i've been doing that's all me whatever you like uh unprepared as as unusual i've just realized i don't even have my notes open here but uh let's start by uh i feel like like can i start you may start while i i feel like uh first of all it's a i've been binging on your show so uh you and i met shortly before i left for a couple of weeks in barbados and i think we met in late november so i had a lot of time you know around the pool around the in the beach to listen to a lot of shows in the past. And you and I had already worked out an arrangement where I was going to be running some ads on your podcast. It reminded me of a few years ago, four or five years ago,

when I discovered Jesse Brown's podcast. The same thing, around the pool, I just listened, you know. So now, I can't say I'm caught up with yours, but I have a pretty good flavor of, you know, of what it's like. If you had told me I'm caught up with yours, but I have a pretty good flavor of what it's like. If you had told me you were caught up, I was going to whip out my calculator and tell you that's impossible. But do you have any favorite episodes you want to shout out? Oh, the Ralph Ben-Murray episode, I liked a lot. I love his, I don't know, the tone of his, of the way.

The timbre. I've been a fan of his. He used to fill in on a CBC morning show called Fresh Air occasionally. And compared, you know, the shows that he hosted as compared to what the normal show was like, the contrast was so extreme. I was hoping that he'd come on and just do it all the time. There was such a calm professionalism to his approach that, yeah,

I found I really liked his episode. You're going to love this news, which is that Ralph Ben-Murgy is a client of mine. And I know, this is what I should tell people. It sounds like we rehearsed this, but this is completely organic, as they say. But we actually, I'm producing a podcast for Ralph called Not That Kind of Rabbi with Ralph Ben-Murgy. We've already recorded four episodes here, and we're recording four more next week. And you can subscribe now, so people listening to our voices should go to their, however you subscribe to Toronto Mic'd and subscribe to Not That Kind of Rabbi

with Ralph Ben-Murgy. There's a teaser trailer there right now. And we're going to drop these episodes next week. So it's going to be fantastic. I'll be able to binge on those. Yeah, for sure. And so, Ralph, do you want to drop one more reference, one more episode just to see if we have another client?

Well, I love the Gallagher-Gross, the insanity of those two characters. I mean, they've been in my life for decades, right? I've been watching and listening to them for a long time. And I was just thinking the other day that you're kind of a cross between Brian Linehan and Howard Stern. You're not. Oh, I love hearing this. And you told me this before I pressed record.

And I literally like snapped at you and I'm like, dunk, save that gold for the recording. I feel like it's a confessional, this podcast, because people say things here that, you know, it's so innocent down here. We're just in a little room. Like, who's going to be hearing that? I can tell you anything, Mike. So you're not outrageous like Howard, but Howard can get, you know, he can get Ringo Starr to talk about the other Beatles' penises. Right.

And who else could do that, you know? And then you get Gallagher and Gross to talk about their sex capades and their drug use and all. It's amazing. Thank you. Again, yeah, thank you. Again, I should really thank you for name dropping another TMDS client. Those are the only episodes. Next, you'll tell me you love the Hebsey episodes.

But I got to say, Gallagher and Gross, we've recorded 21 episodes of Gallagher and Gross Save the World. And I mean, this sounds like it's a, it sounds biased, but even if they were recording this podcast somewhere else, I think they're amazing. Like they just shoot from the hip and it's so much real talk and it's, I just, I can't get enough. It's improv, you know, it's like, I love the Sean Cullen episode. Sean's a good friend of mine and we do shows with him.

So it was really interesting to hear his take on it because we don't, you know, we don't get a chance. We're in the dressing room, like we're on the same hockey team. So we're in the dressing room. We're sitting there buck naked. We don't really talk about the kind of things that he talks about with you. So it was really, and then Tyler, Tyler Stewart's the one that turned me on to your podcast. Okay. Let's start with that. So here, let me play a little bit. Now, Dunk, this is from early 90s, so well after you stopped listening to new music. So we should point that out.

Sadly, yes. I have another confession to make to the country. And I don't know if I should be ashamed of this or not, but I know virtually nothing about the Tragically Hip. Yeah, you don't know shame in that because you like what you like. But as a proud Canadian You'd think that you would have done a little homework But you know, honestly But you might like them

Like maybe you've been missing out on this Look, one of the great things about listening to some of your past podcasts Well, I should tell you that The Dave Hodge 100 song thing I listened to the whole thing And I heard songs in there and heard of bands that I didn't know existed. So my feeling is that this is a hanging out with you is going to be an education in Canadiana. For sure. But I'm pleased to hear you have familiarity with Bare Naked

Ladies. But OK, so tell us about how you know Tyler Stewart and how he has brought us together. Because Tyler Stewart, as mentioned in the last episode of Toronto Mic with Mark Weisblatt from 1236, his episode, and he did an episode like a year ago almost, is one of the great episodes in the history of Toronto Mic. Have you heard of Tyler Stewart? I did. Nice and long. Again, I'm learning stuff about the city and the music scene. I just feel so inadequate when I listen to this because, you know, the ladies,

I've known Tyler for a few years because we've been on the same hockey team. It's called the Joker's hockey team and Sean Collins on it as well. And so I was sitting, I guess it was a few weeks ago now, I'm sitting in the dressing room up at Upper Canada College. And again, you know, we're buck naked and we're sitting there. And Tyler's talking about, he's thinking about, you know about hosting a podcast, I think, or something like that. Oh, wow. Tell him to come here.

What's your favorite podcast? And he mentioned you and sadly I hadn't heard of you. So I went home and a few days later I pulled you up and here we are. So I owe Tyler for this relationship. No, first of all, I'm glad to hear, because they say, what happens in the dressing room stays in the dressing room. So that's like a moment of truth, right? I mean, I'm on your podcast.

This is a confessional, Mike. What else can I confess? But I'm thinking, like, so when you ask Tyler what podcasts, I guess you ask him, like, what podcast does he enjoy or whatever, and he says to you, Toronto Mike, in a hockey room, dressing room, to to me that is as real talk as it gets like he's telling you the truth and I'm hearing this now and it just tickles me pink that's fantastic yeah the word spreads

that's that's how that's how isn't that how the podcast world is gonna is gonna evolve everyone's connected like you you naturally you just said oh you love ralph ben murgy and his episodes and meanwhile i'm i've been working the last month with this guy on a brand new project that's gonna kick off like in less than a week uh actually a week today i believe we drop episode one and yeah amazing and tyler stewart fantastic the band bernicke lee is fantastic so you're connected to sean cullen who's a former guest fotm as we say and you're connected to tyler stewart who is an fotm because you play hockey any other celebrities on that team i know you know dave badini from the league uh we're not playing in his league anymore but i've played lots of games against dave and he and i've chatted he of course is a stomp and tom fan and has hosted i think he might have hosted the very first stomp

and tom tribute after he died at the horseshoe and we played at that i don't know if that was Tom fan and has hosted, I think he might have hosted the very first Stompin' Tom tribute after he died at the Horseshoe. And we played at that. I don't know if that was the first one or not. So I know Dave. I don't think he's very happy with me these days because I didn't renew my subscription to the Phoenix. Oh, the West End Phoenix.

The West End Phoenix, yeah. Oh, yeah. He's out hustling, eh? He's hustling big time and I feel bad but you know I only have a limited budget for this kind of thing

and I really believe in I really believe in the investigative journalism that's going on at Jesse Brown's podcast so I really I think that's really important to hold people

Canada land Canada land right he does quite well I see his Patreon numbers and I think good for him. Well, it's important work because nobody else is doing it. So that's like policing the police.

This is like... Making everybody accountable in a world where nobody's accountable. I think it's pretty important. Well, good for Jesse. And thank you, Tyler and Banjo Dunk. Great to have you on the team. There's so much to cover here. There's so many other connections,

but let's start with, can you tell me a little bit about how you know Stomp and Tom? Can we start with that? Yeah, yeah. It goes back to, I guess, sometime in 89. I have a really good friend in Vancouver who, there's also an Alomar Carter story

that you and I could share a little bit later. You can spit it out now. I find I've learned from doing 565 of these that when somebody says, later I'll tell you story X, we never get to it. There's like a 10% chance we remember to do it. So I'm like, now it's like, if you mention you have a story about Alomar and Carter,

I'm like, we need it right now. Okay, okay. So I guess it was, I have a good friend of Vancouver. He used to be in the music business. He managed and he had a record studio, etc. But he also had a cousin who patented some kind of computer program back in those days. And it was called Supervision. And the idea was on a TV screen, you could see the trajectory of a baseball.

And now you see it all the time. But in those days, no one had ever done this before. So I was a minor investor in this, and my friend Bob Harris was a cousin of, he was on the board of directors. So we're in Toronto, and I think it's December of, maybe it was 1990, when they had the winter meetings in Chicago. And as you know, the city in those days was such a

buzz with everything Blue Jay. We were from the middle of the 80s on. Well, we won the AL East in 89. And we blew it another time. We blew it in 87. It was really bad. And we didn't win in 90 either. Anyways, the rest is history. But yes, it's a we didn't win in 90 either. Right, right.

Anyways, the rest is history. But yes, it's a big, big, big Jays town, especially then. So he's visiting me in Toronto, and he got invited by the supervision people to come to the Chicago meetings because they had been invited by the executive to show their software to the teams, thinking that the teams could use it in some form or another. Right. So they had a little studio set up there. And so Bob and I, we were in Toronto at the time.

So in those days, I thought maybe you still can hop on a train in Toronto and get off in Chicago. It was just one train. And so we made our way to Chicago in the middle of an awful snowstorm and arrived there. And anyway, we hung out with the supervision guys. And I don't know the exact order of how this all played out. But during the course of the weekend, there's always a TV screen going with the –

I think they had recorded a game in San Francisco earlier that year. And we're just playing the game. So every time the pitcher would pitch a ball, you'd see the supervision. Yeah, like a pitch tracker. Yeah, that kind of thing. And it was just replaying all the time. And so there was a guy sitting there from the team that was watching this. And all of a sudden, he noticed that there was a rising fastball.

Now, Tommy Lizarda had been on the bandwagon saying that there is such a thing as a rising fastball, and no one had been able to prove it. Everybody said, oh, there's no way. Well, we were able to prove it with this supervision thing. So if somebody jumps up, they run out, and they get Tommy. Tommy comes running down down and he sees the he's all excited you know they he sees that there is indeed he now can prove that there's a rising fastball right shortly after that i don't know maybe later on that afternoon i'm sitting i'm

hanging around the lobby uh the the room where they were all meeting it's it was just one of those committee rooms and i was hanging around there and all of a sudden the doors throw open. It might have been Dave Perkins. I don't think it was Bob Elliott, but one of those guys. And I love that episode too, by the way. Since you mentioned both names, I got to say that might be,

you know, next to this one, that might be my favorite episode of all time. It was Perkins and Elliott. Great. You can listen to those stories all day. Well, now I'm wondering how long do I have to wait before i try that again yeah like i was thinking yearly but i don't know they're old dudes i gotta do this you gotta get on it man they're vertical you want to get it i think summer 2020 we gotta do this again so yes please continue yeah well anyway uh

the the doors fly open and one of these guys comes out and there's you can see the spark in there something important happened and he turned to me and he said they just got alomar and carter i don't know if this had been buzzing around the the news uh in the days leading i don't think so i don't think so i don't remember any surprise and i remember at the time just going man this is a game changer this is like this is like the eagles getting uh felder and Walsh. This is a super team now all of a sudden, and sure enough.

You're right, and I know at the time, I remember, because I was reading Perkins and the Star, and I remember at the time Alomar was a bit of an unknown because he was a prospect, kind of. I think he had, he was very, very young, and there was humongous upside for Robbie Alomar, but unlike carter who we knew is

like you could bank on carter to get 30 homers and 100 rbis but we gave up two all-stars but of course the the massive upside of the alomar uh had you convinced and just five we talked about these five tool guys right like alomar to me like he could steal bases okay i've never seen a guy play second base that that way defensively. Take him over Ricky Henderson any day of the week. Oh, my God, yeah. Well, especially the Ricky we got, who didn't want to run for a bit. Run, Ricky, run.

But that's wild, that story, because that's the trade that changed everything. And since we're in confession mode, I have another confession to make. Please do. And since we're in confession mode, I have another confession to make. Please do. So I know that I'm going to be part of the team, the supervision team,

so I have to have a nice coat. And so I throw my jacket in a garment bag, and we hop in the train, and Bob and I are sitting there. We just spend four or five hours laughing our ass off, having a great old time. We go through custom support here on. And we don't even pay attention. Bob and I are sitting there. We just spend four or five hours laughing our ass off, having a great old time. We go through custom support here on. And we don't even pay attention. He's just walking down the aisle, and we're just laughing. Honestly, this was 90, I guess 90.

Basically, pre-9-11, it was different. It was totally different, yeah. Anyway, we get to Chicago, and we're sitting in the hotel room. We've got nothing to do one night. Oh, no, I know what it is. We're going to go down to one of the meet. We're going to have dinner with the Supervision Boys. And I throw on my jacket and I stick my hand in my left pocket and I've got nine joints sitting in my left.

And I went through customs with nine joints. Lucky is not the word. I had been at a wedding a few months before and I was going to give it to the groom. Yeah, you dodged it. And I totally forgot. I dodged it, man. Wow. Okay, well, you have that it. And I totally forgot. I dodged it, man. Wow.

Okay, well, you have that face. You don't, people aren't pulling you aside. We weren't paying attention. We were laughing so hard during that, when he was walking through the car, they didn't pay attention to us. Wow. Well, I'm glad that you escaped that one, unscathed. That's great news.

Now, okay, so Stompin' Tom, and tell me if, telling your story, like I just want to talk about Whiskey Jack, but also there's, I'm looking at your new poster back here, Doogie and Dunn, and I'll have to. Well, let me just get back to the, so Bob Harris is responsible for me meeting Stompin' Tom, my Vancouver guy. He introduced me to an agent, someone who was part of the Anne- the ann murray management team at belmar

her name's tinty moffett a lot of people listening to this podcast know who i'm talking about an amazing business lady beautiful drummer very skilled top agent in the country and and then she you know now she's in nashville and and working uh in the nashville communities but uh so tinty called me because she knew that I had been, Bob told her that I had been on the road and knew the game kind of thing. And they were looking for somebody. Tom was making a comeback.

He had been away from the business for 13 years. I remember this comeback. Yeah, and it was a very emotional time in the country. Meech Lake, free trade. The country was divided, and so people were clamoring. Peter Zosky was clamoring for Tom to come back and unite the country. So they needed somebody to represent the promoter. So my job was to basically oversee the promoter's role

throughout across the country. Tom had his own little team. But I was, so we were working very, so I got to know Tom. I took my banjo, we jammed on the thing. So we developed a friendship and a musical friendship in 1990. So prior to meeting Stompin' Tom, you were a musician. Yeah, I had been on the road from sometime in the 70s to the late 80s with Whiskey Jack touring the country.

Okay, good. This is, I'm trying, yeah, for the wiki page I'm going to write. So there's a Whiskey Jack prior to Stompin' Tom's involvement in your life. Well, as a matter of fact, Tom told me that we used to be on the Tommy Hunter Show back in the early 80s. Of course. So we had our own segment. It was called The Old Back Porch. And we'd invite, you know, Goober from Andy Griffith's show or Cousin Clam or Grandpa Jones.

They'd come out. So we'd do a song. Right, like the Hee Haw guys or something. Yeah, those guys. Yeah, they'd come out and they'd tell a joke and then we'd send them off. So we had this, you know, set that we'd. So we did that for a few years.

And then they sold it to Nashville Network. So even though we did that for a few years and um and then they they sold it to nashville network so even though we only recorded three or four years we were on tv like for eight or nine years you're probably on tv somewhere right now i don't know i i doubt it very much i doubt the country music as big as it was in those days amazing so okay so uh and by the so stomp and tom uh i'm just trying to chronologically so So you wrote a book. We should probably tell people right now that you wrote a book about your adventure. Tell me about my good times of Stompin' Tom. Well, the 1990 tour, Tom told me that he had been watching us on the Tommy Hunter show in the 80s.

So he knew my role in Whiskey Jack, etc. So in 1993, i'd go out and see him we'd spend sunday afternoon playing chess and hanging out and playing tunes and stuff so in in 1993 he was looking for somebody to go on the road because he was going to do another tour and so he took me out to dinner i tell the story in the book he and his wife lena took me out to dinner in georgetown and sat me in a Chinese restaurant and asked if I think I could put Whiskey Jack together to go on the road with him. And all I could think of was, man, we're going to play soft seat theaters.

We're going to play in front of the best Canadian, you know, the fans, the best fans in the country. And I said, boy, I'm pretty sure I can do that, Tom. So, you know, in 93 I toured with him. And so from that, you know, I have all these stories. And now that I'm on the road with this show, Stories and Songs of Stompin' Tom, the fans are very, they have a real appetite for Tom

because he's this kind of iconic, weird, eccentric character. And they, you know, they just want to know what he's like. So I put some stories in the book. And since you mentioned Stories and Songs of Stompin' Tom, we should tell people right now that on April 16th, 2020, can you believe we're in 2020? Can you believe that? Doesn't that sound like the future?

At my age, it's a miracle. Never thought I'd get this far. No, come on, you look great. And you're still out there performing because April 16th, 7.30 p.m. at Zoomer Hall, that's 70 Jefferson Avenue, of course. Whiskey Jack presents Stories and Songs of Stompin' Tom. So what exactly

can people expect? Well, we're kind of part of the, we're kind of part of Moses Nimer's family now. We've been doing this at Zoomer Hall. This will be our third, I think. And it's going to be broadcast live on Robbie Lane. You know, Robbie Lane and the Disciples.

Yes, yes, yes. He's got a nightly show. So it's going to be on his show. It's going to be streamed on the internet. So this is the seventh annual, Mike. I've been doing this. This is the seventh birthday party. Wow.

And I've had some guests. Like last year, I had Gordon Lightfoot was there. He sang the hockey song with us. Wow. I had the Good Brothers and Russell DeCaro from Prairie Oyster. I had Murray Foster from Great Big Sea. It was an amazing night. So every year I always get special guests.

And this year, in 2020, FOTM Sean Cullen's going to be my guest. He's hilarious. He is very funny. And is he going to do some of the songs he used to do back when? Well, the very first time we've done. I'm making requests now. We've done some shows with Sean. The very first show I did back in 2014, he was on and he got up and he sang.

He made up a song right on stage. It was called I Love Poutine. And it brought the house down. So you never know what he's going to do, right? See, I almost feel like he's so clever and funny. I don't think the world knows how to compartmentalize him. They don't know where to put him. How do they keep up?

To market these people, he's kind of too clever and sharp for this world to be like... Have you read some of his books? You know he's an accomplished author. He writes too? Oh, you should I love his emails he sent out an email

to the Joker hockey team a couple a few days ago and it's brilliant I gotta okay so again that's an amazing

little addition you got there and again this is April 6th 730 April 16th April 16th right that's a Thursday

how do people buy tickets? Yeah, you can go to our website. Actually, just go to hellooutthere.ca. How about that for a simple thing? Hellooutthere.ca. Now, I'm playing a little bit of Tilsonburg. This is from Rhymes and Good Times of Stompin' Tom. Yeah.

Here's another name that has cropped up on this show over the last, Bernie Finkelstein, I love that interview. He talked about my lead singer, this guy here

singing this song, Douglas John Cameron. He's my singer in Whiskey Jack and guitar player. Okay, I wish I had the sound of a record scratch here,

but let's rewind the tape here. So let me bring down Tilsonburg here. And I'm going to play. You got Cavan County in there? Which one? Cavan County. So that's a song that. Hold on here.

That's a song that Douglas wrote that we played. Okay, standby. We're going to do this. Oh, wow. This is great. And then I'll do Cavan County. Oh, this is. We're going to do this. Oh, wow. This is great. And then I'll do Kevin. Oh, this is great. This is.

I'm in charge here, Doug. Mona with the children. Right. Okay, so Bernie was on. Yeah. Great guest. Yeah. As you heard.

Really good. And at the time, I didn't realize that the singer of this song, Doug Cameron? Yep. I didn't realize he was the Dunn in Doogie. No, he's Doogie. He's the Doogie, yes, sir. You're the Dunn. He's the Doogie in Doogie and Dunn.

I didn't realize. And Bernie didn't realize either. He was wondering what Doug was up to these days. And then you told me right away afterwards. By the way, this is the studio version because i played i played the video version during the bernie episode and michael mon has helped me find the uh studio track so great story if you go back to the bernie finkelstein episode you can hear the story of the releasing this song and it becoming a hit in this country and it's quite the story and this guy singing right now who wrote the song too,

right? This is his jam. That's right. He's in your band. He's, uh, he's my, he's my guy.

He's my musical partner. That's amazing. It is. It is. All right, let's get to the chorus here, huh? I was born in Cabot County in 1955 My daddy had an old dirt farm down on the 7th line My mama was a town's end from up on Old Cherry Hill.

I was raised with the rocks and trees, the doves and the whippoorwills. Wow. My granddaddy came from Ireland and I... One more coincidence with Douglas John. Yeah, give me another Douglas. Here's another one. Okay. You know, my good friends Joe and Mike

live across the street from you. Yes. Well, right down the street. I think it's number 61. His mom lived there when his dad was courting her. And we were discussing this a couple of nights ago. We think Douglas John might have been conceived just down the street from here, Mike.

Now you're blowing my mind, Banjo Dunks. That's too much for me. I can't handle anymore. But there's more. Okay, there's more. There's more. Speaking of the Blue Jays, you brought up the Joe Carter Alomar trade

for Fernandez and McGriff. Do you recognize this voice? Oh, well, that's Aaron Davis. So Aaron and Rob. Rob, he was my bass player. Aaron Davis' husband. He was my bass player for quite a long time. Rob Whitehead.

Rob Whitehead, that's right. And my goalie, by the way. I play hockey three times a week, and Rob was my goalie for many years. And Aaron, we've been on Aaron's show. Whiskey Jack has been on Aaron's show and singing. Well, she's a big fan of yours. Well, I hope so. She has to be.

No, I just had a note regarding that coincidence. Yeah. Because there was another coincidence, and then she's like, you know, but that's wild. Crazy. CMC. Well, do you want to hear the coincidence? Yeah, sure. Aaron is going to be a guest

on Ralph Ben Murgie's new podcast oh wow which I believe when she agreed to this I don't think she knew I had anything to do with this but of course

I will be you know my mic is muted but I'm I'm there now Aaron is on the west coast so I believe we'll do this one

via Skype or something but yeah so and then she mentioned the banjo dunk coincidence yeah So I believe we'll do this one via Skype or something. But yeah. And then she mentioned the banjo dunk coincidence. Yeah, that's wild. This is some old... I have a bunch of these old Blue Jays songs. Blue Jays be good.

They call this Aaron Davis and the CHFI lights, I think, is how they build these guys. Great stuff, eh? Okay, so to recap, Mona and Her Children, which we talked about with Bernie Finkelstein, is recorded and sung by Doug Cameron, who is in Whiskey Jack and Doogie and Dunn. Correct. With you, Banjo Dunk. Correct.

Okay. You play hockey with Tyler Stewart from Bare Naked Ladies and FOTM. Sean Cullen. with Tyler Stewart from Bare Naked Ladies and FOTM. Sean Cullen. And Sean Cullen, who is going to be part of your Whiskey Jack Presents Stories and Songs of Stompin' Tom on April 16. Correct.

And Erin Davis, her husband was in your band and your friends, close personal friends with Erin Davis, who is going to guest on Ralph Ben-M murgy's podcast uh not that kind of rabbi and ralph was your favorite toronto mike guest it doesn't this is crazy mike this is out of control amazing now you're going to kick out the jams and this is something different you're the first jam kicker who will be playing their jams so i've opened up a bluetooth channel and you will have control if you play something on your tablet there i'm gonna hear but don't start yet yeah because let's do a little housekeeping here okay uh you as a sponsor of

toronto mic are in good company because you're joining the likes of great lakes brewery uh local fresh craft beer they're fiercely independent. Fantastic people. Great company. But even more importantly, they make great beer. So you're taking that six-pack home with you. Fantastic. Craft breweries across the province are supporting live music in a big way. Actually, across the country.

And it's really, we need this. We really appreciate it. And more importantly, they do host TMLX events. So you'll be at the next one. But the next one actually, the next event's going to be at Sticker U, Queen and Bathurst area. They have a bricks and mortar store.

StickerU.com. I've given you a Toronto Mike sticker. So Banjo Dunk, you get to keep that. And they're great partners of the show, Sticker U. I have a lasagna in my freezer upstairs that is yours. Would you prefer a meat lasagna or a vegetarian lasagna? Well, personally, I prefer a meat, but I'm going to ask for a vegetarian

so that more people in the family can enjoy it. Well, look at you being all selfless and not hogging on, because there's a lot of lasagna there. So if you have to take all that down yourself. I'm one of the most selfless people you're going to meet. That's good to know. I just doubled your rates. Okay.

So on that note, I really, this is really exciting because there's a new sponsor of Toronto Mic'd and this is the first time I've announced it. And I want to welcome to the program, the Keitner Group, the Keitner Group at Keller Williams

and the gentleman there who I know best. I know a few people there. They're great people, but Austin KiteNer, I've been friendly with him for a couple of years now. He keeps, the KiteNer group, they keep hosting these fundraising events for the Franklin Horner Community Center and other good causes in the community, if you will. They're a key part of the community. So it's really amazing to have the Keitner Group on board. And we're going to have a very short segment where Austin Keitner of the Keitner Group and I, we discuss Toronto real estate.

We're going to call it Toronto Real Estate Minute with Austin Keitner of the Keitner Group. And this is where the FOTMs out there come in. If you could DM me or email me any questions at all you have about Toronto real estate, I'll make sure we record a good answer from Austin. So any real estate questions, send them my way. And welcome to the family, the Keitner Group. Now, do you want to set up your jam before you you play it and then you could maybe again i'll

control the fading you're just going to play but uh the alternative is we could do it i normally do which is you just start playing it then i'll bring it down and then we'll get your story i want to set up the first one in particular so i had emailed you and asked you if you'd ever heard of clyde gilmore so clyde gil, for those that don't know, had a radio show on the CBC forever. And I think it was on twice a week. And it was not the kind of show that my age group would normally listen to. It was like a lot of big band stuff and just stuff that pre-my generation kind of thing. And he had a very interesting style, etc. And for some reason, somewhere in the 19... Well, I know what I did. Whenever we released an album, I just sent it to everybody.

And I'm sure I sent one to Clyde. Right. And he discovered a song on one of our albums. So he introduced the song, and he was such a character. I have a recording of the introduction that he made for the song that I want to play before I play the song. Okay, cool. What year is this?

This would be 1980, probably 82, maybe 83, something like that. Okay, so this is the last year you listened to new music. Is that correct? Pretty much, yeah. I kid, I kid. That's what we do around here, man. I kid. All right, that's cool.

So we're going to hear Clyde Gilmore, and then we're going to hear the song. Then we're going to hear the song. But before we play the song, the song is called skin and bones is one it's one of our songs so the before before doogie came along in my life i had a singer uh my partner was a guy named bob mcdinvan he had to retire a couple of years ago and uh but without bob mcdinvan i mean i wouldn't i'm a banjo player like i wouldn't have a career. A banjo player needs a guitar player to have any kind of career in music. Unless you're Maurice Boyer or Earl Scruggs. Even Earl Scruggs needed a guitar player.

So Bob was my guitar player. Great singer, great songwriter. So he's the lead singer on this song that you're going to hear. So the introduction is by Clyde Gilmore. The song is called Skin and Bone, and it's produced by Chad Urshik, a Juno Award-winning producer, Chad Urshik. So let's play Clyde Gilmore and see what happens.

Finally now, the Canadian bluegrass group Whiskey Jack in a sardonic outburst poking fun at the thin-as-beautiful voluntary starvation lunacies of modern times. The song was written by an English pop musician named Ray Davies. Whiskey Jack is a Toronto-based vocal and instrumental squad consisting of Duncan Fremlin, John Hoffman, Bob McNiven, and Greg Street. The robust lyrics of Skin and Bones evidently agree with the Oxford thesaurus, which includes such words as these

among the synonyms for thin, skeletal, cadaverous, emaciated, starved, and shrunken. Not one of those words can be found under the synonyms for beautiful,

yet the gospel thin is beautiful continues to be expounded by some, not all, of today's fashion authorities. Slender and willowy are seldom, if ever, used as alternatives. Skin and Bones, performed by Whiskey Jack. performed by Whiskey Jack. Oh. Fat Flabby Annie was incredibly big She weighed just about 16 stone And a fake dietitian went and put her on a diet Now she looks like skin and bone She looks like skin and bone

Do the meditation and yoga She's thrown away the good food guide She's given up the alcohol, the pizzas and the pies And now she looks like she's ready to die You can't see her walking by She don't eat no mashed potatoes She don't eat no mashed potatoes. She don't eat no buttered scones. Stay away from carbohydrates.

You're going to look like skin and bones. Skin and bones. Duncan, firstly, that intro was amazing. So did you record that off the radio? Yeah. So you knew that. Okay. Yeah.

In fact, I have a message that he left on my phone, one of those answering machines, those tape machines, I have a message that he left telling me that he was going to be broadcasting the song and he would do that,

he only, he played it twice over the years and both times he let me know that he was going to play it. Amazing. Yeah, and a good friend

of mine was, worked in the library at the CBC at the time and he told me that Clyde likes, how should I put this, ample women. Yeah, everyone has their own taste, and I'll leave it at that there. But cool, because this is a national show, we should point out. This isn't just a Toronto show. Within a certain demographic, it was a very big show in its day.

In the early 80s, and still, but to a lesser extent now, because of the internet and everything. But back then, that really was the tie that binds. CBC Radio was sort of what united this country. Mike, if you're driving down, if you're on the road, and if you're in a band and you're cruising the country, what are you going to listen to? It's radio.

I mean, that's all there was. For sure. And that's part of the fun is as you lose one signal, finding the next one, right? Right, right, right. Part of the adventure. Okay, and this song, so it's a kink song? Yeah, yeah.

Ray Davis wrote it, yeah. And what album? Did this appear on a Whiskey Jack album? Yeah, the album is called Skin and Bone, but I re-released a compilation of the first three albums on a CD, and I have a few copies of those left. You're not the first jam kicker to kick out one of their own songs. Well, I had to do this because of Clyde

and also because of my buddy Bob. Oh, for sure. I'm sure he's listening right now. He was with me for 40 years, so it's a drag he's not playing with me now. That's a shame there. I can tell you, if Maestro Fresh West for episode 416,

he kicked out the jams. One of his jams was Let Your Backbone Slide by Maestro Fresh West. I feel out the jams and one of his jams was Let Your Backbone Slide by Maestro Fresh West. Sure. I feel if the maestro can do it, Duncan Fremlin can do it. Well, I was almost ready

to do all my songs. Could you imagine? Well, my kids think I'm a bit of a loser because all they listen to is my own material. It's like when I go for a bike ride, the only podcast I want to listen to

is Toronto Mike. Darn right, yeah. All right, my friend, that's a good way to start us off. Are you ready to kick out the second one? Yeah, you know, there was a time when the music industry, the musicians really played a major role in the political climate. Certainly back when I was a teenager in my early 20s, you know, the Neil Youngs and the Graham Nashs, et cetera,

were writing songs that were relevant and pissed off the establishment, etc. And you don't see that so much anymore. But the one thing that I always admired about Tom more than anything, more than his music, more than anything was his principles. He compromised the, you know, the most important years of his career on principle. And I don't know too many people today that are willing to do that. But the one that came before him that stands to mind is, that comes to mind is Pete Seeger. Now, Pete was blacklisted at a time when, again, in the peak of his career, he couldn't travel.

You know, I think I heard on your show that he was scheduled to come to Toronto. I forget what or one of the gary's maybe what maybe yeah yeah and he was scheduled to come to toronto and he couldn't come because he was afraid imagine this afraid that he wouldn't get back into his own country well that's why he didn't some people live with that fear today but yeah yeah so i don't know i don't know about you but i really admire these guys. And the song that I think of when I think of Pete, it's a song called Where Have All the Flowers Gone? And this is the version that I love.

From a Pete Seeger compilation. It's by an Irish singer. It goes like this. I hope you like bagpipes because this is full of bagpipes. Who doesn't like bagpipes? Nobody. Nobody. Where have all the flowers gone?

Long time passing Where have all the flowers gone? Long time ago Where have all the flowers gone? The young girls picked them Everyone When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn? Well, of all the young girls gone

Long time passing Well, of all the young girls gone Long time ago Where have all the young girls gone? Gone to husbands, everyone When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn when will they ever learn okay banjo dunk

tell me the names of these singers Tommy Sands and Dolores what's her last name I can't remember Kierens Kierens

beautiful singers and if we just patient a little bit you're going to hear a bagpipe solo. So what's the difference between an orgasm and a bagpipe solo? I don't know. You know it's coming, but there's not a damn thing you can do about it. Is that part of your act? No, no, that's the only joke I know. I tell it at all the parties.

Here we go, listen to this. ¶¶ There is a God, Mike. There is a God. And he plays the bagpipes. See, now I want to go listen to some Pogues. You've got me in the mood here now. Return to the motherland. I'm sure the Pogues influenced the producer of this song, I'm sure.

Wow. Now, you don't have any bagpipes in Whiskey Jack. No, not full time. But my cousin, David Fremlin, is a very accomplished bagpiper. Oh. And he is the bagpiper in the movie Men with Brooms with Leslie Nielsen. So whenever Paul Gross is making out with a chick in a car in that movie, David walks up with his bagpipes. I think the Tragically Hip, they either have a a car in that movie. David walks up with his bagpipes. I think that the Tragically Hip,

they either have a cameo in that movie, I'm not sure about that, I think maybe, but they definitely have a song in the soundtrack because I think Silver Road with Sarah Harmer, which is a great song. Sarah Harmer with the Tragically Hip. Do you want another coincidence? Yeah, of course.

Sarah Harmer is Douglas Cameron's sister-in-law. I'm going to need a moment excuse me cameron's wife is sarah harmer's sister wow it gets the world you know what i love about your show mike this you have taken the metropolis of toronto this eight mil i don't know how many million people between Brantford and Oshawa or whatever, you've taken this huge conglomerate and reduced it into a tiny village. That's what's going on here today. It's a small world after all. Sarah Harmer, I'm a big fan. And no joke, just about, I'd say about three weeks ago, I was chatting with Tyler Campbell, who helps me

book some guests and we were talking about we got to get sarah harmer on toronto mike this was the conversation but it sounds like uh the the answer was under my nose the whole time you could put in a word i've spoken to her twice in my life so sure well but you know people who know her i know hey mike one thing one thing you can rely on with me, I know people. Feel free to drop any names because already I know you play hockey with and then you mentioned Bedini and stuff and you got the Aaron Davis connection. Well, how about Tim Thompson? Let's talk about our buddy Tim.

Oh, yeah. Let's talk about Tim Thompson. So we call him Boundless on Twitter, but Tim Thompson's been on the show a couple of times. Yeah. We call him Boundless on Twitter, but Tim Thompson's been on the show a couple of times. And Tim played University of Guelph, I want to say. He played hockey.

Yeah, he's got a very high level with my cousin. Correct. And he played down in, what, Louisiana or Mississippi or something? Well, famously, when I had Stephen Caldwell on the show, I announced I had my first ever professional athlete. And Tim Thompson corrected me because he was paid to play hockey. Correct. Right. So tell me about how you know Tim Thompson. Oh, how do I know Tim Thompson?

I know Tim through his mom and I were involved in an organization, and I got to know the family through her. I got to know Gord, Tim's dad, then patrick the brother and then tim and we did some i'm a real estate agent on the side so i did some real estate with them and tim also filmed uh i did some promotional videos for my real estate comp uh business and tim filmed some of those for me so and i play hockey i used to play hockey against tim because he was on the i forget the name of their team the one bedini's on no idea so i've played some hockey with tim as well i knew oh i've known him for a while but um i'm a fan of his work and he's been on a couple times but when i was invited to the lowest of the low album release party which was very exclusive like

family members and people on the album and some very close friends, if you will. I was lucky enough to be there for that. And Tim was there because Tim had been creating videos to promote, I think, the re-release of Shakespeare, My Butt or the box set or something. But he had been doing a bunch of videos for Lois DeLoe and he was there. And Jeff Woods was there too, if anyone's curious about the other FOTMs I bumped into. But yeah, Tim Thompson's a good guy and he's got great taste in music. Yeah, indeed.

In fact, again, my introduction to contemporary music is listening to, watching Tim's videos and now listening to your podcast. Yeah, he's got good taste in music. By the way, what made you learn the banjo? Like your banjo dunk. Yeah, I had been a folk strummer back in the late 60s and early 70s. And I had.

But like in Yorkville? No, no. At the Riverboat Cafe? No, Fanshawe College Coffee House, you know, that kind of thing. And I went to a bluegrass festival with my guitar back in, I was 27 at the time. And I camped next to a banjo player from Richmond Hill. Gord Braithwaite is his name. Some people out there will know Gord. Great banjo player. And I just sort of watched him all weekend. And I thought, Jesus, I can do that.

So I went home and went down to Longham, McQuaid and ran out of banjo. And a year later, I'm on the road. Wow. Okay. Well, you could do that in those days mike you could quit your job i had a great job with the government i quit my job went on the road knowing that you know if it didn't work out i find another job you could do that back in 1977 i was gonna say because about a decade later a member of blue rodeo did the opposite and quit the band to get a post office job yeah yeah so different times different times yeah different times. Yeah. But literally you could do that in the late seventies. There were lots of jobs.

And a fun fact that a member of blue rodeo who quit for the post office job was married to FOTM Ingrid Schumacher. So there you go. Kick out another jam. Yeah. Yeah. So the very, very first television program we did,

I think was in 77 with imagine I started playing, I don't know what month it was, but a year later I'm on TV and my knees are, I look at the video and my knees are shaking. You could see them rattling together. A show called Cafe Hibou in Ottawa. Tim O'Reilly, a great bluegrass songwriter and

musician, hosted the show. It was a local CBC show. And we were on with a singer named Carolina Edwards, and she was the former wife of Jonathan Edwards. So Jonathan had produced a CD, or a recording of Carolina, and in the car, in the limousine on the way back to the hotel, we traded cassettes, and I'd been listening to, this this is 1977 i've been listening to this cassette ever since it i this is the song that i just love it it's not a great recording but Walking down the beach

Lost his shoes, barefoot boy Laughing boy, oh you know that northern joy And I just got back from Nova Scotia I know that I'll be going back again Oh what a friend I am to myself again Summer had its share of rain

We all had our share of pain Disappointed love and scenes Sleeping with my dual dreams in vain And I just got back from Nova Scotia I know that I'll be going back again Oh, what a friend I am To myself again The water hits the jagged shore

And coming home is such a bore To go back when I was much before I'm not that lost There'd be more When I return Oh, when I turn, more when I turn, yeah. Banjo, don't let me get this straight. So in 1977, you get a cassette handed to you with this song by Carolina Edwards on it.

That's all I have. Called Nova Scotia. I've never seen the album. I can't find it on Spotify or iTunes or anything. I don't even know where Carolina Edwards is today, but I've been listening to it ever since. It's a great album. The whole album's fantastic.

And you carried this. So when you, did you transfer it to digital? Yeah, a few years ago. Because you couldn't find this on CD, for example, or YouTube or whatever. I've never heard a really great version, like a great, you know. It really sounds like I'm listening to it like with my, you know, with my 2020 ears. And it sounds like it could be like Casey Musgraves or something. Like you could hear this today.

There's another voice. Exactly. What a voice. It's similar to Timber, right? That's right, yes. I get chills when I hear this. again oh what a friend I am to myself again Donk if you email me this file and when I have a guest on from

Nova Scotia, I'll play it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, I'll do that. When Keegan, speaking of the Blue Jays, when Keegan Matheson comes back to set up the 2020 season, I'm going to play some Nova Scotia for him.

You should. He's from, where is he from? Halifax or something. He's from somewhere there, but amazing. That was really cool. And I like hearing the stories of obscurity, like that you get this cassette in 77, you carry it around with you

and you can't find it anywhere else. Like to me, that's a banjo dunk jam. You know what I mean? It's not like you're going to say, here's Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven. No, there's a story behind all these songs. Okay, let's hear another one.

Yeah, the next one is, as a banjo player, my tastes have evolved over the years. I'm not a great banjo player by any stretch. I came to it much late in life, and I have no musical background. I can't read music. I really don't know the difference between a sixth and a ninth chord,

but I know what I like, and I can hear it. But there's a Swiss player, him and his brother, they're called the Kruger Brothers, and they're in the same sort of league as Bela Fleck, except to me, they're warm. When I first, I was at Hughes Room one day, and I'd been hearing about this guy for two or three years, and really didn't give him too much, give him the time of day

until I got to Hughes Room, and the very first note, the very first song he played, I tell you, Mike, my life changed. I couldn't, I just couldn't believe it. This is what I heard. Thank you. And this is called Up 18 North. Yeah. They moved from Switzerland to South Carolina or something and really ingratiated themselves with the American country music or bluegrass community. I think they call it Americana now.

Americana? Yes. So they're Swiss Americana, and very entertaining fellows. Now the banjo, now that I think of it, like if you said name a banjo song, like it was just banjo, I would probably say, oh, that guy in Deliverance, that kid in Deliverance. Dueling banjos. Dueling banjos. Yeah, I get probably say, oh, that guy in Deliverance, that kid in Deliverance. Dueling banjos.

Dueling banjos. Yeah, I get that all the time, yeah. But there are banjo songs like this that are banjo only. And the image is Ned Beatty climbing up the... Squeal like a pig. Squeal like a pig. That movie, yeah, that was Burt Reynolds in his mess there. That movie haunted me, man.

Well, it haunted me, but for different reasons. Well, because of the song, every time you go anywhere, you play a dueling banjo. And that guy goes, God damn, you play a mean banjo. Now, there was a resurgence for banjo recently with, what's the rock? I Will Wait For You. Oh, the Mumford.

Yes, Mumford and Sons. And I have to admit, I was digging some Mumford and Sons, whatever that was, five, six years ago, whatever. But the banjos were all over that. So it was like the banjo crossed over. Have you seen how many million people have watched that video on YouTube? It's unbelievable. But does that help out

you either in Whiskey Jack or in Doogie with Dunn? Does it help at all? Suddenly the banjo's cool. No, it's still hard to sell tickets. That's what it's all about, selling tickets. People should come and see you just because you're an FOTM, so we're going to

expose people to some of this. But I also think of Steve Martin, actually. Oh, he's done more probably for the banjo than maybe anybody in the last 10 years. What a brilliant player. Right. I played for him or with him one time. You know, he was in Guelph filming one of his goofy movies, one of the movies where he had all those kids.

And the staff, it was his birthday, and the staff wanted to give him a birthday present. So this agent called me and said, can you put a band together and bring them out to the conservation area and play some banjo for the lunchtime crowd, which we did. And Steve went and got his banjo and he played with us. This is good because when somebody said, I need a banjo band right now,

they said, get me Banjo Dunk on the line. You're the go-to. And there's such a demand for it, Mike. It's like I'm too busy. I don't know where I find time for all this. So we just need Steve Martin to have more than one birthday a year. Am I right? What a nice fellow.

Just a gracious man. It was really wonderful. Kind of ageless because he decided to go white-haired when he was like 15 years old. Yeah. I remember. He's looked the same age for 50 years. Right, right.

You know, he's a great author. He's written plays. He's written novels. He's a renaissance man. Yes, absolutely. He's fantastic. Absolutely. But let me introduce this next song you know

canada and the world is they're full of unsung heroes you know great musicians great songwriters great singers that never see the they're just you know the world doesn't know about and there's only so much room for tyler stewart and the boys there's only so much room for the you know the big stars and and so but there are many who for whatever reason douglas john cameron's probably one of these that should have been you know much bigger than stars. But there are many who, for whatever reason, Douglas John Cameron's probably one of these that should have been much bigger than he was, but for whatever circumstance, it didn't happen. And this is another one. This is a local guy,

and I don't even know if he's playing around much anymore, but I was in his band quite a few years ago. He had two bands. One was called Brothers Cosmoline and one was called Brothers Kitchen, and the Brothers Cosmoline band was the electric band, and the Brothers Kitchen band was kind of the bluegrass version. So the guys in the electric band would pick up acoustic instruments,

and then they'd be Brother's Kitchen. And so his name is Dan Kershaw, and is just a, I mean, this is, and plus, you know, who else has written a song about Bramalee? It's not a topic that you often hear. That's right. Right? And I'm sure you have listeners in Bramalee. Oh, for sure. I'm huge in Bramalee. It's not a topic that you often hear. That's right. And I'm sure you have listeners in Bramalee. Oh, for sure.

I'm huge in Bramalee. The devil in the backseat Bound to get it right Counting cards and marking the tails all night Me, I'm so tired I can hardly even see Where I'm headed And where I've been Home is a room on the 14th floor

Where I watch whatever's on. I drink coffee from a cup I never clean. And all I ever want to do is get some sleep. But I head down Highway highway Sent to a job In Bramley So the great Steve Briggs on guitar, local guitar player that plays with everybody. John Switzer on bass and produced this CD.

John's been a member of Whiskey Jack in the past. Steve Briggs been on our CDs in the past. John Adame's Doc Party, they call him, on drums. Who else is in the band? Oh, Burt Carroll on steel guitar.

Dan Kershaw on guitar. Wonderful. You have two songs on your list named after two of the more beautiful parts of this country. You've got Nova Scotia and Bramalee. And Bramalee. Yes, the rolling hills of Bramalee. And sorry, this is, you call them, this is Brothers...

Cosmoline. Cosmoline. I don't know if this is on Spotify or not. But the whole album is, Dan has such a brilliant songwriting. Man, just wonderful melodies and beautiful lyrics. Great stuff. I had a hard time picking a song off this. And are they from Bramalee?

Is this the, or just, they were inspired? No, yeah, well, yeah, I think Dan lives somewhere in the West End. I don't really know, yeah. Yeah. And every night I swear I'll drive on out of town. And every day, I never do. Because the man in the back put a checkbook to my head. He said, citizen, it's the old bit. I still can't get over the fact you're in a band with the guy who put out Mona and the with the children yeah it's just that song I remember it from the mid-80s like I distinctly

remember that song that haunting video a lot of people do yeah the video was was huge and if you recall Bernie mentioning there was some pushback it was politically volatile you don't she don't talk about Iran without there being some you know pushback yeah right of course and it was memorable and it was also it was a great song like it had this great hook to it but you're right people would look back at that as a I guess a one-hit wonder like what happened to well he went on here's well I'm gonna play I'm gonna play okay so you're going to save the Dougie C. Well, I mean, it's a long and varied career. So he won a Juno nomination for Mona.

And then 10 or 15 years later, he wins another Juno nomination for a kid's song called Ants in Your Pants. So who else can make the leap from a politically charged song to Ants in Your Pants? I think Rafi's going the other direction. I feel like Rafi, when I was growing up, he was the guy. He was the guy. He was the guy. And now he's gone very political. Well, I admire that.

Again, here's a guy who it cost, I heard that he passed up potentially a million dollars for Disney wanted to use one of his songs and he said no Rafi was just Disney I mean a man of principle Mike where are they they're not there how far would you go for your principles you know oh by the way I'm trying to remember Don Ferguson was on the show very recently from the Royal Canadian Air Force Ferguson and I'm trying to remember, there was a story that, I'm trying to remember, of Stompin' Tom. And Stompin' Tom had a... Oh, yeah, I heard it.

So there was a guy following him around with a... Okay, a jacket with coolers in it? No, no, that's not true. That's urban legend. Yeah, that's urban legend. And it certainly wouldn't be a cooler because Tom only drank beer at room temperature. Oh, then that tells you now that's an urban legend.

But I guess legends like that fly around when you have a kind of a Canadian icon like Stompin' Tom Connors. Most of the legends are true. You know, the one that everyone's always intrigued is in our contract with him, we had to sign that one of us would stay up with him all night because he didn't like to be alone and didn't sleep. Oh, that is interesting. Yeah. And he did carry that board with him, right?

Well, the first tour, I discovered early on in the tour that the board was going to be a topic for people who wanted to take it after the show. And if he forgot to take it off the stage, he would come out with the board, throw it down, and then take it with him. But sometimes he'd forget to take it with him, and so people would storm the stage to try to off the stage, he would come out with the board, throw it down, and then take it with him. But sometimes he'd forget to take it with him, and so people would storm the stage to try to get the board.

And so my job was to go out there and grab the board. I thought your job was to get yourself the home hardware and get a new board. No, I think he, you know, it used to be he could go through, he could wear a hole in a board every night in his younger days. But you try stomping like that over a long period of time that resurgence he had in the i guess early 90s or whatever i just because i was a big much music fan i watched a lot of money and i distinctly remember they started wrote

the video for uh margo's got the car correct and ridge's got the rig and they started getting heavy rotation and he was like presented sort of like do you i don't know you you've been talking the wrong guy because you haven't listened in a long time to new music but tom jones had a similar uh tom jones had a song that suddenly was picked up on high rotation by much music in the early 90s yeah yeah and he's in the back of a truck or whatever in the video and in like this truck or whatever yeah uh yeah maybe during this next jam i'll google the name of this tom jones renaissance but uh are you ready to kick out another jam yeah so let's just go back to douglas john cameron a little bit here uh again uh you know he's been a full he's been a musician

his entire life and he has a he had a band i think they still get together once in a while it's called the louisiana snowblowers, and I love this song. guitar solo My daddy was a three-core Johnny Used to play all night long Down at the riverside honky-tonk All them old country songs He never had a cable worry He never had no steady job

He'd just sit and smoke and watch TV Pick and grin and sing along My mama said, son, you're a son of a gun You never, ever done me wrong If you want to be a three-chord Johnny Well, roll on, roll on Great sax, eh? Sean O'Connor on the sax.

He never had a liquor lesson Down at the conservatoire He'd be up all night with the radio And his zero buck guitar His W-O-W-O Wheeling, West Virginia It was Saturday night With the grand old Opry

He'd pick until his fingers were raw My mama said, son, you're a son of a gun But you never, ever done me wrong If you want to be a three-court Johnny, well, roll on, roll on. Is there a lot of snow in Louisiana? The song, real quick before I forget, is the Tom Jones comeback song. I'm thinking it was called If I Only Knew. And maybe after this jam, I'll give us a taste of this thing.

Yeah, I don't remember that song. This was a thing where legacy artists sort of came back. Tom was, he was kind of a part of the indie scene in those days, in 1991, and I think he was up for an award at one of the indie awards because I saw him at the Masonic Temple at the awards right around that time. And I think he might have been up for an award. I can't remember, but he was kind of in it. University kids.

There were some kids, Mike, who would follow us. They started in Owen Sound. They followed us all the way up to Sudbury, and they went to every show. Wow. Because, you know, in those days, a lot of people thought Tom was coming back to save and unite the country because we were so in the middle of an awful depression. It was just, uh, we, we were in, I remember we're in Castlegar, BC, Trail, BC, sorry. And there were people in the front row and they're, you know, they're lumberjack, uh, their coats and stuff. And they'd just gotten

off work and they were crying because Tom had come back, and they were losing their jobs left right and crooked, so they thought Tom was going to come and save the country. Did he? Absolutely. You're still working on it? Absolutely. And this is, of course, Louisiana Snowblowers,

three-core Johnny. I will say that a lot of the tour was, he was bashing Brian Mulroney. He did not like free trade one little bit. Because he felt it would compromise our national, like our Canadiana, our... Our sovereignty. Right, our sovereignty. Yeah. Sean O'Connor on saxophone.

Great. guitar solo My daddy was a three-chord Johnny I wish I had a voice like that. I wish I could do that. I just talk like that all the time. Well, I was listening to your Don Ferguson interview, and he's got the timbre in his voice is so perfect for what he does. Did you watch the final ever Air Force appearance on CBC?

I'm putting you on the spot here. No, I did not. I don't watch a lot of TV. I didn't either, and I promised I would. So I think, I guess, life got in the way. Well, I was a neighbor of Roger Abbott's for many years, and Roger just lived a few doors down from me, so he and I would often chat about the goings-on at the Air Force.

They had a good run. Boy, their pension must be nice, eh? Well, I don't know, because it's Canadian fame. CBC? Yeah. Tommy Hutto? Oh, yeah, these guys. I think they do okay, yeah.

fame. CBC. Yeah. Tommy Hutto. Oh yeah, these guys. I think they do okay, yeah.

So there's another guy that Douglas John used to play with, his name. Are you going to play the Tom Jones thing?

Oh, that's okay. We can, just a taste. So this is the Tom Jones comeback. Oh look, you can see

his tonsils. Wow. Just a taste, and then we'll get back to your jams. This is going Sir Tom Jones to you. Making me an orphan, I don't delude Playing a new cinema Live action, all the noise of attraction Beats up on the streets of Saladou Mark up better than telling them off Don't stock up shots But they don't mind

All the matters that you're not here to nine And now I wonder, am I going to dig a whole Tampine under, undersea Under me, under you, under we Undivided Undecided And of course he was with Art of Noise. He did the song Kiss you've probably heard. But yeah, so there was Stompin' Tom and Tom Jones kind of sharing much music airspace for a while in the early 90s.

Big voices, both those men. Big voices. Legends. If we did the Sir thing, it would be Sir Stompin' Tom. Yeah, kind of funny. But as it is, he's Order of Canada, so that's as close as we get, I guess. Right, right, right. Ready for another Banjo-Dog Jam?

Yeah, so there's a singer-songwriter. He lives in Nashville now, we think, but he's from Canada. His name is Adam Crossley. And Douglas performed with him, played with him, recorded with him a bit over the years. So last January, Douglas' wife and my wife and a bunch of other ladies went to Uganda to raise money for an organization called It's a Beautiful World.

And the money goes toward educating young women, trying to keep them in school and help them break the cycle of having babies when they're 13, you know, that kind of thing. And so Douglas said, well, there's a song called It's a Beautiful World. It's by my friend Adam Crossley. And so Douglas and I, as Doogie and Dunn, we learned the song, and it's kind of become our signature song. And this is Adam Crossley. And so Douglas and I, as Doogie and Dunn, we learned the song, and it's kind of become our signature song. And this is Adam's version.

It's just beautiful. ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ ¶¶ Strawberry lips shining in the summer sun Canary tips glowing there for everyone You fell asleep under the cherry tree.

La, la, la, la, la, la. It's a beautiful world and we're all here. Your winter skin warming in the summer sun We know within You will stay forever young You fell asleep under the starlit sea It's time to wake up The moon is high above you

We're all here cause we love you And when you finally open your eyes So the background singers are a couple of ladies. They're called Dalla. And if they're listening, I think they should come and join our show and sing a Stompin' Tom song sometime. But beautiful singers have a very successful career in their own right. Would you bring your banjo to TMLX6? Yeah.

You know what? I think Douglas and I should come in together. Of course. The guy who wrote and performed Mona with the children. Yeah. I might not even invite you. Maybe just Douglas. I think you should do that.

Absolutely. I'll sit in the background and just be a fan. How's that? No, it sounds amazing. Is this a decent time maybe with the song and how you introduced the story about Uganda? Is this a good time for me to get maybe the quick story of how you know my neighbors Joe and Mike? Like how you met them? Yeah, yeah.

So I forget how many years, eight, nine years ago, my wife Karen and I, we signed on for a Habitat for Humanity build in Africa. We went to Ghana. And we had been to one in India a few years before that. But the one in Africa was a little different because it was really remote. We were like two or three hours into the continent with no electricity. We were like two or three hours into the continent with no electricity. And a couple, they weren't a couple at the time, but there was Mike Gordon from Edmonton and Joe Archibald.

I don't know if I can pronounce her name, Joe. I'm so sorry if I mispronounced your name. No, that's correct. I know it's tricky because you think it's going to be Archibald, but it's just Archibald. Right, right. And I don't do well with the syllables. Well, you and me both, brother. Yeah, no, I've been listening to you.

Can you say brewery? Brewery. I struggle with that one. So Mike and Joe got together on their two weeks in remote Africa, and here they are. My wife Karen and I, we sold them the house across the street a few years ago, and now they have twins and are living happily ever after. What a small world. Here they are. My wife Karen and I, we sold them the house across the street a few years ago, and now they have twins and are living happily ever after.

Pretty cool, eh, Mike? And their twins are almost, I think, maybe two weeks difference, but almost the exact same age as my youngest. Well, lots of playtime there, eh? For sure. In fact, if people ever see photos, because I take a photo and we'll take one, people used to remark that in the background they could see like a playground playset so there's such a small world that's a wild coincidence to me imagine douglas being conceived and joe and mike living across the

street all on this unbelievable unbelievable uh i'm ready for another yeah so uh as a you know my kind of music, back in 1970 or whatever, there was an album that came out. It was called Will the Circle Be Unbroken? And hard to imagine, but, you know, here is a kind of an acoustic, you get the hippie bluegrassers from the West Coast getting together with the Rednecks in Nashville, and they created this album.

It's become an iconic album and changed lives including mine and uh but i think the band that kind of merged you know that came out of all of that that i think is like the what was that great montreal canadian team that only lost eight games one season oh yeah one of the scotty bowman i don't know 70 70 yeah it was like or something so this band was like one of those it had all stars you know, Randy Meisner on bass and Hanley on drums and stuff. And I don't know, come on. It's too fantastic, this band.

The Eagles, of course. guitar solo One of these nights One of these crazy old nights We're gonna find out, pretty mama What turns on your lights The full moon is calling The fever is high And the wicked wind whispers and moans

You got your demons and you got desires But I got a few of them now Ooh, someone to be kind to In between the dark and the light Ooh, coming right behind you Swear I'm gonna find you One of these nights One of these dreams

Now, Banjo Dunk, I'll say this is your most mainstream song on your jam list. I've been in a band most of my life, and I love being in a band. And one of the things I love about being in a band, Whiskey Jack's always been a very well-rehearsed, you know, we're often called a well-oiled, slick machine. And that's what I love about these guys. These guys, when they played live, they would play the songs. They spent so many, you know many weeks working on these arrangements.

Why not play them? And a lot of bands don't do that, but these guys did. I mean, you've got Joel Walsh just playing rhythm on this, for crying out loud. It's fantastic. You know, you just reminded me of another coincidence. Bruce Dobigan. Yeah, I played at his wedding back in 1983. That's wild.

It's wild. Yeah, I think that's crazy. Bruce Dobigan, Whiskey Jack played at his wedding. Did you listen to that episode?

I did, yeah. I read Steve Paikin's tweet yesterday about Bruce's political bent. Well, Bruce, I've decided that Bruce is an agent of chaos. He's just looking, right?

So if you were looking for chaos, you would root for Donald Trump. And I think that's where he's at for whatever reason. Do you remember the Mots on CFRB? Of course. Carol and what's the gentleman's name? But yes, of course I do. They lived in Aron, Ontario.

Yeah, I challenged him one time on the phone that he was just being the provocateur. And boy, did he ever take offense to that. He said, no, I really believe that stuff. But he was always stirring the pot. Yeah, that's Dobigin. He's just trying to evoke some kind of a response. And then Pagan indulges him

because they're longtime friends, right? Normally we'd just mute Bruce Dobigin and let him, you know, scream and shout in like an echo chamber over there or whatever. Because he doesn't care about humanity or what's best for the earth or for us. It's more about what's going to stir shit up, if you will. And, yeah, I will say Paykin's coming back this month. So Paykin's back on Toronto Mike in January. I've never met Steve, but of course, you know,

he's been in my life or what? How long has he been on the air? He was at CBC a long time ago, mid-80s, I'd say. Yeah, he is. But he's been at TV Ontario for a long time now. He's supposed to be a pretty good hockey player too, somebody said.

Is he on your team? You've got to recruit him. Get him on your team. What's the good hockey player too, somebody said. Is he on your team? You got to recruit him. Get him on your team. What's the name of your team again? What's the name of your team? The Jokers. The Jokers. I'll let him know.

He's invited to try out. Yeah, the Eagles, I mean, I just recently, not recently, it was probably four years ago, but I watched this documentary on Netflix on the Eagles. And again, because I missed the heyday of the Eagles.

I was a titch young. But yeah, there's... Have you heard the Don Felder interview on Howard Stern about all of those years? That's a great, great interview. You mentioned that, you mentioned Brian Linehan and Howard Stern. Yeah. And I couldn't tell if you, maybe you had heard me referencehan and uh howard stern yeah and i don't i couldn't tell if you maybe you had heard me reference the fact those are the two guys i'm no i was

most influenced by oh well so that's another question two of the best interviewers i mean how regardless of what you say think about howard he can get people to i mean he got i don't like kevin bacon talking about things that even bacon was going what am i doing talking about this stuff with you for but yeah he you know what i learned from him is you you kind of warm them up some lighter stuff off the top some get them get people comfortable and then you go in for the uh but you know the one guy he was never able to get to was don henley that's one of the most boring um howard stern and if he couldn't get to henley can't't crack the nut. No, he could not, no. So another...

Banjo-dunk jam. Yeah, boy, this fella, I think if this guy came along... And remind me where we're at, because I'm not playing the songs, I have no idea. We're at eight. Oh, sorry, we're at nine. Okay, we're at nine. The penultimate jam.

Yeah, so this fella, if he'd been around probably in the mid-70s or whatever, he would have been another Gordon Lightfoot. That's how good this guy is. He's a virtuoso on many instruments, an amazing songwriter. I toured with him in 1990. He was in the Stompin' Tom band in 1990, and he was only 18 or 19 at the time, and his genius was evident then.

But over the years, he's just become this. His name is J.P. Cormier from Cape Breton, and he was, actually, he performed with us at our 2016 Stompin' Tom birthday celebration

at Hughes Room with Adrian Clarkson and Gordon Lightfoot. He was on the bill that day. His name is J.P. Cormier, and he's just a brilliant songwriter. He's just a brilliant songwriter. Love is like summer A bright dance through flowers

Always in sunshine And never feel rain Love is a song, son Sweet till it's ending Then you never will hear that Same song again Love is the beauty of sitting in silence. The rhythm of heartstrings, much louder than words. But love is a treasure that some people bury or hold to a candle and laugh while it burns.

And so the days turn and so the page burns with words the heart does send And you're still the ending that I've tried to write for so long It's funny how sometimes replaces forever It's a good enough name for Sometimes replaces forever. It's a good enough name for her. It's a very unusual banjo solo coming up. He's a great banjo player too. so so See, on Saturday Night Live, they say, gotta have more cowbell, but you know what I say?

I say, gotta have more banjo. Come on, we need more banjo solos. Yeah, the cowbell. Or spoons, how about more spoons? Right, yeah, we need more spoons. Yeah, I like his voice. He's got a great voice. His phrasing's, Mike, live.

He's an emotionally very powerful, powerful performer. And he sang Tom's song, A Little Wawa. It's on YouTube, if you want to get on our YouTube channel. He sang A Little Wawa. And I swear, it's a song of love affair between two geese. And you think, how can you emote with this? But he did. He brought the house down with this song.

And his name again is J.P. Cormier. From Cape Breton. And this song is called Sometimes. Yeah. I never heard of him. But that's what gets me about how much great talent is out there from artists that are fantastic and you've never, because I mean where would

you hear J.P. Cormier? It's not like they're going to stick on the roof. You can hear him within a couple of miles of here. He plays the Manchang Cafe in Oakville of all places. He plays Hughes Room. We're trying to book a tour with him in 2021

in the Maritimes. That would be cool. Oh, very, very cool. If we can make this happen, Mike, this will be huge. Can I come as a roadie or something? Absolutely, $100 a day. I guess I can afford to pay you that. The thing about guys like this, too, is their phrasings.

They're so pleasing. They just have a way of uh of phrasing things now so let me end it with uh part of uh part of my life i'm not a religious person at all but i certainly have a background in my we went to a little presbyterian church and sang in choirs and and in the qantas festivals growing up but gospel music has always been a big part of my life and my old guitar player bob mcniven he he comes from a Mennonite family, and they used to tour the Eastern Seaboard playing gospel music.

I used to tease Bob that he knew every gospel song ever written. So I have to, of my top 10, one has to be a gospel song, and this is by the Nashville Bluegrass Band. Wake up, old sinner, you are facing the darkness of death. Each moment might be the moment you take your last breath. The moment you take your last breath. And the weight of your fears are the shackles that keep you enslaved.

But the blood of the lamb is the one way to bypass the grave. The first step to heaven Is knowing your law The highway to glory Is the way of the cross You can hand Him your burdens The moment you see. The first step to heaven is down on your knees. So now you know how to bypass the grave, Mike.

The blood of the lamb. Pro tip. Hearing this song, it would have fit in perfectly in the Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? Yeah, it's that same genre, right? Which was quite the resurgence for Bluegrass. Huge. Guys like me were listening to a lot of rock and hip hop who suddenly found themselves listening to Bluegrass.

Yeah, we get requests all the time for that. Cool. And I would love to have that dapper hair, the dapper Dan hair of George Clooney in that movie. Well, you've got to get George on the show. Do you know him? Is he on your hockey team? No, no.

Now I just realized I can't even get Rosemary Clooney on the show because she's passed away. But you can get Brian McFarlane. Are we going to get Brian McFarlane on in April? Yeah, we're going to do a road trip. Are we allowed to announce that? Okay. Yeah, please announce it. Well, it's exciting. So Brian's a buddy of mine.

Everybody knows Brian as the iconic host from Hockey Night in Canada and he had all those run-ins with Ballard and as did Dave Hodge. The two of them were kind of shit disturbers, the two guys. So Brian and I become pals and he spends the winter in Florida. So he's coming back in April, and he promised me that he will come on your show.

And he's amazing. I don't know, what is he? He's an old fellow, and I can't remember how old he is. Can he project into a microphone? That's the only prerequisite. Great interview. He's going to have… Okay, so just not to bury the lead here,

but you and I are going to literally, we're going to pack up the Toronto Mike studio and go on a road trip, and we're going to visit Brian. We are. Unless he wants to come down. I mean, I'm happy to meet him at... He lives in Stouffville in a beautiful condo up there,

but I go and visit him. He and I go for coffee, and he's a great... Not only is he an author who's written 50 books or more maybe 100 books he's also paint he's a great painter and he hate he paints hockey uh scenes coming to toronto miked in april that'll be absolutely amazing and you'll be a part of that and i'm really like so honored and pleased that you're a part of this. Banjo Dunk, partner of Toronto Mic'd. Glad I met you. I owe Tyler Stewart another case of Great Lakes beer.

So, Tyler, you come here and collect that beer. And, again, I have the Palma Pasta lasagna for you. But Banjo Dunk, thanks so much for making your first appearance. And we're going to hear you at TMLX6 you bet amazing and great jams by the way a lot of those I like it when someone kicks up the jams and I discover new music

I will honestly say 9 out of those 10 songs I was unfamiliar with so thanks so much for doing that and that brings us to the end of our 565th show you can follow me on twitter i'm at toronto mike now banjo dunk is at banjo dunk with a c on twitter but you can also can i spell out uh whiskey jack music or just do the hello out there.ca hello out there.ca hello out there.ca. Hello out there.ca. And you can pick up,

uh, they got great CDs there. The, the book, uh, yeah, that's your one-stop shopping there for, uh, banjo dunk.

Our friends at Great Lakes brewery are at Great Lakes beer. Palma pasta is at Palma pasta. Sticker you is at sticker you. And the Keitner group are at Kiteener group.com that's K E I T N E R group.com see you all tomorrow and my special guest is Sean McKenzie Thank you. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Rome Phone.

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