Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Cleave Anderson, Nichol Robertson and Mike Boguski: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1644

Episode Date: March 5, 2025

In this 1644th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Cleave Anderson about being a founding member of Blue Rodeo and why he quit the band, Nichol Robertson about his many bands, and Michael Boguski about his new music, Blue Rodeo, and West of Jane. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]

I'm standing brazenly tall for Canada. Ron James here. Let's keep her going. Proudly stand together in the land of two fours and five oes and butter tarts and buy Canadian. Check the labels. Make sure it's made in Canada. And let's just give her.

Shop as if your country depends on it. Keep your money in Canada for Canada. Welcome to episode 1644 of Toronto Miked! Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga

and Oakville. RecycleMyElectronics.ca, committing to our planet's future, means properly recycling our electronics of the past. Building Toronto's Skyline, a podcast and book from Nick Aynes, sponsored by Fusion Corp Construction Management Inc. and Ridley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Joining me today is Cleve Anderson, Nichol Robertson, and Mike Boguski.

Welcome gentlemen. Nice to be here. Yeah, nice to be here, welcome. Cleve's already cracked open a Great Lakes beer over there. How's it tasting, Cleve? Very good. It's a Canuck Pale Ale you got there. Boguski just cracked open a hot pop. Can I get you anything, Nicol? No, I'm great, thank you. You're good. You're

good. Can't wait to have this discussion, but Mike, you're a bit late today. Can I call you Mike? Yeah, Mike is great because you're Mike. We're Mike together. We are Mike together. Mike squared, Mike together, we can just keep going on that. You were a bit late today Mr. Boguski. I switched it to Mr. Boguski. Why are you late? I'm late because I'm here with my steamed bandmates. We have a band called West of Jane where this very cool sort of 60s instrumental group.

We do it all from sort of Lawrence Welk right up to the doors. And I really wanted to take this opportunity to do a live presentation of our little trio, but the full rig is I have a huge Gibson G101 organ and a Fender Rhodes piano bass. Couldn't fit it in into your studio, so I spent the morning trying to program my archaic 1997 Roland JV-90 to sound like this,

this amazing sounding rig that is the cornerstone of our band and I just kept banging my head against the wall. I couldn't figure out how to transpose one instrument and I was just like on. That's a good excuse actually. But I got it going. I got it going, we're good, we're ready to rock. So just how big is it? You got a measuring tape here, by the way

Everybody gets a Ridley funeral home measuring tape. How big is this the the keyboard you're gonna use here? I don't know. I'm gonna let my bandmates answer that because I'm usually the one who's got to roll it in and set it up So why don't they bear the load and talk about the size? I'm not gonna comment on the dimensions, but though the weight of it is... It's heavy. Yeah. That's the thing. But see, Nickel always says that the commitment to the rig is part of the whole experience

of coming to West of Jane, because people sort of like will stare at the instrument and be like, oh, what is that? And what's the sound it makes? It's a really visual thing. Wouldn't you agree on that nickel that visual component? Yeah, there's a visual component, you know, obviously the audio component and makes a sound that nothing else can actually make. And the commitment of lugging giant gear to gigs when it's important is huge.

And I think it makes a much better audience experience. Like, I feel I could have a bike against the wall, but I can move the bike to another room and maybe you could have set it up down here. What do you think? No, no, there's no way the actual West of Jane Gibson organ could, could appear. Like a little funny story about that whole organ. See the genesis of West of Jane really happened during the pandemic. I got a call from Paul's boutique, which is a great vintage instrument store

in Kensington market. And Paul called me up and he said, listen, there's this old Gibson organ that's been sitting in here. It belonged to the late James Gray. And apparently James had taken it to, I can't remember who was doing the repairs, but James unfortunately

passed away very suddenly, I think it was in 2013, I'm not sure exactly when, but this instrument was sitting in the repair shop, it was John Fletcher, that's who it was, and James' sister was called to say, you've got to get this instrument out of my repair shop, because we've got to do something with it. So she was trying to sell it to Paul's, and I'm like, I have no interest to buy this instrument out of my repair shop because you know we got to do something with it so she was trying to sell it to Paul's and I'm like I have no interest to buy this instrument Paul's like oh you got to buy it I'm like why he's like well because you're the current keyboard player on Blue Rodeo I'm like so I don't want it I don't want it and then Glenn Melchum was like man you should buy it and I'm like didn't you guys like not like the

sound of it when James played it on the Are You Ready album but I did buy it and I'm like okay what am I gonna do with this thing because there's no gigs so I got I got a call two James played it on the Are You Ready album, but I did buy it and I'm like, okay What am I gonna do with this thing? Because there's no gigs. So I got I got a call two people I know that are that are eccentric enough to want to come on board with this endeavor So there's really only two guys like in maybe the world that would be into it. And then these are the gentlemen Sitting beside me even nickel. So this is West of Jane. It's appropriate then we're chatting West of Jane Yeah, absolutely But the see the thing is like I'm a piano player and accordion player sure but really when you play organ

It's a whole different bag You have to play the bass with your left hand the melody with your right and it's you know We have no bass player So we it's set up exactly like Ray Manzarek of the doors who actually had a cool Interview with much like we're doing now when I was like 16, that's another story. But when we started, I was so terrible at this new technique and I kept telling the guys like,

oh, I shouldn't do this, like, I'm sorry, I suck. And like they're laughing because I think they enjoyed seeing me flounder. And then we all sort of came together in the pandemic and we were just hashing out these arrangements and my studio was actually my mom's basement. So it was very funny because my mom would sort of bring us drinks and it would be like being in high school again, literally, but now so,

you know, we slowly came together, we got the arrangements and then and then it started to pick up and I think we got a bit of a buzz. What do you think guys? I think so. Yeah, I hope so. I believe so. But I'm just gonna comment on, you know, being a drummer, bass players, rhythm section,

and you know, everybody's concerned whether the rhythm section's in the pocket. But it's a delight playing with Mike's left hand. It's different than a bass player. It's a different feel It's a little more fluid perhaps and I like to play like that. So Yeah, yeah, it's very enjoyable. You know, there's something about trios too that are just I don't know nickel What do you think like trios are different? Yeah, I I I love trios I think in a trio that's sort of the maximum number

of people you can do so that everybody can have a speaking voice almost all of the time. Once you get above a trio, you need to kind of split up into groups and take a back seat. But as a trio, you can always have a voice. And duos also, you can do that in, but yeah, I think our trio, if you were just playing organ,

and we had a bass player, it would be an entirely different thing. Yeah, it would be. Like it's built on the fact that it's us three in a trio. It really is three voices as one. And I've never really experienced that. I've actually never really experienced starting and being in a trio. It really is three voices. I've never really experienced that. I've actually never really experienced starting and being in a band. Like in Blue Rodeo, like obviously there was three keyboard players before me. I'd come in and there's a huge history of band dynamic that I had to sort

of adjust to. Other bands it's similar, but this is the first time I, you know, we've started a band. It's the three of us. We all have veto power. And it's been a really positive, wonderful experience, I gotta say. Yeah. So we're gonna be treated to a live performance from West of Jane in about an hour. Yeah. I can't wait for that.

And it's gonna, and again, I know we talked about, I think there was some discussion like, hey, you'll set up beforehand, you'll test it all out. And I think I was like, no, no, no. Like in about an hour, I'll just start vamping and I'll describe what's going on and we'll just see how you all come together and we'll do it. Like this is rock and roll, guys.

Yeah, it's totally rock and roll. If I'm getting right, man. Now I get an hour now to do my thing here. So I have in the basement right now a current member of Blue Rodeo, as Michael Boguski mentioned. What would you say you do for Blue Rodeo Mr. Baguski? Keyboards, piano and accordion and organ yeah all of those three. More accordion now than when I started and it's been a lot of fun. I'm trying to get the accordion represented and it's become this whole thing in the band now which is really fun to play. And in a

moment I'll remind people that Michael Boguski's been here before. You were never in the basement, though. This was during the COVID-19 pandemic. We did a backyard episode. Do you remember this fondly, Michael? Yeah, it was squelch. Like, the heat was off the charts.

July 2021. Yeah, I sat up on your, I believe it was your back deck. And I did a, again, I brought one of my archaic 90s 80s keyboards and I set it up to sound like weather report and I did a weather report version of diamond mind So I'll let the listenership know if they want to hear because I mentioned I have a current member of blue rodeo because I also Have a former member of blue rodeo in the basement cleave and founding members Well, and that's that's key. You know, founding member of Blue Rodeo. So I have Blue Rodeo questions.

And I am very excited that Nichol Robertson is down here. I've never even heard of Blue Rodeo. Is it true, Nichol, we'll get to you. We're going to talk to all three of you and I have some audio loaded up. But Nichol, you are a Mimico native. Or at least you live there now? Yeah, I grew up in Port Credit, Mississauga, but I currently live in a Mimico for the past decade.

I'd like to say I also live in Mimico. Do you? Yeah, I live in Palos Perros. Okay, so two Mimico guys, we're in New Toronto now. You recognize you've left Mimico. Oh yeah, it's very different here. And Cleve is originally a Tobacco too, and this factors into the name of the band.

So we were trying to figure out, what are we gonna name ourselves and we're all sort of West Enders so we came up with West of Jane like West of James Street. What was your neighborhood Cleve? Etobicoke, Islington, North Islington, like Rathburn Road, Islington Avenue, can you picture that? I totally can picture that. I went to Power with this guy okay I can picture that. There's so much central atopical representation in this room right now we could just talk about that and Mississauga we'll you know like we'll just

annex Mississauga because that's the style of the time now we just annex things that well I played off the top I played a PSA Pro Bono because the company that puts it together is called Pro Bono and it features another FOTM named Ron James and I played it off the top thanks to Mike Aucamore another mic there's a lot of mics I don't know if you guys noticed but thanks to Mike Aucamore for sending that my way I proudly played it maybe we'll touch on what's going on in this crazy world I feel like the more chaos there is in this world the more we need music we need art we need you guys oh yeah argument here yeah no argument we couldn't ride the chaos during our last

episode of chaos which is the pandemic I choose there's so much chaos it's like I can't keep track but our wings were clipped during chaos 1.0 because unless it was coming on to your back deck and playing which is amazing you know but now I feel the time is for the musicians to bring people off their phones into clubs, to join hands, hug each other and, you know, just get into the, to the music and feel the love because it's too divisive right now. Oh, like Madonna said, get into the groove, baby. Okay.

So that was July, 2021 when Michael came and visited my backyard. It was episode eight 78. So everybody take a note, go back and listen to episode eight 78 for like the, the ongoing history of Mike Boguski. So we played, uh, we talked about you growing up in Etobicoke, Michael playing in blue rodeo where you're, you're a member today of blue rodeo. We're going to have some blue rodeo talk in this episode, even though nickel never heard of them. We're goingo, you're a member today of Blue Rodeo, we're gonna have some Blue Rodeo talk in this episode, even though Nick will never heard of them, we're gonna talk about them. I'm always willing to learn. We talked about your latest single at the time was called Here's to Tomorrow. Yes.

And you played a killer version of Diamond Mind, sorry, Diamond Mind live in the backyard. And I remember neighbors popping, like we hadn't heard any live music in so long. It was like so amazing to hear that I loved your performance in the backyard Michael It was pretty fun Mike I gotta say I didn't you know cuz like I just went into it with no expectation I was dying to play music cuz I was like like cleave and nickel We were all suffering you know when you do this as your life, and you're told that I can't do it anymore You're just like whoa You're chomping at the bit to do it. Well loved it okay now we got that out of the way I have a nice note

for you Michael see it starts off Michael's show we'll move into Cleve we'll learn more about Nicola and we'll come back to Michael and we'll kind of do the whole West of Jane thing but Bridget wrote me when she learned you were coming over and said happy belated birthday to you Michael Boguski when was your birthday my birthday was on Monday I turned 47 March 3rd. Okay. Happy birthday But I want to say happy birthday to Lisa Lobsinger because she also shares March 3rd Yeah, that's right. Happy birthday Lisa. My youngest is coming up March 15, but it's worth noting We talked about this in episode 878, but I I knew your brother well in high school. So your brother Mark is my age and my grade and we all went to Michael Power here in the

original location for us anyway. Yeah and it's funny because you and my brother you occupy a very similar mindset. You're both of a generation that came up in the your musical consciousness was in the late 80s 90ss, and you were really sort of the first generation to absorb this sort of Canadian consciousness about independent music in Canada. You're both very similar in that regard. That I remember just, because I'm a little younger than you, I just remember my brother would come home

with like lowest of the low cassettes, or even going deeper, like bands like Dig Circus, or early Blue Rodeo or whatever, stuff that Cleve would have been the originator of that first generation of sort of independent Canadian music. And I think in this time of cultural threat that we're living through right now, it's important to recognize how important that beginning period was. Because I think that the earlier generation

was still sort of, we had Canadian artists, but they were going down to the States, they were trying to make their name in the States, trying to get big US, not that that stopped, but I think whatever happened with, was started with Blue Rodeo or all of those bands of that generation, it's important to remember that, you know, we have our own scene.

And I think you and my brother definitely are of that generation that was picking up on that independent Canadian identity very early. Will your brother Mark listen to this episode? Oh totally. Okay so I'm gonna say hello to Mark Boguski. Hey Mark. I think we're a class of 93 I think if my memory serves correct. Yeah Mark is funny because he always says to me he's like man you're living my world when we were young like I would bring all these artists to listen and now they're like your colleagues I'm like, hey, I just hung around and kept my mouth shut and played good music and ended up in this chair somehow All right. Well, we're gonna like I said, you'll be part of the blue rodeo chat. That's coming up very shortly But I gotta say cleave Anderson. You're now an FOTM

very shortly, but I got to say, Cleve Anderson, you're now an FOTM. That means friend of Toronto Mike. Yes, I knew that. You knew that Cleve knows what's going on. I just forgot for a second. So Cleve, I got to do a little bit of a deep dive with you. I pulled some audio, but I'm kind of curious to hear if you don't mind going back a bit and talking about, you know, your life and music before Blue Rodeo, a little bit

about how Blue Rodeo came together. I have a note from Gere Joyce who knew you were coming over and wanted me to ask you about Heart Pomerance. Heart Pomerance, does that mean anything to you? Heart Pomerance? I'm gonna start by saying I'm 74 years old. I can't, I don't remember so good sometimes, but that name is very familiar, but I can't picture with his. Okay, but if it comes to, well, he's very famous, Hart Pomerantz. Here's what I'll give you here. I got it.

I got it. Someone just asked me about him. Okay, so he's a Canadian lawyer and television personality that's best known for his collaborations with Lorne Michaels. It was the Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour. And this is basically, you know, Toronto boy Lorne Michaels. You probably know him best as a Saturday Night Live creator, and there's been a lot of 50 anniversary stuff going on with him.

So were you anything here triggering? If it comes to you later, you can spit it into the microphone, or otherwise I'll just go give Gear Joyce the shots for wasting my time well I knew a lot of the old Harrah's and and I it's just seemed to be really prevalent in the 70s and you know I know that Freddie Pompeii from the Vile Tones and some of the punk was with Marcus O'Hara's 555 Queen Street booze can that he had. And that was sort of the beginning of punk rock, basically. On that note, I'm gonna play a little punk rock,

and this will really kind of get you going here, okay? Really excited to talk to you finally. Here's a little of the battered wives. A little taste. Good old Toby. Well talk to me man, I need an old pre-Blue Rodeo. Okay. Who the hell was Cleve Anderson? This is, you're on drums here.

Yes I am. And punk rock was the... I mean I'd already played... I was saying I was old, 74. Switch your digits around 47. Hey, look at that. You know? He's quick. And... Still got it. And so in high school, I was in high school in the 60s, I always had a little band going

and there were always trios, but you know with the lead singer. I guess that's sort of that three ring circus thing always appealed me to reach back to what we were talking about a little earlier. But I always loved the trio. But I was in bands just did cover songs of Grand Funk Railroad not that you know I was more into King Crimson or something but you know none of us could play it so I had been in quite a few bands but I never really thought I had what it took to you know make a career out of it. So I played with whatever, whoever would ever play with

me kind of thing. So the battered wives were looking for a drummer? That's what I, well when punk rock, you know, came along, I'd go there's something I could do and I already played a lot and you And a lot of bands were getting together where they were learning to play as they, I wanna be in a band, you buy a guitar, you get some drums. And I hadn't played for a few years, and I had a guitar and I was writing songs,

and I was mostly learning old 60s yard birds and kinks and the who kind of stuff on an acoustic guitar for my own entertainment and I was a mailman by then and When punk rock happened, I just wanted to take my guitar and I tried to get a band going but I couldn't find anybody that Didn't think it was awful, you know the punk rock thing So batter wise we're looking for a drummer and I'd seen them. I was going out all the time, seeing all the punk bands and the bass player Jasper, I had played with my one full-time band that lasted three months and then I,

you know, I quit and went back to the post office because it was a kind of nightmare. You play a week in Huntsville and then Coburg and then St. Catharines. You can't be a letter carrier and a guy on the road in a rock band. No. So I did take a leave of absence sort of thing. They said they'd have me back anyway, whatever it was. And so I tried it out and I tried it out for like two or three months and by the end of the week every time that we played weeks in a different town and at the end of the week someone would always quit and we'd have to go back into town back to Toronto and rehearse a guy for a week and then go out again

after the third time that happened. I don't forget it. Went back to the post office. And... Well, more on that in a minute. Yeah. So anyway, the punk thing became, you know, I didn't know what I wanted, but it just seemed like fun. It just seemed like the right fit for me.

And I wanted to play punk rock. There was a bunch of bands that sort of thought they fit into it and it's kind of becoming a thing so. Like Forgotten Rebels, are we talking about this scene? Yeah, they were a real punk rock band. Yeah, of course. No, I'm all into this man.

Michael and I missed it. You missed it too young man. I'm looking in your eyes. You weren't there either. I've never heard of punk music either. Don't worry, you're getting the spotlight. He's too smart. Okay, Nicole, I want you to make sure you know that. So Cleve, you're in a punk band

here. But at some point as we know, if you know the history of punk, the punk scene fades out in the I guess the early 80s. Where do you pivot to at that point? Well I had, you know, the battered wives came along and I got a chance to be in it and everything and I said, they're happening, you know, this could be. So we opened for Elvis Costello, Cross Canada Tour, all, you know, big soft cedar and that's when I quit at the end of the thing because, but that's where Jim and Greg first saw me. They loved Elvis Costello, they saw the show at the O'Keefe Center also women's groups protest so they saw you and they said this this guy's a good drummer I thought maybe it was the sharks yeah they saw the sharks were after uh okay don't rush me I'm trying to

no no no okay I can't wait to get tied 74 you can be as ornery as you want buddy. You've earned the right. I actually love ornery. Okay, so if you can ornery it up a little bit. Okay, if you guys just... Amp that up buddy. Have another sip of the Canuck here. Okay, so let me just set the table here. And if you guys just take this, you know, keep in mind to shut the fuck up once in a while. Well, I just want to jump in and say that there is an attractions thing I wanted to pick up on because you mentioned that the battered wives had opened for the attractions. So I was like, hmm that's pretty big time because I'm a huge attraction fan.

I was at his house one day and he's like, oh check this out. And this picture of him and Steve Naive, their arms around each other. I think you were at a pool hall or something. And Elvis, I don't know if he was in the photo, but Bruce Thomas was, I think. And so I like him and I take a photo of that. And he's like, no problem. Then I sent the photo to Steve naive and he's like, Oh, I remember Cleve say hi. And then I gave him my solo album and he wrote a great thing. He said, it was a wonderful sonic journey. So now every time I do my solo album, I'm Naive of the Attractions says this was a wonderful

song trade but I wouldn't have been able to have that connection to Steve if it wasn't for taking that photo in Cleve's amazing so cleave but at this point because I last saw you at we talked about it before we press record here but the red room at the Masonic temple you were there to see the Gary Top panel for the new Gary Top book. Yeah. So you were booked, I'm assuming the Gary's booked you at some point in this period. Uh, Batterwives, we were off their radar because we were signed, we were signed actually for

a punk rock group, we got signed by the agency, which the big, you know, did Max Webster and all that. I didn't even want to sign with it, but the other guys did. But, so we were playing all these more rock bars and stuff like that. So we got out of sync a little bit. But Gary, yeah, my next group after Battle of the Ice when I left, I remember I went to the last Pogo, I had just quit the band and the word was out on the street, you know the drummer in Blue Road, he was, has quit and I was there. I knew pretty much everyone.

The drummer in the battered wives. No, battered wives, yeah. By the way, terrible name for a band. I just want to throw it out there, the battered wives. It kind of offends me, Cleve. Yes, I, yes, fair enough. But it was punk, right? It's punk. But it was, you know, it was topic.

We weren't calling ourselves wife beaters. I never thought it was like, trivializing. That's what they hung the, it trivializes the issue. But we do- Abort, abort, abort. Okay, abort it. No, I'm not beating up over it. I'm joking.

I'm joking. But you wouldn't even ask. West of James is a better name. But yes, but you wouldn't even advance West of James. We offered a forum for discussion about important issues. Nobody thought it was like, you know, a joke. Okay, so word is on the street, Mr. Anderson, Mr. Anderson, that there's word on the street that the drummer from Battled Wives is a free agent. He's available.

Yes, and I got some offers at the last post. You know what the last post was? Oh yeah. Colin Bru- I have to- I'm gonna pull at the last post. You know what the last poll you call and brought I have I'm gonna pull out the DVD which is right here. Yeah, I noticed Colin did I'll show Yeah Mike is well versed in the punk world Is this you have our own the week before I was on last I did he's been in the basement since then but Colin Brunton Who was on the Gary Topp panel? He's been down here

We talked at great lengths about the last pogo and there's a jumps again I need to prove I have my bonafides over here. Yeah, you got so far so good there Mike Love this guy West of Jane. Don't ever lose this guy cleave Anderson. Oh, oh there was only like I said There was really only two people. This guy and this guy. And if they had said no, just the organ would have collected dust in my mom's basement. But the energy here is real. Everybody here has a DIY punk mentality that I think pushes us into where we're at.

So where we're at is we're gonna get you to Blue Rodeo okay so what's going between battered wives and Blue Rodeo okay the next diet that last pogo I met this woman rabies had Tyran of this band you've heard about that we opened the Gary's gave us some primo spots opening for Devo and Iggy Pop. Wow. They liked... Those are some names.

You know, so that was the first band they managed. I think that was more Cormier's thing. And then that lasted a year and we did lots of great... I'm very proud of Tyra Rana and I love the songs that she wrote and I wrote some of the songs too and everybody wrote in the band and everybody was much younger. They were young and she had a real pop sensibility but she, you know, it was definitely new wave punk and everything. So I thought lasted a year and then for whatever reasons it didn't last after that. And then I joined the Sharks, which Gary top managed.

And Gary told me if I can brag a little bit, that I played the Edgemore than any other single person. Because I also was playing with Colin Linden at the same time, and he was booked in there often. And I was there. I saw Psychedelic Furs and B-52s at the same time and he was booked in there often. And I was there, I saw Psychedelic Furs and B-52s. I spent a lot of time at the Edge. But we gotta point out, who was the bassist for the Sharks? The Sharks was basiled on him. I gotta bring it here.

And that's where Jim and Greg, we played, Jim and Greg had the Hi-Fis, I'm sure you. Well, that was our little group before Blue Rodeo. And they had they got the privilege of opening for the Sharks a couple of times, you know, and at the edge was one of those shows and there's a recording of the Sharks from that thing and the high fives as well. I believe I don't think they just recorded us, but Gary. Okay, very cool. And they'll quit, just chiming in here. So I just will tell the listenership,

there's a recent episode of Greg Keeler to talk about the documentary, which I wanna talk to you and Michael about. And me too, cause I was in it. And I have no. Nickle was, is in the documentary for I think, 2.5 seconds at approximately the half point. I would have given him five seconds.

That's fine. Yeah, we're going to we're going to have a blue rodeo dog oversight. But I got to say, it's the best looking 2.5 seconds I've ever seen him, Nick. Like he looks so good. He's looking very lucky. And I like how I like the style. The brown cardigan. You got to look good if you want to be in West of Jane.

Where's your cardigan, Cleve? I'm getting one. It's taking easy. Is it like a West of Jane uniform? The cardigan? Yeah, I think that could be. This is our off-kid pair. These guys have never gone on stage with the cardigan. No.

Is it like a Perry Como thing or a Kurt Cobain thing or is it a Mr. Rogers thing? I think my wife loves Kurt Cobain thing or is it a Mr. Rogers thing? I think my wife loves Kurt Cobain. She don't like honestly she could have a PhD in nirvanology like it's unbelievable our library and our condo is just all books about Mark Lanigan, Grunge, Nirvana. So I'm wearing this this month in honor of Kurt's birthday and of course my lovely wife who loves all things Nirvana. So the name I'm throwing at Cleve and then again Cleve, you're 74 years old. You say anything on your mind at any time. You can interrupt Michael, you can interrupt Nicol, but I want to ask you about Handsome Ned.

I did that when I was in the, I was in the woodshed chatting with Jim Cuddy and I wanted to talk about Handsome Ned. Like just share a little bit about Handsome Ned with me if you don't mind before we get you to Blue Rodeo here. Well, Handsome Ned, you knew that you were really tight with Ned if he took his hat off in front of you. We had a rehearsal and he lived on Spadina and I was driving him home. He took his hat off and he looked over at me.

He didn't look like Handsome Ned anymore, but he gave me a kinda little nod. I knew I had kinda moved, you know, to Ned. But anyways, okay, Ned, yes, he was the kind. Jim and Greg had met. they took this trip out west, they had a bus, and one summer, like probably 74, or five or something like that,

and they told me when they got back that Ned worked at the Bam Springs Hotel, and Jim and Greg took a short part-time job there while they continued on to the West Coast. Right. And they came back talking about Ned. Now I'd already seen Ned and he had a band called the Vlures that no one ever mentions that was before you know the the Hayseed Hellions and was just handsome Ned. What do you call the first one, the side? Sidewinders?

No. Side, Mike McKenna has a sidewind. Yes, but it might be the same name, because I mean, I did do the last, they had Jimmy Demic as a drummer. You know, you know the Demic. You know all the Demic's. I know the Demic's.

It was Hanson and Ed with the rain. It's the Sidewinders. Yeah, the bass player. Was I right, the Sidewinders? The Sidewinders, 100%. Yeah, yeah. Once again, Boguski's correct. Because Cleve and I, we have the great honor and privilege of playing in the John Borah

Band. We play every first set. And Nickle always plays after us, which is fantastic with his duo with Mike Kerr. Is this the Cameron House? Cameron House, which is sort of like early Blue Rodeo stomping grounds. But we always do a handsome Ned tune in that set. What's the tune that John always calls their Cleve? I can't remember.

Yeah, we've done a few, but the most. Recently we've been doing, that'll be the love that I want. That'll be the love that I don't want. Bora's great, I love this guy, John Bora. And Change of Heart, he's no longer with Change of Heart, but I'm gonna see him on Geary in April there. They got a new album.

Change of Heart. Yeah, that's cool. Every member I think contributes. That's real, I'm really looking forward to that. That's gonna be wild. Big blirden head over here. I guess Glenn will be on that too, right? Because he was a Change of Heart member.

Glenn's in the calendar, so another announcement for the Blue Rodeo heads out there. Glenn is in the Toronto mic calendar he's gonna make his debut. Oh you'll have a lot of fun with Glenn he's great. A calendar what there's 12 people? What did you say? What's that? Tell me about the calendar. No see the Toronto mic recording calendar. Yes. So today Cleve Anderson all caps Cleve Anderson it's like when you see the post-it notes who's on Saturday Night Live next week so looking for and John Borough of course So today, Cleve Anderson, all caps, Cleve Anderson. It's like when you see the Post-It notes, who's on Saturday Night Live next week.

So, looking forward. And John Borah, of course, was in a neon room. So how do you end up forming Blue Rodeo with, and who are the founding members of Blue Rodeo, Mr. Anderson? Okay, so I had been in the Sharks, and then after that, there was a little bit of time. Oh, I went back playing with Toby from Bad Her Wife.

We had a band, Gamma Gamma, that had Trish Cullen and Brian Didier. He was a black funky bass player and Trish was the queen of the synthesizer. She played on movie soundtracks and it was a very, very good band. And Toby was a very exciting guitar player, too. So we had done that. We played on bills with Neon Rome and so on. So I did that for a while. Then Toby got on a sailboat and went down to Florida

and lived down there. So I couldn't do the band then. But then Angel of Montenegro, which had an oboe and a French horn in it and all that, and it was all kind of pompous, tongue-in-cheek pompous pop music, you know, classical colorings and stuff. So, but but I had done and I was sort of in between bands and I had my first little boy, you know, and I stayed home. Who's the mother of this child? That's Ingrid's, Sue Macker that you have.

Just waiting for you to drop. I want to say hello to Ingrid, who's also being on the basement and will get, you know, long time chum FM personality. Just a radio legend in this market. Yeah. Pioneer in 1977. She was she was on the air the night Lenin was killed. She was on the air and I found that that audio it's just wild to hear Ingrid Schumacher talking on whatever December 8th 1980

Okay, so so okay, so the How'd you get how'd you get in with blue rodeo? Okay? Yes What's the last thing I said I'm trying to make we're talking about pompous pop. Oh, yes, okay then and then I Had this I had my little baby boy and such a good father, I stayed home for nine days. That's a Blue Rodeo rite of passage by the way. You have your first child and then you engage yourself. I think Jim had Devon and then they were recording outskirts and my son William was three months

old when I got the call and so that's just the way it goes. So I went downtown out to the...Yonge Street was kind of happening again. It was the Metropolitan and Century 66, I think was same location, I don't know what name was, but I went there to have a beer, you know. I took the subway down from my home in High Park and There was Jim and Greg there and they've been away. I remember the Walking up Yonge Street with them going by John Steinberg's Rainbow room where a hair cutting salon and they were going home because they lived up Around there and they said we're going in New York and they went for me to New York

Yes, they did. And then they had just come back and they said we're going to New York. And they went to New York for two and a half years. And then they had just come back and they went to the, this bar that I showed up at. And they, you know, saw me. Yes, Century 66 or maybe it was The Metropols and I think it was the same, one of the two. And so they said we're starting a band. We got a band, Blue Road, we've already been playing,

played at CBGB and so on. And I was kind of in between bands, you know? And they sound really serious and everything. So I said, well, you know, let's talk about it. And then I remember I got together with them and it's all in the documentary, I think, where I go. You know, you guys down to the series, I got together with them and I, you know, it's all in the documentary, I think, where I go, you know, you guys down to the series, I got a kid now and I got 10 or 12 or whatever years into the post office already.

And I already even, the idea of having a career in music, I wanted to play but I didn't necessarily want to have to make work, you know? That responsibility. And they said, just cleave. You're not the only drummer in town. You know, just do it for a while. And you know, when you get somebody else when you can't do it anymore, I go, yeah, okay. Just like that.

That sounds great. Yeah. So I did that. That's how I then we just started up and, you know, we couldn't find Basel, they wanted Basel and. I just wanna jump in here, like there was a lot of drummers then, there was clearly something about the way you drum and this,

I'm just bringing it back to West of Jane, like Cleve has a very idiosyncratic, I don't know if it's cause you're left handed or if it's your influences, but even Nickle and I often talk about this, cause you know, there's been a few West of Jane gigs where we've had to get a sub because clue can't make it and it's just Doesn't matter how schooled or experienced the sub is like there's only one cleave Anderson So they they clearly heard back in what was that in the 30s or 40s?

84 what what nickel and I have often Spoken of which is that the cleave Anderson sound it's pretty great. I am an individual I think but I attribute mostly to being really really screwed up We're gonna need a sequel episode to dive into that so you're a founding member of blue rodeo It's obviously Greg Keeler Jim Cuddy cleave Anderson who else is a founding member of Blue Rodeo. It's obviously Greg Keeler, Jim Cuddy, Cleve Anderson. Who else is a founding member? Well, Basil and then you know, we'd done a bunch of rehearsals I said, oh everybody had keyboard players in but it was mostly the new way V, you know synthesize the Rob Pruess's

Yeah, he's a spoons guy. Yeah. I know he's great. I do really great. Yeah, he's on toast He's in this basement once a month month He drives from New York to be on toast episodes of Toronto Mike. You should come in as a guest one day I love that. I'm just getting it. I just he's he kind of like something I put on socials a couple of weeks ago and I'm getting into his his Corot romantic traffic. That's all you need to know about them. Okay, so so anyways, I need to know about them. Okay. So anyways, there was four of us, you know, and no, we're just a guitar band. I just, I don't even know why. I don't know why I even remember saying,

oh, you thinking of getting a keyboard player? Now we don't want a keyboard player, but they knew Bobby's brother. They worked with him in New York at Bobby's older brother and he was a great guy and all that. He said, you should check out my younger brother you know and and I think when Jim McGregg found out he didn't have any synthesizers he had an ace tone organ you know and he had a clavinet some you know the old beat-up clavinet and they thought the sound of the ace tone I mean it was more Elvis Costello ish. I guess I don't know what What all Steve naive play that's funny that you mentioned that cuz Bobby himself has said that He wanted a prophet five, but he couldn't afford it so we went to Long and McQuay and he got like a shitty ace tone

So if you've got the prophet five, he probably Fantastic okay, so obviously we're not gonna spend 90 90 minutes on Blue Rodeo because there's so many Blue Rodeo. But we now have Cleve Anderson as drummer for Blue Rodeo. And if you want to hear all the details, there's a Jim Cuddy episode, there's a Greg Keeler episode. But bottom line is the first single from Outskirts kind of flops. This is from these chats I've had of these gentlemen. But then the second single it's called Try is a big success in this country and the rest is kind of history.

But here's my pointed question for you because I do want to talk to Nicol and I want to get back to Michael Boguski and then touch on what happened post Blue Rodeo. But outskirts with Try breaks Blue Rodeo. Blue Rodeo now is a big deal in this country. I know you know, Michelle McAdory In the video for try it's all yeah Yeah, you know I'm telling you something, you know here and then the follow-up album is diamond mine and again a big diamond mine Its original studio version with Bob Wiseman FOTM Bob Wiseman and this diversion I prefer which is the backyard version by Michael Boguski. That's what I'm calling it.

The weather report version. The weather report, what a beautiful day that was. It was hot, but it was beautiful. So my question for you, Cleve, is now that there's big hits in this country, this is a bigger band in Canada particularly, and I'm wondering why you decided to leave Blue Rodeo in 1989.

No judgment, by the way, no judgment. I'm actually just... No, I know. It didn't sound judgmental. I didn't want to sound like that. But sometimes people ask, why did you quit Blue Rodeo? Then I tell them why I quit and then they go, yeah, but why did you quit Blue Rodeo? I'm listening, because I have Rodeo? It's funny when you

when you do if you ever I don't know what's your relationship like today with Ingrid Schumacher? Oh not bad not bad. I was talking we had this conversation I think she would have preferred I stayed with the band if you think you know I was doing it I I just wanted to, yes, I was a family guy, and I didn't really, we had done little touring, short little tours, and you know, England for a couple weeks, and went to Hamburg once, and stuff, and it was always sort of fun the first time,

but I didn't want to do that, and then we mixed the album down at Dan Landwau's Kingsway Studio in New Orleans. I came back, my manager drops me off at the airport. I'm flying back to go back to work and everything. We all had jobs for a year. I just kind of want to step in because this is a hard question to answer for Cleveland. I don't think people realize that like the music industry is no joke It's like you can't make a living in it like Jim was a props manager during diamond mine

You know, I worked a day job in property management From almost my entire tenure in Blue Rodeo up until I had no choice. I had a situation I had to sell my business, but you know Nickel teaches like all morning all day all like, you know So if you have a union gig as opposed to work or and you have a child like, you know, Nickel teaches like all morning, all day, all like, you know, so if you had a union gig as a postal worker and you have a child, like, you know, just because Blue Radio happened to turn into this thing that was successful, that you wouldn't know that at the time. And sure, you might do a tour, you might get a record deal. You're dropped

as quickly as you're hired in this business is ruthless. But that's a good point. So Canada Post, you had a job there. Yeah. This has a what's a pension, right? Like I keep people I just had this chat with some some listeners and it's like they're talking about why I got this pension or because we have a union with a pension and I don't have a fucking pension. Nobody has a pension anymore. And there was dwindling fast. I was part of the thing. And just I liked working at the post office basically and I like going out, you know, coming home and then going out and doing your family guy. I knew I could get more gigs and all that and have my more diversity in my.

I get it. No, I get it. Yeah, I know. I think what's surprising to people is they think, okay, obviously there's any a story of somebody who leaves a band and then it breaks and it's like, you know, okay, yeah, whatever you didn't know was going to break. But the fact that you, you, the first two albums, uh, outskirts and diamond mine, you you're on those albums and then you decide to walk away. Like for the average listener, I know better. Okay. You made a good point, Michael, that every rock star in this basement pretty much has another gig, you know, maybe they're making deliveries Who knows what they're doing, but they do something else This is the Canadian rock star model for whatever reason but it's surprising when people hear that you would leave a band

I know already had two successful albums under there. Yeah. Yeah, but but you get a pension you enjoy it I had Juno awards, you know, it's not like all of a sudden it became more, I just like, it was a relief kind of. They were fun. They're great guys. They all were. And, you know, but I just, you know, it was just like I said, you know, I did it for five years and I went, you know, you know, fly little baby birdies. But it depends on what you have. Like for example, I worked in property management. I got to say this year, I had given up on music, right? I had tried everything, everything, classical jazz, every gig I could do.

And I said, like, I'm done. My fate is to work the family business. And my uncle who runs the family business said, yeah, okay, you can work here on one condition that you keep pursuing your career in music if you if you don't pursue music full-time while you're working or you can't work here. That's because he loves you. It's pretty awesome right so then when the break came for Blue Rodeo I had to go with it and but if I didn't have that sort of burning desire to prove everybody wrong that I could have made it like if I had a good secure union gig

with coworkers that I liked, and it's a route in my neighborhood, I could totally see, like if I had a child, why do I wanna go on the road for instability and dealing with all that, you know, only to maybe get dropped? Maybe I'm not even gonna be the keyboard player on the next tour.

Maybe they're gonna get some other guy in the wings or something. It's a lot of stress, you know? You're sort of on call 24 hours, you know, you got a big gig, comes up. Yeah, there's a misconception though. There's a misconception, and I try to correct people by having conversations like this, that, oh, I was listening to, I don't know, I was listening to 680s, CFTR, all hits back before it went all news. And they play Try all the time, they play Diamond Mind all the time.

That Cleve Anderson is a big celebrity, rich guy, because he's in that big band that I hear on the radio. Much music plays the hell out of the videos. But there's a, perhaps that's true in America, if you're equivalent success in the United States of America, maybe that drummer doesn't have to have a Canada Post job. I don't know. Oh, US Post is in. And maybe I didn't have to have the... I just wanted to have that.

Yeah. But everything's a different lifestyle, you know. But so much is hype machine. Look at these young artists now that are like number like getting all the streams on Spotify. They're huge. Their take home after a tour is nothing. Like people just like there's this this really false notion, you know, you're still tour to tour, you know, and a band like Blue Rodeo, like they're still working, like they're not, it's not U2, it's not the Rolling Stones, you gotta be smart, you gotta be business savvy, and you have to keep working at an advanced age, you know. And one last question on this topic, and then I want to talk about the doc, and I'd die to dive into Nichols' amazing career too, but at an advanced age. You know? And one last question on this topic,

and then I wanna talk about the doc, and I'm dying to dive into Nichols amazing career too. But, any regrets? No. Short answer, no. No regrets. I mean, I, you know, sometimes I think, what would have I done on those songs?

I hear a song, I think it would have been pretty cool to have played those songs. But of course, if I had stayed in the band, everything would have been different. If he stayed in the band, we might be in the band together and you wouldn't want to be in West of Jane. We wouldn't even want to be looking at each other, baby. So there you go.

That would be very sad. Oh my goodness gracious. Movie Vigilante heard you were coming on Cleve Anderson and he just said, what a stacked week. I'm looking forward to Cleve. It was nice to see him in the Lost Together doc. So just maybe a little moment here, maybe you guys, less me more you guys, talking about the documentary.

You're all in the doc. Yeah, we're all in the doc. It was really great that Nickel was in that for that short amount of time because that was such a beautiful tour. He was on. Nickel played on Devin Cuddy's first two albums. We had the Devin Cuddy. Devin is of course Jim's son. His band opened for us on this tour. And what they would do is they would do an opening set in front of the audience for Blue Rodeo.

And then as soon as they were done, they would pack up their gear and they would go play a little club. And so we would finish our set and we'd go in and every night they would just be lighting it on fire. Like it was a real, and they're very R&B New Orleans influence. To me, it sounded like one of the great R&B bands that you hear about when you hear about the 60s R&B scene in Toronto.

You know, you hear about the Hawks or you hear about like all of those kinds of bands. And I'm not gonna talk bands and I'm not gonna Talk to him. I'm gonna let nickel talk his nickel is was there he was part of that Yeah Get a wake him up first, okay It's been a long morning Yeah, I mean that tour was amazing

Like when you guys were talking about having young kids, when I got the call to do the tour, my first kid was five months old. Oh wow. And so I had a huge talk with my wife about like, can I go on the road for two months, opening up for Blue Rodeo when we've got a little baby at home and like, and to her credit or not, she told me I should do it.

And I did it and it was great. I don't think I saw it now since that tour when you guys came over for dinner. I'm like, last time I saw you was Massey Hall. Probably. Yeah. Yeah. No, she's busy doing her thing. So, um, yeah, no, it's, uh, yeah. And that tour was great. I remember when Devin's manager pitched to us that we were going to be playing shows after the big show every night. And to me that only made sense because one of the worst parts about touring is

an opening act is playing the same fucking 10 songs for half an hour every single night. And it's just the same over and over again. I'm, I'm used to playing three gigs in a night. I'm used to doing all these different bands, uh, touring. That was one of my big problems with touring was just samey samey. So at least getting to like scramble to go to a gig

afterwards was more normal in my life and it was super fun and it was great. Did all three of you enjoy the documentary Lost Together? I haven't seen it. Yeah, I thought it was really classy. Like, you know, like it could have gone dark and gross, but it didn't. It was really positive. And again, like I said, we're living in this crazy time now where our cultural sovereignty

is under assault. And I think the fact that this movie is a positive representation of, you know, what Blue Rodeo means to the country and to people. And I really love the way that it was, you know, focused rodeo means to the country and to people and I really loved the way that it was You know focused on the origin story because like honestly like I've been there almost 17 years, but it's a 40 40 years anniversary this year So I like the way the cleave was was you know given a lot of time and yeah Dale did an amazing job on that Documentary yeah, it's just an effortless kind of flowing Thing it's just kind of it's not fun. It's fun. I guess, it's just an effortless kind of flowing thing. It's just kind of, it's not, it's fun, I guess.

And it's just, it's kind of delightful, I think. Well. Well, and I've heard it kind of peaks when I make my like little screen appearance in it. I've heard that's the. That's the height of the handsomeness right there. Right, and the people when they have the. And then, you know, then the people want to get out of the parking lot

Can I play a little something for you play anything yeah, I love playing Sounds like the wrong turf to be playing this song. That's way tighter than a West of Jane track. What are we listening to, Nickel? This is my record that came out last year in May. It's called Mimico Moonlight and this is the title track off of it. Yeah, this is an instrumental trio I have with Mike Blitzky and Sean Dean. We play every Thursday at Reposado, have for years. And we cut this record a little while ago and then put it out last year. And yeah, I'm super proud of it. It sounds great on phones. I don't think I've listened to it on phones in a long time. It does sound great. I'll excuse this horrific title of Mimico Moonlight. No, just kidding.

We have a couple of Mimico guys in the basement here. Well, I mean, it's the same moon that shines in Long Branch. Is it? No, it's the same moon Yeah, you just blew my mind. Yeah, I feel like my now eight-year-old once had this moment where she was I can't remember But it was like we were seeing a moon and there was some other moon and she had this like epiphany that it was the same moon Yeah I'm like, oh, yeah, I guess you don't come out of like, you don't come out of the womb knowing this, that it's the same moon, right? You got to have a moment where you clue it all together.

I think Cleve might have just learned this. I once mooned a whole group of Italian football supporters after France lost the world cup in 2000. Was that the headbutt game? No. Yeah, that was when Zidane headbutted. Yeah, I was drinking a lot then and I was in the mooning. So.

Well, now you drink hot pubs. So you're good now. More questions, of course. A wonderful question came in for Nicol when I put on blue sky that he was dropping by. Bob says, he's a seriously talented guy. That's you. I'm not even done.

So, brace yourself. Bob, go see his band, the Hoolagoons. Anytime you can. They do 30s, 40s, Hawaiian music to perfection. These are some of the best players in Canada. Their pedal steel player, Burke Carroll, gave Steve Howe a guitar lesson when Yes was in town about a decade ago. These guys are at that level.

Yeah. Um, to be clear, Burke plays lap steel in the band. Um, but yeah, Burke's, uh, one of the best pedal and lap steel players and dobro players in the country. And he's been a friend for many years. And the Hoolagoons was a dream that he had that we started, man, maybe about a decade ago. And it's a Hawaiian band. It's to let Burke play lap steel and do that beautiful music.

And I'm just happy to be a part of that one. That's great. I remember the first time I ever heard Burke play was in the Dakota Tavern. I was heavily intoxicated and I almost fell into his pedal steel and I sort of just was at the altar of Burke going, wow, you're like the best musician I've ever heard in this bar ever.

And he was very cool about it. And he was so nice. And you know Burke Carroll is definitely a treasure. When we started the Hoolagoons Burke had come over to my house to run through some tunes just him and I and at the end we thought yeah this is great we'll have a band and so Burke says I'm gonna go home I'm gonna get some more music together we'll ponder a bass player and a drummer and a vocalist.

And I texted him back and he still laughs about this. I said, Burke, music is second, if that. The first thing that we're gonna do is get shirts. So we wear Hawaiian shirts. The second thing we're gonna do is book a gig. And I could say that to Burke, because like Mike just said, you know, like Burke is a master musician.

So music is never gonna be down the list on his end. But I was adamant that we had to wear Hawaiian shirts and get lays and have it be a thing. And yeah, then the band started very quickly after that. I think we booked a gig the next week and made it happen with Ted Hawkins and Victor Bateman. How many bands are you in right now? Uh, I would

need to know really. I want to know. Okay. Just including the family band. Do everyone. Okay. So there's the family band, the Robinson's Huns. We don't play as much as we used to in the pandemic, but it's great. We're still doing some stuff. Uh, we got Monday night country flash. Uh, we have Thursday, the Mimico Moonlighters with Mike Blitzke and Shandeen. I got Nickle Robertson and Mike T. Kerr. I have the Fred Speck Camp Combo.

I have the Lollipop People with my friend Richard Marcella. We got, oh, Nick and the Narcs, that's a fun one. The Hooligans. We're at eight.cs, that's a fun one. The Hooligans. We're at eight. Yeah, eight, nine, 10. West of Jane is nine. West of Jane is nine. Come on, one more and it's 10.

Make something up. Snowbirds. Snowbirds defunct now. What about the LeRae boys? That's defunct also. Graham moved up to the woods and I haven't seen him since. Thelonious Hank. There we go, there's number 10.

That's it, we're at 10 bands for our guy, Nickle. At least, I'm sure there's more woods and I haven't seen them since. Thelonious Hank. There we go. There's number 10. That's it. We're at 10 bands for our guy, Nickel. At least. I'm sure there's more that I can't think of and I apologize if I am offending anybody. Yeah, but 10 active bands. Like 10 active bands. So that's the route that I took through music was quantity over quality.

But you're never going to be bored. Like it sounds like you can't imagine did three shows a night or whatever. Like you need this. Yeah, it's great. That's what you love. Yeah. You know, kind of like Cleve was talking about, like, you know, the rigors of going on tour and the benefits to diversifying.

I love a lot of different kinds of musics. And if you had to listen to all of the musical loves that I have all in one band, you'd go insane. It would be the worst band ever because it would just be a mashup of everything. And you don't need to hear that. So every band I have serves a very particular musical love of mine.

Scratches the itches. Yeah. Can I ask you about a specific band go for interrupt? But just because I just had Don Pyle over here. Oh, we talked shadowy men on a shall we play? How influential would a band like shadowy men on a shadowy planet BT? In a lot of different ways like I mean I think Probably the strongest influence they had on me was through Dallas Good. Because I saw a Sadie's clip on Open Mic with Mike Bullard, speaking of Mike talk shows.

Who was talked about in great detail with Ed the sock. Yes. Monday, Monday. Ed's rock clip. Ed's beautiful. Yeah. Please get his homework. He heard the So In 1999 I was at at home, you know just going through the channels and open mic was on and

There was a close-up of Dallas Goods face and they were playing and I thought what the fuck is this? I don't I don't understand this and and I thought, what the fuck is this? I don't understand this. And it blew my mind because that, it was country music, but it was cool, because at that point in my life, the only country that was even kind of cool was super old stuff. And most of the new stuff at the time,

I didn't like at all. And then I saw those guys and it was a Sadie's, yeah, they kind of changed my whole look on things. And I think, you know, Dallas was really close buddies with Reed Diamond, who played bass with those guys and, um, and they had a band called the Blankin' on it, but it was, it was basically, uh, Dallas replaced Brian Connolly and they had another band. They did a record with Jad Fair and so that's sort of like, I don't think twangy instrumental

reverb-y quasi-surf but we're not a surf band music would exist in Toronto if it weren't for Brian Connolly and those guys. And it just trickled down and now I'm like, yeah, I love Brian. He plays at Reposado every week also. And I go out and check him out. Yeah, every Tuesday, every Tuesday. I love on the reboot of the kids in the hall, they have a shot of Dallas playing with the Shed.

Right, because he played bass with them. It was impossible to watch that without getting teary. Huge loss. I mean, I'm the age Dallas was when he died. Huge loss. I did a good Brothers album. Had his uncle on. They have a new single out about that.

Did you hear that? It's another one you can't really listen to without getting emotional. It's a great, great tune. And I'm a big Gord Downey and Tragically Hip fan in Dallas' work with Gord Downie and tragically hip fan in Dallas's work with Gord's solo material. It's what an incredible, incredible loss. Absolutely. I got the, I think, did Don put out a, he was selling, I don't know if

it was Don, the selling photos. Yeah, I have one in my studio and it's fantastic because every time I get excited about a take and I think oh this is great I'll look at the picture Dallas and I'm like no I can do better that's amazing now just a fun little small world story is so I mentioned Rob Pruse Rob Pruse I always closed every episode of this podcast with Rosie and Grey from Shakespeare my butt lowest of the low I think your brother Mark was a big fan too love that song I close episode, but at some point I wanted to change it up so the algorithm would stop telling me like, uh, I don't have permission to put this on YouTube and Spotify

and all this bullshit idea with even though Ron Hawkins is happy. I play the damn thing, but this is another story from the time. But I said, Rob Proust, can you rerecord it with the keyboards and give me a cover, which is how we'll close this episode. He added these, uh, Easter eggs at the end of things like things that reoccur on Toronto Mike on this program. And he does a little bit of having an average weekend by shadowy men and a shadowy planet because I love kids in the hall. So you'll hear even when we wrap up, you'll hear a little Easter egg at the end here. Hope it's a chocolate Easter egg.

Easter's coming. Did you know that? So obviously, I'm going to just play a little bit of another song here, and then we're going to take a moment where you guys are going to like get ready to play. And that's when I'll thank some of the sponsors for everything.

One thing, though, I do need to ask you guys about before I play that maybe while I play the song, let me play the damn song. Oh, yeah, there we go. the song. Let me play the damn song. That's some good M. Kravitz music. I'm gonna to go ahead and get started. Mike, what are we listening to? Yeah, that's a tune I wrote called Highway 62 and I included it as a hidden track on my re-release of my album, Here's to Tomorrow, Goodbye to Yesterday.

And it's interesting because I had an album release and I had phoned Nickle like four hours before the gig saying, hey, can you learn this tune and just come by and play it, which he obviously did and hit it out of the park. But yeah, I re-released my album very interesting long and short. I'd worked on several albums with Peter J Moore over many years and Peter and I became somewhat close and he was sort of my go-to on many things audio related and whatnot and sadly he passed. I was playing his memorial at the church, Trinity Church, and I had had a few encounters with Terry Brown prior to that, and Terry was there and we talked, and I didn't really know Terry that well, Terry obviously of Rush fame and produced Blue Rodeo's first album.

And then I asked Terry, I said, Hey, can you help me help me finish this album? And he he wasn't really know me. He's like, Okay, maybe I'll think about it. And then he agreed to do it. And I found out he lives up the road with me from me. Anyway, so I he basically remixed the whole album. We took some tracks off out of some new ones. So that's why there's a rerelease. And so you're hearing you're hearing some Terry Brown brilliance there with the mixing board. of course Colin Cripps on guitar and Glenn Melchum from Blue Rodeo on drums Sounds great, man. Thank you. Sounds great. So Also, so you did some work. Here's a gentleman I've always wanted on Toronto Mike

But I feel like he might be Mike shy in some regard because he politely declined his invitation. How dare he Michael Timmons? shy in some regard because he politely declined his invitation. How dare he? Michael Timmons? You mentioned Trinity. Michael Timmons is a big part of this album too. I totally forgot because we really, this all started with... That's what I'm here for Mike. This all started in 2019. I did an album of solo and free improvised piano called Blues for the Penitent which Mike, I approached Mike with just about doing a regular kind of standard instrumental album and I improvised something on the last cut He's like, you know, that's where it's at You should go with that and then at that point Greg had sort of announced he was done with the rodeo

I went back to York University to finish with KC Sokol who was a great Sort of musical guru to many including Bobby Wiseman. And so I finished my improv studies studies I ended up cutting this album I went back sometime later and said hey Michael can we do some more I brought Basil and Cleve and Cleve's on this album as well right yeah we're on that track a message from Mars right and which is a very much an improv influenced and I did a track called December which Michael has an incredible guitar solo on and then it's funny I put on I put on the Trinity sessions the other day Just because I alphabetized all my vinyl and it's all signed by the band

I had gone and seen them back in the day and they signed it and I just keep forgetting how cool Michael Timmons is and how amazing of a musician he was is and I'm really blessed to have all of those people on that album. Here's to tomorrow, goodbye to yesterday. I mean that's awesome so that's only only came out in January and you can you can get it now. Yeah it's on all the it's on all of the streaming services and of course if you want to buy a physical copy which is the best way to go about it you just go to my website MikeBoguski.com. Okay MikeBoguski you want to buy a physical copy, which is the best way to go about it, you just go to my website, mikeboguski.com.

Okay, mikeboguski.com to buy that. And Nicole, where would you send people to buy your Mimico Moonlight? Legally, I've got to ask you to go through my management company, nickelanddimemanagement.com. Yeah, it's www or sorry HTTPS colon slash backslash backslash two backslashes WWE World Wide Web dot nickel and dime management comm How's nickel spelled and I see KEL. Thanks for asking. Yeah, it's got nothing to do with me It's just a management company that that trusts in me and the question with me yeah what's how much money I have Great Lakes beer for you

if that's enough anybody but I wanted to do before I okay can I jump in with one quick thing I have a very fragile ego so I need more followers so follow at Mike bugusky comm so that I don't cry in the morning. Thank you. We don't want that. Nobody wants that. No. Do you three gentlemen enjoy Italian food? Yes. Is this one yes? Yes.

Yes. So what I have, and it's amazing, because I didn't know, I didn't know, nickel was a surprise, a happy surprise. Always a surprise. Much like my fourth born. Just kidding, just kidding. No, it wasn't a surprise.

That was a joke, everybody., for real it was a joke. I'd own it if it was true, but it's not true. Are you booked in YakYaks or anything? No, you know what? There was YakYaks, the guy at that top panel, Jeff Silverman, president of YakYaks. Did you know that? Yeah, he's Breslin's guy to run YakYaks.

It's all connected here.ave stick with me, buddy We're gonna go places. So I do have a lasagna in my freezer one for each of you I won't make you even share the same lasagna. This is from palma pasta So you just have to commit from now on to the end of time You will only buy food at palma pasta in Mississauga and Oakville done. Okay done. Okay, so you guys scatter I'm gonna do a little And then describe don't hit your head Michael Yeah

I gotta remember think don't hit my head and don't get mad at my bandmates Don't get mad at your bandmates and of course take off the headphones before you walk around people sometimes forget that and I will do a little play-by-play so But but I'm gonna thank some sponsors and there's a lot of setup happening here and there's a camera on you So if people can find Toronto mic'd on YouTube here and there's a camera on you so if people can find Toronto mic'd on YouTube that's where you find the Charlie Angus clip about Wayne Gretzky that was literally just taken and used on this hour has 22 minutes yesterday so if you watch this hour has 22 minutes yesterday they took footage that was on my YouTube

they didn't tell me or ask me and which is fine if they had just stuck an attribution like if CBC had just put Toronto Mike or from Toronto Mike dot com or Toronto Mike's YouTube channel I wouldn't have given a shit, but they don't do any attribution Which I think is interesting but to be discussed at a later date maybe on FOTM cast on April 1st. So quickly Let me thank Nick IEDs he's fromp. Development and his podcast is called Building Toronto's Skyline. I urge you to subscribe and while you're subscribing to

that, subscribe to Between Two Fermentors from Great Lakes Brewery and Life's Undertaking. That's from Ridley Funeral Home. These are all great podcasts I highly recommend them and these are great sponsors as well and speaking of great sponsors recycle my electronics dot CA That's where you go. If you have old cables old electronics You don't throw them in the garbage the chemicals will end up in our landfill and that sucks So go to recycle my electronics dot CA put in your poster code find out where to drop it off. Now let me do a little bit of a play by play here. So where are we at here? I'm looking now. Okay. There's a lot of work being done behind the scenes. This is exciting here. So cleave is in the washroom. He's a had had some great lakes and he's giving it

back. So that's where cleave is. We got Michael Baguski's frantically here. He's putting together some, oh, this is going to be wild. Okay. Guitar has come out from Nicol Robertson. He's plugging in. I just saw the Dylan biopic, man. When he plugged in those, those folkies were mad. That was quite a, quite a scene and a complete unknown here. Just watch that on the weekend. So, okay. So, okay. Nicole is a that's hit me here in the background. He's got the guitar. All right. Here, let's see here. The keyboard is big. That's a big keyboard, Michael. You okay? Okay. Well, it's all relative. It's not that big. It's a relative thing.

Size is not everything here. So Cleat is plugging them in. I have an exten- Can you plug in there? Oh, there's one, I don't know if it'll reach. There's one by the washing machine, but- Oh, you got a extension cord? I remember this one from mine.

Okay. So I wish I could throw a camera on this, but we got, here, let me take a quick photo here. I just need one more power and I'm good. I have an extension. getting some power for these gentlemen there is an extension cord outlet if you need oh you got your own okay he came prepared Michael Boguski learned look at that at Michael Power.

Always come prepared here. I was going to give him some power and I realized, oh yeah, I know his brother from Michael Power here. So Cleve is now sitting down. Percussion, you got a drum there. That's a drum cleave. Okay. All right. If this comes together guys.

So is that a washboard? What is that? That's a Stompin' Tom's. Oh, Stompin' Tom's Stompin' Tom board. Hey, shout out to Banjo Dunk here. I'm being influenced by it. It's not like he would just have a piece of plywood. We need Stompin' Tom. He was a proud Canadian.

We need this guy. And he lived in Mimico for years. Did he? I think a Mimico or somewhere around here in a basement. Stompin' Tom Connors lived in a basement in Mimico, according to Cleve Anderson. That's a mind blow right there He should have lived in

Well, you know who knows? Okay, so I got a shadow banjo dunk dunk and fremling. He plays banjo He was friends with stomp and Tom keeping the legacy alive. I'll confirm that story with him and I'll get back to you I'll get back to you here. Oh Wow So once you guys are set up, I have to know where to put microphones. That's the one thing here. Well, you know, you can do what you wish with these three mics that they swing around, they move, I don't know. And you got to stand, right, Nicolay? Okay. You know, okay. Well, okay Wow, let me see

Okay, I Gotta say this is exciting to me that we didn't do what some shows we do which is stop recording Set up and start recording like I love watching this cake get baked here. I love this live on the floor. We got keyboards. Let's see. Let's see what happens. Yeah. Somewhat like... No, it didn't. All right. You want to introduce the tune? Oh, let's talk about our release. Yeah, April 18th? 19th? Cameron House. Uh, Cameron House. We're playing the, uh, back room.

We've got a record coming out. 18 or 19? Yeah. 18 or 19. Wow! It's a Friday. It's a Friday. The Friday. If it's April 18. Friday the 18th, Cameron House. 6 to 8 p.m. So Cameron House, 6 to 8 p.m. Awesome. This is a tune we wrote called Johnny Walker Blue. One, two, one, two, ready, go. So I'm gonna be a good boy, I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a man of my own I'm a man of my own I'm a man of my own I'm a man of my own I'm a man of my own

I'm a man of my own I'm a be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy

I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy I'm gonna be a good boy Amazing, honestly, guys. Wow. That sound came out of this bass myth. That's amazing to me that it sounded that good. Yeah Okay, wow

Cleave nickel Michael honestly that was just unbelievable Should I just play the extra and get out of here or did you want to come back on the mics? You won't you want to see that's a good way to end it. So speaking of the Rob Proust cover of Rosie and Grey, we're going to hear that on our way out. But I got to say huge thank you to Michael Boguski. You played live on this show twice now. I'm going to start to get greedy and like ask for it every six months or so. Get some Boguski down here.

So thank you for that. Making his Toronto mic debut, Cleve Anderson, I down here. So thank you for that. Making his Toronto Mike debut. Cleve Anderson, I've wanted to talk to you for a very long time. I just want to say thank you. I loved it. We got to do this again sometime. Well, it was a pleasure being here. Yes. Pleasure to be here. And a pleasure. Different. The pleasure is a lot of work. No, it's just greater than a pleasure. than a pleasure and Nickel Robertson what an absolute pleasure it was to meet you Mimico guy see on the trail. Thanks so much and that That brings us to the end of our

1,600 and 44th show that was just incredible. I loved that so damn much. That's why Toronto Mike exists for moments like that. Unbelievable. Go to torontomic.com for all your Toronto Mike needs. I'm active on Blue Sky at torontomic.com, but I'm all over the place. Find me, follow me and find out who the hell is visiting the basement. Much love to all who made this possible. That is Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta.

They're feeding us at TMLX 18, by the way, June 26th, 6 to 9 p.m. at Great Lakes Brewery here in Southern Etobicoke. RecycleMyElectronics.ca, Building Toronto Skyline, and Ridley Funeral Home. My next guest on Toronto Miked, that's okay Cleve, I'll pick that up. Cleve is dropping everything. I'm going to, don't worry about it. We'll fix it. We'll fix it. My next guest on Toronto Miked is Andy Wilson. He's the morning show host on Zoomer radio I gotta tell Andy all

about West of Jane that's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna go Andy Zoomer needs to play West of Jane make it happen thanks for listening everybody see you then I actually wrote that for Michael Power St. Joseph music theater production. We had done a theater version of the show Get Smart from the 60s. Remember Get Smart? Of course. So three of us were sitting around. We all have to contribute a tune. So Nickle had one called Three Wrongs Don't Make a Right.

Cleve had a great one called The Frog and the Whale. And I'm like, I got this great tune who's kind of written for a 60s kind of theme song television show. So that's what John Walker Blue is. Love it. You know what I say? Agent 99 gets thumbs up.

Number 99, thumbs down, okay? See you all Friday. So So Music