Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Fred Penner: Toronto Mike'd #244

Episode Date: June 21, 2017

Mike chats with Fred Penner about The Cat Came Back, Fred Penner's Place, Tipi Tales, Hear the Music and more.

Welcome to episode 244 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a local independent brewery producing fresh craft beer. And propertyinthesix.com, Toronto real estate done right. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is the legendary Fred Penner. And I don't use that term lightly, Fred. I appreciate that, Mike, very much. It's not every day somebody comes in my basement who has the Order of Canada. Am I wearing my pin? No, I changed my shirt today.

I usually wear it proudly on my right lapel, but it's not with me today. But yes, I did receive that particular distinction somewhere in the past. Which is fantastic. I know Gore Downey and The Hip just received it. That's right. I read that. That's fabulous.

You're in good company. I think so. Thank you. Speaking of things you're not wearing, when I think of you these days, I think of the pork pie hat. But it is here, right? Okay.

So you'll wear it for my photo? I get a photo with you after? Yes, exactly. We'll have to. It doesn't quite work with the headphones on here, but yes, the hat is now part of the image here. It works for you. You know what I get?

I get a Tom Waits vibe. All right. Excellent company. Gord Downie, Tom Waits. Okay. I like where this is going. While I'm giving you some mad props off the top here, you grow a great beard and forever I've been envious

because I cannot do it. I've tried. I can't grow a... We have to stop shaving, Mike. That's the first thing. That's the problem. When I stop shaving, I just look awful. I've given it my best shot, and I'm always envious of people who grow great beards,

and you're one of them. And basically, you brought somebody with you just to tell people at home. So Ian, right? Is this your bodyguard because you weren't sure what you might be looking for? Yeah, exactly. Ian Wilms has become a dear friend over the years. He's a photographer, a world-renowned photographer. He does work with the Globe and Mail, with the New York Times, etc., etc.

Oh, just a couple of little mom-and-pop outlets like that. Exactly. And I was doing an event today at the Holland Bloorview Rehab Center for Children. And I'm working on a project for Chirp Magazine. Oh, yeah. Chirp and Owl Magazine. And they wanted some performance photographs for me. And I don't have any really contemporary shots of me in performance. So I thought, well, Ian, I'll call him up and see if he's available,

and fortunately he said yes, absolutely. He just came back from his 5,000 kilometer excursion on the east coast of the States. That's another story. You should have him on separately. That's another episode. I only have 45 minutes and I think he came the reason I think he came is he heard that there was going to be some Great Lakes beer here

because he's I should tell the people he's drinking a Octopus Wants to Fight right now Octopus Wants to Fight well these look interesting well Fred that's for you okay Fred

I haven't forgotten you Great Lakes Brewery are sponsors of this program. They help make it all possible. What? A Fred Penner IPA? Are you kidding? You know what?

If you're into that, I bet you that could happen very, very quickly. Actually, it's been offered to me already. There's a brewery close to Ottawa who wanted to do a Fred Penner beer. I'm surprised they all don't want to do that. Come on. If I can see the pork pie hat on, that's what they should do. It would be a symbol, right?

Me and what's his name? Mr. Salsa. Mr. Salsa. So Great Lakes Beer, that's courtesy of them. They want you to bring that home with you and enjoy that responsibly. Also, you need something to pour the beer into.

So the empty mug. So that one, I'm keeping that one, but you can drink the water. That mug, that's courtesy of propertyinthesix.com. And what does that mean? Basically, if you're looking to buy and sell, buy or sell real estate in Toronto, you contact Brian Gerstein at propertyinthesix.com. You can also call him, but better yet, you're a musician. Let's listen to Brian's jingle while I tell you a little bit about him.

Perfect. Propertyinthesix.com Brian says, The Toronto Real Estate Board reported for the first two weeks in June, 3,000 transactions. That represents a drop of 50% in comparison to the same period last year. In order to sell your house now, you need to price it on what buyers are paying now

versus what they paid three months ago. You're still going to get an increase of about 7% in price over a year ago, so call Brian now at 416-873-0292 for an up-to-date evaluation of your home, as it is changing on a weekly basis. I'm blowing away that I'm jamming with Fred Penner. it's good go on for 10 seconds more how much time do we have Mike? I was thoroughly enjoying that, but you have five more seconds here. But yeah, I'll fade that over for you. That's fantastic. Let's start at the beginning. In the beginning. In the beginning.

How do you end up becoming one of Canada's greatest children's music performers? Oh, really? How's that for a question? Yeah, exactly. How's that for a question? She passed away, and my father died a year later. And nobody had ever told me that music was going to be a major part of my life. I loved playing and singing at high school and university and et cetera. It was always part of my being, but as a career, it was not an option. So suddenly I was faced with mortality from a father and sister.

I thought, well, what am I going to do with my life? I'm a young man, 20-something. I've got a B.A. in economics. I do not want to be an economist. Music was the only thing that gave me any real sense of bliss. So I pursued that. I started playing lounges and bars and anywhere that I could perhaps make a couple of dollars. and anywhere that I could perhaps make a couple of dollars. And that led to working with a friend, Al Simmons,

who's a New Age vaudevillian out of Winnipeg and an iconic performer in his own right. And he had a band that he was rejigging, so I joined that. We became Cornstalk Comedy Troupe, and we toured across Canada for four years. And that led, so I built up a lot of skill in playing and stage presence from that. And then later in the 70s, my ex-wife came into the picture, and we worked together in Winnipeg creating music for children in the school system and performance,

and that was the turning point. That led to an offer to do a record in 1979. And The Cat Came Back was born, and I never looked back. Pause there. Firstly, sorry for your loss. That must have been rough in the early 70s for you. It was.

Yeah, of course. I've talked to a lot of friends since then who are in the business who have had similar experiences at critical times of their life, and mortality is a great motivator. Well, to me, this is a great example of life gave you lemons and you made lemonade because something beautiful grows from something so horrific absolutely yeah completely you said the uh the famous uh cat came back for you so let's let's all listen in on a little bit of uh the

cat came back by fred penner oh you're back to the beginning, are you? Just a little taste. Now old Mr. Johnson had troubles of his own. He had a yellow cat who wouldn't leave his home. He tried and he tried to give the cat away. He gave it to a man going far, far away. But the cat came back the very next day. I might be one of the kids in this recording. Impossible.

It's a very odd, it's really odd to hear that because that was recorded like 40 years ago. Yes. And my voice was different. You know, the tone was higher. It was higher. More like mine. Something like that. It's really odd to hear that because I don't sound like that anymore. Like a baby. I sound like a baby.

So this is basically the big break for you, right? Because the cat came back. Oh, it was huge. That became the signature tune. At that time, it was the system was ripe for music for families, for children. Raffi

had come on the scene, Sharon Lawson-Bram. I recorded the CD or this, no, it wasn't CDs yet. It was still vinyl, and talked to Rafi and his company. He said, send us a copy of this once it's done. I sent it to them, and they liked what they heard. We signed a five-year deal to work on subsequent CDs,

and I toured across the country, and that built my foundation in that, well, in the first five years of the 80s, where the post-war generation, the boomers, were hungry for the material. And so I was doing like 2,000 seat concerts across the country. Let me ask you a little bit about Raffi because one of my staples as a young man was the Corner Grocery Store on vinyl, and a staple. Yep. Do you still have contact with Raffi?

Occasionally. The producer of that album and others for Raffi was Ken Whiteley, and he produced several of my albums, including the latest one, Hear the Music, that we'll probably talk about along the way. Yeah, and I even have a cut from, that's your 13th album, right, Hear the Music?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, yeah, I do connect with Rafi on occasion, and through Ken Whiteley, he and Rafi speak often. So, yeah, so there's links that still come through I'm curious though do you have any thoughts on his new political he's been very vocal politically

especially on Twitter I follow you and Twitter and Rafi he's very outspoken and political you're less so I'm just curious what your thoughts are on that I'm it's he you know what your thoughts are on that. He's always been a very opinionated person.

And he just loves to make his voice known and say these things. And many of them are important points. But I don't know if I necessarily need to hear his political views on everything. I mean, if you... I have political perspectives, certainly. I don't really feel the need to fire that out there. I'll make comments when I'm doing performance, depending on the audience.

Occasionally I'll bring up points of interest and things that are in my brain that I think, not just political, but in our whole system of function in this country. I'll get on to the credit card world and rant on that. I'll pull a Rick Mercer for a while. There are a lot of things that I'm very concerned about in this world,

and politically too. I think we really, as a society, need to start doing something. Whether his comments, you know, if it motivates somebody to get involved, to be part of it, well, good on him. It's just not my trip.

I hear you. Some people probably wish he would just talk about apples and bananas. But, right, to each his own, of course. And you mentioned Sharon, Lois, and Brom. Speaking of the Staples, so I'm a child of the 80s, particularly the early 80s,

so there's a lot of Raffi, a lot of Fred Penner, and a lot of Sharon, Lois, and Brom, and The Elephant Show. Can you tell me, actually, since people are going to have some great nostalgia from this episode, let me play a little bit of Sharon, Lois, and Brom

before we talk about them. I love you Skidding, rinky, rinky, rinky Skidding, rinky, rinky, rinky I love you I feel like singing along, Fred. Is that... Resist. At all costs, resist. That's something Rafi would tweet.

Tell me about... You had a big break, I guess, because you appeared... You worked with Sharon Lewis and Bram at this early part of your career. Sharon Lewis and Bram. Bram, I apologize. You're close.

Great name though. Yeah, we've known each other for a long time. We did, I appeared on there on the Elephant Show at one point, but that was after Fred Penner's place had begun. Are you sure? You would know. It might have been prior to that. It was close because we started my series in 85. And, yeah, I think it may have been a little bit after that. I feel like your involvement on The Elephant Show precedes Fred Penner's place by at least a little bit. But for me to second guess yourself, who am I?

I don't remember. It was too long ago. Well, let's talk about Fred Penner's place. By the way, my wife is always interested in who's going to be in our basement this week. So she's very curious. And for a long time, her favorite guests were Roz and Mocha, who have a morning show on Kiss 92.5 in Toronto because that's her station that she listens to when she drives to work.

Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Younger listening, if you will, but not too young if you will. I told her Fred Penner was coming. This is the most... So this is 244 episodes. This is the most excited my wife has

been about a guest coming to our home. Fred Penner is coming. You beat out Ron McLean, you beat out Strombo, you beat out some big names. Ron McLean, Strombo? That's very sweet. Thank you. She's excited. I know Monica will listen. Fred Penner's in our basement

right now. Monica, hi. You just blew her mind. Let's talk about Fred Penner's Place. Sure. Now this, another clip, and I like this clip because it will really

bring back the nostalgia because I don't start with the intro to Fred Penner's Place. There's a bit of an outro of a previous show and then some stingers on CBC, if you will,

and then we hear it. So be patient. This is coming, but... Right, I know what you mean. This is good for the nostalgia merchants. Explore the nature of things with David Suzuki tonight on CBC Television. Хорошая ночь! Thank you. There's, there's, there's, there's, there's There's, there's, there's, there's, there's

Hi! It's good to see you. How are you today? Are you feeling fit and fine? Me too. Oh, boy. Ready to have some fun, too. I'll tell you what. It's always more fun when we do something together. So why don't I tell you about what happened around our place recently? We had a block party.

Block party. Where are you going? our place recently, we had a block party. Block party. We go. By the way, it's awesome to watch you play along to the theme to Fred Penner's Place. That's fantastic. Thank you for doing that. Where do I begin? Maybe

how did Fred, so tell me about Fred Penner's Place, which was hugely popular. It's an interesting evolution here. I had no intention of doing television. That was not one of my goals in life. I was delighted to be able to make a living as a performer.

Doing the concerts was a blessing to start with. And then after, in the mid-80s, about 84, 85, I got a phone call from Dodie Robb, who was the head of children's television in Toronto. And she said, hi, this is Dodie Robb. We've been watching your progress over the years because they've been going to festivals and seeing this energy build. And they said, we would love for you to do a TV series. Would you be interested? And it's, well, what does that mean? What do you expect from me? And she said, what would you like to do? And basically put the whole thing in my lap. I had no idea what, where to start with, what to do. She said, think about it. If you had your

druthers, what would you like to do? And so again, as I create, I would go back to my childhood as I did after my sister and father passed, go back in my history and see, what is it that I want to do? What thing do I want to bring forward? And I went back to my childhood, and I thought of places that I had in my various houses we lived in, where I would crawl away to be by myself. Underneath the piano that we had in the house, in the corner of a backyard, when we lived in Ottawa for a couple of years, there was a big tree in the corner of the yard. My chicken, I had a couple of years. There was a big tree in the corner of the yard. My chicken, I had a couple of pet chickens back then. One of the chickens was killed by the white cat over the back fence.

I took it upon myself to bury my pet chicken. And the way that I got to the burial ground for this was under these bushes. I had to crawl under these bushes to this little place. I dug a grave, put the chicken in, put a little grave marker. And this was my cozy place. This is where I would stop and think and meditate. In retrospect, that was where I was with myself and with my thoughts and my spirituality, even at, you know, nine years old. And I thought, that's the kind of place that I want children to come visit if I'm

going to do a series. It's not just knock on the door, come on in. You've got to go on a journey because life is a journey. So it's across a field, it's maybe around a tree, it's balance on a rock, it's follow the fence, it's following the signs that will ultimately lead you to this hollow log. And here is the magical part of it. You lift up the branches and you crawl into this log and there is the protection. And once you come to the other side, it's just you and me. We're here together to share songs, stories, thoughts, feelings, but that sense of protection and being there to discover

was very critical for me. Like a refuge of sorts. Totally. That's a good way to put it, yeah. On Twitter, at Toronto Brent told me he once got stuck in a log because he tried to climb through it like you did to start the show. So I wonder if there was a brief epidemic in emergency rooms throughout Canada of kids getting stuck in logs.

He's not alone. Let me just put it that way. And I was actually thinking of the intro just yet. So I do a lot of biking on the Waterfront Trail and the Humber Trail. Yeah. So I do a lot of biking on the Waterfront Trail and the Humber Trail. Yeah. And one week ago, I saw the largest turtle I've ever seen in the wild. And I guess it's snapping turtles are laying eggs.

And this was along the path. It's called King's Mill Park near Old Mill. And this was last Friday night. I saw this and I took some photos and I'm like, this is the largest turtle I've ever seen. And then yesterday in the same park I'm biking through two deer and I was thinking this is like the opening of uh Fred Penner's uh place where you saw like you saw a beaver like you see all this wildlife kind of on your way to the yeah so I Toronto ravine system uh for those who don't know has an awful lot of pretty fantastic wildlife for a big city like this. And you wouldn't normally think that.

As Ian and I were driving to the Holland Blurview Centre and just looking at the traffic and driving the Gardiner and the Don Valley and thinking, boy, this is what people do on a daily basis. They drive this insanity and when do they pull off to the side of the road and smell some roses or some lilacs and enjoy a turtle or some deer walking by?

And it's so critical to have that level of appreciation in life. The urban has its position, but really, is that all there is to life? Yeah, absolutely. It's almost like that's a refuge of sorts. You need to escape to nature. I think so. You're the meditation space you spoke about earlier.

Yeah, truly. So how long? Now, I know it from the CBC, but this show was aired in America as well. Yeah, it ran in Canada from 85 to 97. as well. Yeah, it ran in Canada from 85 to 97. In the late 80s, around 89, 60-some episodes were sold to Nickelodeon in the States, Nick Jr., it was called. It ran for about a year and a half, and then they renewed the license for that same batch for another couple of years. So it ran from 85 or 89 to 92 and to 50 million homes seven days a week. I was going to say like America's,

I mean the population of California is more than Canada. California, exactly. So that's a big... Yeah, no, it was a huge, huge connection and it opened up just a wonderful range of touring to just about every state. We covered a lot of ground. I was the first children's entertainer

to play the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles. I made the 12th, 1992, is Fred Penner Day in Los Angeles. Get out of here. I've got a plaque to prove it. Very cool. Very cool. Now, we only have a Get out of here. I've got a plaque to prove it. Very cool. Very cool. Now, we only have a limited amount of time.

People are kind of used to, they tune into the show and they hear like 90 minutes, but you have other obligations, which is very cool. We can keep rolling here. There is going to be a phone call coming at about 1.25 today.

We're going to be okay. We've got a good half an hour left here. But I guess what I'm saying is if I skip anything, feel free to bring me back, because I have to tell you a story about tippy tails. Teepee. Teepee. I'm butchering all the words today.

Teepee and bram. Right. You'll be there, yes. I've got to write that phonetically. Phonetically. Teepee tails. Teepee tails Bram. Right. You'll be there. Yes. I got to write that phonetically. Pho-wen-net-ically. Teepee Tales. Teepee Tales. Yeah.

Okay. When I, when my oldest was very young, we watched Treehouse TV. Okay. Oh, yeah. That's right. And we would see Teepee Tales on Treehouse TV and we watched it. I quite liked it because it was about, it was very like serene and calming. It's, for those who don't know the show,

I'm already choked up. I'm going to take a little water here. Speaking of wildlife, there are frogs in my throat. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. That's a dad joke. Yeah, exactly. I'm with you all the way. All right. So

Teepee Tales. So we watch the show all the time and then one episode, and this is, with you all the way. All right. So, tippy tails. So, we watch this show all the time. And then one episode, and this is, it's like puppets. Yeah. And Ojibwe people. Yeah. And they have seven laws of nature. And each law of nature is represented by an animal.

And we're watching one episode, and the animal is the bear. Courage. Yes. The bear sings a song to one of the kids about courage. And it's actually tough to even talk about, but for 15 years, pretty much 15 years, I have four children

and I sing this song every time one of my kids even bruises a knee or is scared of anything. I sang it to my three-year-old like three days ago. So I'm going to play this song. And by the way,

for the first, I'm going to say this song. By the way, for the first 13 years I was singing this song, I had no idea you had any involvement with Teepee Tales. I only discovered it very recently. Then it's like, wow, the guy who is involved with the creator of this song is going to be in my basement. I'm going to play the song

and then share a little more. Then I want to hear you tell me about your involvement with this very cool show that I think is flying well below the radar. I think it's a little more, and then I want to hear you tell me about your involvement with this. Very cool show that I think is flying well below the radar. I think it's a little obscure. Let's hear this. Courage is waiting. Courage is waiting. Courage is waiting by your side.

Courage is waiting. Courage is waiting by your side. Courage is waiting. Courage is waiting. Courage is waiting by your side. Fred, I can't tell you how many times I have sang that song. Like I said, my three-year-old was upset about, was scared of something a couple of days ago. And he loves it. And sometimes at night he requests it.

Daddy's singing the Courage song. And so tell me a little bit about your involvement with Teepee Tales. The producers of the show, Eagle Vision in Toronto, in Winnipeg, Lisa Meeches and Dave Courchene were the two main Aboriginal forces behind the series. Dave is an elder in Fort Alexander, north of Winnipeg, and Lisa is an Ojibwe background, and she's a powerhouse in the Aboriginal world, in creation world. She and her company actually were responsible for Capote that won Philip Seymour Hoffman

Academy Award. So that's part of their direction is major film production. But they wanted to do a TV series. TP Tales came along. They had many writers. The basis of the show is there are four children, two male, two female, various child ages

two grandparents and the seven animals to match the spiritual laws so turtle is truth, bear is courage, wolf is humility eagle is love, etc. and they wanted to have not just aboriginal people doing this series They wanted to make this as, which is so important for the medicine wheel, bringing all the pieces together. And so they asked me, you know, a non-Aboriginal to do the music for it. And it was, it was a delight to do it. I wrote

literally hundreds of songs over, we did two seasons, so in about 40 plus episodes. Anyway, a lot of music and writing specifically for those spiritual values were critical. And on the new CD on Hear the Music, there's a song called Humility, which is wolf, a song called Courage, which is bear, a song called Hold Your Head Up, which is about honesty, which is Sabe, or Bigfoot. So those songs have been sort of brewing in me for a long time and are now coming out in this. And the previous album, Where in the World, is a couple of songs from that series.

So that really formed a very strong part of my creative path. The songs were fantastic in Teepee Tales. That's very kind of you. Fantastic. And I remember one, the grandfather, he loved his pie. Was it rhubarb?

Saskatoon berry pie. Right. Like that song, it was just great music. And I had no idea it was Fred Penner music for forever. Yeah, because I wasn't singing. I wrote the songs

and then the guests would sing. Okay, that's fantastic. By the way, there's a documentary I saw on YouTube. A guy named Matt, I don't know how to pronounce his name either,

but Schichter, I believe. But he wrote, he did a documentary on basically, he asks 550 artists about Lennon or McCartney and you appear very briefly

and you went with Paul McCartney. Do you have a favorite Beatles song? It's a tough one, right? Oh, yeah. There's so many along the way, but... What would you think if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and walk out on me?

Lend me your ears I'll sing you a song. I'll try not to sing out of key. Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends. Move over, Joe Cocker. We have a new cover. That's a, I mean, I'm a huge Beatles fan, and they just wrote so many amazing, truly amazing songs.

Yeah, there cannot be one. I knew that was setting you up. No one can name their favorite Beatles song. It depends on your mood, I suppose, what you're in the mood for. Exactly. All right. Now, I'm going to talk about Hear the Music now, but I want to make sure. Is there anything else?

If we're doing the A to Z of Fred Penner's illustrious career, I definitely wanted to talk about Teepee Tales, because I watched it with my boy, and I still sing it, and I want to, Fred Penner's place is just definitive, one of the, Fred Penner's place, that took over the time slot from The Friendly Giant, is that right? Yeah, and for a while in the beginning, I was in the media. They called me the giant killer. Nobody wants to be known as the giant killer.

It was such an incredible opportunity to do almost 13 years, about 950 episodes. It was a major foray into the world of television, but into that generation and into the Fred heads from 85 to 97.

And it made such a difference in my position in life, in the lives of so many people. Because there's a sort of a funny little tease that I've thought of along the way, is children are sponges. They observe and imitate, and they learn what they see. Personality is formed in the first five years, approximately, time of life. So if these little sponges were watching my show during that developmental period, in some weird way, I may have edged my way into their DNA. So they are mine. There's something much more intense than I would ever have anticipated.

And it's funny. I'm playing up in Grand Prairie, Alberta, the middle of August, and I was talking with the promoter yesterday, and they've got some unbelievable players going up there, and she says the one act that people are really excited about is me. I thought, well, great. You know, nostalgia is a potent drug.

There it is. It really is, and I can tell you, because you're here, I have a 12-inch of Maestro Fresh West. And I can tell you, at a formative time in my life, I listened to a lot of Maestro Fresh West. So when he came to visit, it was like these endorphins. I don't know what it is, but it's so potent. And like I said, when I told my wife, Fred Penner's coming over, instantly she remembers being like an eight-year-old girl and watching you. And you can't underestimate the power. The good thing is Fred Penner uses his power for good, not for evil, right?

You promise never be evil. Absolutely. You can go to the bank on that one. With Teepee Tale Chat, you mentioned Winnipeg. Now, because you're also, by the way, off the top, we said you were a member of the Order of Canada, but you're also a member of the Order of Manitoba because you're a Winnipeg guy. I am born and raised.

My parents came from southern Manitoba, the Mennonite communities down Winkler-Morden area. So I spent a lot of time on, you know, family farms, you know, cousins and aunts and uncles. And I'm very, very proud of that part of my heritage. That was really an important, you know, growing up time for me is having that, that both the spiritual and physical connection with those people. And my dad was in the army, oddly enough, as a conscientious objecting culture, but he did that.

And so I was born and raised in Winnipeg and lived there all my life, except for a couple of years in Ottawa when dad was transferred there. But do you also reside here as well? Do you sort of split your time? Well, what's happened now over the time, I was married for 30 years and I'm now divorced and I've remarried. My wife's name is Ray Ellen Bodie and she's a vocal coach and she works with accents on film and television. She's quite renowned and she's really, really good at what she does.

Will you help me pronounce these words? I'm struggling. Exactly. Her name is just on the counter there. And she's just a fabulous soul, and we fell for each other about five-plus years ago. We married last September. Congrats.

And so I'm spending a lot of time here. She has a condominium in Toronto. I have a condominium in Winnipeg because I have four children and grandkids, three grandkids. So I need to have a presence there as well. But I'm covering this territory across the country and just pursuing my life dream continues. Cool. Now let's talk about Hear the Music. So firstly, I read that you collaborate with some pretty cool Canadian musicians.

Mm-hmm. Drop a few names for us before I play a track. La Vida is a Spanish tune I wrote back, and Alex Cuba and I have become pals along the way, so he was a logical connection to sing with that one. The Good Lovelies have been friends for a while, and there were some tracks there. Tara Lightfoot I've met over the time.

Basha Bulat came on for some incredible harmonies on the La Vida, and she did some hammered Delsimer work on the Catcher of the Dreams song. And also, we had the songs, we were in development with the songs and started recording them and saying, well, who would be a good fit for this, either vocally or instrumentally? Ron Sexsmith, there were two songs. Huge. And we hung out together, and we've developed a really lovely friendship, and I know his wife, Colleen. And so these really iconic places, Afey, Bahamas, came on board for a couple of tracks,

and they were all really and genuinely excited about bringing their talent onto this project, and I was over the moon. Now, those are some famous Canadian musicians, but you collaborated with a couple of other people, which I think is fascinating. So some guy named Damien Penner and someone named Hayley Jean. Who are these people? And tell me about that. My little children who are no longer. That's cool, right? Yeah, and actually my wife, Ray Ellen, she co-wrote a couple of the tunes with me as

well. But my four children, Damien and Hayley, Danica, Kendra, they've performed with me over the years. And I love the blend that they bring to the table. And so when I was looking for background singers, there was no question that they would step into the studio for that one. Does Damien wear a pork pie hat by any chance? He does not. See, I'm actually flirting with the idea.

He's not me, you see. He's not you. That's a good point. Could I pull off that look? Like, you've now been chatting with me for like 40 minutes. Hats are in. I think you're here. Let's find out.

Put this hat on. All right. See how it out. Put this hat on. All right. See how it looks. Are you kidding? No. I'll ask this gentleman, Ian. How does it look? You need a beard, though.

That's your last beard. You're cut off. Can I play? I'm going to play a track if that's cool with you. Yes, absolutely. And then we'll chat some more about it. Sure. Celebrate being?

Celebrate being. It's written for the Down Syndrome Society. Let's listen to this. Celebrate being a dreamer. Celebrate being a dreamer, celebrate being real Celebrate being good, good friends, telling each other how you feel Celebrate being happy, celebrate being proud Celebrate being effervescent and shouting your name out loud

Everyone is welcome, we are people first And there's no denying that we'll keep on trying It turns out better when we're together I like your style because you make me smile. Celebrate being gentle. Celebrate being kind. Celebrate being filled with love. Very nice.

And letting your love light shine. I could play the whole thing, but I need my last five minutes. I can't tell people to go buy Hear the Music, your 13th album. That's right. Go buy this song. I have a note from somebody on Twitter who asks if you ever heard the Fred Penner reference in Letter Kenny.

Are you at all aware this even exists? Because I just learned about it. Oh, that's vaguely familiar. Yes, I have heard about that. I don't remember what it was, but I have heard about it. I need to do a little more homework. Letterkenny.

There's a letter, but it's neat because Letterkenny is kind of a new show, and it's on the Bell Media streaming service, which is called Crave TV. Okay, so on Crave TV, they have the show Letter Kenny, popular with the young people, and a Fred Penner reference. Sounds pretty cool. I got to check that out.

That's from Dark Guy Nation. Can you tell us a little bit about any upcoming concerts? Oh, sure, absolutely. I am in, actually, there's a couple of really interesting things happening in the next little while. I'm off to Kingston.

Now, is this live? I'm going to have it online in like a half an hour. Oh, okay. Great. So this weekend, I'm playing at Skelton Park in Kingston on Saturday. The following weekend on Canada Day, I'm in Downsview Park. Okay, cool. So you listeners who are in Downsview area, come on forward and we'll have a nice hello.

Following weekend in Sudbury for the Boreal Festival. And then, and then, and this just came up in the last couple of months, I'm doing a 10-day excursion with the Canadian government through the C50 thing called C3, which is coast to coast to coast, where they have a series of excursions around the perimeter, the coastline of Canada,

going up the west coast through the, you know, following Franklin's journey, Northwest Passage, etc., etc. That sounds amazing. And I'm on the journey from St. John's North. So I'll be going up to Nain, Baie-Comet, the far north of Quebec, up to the Arctic Ocean, that direction, for 10 days.

So I'm pretty pumped on that one. So keep an eye on my Twitter and other feeds or fredpenner.com, and I'll be keeping you blog connected. Fred, thank you very much for this. Ian, thanks for not drinking all my beer. I see you left me one, so I appreciate that. By the way, Ian looks good in the pork pie hat. Yeah, he does.

Yeah, he has that kind of a hat. Can Ian take our... You're a photographer. You can take our photo. Thank you. Look at that, a professional. And that brings us to the end of our 244th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike and Fred is at Penner Fred. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer and propertyinthesix.com is at Brian Gerstein.

See you all next time.