Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Russell DeCarle from Prairie Oyster: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1952

Episode Date: August 17, 2026

In this 1952nd episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with the founding member and lead singer of Prairie Oyster about that band, why they're on hiatus, his solo career and more.A version of this podcast without programmatic ads is available to all Toronto Mike'd Patrons at patreon.com/torontomike.Toronto Mike'd, an award-winning podcast, is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, and RecycleMyElectronics.ca.If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail]. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey there, this is Russell DeCarle on, this is my first time on Mike. I'm happy to be here after a bit of a hall getting into town. Yeah. That works for me, buddy. Yeah. We'll talk about that hall. And how much you hate me right now. No, no.

Making you come all the way to South of Tovacom. Welcome to episode 1,952 of Toronto Mike. An award-winning podcast, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery. Order online at great lakesbeer.com 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. Visit palma pasta.com for more. Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball.

Catch a game at Christie Pits this summer. No ticket required. Fusion Corpsoe Nick Aeinis. He's the host of building Toronto Skyline. And Mike and Nick, two podcasts that you ought to listen to. Recycle MyElectronics.c.a.comitting to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Ridley Funeral Home. pillars of the community since 1921.

Today, making his in-person Toronto-Miked debut, it is indeed Russell de Carl. Nice to meet you, man. Hey, nice to be here. You said you came from away. Like, how far away did you come from today? Oh, a good hour and a half anyway, the drive. I live near a little place called Janetville,

which always sounds like a Stephen King novel to me, but it's a village. And I live, I have a place out in the country outside of Janetville. I've been living since 1995 for the partner and bought that place. It's on a, there's 125 acres tucked away an old pioneer farm. Wow. On an unassumed road that we grade and plow. And, yeah, it's pretty great.

Do you churn your own butter up there? We don't churn our own butter. We do a lot of other stuff that we garden. We do heavily into gardening. Okay. Any, you know, it's funny. I think of the name, prairie oyster, and we're going to get into it very shortly here, but I always think,

what is a prairie oyster? And then I wonder, is it anything like a road apple, right? The tragically hip had an album called road apples. I got the vinyl right here. And I always think, oh, you're Janaville, maybe there's road apples there, but what's a prairie oyster before we get any further? There are some road apples along there from horses, of course. Oh, bet.

An oyster is a, well, there's a few meanings. It's a byproduct of steering, which is the delicate way of putting it. It's a drink for a hangover, which is a raw egg and a hair of the dund. dog and Tabasco and spice to taste. In the Depression, in the prairies, it was a cracker with seafood sauce on it. Okay, so multiple. Which one, though, inspired the name of your band? Well, you know, the name came from our original drummer, our buddy, Alistair Dennett,

who I'm still close with, and his mother, Pam, came up with that name. We had the band, had to put together the original version back in the summer. 70s and we had a few gigs booked and we'd get together and rehearse and God, try to come up with a band name. I mean, she finally suggested the name and she got the term from a son and I of hers, who grew up in actually North Dakota, but ended up becoming a famous marine biologist, how that happens. Oh, like George Costanza.

Yeah. He was a Marine. Exactly, man. Yes. You reached in and he pulled out the golf ball, right? You remember that one. Hey, so I'm looking at you. You're doing a move I want to start doing, which is you're wearing the blue striped

shirt. which brings out the blue in your eyes. Wow. You know this is, is it on purpose? No. No, I just love it.

I love an engineer stripe, man. I'm a sucker for an engineer stripe. Yeah. A vintage. It does look like a, Levi shirt. That's, yeah,

like a classic engineer strike. I used to buy jeans like this at the original thrifty before it became a franchise over at, uh, uh, Queen and Church Street on the, on the northeast corner. And back when it was a Western wear shop.

And I, okay. First pair of fry boots there. Okay. And that's, are we going back to the 70s with that one? Yeah. Early 70s. Because I want to. Late 60s, actually.

Late 60s, well, because I do want to get you back to Queen Street and talk about the scene there. So let me just set the table just a little bit here by saying, this is episode 1952. And I like to drop a little, I'm trying to drop a little Toronto fact about that calendar year. So you're here for episode 1952. And I'm going to tell you a couple of fun facts about. The year, 1952. You ready? We got our first TV station.

So the first television station in Ontario began broadcasting in Toronto. It was, of course, CBLT. So it was on the air in 1952. There you go. Fun fact. Okay. And then second fun fact, which is kind of timely here. The very first English broadcast of hockey night in Canada was televised from Maple Leaf Gardens.

So this, like, tradition, are you a hockey fan by any chance? I'm not a big hockey. Not a big hockey guy. Well, this tradition's over now. So it began in 1952. They broadcast hockey night in Canada on CBC. And just Rogers, which owns the rights, has decided we're no longer going to air games over the air.

Like you could pick up with like rabbit ears or whatever, like on CBC. So it's the end of an era. Truly, yeah. But how did you avoid becoming a hockey fan growing up in this country? You know, I enjoyed it when I was a kid. I just never really played a lot of hockey. as a kid. I'm certainly played street hockey and and watched a lot of hockey

when I was a kid back when I was 16. You had other things going on? I did. You had a music career. Well, before playing music, I was a little later on, but had a nice upbringing. I was a kid in King City, which was just a little town

then, but it was the nice thing about that way. It was kind of a rural upbringing, but we were close enough later on. We were close enough to Toronto that we weren't complete Hicks from the sticks. So that was kind of great. I got to go to Yorkville and experience some of that. And lots of great music. Yeah, amazing.

So one thing that strikes me is you're not from the prairies. No. But people might assume you're from the prairies because your band. They do assume that, yes. It's a popular misconception that's country that where we're from. Do they say you're appropriating that culture? Anybody upset with you? Like, who are you from King City?

I haven't heard that yet. No, mostly people are very supportive of us. I'm the only asshole who's calling you out for that. It had to happen. Better late than number. So do you know what? I'm curious if you have any clue,

like what made me suddenly wake up one day and said, I wonder if Russell DeCarrel would pay me a visit in South Atobico? Do you have any clue? Well, let's see. I get my hair cut about a block from here from a dear friend has been cutting my hair since 1980s, since 1985. six or 85 and you got a good head of hair

I do have a yeah I still have a lid I just have a lid man who's cutting your hair do you want to shout him out like I might I'm looking my barber moved to your brons my friend Sandra Barnes my friend Sandra Barnes she used to have a shop years ago I met her years ago through my buddy Teddy Franklin or Teddy Furious he's known professionally as a drummer and a bartender famous bartender and drummer and a great great pal and he introduced me to Sandra years ago I think Ted was probably still in the bobcats then but she had a

shop on on Queen Street, just west of, on the south side, west of Spadina, I called Bebop, and that's where I met her. So when I moved out of Toronto,

then I tell people there's two things that I kept, the two most important things, a barber and a doctor I kept in Toronto. That's it. That's all you need. That's all you need. Okay.

Well, it just so happens, it's funny, I just accused you of appropriating prairie culture. Oh, you know what? Mayor,

I was confused. My brain right now, And I've married two girls, prairie girls. But I was thinking, oh, my barber moved to the prairies. My barber moved to the Maritimes, okay? So not the prairies here. The completely different part of this wonderful country here. So I won't even tie that up.

But I am looking for a new barber. I'm just throwing it out there of Sandra's listening right now. Yeah, shoot, she, I'll say, you know. You're going to broker that deal. Okay, because, you know, much like you, I got a great head of hair. It's important that this is in the hands of somebody who's, you know, who's excellent. So if you get the Russell de Carl here,

hair, then you're probably worthy of the Toronto mic hair. So here we are. So we're going back to the 1970s, okay? Because you mentioned, you know, Prairie Oyster forms, like probably like 74 or something like that. It was about 74 before that. And that came out of a group that Keith and I were in Keith Glass, my boyhood chum and playpen mate in King City. Yeah, we have a long history. We had a band called the King City Slickers along with our Boyhood Chum Bob. Bob Wallace and it was kind of a bluegrassy country band and we played all over Toronto back

back in the early 70s of that group and then that when with that split up Keith and I kind of wanted to do some more kind of we were getting into kind of listening to Western swing music and early country stuff and decided we wanted to do something there was so along with our friend Dennis DeLorm who we met who was from Oshua originally but had a long history with the Peterborough music scene. Okay, so Keith, Dennis, and you, Russell, you guys form, you're like a trio, your prairie oyster, we talked about

where that name came from, 1974. I'm officially, like, putting a pin in the hole, do you know why you're here? Because I'm actually going to save that little mind blow for, you know, why did I reach out to Russell and get him in the South Atopical Basel? So there's a pin in that now because we're getting to this origin story

because I'm telling you, I went to YouTube, and I watched, This is true story, Russell. I watched an NFB documentary. It's a short little film. I watched heavy horse pull. Yeah. I watched it because I heard, okay, this is like the first, am I right?

This is the first time Prairie Oyster would be broadcast on television? Am I right about that? One of the first times maybe? But you're in that. Your music is in there. Yeah, yeah. We did the soundtrack at our friend Vasey studio in Kensigan, in Kensington Sound, which is still there.

That would have been 1970, because, let's see, Kid Carson was our drummer at that point. That would have been 1976, I think that was. So we had done stuff before that. Okay, so you'd been on television before that. But you didn't record any music in this first iteration, right? No, we didn't start recording until 83, I think. Okay, but here's what I guess.

So I'm reading up on, you know, the ongoing history of Prairie Oyster. By the way, that film, Heavy Horse Pull, which I quite enjoyed. I'm going to read the description, okay? So it's directed by Roberta King and Ronald Squire. came out in 77. This lighthearted and quaint short documentary takes us to a horse pulling contest in Ontario

and the people who prepare for them. It travels from the farm to the contest where excitement runs high and the quips do not lack in local color. So I watch this thing, your music is all over this thing, and then I read that Prairie Oyster breaks up in 1978.

So can you, us dummies out there, like, so Prairie Oist, was a thing and then tell us why did why do you guys break up and then what happens that you're sort of like a phoenix you rise from the ashes and prairie oyster is reformed and then the rest is history you know i'm trying explain yourself i'm trying to remember how we how we ended up breaking up i don't know that i can i can remember uh that we had we had a pretty good run considering i mean we did a lot of television in the early days of the band before we were probably we were on major television shows without having a record

Like what kind of shows? We were the house band. Oh, God, there was a country special. It was called Country and My Soul. I can't remember the name of it. With Carol Baker and this guy, Tim Daniels. She's on the tears are not enough. Yeah, we were on a few other things as well.

The TV shows. Oh, we did a ton of George Hamilton, the fourth, who's an American artist, had a TV show out of C-K-LH out of Hamilton. Or C-HC-H for years. And I think we did that show a half a dozen times. Do you ever do Tommy Hunter? Yeah, but that was later.

We didn't do Tommy Hunter with the original group. But we were also back then, we were 76, 77. We were the house band at the horseshoe, the original horseshoe on Queen Street when it was the big room, the boom boom room, truly. And we would play there from Thursday to, no, I guess we did four or five nights a week there.

We'd do a week a month there for two years. It was amazing. That is amazing. But something causes you guys to say, we're done. Yeah. Prairie oyster is done. 1978.

Yeah, and I can't recall if that was me or just, we just kind of ran out a juice or whatever, yeah. So, 1982, or only four years later, like, what causes the Prairie Oyster to be reunited? And then what's the difference between the 1982 band and the 1974 band?

Well, let's see, between the breakup, he started his own band called the Glass Band. It was kind of more of a rock and roll, kind of R&B thing with twinges of country. And he asked, me to be the bass player. I was the bass player in that group for a while as a side guy, and that

was a lot of fun. And then I packed that one in, just due to some personal stuff, and took a bit of time off. And then I started working again with a duo, Chris Whiteley and Caitlin Hanford. Chris Whiteley, of course, is a, you know, National Treasurer. Caitlin's a wonderful singer and writer. And they were an item at that point. They aren't now, but they were then. And I ended up playing bass for those guys. And, you know, we were doing these kind of country bars. and I thought, man, there was just something. I thought, you know, maybe it's time to, I don't know, do something with oyster.

I just felt, you know, that it was time to do something. And I guess talked to Keith and Dan, I don't know who all, I can't really recall how it came together. Initially, we decided we were going to do a couple of reunion gigs, just a couple of shows. And then it felt so good. We ended up staying together. And we recorded our first single in, I think, January 83, I believe.

It came out. That was an old tune called Juke Joint Johnny with a flip side that Keith wrote called Give it a little more time. And we put that out on just as a single, which you could actually do then. On a single label called 16th Avenue, which was run by this guy, Stan Campbell, who we knew from CFGM. He was a DJ and his wife. And I'm embarrassed, I can't recall her name. It's been a while. It has been a while.

It's been a minute, as they say. and we got great response to that record. So we ended up staying together. The group did, and then we recorded our second single in, I think July of that year, and that was an old George Jones tune, kind of a rumba tune called Rain Rain that we did with Chris Whiteley sitting on Marriacci trumpet.

Well, you know, why don't we hear a bit of that just to give us a taste to some early prairie oyster as we kind of get to know you better and learn more about the band, what you're up to. you now? Wow. All's on the ground.

Come down the chin. Nobody lands. All right, Russell, you're listening to Rain Rain in the headphones here. I need to know. What are you thinking? What are you feeling? I'm thinking that I'm sure. I'm a better singer now.

But it kind of holds up. The track is pretty cool. Yeah. And it's funny. Listen to that. I think of all the people that said, wow, the Mavericks, were those guys a big influence on you?

I'm thinking, this was just a little be pre pre-pre-maverick day. As much as I like those guys and they were good pals. Right. Yeah, you know, you sound great on this track, but you sound great now. I'm going to prove that in a moment when I blow your mind as to how the heck you ended up in this basement. I'm teasing that. Like this is like radio or something.

But I have a question about, so you talked about oyster tracks, right? This is on Stony Plain Records. Yeah, that was after we released two singles that had three tracks on them. And then a couple of years later, we recorded our first. album and we incorporate those three singles and then cut some other songs, yeah. Okay, and that's Oyster track. So, true or

false, you're on the hot seat here, Russell, so get ready here. RCA records, right? So they hear stony playing records. Is it true or false that they wanted you to change the name of the band from Prairie Oyster to

something else? Yeah, that was later on. That was when we first got, that's when we got signed by RCA. And RCA National We had a major U.S. deal, Joe Galante, who was the head of Archieie Nashville. And they, because they ran it by radio and radio

and Stano off Prairie Oster, I don't know that name. And then they, you know, they just decided, yeah, we'll just keep that name. It's actually a cool name. Like, I love the name Prairie Oyster, but I'm Canadian. It's funny to me.

I mean, you just don't think you're going to be talking about it 40 years later. Right. Well, I think it's a cool name. Okay. So you guys didn't change. Obviously you didn't, Cowtow, pun intended to this RCA nonsense.

Oh, you know, Prairie Oyster, keeping the name here. But that's a big label. So, yeah, we had a major U.S.

We had an international deal with them. So we got to play a lot. We'll tour it all over the states a ton, of course, all over Canada and in Europe a lot. How many Juno Awards have you won in Prairie Oyster? Six.

Six. Junos. Wow. That's a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And do you have any memory of how many times you were nominated? Seven, I think. Well, that's a good average, man. Yeah, I think so. That's a good average. You're six for seven. Not so bad. That's not so bad here. You win your first Juno was in 86, I believe, right? 86 and 87. Your country group or duo of the year at the Juno Awards.

So here's what I would like to do if you, before I play some of you, Paul. post Prairie Oyster. We're still kind of dive into some of the hot topics of Prairie Oyster. But I'm wondering if we could talk about the, like you talked about Queen Street, the scene there, because I've had pretty in-depth conversations with people like Jim Cuddy, for example.

And we'll talk about, you know, this kind of this scene where it was like a country-esque, rocky scene on Queen Street. You guys were like so formidable in such a key part of this scene. Like, Can you paint a picture for me? I'll close my eyes here, literally.

Like, tell me, what was it like in the 80s on Queen Street with this kind of music that you guys were playing in Prairie Oyster? It was pretty amazing. At that point, we had to start touring, though. So, I mean, I came kind of think of our heyday there, the late 70s. And then, because, like I said, we were, man, and at that point, the shoe was still, it was just kind of, it was still really rooted in. There was still a lot of traditional country artists playing there. Still, like stomping Tomland or what's going on? Yeah, absolutely.

And some other country artists that would play there. I remember seeing Katie Wells and Johnny Wright there and Hank Williams Jr., people like that playing there. And before it got kind of funky, but we were kind of that bridge, I think, the band that, you know, as I can see, we were the house group there for two years. And then the 80s, the 80s scene in Toronto was amazing, really.

I mean, there was just so much entertainment, so many places to play. and just, boy, in every bag, which has always been a great thing about Toronto. It's always been such a melting pot stylistically. Yeah, but there was definitely a moment where the, I don't know what the term would be, country rock or, you know, like it was happening.

Oh, yeah, absolutely, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think of people like, well, certainly Blue Rodeo, which had kind of a country influence for sure they did. Without a doubt. No, no question. And, you know, having talked to Jim and Greg with the years, I remember that one of the first things that we really had in common was the fact that we both loved Dillard and Clark, which was Doug Dillard, who was the banjo player from the band called the Dillards,

who the Dillards were a huge influence on me, certainly, musically. And on those guys on Jim and Greg, too, and Gene Clark, who had been in the original birds. And, you know, so we were influenced, we were all influenced by that kind of stuff. Yeah, and when you talk to guys like Greg, well, mainly Jim, I guess, suppose, but both. Handsome Ned is a name. They like to talk. Yeah. I remember when Ned kind of came on the scene, he was quite a bit.

after us but yeah and he bit he had quite an influence well you must have been an influence too because only because they went to like new york and then they came back and that was kind of a fundamental time for the formation of blue rodeo but you you're the one with the rs you're releasing the album on uh for rca in in the united states of america yeah like different kind of fire is a is an rca album yeah absolutely yeah like we say we got uh signed by joe galante who was the heaviest cat in the world and he was the first guy to sell a million-selling album, country record. So we were in pretty good company there. I mean, some of the people we couldn't

relate to music so much, but other artists on the label, people like Foster and Lloyd, Bill and Radney, they were on that label. Joe Elsonier was on that label. We all hung out together. Let me Trace of Berg. We were all hanging out together a lot. And then there was Alabama and on and on, oh, gone and on. Just other artists. but we had a good time. We had a great time certainly touring through the states.

We saw lots of, lots of great stuff. And we saw kind of the tail end of the great, original radio stations down there before it became so corporate before radio started getting bought up right and left,

and everything was being programmed. And the first thing you would see them do would be you get rid of anybody with a regional accent off the air so that it all sounded the same so that they could sell ads to these, You know, out of New York and L.A.,

so they could say this is what our station's going to sound like. And so it would be kind of the same, sadly. But we got to tour around, and, you know, during tours, we'd do these stops at local radio stations, and we still caught a lot of kind of the original regional stuff. It was kind of the last of that, you know, that stuff before it really died off completely. And that was pretty remarkable for us. You know, the hearing you said sad, I think,

it's absolutely tragic what's happened to radio. Oh, yeah. What's the clear, clear, what's the name of that the chain, whatever, that sort of bought up all the stations. And like you said, it's all like homogenized and cookie cutter across the country. But this time you're describing where you had like a local talent and it was like the local sales and the local ownership and stuff. That's the heyday of radio. Well, yeah, truly. And people got into it because they really loved it.

And it was kind of music first and ads to keep the song. music on the air and then it kind of it flipped it became it was really about ads and the music between the ads it seems uh sadly a clear channel i think is what they were called if i remember correctly and then they read i think uh that name was so had such a negative connotation i think they rebranded to i hurt radio or something like that but uh really sad really sad and it's happening here too of course like oh yeah like i don't know i know we have we actually have a new country station but i never hear anyone talk about it No, I don't really find much to listen to on any of that stuff anymore,

those stations. But Alex, I'm glad that we were around at a time. Also, those were the days when really you can have a breakout somewhere because somebody would start spinning something, or they'd flip a record over and play the B-side, and all of a sudden this hit would end it would start to mushroom, you know, it was beautiful. So many great stories like that.

Yeah, that could happen then. Yeah, and sometimes they'd start playing a song that was like five years old. Like, there's stories out there. It's like, oh, you started playing this song, people were requesting it. This is how Rush broke, okay? Rush breaks in Cleveland because the program director there

got an album from a guy here named Bob Roper. And Bob Roper sends it to Donna Halper in Cleveland. And she just starts playing the song Working Man because her buddy in Canada sent her this new album from a new group. And next thing you know, Cleveland is going nuts for rush and rush breaks. There you go. Okay.

So I'm going to take a moment to make it worth your while because I feel bad I made you drive so far. We're just getting warmed up here. This is where you passed me the big fat envelope? Is that what's going on here? Pretty much. You know what? Pretty much.

Still so good to be me. I can hardly stay there. You know, we'll talk about the envelope later, actually. That's why you're here. But you're just giving me the envelope here. Thanks, pass it over. Okay. I have.

I'll just make sure you know. You're going back to, I even took a note. I don't want to forget the name of this wonderful place, Janadville. Yeah. Okay. You're returning to Janitville. And you and your partner live there?

Yeah. Okay. I'm sending you home with a large frozen lasagna from Palma pasta. Do you enjoy Italian food? Oh, God, yes, I certainly do. It's worth the drive. I feel like it. Three times a day, man.

Well, you're going to have enough pasta to get you through the week. This is a lot of lasagna, and it's delicious. So thank you to Palma pasta for sending over a lasagna here for Russell de Carle. Okay. I also have fresh craft beer that was brewed right here in southern Etobico. This is from Great Lakes Brewery. That's also going to Janetville with you. Wonderful.

Yeah, so you got beer, you got pasta. What else can I give you? I like the Great Lakeshuff. This is working. That's great. Yeah, well, listen. I'm a pretty cheap date. You know what?

You can go to a lot of shows and get nothing. It's only Monday. All you get is a parking ticket. But you come here, you get lasagna, you get pasta. You got pasta. Parking tickets are usually a given, yeah. Well, you're in my driveway right now. If you get a ticket, it's from me.

Appreciate that. You didn't know. Not free parking here, Russell. You got a cough up 20, there. Measuring tape. Russell, I don't know what's going on

at Janetville. You can always use a measuring tape. So thank you to Ridley Funeral Home for your measuring tape. Wow. When you said

earlier on, what did you say filler? Oh, I know. I said pillar of the community. And I heard that is killer.

Yeah, a lot of people do. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if I'm just mumbling it. Which I think I prefer, but, well,

you know what that is? That's a make work. Killer of the community. Yeah. That creates demand for their services, right? Because they need dead

people to be successful. Apparently. Kill people. That's how it works. I actually, I always try to nail the P and Pillar, but I have been told by multiple people,

they hear Killer. And I don't know if it's because of my, you know, my, my Toronto accent over here, Russell, I have no idea, but Pillar, I got to pop that P.

Pop that P. I have a book for you. Are you from Toronto? Sorry. Yeah. Born at St. Joe's in Parkdale. Yeah.

I'm one of those guys. My buddy Willie P. Bennett, the late great, Willie P. Bennett lived right across the street from that hospital. I spent a lot of time looking at that hospital from Willie's place. You know, glad to hear. The number of artists who have called Parkdale Home,

lengthy list of talented people who call Parkdale Home. That was my neighborhood for a long time. Okay, yeah, it's still happening here. Okay. I want to make sure I give you the book from Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball because if you're ever in Toronto and there's a game at Christie Pitts, it's worth the drive. it's worth the subway ride, whatever,

to Christy Pitts to sit on that hill and take in baseball because, Russell, do you know what it costs for a ticket? No. You sitting down? Yeah, as a matter of fact. Because you can't stand up, you'll hit your head. Zero dollars, zero cents.

These tickets are absolutely free. My God. Great baseball too, man. Great times. True. Baseball should be played outside. Yeah? Absolutely.

Well, the dome does open, but still, your beer there is 20 bucks, okay? Go to Christy. Yes. Last but not least. Actually, you know what I'm out of gifts, but you got the book. I'm out of guess, but I want to thank quickly Nick Iienis from Building Toronto Skyline. He's got Karen Stints on the show next week. Karen just made her Toronto mic debut last week. So that'll be interesting to hear what Karen says to Nick about affordable housing in Toronto.

And last but not least, Russell, in Janetville, if you have old electronics, old devices, old cables, I don't want you throwing that stuff in the garbage because those chemicals end up in our landfill. Absolutely. Go to recycle myelectronics.ca, put in your postal code, and find out where you can drop that off to be properly recycled. You got it? I got it. I got it.

Yeah, I'm making sure you got it. Oh, I got it. You got it here. Loud and clear. Loud and clear. Okay, so you are, and you don't have to be specific here. We don't have to docks anybody. But there is a gentleman in my neighborhood who invites talented people like you to play his backyard.

True. Is this a true or false? That's true. That is true. I mean, I know that to be true, okay? So this gentleman, do you want to name this gentleman? Bob Clark. Bob Clark.

And not the guy who made Porkies. No. Different guy. No. I wouldn't have known that. Well, the guy who made Porky's is dead, actually. He also made Black Christmas, which was a great movie. So did he make a Christmas story?

Oh, my goodness. Okay, a lot of great movies from that guy. But you digress. Different guy. I'm digressing the hell over here. But this guy, this came to my attention. I had Michael Baguski over. who plays keyboards for Blue Rodeo.

Yeah. And he's telling me, oh, yeah, me and Cleve Anderson are going to play this guy's backyard. And I'm like, what are you talking about? Yeah, he's in your neighborhood, New Toronto, it's called this neighborhood. Yeah, man. And he's like, he's like, Cleve Anderson's just going to,

from battered wives is going to be, and Blue Rodeos will be playing this guy's backyard. And then I find out Russell DeCarl, formerly from Prairie Oyster, we'll get to why it's formerly in a minute. But, like, you, like, this is kind of amazing. Like, you can play. backyards. I can. I don't think people realize the

great musicians like you. It sounds amazing. They are amazing. They're house concerts, yard concerts. I played one last, in Mississauga last Thursday evening, and played at Bobbs earlier on this summer, and it was a blasted. It was my trio with Russ Boswell on bass and Steve Briggs on guitar. And it's amazing. I love playing those shows. And we play the same, I tell people we play the same whether we live for 20 people are 20,000, so it doesn't matter. It's just... Right.

I podcast the same way for 20 people or 20 million. But Russell, I got audio from Bob. So I'm going to play some of this. This is how you sounded in this New Toronto backyard this past summer. You ready? Wow.

One down. I have special request for this song. This is a song that I recorded, well wrote and recorded with the Prairie Oysters. This was our first number one single. Yeah. You should you know. You think you'll hear.

You know, it's an october sun, but outside your window The sun doesn't stop For you're broken on. Walk on the time. You know, not quite a Doug McClement recording, but man... Doug McClemmet.

Wow. That's my go-to. Comfort sound, right? He's the bar, man, yeah. That's my bar there. So this is obviously on a phone, just a video recording. But honestly, I get chills. Like, this is happening down the street.

You're in the backyard. Like, how long a set? This is, by the way, such a lonely one, which I think might be the first Prairie Oyster song that I was aware of because I never listened to your genre, man. Like, I was a little bit, I thought I was allergic to country back in the day. Turns out I wasn't. It was something else that was giving me that rash.

But how long a set would you do in somebody's back here? Oh, we did a couple sets. Played for a couple hours, probably. Really? Oh, yeah. Okay. It's amazing. Curfews enforced or what?

Food and food and beer and it's incredible. You know what? So I can short walk for me. I'm going to, next time you're playing, Bob Clark's backyard, I'm there, man. I'll bring the beer. I'll bring the Great Lakes. All right. Okay.

So great song and just a fun fact. There's Bob Clark and I were chatting about you being in the hood. And I'm like, I'm going to make him drive all the way back to the hood. I want to talk to this guy. So I want to say thank you right now. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Thanks, Bob.

Oh, thanks Bob. Bob, he's one of those people that make our world go around. Yeah. Like really, just the generosity is never, never, she's just amazed me that people have. He supports the arts. Truly, yeah. You're an artist, man. Great.

Yeah, great hair and great music. So that's all it takes here. Okay, enough compliments for you. Okay. I've been called a lot of things. I want to some chatter here. I'll bring you down here. here. But prairie oysters. So can you give me a taste? Like what, because I've only ever lived

at one city, what level of success do you enjoy in the United States? I know how big you are in Canada, but for a while, we had, we had pretty good success. That's a while ago. I mean, we had, we never, we never had a hit record there. I think we had, you know, singles in the, in the top 30, which is pretty good. But we did have a number one video, so we'd be touring, you know, by bus, and we'd be in a middle of, uh, God, somewhere in the middle of New Mexico,

getting fueled up and we'd get out and stretch our legs and maybe grab somebody to eat or something. And then we go, you're, you're those guys. You're, one precious love. You're that band.

Wow. So that was, that was pretty wild. Yeah. Yeah. And America's kind of a different world. Like, audiences are,

I loved playing there. I love, the audiences were fantastic. And, and as our, Dr. Dr. Marm pointed out one, uh,

one time at a show, it said, well, you know, we were opening a show. I could, We were doing shows with Kathy Matea. And we'd get standing ovations.

It was amazing. Get on course as an opening act and said, well, you know, Americans don't need Canadians to tell them whether it's good or not. So they go out to be entertained. Is that because, you know, we share this long border with such a massive, you know, media giant and economic giant that we just have this like self-esteem problem? Yeah, possibly. Like.

I don't think that was the idea. I don't know that exists anymore. I think it does. Yeah, you still do. I think there's still like, there'll be talent, be it like singers or actors or whatever.

And then television stars, whatever. But like we'll decide, I don't know, we'll shoot, we like to eat our young in this country. So we'll, like, shoot you down or whatever.

You don't let, let the get so famous. Right. And then that's. Before you start getting called uppity. You know, good point. Like, so we'll knock you down

because you're up there. And then we'll, we'll, okay, goodbye to you. And then because, you're talented, and I'm saying you like the royal you, but because you're talented, the Americans will embrace you and then you'll see success in the United States. And then all of a sudden we'll be like, oh, you are good. America says you're good. Oh, you are good. Please come back.

We love you. We love you. You're so good. Yeah, I don't know if that still looks. Maybe it does. I just don't pay any attention to that kind of stuff anymore really. So it's possible. It's still exist sadly. But is that liberating to not have to give a shit about that? You know, like, who cares? No, I mean, I don't know that we ever did really too much. I mean, of course, you know, you would have liked to have had a big, would have been nice to have made a bigger splash, but it was good. I had a lot of fun with it. Yeah, you got to, get the tour playing your music, which you love to be. Matt, lots of great, great musicians, got to play with lots of great musicians.

And we were, we were kind of a favorite of a lot of players, too, which was great. And so, yeah. Well, do you want to shout out any of these musicians? that you got to play with? Well, tons, I mean, you know, whenever anybody asks you, so who have you played with? And, you know, I always say Doug Somm and so Doug Somp, Doug Sompster, Douglas Quintet,

and a lot of people have no idea who Doug is, but he was absolutely the heaviest player I ever worked with. And we got to actually play with him a lot in Canada, and we would back him up at festivals and do shows and stuff with Doug. And he had to be a good buddy, and I think that guy every day, he died way too young. But it was an amazing cat.

I mean, all kinds of people. You know, people like Vince Gil along before, Vince was, you know, he was still kind of struggling as an artist. He hadn't hit it yet with when I call your name when he got signed to MCA and Tony Brown. That stuff started to happen for him. All kinds of people. Okay, well, you know, decades and so many great songs from Prairie Oyster,

just because you're here and you made the track, I'm actually going to play a little bit more of another Prairie Oyster song. And then, of course, we will move beyond Prairie Oyster. or you can imagine one of my questions. But let me play a bit of... Peanut butter. Peanut butter. Unbelievable.

Me my pay box. I'll give my money. It's like everybody wants something from me. I can't ever give it. Okay, Russell, so we played some live, such a lonely one, live from New Toronto. Just not too long ago, a couple months ago, whatever. That went to number one in this country. and then we talked about all your Juno's success,

but you win for a country group or duo over the year. You win in both 95 and 96. And, of course, such a lonely one was from Only One Moon. That's your fourth album. But then your fifth album has this track on it, Unbelievably Love, which also goes to number one. So I forgot all about this song. He went to number one.

Yeah, but I... You had too many hits in this country, in the country charts here. So, you know, you're doing well at the Juno, You've got hit, hit country songs coming out. I got to ask you. So at some point, Prairie Oyster breaks up. Yeah, well, we're just kind of ground to a halt, I think, in a way.

I think we'd done all that stuff. We went for a while with that recording, and then our last album, yeah, so we had been finished with our deal. we were with RCA and BMG for years, and that came to a halt. And then I think we're a long time between our last album, which I feel still is our best effort. Which one?

Ever, One Kiss. Okay. And that album we made on our own and then put it out through Open Road recordings, a following Ron Kitchener, who we knew. And we recorded that at Keyes Studio, Keith Glass Studio up in Perth when he had a studio up there. And our buddy, Al Stu Young, great engineer that I use all the time now. He mixed it for us. And then we did a little bit of touring with that album.

And then, you know, just kind of ground to a halt. I think just, yeah, who knows, the energy. Ran out of gas? Yeah, kind of ran out of gas, yeah. Okay, so that's, just to give people a little time context here. So one kiss, which you mentioned, came out on Open Road recordings. That's 2006. Was it really?

Okay, yes. And I think we did our last tour in 2011. So yeah, so we got some mileage out of that record. Okay, so your last tour is 2011. And then in the in between, you do get inducted into the Canadian country music hall of fame. That was in 08. Yeah. So prairie oysters being recognized and going concerned.

And then it's just like, do you guys have a meeting or something? And you just say, hey, let's do some other. Let's do other stuff now? No, there's no meeting. No, I don't know. Just ran out of gas. I don't know. Grown to a halt.

That's, I don't know if it's ground to a halt, but it just kind of, you know, we all, we had our own things going on. It seemed like everybody kind of did. I started doing my own stuff. I did a tour that was kind of life change for me in 2004 with Merle Haggard. And that kind of changed my life. Like a solo tour? Yeah.

Well, tell me how that changed your life. Well, I got a call 2003. I got a call from a promoter. Paul Merck's and he had seen me on a a tour that I was a songwriting tour that I was doing it was from well got from Halifax to to Vancouver and he saw me in Vancouver and I was on it with my buddy Hayden Neal and the late

great and he was he and I did the whole thing coast to coast other people would kind of get on and off but Hayden and I did the whole deal we just had a ball together anyway Paul had seen me there and he said, you know, I thought, you know, I'm doing this tour with Merle Haggard and I thought that you'd be, you'd be great for an opening act. And so I said, well, do you want a band or he said, well, not really, maybe one other person. And I hadn't really, you know, so I thought, I'd give Steve Briggs, who I knew, I'd met a couple of times.

I think we'd played a few tunes together at some kind of Ontario Folk Conference thing or something at some point. But I thought I'd give him a call. And so I did. I called him. His wife, Kristen, answered the phone. And I said, you think Steve would be interested in doing a Merle-Haggart with me. She said, yes. So I thought she other wanted him out of the house or he knew that Steve was a big

Merle fan or maybe a fan. Or Bowling. Anyway, that went really well and we've been playing together ever since. But it was kind of life-changing. It was, you know, I've been used to playing big venues, but it was pretty wild doing it as a duo and getting to tell my own story, doing my own material. I think I did one or two oyster songs, maybe, and the rest of the rest of it. were, was original material of mine.

Well, so multiple places I got to go now, but one is that maybe a couple, make a moment or two more about the late Hayden Neal. So Jack's all going concern. And yeah, it was very sudden and tragic. Died far too soon. But it sounds like you guys were pretty tight. We were.

We met, they were the kind of new guys on the label. And those guys in Trouble Charger, I remember. And, you know, we were the old, old guard at the, but we really connect with all those guys. guys in a big way. We could all relate. Yeah, Hayden and I had a ball together. He was a talented, wonderful character.

And I was just thinking more about the oyster thing, how a lot of was what we put that record out. There have been a bit of a time lag between our last BMG album and then this record. And God, we could barely

get arrested with this record. I thought, this is unbelievable. We had, I remember being at the last country music awards that we were at, I guess it was the year that we were nominated for a, or we were inducted into the Hall of Fame. Oh, oh, wait. Yeah, and I thought, man, these guys eat their old here. It's like we could have used that leg up at that point.

We had a new record, a fairly recent record. We could have used a spot in the show. Of course, they didn't give it to us on air, the award. And I looked around that time thinking, man, one of our lousiest selling records, we would have sold more hard copies than everybody that was on that show this year, put together. And,

and, you know, it was kind of, it was really odd to me. I found that very, very weird that, I really felt we could have used some way, which was more support.

And, you know, I guess we didn't have a management team or a, a label kind of going to bad for us, but still, you know. Well, the game is rigged.

It was somewhat. Well, I don't know about that, but it was, it certainly a little bit disrespect, respectful I thought in a way. So that's like, because you've already had this experience kind of as a, like, without Prairie Oyster, you had that, that Merle Heger tour you talked about.

And that's, and then, then you have this big, big moment for Prairie Oyster, which is in 08, the Canadian country music, all that. But you feel maybe a little disrespected or. A little bit. Yeah. And I think maybe, I, and I feel some people are maybe happy to see us go because we did win a lot of stuff. Yeah.

Whatever. Maybe we were happy to put us out the past year. And then where that became really, so one of the great things about doing the Merle tour that ties in with this is that here was a guy in 19, he was 67 years old then in 2004. And he would go out and do a show. Never used a set list.

And, you know, I thought, you know, when I got onto this tour, I thought, well, you know, I may not have been meeting. A lot of these cats, I know they stay on their bus. They come to do the show and they go back on the bus. Well, Merle, we started the show, we started the tour at the Queen Elizabeth Theater in Vancouver and Merle was there working the band for about an hour and a half at Soundcheck.

It was incredible. And then they, and he was teaching guys what he wanted them to play on a particular song. A couple nights later, they'd do this song. He never used a set list. He was singing better than he ever had. And he was writing as good as songs as he'd ever written still. And he couldn't get arrested on the radio. So I thought, okay, I'm in pretty good company here.

He can't get arrested either. And so that was very inspiring. He was also at Merle for me. He was probably my single most musical influence as a musician too. I mean, he was one of those guys to me that really transcended. He's as an important to figure in American rich music, certainly I think, as Chuck Barry or Louis Armstrong. And I mean, he just for his own body of work and then turning people on to people like Bob Wilson,

those Texas playboys and Jimmy Rogers singing breakmen and lefty for sale, people like that, an important guy. so that was very inspiring doing that tour with him. Well, hearing you talk about Merle there makes me wonder if one day in the future if I could somehow, maybe I entice you with another lasagna,

more beer, whatever, but if I get you back here one day where we, maybe we play and discuss like your 10 favorite songs, like inspiring songs or 10 great songs that you've always loved

that have inspired you or whatever. So we can kind of educate this because I know when hearing you, drop those names, it's like, oh, yeah, like, this is some cool music that I feel I missed in my youth that I got to catch up on. And I feel like you'd be a good tour guide for that experience. Yeah, like just a vibe. Like one day. I'm not going to say, you don't have to come back Friday or whatever, but how about Saturday? Just kidding. Okay. But in the future, in the future. In the future, that would be amazing if we could put that together. That's a definite maybe.

That's a definitely maybe. This guy's Gallagher brother here. Okay. So, no more Prairie Oyster. Okay. So before I talk to you about the Russell DeCarral Trio, is there any chance, as we speak here on August 17, 2026, any chance of a reunion

of a prairie oyster getting back together in performing live? I don't think so. I don't really see it. But who knows? Never say never. Never say never.

Okay, that's a James Bond movie, I think. Okay. So, Russell de Carl Trio. I steal from the best. Tell me, who are the other two in that trio? Well, it's a, it's, uh, the original Russell to Carl trio was, uh, Steve Briggs and Dennis Keldie, the great Dennis Keldt. He was an amazing keyboard player and, and writer in his own, uh, he's a fantastic writer as well,

Dennis is. He's a wonderful singer, but, uh, really known as a multi-keyboarder player, but pretty amazing, um, organist and, and a real, a legitimate, um, accordion play. plays, you know, jazz gigs on accordion. He's the real, he's a two-handed accordion player or the belly Baldwin or the Stomach Steinway, as he would like to refer to it. So Dennis was in the, and he's all over my,

he played with Oystri a little bit too. He would play on some of it. He played on a few of our records, and that was a good friend. So when I thought about doing my own thing, at first it was a duo, and then hired Dennis to do some stuff with me, and we worked together for quite a few years.

And we also made a Russell DeCardtrio album Steve and Dennis and I, which was all cover cover songs. And I think we worked to that. So that would have been from, I don't know, whatever years they were, but I think Dennis did my last show

with him probably 2016 or 17, something like that. Okay. Well, can I play a little something? Sure. A little something, something. You're going to stop me? What are we listening to, Russell?

This is alone in this crowd, my second solo album. And you're listening to a lot of wonderful musicians there. Dennis Caldy on a Fender, on a Whirlitzer piano there, John Sheard on a grand piano. My buddy, Steve Briggs on guitar, Russ Boswell on the bass, the Great Al Cross on drums, Cindy Church, and Michelle Willis on backup vocals. Wow, I think I've got everyone there.

and myself on acoustic guitar and vocals. Oh, you're on this song? Yeah, I'm on there. And I wrote this song. Love it. Okay, is this your most recent release? No. No, my most recent release is an album called The End of the Road,

which people go, when I tell them that, they say, is there something you need to tell us? But it's just that I live at the end of a road, and these songs were conceived there. Yeah, the end of the road sounds like that. And I went back to 96, my dear friend, Don Rook, also a wonderful musician and photographer and a great pal.

Don has a band called the Henry's, which is amazing. Here's a guy you should probably... You had me at hello, Russell. And so I went back to 96 for that picture in my yard taken by. It is true, though. If you put out an album, the end of the road,

people do think this is your farewell. You're going to make another album? I hope so. Okay, I guess, yeah. We'll have to rename this if you do that now. I get the origin here. Okay.

So I love how this sounds. I love what you're up to. You're, you know, you're out there performing your music. Are you comfortable? Because I'm sure a lot of people yell at you to play prairie oyster songs. You know, I thought that that might be an issue, but it wasn't. I remember the first gig I did on my own, first pretty large gig I did on my own, was in Bragg Creek at a community center there.

And that's like the heart of prairie oyster love out there, man, in Alberta. And it's a skept prairies. We played out there a ton. They think you're from the prairies. Well, yeah, exactly. But we sold it just a ton of records out there. And I was afraid that, and I saw it, God, I had a full house. And I thought, oh, my God, I wonder if these people are going to be expecting me to do that.

Because I only do not even a handful of oyster stuff. But it was great. They were happy to hear me sing, and people were lined up afterwards, wanted to get autographs and buy my new CD. So it's been pretty great. I mean, I'm really proud of what I did with Oyster, but I mean, this is, at this point in my life, it's really great to tell, get to tell my own story.

Yeah, I know, I can, I can hear that and appreciate that. But you know how difficult people are, I always, the anecdote I always think. So it was about 10 years ago, 10 years ago Thursday, I think, is the final ever, the tragically hip concert from Kingston, Ontario. And I remember before we knew Gord was sick, I remember, like, the Tragically Hip would play the, well, now it's called the Scotiabank Arena, but it was Eric Canada Center. They would go there.

They could do like two or three nights in a row, sell it out, right? But then Gord would be going solo, and Gord would be, like, playing, like, tiny little venues or free festivals and all these things. And that brand name, like the Tragicallya brand would get 20,000 paying customers in the seats. And seeing Gord Downey solo would, like, not even, not even close. So it's this like what I would say, the weight of the brand name. And I wonder, what is it like for you with, you know, this brand name in the rearview mirror? You're not playing a lot of Prairie Oyster. Do people still come out to see the guy who was from Prairie Oyster?

Yeah, I get a bit of that and I have a whole new audience as well. Sure. Yeah. And alone in this crowd is great. I'm happy to play. I mean, I think people say, well, it must be kind of weird playing these little venues when you're, as long as I'm getting to play. As long as I get to play, honestly. You look happy to me.

I'm a happy guy. Yeah. No, it's remarkable. You held on to your hair. You're doing well here. Okay. So the official Toronto historian of the Toronto Mike podcast is a guy named Jeremy Hopkin. He comes on every quarter. And he wrote me a note just because you were coming over.

He wrote me a note and just said, 10 years ago I saw the Russell de Carl. He called him the Russell the Carl band, you know, perform in the attic of the former Annie House in Scarborough. Built in 1867, it's now a pub called the South. Stone Cottage. He says it was kind of like an intimate and interactive show. He said it was fantastic. But he, I guess he yelled at you or requested, you perform a Prairie Oysters song. And you guys said that you couldn't, but you'd play one of your songs, which he said was fantastic. But I just, he sent that note.

And I just wondered if you're reticent to, you know, play too many songs from your previous chapter of your songwriting life. A little bit. But, and you know, I just, I did those. songs for so long and I've got so much new stuff of my own so uh you know I think I feel like I've really come into my own as a writer and um you've moved on yeah yeah I really I have and um and I do a few things and I also don't think it's fair to the uh to the rest of the band for me to be going to doing that kind of thing you know if we're going to do that then right yeah you know you go to see a wings concert you don't you don't just get Beatles come on right exactly yeah that's yeah that's it you're the Paul

McCartney of this country. Yeah, yeah. You know who was with? Not with, but was in the audience with Jeremy Hopkins when he watched you at the Stone Cottage. Fellow FOTM. FOTM means friend of Toronto-Miked. Russell, you're now an FOTM.

But you know who else is an FOTOV? Greg Godovitz, I know. Greg, I covet his base that I think he got from his high school music teacher. I believe he got it. I think it's a 51. Anyway, he's got at this K-Base. He's amazing. Greg is fantastic.

He's the real deal, man. That kid. Yeah, I was living in the Valley, the Warren Park Valley, and he was playing the Lampedon Tavern down there, which is another historical venue in this. Hey, Jeremy, if you're listening, we should do a live recording from the Lampton Tavern down in the valley. We should do that.

Okay, that's me communicating to Jeremy via podcast. Oh, no, you can say it on the mic. That's the first album. Okay, so I have here, which I want to say thank you very much. This is a good trade. So there's three albums there. I don't have the live or the, yeah, the trio album there, but these are my three studio.

First one was called Under the Big Sky, which is a homage to all those people living under the big, big sky out west. This air stream here. That was mine, yeah. I'm jealous. It's in my backyard. I want one. I still have the suit and the boots,

but I don't have the airstream anymore. Okay, love it. And although you're not wearing blue in that one. But we have Alone in this crowd. I played a song from Alone in this crowd. Very cool. And then we got the end of the road, which hopefully is not the end of the road for you, Russell.

People can find this stuff too. Just go to my website and order. They can order them. I'm not on Spotify. You're not on Spotify. No, Russell DeCarl.com. And there'll be a sales link. And I'll spell it there because DeCarle has an E at the end.

So D-E-C-A-R-L-E. I'm also not on Spotify. I'm not my... Two S is two. else. Right. Russell. Russell, Russell, shout out to Russell Martin.

But people can go to your website, find out where to see you live, and where to get your music, and to support great music. But the big question, I already know the answer, but I'm going to ask it anyways. Any regrets that you kind of have gone on this different path

with the new music, any regrets that there's no more prairie oyster? No, no, I'm not really that guy. I try to move on. move on. Does it annoy you when guys like me keep asking you about that old band you haven't been in in many, many years? No, it's, no, it's flattering.

No, I appreciate it. Yeah. I think people are kind of surprised, but I just really feel it's important to keep moving on as a musician. Well, keep on keeping on, Russell DeCarle. I love this very much. On your long drive here, was there any anecdote or story or anything you wanted to share and then you didn't get a chance to do it. No, fortunately, it was pretty uneventful, the drive here today.

And they aren't always. I've had a few that weren't. I've spent a lot of time on the road. Well, that's mainly in the winter, right? Well, you never know. You never know. You never know. Man, I got to say, I wasn't sure where you were coming from today,

but I did feel like a pang of guilt. Physically or? Emotionally. Emotionally, what I was going on? Because I figure if you made, you know, you were in Bob Clark's backyard, so I thought. And I could end up anywhere. I figured, okay, well, he knows the neighborhood. You can get back here.

And, of course, you got to get your hair cut. How often do you cut that hair? Oh, it varies. You know, if I should have probably scheduled one for today. Well, I would have joined you. Since I'm in the neighborhood. But I'm going to turn you onto her. You're going to turn me onto her.

And I hope Gary Chowen's not listening. He'll be jealous. But Gary, it's all about geography, okay? This woman's in my backyard here. But, man, thank you so much. I love your voice. Thank you. I love the new stuff.

I love the old stuff. I love that you're here. And I can't wait to take a photo with you by Toronto Tree. Thank you, Russell DeCarl, for being here. My pleasure. Thank you. And, boy, I'm looking to tuck it. I'll afford to tuck into this box.

Oh, gosh. She gave me an empty box. Oh, hold it. Smoke in mirrors. Palm of Pasta, excuse me. It's a little. The scam has been revealed. The old past is a little light.

He's like a whistleblower. He's like, oh, you know those 1,500 episodes where Mike came out of lasagna? Empty box. No, man. In fact, I bet you you strain to carry this lasagna when I give it to you. It's in my freezer right now. But you're going to be like, oh, man, it's a lot of lasagna. So you're getting a lasagna.

You've got the beer. You've got everything. And, man, I appreciate you being here. I think I said that too many times. When people come from that far, I always think, oh, like, I hope it's worth it for them. Because I know I'm going to have a great time. You know, I'm worried about you, Russell. I'm considerate.

I'll be waiting to hear you never know. People that listen that go, hey, I heard you on. Yeah. Yeah. But you're not, you know what? They'll be saying, where the hell is this guy? Why aren't you on Spotify? Like, is there a reason you're not on Spotify?

Is it just you? Yeah, because I don't see a dime. Like, literally not a dime. There's just no money there. I need to find another delivery service. But Spotify, there's just, there is not a cent to artists. Well, then you would maybe agree. that that game is rigged.

Oh yeah. Yeah, they finally figured out how to take all the money. And that brings us to the end of our one. That's it. That was the last word. They finally, wow. Yeah, you know, I thought. You were going to say, oh, he's that guy.

I thought that was a good closing time. Because I had a moment of like, oh, is that the last word? I realized, yes. And that brings us to the end of, our 1,950 second show, 1952. Go to tronomomike.com for all your Toronto mic needs. But get your ass to Russelldecarl.com and buy some great music.

And see them live. I just bought some new envelopes the other day. Okay. Everybody do that. I'm a sharpie's at the ready. Much love to all who made this possible. Again, that is Great Lakes Brewery, Palmapasta, Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball,

Nick Ieini's, Recyclemyelectronics.com. and Ridley Funeral Home. See you all tomorrow. And my special guest is City counselor Amber Morley.