Deep Roots billeting is a window on the life of a touring musician - or two

The amazing David Francey (standing)                               Wayne Walker Photo

   Billeting musicians from the Deep Roots Music Festival gives non-musical types like me a fascinating window into the life of a touring music maker.

We started off the very first year, that was 2004, having Ken Whiteley as a guest. That was the year he won a Genie Award.

   Ken is part of a talented musical family, but he may be best known for recording and touring with children’s performer Raffi.

   I remember Ken for his zen means of coping with the stress of travel. Coming home and finding him meditating on the back porch with a candle burning mid-afternoon convinced me he worked to stay chilled.

In 2010 Catherine MacLellan stayed for the weekend. Over breakfast we got to hear about the life she protected in rural P.E.I. We didn’t discuss her famous songwriting father whose music we love.

   So it was a thrill to catch her benefit concert this year. The NFB documentary, The Song and the Sorrow, is a fine piece of film on the difficult subject of mental illness and the impact of suicide. After the film Catherine rocked it performing a dozen of her father’s tunes and stories that left few with dry eyes.

Catherine MacLellan & Mark Westburg           (Walker Photo)

   One year I will remember for never meeting the performer who was billeted with us. I think it was Amelia Curran, but our schedules just didn’t meet up. But I know she slept in the unmade bed.

   On the other hand Chris Ludecke, better known as Old Man Luedecke, was a delightfully present guest. He may be a two-time Juno Award-winner, but mostly Chris is a caring dad who misses his girls at home in Chester when on tour. We certainly enjoyed his humour around the breakfast table, as well as his offbeat songwriting and banjo picking.

   A year or two later it was fun to spot the whole Ludecke family at a Christmas enjoying a concert at the cathedral in Halifax, where Chris didn’t have to perform for a change.

   Alex Cuba, the stage name for Cuban-born musician Alexis Puentes, had actually been to Wolfville back in 1995 with his father, a big band performer. Alex remembered Wolfville for the mud.

   He sat with us around a bonfire in the backyard and told the unique story of meeting his wife on that tour. He flirted with a young Vancouver university student named Sarah Goodacre. She followed him back to Cuba and they married. Eventually they brought their three kids back to her hometown of Smithers, B.C. Now that northern town is the base for his international award-winning career.

   This year we welcomed David Francey and his sideman into our empty nest for three nights. I’d certainly heard of David and enjoyed hearing his songs on CBC Radio, but I did not know that he’d been on vocal rest for over two years.

Terra Spencer   (B. Dienes Photo)

 

   Coming to the stage at Deep Roots was his first gig in the musical trenches again and it felt auspicious. Breakfast was easy for this fellow. All he wanted was coffee and to chat with his wife at home in Elphin, Ont. (population 38).

   David is a passionate songwriter, so he made plans to collaborate on a song with the sweetly talented Terra Spencer of Windsor. He asked could they try writing at our place before the Friday concert. Sure I replied, thinking I might get to hear a bit of musical history being made.

   They had a lovely visit that afternoon and I think talked over all kinds of ideas, but David said the song just didn’t flow. However that night he sat down with a tiny pad for writing grocery lists on and penned a verse. I’m pretty sure he and Terra tried composing again. Time will tell.

   It was a definite treat to hear David and guitarist Mark Westberg performing that weekend. David’s songs sound deceptively simple, the visit of red winged blackbirds for example, but they are powerfully charming – like the man.

It’s no wonder to me now that one of his fans from the South Shore brought him a package of oat cakes from the La Have Bakery. Apparently she’d done so before and he allowed that he’d scarfed them down.

   Deep Roots has been a marvelous musical weekend for 16 years. Long may it continue and long may our nest be filled with musicians.

(Published by the Kings County Valley Advertiser)