Ever wonder if the television or radio personality you tune into on a regular basis is really as sincere as they appear to be over the airwaves?
This reporter pondered that notion, too, on the way to interview Stuart McLean of The Vinyl Café fame and the entourage of musical guests that accompanied him on a recent bus tour of the west. Among the Saskatchewan dates was a March 13 show in Prince Albert where a few familiar Northeast neighbours were spotted in the audience.
Arriving in Prince Albert during the soundcheck allowed for an opportunity to meet the people who would grace the stage and work their magic later that evening before a sold out house.
“We’ve actually never been to Saskatchewan before, so it's been amazing,” said Sheila Carabine of the duet Dala. “We’re looking out the window of the bus, taking it all in! Our friends back in Toronto are always emailing us, saying they're really envious of us, being out on the road!”
“I listen [to the Vinyl Café] sometimes. The music always sounds great to me and the stories always sound lame – they never sound good enough... When I listen, I'll listen as far as the story and then just turn off the story. Usually, I don't like my delivery – I never seem to get it right.”
Stuart McLean
As McLean previously explained, he first encountered Dala when the ladies were busking on a Toronto street while the radio show host was out on a bicycle jaunt.
“Amanda [Walther, the other half of the group] is a huge Vinyl Café fan and has been for her whole life,” Carabine said. “When this guy rode by on a bike, then came back and said, ‘I’m Stuart, I have a radio show on CBC,’ she almost passed out!”
“I was completely silent – Sheila had to carry on the conversation – I was just in shock!” added Walther.
“Four years later, here we are,” Carabine continued. “His stories are just really moving.”
When asked if they would return to Saskatchewan, Walther noted her interest.
“We’d like to,” she said. “Hopefully sometime next year when we can book our own tour.”
The next performer The Review encountered was Vinyl Café bassist Dennis Pendrith, a rather shy and humble character who has recorded and toured with several notable names on the Canadian music scene – when he's not touring with McLean or jamming with his bandmates in the Bebop Cowboys.
“It’s a great bunch of people and I look forward to it – always enjoy it,” said the eight-year veteran of the Vinyl Café. “You get to meet people all over the country.”
Merchandiser and sound effects technician Ted Dekker noted he prefers hitting the road on a bus rather than the time he spent with the Mr. Dressup crew, taking the tickle trunk on the road – and traveling across the country with four people in a van. When he’s not selling McLean’s CDs and books, Dekker makes appearances on stage when the show turns to a hilarious old time radio show project.
“I do sound effects for a radio drama and perhaps not the correct ones,” Dekker said. “Anything really to get Stuart's goat! It was all his idea, so it's all good – it’s very fun.”
“And I get to squirt him with water once in awhile and still have a job the next day.” he added.
Tickling the ivories for The Vinyl Café over the past decade is John Sheard, a man with an impressive list of recording, production and composition credits on his resume. Despite all the elbow-rubbing he's done over the years, Sheard still has time to chat about the tour.
“So much of traveling is personalities,” he said. “You can go onstage with just about anybody that's good – people are going to enjoy them, you’re going to enjoy playing with them, but it's those 10 hour bus rides and we arrive at the hall at 4 p.m. and don’t leave until 11.”
He credited McLean for using the show to help give Canadian artists an added boost they might not otherwise attain.
“This is one of the most fun, pleasant tours we've been on as far as our musical act,” he said, obviously suggesting that everyone is indeed getting along.
Also on the tour was Danny Michel, who cherished the fact that the food and hotels are much better on this tour than when he's out on his own. When asked about any shows along the way in particular that stood out, he replied, “They're all cool.”
“The last one's going to be fun because we’re playing in Fargo, N.D.," he said. “It’s exciting when Stuart plays down there because he’s trying to get a larger audience. When those shows go well, it’s really a fun time.”
In touring with his band for over 15 years, Michel has seen plenty of Saskatchewan, and will be hitting the road again as the Vinyl Café tour wraps up. He'll be promoting his new recording Feather, Fur and Fin, which was released on March 26.
“It's the first indie record I've done since 2007 and it's really wacky and artsy, adventuous and crazy – all over the map," he said. “It's actually like more of my earlier records.”
After a quick break for supper, The Review managed to catch up with the star of the Vinyl Café show as he enjoyed a dish of apple crisp and ice cream.
At the forefront of his thoughts was the upcoming live audience recording of the show in Winkler and Winnipeg, Man.
“Usually when we go on a tour, we spend the first week or two learning about the show,” he explained. “Once we get on the road, it becomes a collaboration with the audience – it’s their turn to get their hands on the stories and to let me know what works and what doesn't work.”
McLean is perhaps the most critical of his show, noting that he does not like how the stories sound on the air.
“I listen sometimes. The music always sounds great to me and the stories always sound lame – they never sound good enough,” he said. “When I listen, I'll listen as far as the story and then just turn off the story. Usually, I don't like my delivery – I never seem to get it right.”
That might be a bewildering statement to fans of the show, who would argue that McLean's unique delivery adds to the stories more than hinders.
“It’s wanting to do better; knowing that you can do better that keeps you engaged,” he said. “This is my work – I'm the only guy in the country who can't listen to the Vinyl Café. Everybody else can listen to it, I could never experience it the way others do.”
“It's not for me, it’s for others,” he concluded.
After the tour wraps up, McLean is planning a cross-country train journey to record a show along the way.
“I just love the train,” he said. “It opened the country. If it wasn’t for trains, this country wouldn’t exist. The railroad helped give birth to the nation.”
“Riding across the country on a train puts you in touch with the country in a way that flying never would,” he continued. “It's a way to touch the past; the soul of the country, who we once were and the things that form who we are today.”
A trip to Prince Edward Island is also in the works with McLean visiting Georgetown.
“Michael Smith [a television chef] is going to cook for us and teach me how to hypnotize a lobster,” McLean said.
After that, he’s putting pen to paper once again with three main projects under consideration.
“I have a book of collected essays of the last 10 years that I've done on the show,” he explained. “I want to turn one of the stories into a children's book and I'll have another book of Vinyl Café stories.”
As I sat in the mezzanine, watching the people file into the John G. and Olive Diefenbaker Theatre of the E. A. Rawlinson Centre and waiting for McLean’s show to begin, the statement that opened this article came to mind. Then McLean took the stage and welcomed the audience to the Vinyl Café, and my question was answered.
Indeed, these performers were as genuine as they appeared on the stage that night.
