Two Canadian singer-songwriters performing at the Dekker Centre Thursday evening spoke out against the stigma surrounding mental illness, applauding Clara Hughes, the Olympian due to arrive the next day on a cross-Canada awareness journey.
John Wort Hannam of Fort MacLeod, Alta., and Gordie Tentrees of Whitehorse, Yukon, whose partner Olivia Stille is the co-ordinator for the Clara Hughes ride, encouraged their audience to join the campaign to take mental illness out of the shadows into the light.
Wort Hannam said he would be the first to stand up and proclaim that he fights a battle with depression and anxiety every single day.
"I've been on meds. I've visited psychiatrists," he said. "I'm OK telling you this. I see my admission as my little contribution in yanking the stigma attached to mental illness out of the dark and into the blinding light."
He said he hoped for a light so fierce it could wither stigma right out of existence, a sentiment that prompted applause from the audience.
Tentrees, who joined forces with Wort Hannam for a 10-show Double Trouble Prairie Tour, has also struggled, having been raised in a violent home. He also has family members who he described as "very ill."
He had high praise for Olympian Clara Hughes, the details of whose tour has been scattered around his home for the last many months. He followed her around for a day, he said, just to see for himself how much she does, and was astounded.
Wort Hannam said he and Tentrees were "party crashing" Clara Hughes' Big Ride for Mental Illness, following her route for several days out of the 110-day long tour that stopped in North Battleford Friday and Saturday.
The two-man show was at the Dekker Centre for the Performing Arts on the evening the centre's volunteers were being "appreciated" with supper and music. They described the crowd "small but mighty."
Tentrees has been a working musician for the last decade and has released five albums, capturing a Juno nomination for Best Traditional/ Roots album and a Canadian Folk Music Award for album of the year. Tentrees has been an amateur boxer, a schoolteacher, youth worker, counsellor, coach and mentor for at risk kids, and at age 25 began his musical career. Performing a blend of folk, roots and blues, Tentrees has toured Canada, the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom and Scandinavia.
Wort Hannam used to be a teacher. He gave it up one day in 2002, deciding he wanted to be a songwriter. His master carpenter father told him, "You don't always have to go with the grain, son," which are the lyrics of one of the songs he sang Thursday night.
He has released four albums and has numerous awards for songwriting and recordings plus a Juno nomination.
He was commissioned to write the official 2011 Alberta Winter Games song and the 2012 official song for the 100th Anniversary of the Empress Theatre, the oldest theatre in Alberta, which is located in his historic hometown.
