Jim Galloway wants to share his music, and the good times it brings, with everyone.
The Estevan Art Gallery and Museum’s concert series has never been so well received, when more than 80 people squeezed into the main gallery to listen to the Oxbow musician perform on Friday night.
Appearing with Galloway was his wife Shirley Galloway on violin, Kari Mitchell, piano; Jeff Michel, guitar; Erin Brown, bass guitar; Brad Mayer, saxophone; David Hyman, keyboard; and drummer Hal Nielsen.
The evening began with an instrumental set by 2 Sharps and a Flat, a jazz trio of Galloway, Shirley and Mitchell. After a break Jimmy G and the Cable Guys took to the stage.
Galloway had his start in the music business with the 1980s White Heat when the band was signed with CBS Records. More recently it was his album Good Times, released last October, that offered him a chance to reflect while creating a musical experience meant to be shared.
He started recording the album last March, and it was completed by mid-September.
His single, Drown in a River of Doubt, received some CBC radio play in Saskatchewan as well as some time on Earshot, a college radio station, which broadcasts across the country.
At 51 years old, Galloway has spent more than half his life playing all different genres of music; however, he said the feedback he received from Good Times gave him the motivation he needed to keep going.
“It was a real incentive to just get up and have fun with it, to engage with musicians around me and people around me,” he said.
The album rings with true childlike nostalgia for the freedom of summer. Galloway’s parents bought a cabin at White Bear Lake in the 1950s, and he hasn’t missed a summer at the cabin since he first started going there himself. It’s the comfort and peace from those vacations that inspired this most recent collection of songs.
“It was just this magical place you could go to as a kid when school was finished. You could go to the beach, do whatever you want, just run free,” said Galloway. “And it continues to be a place like that. It’s one of the places I go to when we’re busy with work and the day-to-day stuff. You pull up to the cabin and open the door, and it’s just euphoric. It’s such a wonderful place. It’s just a nice break.”
It’s a place separate from the rest of the world with no phone, no Wi-Fi.
He said in the early writing process, when he was working on songs, his mind would regularly wander back to White Bear. He would recall memories and feelings while working on guitar lines and melodies.
“It would start a painting picture in my mind of these different times at White Bear.”
At times abstract, at others, it’s quite literal.
The song Morning Rain, for example, is about the summer thunderstorms that come out of nowhere on a muggy day. In this instance, Galloway said he was on the deck having his morning coffee next to the calm lake.
He finished writing the song while watching the rain come down.
“There was something so peaceful about it, and it soothes the soul. And it’s so Saskatchewan,” he said.
With an album title like Good Times, it’s not expected to be brooding or an expression of self-doubt. The songs are an expression of comfort and kinship, about how we enjoy our lives together.
The track These are the Good Times, shows Galloway is at a stage in his life in which he said he is “able to embrace music again.”
With his kids moving into independent lives of their own, and he and Shirley getting through their days in good health, they are able to do some of the things they may have neglected in the past.
“The good times are sharing music and embracing people with my music and having fun with it,” he said.
It’s a feel-good album, and Galloway wanted the music to be very inclusive and open to many genres.
“I wanted this to sound great if I have an orchestra, or I want it to sound great if I’m sitting at a campfire, playing these songs for people. That’s how I approached it.”
And he said he has been happy with the result.
“It’s a Beatles approach. Paul McCartney, whether he does Yesterday with his band and a 50-piece orchestra, or whether he plays it on his piano, it’s still Yesterday. You can play it on a ukulele,” Galloway said, with a laugh.
“Music is entertainment, and it’s not just for me. It’s to share with other people,” he said, adding he likes to be a magnet for other players.
“I embrace players at all levels, from kids who are learning where the nut and the bridge are on the guitar, to guys like Jeff Michel and David Hyman who are seasoned players.”
The EAGM performance was originally a solo gig, but before Galloway was through, there were seven other performers with him. That’s all part of what Galloway wants to do. There are good times to be had, and the more the merrier.
