Cigar Box Banjo

Not long after I had received a death sentence prognosis for cancer a friend from Vancouver Island showed up at my Nova Scotia home. Brenda introduced me to Gerard LeBlanc who was from Nova Scotia originally. We hit it off immediately. He said I reminded him of his friend Paul Quarrington, a musician and writer who had died of cancer. Learning that Quarrington was a published author who received the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for his first novel, I was highly flattered. A month later a book arrived in the mail--Cigar Box Banjo--written by Quarrington.

Unsure what was inside the covers, and knowing he had died of the disease, it sat unopened on a shelf for three years. Once cancer free, I found the courage to read it. I should have had more faith in Gerard. The book was a delight, a personal retrospective, both funny and moving. It traced a life in music and writing, the stories that only gigging musicians can tell, the skinny on the sausage-making of songs, and why they reach right inside our souls.

The Cigar Box Banjo honours those whose music insists, the folks that turn a metal pipe into a bugle, cat gut into a pluckable string, and who seem to extract music from the rhythm of life itself. Though any music can theoretically be played on a banjo, it seemed that a cigar box one best fits folk, which is simple and visceral and needs no embellishment. Although some of the selections were a stretch to fit under this heading, they’re all relatable to the working stiff, like a philosophy book based on common sense, experience and stoic resignation. Several are among my favourites from any genre.

Morning Has Broken--Cat Stevens:

Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou) is the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens. After he spent two decades performing only music which met strict religious standards, he returned to secular music in 2006 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. His father was a Greek Cypriot and his mother Swedish. While building his career as a London singer-songwriter he constantly wrestled with Christianity. After gazing over the precipice twice--including near-drowning--he fulfilled a promise to serve God. After his brother gave him an English translation of the Qur’an as a birthday gift, he resolved his doctrinal concerns (e.g. The Trinity), and converted. Before becoming Islam, Cat Stevens scored several big hits with original compositions like “Peace Train” and “Oh Very Young.” His breakthrough was “Morning Has Broken,” a 1931 Christian hymn set to a traditional Scottish Gaelic tune. Stevens found a hymn book in a bookstore while looking for public-domain material and discovered it. At only 45 seconds it was too short for AM radio, but Rick Wakeman (later of Yes) fleshed it out to just over three minutes. Wakeman was paid about £10 for his trouble. It became Cat Stevens’ biggest U.S. hit, reaching Number One on the Adult Contemporary Chart.

Sonny’s Dream--Valdy:

Not just another set of velvet tonsils--this is also a fine guitar player. He does this super version of Ron Hynes’ “Sonny’s Dream.” The first time I saw him live was in a theatre where the bass player from my band PSN opened with original pieces he had written on piano. As Valdy headed for the stage he handed my friend a Marine Band Harmonica, saying, “You forget your harp in the dressing room Sonny,” thereby recognising him as a Newfoundlander. Years later I sat within spitting distance of Valdy in a small club in Saint John, New Brunswick. He writes extremely well and he never disappoints live.

Galveston--Jimmy Webb: 

Glen Campbell made this song a huge hit, though his rendition was far too cheerful for the subject matter. I became aware of Webb in the early 1970s. He ranks among one great balladeers of our time: “By the Time I Get to Phoenix,” “Wichita Lineman,” “MacArthur Park,” “Up, Up and Away,” and “Where’s the Playground Susie,” among others. When a writer sings his own material it’s usually more emotionally resonant. Webb knows his intent when he sings, “I clean my gun.” Written in the aftermath of the Tet Offensive at the height of the Vietnam War, the song carries a potent mix of disillusionment, guilt, unrest, patriotism, and homesickness. It’s hard to accept Webb’s contention that it was about the Spanish-American War considering the American zeitgeist of that era.

Copperhead Road--Steve Earle: 

I relate to this song. In high school I opened an edition of the Yarmouth Light and found a squib, “This day in history, in 1930, Louis Arthur d’Entremont set the Nova Scotia land speed record.” I think it was 77.7 MPH in a souped-up Model A--fast on primitive dirt roads eh! You see, my dad was a race car driver and also drove for the rum runners of southwestern Nova Scotia; before two-way radios, literally nobody could catch him.

Wichita Lineman--Glen Campbell: 

Songwriter Jimmy Webb told James Taylor that this song was written in the key of F. One night he got a call from James to tell him the song never goes to F. It is so unique that it never settles to the key in which it is written. If you are a musician check out Rick Beato’s interview with Webb (and his one with Billy Joel too). If you haven’t discovered Beato you’re in for a treat. Beato has dynamite ears, solid music theory knowledge, ridiculous research, and a fan’s fascination. Webb was influenced by Burt Bacharach and George Martin. Glen Campbell was an oversized talent. His guitar work can be heard on recordings by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, the Monkees, Nat King Cole, and many others.He could not read music yet needed to hear an arrangement only once to remember it. Campbell was also a remarkable singer. On this recording he sounds emotionally vulnerable without sentimentality--lonely, but intimately taking the pulse of humanity. This should have appeared on my Songs that Resonate Playlist for it is clearly one of the best pop songs ever written!

If You Could Read My Mind--Gordon Lightfoot:

A great composition and a great performance. Gordon’s acoustic guitar is tasteful and unobtrusive, as is the work of the second guitarist Red Shea. The chord progression has some unusual subtitles, and the string arrangement explores a rich psychoacoustic palette. Don’t presume that I’m bragging this guy up because he is a fellow Canadian. Bob Dylan said that every time he heard a Gordon Lightfoot song he didn’t want it to end. That’s good enough for me. They shared a manager Albert Grossman, and mutual respect. Dylan travelled to Canada to introduce Lightfoot when he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Personal note: My wife had a radio show in Pembroke, Ontario while in junior high. One of her guests was a young dancer-turned-singer-songwriter named Gordon Lightfoot, freshly departed from the song-and-dance troupe the Singin’ Swingin’ Eight. She always joked that he’d be nothing without her interview. In April of 2023, I planned to contact Lightfoot and have him call my wife on her birthday to thank her for giving him his start and to say, “I’d be nothing without you.” I’d like to think he would have loved that. Sadly I delayed a couple of weeks; he died on May 1. He will be missed!

A Thorn in My Shoe--John Gracie:

This is a fine song performed by Cape Bretoner John Gracie of Isle Madame. I met him on a marketing trip promoting our region in Western Europe. He was a member of the band which entertained while 88 of us schmoozed tour operators and travel agents. I believe that is where he met Andrée Delaney, my frequent dance partner at conventions. I suspect she bothered with me because I’d learned ballroom dancing while working as social staff on cruise ships, taught by Marlene and Michael, a pro dance team that performed for three years at Radio City’s Rainbow Room. This song is from a tribute album to Gene MacLellan (writer of “Snowbird, “Put Your Hand in the Hand” and “The Call”). This song is my favourite MacLellan. By the early 1980s MacLellan had deliberately left the commercial circuit. The royalties continued; he redirected much of the money to young songwriters. The stages he still accepted were smaller and harsher: prison chapels, nursing-home day rooms, church basements. Friends described a shy, soft-spoken man who preferred real conversation to the din of a hit parade. Depression had plagued him for decades. He was hospitalized in Summerside in early 1995. Not long after his release, on January 19, he ended his life at home.

Run For the Roses--Dan Fogelberg:

Born in Peoria, Illinois, Dan was the youngest of three sons. His mother, Margaret (a Scottish immigrant), was a classically trained pianist; his father, Lawrence, was a high-school band director of Swedish descent. “Leader of the Band” was Dan’s tribute to him. Diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer in 2004, he died in 2007 at age 56 at his home in Maine. My daughter had horses as a teenager. Every year we watched the Kentucky Derby and made silly bets on the winner. As the family spread out across North America the bets guaranteed the winner would get a free meal at the next reunion. On the morning of the “Run for the Roses” my wife would wake us all up--in person or by phone--with this song. It set the stage for the day. Fun stuff!

Victims of Comfort--Keb’ Mo’:

In the mid-1990s I told an employee that Taj Mahal was my favourite male singer. “Check out Keb’ Mo’” was all he said. Great advice! Like Taj, Kevin Morris handles roots music with authenticity, though in a higher register. He’s also a fine guitarist. Here he sings one of his own compositions. He clearly writes better than most, and his easy style transforms a blues concert into an uplifting event.

Song For the Mira--John McDermott:

I met Allister MacGillivray at one of his performances and learned he had written this timeless song (in about 15 minutes). It has been recorded more than 300 times; the first was by John Allen Cameron, who also sang next to me in the men’s choir at St. Francis Xavier University. MacGillivray played guitar for Cameron from 1969 to 1972 and performed with him at the Grand Ole Opry in 1970. Royalty cheques from this song changed MacGillvray’s life. John McDermott emigrated from Scotland to Canada as a child. His breakthrough came in part when Conrad Black heard him at Toronto Sun events and helped finance his recording.