Stories from the Edge of Music

SEMI-IMPORTANT NOTE: “Stories: Music and More” is the new title for what was known, for 82 previous instalments, as “Stories from the Edge of Music.” One of America’s very best songwriters was asked to lead workshops at the Calgary Folk Festival this summer. Anyone who has been to a Canadian folk festival understands the concept of workshops: daytime stages where different musicians are asked to collaborate. Often, magic happens, but sometimes there are train wrecks.

Some personal stories and photographs to check out, and some tears to shed for the late Dolly Parton. SEMI-IMPORTANT NOTE: “Stories: Music and More” is the new title for what was known, for 82 installments, as “Stories from the Edge of Music.” Bonnie Raitt in concert at Massey Hall, August 2026 (photograph by Ian Steer) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Bonnie Raitt, folk singer Please don’t ask me exactly when this happened but I think it just have been in the early-’70s.

Better late than never, and about bloody time, this comes to you as I recover from wandering around Western Canada with a balky (and bulky) laptop and a backlog of notes, many of which have vanished into the ether. Three festivals in three weeks. Numerous beds. Many backstage hangs. Inspiring music. And countless friends, old and new, along the way.

Stories from the Edge of Music has a new title: Stories: Music and More. Mostly still about music, but you’ll find other stuff— some of it very much between you and I — in the weeks to come. I hope you hang in! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Companions at Mariposa.

In the music biz, we call them “bios.” Every artist has one — a written description of who they are and the music they make. In the old days, these were part of a paper-heavy press kit, often in a folder, along with a black-and-white 8x10 photo, reams of reproduced press clippings, a list of upcoming dates, and maybe a news release about the artist’s latest activities. Thanks to the digital revolution it ain’t like that any more.

Over many, many years, I’ve done a lot of different things in the music business, but I’d never embedded myself with a band the way I did on two tours of Australia with the Jerry Cans in 2016–17. Both tours, in my memory, have merged into a single seven-week trip in that sunburned country. Here are just some of the stories.

A few weeks ago, I asked readers to make their own suggestions — and some of you did. Then, as only I can manage, I accidentally pressed some wrong buttons and consigned your suggestions to the ether. Please feel free to send your comments/additions to the following list to me at <rflohil@sympatico.ca> and I’ll include them in a couple of weeks. ++++++++++++++++++++ So here are my six picks — in alphabetical order — can’t wait to see yours! Has there ever been a voice like Aretha Franklin’s?

When I wanted to leave the UK in the grey mid-’50s, I thought about going to Australia. Then I thought that if I didn’t like it, I’d be so far away I wouldn’t be able to get back. I’ve since had three trips there, for a total of eight weeks, and my biggest regret is that I won’t be able to go again. Canada has been home for well over 60 years, but I have to say that Australia felt like home as well.

You probably know this already, but it’s worth repeating: Jeff Healey was the most innovative blues-rock guitarist ever to come out of Canada. Immensely original, he played sitting down, with the guitar flat across his lap. My apologies for the lateness of this instalment of Stories from the Edge of Music. I’ve been sidelined by some minor health issues which are about to be solved. I promise I’ll do better.

No two figures in Canadian music history have seemed, well, as Canadian as Ian Tyson and Stompin’ Tom Connors. Different people, for sure: Tom, the populist country singer from the East Coast; Ian, the urbane folk singer turned Prairie cowboy storyteller. One seemed most at home in a corner in a dive bar in a hardscrabble town in northern Ontario, the other on the back of a horse looking out at miles of flat landscape, with a mountain range in the far distance.