Stephen Fearing

What a year... and I know it ain't over yet, but I am home now until Jaunary and so this is a good time to say thank you. Thanks to everybody out in the crowd and backstage, all the music lovers who have come out to support live music and help get the show back on the road. It's never been clearer to me just how lucky I am to do this job. I have travelled and toured my face off and begun the process of working towards a new album (The Empathist - recording starts next March) and earlier this year I ran a very "successful" crowdfunding campaign - "successful" because of you all... again, grateful, lucky and happy every time I strap on my guitar and tread the boards. Thanks for coming out to share in this fantastic ritual of music.
XOXOX Season's Bleatings - see ya in the new year.

Cheers!

=SF=

Lest we forget, the word amateur comes from from the latin voice - amātōrem (“lover”), from amāre (“to love”). We are all amateurs.

Ernesto Schmied.

I once had the great pleasure of being part of Bruce Guthro’s songwriter circle
at Casino NS. Seemed like a rite of passage when I moved there. This is very fitting, way to go Casino Nova Scotia !!

Casino Nova Scotia is proud to announce that its popular Schooner Showroom will be renamed the Bruce Guthro Theatre, a heartfelt tribute to the late award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter, Bruce Guthro. The newly re-named live entertainment venue is a testament to the enduring friendship between Bruce Guthro and Casino Nova Scotia, where he hosted the majority of his renowned Songwriter’s Circle evenings. Photo courtesy of James Bennett Photography

Well,
it looks like the sh*tehawks are back at it. I have had to delete several posts from my threads in the last few days (also report pages) as impersonators try to get you all to interact with them on private messaging by pretending to be me - I can delete and report until the cows come (and I will continue to do so for sure), but it is “Whack-a-mole” on FB and will never end, so this is my semi-annual reminder not to reply to anything that starts with lines like “Dear devoted fans…” and then continues on with the usual saccharine generic language. This ain’t me it’s scammers trying to get into your wallet. Part of the trouble is that I am out west and often on the road all day, so it can take hours for me to see the notifications and pull the posts down. Please don’t be taken in by these eejits. Forewarned is forearmed.
Thanks for listening !!

=SF=

Ahhhhhhh

My old mucker Andy White has a new album out , just in time for you know what. Andy is a great writer/ performer and for those of you who don’t know, he and I wrote, recorded and toured two albums together under the Fearing & White banner many, of those early songs ended up on Blackie Records - “Good luck, I hope you make it” is the title of his latest. I haven’t heard it yet but I’m sure it’ll be vintage AW.

Hi everyone! The new album is on pre-order from today & single releases today link in comments good luck I hope you make it🍀

A lesson in math and reality, for those who are still unaware…

*To those who continue to support independent music/musicians by purchasing product, we thank you = it’s how we afford to continue producing and releasing new music. 💙

*Thank you for also remembering that for many of us music is our hobby, not our profession. 🎧🎶🤘🏼😎

This pretty much says it all for me. Spotify are The Company Store … you load 16 tons and whaddya get? Another day older and deeper in debt, St Peter Don’t you call me, ‘cause I can’t go,
I owe my soul to the company store.

Thank you to all of the folks who have listened to my music on the streaming platforms BUT a big fu***ng thank you to the people that buy T-Shirts and Records online or at the merch table, and my Substack. This is how we get paid for the work that we do.

I wince every time I see a pal or a colleague I look up to, posting the Spotif@$% Wrapped thing. Imagine if musicians had a proper union, imagine a world where the big fish stood in solidarity with their lesser brothers and sisters for fair and equitable pay, you know kind of like SAG/AFTRA, that was actually a beautiful thing to see as tough as it was for so many. The music business on the other hand. Pfft, Spineless and void of morals or grace when it comes to this. I actually think streaming is great but needs to be equitable for the creator.

To my colleagues that believe in fair and equitable pay for the work that you do, I urge you to think twice about posting and shilling for a company that treats musicians so abhorrently. Do better, have some dignity for yourself and those below you.

Nolan and Nolan. Two rounders, brother of different mothers make great music.

Nolan + Nolan - YouTube Nolan + Nolan is a fun side project of singer-songwriters Scott Nolan and Joe Nolan (no relation). Both acclaimed in their own right, they bring their consi...

This is true.

Ahoy Ottawanians. I am coming through for The Festival of Small Halls. One show only! - Manotick Dec. 1st. See you there / then.

Several friends have written to me to say they listened and enjoyed this immensely. Check Zakary’s podcast out here.

Peter Moore (August 6, 1956 - November 11, 2023)

We lost a true Original this past weekend. Peter Moore was a friend and a collaborator who had an enormous effect on all of our recorded music over the last 37 years. We met Peter by chance, in 1986, at a dinner party at our mutual friend Greg Keelor’s (Blue Rodeo) loft. We bonded over our shared desire to bring recorded music back to its roots, back to it being about the process of capturing a performance and away from it being about the latest studio technology: we were looking at it from a musician's point-of-view and he was coming at it from a recording engineer's point-of-view. He had some ideas and he suggested that we get together and do some experimenting. That experiment turned into “Whites Off Earth Now!!”. Our next shared experiment turned into “The Trinity Session”, and the next one into “The Caution Horses”. Through all of this experimentation we became good friends and big supporters of each others work. He became a true mentor when it came time for us to set up our own studio and to take charge of recording our own music and more than once he became our saviour when those recording effort’s didn’t exactly go the way we had planned. Peter was a big-hearted man, with a huge appetite for life. He loved “audio” and he knew everything, (and I mean EVERYTHING) about it. He had huge opinions and theories and larger than life stories, which always toppled into the surreal. Sitting and working with him in his mastering studio was always a capital “E”…Experience. I always walked out of a session with Peter with my head spinning from some new story or theory with which he had been regaling me, but more importantly I walked out of there with some new useful knowledge about recording and sound, and I always walked out of there with an excellent sounding music master in my hands. Peter was a true Original in a world that often kicks against Originals and those of us who were lucky enough to know him and work with him will miss him very, very much.

Peter Moore was a pioneer and a deeply committed producer and envelope pusher. I was lucky enough to work with him for a time. RIP

The Canadian music community has suffered a significant loss with the death of Canadian music producer extraordinaire
Peter J. Moore. ....
He produced albums for such bands as: The Cowboy Ju**ie, Willie P. Bennett, Doughboys, Stephen Fearing, Jr. Gone Wild, The Mahones, Oh Susannah, Ian & Sylvia Tyson, The Ugly Ducklings and many more. .......
Moore won a Grammy in 2016 for Best Historical Album ‘The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series Vol. 11’.

Garth Hudson reported that "Peter Moore with his incredible talent... assembled and revived tape that had been crinkled, stretched.", "Several reels were mouldy and Moore had to delicately unwind and re-spool some 1,800 feet of 'very, very thin' reel-to-reel tape by hand on a few others to 'flatten them out.”.......
"Producer extraordinaire Peter Moore, known for his work helping the Cowboy Ju**ies and Holly Cole find their sounds, has built his sizable reputation on his understated style of framing a voice..."
- Tim Perlich, NOW Magazine Toronto

Art Bergmann’s latest. I haven’t heard it yet but have no doubt it will be vintage and superb.

Album review by Jack Rabid, Big Takeover Magazine issue #93:

Art Bergmann – ShadowWalk (weewerk) CAN

"Bergmann’s resurgence continues, after decades of health/addiction woes. A cult-institution in Canada, from 1977-1980 punk rock ’n’ roll days (Young Canadians forever!), a stint in Vancouver supergroup Los Popularos, and especially solo since, he records fully-felt, emotionally-rich, bluesy folk-pop and spitting-sparks guitar rage with a battle-wizened voice that breaks like water over craggy coastlines. 2021’s Late Stage Empire Dementia torchlit understandable bile over North American socio-politics via the withering "Your Second Amendment,” “Christo-Fascists,” and “Amphetamine Alberta.”

It's even better follow-up ShadowWalk is more personally blistering, following the sudden 2022 death of his three-decade wife who helped him through those dark days, Sherri Decembrini. The teeth rattling “Killing Sunday” still rages like “Down By the River” Crazy Horse,” and “Raw Naked Monday” recalls ‘90s solo eminence, but the remaining, more funereal, art-folky epistles, assisted by returning producer Russell Broom’s haunting backgrounds, are gut-punches — Bergmann’s honest dark nights of a now solo soul. Nietzsche was regrettably right; to live is to suffer, but we go on." (November 2023)

Artistic Directors are a rare and special breed, especially the ones who step in early and help establish festivals. In many ways they create the blueprint along with all the other volunteers and organizers in a festival’s infancy. Ken Rooks was a passionate lover of
Folk music, he was opinionated and dedicated and unswerving in his love for this music and this community. Sail
On Ken Rooks and thank you for your tireless energy and devotion to Canmore Folk Music Festival

The Board of Directors and the entire Canmore Folk Festival family is saddened to learn of the passing of our “director emeritus” Ken Rooks last week here in Canmore.

Ken was born with the music in his marrow, and from the minute he hit town in the 1980s and signed up to volunteer for a tiny half-day music festival, he began a journey that would change the culture of the community, and in many ways the culture of the Canadian folk music scene.

He had an ephemeral magic touch, able to find and cultivate young performers just starting out. He built and maintained relationships with more senior and experienced musicians, ensuring they’d be happy to return to our festival when asked. He mixed them all together into main stage concerts and side stage workshops. He built relationships with other festivals to share expenses when a choice performer was on tour.

His tenure with us spanned the days of food services via volunteer potlucks and performers billeted in local homes for a half-day Heritage Day festival on the Monday to a three-day, full-on musical extravaganza with a kick-off free Friday concert. For most of those years he worked 10 months for zero pay

Since his retirement in 2010 we have tried to remain true to his vision. Because he was an adventurous visionary.

He is survived by his life partner Sharon Bowie and thousands of fellow folkies throughout the country.

Written by: Carol Picard

Congratulations Lynn Miles on your Canadian Folk Music Awards / Prix de musique folk canadienne nomination for 'Contemporary Album of the Year'!

Purchase/Listen to 'TumbleWeedyWorld' here
https://truenorthrecords.com/lynnmiles/

Making “content” with The Sentimentals in Fredrikshavn. Danish Noir meets Canadian Cool. I Couldn’t ask for a better crew. Missing from the picture is because he was running around setting up cameras and doing the headless chicken. Thanks

I want to thank you all for supporting what I do! It means the world. You’re the best and don’t forget it❤️

Tonght’s show at Maskinhallen in Fredrikshavn where we recorded side 1 of Vejpoesi. Full circle

Tonight at Maskinhallen in Fredrikshavn - Nordic Noir meets Canadian Cool…
. .

Buffy Saint Marie is one of the most genuine and authentic human beings I have ever met. “When a person shows you who they are, believe them the first time” - Maya Angelou.

On Th road with these fine fellows. Last night we played to a great crowd in Vordingborg at Stars. Tonight we are headed to in Fredrikshavn, where we recorded side 1 of Vejpoesi. Home soon! 🇩🇰 🇨🇦🇩🇰

Made it to Copenhagen and SAS credit card machine wasn’t working so no excess baggage charges…. Winning! What a great week in The UK thanks to all who came out to see me yodel and much love to my friends who made time for a pint or a meal. Now onto the last leg of my tour - two shows and VEJPOESI ALBUM RELEASE with my best buds The Sentimentals on the 26th and on the 27th. Hope to see you at one or the other.

Despite the rain and the flooding, it is truly wonderful to be back in Shrewsbury (most beautiful of towns) for tonight’s show at The Hive.

My friends Scott Nolan and Joe Nolan are hitting the road. If I were you, I would head to the nearest stop on their tour and catch a show - poetry, music and magic guaranteed.

Now that my recent Inishfree Tour of Ireland has come to a close, I once again look forward to my next trip scheduled for Oct. 2024. Incredibly this tour is already sold out! So for those of you who wish to book onto a future Inishfree tour, I will be posting my 2025 dates shortly.

However! In the meantime I am very excited to announce that I will joining Scotland Folk Tours who have created a very similar "Bus tour for those who hate bus tours" in the Scottish highlands, with the same format of small groups savouring the music, history, archaeology, excellent food and above all, great "craic" (or whatever the Scottish equivalent is). Here's their blurb which gives you a sense of the journey, but definitely go see their website for more details and contact links on how to book your slot on the bus. The two Inishfree tours I have led have been deeply satisfying, with a strong emphasis on the history and archaeology of the regions we pass through as told to us by local story-tellers and folks who have devoted their lives to their field of study. I love these tours for the human connection and because it allows me to spend time with like minded people who want to learn something more than the usual tourist fodder AND laugh their asses of at the same time.
If you want more information, come chat with me at an upcoming show.

https://scotlandfolktours.com/

Tonight I am at the legendary Kingsmead House in High Wycombe as guest of the equally legendary Paul Kemp. Such welcoming folks here in this part of the world. Tomorrow (day off) I head down to Dorset and a show on the 21st at Mission Hall in Sutton Poyntz then up to The Hive in Shrewsbury on the 22nd. Details at StephenFearing.ca This shot was from a few nights ago at Castle Hedingham.

Ahhhhh yeah! Everything made it to London Heathrow and so I’m back . Your dates are at StephenFearing.ca or links in bio. First show is tomorrow at a castle in Essex. I’ll try for some pics if I have time.

Old Norman tower in Di**le.

Last shot of the wreck of the Plassey. It’s hard to comprehend the might of the Atlantic that could toss this hulk way up on the rocks like this.

Plassey shipwreck. Inis Oirr