The Walleye Magazine

Rodney Brown

“Sing Me the Songs”

“By Tiffany Jarva

My first folk festival was an evening spot at Sudbury Northern Lights in 1977,” he says. “It was awesome. The PA was so good. The audience was pumped—they LOVED that I was singing Northwestern Ontario songs, and Damon Dowbak on mandolin blew them away.” After that first live festival performance, Brown was hooked. He would continue to return to Sudbury for many years to come, as well as perform at countless live events throughout his career.

Musician Rodney Brown’s first album Freedom in Me was released in 1977. He was only 22 years old. Just before the release of that album, he played his first live musical festival. Decades later, Brown continues to make his living as a musician in Northwestern Ontario. He continues to write, record, and perform live, including being part of this past October’s lineup for the live mini-festival, Heavy Rotation, at Red Rock and Mount Baldy.

Brown grew up in the 1950s and 1960s as part of a musical family living in a coal-heated house in Westfort. His dad, Mel Brown, was a well-known country and western singer, rooted in gospel music. Brown, along with his two sisters, would harmonize with his dad, mostly singing songs in church and sometimes at family gatherings. “I had always kind of done it,” he says. In grade six, Brown started playing guitar. “My dad taught me the chords he knew.”

Beyond singing at church and

with family, one of Brown’s first memorable public audiences was in grade eight, performing at an assembly at Kingsway Park Public school. “We played a song by The Animals, ‘Sky Pilot.’ I wasn’t very good at industrial arts and that teacher gave me a high-five after we played.” Brown’s first band was The Drifters; they played on local TV and at community centre dances. “We were just kids, but we still got paid. I might have been in grade seven or eight at that time,” he says. “We had a manager who would cart us around town in a VW van.” The Drifters played popular 1960s music at the time, from Jimi Hendrix to the Bee Gees. “Even back then I was writing my own songs and once in a while would throw in an original song.”

In high school, Brown discovered Neil Young’s The Loner. “I loved the way he sang. I loved the teenage

angst,” he says. Bob Dylan was also a source of inspiration. “He opened up the world of folk music to me. Through him, I discovered Woody Guthrie as the people’s poet. Dylan sang about things like unions and mines in northern Minnesota. I’ve always liked the local stories in song.” He also gives a nod to singer songwriters like Eric Andersen, Murray McLauchlan, and Ian Tamblyn. “Ian is one of my heroes, my role models. He produced my first studio recorded album in 1980.” Brown also wrote songs and toured with Tamblyn.

During his high school band days, Brown would save most of his original material for coffee houses. “Selkirk High School had some really good coffee houses. And from there I got to tour around and play at all the high school coffee houses.” At Earthshine on Simpson Street,

Brown got paid to work as a musician in a coffeehouse, from age 18 to 20, playing for a wide range of audiences, including senior home residents and clients from the Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital. It is where he also met Sandra Hackler, his future wife and mother of two his children, and the inspiration for “Sandi’s Song” on his first album.

“My first album was very special to me,” says Brown. “I was writing songs, playing, and recording them; not many people were making independent records in those days. It got international recognition. And it really did a lot for me.” The self-financed Freedom in Me, released in 1977, also includes the musical mastery of some other well-known local musicians like Damon Dowbak on mandolin, Wayne Breiland on drums, and Bill Oryniak on banjo. The musicians travelled on a mobile bus and, because of the desirable acoustics, songs were recorded at churches and halls around Thunder

Bay, including Wesley United Church, Lakeview Presbyterian Church, and the Finnish Hall.

Freedom in Me was well-received by critics and was played on radio stations across the nation, including on CBC where he was interviewed often on shows like Morningside. Brown also convinced Select-omatic to include his songs on the local jukeboxes in Thunder Bay. “That was the beginning of my understanding of marketing and entrepreneurship,” he laughs. The album was distributed across Canada and is known in places as far away as England and Japan. “A working musician is what I wanted to be, and this album helped me do that.”

When asked why he never left Thunder Bay to pursue music elsewhere Brown pauses and then laughs, “Either I was a coward and I was too scared to make the move, or I just love my hometown so much.” It was tempting to think about moving to Toronto and Alberta especially in the

1970s and 1980s, but in the end, he says, “I know it sounds cliché, but

I do really love northern Ontario, the lakes and trees. And I always felt I could do it here.” Brown has toured across Canada. He has played and run workshops in England. For about a decade he focused heavily on children’s music, performing in local schools, and touring southern Ontario. “Kids won’t pretend to like you. You need to keep them engaged by playing echo songs or doing something physical,” he says. In the 1980s, Brown visited Indigenous schools in remote places like Webequie, Shoal Lake, and Grassy Narrows, working with students and encouraging them to write songs about their history. He would play guitar with them, film their songs, bring them home to edit and send them back.

In more recent years, Brown has become known for his fur trade-era songs, including “The Big Lonely” and “Map Of Dreams,” which he performed at Stuart McLean’s Vinyl

Café Thunder Bay live show. In the mid-2000s, Brown also played his album The Big Lonely with the TBSO at the Italian Cultural Centre, and then toured his show throughout Northwestern Ontario including

Fort Frances, Atikokan,and Kenora. In 2012 he hooked up with the TBSO once again. His music was scored as part of the album Fort William

and performed live at the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium. “It was amazing,” he grins. “I get so much support from Thunder Bay, community groups, schools, and unions,” says Brown. “I can’t imagine doing anything else.”

Visit rodneybrown.ca to stay up to date. This winter, Brown is working on a play called What Would Susan Say, featuring songs from

The Big Lonely album, delving into the relationship between Susan and William McGillivray. Visit rodneybrown.ca to keep up to date

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