Get well, Ron Hynes!

My thoughts and best wishes are with good friend Ron Hynes as he battles cancer of the throat.

Ron has cancelled his concert schedule for the rest of 2012 while he undergoes treatment.

As I noted in my review of Sealing Genius, Ron’s most recent album, he is “without question, one of Canada’s greatest singer-songwriters – a writer whose genius can be found in decades worth of great songs.” I referred to Stealing Genius as the finest set of original songwriting released in Canada in 2010.

I’ve always enjoyed Ron’s company. The first time we worked together was in 2002 in a main stage workshop I hosted at the 2002 Ottawa Folk Festival called Short Stories That Rhyme which also included the late Bill Morrissey and Cliff Eberhardt. Five years later, Ron was one of my final studio guests on the Folk Roots/Folk Branches radio show in 2007.

Ron was in excellent form when we visited and I saw him perform at Irene’s Pub in Ottawa just five months ago. I know that I speak for all his friends and fans in wishing Ron a speedy recovery. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before he’s healthy and back on stage.

Pictured:

Ron Hynes performing; and Adrien Doucette, Ron Hynes and Mike Regenstreif at the 2007 Branches & Roots Festival in Ormstown, Quebec.

--Mike Regenstreif

Norman Doucette -- Some Mother's Son

NORMAN DOUCETTE
Some Mother’s Son
Norman Doucette
cdbaby.com/Artist/NormanDoucette

The dozen original songs – steeped as they are in both folk music and country – that Norman Doucette sings on his debut album, Some Mother’s Son, remind me of a time, about 40 years ago when there was an explosion of great singer-songwriters mining that musical vein. Among the artists I’m thinking of are Kris Kristofferson, Steve Young, Paul Siebel, Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt and John Prine. In particular, Norman reminds me of early John Prine in his approach to melody and song construction.

These are gritty songs populated by seemingly true-to-life characters that you might encounter on the poor side of most urban downtowns. “The poor man walking by the soup kitchen door” in the lead-off track; the perpetual wanderer in “Teepees, Tents and Trailers”; and the hooker caught up in addiction and poverty in “Angel with a Broken Heel.”

There are also echoes of Stan Rogers in the title track, “Some Mother’s Son,” in which Norman’s first-person character, an East Coast fisherman whose livelihood is played out, is faced with the choice of heading to Alberta to work the tar sands or joining the army and carrying a gun in Afghanistan.

Norman is a veteran performer. I hope this CD opens some doors for him as his songs are well-deserving of an audience.

BTW, that I know of Norman Doucette and his fine songs is certainly thanks to his brother, Adrien Doucette. Adrien, founder of the Branches & Roots and Apple Hollow Folk Festivals, as well as a prime organizer of the weekly concerts at Café Namas Thé in Ormstown, is kind of the folk music godfather of the Chateauguay Valley south of Montreal. It was at Adrien’s festivals that I’ve enjoyed opportunities to hear Norman perform live and it was Adrien that sent me the CD.

--Mike Regenstreif