Doc Walker gives acoustic a spin
20 years on, Canadian country band Doc Walker still loves making music
DOC WALKER
When: 8 p.m., May 12 Where: Casino Regina Chris Thorsteinson is a little surprised when Doc Walker is referred to as a veteran band.
That’s not to say the label is incorrect — the band, after all, has been a mainstay on the Canadian country music scene for the past 20 years — but it’s still a somewhat harsh reality for Thorsteinson.
“It feels like it just started yesterday, like everything happened overnight. We were a brand new band, an up and coming band in Canada and then the next minute we were the veterans.
“How do you go from being an up and coming band to veterans in a year?” said Thorsteinson. “Maybe it’s like hockey players — they come into the league at a young age and by 21 they’re considered veterans.”
Doc Walker, comprised of Thorsteinson and Dave Wasyliw, have fashioned a successful career with an impressive array of albums, a string of hit singles and a reputation as an entertaining live band. While being interviewed recently to advance an appearance at the Casino Regina Show Lounge on May 12, Thorsteinson spoke about coming to grips with the realities of the evolution of Doc Walker.
So does it seem like so many years have gone by?
“It does but it doesn’t,” said Thorsteinson. “As a musician, you grow in what you want to say and how you play and how you perform so it kind of never gets old, that’s the thing. It’s never boring because it changes night after night after night. I think that’s why it never gets old. It’s a lot of fun.”
Doc Walker hits Regina on a regular basis and has played most of the venues in the city (The Pump, Conexus Arts Centre, the Brandt Centre, Craven Country Jamboree and Casino Regina). Saturday’s show, however, has a different spin as it will be an acoustic performance.
Thorsteinson explained why he and Wasyliw felt the time was right for the Heartland acoustic tour.
“Dave and I talked about doing some acoustic shows, where we could go talk about Rocket Girl, Driving With The Brakes On, That Train. A lot of the songs we chose to record, we consciously wrote or picked songs that were interesting or pushed a button or were a little different from what was out there, just to be a little different and have something to say. Now after all these years of putting these songs out, it’s nice to sit in an acoustic setting and tell stories about them all night,” said Thorsteinson. “It’s been a blast so far.”
They are also mixing in some full band shows into the schedule and it turns out the acoustic show has also been a blast for the touring band members.
“Last month we did an acoustic show followed by two full band shows so for the first show the band sat in the crowd, drank beer and watched while Dave and I did our acoustic set. Afterward one of the guys said, ‘I actually really enjoyed that.’ I was like, ‘Thanks. I didn’t realize you weren’t looking forward to it.’ Being in the crowd and listening to us talk about these songs, it made sense for him,” said Thorsteinson.
Putting Doc Walker’s career under the spotlight, it’s easy to see why they’ve been so successful. Their catalogue includes eight studio albums with hit songs like Rocket Girl, Driving With The Brakes On, Beautiful Life, That Train, If I Fall, The Show Is Free and Call Me A Fool.
They’ve also got 15 Canadian Country Music Association Awards to their credit and are three-time winners of the group or duo of the year award and twotime winners of the album of the year award (for Beautiful Life and Doc Walker).
Given this success, it might be expected that the music business has become easier for the band. It turns out that assumption is only partially correct.
“Being out on the road is more fun these days just because we’re not doing it as much. When you do 200 dates in a year you almost don’t look forward to it but now we’re all excited about going out and playing shows. We laugh that it’s like a bunch of dudes excited to go camping. We’re all excited, getting ready to get on the bus and head out on an adventure,” Thorstein said with a laugh.
“The songwriting definitely never gets easier for me. If anything it gets harder because you look at a song like Beautiful Life and it’s tough to take it to that level every time. People might say, ‘Why don’t you write another Beautiful Life?’ but if it was that easy every band would have a No. 1 hit every month. It isn’t that easy.
“You have to have something that you want to say.”