Plenty of Fred Heads willing to lend voice
Penner releases his 13th album and is gearing up for live shows throughout the spring and summer
A chance meeting on a warm summer’s evening brought together singer/songwriter Ron Sexsmith and beloved children’s entertainer Fred Penner.
“I ran into him on Queen Street one night and he came over to my house and we sang songs and drank wine and somewhere in there he asked if I’d be into singing on his record, which of course I said yes,” said Sexsmith recently about the pair’s 2016 meeting. “I mean, it’s Fred Penner.”
The meeting resulted in Sexsmith lending his vocal talents to two tracks on Penner’s album, Hear the Music (released April 21). Sexsmith releases his album, The Last Rider, on April 21 and is playing here at the Rio theatre in Vancouver on May 15.
Sexsmith reports that long before he sang with Penner he spent a lot of time with him via the long-running CBC TV show, Fred Penner’s Place.
“When I hear the name Fred Penner I think of my daughter, mostly, and how we used to watch him together,” said Sexsmith, referring to his daughter Evelyne, who is now 27. “Knowing him a little I’ve always gotten a sort of shaman vibe from him.”
Sexsmith is just one of the many guests to help Penner out on the Fred Whiteley-produced album. Listed in the credits are Alex Cuba, The Good Lovelies, Terra Lightfoot, Bahamas, Basia Bulat and Penner’s kids.
“I should have done a double or triple album,” said Penner, 70, when asked about the guest artists. “This is the Fred Head generation who were really keen on participating. They are aware of me and connected with me from early days for them.”
Hear the Music is Penner’s 13th album and Penner says while it remains true to themes he has threaded through his long career, it also shines a light on his personal journey and concerns.
“I always go back to the importance of communication of values of love. There’s a song about courage. There’s a song about humility. There’s a song about identity,” Penner said. “I do see it as very much of a spiritual album, oddly enough. I like that it goes into topics that do have some meat to them. Occasionally I will write something that is a little lighter but I find as the years go by I do try to go a little deeper into where we think we are going. How we feel about the things around us.”
Penner began his musical journey in the mid-1970s as a folksinger. His first album came out, fittingly, on Raffi’s label in 1979 and it’s been full steam ahead since.
Live performances have always been his bedrock and this spring and summer he will be out again playing the new stuff — and, of course, his classics like The Cat Came Back. But whatever the material, the main point is always to connect with people, something he recognized from the start of his career.
“The connectivity is clear, that was very obvious to me right in the beginning when I came into this business from the folk world,” said Penner, who calls Winnipeg and Toronto home. “I was part of that generation. Participation was such a vital part of the sixties, of the boomer world. The things that I loved to do was go to a coffee house and play music. Everybody would sing along and you got that sense of community clearly happening.
“Then as things unfolded it was just a logical part of my level of connection. That’s never stopped. I think at this point there is more of a need to bring us together.”
Penner will be busy bringing people together this year. He will be in Vancouver at the Children’s Festival running May 30 to June 2.
“People are hungry for live performance, there is no question about that,” said Penner, whose live crowds include multiple generations. “We all need to be able to touch and communicate with other human beings. The hug. The love. You don’t get that from the cyber world.”
Penner is an enviable entertainer because he is always recruiting new fans. There are always new children to turn into lifelong Fred Heads.
“Clearly. I take no prisoners when I am on stage,” said Penner with a laugh.
“I refer to my performance as a dialogue, a three-way dialogue between myself and the child and myself and the caregiver. And then the assumption is the caregiver and child continue that communication on the way home.”
Penner meets and greets the audience members after every show. He says lots of kids hug him and lots of adults tell him stories about cats, dogs, music careers and early childhood education.
He takes it all in and says he is always reminded of one important thing:
“Never underestimate that you can make the difference in the life of a child.”