THE BEAT GOES ON
From music to the morgue and back again, life’s twists and turns have been challenging and rewarding
Born in Toronto in March of 1955, my life nearly ended before it had much of a chance to begin. At age eight, an emergency exploratory operation at Doctors Hospital uncovered a twisted small bowel blockage, which was successfully repaired and I was given a new lease on life. I did not realize at that time that this brush with death would play such a significant role later in my life.
My interest in music was influenced by the country songs enjoyed by my parents and performed by other relatives in my extended family, but it wasn’t the singer and guitar player’s spotlight I sought: I wanted to be a drummer. For Christmas when I was 14, I was presented with my first set of drums. Living in an apartment made practicing difficult, but I practiced where and when I could.
After high school and a three-year stint in the Canadian Armed Forces, I got married (the first of my three times) and returned to Toronto where I began playing at local bars and clubs while dreaming of moving up the ladder to play at bigger and better venues, and maybe someday make a living with my craft.
The wheels turn slowly but I was amazed at the family of musicians I’d meet
and explore with over the years and how many of those friendships would last a lifetime. To this day, I still bump into players I have not seen in over 40 years and we reminisce and recall like it was yesterday.
I did get to the point of making a living in the biz travelling all over the country. I was on the road playing every night, off the road in the studio, on TV, practicing, learning, sharing, arguing, all in the interest of making good music, until one day fate intervened with more health concerns—and more surgery.
Playing for so many talented performers on stage, in studios, on TV and on recordings had been my livelihood for the better part of the last 15 years. I couldn’t help but wonder what was next? How could I make a living and still keep music as my focus? The answer was staring me in the face. Radio!
I enrolled in a two-year broadcasting course at Humber College and after graduating, I began my radio career at CKNR in Elliot Lake, Ont. After a couple of years I accepted an offer from CJCD in Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories, as their music director. I remained in Yellowknife for most of the next 25 years, but after the first ten, my professional life took a change and, to some, a morbid twist.
INTO THE MACABRE
Throughout my broadcasting career, I still played music and even broadened my scope. I played in country bands when I could but also played in blues bands, even played jazz now and then, but my new career path made it difficult to commit to play dates because I was now on call 24/7.
The story of how and why I chose my new direction in life is long and involved and would take up more space than this entire article. Suffice to say the new path was enticing to me, given my brush with death in early childhood, too tempting to refuse. I studied and became a member of the NWT Coroner Service.
While working in my new chosen field, I attended St. Louis University School of Medicine in the only coroner-related accredita
tion program available in North America at the time. After graduating four years later, I became one of a handful of Canadians to be a Certified Medicolegal Death Investigator, the technical name for a coroner.
Since playing music regularly had become more difficult given my new profession, my creative focus shifted to writing songs and learning the technical applications of recording.
I had always dabbled in recording, establishing PAK Productions back in the late 1970s, which I used to spearhead recording sessions for friends and bandmates. Now it was my turn. However, my free time to spend on music was about to take another hit. In 1998, after five years as a field coroner, I was appointed Chief Coroner of the NWT, which would occupy even more of my free time. On top of all my current functions, I was inundated by an increasing flow of associated duties and new responsibilities: recruiting, training, administration, program development, disaster planning, and so on.
Challenging and rewarding, all of it—i spent the next ten years concentrated on that job.
Throughout all of it, there was my music. Less playing, more writing. In fact, the writing had become almost an obsession but writing songs simply was not enough. I already had 30, 40, 50 songs written, with more half-done and others waiting to be developed. I needed an outlet, I needed a new challenge, I needed...to write a book!
FULL CIRCLE
The novel proved to be a refreshing creative outlet, time well spent away from my daily workload. Called Sin & Penitence, it’s a fictional story about a police officer who, after leaving the police force, ultimately becomes a coroner and several years later, one of his old police cases comes back to haunt him. It took a while, but the book was finally published and made available in both paperback and ebook.
After 15 years with the Coroner Service, the seams were beginning to show. I always knew the job would have a shelf life. You can only stare death in the face for so long before it can take its toll on the living. The time to go had arrived.
So, in 2007, I left Yellowknife and returned to Toronto. I suddenly realized I had plenty of time to work on my music and start playing again. After 25 years, the players and the business changed, but I have been able to squeeze my way in and play my music and sing my songs at dozens of jamborees, venues and showcases. Although the COVID-19 crisis has put a damper on live music for a while, online platforms and venues offer other different opportunities for musicians and audiences alike. I am proud to say for the second year in a row, I have been nominated for a music award by the online show “The Breezeway,” as Entertainer of the Year.
The circle is complete. I wouldn’t change a thing. n