Unplugged
Musicians reflect on life without live shows, and their top road songs.
A As the shutdown of live music — now entering its eighth week — drags on, it’s no surprise that entertainers are getting antsy.
So, we asked some locals to name the road song that they usually adopt for the touring mindset, and what they miss most about their livelihood.
Ewan Currie, the Sheepdogs Current album: “Changing
Colours,” 2018
Road song: “Ramblin’ Man,” the Allman Brothers Band
“It’s such a cliché, the ramblin’ man — ‘ I was born in the back seat of a Greyhound bus.’ I’m a big ’70s rock guy and when you get your own band and you start living the life, you realize you don’t know much else other ttthan the constant travel,” says t the Sheepdogs’ primary song- writer.
“That’s what’s so jarring about this time right now — I’m just so not used to being home, you kkknow? If you are truthful writ- ing your life, you are writing about that kind of lifestyle.”
What the rocker misses most about the road?
“The adventure,” Currie replies. “Exploring different towns; meeting different people each night, especially if you meet some random people after a show and you say, ‘ show me a cool bar’ and then you end uuup at a house party: You’d just see things in the city that you’d never see as a tourist. That’s exciting stuff.
“Right now, this is the ultimate ‘Groundhog Day’ — staying in and doing the same thing eeevery day. I can do all the re- cording in my house that I can — acoustic and stuff — but it just doesn’t really satisfy the jones that I get playing live — especially with my band.”
TTTanika Charles Current album: “The Gumption,” 2019 Road song: “A Hymn,”
Khruangbin “Khruangbin is amazing: They really helped us get through some incredibly long drives,” says the R&B singer, wwwho also mentioned music by AAAlabama Shakes and Brazilian f funk-soul band Adiemus as fa- vourites.
What Charles misses most about the road?
“I really miss connecting with people, especially my band,” says Charles, who was scheduled to perform a minimum of six European dates with her five- piece band and appear at the now-cancelled CBC Music FFFestival at Echo Beach on May 30.
“You know, spending time in a vvvan, travelling, two, three, five, eight hours sometimes — just performing and being with each other and laughing and discussing the show that we had the night before and preparing for the following one. I really miss that — even the late nights and early mornings.”
Charles says she’s not much wwworried about her skills holding uuup until live performers can ply their t trade again — but she’s not sure what that post-lockdown live experience will be like.
“Who’s going to feel comfortable and safe and want to be in n environment with more than two people?” she asks.
“When I think about it, I get a little bit overwhelmed because I’m just concerned — this is wwwhat I do for a living. How long can I maintain without performing?”
Haviah Mighty Current album: “13th Floor,” 2019
Road song: “Black,” Buddy feat. A$AP Ferg
“I’ve really been into that song — I’ve been using it for all my gggrocery store drives as of late,” says the rapper who won the 2019 Polaris Prize for “13th Floor.”
“And I remember hearing it when I was on the road touring — that was the first time I had heard it — so definitely if I was still on the road touring right now, that’d be a song that I’d be playing. It’s super bass heavy and pretty empowering as well. AAAs a Black person, just the con- tent and the candidness, the looseness and the chorus — it’s definitely a strong record.” What Mighty misses most about the road?
“The biggest thing is the live connection — and what that can do for your career as well,” says Mighty, who began her breakout year touring in the UUU.S. and was about to perform three shows at SXSW when COVID-19 hit.
“You notice the heightening of your career as you connect with people. (Now) you don’t get the direct connection or sign things or shake their hand or hug them … that connection is lost. And I never thought about a world wwwhere I wasn’t able to perform or be around people. That’s the biggest loss.
“I also wasn’t a big traveller, but over the past two years I’ve travelled an insane amount — to me — and I really do miss travelling now that we are restricted to home.
“I feel like I’ve gotten a lot of insight from travelling and a lot of information just from different environments, and I really, really miss that.”
But she’s taking advantage of social distancing to concentrate on creating.
“It’s sad that touring has halted and it’s tough on finances and the whole team aspect of your business, but (because) I had so many shows lined up, I don’t think I realistically would have had the time to make the mmo music ver the I’ve last been month,” able to make says Mighty. “I think it’s super strong. I don’t know what it wwwould have turned out like if I was on the road writing as opposed to being home for a few months. I’m refining myself.”
Luke Lalonde, Born Ruffians Current album:“Juice,” 2020
Road song: “Ding Dang,” the
Beach Boys
“Every tour, we end up with a tour song,” notes the indie-rock band’s guitarist and singer, who says the song isn’t chosen but stumbled upon. From then on it’s something “that we listen to either after every single show or at some point during the day.
“‘Ding Dang’ is one of the more bizarre, strange songs off ‘The Beach Boys Love You’: It wwwas when Brian Wilson was do- ing a lot of cocaine and confused about what was going on. They had this song — that’s maybe a minute-and-a-half or two minutes long (it’s actually 57 seconds) and that became the tour song on our last tour.”
What Lalonde misses most about the road?
“Well, in part it’s seeing friends,” notes Lalonde, whose band was in the midst of a cross-Canada tour with Matthew Good to support their new album when COVID-19 restrictions reared their ugly head.
“The guys in the band and our crew are my best friends — you just take for granted seeing them. And touring is such a hedonistic lifestyle — it’s this hhhunter-gatherer day-to-day — each day is just this little minimission of like, get from Point A to Point B; play the show — just ttthis super-simple, really beauti- ffful thing that you can do for a few f weeks at a time.
“You kind of take it for granted until you can’t do it and it’s such a nice way of life for a time.” Lalonde says the Born Ruffians were set to tour the world this year, with dates scheduled for Europe, the U.S. and locally.
“The silver lining is that you have a more captive audience, maybe, at least with your audience at home. People are looking for stuff to listen to, stuff to watch, and we’re on our phones a lot more, so I think it’s not necessarily the worst time to have new music to put out.
“I think it could be worse — like if we were in a position wwwhere we were about to go into the t studio and create new mu- sic and we couldn’t do that because of COVID.
“At least we have the record and it’s out. All you can do is write and hopefully put more mmmusic together, try to stay cre- ative a and keep things going one way or another.
“We’ll get there eventually … hopefully … fingers crossed.”