Still doing the write thing
Singer who emerged during folk boom can’t help returning to tunes
Murray McLauchlan
Oct. 25, 7:30 p.m. |
Centennial Theatre, North Vancouver
Tickets: $45 at centennialtheatre.com or 604-984-4484
Murray McLauchlan is a man of many pursuits. But nothing brings the Toronto resident the same sense of satisfaction as writing a good song.
“I have a science brain and a music brain and a painting brain. I have a really, really wide variety of interests,” McLauchlan said from Cowichan earlier this week.
“But music is the one thing I keep coming back to. I don’t think I get a better feeling than when I write a song and I think I got it right.”
McLauchlan, 67, has nailed more than a few songs (Whispering Rain, Down By the Henry Moore, Farmer’s Song, On the Boulevard) during the course of his decorated 50-year career.
He became known in Canada during the folk boom of the late 1960s and early ’70s, when Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen and Neil Young put Canada on the map.
McLauchlan never reached the star status of the aforementioned artists, but that was partly by his own design.
He certainly had his share of golden opportunities — living in Greenwich Village in 1969 under the tutelage of Bob Dylan’s manager, Albert Grossman, being one of many — but never seemed to capitalize on them.
That wasn’t by accident, either. “I don’t think I ever really made a conscious decision,” he said. “But on some really subliminal level, it just worked out that way.”
McLauchlan has no regrets about missing the mark south of the border.
Not only did some of his heroes, from Kris Kristofferson to Tom Rush and Waylon Jennings, cover his material, he was successful at a time when money could be made as a songwriter in Canada.
“I got lucky enough to keep me going. And I got successful enough to afford me a really good career. But I never got successful enough that I wound up dead. If you’re 24 or 25 years old, and things happen fast, it’s very dangerous. You’re not ready for it.”
McLauchlan feels that Canada has produced a tremendous number of singer- songwriters over the years, “really good ones,” in fact.
The government as a whole, however, often fails to recognize such accomplishments, McLauchlan argues.
On one hand, Canada has been good to him, as evidenced by his 11 Juno Awards wins from 24 career nominations.
But he still has doubts about making his living through art in this country, with little in the way of infrastructure uniting the arts communities from province to province.
His frustration resulted in a temporary hiatus a few years ago, but only where his solo career was concerned.
He still plays occasional dates with Lunch At Allen’s, his supergroup with Marc Jordan, Cindy Church and Ian Thomas.