Stompin' Tom draws an eclectic crowd
Published Monday August 10th, 2009
SAINT JOHN - With a "How the hell ya doin', Saint John?" Stompin' Tom Connors, plywood stompin' board in hand, dove right into Bud the Spud at Harbour Station on Saturday night.
"I'm back in the place of my birth," he told the eclectic crowd of babes in arms and seniors with walkers, beer-swilling young men in plaid shirts, sedate middle-aged folks, yuppies, punk rockers, hippies and hipsters.
Stompin' Tom, it seems, transcends all ages, classes and stereotypes.
He is, as they say, the real deal.
No matter that the jokes were corny, coming from Stompin' Tom, they were hilariously funny. On stage, he's warm and self-deprecating, cracking one-liners about old drinking buddies, characters he's met along his long, hard road to fame, and former - and no doubt fictitious - ex-girlfriends.
"I got myself a new girlfriend. You can just imagine," cracked the 73-year-old.
"This ain't no Milli Vanilli show," he quipped at one point as he momentarily forgot the lyrics to a song.
"You're getting all the mistakes and all the warts. We'll keep 'er up and get 'er done, it might take an hour," he said.
Warning the crowd of about 2,500 that he doesn't do any Michael Jackson songs these days, he said, "You're going to have to put up with the junk you're getting."
But despite all the on-stage shenanigans, an underlying sadness sometimes came through.
He was in the middle of Reversing Falls Darling when he suddenly stopped, quickly composing himself.
"Those old songs are hard to sing," he said, as he finished the ballad about the girl he left behind in Saint John. Connors was merely 11 years old when he wrote it -11 in physical years, but he'd been through more hard times than most ever would in a life time.
Connors was born in Saint John to an unwed teenager and was poor and neglected. He was taken away from his mother by the Children's Aid Society and placed in an orphanage until, at the age of nine, he was adopted by a family from Skinner's Pond, P.E.I.
In 1964, at age 28, after hitching his way back and forth across the country, he got a job at the Maple Leaf Hotel in Timmins, Ont. He was a little short of cash one night and found himself singing at the hotel's bar to make up the difference.
He stayed on as a performer at that hotel for 14 months. That was the beginning of a Canadian legend.
"There's only one question," said teenager Amy Cavan, who was at Saturday night's show.
"Who doesn't like Stompin' Tom? People that suck," she said, quickly answering her own question.
"Whoever doesn't love Stompin' Tom aren't worthy," added her friend Cheyenne Marsh. "He's from Saint John and we should be very proud of him. He represents the Maritimes."
The two young women stood out in the crowd at Harbour Station. Marsh wore a leather vest with a Hank Williams T-shirt sewn onto the back and Cavan sported Johnny Cash.
They're hip, smart and really into music.
Marsh, 19, became a country fan via her parents and started collecting vinyl.
"I listen to a lot of old records by myself. I have five or six of Stompin' Tom's vinyl and a whole bunch of his tapes.
"They said he was coming here, so I almost died."
As eclectic in her musical tastes as anyone can be, Cavan is soon on her way to see Marilyn Manson in Moncton. "I have him tattooed on my arm," she said.
She and Marsh are also into Iron Maiden, Hank Williams III and Dick Nolan, a singer/songwriter from Newfoundland.
Rob MacPherson of Fredericton is also of that ilk.
He arrived at the concert wearing an AC/DC T-shirt from the Moncton concert just two days before. He had tried to get tickets for Stompin' Tom's Fredericton show, but it was sold out.
"I just love live music," MacPherson said.
"Tom tells a great story. He's funny and he's good for people of all ages," the 27-year-old said.
Jason MacLean was introduced by Connors, who thanked him for suggesting that the city adopt every second Saturday in August as Stompin' Tom Connors Day in Saint John.
"Jason is officially the No. 1 Stompin' Tom fan," Connors told him.
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