{"id":2394,"date":"2011-09-29T20:13:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-30T02:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=2394"},"modified":"2011-09-29T20:13:00","modified_gmt":"2011-09-30T02:13:00","slug":"hillbilly-highway-fred-rides-6-volts-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2011\/09\/29\/hillbilly-highway-fred-rides-6-volts-hard\/","title":{"rendered":"Hillbilly Highway \u2013 Fred rides 6 Volts hard"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been listening to Fred Eaglesmith\u2019s latest, 6 Volts<\/em>, since it dropped into my mailbox a couple weeks back. The songs on 6 Volts<\/em> are classic Fred, tunes of murder, love lost, guns and the Road. Recorded with one mic straight to tape, the disc has the mono immediacy of old Sun records, a sound even John Mellencamp <\/a>has toying with of late.<\/p>\n

Fred\u2019s a road dog, traveling thousands of klicks a year, playing hundreds of shows in an endless cycle that takes him into every backwater, big town and metropolis in North America, and beyond. Three tunes in particular, maybe four, off 6 Volts<\/em> really hone in on the reality of an aging troubadour who can\u2019t quit grinding it out.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetty Oshawa\u201d tells the tale of a musical partnership that fell apart, eponymous Betty making it big while the narrator bags groceries in his hometown. \u201cJohnny Cash\u201d<\/a> takes issue with Johnny-come-lately-Johnny-fans, taking the fickle listener to task for not supporting an artist while they\u2019re alive. \u201cTrucker Speed\u201d<\/a> ain\u2019t necessarily about a traveling singer, but it very well could be.<\/p>\n

\u201cStars\u201d<\/a> hits home hardest. Fred talks straight up about gigging non-stop, playing small towns like you\u2019re the biggest star. Long after the lights have gone down, the protagonist sings \u201cMy hands hurt from playing my guitar \/ All those nights in all those bars \/ We played like we were stars.\u201d Fred mentions long time bandmate Willie P. Bennett<\/a>, and laments how easy it is to think the good times will never end. Playing in a band, it’s easy to feel this way.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen Fred play a couple times now, and I\u2019ve missed him even more by bad timing and my own traveling. I met him once, out behind the Park Theatre<\/a> a couple years back. Me and my buddy Woodtick<\/a> were slamming the last of our beers before heading in to catch the opening act, the Ginn Sisters<\/a>. As we were rounding the corner, there\u2019s a van with Ontario plates sitting there with the door wide open on the side. Out rolls Fred, putting his socks on.<\/p>\n

We stopped, and I made straight for Fred, extending my hand. We chatted him up, gave him one of our CDs to \u201clisten to if you get sick of the radio.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou in a band?\u201d he asked us. We nodded. Yessir. We put out our CD ourselves, we humble bragged. \u201cThat\u2019s the only way to do it, boys,\u201d he said. He looked at the CD briefly, set it aside, and finished pulling his socks on. Then he looked up at us.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever quit, boys,\u201d he told us, looking us both in the eye. \u201cNever quit.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the songs on 6 Volts,<\/em> you know Fred really means it. He ain\u2019t quitting anytime soon. Thank something for that.<\/p>\n

– Sheldon Birnie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been listening to Fred Eaglesmith\u2019s latest, 6 Volts, since it dropped into my mailbox a couple weeks back. The songs on 6 Volts are classic Fred, tunes of murder, love lost, guns and the Road. Recorded with one mic straight to tape, the disc has the mono immediacy of old Sun records, a sound […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[214,370,432],"class_list":["post-2394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","tag-country-music","tag-fred-eaglesmith","tag-hillbilly-highway"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}