Heart Swells

Design by Janine Stoll, Photo by Pat Buckna. Click to listen.

In summer of 2009, I attended a four-day songwrit­ing workshop in Wells, BC offered by the Island Mountain Arts Society, the same folks who host the annual Artswells Festi­val each summer. An old friend Ken Hamm, who performed on my first album, Roll Me a Dream… was also deliv­er­ing a guitar workshop and this was a great time for us to catch up. Wells is the nearest commu­nity to Barkerville, home of the Cariboo gold-rush and close to the world-famous Bowron Lakes canoe route.

My first visit to Wells was in 1980 when I was living on road and travel­ing through­out western Canada perform­ing. I performed at the Jack of Clubs Hotel in the pub and met a number of inter­est­ing folks includ­ing an old miner named Lucky Swede. The Jack of Clubs burned down in a spectac­u­lar fire several years ago.

In the thirty years since, Wells has blossomed into an alter­na­tive commu­nity of artists and musicians. Many of the old build­ings have been restored and painted in bright colours. Several artisans display their works through­out the town in a number of galleries, includ­ing one that was once an old church.

The workshop was hosted by David Francey and Craig Werth, a great tunesmith and guitarist who often accom­pa­nies him and held in the local school. A wonder­ful group of songwrit­ers met each day to showcase their songs, and under David and Craig’s direc­tion, paired off to collab­o­rate on new mater­ial. Each person work with two others and several great new compo­si­tions resulted. I worked with Scott Cook from Edmon­ton, and also with Carl Johnson — a non-musician from Quesnel who had never attempted to write a song or lyrics before. The song Carl and I wrote, called Just One Note was one of the pieces one this compilation.

Cameron Catalano recorded most of the sessions and, with everyone’s approval, worked on re-recording and collect­ing the pieces for Hearts Swells. He released the CD in 2010 on his own Gladg­nome record label and is now avail­able for purchase or digital download from iTunes.

The record­ing is special to all of us, in part, because two of the partic­i­pants Tempest Gale and Mike Webb have both since passed away and some of their songs are on the album. A portion of the proceeds from the sales go to the Artswells festi­val in appre­ci­a­tion for their efforts to bring great music to everyone.