KUDOS TO A SHOW OF HEARTS

A woman called the other day, scolding this scribe for "killing trees" to cover the inaugural Rockin' River Music Fest.
Seems this crusty gal is not a fan of "stupid country music” and wanted me, editor and author, to smarten up ASAP.
She snapped, before returning to Jerry Springer's latest educational program: "How do you guys make your decisions to cover stuff anyway?"
Fair question, really.
Once upon a time when newsrooms had bodies, we used to play Spin the Bottle, darts or cards to determine newsworthy events. Now, we either go where there's swag, free food or where the boss's pals are staging functions.
Being editor and making those life-or-EI decisions can be painstaking. People scream, threaten your life or promise to torture and humiliate you. And that's just the staff. Readers can be less forgiving.
Editors used to meet for brewskis and group hugs. It's tougher to do these days because most of the retired ones are in padded cells with arms locked in the cover-thy-butt position, muttering such silly things as HST, Olympic shortfalls, gas taxes, health-care cuts and on time, on budget. Poor souls.
As you read this, I'm in the early stages of a stay-cation. I'm exploring where I'd eventually like to build that padded cell. Several staffers even volunteered to help (wink, wink). But I digress.
While some went to Music Fest last week to listen, to drink, to try out cowboy pick-up lines – "Got eight seconds?” – or to avoid weekend chores, this scribe went out of respect for the artists who do much more than play weekend music in dim-lit honky-tonks.
Take Ken McCoy of Mission. Dude plays some awesome, dirt kickin' music. His songs Georgia on a Fast Train, Praying for Rain and Mexican Jail are solid gold. Larry Delaney, the editor of Country Music News, writes: "How this man's music remains ‘undiscovered’ at a national level remains one of Canadian country music's unanswered questions."
More pure than McCoy’s music, however, is his heart.
When his band played the 2007 West of the Rockies Rodeo in Prince George, McCoy met grief-stricken father Ron McCully, whose 25-year-old son Cpl. Matthew McCully was the 55th Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan.
Ron couldn't sleep at night and, while never questioning the cause, struggled with the loss. He set up the Matthew McCully Foundation to keep his brave son's name alive and organized groups to send upbeat messages to soldiers unselfishly fighting for our freedoms.
McCoy returned home, hit the studio and wrote Right to be Free, which he performed at Mission Raceway Park to a standing ovation. He has donated proceeds of that passionate song to McCully and has since received letters from all corners of the world for his paying it forward spirit.
Rick Tippe of Maple Ridge, limited to just six songs at Music Fest, is celebrating his 30th wedding anniversary on Monday. His love for wife Bonnie is understandable, given his loyalty to making a difference in this challenging world.
In early 2000, Tippe was asked to write a song for cancer survivor Norma Curzon. The result was Keepin' the Faith, a terrific song of encouragement to fight the good fight one day at a time. Proceeds of the hit have gone to the Canadian Cancer Society as it tries to find a cure for a nasty disease.
So, to the gal who suggested my judgment is whacked, tell Ron McCully or Norma Curzon, or other soldiers and cancer survivors, that I'm wasting time covering a "stupid country music" show.
I can live with that "mistake."

YIPPEE-I-AY-TUNES FROM MUSIC FEST

CAPTION: Rick Tippe only played six songs at Music Fest, and that's the bad news! The good news is all six were worthy of adding to the must-have collection. He also opened the Golden Ears Bridge last month with a concert that locals are still buzzing about. Class-act dude, with or without the cowboy hat!

Following is Gord Kurenoff's abbreviated list of must-have songs from artists at Rockin' River Music Fest:

SATURDAY
Dashboard Days (Nikki Werner)
Girl's Night In (Nikki Werner)
How Can You Love Someone (Nikki Werner)
That's What Love Is (Damian Marshall)
Why Don't We (Damian Marshall)
Hearts On The Run (Karen-Lee Batten)
Like I Would For You (Karen-Lee Batten)
One Day (Karen-Lee Batten)
I Can Love Anyone (One More Girl)
Misery Loves Company (One More Girl)
Just Walk On By (Kenny Hess)
Throwing Whiskey on the Flames (Kenny Hess)
Fat Bottomed Girls (Julian Austin)
The Red & White (Julian Austin)
She Knows About Cryin' (Julian Austin)
Heaven In Your Eyes (Loverboy)
Almost Paradise (Loverboy)

SUNDAY
Tomboy Girl (Ginette Genereux)
What You Are To Me (Ginette Genereux)
Right to be Free (Ken McCoy)
Mexican Jail (Ken McCoy)
Praying For Rain (Ken McCoy)
I Told You So (Kenny and Kate)
Somebody's Leavin' (Patricia Conroy)
Talking to Myself (Patricia Conroy)
You Can't Resist It (Patricia Conroy)
Everything You Do (Patricia Conroy)
Forever (Rick Tippe)
Radio On (Rick Tippe)
Keepin' the Faith (Rick Tippe)
Get Hot or Go Home (Rick Tippe)
Lost in the Fifties Tonight (Ronnie Milsap)
Smoky Mountain Rain (Ronnie Milsap)
What A Difference You Made In My Life (Ronnie Milsap)
Pure Love (Ronnie Milsap)

FANS TUNE OUT FEST IN THE WEST

CAPTION: Ronnie Milsap – what a difference he made to Music Fest's life. At 66 the Grammy-award winning star put on a music revival and capped off a weekend that I really enjoyed – beats mowing the lawn and other "senseless" house work!

Before we reflect on the spectacular Sunday night revival by Ronnie Milsap, the touching tribute to our troops by Ken McCoy, the inspirational lyrics for cancer survivors by Rick Tippe, the tear-jerker duet by Kenny Hess and daughter Kate, or the cache of catchy country tunes about love, lust, breakups and hookups, we need to discuss The Brent Lee Band.
Despite intermittent performances in the Canadian Tire Beer Garden on Sunday – just a few pickup trucks north of the main stage where the “big bands” were allowed to play – the Vancouver-based entertainers had drinkers and onlookers hooting and laughing out loud.
And, thanks to a superb sound system that carried extremely well at Mission Raceway Park, some blushing mothers were forced to cover their kids’ ears as the beer garden party boys sang about sex, women, camels, hooters, butts, lust, Surrey girls and . . . well, you get the drift.
Two giggling 12-year-old boys, leaving Rockin’ River Music Fest Sunday night, were singing Lee’s “get your tongue out of my mouth, I’m kissing you goodbye,” and snickering about the mischievous ditty “big, big teets,” which Lee served up four hours earlier. Ah yes, lasting impressions!
Speaking of which, for a first attempt, organizers of Music Fest did a great job lining up efficient volunteers, award-winning talent, sponsors and vendors.
Unfortunately, not too many people gave up their rain-free summer weekend to enjoy the two-day party. An encore performance will undoubtedly require deep faith, deeper pockets and, without question, enhanced advertising/promotion to get the word out to the majority who stayed away for whatever reason.
There were some glitches that can easily be fixed. There were some acts that can be rebooked for longer shows and some, perhaps, chalked up as ineffective and replaced by bigger, crowd-drawing names.
Toby Keith was mentioned, for example, as the ideal magnet to pull in fans for 2010.
Dixie Chicks, Doc Walker, Rascal Flatts, Big & Rich, Keith Urban, Emerson Drive or Sugarland would work, too!
The few people who paid to see an all-star cast of B.C. country artists, some out-of-province stars, Loverboy and Milsap, didn’t go home disappointed. There just weren’t enough there to make it feel like a can’t-miss party, save for those who indulged in the brewskis with Brent Lee, Live Rust and Bud Webb!
I was at the first Hedley Blast, then followed that dog-and-pony show to Merritt. It was always packed and boasted top names. There was no recession back then and country-rock acts meant big crowds. Eventually, the party got too big, too pricey, too risky, with too many drugs, thugs and bugs.
Merritt Mountain Music Festival decided to “reinvent” itself two years ago to include families and fewer knuckleheads and took a financial bath, despite bringing in Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Kenny Chesney and Johnny Reid. It may have had its last call last month. Go figure.
Music Fest decided to include entire families, keep it fun, keep it clean and, for this year at least, keep it mostly country, recruiting acts you can find most weekends at Gabby’s, Boone County and Rooster’s – or local casinos.
I was surprised, for example, the Canadian Idol faithful didn’t turn out on Saturday to see a much-improved and vocally gifted Karen-Lee Batten perform. I was somewhat surprised that the Lower Mainland-based bands, all with websites and legions of loyal followers, didn’t steer more fans toward Mission.
I wasn’t surprised Loverboy didn’t fill the grounds, and I was disappointed more people couldn’t have witnessed and enjoyed Milsap’s inspiring gig. Pure Love doesn’t even come close to describing the best act of the weekend.
At 66 years of age, the Grammy-award winning Nashville icon put on a brilliant performance that rivals anything we’ve seen in these parts for a long time. I could have easily watched another hour of that masterpiece. If every concert has a “moment,” that was it, even if the kids are still humming Brent Lee songs around the house today!
So, do organizers need more stars, more variety, more hype to make this thing grow? Do they need to change the dates, spend more money or just be patient and stick to the Field of Dreams mantra – a.k.a. “Build it and they will come”?
Tickets were fairly priced, vendors sold everything at flea market, bargain prices and the good folks from Mission’s Tim Hortons gave out free coffee at the park. The sweet hostess had me at “hello, help yourself!”
The majority of performers, many just arriving home from performing for our troops, were not only great musicians, they were quality people. One of them, Ginette Genereux of Langley, went to the Persian Gulf last year to sing for the troops. The model-like musician then went to Afghanistan this spring to do the same and has been nominated for B.C. Country Music’s Humanitarian of the Year Award.
She wrote the emotional song What You Are To Me a few weeks ago and on Sunday afternoon sang it for the first time to fiancé Trevor Biro, who was sitting near the front with a lump in his throat. They will marry on Nov. 7.
One of her lesser-known songs, and perhaps the optimistic theme of Music Fest, was On The Verge of Something Better.
As Rick Tippe said: “This sure beats driving up the Coke [Coquihalla] every summer.”
As Patricia Conroy stated: “I love the look of this. Bring your friends and your friends’ friends next year.”
And as Brent Lee said . . . uh . . . um . . . uh . . . nevermind!
See you next year – hopefully!

HANDING OUT 'GORDOS' TO THE DESERVING

CAPTION: Ken McCoy, who sang about our troops, our country, our firefighters and our national pride, proved paying it forward is what makes the man and his band. If he's playing in your city, go see him. Class-act dude, great music!


BY GORD KURENOFF
Managing Editor
Abbotsford-Mission Times

If you checked out the spiffy websites of the independent artists who performed in last weekend’s Rockin’ River Music Fest, you may have noticed the abundance of awards.
Everyone who hummed a note at Mission Raceway Park last Saturday and Sunday had been either nominated or decorated with a musical honour of some kind. Some, in fact, had more awards than hits, which is kind of interesting!
So, with that same Honour Thy Artist generosity on this critic’s mind, we offer the first annual Music Fest Gordos.
Please hold your applause to the end and remember that you’re all winners (wink, wink!).
The envelopes please:

THAT'S JUST GOOFY AWARD
Nikki Werner of Mission, who gained a new fan (me) for her powerful singing and terrific tunes Dashboard Days and How Can You Love Someone, was going to drive her three- and six-year-olds to Disneyland after Saturday’s gig. (In a Minnie-van?) Bet mom’s going to suffer some Disney spells after seeing more than enough Tigger and Pooh in Anaheim, Calif.

D’OH! WE ARE ALL CANUCKS AWARD
Cloverdale crooner Damian Marshall may be “the next one” according to music critics who rate B.C.’s rising stars. While he earned applause for his songs and stares from the ladies for his poster-boy looks, he earned some boos after he announced he was originally from “Edmonton Oilers land.”

SEND HIM SHOPPING MORE AWARD
Mission country whiz Kenny Hess – one of the event co-organizers – performed three songs that he wrote after “trips to the local grocery store.”
All the tunes, including one about Angelina Jolie and the other about a homeless person asking for change, received standing ovations.

REALITY OF THIS GIG AWARD
Julian Austin, who made a name for himself in 1997 with the huge hit Little Ol’ Kisses, and who currently has a monster hit The Red & White – which he didn’t play for some reason – said this about his up-and-down career: “It ain’t a 9-to-5 living, but it keeps the bills paid!”

YOU REALLY ROCK MAN – IN COUNTRY AND OUT OF COUNTRY AWARD
Ken McCoy of Mission, who gained another huge fan (me) for his brilliant set on Sunday, made people cry, beam with pride and stand on their feet clapping after his touching tribute to our troops and fallen soldiers (Right to be Free) and brave firefighters (Pray for Rain) and Canadians (Great White North).
His cover of Copperhead Road would have made Steve Earle roll out the welcome mat to Guitar Town.

PASS THE HANKY AWARD
Kenny Hess sang Randy Travis’s I Told You So with daughter Kate. Not a dry eye in the crowd, or on stage! That first-ever duet tugged the heartstrings. Would have made Brent Lee cry, too!

ALWAYS THINK POSITIVE AWARD
Patricia Conroy, who sounds and looks better than ever, quipped: “You are a small, but mighty crowd.”

BLAST FROM THE PAST AWARD
Best “glory days” line in the show goes to Conroy: “For those over 40 who remember me when I had long, black hair and my bandmates had mullets, please keep those memories between us!”

MAKING THE BEST OF AN UNFORTUNATE SITUATION AWARD
Rick Tippe of Maple Ridge, with one of the hottest power ballads in the country right now (Forever), found out at the last minute his highly anticipated 50-minute set was trimmed to 28 due to Sunday’s schedule running late.
“Forgive me for talking and singing fast, I got a lot to squeeze in,” said Tippe.

POWER OF ONE AWARD
A woman who barely survived a nasty battle with lupus, turned around after Tippe sang Keepin’ the Faith and said to people behind her that his song really stuck in her heart. Wiping away a few tears she said: “And that’s tough to do considering I still have a small hole in it!”

LOVE THE ACCENT AWARD, EH!
Ronnie Milsap, who showed at age 66 there is no such thing as mailing it in while he’s on stage, asked folks what they thought about his new Canadian accent: “We’re having a good time, eh?”

GOOSE IS LOOSE ON THE EXPRESS

Robert Blais, Kal (Maverick) Sidhu and Gerry Visser took me for a neat ride to Victoria and back on Tuesday aboard Island Express Air. Fun time and fast.


Adele and Dave Nicholson figured a visit to Vancouver Island and Victoria’s Royal BC Museum would be a novel way to spend a Tuesday. Eighteen minutes after sharing that info at Abbotsford International Airport, the mom-and-son tourist team was doing exactly that, minus all the usual ferry hassles.
Little did they know their initial experience aboard Island Express Air would include a face-to-face chat with affable co-owner, Gerry Visser, and comical commentary from nervous wingmen “Goose” and “Maverick.”
Allow me to explain a bit.
Sales rep Kal Sidhu, one of the punctual coffee guzzlers in our newspaper’s hardest working department (wink, wink), popped his head into my office on Monday asking if I’d like to go for a “plane ride.”
Considering your scribe had spent the past 48 hours in a butt-numbing chair listening to country musicians croon about cheating hearts and runaway dogs at Rockin’ River Music Fest in Mission, sitting some more in tight quarters initially sounded as fun as taking an extended vacation with your Star Trek-obsessed in-laws.
However, Sidhu sold me on the idea of getting out of the stuffy office and meeting some passionate folks who plan to change the way we travel in and out of this city.
Twenty minutes later I receive a short text message, sent from a coffee shop where Sidhu was working harder than ever: “See you at 6:30 a.m. Ice Man.”
We had a problem. First of all, pal Kal had neglected to mention the rooster-ish departure time. And how does a guy who’s afraid to fly get to be Ice Man? So, we decided on Top Gun nicknames the way “real men” make decisions in this day and age – we played Rock, Scissors, Paper.
Visser, who will celebrate the big 5-0 in February with the birth of another child, is stoked on this morning as he loads the Nicholsons on his newer style twin-engine Piper Navajo that seats six passengers and two pilots. He explains this plane is equipped with the “very latest in GPS” navigation, including live satellite XM weather downloads. His firm is also one of the
first smaller carriers to invest in this new Avionics Technology.
The trip to Victoria takes 18 minutes. From 2,000 feet on a clear morning you can see Bellingham, White Rock, Vancouver, Birch Bay and all the BMWs on the toll-free Sea-to-Sky Highway. You can see fishing boats, whales and slow-moving ferries, all while soaring 320 kilometres per hour with nary a roadblock.
“It’s the greatest thing to come to work and see this view every single day. The novelty never wears off,” says Visser, who has been flying commercially since 1996.
Best known as the long-time owner of Gerry’s Automotive in Matsqui Village, Visser is betting his airline will literally take off in the months ahead. He sees the main clientele as being the “laptop crowd,” who understand that a $165 roundtrip from Abbotsford to Victoria is money well spent and time well saved.
Island Express Air also flies to Nanaimo and Pitt Meadows – and other places by request. Next year, Visser hopes to add a “milk run” from Abbotsford to Kelowna, Kamloops, Williams Lake, Quesnel and Prince George. But he and business partner Robert Blais, a chief pilot in the front seat on this flight, are being careful to not overextend budgets.
They offer charter service and hope to make golfing or skiing getaways a lot more attractive out of Abbotsford. For now, people can place a flight request online – www.islandexpressair.com – and someone will call them back within two hours to confirm the arrangements.
The Nicholsons, by the way, were back home in time for dinner. Goose wrote this column over lunch and Maverick went home after that 39-minute exercise, no doubt exhausted after another long, hard day at work!

TIPPE A FAN FAVE FOREVER

Rick Tippe marks his 30th wedding anniversary later this month admitting, with an impish grin, that he hasn’t exactly stuck to his end of the deal for the past 15 years.
That blunt confession, from one of Maple Ridge’s favourite sons, is literally music to my ears –and others calling themselves connoisseurs of exceptional country-rock.
You see, the proudly independent King of Honky Tonks and Cool, promised wife Bonnie – before all the adoring fans, hits, the standing ovations, overseas concerts and heart-breaking thank-yous – that he would write songs, but never play in a band.
Well, as he sings, “yesterday is history and tomorrow is a mystery” – but his next few days are hectic as he prepares to perform at the two-day Rockin’ River Music Fest.
Tippe admits to being “extra excited” as his band tunes up for Sunday’s 6:45 p.m. gig, just before the legendary Ronnie Milsap closes the Mission Raceway Park show.
“I was a millworker, in construction for 12 years and a realtor for another two and now I get to play on the same stage as Ronnie? Man, somebody pinch me,” says Tippe, while juggling phone calls on Tuesday from his home north of the new Golden Ears Bridge.
The fact Tippe is even around these parts performing is amazing – and we’re not just talking about his close call with disaster last year when he fell off a stage and landed on his head while playing at Abbotsford Agrifair.
“I love B.C. I’m from here. You couldn’t get me to move,” says the son of Canadian and B.C. country music hall of famer, Elmer. “This is the best place on Earth for sure.”
Tippe started playing guitar at age eight, wrote his first song three years later and was earning royalty cheques by his 16th birthday.
In the early-’90s, insisting to Bonnie he was just “dabbling,” he and guitar player Chris Rolin put together a small demo tape for Nashville. They hit it big.
Their first two albums, Should’a Seen Her Comin’ and Get Hot or Go Home, spawned an impressive 12 Top 40 singles. The hits, despite being an independent artist without the huge marketing dollars, never stopped until 2006 when Elmer had a stroke and Rick called time out to look after his “biggest musical influence.”
His latest album, 2008’s The Power of One, contains the monster hit Forever, which has become a wedding anthem across the country. He’ll undoubtedly play this money-making gem Sunday, along with his other treasures Get Hot or Go Home, The Craziest Thing, Shiver ‘n’ Shake, Radio On and The Future Is Looking Brighter.
Another emotional song that has generated touching notes is Keepin’ The Faith, written for cancer survivors and cancer fighters, with proceeds from CD sales going to help find a cure.
Tippe pauses, and almost tears up, when recalling the heartfelt letters – many without happy endings, but with moving praise for his inspirational lyrics, including the poignant “Today is a gift, that’s why it’s called the present.”
He reveals his performing days are now numbered, citing his 51st birthday in December and a new passion – his online project Ricky’s Music World, where he can use his experience to help aspiring musicians pursue dreams.
“I’m working on this one with Bonnie,” he says smiling. “We really want to see somebody from around here reach that superstardom level of a Shania [Twain] or a Paul [Brandt].”
If, in fact, he pulls the plug on his must-see, high-energy act, it will be a huge loss for concertgoers who enjoy getting their money’s worth from a classy showman with turbo twang.
“If I die tomorrow, no regrets,” Tippe says. “Can you name another job where people clap for you every 3½ minutes, shout out your name and send notes saying your songs made a difference in their lives?”
The Power of One, indeed.

* Check out Rick's great website, and music samples, at www.ricktippe.com

MR. YXX STILL FLYING UP FRONT!

Fifteen years ago, while scoping out the exhaust-emitting parking lot that was South Fraser Way from the mayor’s highrise office in Matsqui, Dave Kandal responded to this scribe’s inquiry about gridlock with a question.
“When you moved here, you added to this problem, right?”
There was an awkward silence as I waited for Mayor Kandal to continue. He didn’t. Uh-oh!
A week earlier your jokester scribe had apparently committed the Mother of all Mischievous Miscues by opining – tongue-in-cheek, of course – that “Matsqui” seemed more like the sound a bug would make when squishing into your windshield, than a recognizable name for an amalgamated community.
It seems Mayor Kandal didn’t fully appreciate the timing of said joke, perhaps because he was positioning himself for a serious run against popular District of Abbotsford leader George Ferguson. His baby, “Matsqui,” was among the options for a name of the soon-to-be-blended districts that attracted worldwide attention for its awesome “Abbotsford” air show.
I jested his lame gridlock retort “wouldn’t fly” with voters after an interesting discussion about his 33 years as a commercial pilot and auxiliary member of Air Force 442 Fighter Squadron. Not sure if his office door had an extra strong spring, but yours truly just missed being hit by it on the way out while thinking that this man of vision, heralded by many as natural born leader, was in the early stages of developing TransLink-itis.
OK, so maybe I was a tad off. Seems the community named an elementary school after him in 1997, he was elected this year to the local Sports Hall of Fame, and today he will watch the air show in his capacity as chair of Abbotsford International Airport Authority – a.k.a. Mr. YXX!
Not bad for a 79-year-old who is one of the brightest and most decent minds to ever wear the civic Chain of Command.
Those quality parks, recreation facilities and civic buildings in “west Abbotsford” have Kandal’s DNA all over them and continue to be the source of much pride.
Retired “alderman” Jack Robertson, who headed the unparalleled 1995 Western Canada Summer Games in Abbotsford, said this about Kandal yesterday: “Dave’s mind is always going a mile a minute on his next project . . . he is a decision-maker, he has uncanny vision, he can be very persuasive. He has a high degree of integrity and he just gets things done. Anyone will work their butt off for a guy like that.”
Kandal is also used to critics, whiners and columnists who usually know more than the experts (wink, wink), which should serve him well in the lofty goal to make YXX the “best regional airport in the entire country,” serving Hope to Surrey.
While the facility has been dubbed Abbotsford’s crown jewel by many, some have voiced displeasure about noise and the lack of bus service. Kandal insists both issues are being dealt with, slowly, but points out the quietest airplanes in this weekend’s air show will be those bearing WestJet logos.
“Technology has come a long way in a very short time . . . and we’re really trying to be very good neighbours at the airport.”
He’s unsure how long he’ll stay on as chair as wife Ruby may eventually want him to stay home and relax, but so far that scenario goes against his “if you stand still you’re dead” mantra.
He’s already thinking about new budgets, lobbying government, increased business at YXX during the 2010 Olympics, runway and apron expansion, and visiting students at Dave Kandal Elementary, who every year ask him how much money he makes, what it’s like to fly and what it was like to be mayor.
And he happily answers all of them – especially from those little darlings who avoid pesky gridlock questions and oh-so feeble Matsqui jokes. Go figure!