Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: I'm Aaron Nathans.
[00:00:07] Speaker C: And I'm Michael G. Ronstadt.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: And this is Nathan.
[00:00:14] Speaker C: It does. It doesn't work from long distance, Aaron. It doesn't work.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Oh, I feel like we're in the same room together.
[00:00:20] Speaker C: I know, but we're. At least we see our. Each other's faces and you're seeing our faces. And. Welcome back to the next episode of the Nathan's and Roncast. We just have a wonderful guest coming up, Connie Caldor.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: Connie Kaldor of Montreal, Canada, originally of Saskatchewan.
[00:00:39] Speaker C: Yes. And I told her it was my dream vacation spot, and I'm probably the only person who dreams of vacationing there. But I will get there someday.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: I hope you do.
[00:00:49] Speaker C: Yeah.
Full disclosure, we just finished the interview.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: We just finished the interview.
[00:00:54] Speaker C: And she was a pleasure to interview. And I think you're going to enjoy everything she talked about.
What a kind human.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: A lot of great insights on songwriting and being a woman in the music business and about touring internationally, about the challenges that people face when they want to cross the border.
[00:01:14] Speaker C: You know, it's kind of a wild world being a musician, and then being in this world as a musician is even wilder. And I think that Connie, coming up in the music world, starting her career in 1980, first album, 1981, always been independent, always been in a world starting out where it was harder to be a female artist. And she has. She has a great voice. That has not changed. It has just gotten better through the years, and it's amazing. So I think. And she has great advice for songwriters, too, so.
[00:01:51] Speaker B: Yep. So without further ado, here is part one of our conversation with Connie Caldor.
All right, we are recording. We're here with Connie Kaldor.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: Yes. All the way from Montreal.
[00:02:06] Speaker B: We are so excited to speak with you. We saw you at a folk music convention outside of Chicago a few years ago.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Yes. There's Nerf is one we just did. And the other Farm. Farm.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: And I saw you in Nerf.
[00:02:22] Speaker A: I mean, I've done a lot of them, like the, you know, FAI and stuff, but somehow the smaller conference was just so much more pleasant. And I felt like I actually connected with some people that I didn't know other than just everybody that I know from Canada that was at the conference, which is usually how it works.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: Yeah. You were treated like visiting royalty, and I hadn't known who you were before that point, and.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: Oh, shame on you.
[00:02:43] Speaker B: Right, Exactly. But I've certainly gotten caught up.
And I was one of those showcase judges at Nurses.
[00:02:51] Speaker A: Yeah. It was really Fun to do. And it's, you know, a lot of those, A lot of those areas are, are we have similar, you know, there's things that, that I'm writing about that they recognize, you know, because there's, you know, it's that part of. I'm from the middle of Canada up there too, so there's a connection I think too. And I saw lots of musicians that I didn't know myself. Like you talk about me, I didn't know have them there and I, you know, I saw some great songs and great performances. It was wonderful. Yeah, always inspiring.
[00:03:19] Speaker B: It is.
Is it hard to starting this past year to travel across the border to make music?
[00:03:27] Speaker A: Yeah, it's nerve wracking because you hear lots of stories and you know, I'm always traveling legally. I mean, I'd never even think about doing anything else. But it's harder to get a visa to play down there. It's why we, you know, we're oftentimes a little nervous about even coming down to a conference. Can we get a visa? We're trying to get an O1 now because I've done so much and I'm old and you know, I've got all these, you know, Order of Canada and all that stuff. So I'm, you know, I've kind of worked my way up to merit, as the saying goes, clawed my way to the middle. But I think that it's very hard. Like my, my sons are touring musicians as well. It takes up to, it takes a thousand dollars and up to a year to get a visa now used to be a couple of months and it used to be 500 bucks and but if you pay 3,000, it comes a lot quicker. So it's quite expensive to tour there. You have to be able to have enough dates and enough, you know, so that you can justify paying that amount of money to get across. It's, it's very difficult and you know, that's.
Thankfully it's not coming our way, but so we actually get to see some great acts coming in. It's. It's a little more difficult. It's a little more, it's, it's harder to get, you know, it involves more paperwork, involves more time. You have to plan in advance. You can't like just get a gig and go across the line like you used to maybe in the old days or like you can do coming up to our place. But it's, you know, it's a part of the, part of the folk community down there. It's done, done many shows down in the States. So it's. I already have some friends down there. And you go down and make connections, you want to come back.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: Has it changed your booking patterns, your
[00:04:52] Speaker A: touring patterns, what's happening down there? Are you talking about the changes at
[00:04:57] Speaker B: the border and the.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: Yes. I think a lot of us are really wondering what we're doing even trying to get a visa to go down there. Maybe wondering if it's just because it's unsettling, don't know what it is. And I don't think maybe you guys don't know either. But is there going to be reception there? And we don't worry about the audiences, we don't worry about the gigs or the playing those people we know and care about. But you never know when you cross the border, it's a no man's land. And I've always, every time, you know, I've been doing this a lot, a lot of years and way back when even, you know, you cross the border, you answer the questions, you make sure you're legal and you know, usually you won't have any problem. But they can turn you at the border wave because you know, they don't like your car or something. You know, that's a no man's land. So you gotta understand what the border is coming both ways, I suppose as well, you know, you're just going at the behest of a border guard in a lot of ways. So you just try to be respectful and try to have all your papers and all your ducks in a row and usually that works. Okay.
[00:05:49] Speaker C: I remember having a rare exit order from the Canadian side years and years ago, but it was because we were, we needed to get some paperwork to prove that. The performance at a restaurant slash bar was in the back concert room. So we weren't taking away a job from Canadians. But they said if you don't exit at this time we will remove you. And it would. They were so nice about it in general, but it was one of those things, I think we caught a very slow time at the.
One of the less busy crossing areas
[00:06:21] Speaker A: and so probably wanted to go see you. Nevermind.
[00:06:23] Speaker C: Yeah, I hope they showed up and enjoyed. Yeah. But it was kind of scary because even when you're out of your country and you don't really, you know, it's.
[00:06:32] Speaker A: And your border guards have guns.
[00:06:33] Speaker C: Oh, I know, I know. We're. I always say that whatever I've put up with going to the UK or into Mexico or into Canada, the US is 10 times worse. It just feels like when you're coming back, it's always longer, even for US Citizens trying to get back. So I've had more issues than I care to complain about sometimes.
[00:06:53] Speaker A: You know, it's like when you go to the. You know, going to Europe is easy for us, easy because we're Canadian and all of that, too, because we have, you know, Britain, we have a connection, and Quebec has a connection with France. And so my son studied in France. There was no problem. But you still have to get a visa. You still have to go through all the processes. And that's just, you know, that's just the, you know, the cost doing business, I guess, or the. Whatever that is. But it does make you think twice. And especially since you've heard tales of them, you know, that, you know, being followed by police and, you know, things like that, people assuming that you're doing bad things just because you're coming in and singing or whatever, and that's, you know, it. I think sometimes, you know, if there's going to be. If. If a bully wants to be a bully, they can be at the border. But, you know, nine times out of 10, they're great.
So you just, you know, you just. You get Zen about it and you just hope it. That if you got everything in place and everything's set up and you're doing it right and, you know, you just. That's. You're entering another country, and so you follow their rules, and usually that's okay. Hopefully that's okay. And if it isn't, they turn you back and away you go.
[00:07:55] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:57] Speaker B: You've just written an album that is a bit of a country album. Is there a mystique in America that you have felt that's informed your songwriting? And why did you choose this theme?
[00:08:09] Speaker A: Well, you know, I'm from that part of the world. I'm from the western part of the world. I'm from Saskatchewan, which is the large, flat place before Banff. It's full of farms and cowboys. And we have spent a lot of time. We have a farm. My husband and I have a farm that he farms every summer he goes out farms. And I have for my entire career because I am from Saskatchewan, which is the place that is. You know, nobody pays attention to those kind of. One of those kinds of provinces. Everybody kind of drives through as fast as they possibly can to hopefully get to someplace more interesting. Because of that.
I think it has been over my career. I've. I've. Those are the songs that have. Have had the impact because they're songs that nobody'd written yet. And I've been. It's part of my thing to say yes, you know, this is a really interesting place and it's worth singing about. And it's beautiful, and I love it. It's. Where I'm from. It is a startling landscape. It's, you know, it's, you know, it's full of crazy people and stained people. And this is a landscape that I love. I posed it a bit. There's a wonderful park in Saskatchewan where I'm from. It's called the Grasslands national park. And it's basically virgin prairie. There's old ranches that. Ranches that when they. Guys that when they had ranches and they couldn't pass it on or nobody wanted to take over the ranch, they would sell it to the ranch. They didn't. For them to. They were allowed to sell it. And there's still a ranch right in the middle of this park that somebody owns. So it's virgin prairie. And it has, you know, I find it just stunningly beautiful. It's just raw and there. Plow has never been there, you know, and they have buffalo running on it now. And there's, you know, there's all these kind of rare. The prairie ecosystem is very rare, like virgin prairie. There's not that much left of it over there. And so this is why this park is so important. So I love it. I'm posting pictures on Facebook, all my friends, I took them out to Grand Central park gets picture. And then the comment comes across. If only you could find that beautiful. And I thought, hey, you know, but that's, you know, that's. That's the way. So for me. And that's why this part of what stirred this record. I was writing at the time. I had a. I had a grant and I was writing and I was writing. I wanted to write about that part of the world and how extraordinary it is. So that's part of, like, the last song is for those who think there's nothing here on the album, that it's a great song. It has a cool choral arrangement. But I just wanted to do it solo for this album. And I thought, yeah, you know, this is a stunningly beautiful place. And I, I. And so part of it is your own pride of place and your own understanding of a place, you know, where the Newfoundlanders from Newfoundland, they have a great expression. It's where do you belong to? Where do you belong to, boy? And I think that's kind of the way I view where do I belong To. I live in Montreal, I travel all over the world. And we have a farm, our farm is in Saskatchewan. But that's kind of where I belong. That's where I. Those are the things that stir me. So this album I. And I've always written, had country songs I won't run called, you know, I Gone Wrong, you know, come listen up, boys. I'll tell you a tale of Gohan's life on the lonesome trail. You know, so I've. I've written those songs I grew up with that, you know, I grew up with, you know, it was either two stations, you know, it was either roll out those hazy, lazy, crazy days of song, you know, those kind of songs, or country music. And so. And in actual fact, I really wanted to hear somebody, a woman sing with country music. You know, that's where the great writers were as women in the early days. And so as a kid, that's kind of what you grew up hearing. You just kind of. We had to dances and you'd hear fiddle music and, you know, all of that stuff was. It's. It's in somewhere in my bones and in my DNA. And I've always written songs that had those themes and stuff in it. And. And this is the one album I thought, why don't I just. Do you know what? There's songs that I'd written that didn't get on keep going because they were too country or whatever. I thought, well. And I've started working with a. With a pedal steel player who's a. He's a guitar player that I work. He's a guitar. He works with my son's band as well. And like, we make jokes that he studied jazz, Miguel, and he's a great jazz player. And after only two or three tours with the Compounding Family, he's got the pedal steel out and he's totally obsessed with it.
[00:11:54] Speaker C: Oh, wow.
[00:11:54] Speaker A: So we've kind of ruined him for, you know, autumn Leaves, but.
But because he's playing with us. And so you get influenced by who you play with, by who you're. You're influenced by the musicians around you. That's when music is exciting. So he's been playing, you know, he's been getting more and more into the pedal steel over the last few tours. And so we thought, well, why don't we just do it? Just, let's just do country. I just like to go whole hog.
So I have all these songs and every one of them is somehow connected to a person, a story, the landscape in a wide open Country. It was just a song, you know, was inspired by traffic in Montreal and thinking, can I just get out of here and go back to where there's no people? You know, that's. And it's. You know, my husband is from Saskatchewan. Well, he's farming. He's the one that farms in the summer. And I think that it was my chance to do that. And also because, you know, because of what's happening even with the country, to just say, we are. You know, this is. This is my chance to say, this is the part of the world I'm from and I'm proud of, and I want to sing about it, and I want to get everybody in my audience. You know, I just did a tour across Canada, and there's nothing like coming into Saskatchewan, and there's a big hall called the Dark Hall. And we sold out two nights of it. And when I sang Cowboys Still Live in Saskatchewan, there was, like, a row of women in the back that I thought were just gonna go crazy. I thought they were gonna start ripping off their tops or something.
So that's. This is my job as a songwriter, is to write about, first of all, what I care about. I don't. You know, that's why you're in the folk scene. So you're not just writing what somebody else has always written. You're not just writing to fill in a gap, just slightly different. Just a little slightly different than what's. What's popular.
You're in the folk scene, and you go through all of the woes and whatever of being an independent and the insecurity of all of that, so that you can write about stuff you care about, so that you can write for the people that you care about. So you can write something that someone's never heard before and feel that. And to know that, you know, whatever you're doing somewhere, it matters to somebody. And even if it's just people from my home province or the western Canada, or women, you know, I was writing about women when there weren't any women writing too. Now you don't think about it. My sons laugh. And I said, well, you know, I can remember hearing, sorry, we have our one woman's act. And they say, are you kidding me? And I go, no, but that's changed, and that's what's great. So you affect change in every small way you can. But for me, as a writer, I want to write about the stuff that matters to me. I want to write the songs that nobody else has written, right? The stories, you know, hitched Together about, you know, finding the saddle in a pawn shop and knowing that that sign for sale on that little ranch means that somebody's going to come in and totally change it. And that person that worked that ranch is out of a job because of mad cow or because the price of beef went down, the price of hay went up, or they got, you know, all of those. They have. No, maybe because I'm living with a farmer and we're in the ranch country and all that stuff. There's no. There's things that you have absolutely no control over. The guy works hard as hard as heck, and he's still loses it, you know, still loses the farm.
So that's part of what I wanted to sing about. What's happening and why does. Why does someone who really wants to do that and does it well and, you know, connects to that spot. Well, how does he lose. How does he lose that?
And then that's part of the story of what's happening out there that nobody's singing about, really.
[00:15:00] Speaker C: Is that what, you know, the title track is, Keep Going. Right. And on that album, and it's. I was. When listening to that one, I was singing along at the end. And you really.
You really brought me in just as sitting here by myself, you know, listening. And so I imagine with audiences, something like that is encouraging.
[00:15:21] Speaker A: And, you know, you have to sing what you want to sing. Thank you for saying that. Because Keep Going is like one of those ones that, you know, I keep going back to maybe because we're independence in a, you know, need a buck and you got a dime.
And I don't think I'm the only one out there that finds himself in that situation, whatever age you are. I look at my kids working so hard, you know, to just be able to be a musician or to get a gig or to, you know, in their generation, you know, And I hear them say, well, geez, I'll never be able to afford a home. Like, you know. Yeah, okay. Well, I don't know if I even thought about affording a home when I was, you know, growing up and. But you do when you start thinking kids, I guess that's when you really start thinking of home.
[00:15:58] Speaker C: Yeah. I was telling someone that the other day. I was saying, I don't think I'll ever be able to buy. But I'm happy that I'm a musician and I'll, you know, I'll happily be a forever renter if I can play music and make people happy. But it's. It's one of Those things.
[00:16:10] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, they're taken. Like they're just taking every way that musicians use to make, to help to make a living. In some ways you got to just keep working and keep figuring out tweaky ways to do it and. Yeah, and yet it is, you know, it's, it's. It's worthwhile. I don't know, I. I could have done a lot of things. I had great marks. I could. My parents expect me to become an engineer or a lawyer or something like that, even though I was a woman, you know, because I. I did well at school and stuff. But I think, I don't think I would have been happy doing that as well. Maybe I could have, but I just think that there's something that when you're a musician, there's something that drives you. So you try to do it and you try to make a living at it, even though it seems impossible. Everybody tells you you shouldn't and everybody tells you you can't. But I hope you're smart enough and hard working enough to make it. To find a way to make it work and to find a way to work, you know, to make. Connect with people. To connect. I think it's even more important now, you know, I think it's more important now to connect on a real level, on a live music level. Get out there and hear the real instru.
You know, I knew he played cello. There's my son Gabrielle, who is a wonderful songwriter who's just getting ready to record again. He started this little concert series in his back alley in Montreal. And you know, he has a little yard and he opens up to the alley, invites all the neighbors and friends. You know, some people, lots of people come. He says it's just like a real concert series, except nobody makes any money.
It's this great line.
But he had, you know, we were sitting there and there's a group called.
There's a group that has cello and violin. And we met them in the theater and they were going through town, so they stopped and they did a little concert in the backyard. They were unbelievable. Turn off the sound system. Do it all live in the backyard. Acoustic. All of these wonderful instruments. And it was so spectacular.
And I think what a privilege. And everybody that was there was just blown away. Most of them of his generation of friends had never been at a music event with live music. The ones that were musicians, that were already musicians, them.
And it was such an extraordinary moment. You think, ah, this is like real magic. This is real magic. And we get to be part of it and enjoy it, stuff like that.
[00:18:16] Speaker C: It's something about the realness of doing something that is unaltered, you know, you're not worried about mistakes. And your family does this. Your family plays together. We heard your son play violin in loop a few years ago.
[00:18:29] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, I know.
[00:18:30] Speaker C: And it blew our minds. I love his cover of Wheels Like a Chevrolet.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: Yeah, it's his own now. I have a friend that has known me for 30 years. He heard it once and said, well, he does it better than you, Connie. I'm going. I know, I know. Do you have to remind me?
[00:18:44] Speaker C: My dad always was.
[00:18:45] Speaker A: He's like the 2.0. He's the upgraded version of our family, you know? No, when you see something like that, that you. Oh, it's just there is. There's some real fabulous moments, you know, and you worry about, like, I'm a mother of two musicians, so you're kind of, oh, my God, are they going to put food in there? But you know, when you see them and you see what it brings and you see them connect and you see the. This is the. These are kids that have grown up with this and somehow they've made it better or different or their own. And that's, to me, just spectacular, how great it is that I get to share this thing I love with the people that I love the most in this world. My husband and my kids.
[00:19:25] Speaker B: Listening to the Nathan's and Roncast. We've been speaking with Connie Kaldor. Before we go back, I want to let you know that I am going to be putting out a solo album later this year. I'm working with the great Joe Jenks on that. We'll be doing a Kickstarter, if it hasn't already. Kickstarted already.
If you Google Aaron Nathan's and Kickstarter, it should come up and lead you to it. I'd be honored to have your help to build an album unlike any other that I've built. So this is my first full length solo project in 21 years and counting. Yeah.
[00:20:01] Speaker C: Aaron, you're doing two albums this year and this is one of them. The other one is Nathan's and Ronstadt album number five.
[00:20:10] Speaker B: Number five, which is a great album. That one is just about finished.
[00:20:15] Speaker C: Yeah, you can.
[00:20:17] Speaker B: As they say.
[00:20:17] Speaker C: I'm excited to hear your solo album. I love your solo album you did with Phil Henry, the four Song ep.
And that Green song was one of my favorites to listen to over and over and. Yeah. So anyway, I'm excited to hear what you've got up your sleeve.
I'm gonna wait to be surprised.
[00:20:39] Speaker B: Thank you, my friend. All right, back to our conversation with Connie Kaldor.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: So it is.
These are perilous times. You know, there were always perilous times. When I was starting out, there were perilous times, too. There was no. You couldn't get a record deal, you couldn't get arrested, you couldn't get played. How are you ever gonna make money? And then people started saying, well, why don't we just make our own records?
You know, Then people. Somebody came up with a great idea of how to do it. And there was a group called. Oh, what was their name? And they, they. They had an album where everybody, if you gave them 20 bucks, they'd put your name on the front of their album. Like, how clever. Oh, that's great. Yeah, they were, you know, and so. And people started doing their own album. The community started doing it. And I know that somewhere the community's gonna start connecting again like that, because that's important. And it'll happen. I'm convinced. I don't know how long it'll take, but there you go. Everybody's connected through the Internet. But there's something about the live, you know, that's gonna.
There's going to be a kickback to what's real, I think. And as the more AI and weird and who knows what is this real? You know, as the idea of is this real? Comes across your screen, people are going to want to know that it's real. They're going to want to see it live, hopefully. I think it's.
I think people have maybe forgotten how powerful it is live. My generation has not. They show up. It's why I sell out.
But I think that there's going to be a moment where people are going to go, oh, live. I gotta have this alive. Then I know it's real. I know what's going on.
[00:22:06] Speaker C: Well, Aaron asked James McMurtry the question, Are you afraid of AI? And he said, no, not really. There's always going to be someone who, who's going to play live in a bar or a venue somewhere. He's like, I'm not too worried.
And it's one of those things. And it's funny, I mean, just. It was how he would put it. But one of the things I liked about that idea is, like, it's the live thing. Like, you can't replicate it. I've always said that if I could sit a chair in the middle of the road with my cello, I can Sing you a song. If I can play you a set of music. Two, three, four sets, five sets, I don't care. I have music for you. If you come away smiling or feeling something, I hope I did my job.
And that's something that AI can't take away.
[00:22:48] Speaker A: I always think back to when they first started radio. All of the bands that were playing live said it's the end of music.
And now, you know, and then it's radio. And then of course, you can record things. Gonna be the end of radio and everything. So it does, you know, it does change. Don't get me wrong. It does change. But now it's interesting that what the solution to what's happening now is going back to playing in the small hall or whatever that is. I think that's why the folk scene is still thriving, is because they do have that going on.
[00:23:16] Speaker B: Do you still make and sell compact discs?
[00:23:19] Speaker A: Yeah, I do. Yeah. My audience will buy it. And a lot of people just buy it to have it. Cause they want it to sign. And I do have merch.
This year I had a lot more merch. Actually. What we got into selling is that because we have an organic grain farm, right? Big organic grain farm. And they. So it's owned by my husband and his sisters. And we started selling lentils when we were in Saskatchewan. And my nephew has a garlic. Organic garlic patch. We started selling his garlic, which went like that. We're making a joke that it was the new stage to Table Food movie.
But, you know, and people just, you know, they.
So I don't know, it's like, you know, we sell. We sell tea towels and I sell aprons. And we used aprons to raise money for a theater in the Ukraine. And, you know, there's all this stuff that goes on, but it's mostly the connection. And they come out to the show and then they, you know, that's. It's. There's a. You know, as a musician, you have to. I have never had a record company other than my independent record label. I've always been an independent. And every live show mattered. It still does. Because if someone has a good. Has a good time, they'll come back. If they don't, they won't. Every live show. So it keeps you focused on what you're doing on the stage and that you're gonna be. That you're gonna do your very best.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: So you mentioned a little bit ago that about 40, 45 years ago you went to these or you tried to get booked at these festivals and they said Sorry, we have our female act.
What kind of songs were missing at that point?
[00:24:48] Speaker A: I had a song called Jerks with a Capital J, which went over very well.
Listen.
[00:24:55] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:24:55] Speaker B: About cat callers and songs from a
[00:24:57] Speaker A: female perspective and songs about parts of the world that nobody knew about. Songs about Saskatchewan, songs about. And a perspective on, you know, the world. And it's why it worked for me, because I didn't sound like anybody else, and I'd come out of the theater community, too, and I think that affected how I looked at the stage and how I looked at my work and what I wanted to do.
I've.
To me, one of the most powerful things I got out of my theater. Like, I grew up in theater, I studied theater and I worked in theater and then decided to go into music after that, because I was writing, and I just. I don't know. I just couldn't imagine my life without music, is what it came down to. Whereas. And I liked theater. I had work. It worked for me, but it taught me respect to the stage and that it could do other things, that it wasn't just something you slide onto and play it off. That it was a. That it is a privilege to get in front of an audience, and it is. It always is. It's a privilege to get in front of people.
And I think that informed what I wanted to write about and what I wanted to sing and that, you know, And I'd always been writing songs ever since I was little. I've. Just. Because I hated to practice. So I'd write songs so that if I practiced, it was at least interesting. Like, that's basically how I started writing, I think, and writing songs about. I worked in theater. That was alternative theater, Canadian theater. And I wanted to write those stories. Like, I wanted to write about stories of things and real things and places in Saskatchewan and. And women's lives, you know, there was not enough stuff out there. There was not enough things out there about women's lives, and it's why.
And there weren't enough women on stage, and there weren't enough songs. Good, bad, or whatever. Perspective. It's totally changed now. It's quite exciting. And it's, you know, it's the way it should be. Still not 50. 50, but, hey, when I think of what we had the opportunity to see when I was starting out, even just as, mind you, the ones we did see were unbelievable. Odetta. You know, at these big. You know, they have big festivals, and there'd be, you know, Odetta, who could fill a stage just by Herself. And there was, you know, Sylvia Tyson and there were all these great writers through this scene for sure. And I was kind of part of a scene of Canadians that were kind of going, okay, we're gonna sing Canadian songs about Canada, all that kind of stuff that we wanted to fill in what hasn't been talked about and what needs to be talked about. And songs for that the audience recognizes in themselves. I think that's the power of folk music generally. You know, it's one of the powers of it is that you can write about stuff that people go, oh, that's me and that's my life. And that's something I'm gonna think about.
[00:27:22] Speaker C: What kind of differences do you see in the songwriting from the southern part of Canada to like the far north?
[00:27:28] Speaker A: Well, first of all, we have several different languages in Canada. And then when you get into the north, into the Arctic, it's Inuktitut and all of that. And there's a real strong now music scene coming up first through the first nations community. It's one of the most exciting, most music scenes going really right now. I think there's some incredible stuff coming out from William Prince on down. You know, like, I think he's just astounding. He's just got a new album out. Check it out. He's great. But there's all of these great, like, there's a punk, you know, in a punk rock artist in Regina called Equal, you know, I Will not be conquered, I will not be. It's just like there's some great exciting stuff. So there's that language thing. There's a lot of first nations languages. And there is music coming out of that. There's also French. You know, why I'm living in Quebec is the music industry is basically French. You know, the bulk of it is French language music coming out of here. And, you know, and there's Anglophone, you know, Patrick Watson lives in Montreal as well. So there's. It's not that internationally there's, you know, until India will sing it in English. But there's a whole raft of music, traditional and otherwise, and pop music that comes in French language. So there's all of that. That's another whole music scene. And then you've got the Maritimes, which is, you know, has a real strong Celtic based kind of music. And the Newfoundlanders have been singing rings around everybody for. And this is one me can't, you know, can't throw a stone and keep hitting a musician.
There's all of these. There's this Great musical tradition that they came out of. And they have great writers that, you know, are, you know, flirt with that. There's even Rose Cousins and all of these people, they have.
They have a very strong, longtime musical scene. You know, their parents played music in a band and they didn't ever get paid for it or they didn't make a living at it, but then the next generation did. And Vice, you know, Ashley MacIsaac and all of those people that came out of that. That strong fiddling tradition, they have their real thing. Whereas where I'm from, in the middle part, the immigration was, you know, largely from. There's Eastern Europe. There's, you know, there's all of these other songs. And for me, it was country music or was, you know, at the dances, they'd play different. Totally different style of fiddle playing. And then you've got the west coast, which has, you know, another whole other kind of musical scene. And, you know, there's the. I mean, the, you know, there's another whole way that people write out there, too. This. Because it's a different kind of living. I think people write through, you know, what they're. What they're thinking about or what's going on, where they're going. I mean, that's doesn't mean you don't have pop singers and you don't have Bob and country artists coming out of every corner of Canada. But generally there are influences, musical influences that happen. And from where I'm from, the Prairies, it's farming country. It's, you know, it's, you know, it's. It's, you know, songs about the land and people, and there's lots of country music artists that come out of there. There's, you know, and there's every kind. And there's oftentimes. I think one of the advantages of being in the Prairies is that they don't. Nobody cares about you, and they leave you alone to develop your own twisted, weird style and interesting things. And there's some wonderful new writers. I used to be, you know, used to feel like I was one of the few people left out there writing about it. But that's not the case now. There's some wonderful new writers, young writers coming up, including my own sons, that are writing about that part of the world. And I think that my friend Calvin Cairns, who's a wonderful fiddler from. From Victoria, British Columbia, has a wonderful saying that I keep thinking about. It's hard for the head to get in the way of music. So everywhere you are, you're influenced by who's coming up. Manitoba has a wonderful music scene. Every province has their own musical scene. And they're supported in more or less fashion. And some people are influenced by everything around. There's.
I think that there's a real push to define where we're from. Cause a lot of our music came from your end of the world. A lot of our popular music was us based, was not based in Canada. Nobody sang about it or whatever. And so I think there's a kind of a feeling that you should be writing about where you're from as well, that you should be helping to define that this is.
But, you know, make no mistake, music industry, the largest music industry in the world is across. Is in your country. So there, you know, people, a lot of people that going the commercial route will end up going down to Nashville or going there. And there's a lot of cross fertilization there because we've grown up listening to it. So it's not a foreign style or place for us, first of all. And also stylistically, the music we hear, the music we hear on films, the music we hear on our radios, is influenced a large part by all the great artists that have made it down there. Made it in your country.
[00:31:58] Speaker B: What a great conversation. And that is just the first half of our conversation with Connie Kaldor. Come back for our next installment where Connie will talk about her songwriting process more about what it's like to be a woman in the business.
[00:32:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
And as always, we're happy to have you as our listeners. And so check us out on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook. So come back for part two. For now, we'll just sign off and wish you peace.
