SOUNDTRACK: BOB SNIDER-“Old Nova Scotian” (Moose: The Compilation, 1991).
Back in the 1990s, it was common to buy a compilation or soundtrack or even a band’s album based on one song. Only to then find that you didn’t really like anything else on it.
Maybe that single sounded like nothing else on the album. Maybe the movie was almost entirely one genre, but they had that one song that you liked over the credits. Or maybe the compilation was for something but a song you really wanted was on it, too.
With streaming music that need not happen anymore. Except in this case.
I bought this compilation, used, recently exclusively for one song, Rheostatics’ “Woodstuck.” It’s a goofy song and this is the only place you can get the studio version. The actual compilation was not well documented, so I didn’t know what the other bands on it might sound like. It turns out to be a compilation for Ontario based Moose Records which specialized in Rock, Folk, World & Country. They put out another compilation in 1992 and that’s all I can find out about them.
This song by Bob Snider is another story song. This one is about a Old Nova Scotian far from the ocean. He’s a derelict dead on his feet.
This song is a slow ballad–it feels like an old Irish ballad especially with this accordion. Although a whipping violin solo would perk the song up.
Snider has been playing music since the 1980s. Moxy Fruvous covered his amusing song “Ash Hash,” which makes sense as it didn’t sound like one of their songs.
[READ: July 1, 2019] “Fishing with a Straight Hook”
The July/August issue of The Walrus is the Summer Reading issue. This year’s issue had two short stories, a memoir, three poems and a fifteen year reflection about a novel as special features.
Jackson talks about one summer when she went fishing on Lac Catherine, a small lake in Quebec. She and her husband rent a chalet fora a month each summer.
Their son’s friend Roberto, an experienced fisherman, came to visit and she hoped to learn a thing or two from him. Roberto had many sage things to say about fishing (as fishermen are wont). Roberto’s secret: “put the worm where the fish wants to eat and if you’re lucky you will catch a fish.” (more…)
I Just Read About That... 