An excerpt from “My Good Times With Stompin’ Tom” by Duncan Fremlin
Duncan Fremlin is a producer, banjo player, and band leader who will perform “Stories & Songs of Stompin’ Tom” at the Second Wind Music Centre in Florenceville-Bristol on Tuesday, Oct. 1 at 7:30 p.m.
Mostly, myths are just that, beliefs that are not true. Some even make it onto a Wikipedia page. Farley Mowat’s disregard for facts began as a myth until Farley came clean and confessed to all.
Stompin’ Tom has his own myth that is not on his Wikipedia page but one that he had to live with once it became part of his historical narrative.
Most Canadians think he was born on Prince Edward Island. Not true.
It was the late winter in 1993 when I brought my band, Whiskey Jack, to meet Tom at his house in Georgetown, Ontario. A couple of months before, he called me and asked if the 5 of us would come to the studio, record an album (Dr. Stompin’ Tom…eh?) and join him on a national tour.
Upon arrival that day, all of us were a bit starstruck. We shook Tom’s hand, pulled out the instruments, and sat in a circle to await directions from the boss.
“Before we start,” Tom said, “I’d like everyone to introduce themselves.”
We went around the circle. There was me from Bar River, Greg from Grimsby, Rob from Keswick, Bob from Pennsylvania, and then it was Conrad’s turn.
“I was born in New Brunswick Tom, just like you.”
Tom got very quiet, an awkward silence. Tears were welling up. We learned over our years with him that he teared up easily and often. We would also learn that New Brunswick was one of the triggers.
Of course, he spoke fondly of his adoptive home in Prince Edward Island. That family rescued him from the despair of life with his mother. He reserved his tears for New Brunswick.
Much of Tom’s work was inspired by his early years, born between the wars into poverty, father nowhere to be seen, hitchhiking and stealing food with his mother, and even living with her in a penitentiary at one point.
There’s no record of Tom ever saying, “I was born in Prince Edward Island,” but somewhere along the line, it took hold and became a widely held belief.
Tom’s affection for both provinces appears in his songs.
In Bud the Spud, he sings, “It’s Bud the Spud, from the bright red mud.” A legendary line, playful and silly. Then, in New Brunswick and Mary, he begins, “I get heartsick and blue, for New Brunswick and you,” clearly not
silly. From the stage, I witnessed him tearing up in the middle of this song.
That’s the obvious reason the Stompin’ Tom Centre was built in Skinners Pond and why hundreds of Canadians make the pilgrimage to visit each year.
On my tours with Tom, it was always the New Brunswick shows that would make him the saddest and the happiest. These visits were never routine, each time resulting in a drive down the highways and streets that
fuelled all of his work.
Learn more about Duncan Fremlin and his music at www.whiskeyjackmusic.com
Duncan Fremlin and his band Whiskey Jack will perform at the Second Wind Music Centre on Tuesday, Oct. 1 at 7:30 p.m.
