Whistler’s Summer Concert Series is kicking off with a visit from royalty—musical royalty, that is.
On July 1, Blackie and The Rodeo Kings will bring their critically acclaimed act to Olympic Plaza with longtime friends Daniel Lanois and Terra Lightfoot in tow.
The Rodeo Kings have one Juno award and 10 albums on their collective resume, and are viewed by many as one of Canada’s most renowned bands. Lanois and Lightfoot are accomplished musicians as well: the former owns seven Grammy awards, while the latter has toured with Blue Rodeo, Willie Nelson, Bruce Cockburn and the late, great Gordon Lightfoot.
‘An otherworldly experience’
When asked what interests him about performing in the Sea to Sky, veteran singer-songwriter Tom Wilson quipped, “the money,” before adding: “Whistler is a beautiful place—one of the most beautiful places in the world. The fact that it’s been gentrified for my tender city feet to be able to go into and look at those mountains, that’s a good thing for me. It’s such a fantastic destination.”
Wilson visited Whistler in the 1990s, both with The Rodeo Kings and with a now-defunct rock band called Junkhouse. People from all over North America and the Commonwealth gathered back then to seek employment and leisure—much the same as today. It felt to Wilson like a time when people were hungry for entertainment.
“The mountains and the dwarfing effect they have somehow calms us, I believe,” Wilson reminisced. “It’s not just the high altitude, it’s knowing that there’s something so much bigger than us, and the people who we played for were there to honour the land, I think. They were also there to drink and do a lot of drugs, so they were usually a pretty good audience.”
Having performed for many good audiences over the years, Wilson is known for his solo works in addition to combining with Colin Linden and Stephen Fearing to form The Rodeo Kings. The multi-talented Hamilton, Ont. native also published a memoir of his life in 2017 titled Beautiful Scars, in which he explores his Mohawk heritage and life in the blue-collar place they call “Steeltown.”
Wilson holds particularly high praise for Lanois, and the two have known each other since the ’70s. He credits Lanois and his Grant Avenue Studio for birthing the genre of ambient music “as we know it today.” In his collaborations with icons like U2, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris and Brian Eno, Lanois displayed a rare ability to assess the energy in a room and turn it into a creative force.
Lightfoot, much like Wilson and Lanois, is a Hamiltonian. Wilson calls her a giant in her own world, having been acquainted with her for the last 20 years or so. “She and Lanois have had all kinds of great influence on me, and they have also inspired Blackie and the Rodeo Kings to the point where we want them to be in our band,” he said.
“Even our rehearsals with Dan and Terra are inspiring. They bring together an otherworldly experience from Hamilton, Ont. that couldn’t possibly come from anywhere else in the world.”
Music and reconciliation
The fact that The Rodeo Kings are performing on Canada Day isn’t lost on Wilson—but not for the reason you might expect.
In 2015, the rocker discovered that Janie Lazare, a Mohawk woman he’d long believed to be his cousin, was in fact his birth mother. Eventually, he found out that his father, too, was Mohawk—a man by the name of Louis Beauvais.
Raised by a white couple, Wilson was unaware of his First Nations ancestry until the age of 53. He doesn’t mind Canada Day, per se, but his true interest lies within June: National Indigenous History Month.
After all, there’s no denying the sordid legacy of residential schools, which Wilson refers to as “one of the grossest and most inhumane sagas in the history of the planet.” While he wants people to celebrate, he thinks the traditional fireworks and parades of Canada Day have often wiped all reflection on First Nations history from the public conscience.
“We have to fight. The fight is not a physical fight, necessarily—it’s a fight to keep people aware,” he said. “People need to be acknowledging what went on in this country.”
The lifelong artist does not expect anyone today to personally feel guilt over the sins of yesterday. Nonetheless, the question remains: how do we as Canadians expect to move forward in a respectful, loving way?
One thing is certain: there are no shortcuts on the road to reconciliation.
“This is as hard as trying to pull a submersible off the bottom of the ocean,” Wilson continued. “We have been conned by culture to believe that life is easy, that things we want can be achieved by just putting the right blocks in the right order, when in fact, the work that has to be done in this country and as individuals is massive.
“So, let’s just really focus on doing hard work in the future to make this a better place.”
Music can’t solve every problem. Even so, Wilson believes that nothing else can unite people quite as effectively. He is used to others asking him and his wife what shows they’ve been watching on Crave or Netflix—a symptom of the regrettable fact that many have learned to live in isolation.
Not so on the musical scene. Wilson recently attended a live show by Broken Social Scene and Boygenius in Toronto with his wife and son, and they did not hear anyone talking about Netflix. Instead, it was all about unity and a shared love for music, which can be more powerful than our TVs, computers and phones.
“We’re missing out on shared experiences in our world,” said Wilson. “That’s why Blackie and The Rodeo Kings, Daniel Lanois and Terra Lightfoot are coming to Whistler.”
Catch their free show at Whistler Olympic Plaza on Sat., July 1. Opening act DJ ShotSki kicks things off at 6:30 p.m., followed by the Rodeo Kings at 7:30.
