Peterborough based roots musician/ funnyman Washboard Hank is happy to be part of 40,000 years of history.
“People have been playing and singing around campfires for 40,000 years. People have found 40,000 year old flutes,” observed Hank Fisher/ aka Washboard Hank who comes to the Slice to perform with his wife Muriel and Lance Loree, Dec. 4.
He himself has been performing for close to 40 years as a children’s performer; an adult performer and even toured with the Fred Eaglesmith band early in his career.
“I have people with grandkids who grew up listening to me,” he observed from his Peterborough home, having just got pulled out of a snow filled ditch.
“Serena Ryder, (who sang the national anthem for the Grey Cup) said I was her very first concert,” he continued.
He plays a little bit of everything from country to rockabilly, but is best known for his custom built washboard including everything including the kitchen sink (which also has PVC pipes and which he plays as a home made tuba) as well as an assortment of bells, whistles, licence plates — anything he can get his hands on.
While he hasn’t recorded new music recently, he has been playing a lot. He has been playing with western swing/ jazz band Catfish Willie and the Buckle Busters. He has also playing solo gigs for all occasions.
“I just got back from playing an Adventure Canada Cruise to Greenland and Newfoundland in October. It was s a good tour with Ian Tamblyn,” he said.
“ I play quite a few special events, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Robbie Burns Day, Groundhog Day. then St. Patrick’s Day. That’s just what I do,” he said adding he has written songs for all occasions.
His wife Muriel will be joining him on this quick five date Alberta tour including stops in Lethbridge, Calgary, Edmonton, Tofield and Nanton, where he will begin recording an album with Steve Loree, who is Lance Loree's brother.
“I have new songs about Rob Ford and electing Stephen Harper. So we’ll be playing a lot of stupid stuff and my wife Sweet Muriel has a video on the Internet of a dirty cat song that has something like 40,000 views, so she’ll be singing that,” he said.
