Guelph based musician James Gordon is a man of many talents. He’s a playwright, Stephen Leacock award nominated novelist, and multi-instrumentalist, but above all a folk singer who gained renown with folk band Tamarack, which also featured frequent collaborator and future Cowboy Junkie Jeff Bird.

 

 Gordon knows how to turn a phrase. He has a quick wit and a way with a story all of which will be on display when he makes a long awaited return to Lethbridge for two shows including a book signing and mini concert at Analog Books at 4 p.m. and at the Lethbridge Folk Club at 8 p.m. with Reid and Writes.

 

 He took full advantage of not being able to tour during Covid to write and record a new album “ When I Stayed Home” on which he played all of the instruments.

 

He also wrote two books — his novel and accompanying soundtrack and audiobook “The Ark of the  ‘Oven Mitt,’ a “where are they now” story of a fictional ’80s band  ‘Miles and Myles” and a memoir of his life in music, making 40 albums with Tamarack and solo “The Highway and I.”

 

“The novel is a pretty new idea because it comes with a QR code that you scan with your phone and the music of the band plays,” he said.

 

“Another thing I do is I go into schools and teach a class songwriting. So I started  writing a textbook of it for teachers to use so I don’t even have to show up. I had a lot of time during the pandemic when I wasn’t touring to work on a lot of different projects. But now I’m touring again, I don't have as much time anymore to work on them,” he said.

 

“ I’ve been really pleased with the response (to his debut novel). It was nominated for a Stephen Leacock award for humour but that bugger Rick Mercer beat me out,” he laughed, adding there will be some overlap from the Analog Books mini-concert and the Folk Club show.

 

“I’m playing solo. But I’ll be featuring songs from the book’s soundtrack and from the latest album, and some old Tamarack songs that people want to hear,” he said, deciding what instruments to pack to the trek out west.

He enjoys working in different mediums like novels and songs.

“ It’s different, in a song you have to cram a whole story into  three -and-a-half minutes or so. But you can really stretch it out in a novel. The audio book for ‘The Ark of the Oven Mitt’ is nine hours long,” he observed.

 He said he  hasn’t played Lethbridge since 2012 when he was playing a house concert, but he has a lot of good memories of playing here.

 

“ I remember playing the Lethbridge folk club about 40 years ago. I think it was at a Scandinavian club. It felt like a big deal because I was playing with one of my idols Kate Wolf. I even put Lethbridge in a song ( Lonesome Cowboy’s Lament) and even rhymed Lethbridge. Cypress Hills is in the same song” he said.

 

“I like putting place names in songs because they evoke a certain feel. Even you’ve never been to Tennessee or the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, when you hear them in a song, you get a sense of what they are like,” he said, adding driving long distances between gigs in Canada gives him a lot of time to think about  lyrics and  ways to rhyme difficult names, like Lethbridge.

 

“ There’s lots of time driving across the prairies to think about words and write songs,” he said, noting it also gives him a lot of time to think about what to play.

 

 He wrote a tongue in cheek song about the convoy protesters “Crybabies Caravan”  that ended up going viral and getting 300,000 streams.

 

“I even got death threats for it. I didn’t expect that. But the police stopped by and said I had to take them seriously,” he said.

 

“ I like stirring things up things, he said, wondering  whether to play another song  for Earth Day about keeping the oil in the ground.

 

James Gordon plays Analog Books at 4 p.m. Saturday, April 21 The Lethbridge Folk Club  show begins at 8 p.m. with Reid and Writes. Tickets are $35 for non members, $30 for members and $10 for students.

— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor