A legend. Puts on a barnburner show. Has written a million songs, almost all of them good. Grew up farming in southwestern Ontario, he is kind of a zen redneck, doesn't have to put on working-class airs because he's the real thing. Not a sit-down folkie concert and he will probably rub some folks the wrong way, coming on like a freight train ("baby, wish I was a diesel locomotive...") having attitude to spare or rent out, but most will enjoy the rub. If you have friends that "don't like folk music", but maybe like what they think is country, this is a show for them. Sometimes I have thought that he enjoys riling people up so much that it gives a manufactured cynicism to some of his songs; others genuinely come from the heart. "The Old John Deere" is spot on, for example. Farming is a tough go.

His comic songs are truly treasures. Back in the day when a bunch of kids lived on our dead-end, three-house road, the gang of them waiting at the school bus stop would often be heard singing "When, exactly, did we become white trash?" Gosh I'm gettin old and nostalgic.

Notice how everyone cites different Fred songs as favourites--that's an indicator of how deep his catalog is. He has his own tribe of followers on tours--of course, they are "Fredheads". (please let us know how many make it to Alaska!)      

You'll get a kick out of this southern Ontario madman.
W-O