Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead (1936-2013)

Subject: RE: Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead (1936-2013)
From: gnu
Date: 07 Mar 13 - 08:09 PM

Bob... he will. He stomped his music and personality on a load of people and he ain't done yet.

Subject: RE: Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead (1936-2013)
From: GUEST,Bob Ryszkiewicz
Date: 07 Mar 13 - 06:39 PM

So I'm doing a tour somtime in the 70's, Halifax, St. John's, etc. I can't remember which town it was, but the streets weren't paved, they had the feel of Tombstone.

There's this bar(why is there always a bar?) so I go in, and above the doorway is a board with a hole in it, in the shape of a boot. "What's that," I ask, and somebody tells me that Stompin' Tom Connors had played the place and left the board, so they put it up...LOL

Months later, John Foley of the Yellow Door tells me, "You know, Ryszkiewicz isn't exactly the easiest name to remember for a musician." He recommends that I use "Rompin' Robert Ryszkiewicz..."LOL

So Rest in Peace Tom...but somehow I think you'll find a board to stomp on up there...

Subject: RE: Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead (1936-2013)
From: gnu
Date: 07 Mar 13 - 05:35 PM

That clip, guest, is one of the reasons Tom was SO popular up here. I have heard a number of people say they didn't care for a lot of his music except for some tunes. He had some GREAT tunes but I can understand why anyone has any likes or dislikes. If you ever saw him perform in person as in that clip, you would know the man was, and still is to me, about more than just the tunes. He was a treasure to see live in a small venue. Funny as all get out! And the tunes sounded far better than on radio. Glad I saw him live in the tavern.

He'll be haulin another load a spuds and smiling forever.

60 albums and ten more unreleased? WOW!

Subject: RE: Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead (1936-2013)
From: Cool Beans
Date: 07 Mar 13 - 04:06 PM

Good for the LA Times for running his obit; probably wouldn't have happened if the writer hadn't been a former Detroiter. Here along the Canadian border we're more familiar with Connors than folks elsewhere in the US. Wonder if the NY Times will do anything.

Subject: RE: Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead (1936-2013)
From: open mike
Date: 07 Mar 13 - 03:50 PM

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-stompin-tom-connors-canadian-countryfolkie-dead-at-77-20130307,0,5942208.story

Subject: RE: Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead (1936-2013)
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Mar 13 - 11:04 AM

Here's a story from Dave Gunning. He had played with Tom for a while back when (JP Cormier played with him before then). I heard this story a few times at his shows. Embedding the video had been disabled, so here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysf5oFVC308

Subject: RE: Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead (1936-2013)
From: GUEST,bankley
Date: 07 Mar 13 - 09:02 AM

Back in 1990 when he was on his extensive tour, after a decade of being out of the public eye, he headlined the Gatineau Clog Festival hosted by Wayne Rostad.
Porter Wagoner and Marty Stuart were also on the bill, and I was in a band that played in the afternoon. We had a chance to sit down, one-on-one for a few minutes backstage. I remembered thanking him for his contribution to music and his stance toward the 'industry'
Told him I wrote songs too, He said "Well Ron, keep it Canadian". I said "I'll try Sir". Got his autograph for my daughter on the blank side of an Export cigarette papers pack.

He was on a postage stamp. One of the series where four artists are featured. The others being Edith Butler, Robert Charlebois, and Bryan Adams. I bought a set when they came out.
Interestingly I just came across them again the other day.

Think I'll have a few beers today in memory of the Stomper and Mufferaw Joe

Subject: RE: Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead
From: meself
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 11:32 PM

His early life was really tough, and his struggle to make it as a singer was no picnic. In Before the Fame, the first installment of his autobiography, he tells about being literally thrown out of a bar and onto Queen Street, after asking for his promised pay ....

Subject: RE: Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead
From: Beer
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 11:27 PM

Here is another written clip. " In 1964, Connors found himself in Timtnins, Ontario, at the Maple Leaf Hotel, with only 35 cents in his pocket. Tom asked the bartender to spot him the extra nickel to buy one draft beer; instead, the bartender told him to play some songs to make up the difference. Gate Lepine, the manager of the hotel, heard Tom sing and hired him on the spot. Connors remembers: "No microphone, no stage; they just cleared away one of the tables in the corner and stood me there to sing. They gave me a bed and one meal a day. I stayed@for 14 months." Tom traversed the highways and sideroads of Canada until he adopted a legacy of songs that now stand up as the best kind of history and eography lesson. He is recognized as this country's Woody Guthrie because of his road and rail parables and he is perhaps the most reliable popular link between the songs of old Canada."

Gate, I am sure you are hurtin and if you read this give my brother Norman a call. He thinks the world of you.

Subject: RE: Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead
From: bobad
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 11:24 PM

Also from Wikipedia this bit on his early life - not an easy one:

He was born Charles Thomas Connors (known as Tommy Messer) in Saint John, New Brunswick to the teenaged Isabel Connors and her boyfriend Thomas Sullivan. He was a cousin of New Brunswick fiddling sensation, Ned Landry. He spent a short time living with his mother in a low-security women's penitentiary before he was seized by Children's Aid Society and was later adopted by the Aylward family in Skinners Pond, Prince Edward Island.

At the age of 15 he left his adoptive family to hitchhike across Canada, a journey that consumed the next 13 years of his life as he travelled between various part-time jobs while writing songs on his guitar. At his last stop in Timmins, Ontario, which may also have been his big "break", he found himself a nickel short of a beer at the city's Maple Leaf Hotel. The bartender, Gaet Lepine, agreed to give Tom a beer if he would play a few songs. These few songs turned into a 13-month contract to play at the hotel, a weekly spot on the CKGB radio station in Timmins, eight 45-RPM recordings, and the end of the beginning for Tom Connors.

Subject: RE: Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead
From: GUEST,999
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 11:23 PM

Yes he did, Ad. And his own stamp. He refused the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and also returned all his Junos in the late 1970s. One of a kind.

Subject: RE: Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead
From: bobad
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 11:21 PM

From Wikipedia:

He received a Doctor of Laws degree honoris causa from St. Thomas University in 1993, which was the inspiration for his album titled Dr. Stompin' Tom Connors, eh?, released the same year. In 1996, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, and four years later was awarded an honorary LL.D. by the University of Toronto.

In The Greatest Canadian list, he ranked thirteenth, the highest placing for any artist on the list. Connors was one of four musicians pictured on the second series of the Canadian Recording Artist Series issued by Canada Post stamps on July 2, 2009

Subject: RE: Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead
From: Beer
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 11:19 PM

A 200% Canadian. If I was in a trench war i would want him next to me.
ad.

Subject: RE: Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead
From: Beer
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 11:17 PM

Did he not receive the "Order of canada?" I could be wrong.
ad.

Subject: RE: Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead
From: gnu
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 11:16 PM

Awwww6 sheeeeiit.

Thanks, Tom. Say hi to Margo.

Subject: RE: Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead
From: bobad
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 11:13 PM

Canadian country-folk legend Stompin' Tom Connors died Wednesday at age 77. A few days earlier the musician penned a letter to fans that he wanted published after his death, his spokesman said. Here is a copy of the letter published on the singer's official website.

---

Hello friends, I want all my fans, past, present, or future, to know that without you, there would have not been any Stompin' Tom.

It was a long hard bumpy road, but this great country kept me inspired with its beauty, character, and spirit, driving me to keep marching on and devoted to sing about its people and places that make Canada the greatest country in the world.

I must now pass the torch, to all of you, to help keep the Maple Leaf flying high, and be the Patriot Canada needs now and in the future.

I humbly thank you all, one last time, for allowing me in your homes, I hope I continue to bring a little bit of cheer into your lives from the work I have done.

Sincerely,

Your Friend always,

Stompin' Tom Connors

Subject: RE: Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead
From: GUEST,999
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 11:07 PM

He ain't dead, he's just passed on.

Subject: RE: Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead
From: meself
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 10:54 PM

This is really sad, like losing someone in the family - some cousin you rarely see, but you know he's out their living larger than life ....

His first hit.

Subject: RE: Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead
From: Beer
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 10:28 PM

Damn.... My brother was hoping he would have done his song "Tamarack Jack". Tom would have been the right person for it.
Condolencee to all his fans and love ones.
Adrien

Subject: RE: Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead
From: iancarterb
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 09:58 PM

HOw will we keep track of what period the game is in now?

Subject: RE: Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 09:11 PM

Oh no!

Subject: Obit: Stompin' Tom Connors Dead
From: bobad
Date: 06 Mar 13 - 09:04 PM

Canadian music icon Stompin' Tom Connors has died at the age of 77.

A release on the folk musician's website confirms that Connors died of natural causes at his home in Ontario.

Connors is perhaps best well-known for "The Hockey Song," but has also released dozens of albums since the '60s.

Mudcat Beer's mom babysat him when he was just a tyke back in Skinner's Pond PEI.