The Sooke Folk Music Society is proud to present its new concert series with one of Canada’s folk music legends, Bob Bossin.

“Only a handful of song writers have created a body of work that constitutes a portrait of our country. Stan Rogers did that. So did Gordon Lightfoot. And so does Bob Bossin.” - Stuart Mclean, CBC’s Vinyl Cafe.

For 40 years, Bob Bossin has turned Canada’s people into stories, and her stories into songs. The founder of the legendary Canadian folk group, Stringband (and the purveyor of 9,000 bottles of Bossin’s Home Remedy for Nuclear War) is, according to The Edmonton Journal, a “quintessentially Canadian” performer with, according to Utah Phillips, “the ear of a poet, a painter’s eye and the wit of a true common sense philosopher.”

Over the years, Bossin has left a musical trail of (as Peter Gzowski once put it), “wonderful songs that linger in a lot of people’s memories.” Songs like Ya Wanna Marry Me?, The Maple Leaf Dog, Dief Will Be the Chief Again, Tugboats, The Secret of Life According to Satchel Paige, Show Us the Length, and That Silly French Song. Songs that have been sung by, among others, Valdy, Ian Tyson and Pete Seeger, who called Bossin, “funny, informative and inspiring at the same time.”

Bossin has performed all over the world and recorded a dozen albums. His CD, Gabriola V0R1X0 was hailed as “one of the best Canadian folk music CDs ever.” (Northern Journey)

A dozen years later, The Roses on Annie’s Table was released to equally glowing reviews. “This is what Lou Reed might have written if he lived on Gabriola Island,” said CBC’s Jeff Goodes; “Bob Bossin is a Canadian folk hero for good reason… (Roses is) a glorious patchwork quilt with many riveting images and soul-revealing truths,” wrote Joseph Blake in the Times Colonist.

Bob’s music video, Sulphur Passage, directed by documentary-maker Netti Wild, won a half dozen international awards and helped save B.C.’s Clayoquot Sound. And Canadian folk music fans are delighted to have the best of Bossin’s work with Stringband collected in the CD box set, The Indispensable Stringband.

When Bossin is not writing music, he is writing something else. His essays and journalism have appeared in most major Canadian newspapers and magazines. (In 2003, he was nominated for a National Magazine Award. In 2007, his short story, Latkes, won second prize in the Antigonish Review’s literary competition.) His play, Bossin’s Home Remedy for Nuclear War had some 200 performances in Canada, the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.

His book, Settling Clayoquot (about the early years of settlement on the West Coast of Vancouver Island), sold 10,000 copies. Bossin even wrote poetry (published by House of Anansi Press, among others), but was tempted away by the bright lights and big bucks of Canadian folk music.

Bossin lives on Gabriola Island B.C., with his partner, fabric-artist Elizabeth Shefrin, his two children, and an Australian cattle dog.

For more information, or to hear samples of Bob’s music, see The Old Folksinger’s Homepage, www.bossin.com.

The concert series kicks off on November 22, at the Holy Trinity Anglican Church, 1962 Murray Road in Sooke.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m. with the show commencing at 8 p.m.. Tickets at the door. Advance tickets are available at Freedom Arts in Sooke.

Dave Gallant

Contributor