At Home in Hespeler

Tom Cochrane has been making noise that Take It Home, his 13th studio album, might be his last. At 61-years old, apparently Cochrane thinks it may be time to hang them up.

That would be too bad.

Take it Home is Cochrane’s 6th album since he dropped the Red Rider billing, and it’s a solid album. Cochrane is a songwriter first, and his writing doesn’t let him down. While there may be no Life is a Highway or Big League in the collection, Sunday Afternoon Hang and Country Girls Never Get Old are close enough for 2015.

Take it Home is, in reality, a basic Tom Cochrane album. There’s no shocks here, no breakout songs. Just well crafted songs in the rock vein, with hints of folk and country sprinkled throughout. It’s what Cochrane has always done. If you’ve liked Tom Cochrane’s previous work, then you’ll find Take It Home is a decent album.

Track list

1. Can’t Stay Here
2. Sunday Afternoon Hang
3. Diamonds
4. Country Girls Never Get Old
5. When the Lights Start to Fade
6. Pink Time
7. First Time Around
8. The Ones That I’ve Known
9. Another Year
10. A Prayer for Hope
11. Back in the Game

Album release, Record Release, Review Big League, Country Girls Never Get Old, Life is a Highway, Red Rider, Sunday Afternoon Hang, Take it Home, Tom Cochrane

There’s a little Canadian content on today’s Google Doodle. Honouring the 50th anniversary of the Canadian Flag, clicking on the doodle brings you to a search page for National Flag of Canada Day.

Here’s a screenshot of the doodle:

Uncategorized Canada, Doodle, Flag, Google, Maple Leaf

Former Coney Hatch guitarist/singer/songwriter Carl Dixon says of his autobiography, Strange Way to Live: A Story of Rock ‘n’ Roll Resurrection, in the Authors Note:

If you find it’s not up to your standards, I strongly urge you to just put it aside. Don’t waste time or thought or energy in condemning the writer. He has told his story as well as he could.

That’s alright, I suppose, but one wonders what’s the point of being a critic if not tocondemn the writers?

Fortunately, I quite enjoyed Strange Way to Live. It was fun reading a rock’n’roll-ography and I personally knew many of the small towns the performer trod as an up and comer. Dixon traipsed North Bay to Barry to Orangeville, all places within my realm: no Epson Downs or M1 to Newcastle here.

Dixon’s story is one of devotion to his craft, high success and struggling to keep his career going. After Coney Hatch he worked as a professional songwriter, did a stint in the past their prime Guess Who and another with April Wine. He tells his story with some humbleness and a sense of self-examination, without downplaying his accomplishments with over-modesty.

Strange Way to Live: A Story of Rock ‘n’ Roll Resurrection is a good, quick read, enjoyable even if you’re not specifically a Coney Hatch fan.

Book Review April Wine, Carl Dixon, Coney Hatch, Guess Who, Strange Way to Live

If you are an author an hoping your next time is Pulitzer material, put that manuscript back in the drawer and hold off a year: 2015 now has a favourite. To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee has announced the release of her second book, fifty-five years after her first.

Go Set a Watchman was actually written before To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel features the main character from Mockingbird, Scout, twenty years later and living in New York. According to Lee:

My editor, who was taken by the flashbacks to Scout’s childhood, persuaded me to write a novel from the point of view of the young Scout.

A copy of the thought lost manuscript recently was discovered. So the sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird, in which adult Scout returns to Maycomb Alabama from New York, was written before To Kill a Mockingbird, and now, released fifty-five years later.

Like I say, put away those Pulitzer ambitions for a year, at least until we’ve had a chance to read Go Set a Watchman, which is due for release July 14th.

Books Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird