Stompin' 2.0

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"Pips was a partially blind English bulldog with a protruding jaw that made him look like Mom when she was mad." (Dogman. by Kurt F. Suss.)

"...a protruding jaw that made him look like Mom when she was mad!"  I sure wish I had written that. 

Dogman's full of colourful story telling. And it brims over with love of dogs and love of family in equal measures.

I happened to meet the writer, Suss, a professional dog guy a few months ago. And every once in a while I get to know somebody I want to yell to the world about.

Okay okay. I've ever met anybody boring. True fact. Scratch any person's surface--never mind scratching, just ask--you'll get drama.

That said.

If Pete's Blog&Grille was a podcast, Suss would be a regular guest for as many weeks as it takes him to share the stories behind each of the songs on his two CDs.

(I'd have told you about these recordings sooner but  I don't have a CD player in the house any more. Just the car. I had to wait til I took a reasonably long drive, which was last week.)

Every song is about a Canadian legend. Or ghost story. Or obscure piece of history that you probably don't know.

Case in point, first time I heard Mad Trapper, I was northbound on Sorauren Avenue, which is adjacent to the street we live on. About 30 seconds into Dark Day in Saint Thomas, his lyrics actually made me, say, out loud, "Really?" 

And then, a second later, his lyric was "Yeah," as if he could have heard me. And then I got a bit blue. The song's about Jumbo the elephant getting killed in St. Thomas, Ont. I had no idea.

Another? Cloud 11. Hands up anybody who remembers the escaped inmate Donald Kelly who was making headlines around Ontario back in the '70s, as he outran the law. Cloud II was a tracking dog that got killed in the process.

WANT TO CONTACT KURT: Try 'Hey Siri! Who's the world's
worst self promoter? Or try isiscanine@hotmail.com.

Not all the songs are dark.

On the same album as the Jumbo song are not one but TWO bus songs! 

Two bus ballads!

My mom and dad have a bus carved on to their gravestone. 

Last century, a few weeks before I met Helena, my dad gave me my very own 44-passenger school bus because he had no use for it anymore. Who else do you know had one of those?  

But I digress. 

A Bus Just Like Neil's is a tribute to Neil Young's touring vehicle, and The Little Blue Bus is a Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, French fry place that, according to Suss's lyrics, even Stompin' Tom Connors approved of. 

Did I say Stompin' Tom? Are you, like me, thinking Stompin Tom 2.0?

Kurt would be chuffed. (Good name for a song: Suss got chuffed!)

He's a huge Connors fan and believes he  ran into the late singer long ago, before Connors was a household name. (Which he is, in Canada, in case anybody Stateside's reading this.) 

Recalls Suss: "I actually met him [Connors] once but didn't know who he was. I was 16 and dating a girl whose sister worked for a sound studio in Toronto. I occasionally helped out a bit with making sounds for TV productions.. Tom was there previewing one I think I may have even got him a pop." 

Suss can tell a story.  

Here's the thing. 

Suss told me he's on the lookout for more Canadian stories and legends to sing about.  

Which brings me back to that beautiful old bus I owned when I met Helena. 

Pop star Don McLean was a lonely teenage broncin' buck with a pink carnation and a pickup truck. 

I'll start by telling Kurt F. Suss,  I was all alone but I owned a bus.

I am on to something here..