When Steve Kado produced “It’s True” I made an agreement with myself to let him do whatever he wanted even if it didn’t make sense to me because that’s what I expect from people I produce and rarely get it. The only insurance I had was bringing songs I wasn’t attached to so if I hated the results I wouldn’t cry later. But I liked results and some songs which were dead for me came alive like Queen of Sheeba which ironically was the song most people told me they liked the most, go figure.

I think I’m thinking about it today because I played with Ron Hawkins last night. The thread here is that Ron’s voice reminds me of Elvis Costello and my song (preSteve Kado) also reminded me of Elvis Costello.

I saw Elvis Costello in 1979 at the Playhouse in Winnipeg. It was a bit of a drag because I bought myself a single ticket and some kid was there with his father and their seats were on either side of me because I guess he didn’t want people to see him there with his dad. Worse my plan to alter my state of consciousness was complicated by not wanting to be witnessed by the youth or chastised by his dad so at intermission I ran outside to do my business privately and lost everything to a strong Winnipeg wind. Some might say oi vey at this point.

Even more memorable was the opening act The Battered Wives maybe the worst band I ever saw. I didn’t get it. Toby Swann spit at the audience or at least somebody near the front told me so the next day at school. I was so unimpressed 6 years later when Greg drove me to the first Blue Rodeo rehearsal and bragged that the drummer was in the Battered Wives. Yawn, I thought but as it turned out Cleave was a king. I guess there’s some lesson there about what one assumes and what might not necessarily be so.

I was going to insert a Battered Wives video below but in truth I still don’t like it (don’t defriend on Facebook me Toby) so I put this in instead.