Saturd80's: Stan Rogers Edition

A terrific song writer, with a magnificent voice, I don't think I've ever featured Stan Rogers here before. This first one, "Fisherman's Wharf," laments the loss of the traditional fishing life of Canada's Maritime region, and some thirty years later, still gives me goosebumps.

Rodgers died tragically young, at age 33, in a fire on board an airliner, which makes his musical accomplishment all that much more stunning. Despite his relative youth, his knowledge of- and respect for-  Canada's laboring class never ceases to move me. "Rawdon Hills" is his ode to gold mining.

And "The Field Behind the Plow" has given me a whole new perspective on farming... you can hear their struggle to get it all done, in their short 16-hour days.

"Watch the field behind the plow turn to straight, dark rows
Feel the trickle in your clothes, blow the dust cake from your nose
Hear the tractor's steady roar, Oh you can't stop now
There's a quarter section more or less to go "

I think the highest praise I can offer Stan is that I can't think of a single one of his songs that I don't at least like, and the vast majority of them, I feel even more positively about.

"Put another season's promise in the ground." You did, Stan, you did.