Fred Eaglesmith
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Fred Eaglesmith

Band Americana Singer/Songwriter

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The best kept secret in music

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"Fred Eaglesmith..."

... is the kind of performer who would likely be famous if he weren't Canadian. -




- The Cowichan News Leader


"Fred Eaglesmith lands in Calgary"

If you're choosing Trivial Pursuit partners and you need a geography ringer, you might want to give Fred Eaglesmith a call.

That is, if you can find him.

The Canadian singer-songwriter is the consummate road warrior, having built a solid career playing for anyone who will have him.

He reckons he and his band average more than 300 shows a year and have visited 12 countries in the past 12 months -- from Paris, France a couple of months ago to Canmore, a couple of days ago.

"We were in Coalmont," Eaglesmith says of the old B.C. mining town. "Have you ever been to Coalmont? It's a bar. That's it. I think there was 20 people in town."

"But they drove from everywhere."

That's another hallmark of Eaglesmith's incredible career -- the blue-collar country rocker jokes he's built an audience "one at a time."

But so impressed are those who catch him and his no-nonsense show, they always bring a friend when they return -- which they inevitably do.

In fact, devout Eaglesmith fans have earned themselves their own name -- Fredheads.

And that word of mouth support has helped the musician remain staunchly independent, releasing 16 CDs on his own -- including the 1997 Juno-winner Drive-In Movie -- and thumbing his nose at the major labels along the way.

"I compare what I do to a farmer with a vegetable stand," says Eaglesmith, who performs tonight at the Ranchman's with his band The Flying Squirrels.

"It's at the end of the road, he sells his vegetables, he doesn't have to bring it to the big store in town. And it's better."

Eaglesmith's latest CD, Milly's Cafe, is yet another copper-coated look at the lives of this world's Everymen -- from truckers to cowboys, and the real, rural landscape they inhabit.



- By MIKE BELL -- Calgary Sun


"Milly's Cafe Review"

Ten new songs from this Canadian singer songwriter who likes to keep it fresh and interesting. This bare bones recording finds him in fine form once again and offering some more of his one of a kind observations on life and love. He doesn’t write or play like anyone else, he’s pretty much his own man and follows his own muse. That’s just a couple of the things we love about him. What we love most is when he has a new disc out for us to get lost in.

- Village Records Sound Scan


"Eaglesmith rocks the Max"

Tuesday April 04, 2006

Drayton Valley Western Review — With a sound that has been described as everything from roots rock to alternative country and bluegrass all the crowd at the Max was sure of was how much they liked the music Fred Eaglesmith and his band The Flying Squirrels shared with them when they took the stage last Friday night.
As an artist who’s made a name for himself as an independent artist and has travelled the world earning the respect of artists, critics and fans, he still remains thankful for what he has.
“A lot of small dreams that come true make life just fabulous,” he told the audience.
The crowd, which included ‘Fred’heads from as far away as Wainwright, Stettler and even Vancouver was the largest the Max has enjoyed for its entertainment series, and responded well to Eaglesmith’s mix of storytelling, humour and music.
Sitting down to chat after taking the time to sign autographs, pose for pictures and talk to fans old and new, Eaglesmith said the most important part of a show is establishing a ‘vibe’ with his audience. Once he’s done that, especially in smaller venues, he knows that he can reassure them that while the show is edgy, he won’t take them anywhere they don’t want to go.
Despite the accomplishments of his career, he doesn’t see himself as any different from the fans who come to see his shows.
“I’m just doing a good job for them because next week I may need them to do a good job for me,” he said.
And with a band consisting of musical veteran Willie P. Bennett on mandolin and harmonica, former merchandiser Kori Heppner, who learned drums specifically to play in the band and bassist Luke Stackhouse who Eaglesmith hired from his store in Ontario, it is a combination that does just that.
Eaglesmith and The Flying Squirrels put on a performance that brought the audience to their feet more than once and was a huge endorsement for the Max centre and the talent they’re bringing to Drayton Valley.

- Courtney Whalen


"Milly’s Café"

“Milly’s Cafe” is Fred Eaglesmith’s sixteenth release. It’s raw, bare-boned and totally Fred.

As his career has progressed, Fred’s mercurial song writing has defied description but has been pegged as bluegrass, folk, country and even rock n’ roll. His rootsy songs reflect and comment on life and how we live it. With his new album “Milly’s Cafe”, Eaglesmith’s smokey voice delivers songs that expose everything from the hard knock life of truckers in “18 Wheels”, thieves and cowboys in, “Milly’s Cafe”, and “Rocky” to the soft twilight beauty of the prairies “Kansas”. Eaglesmith’s lyrics turn the lives of everyday people into poem and song.

From his beginnings with self-titled debut album “Fred J. Eaglesmith” to the present, Eaglesmith’s lyric-driven songs have enticed audiences across the country.
“Milly’s Cafe” is no different. The album features a wealth of Canadian talent including Scott Merritt and long time band member Willie P. Bennett. “Milly’s Café” is currently available for purchase through Fred’s online store at, www.fredeaglesmith.com and will be available in stores throughout North America and Europe

“Milly’s Cafe” is where the story is told.

- 2006 Release from FRED J. EAGLESMITH


"Milly's Cafe Review"


Fred Eaglesmith loves the road. The fiercely independent Canadian singer/songwriter's 16th album listens like a stagecoach trip down Route 66, taking its own sweet time in order to sniff out every corner like an Old West Canterbury Tales. The Springsteen-esque opener, "18 Wheels," follows the plight of a lovelorn truckdriver trying to fight the urge to plead his way back into the arms of his estranged lover. It's a fitting start for Milly's Cafe, a sparse and determined collection of stories that refuses to ever break into a gallop -- even the rolling title cut, a Bonnie & Clyde-inspired tale of guns and redemption, barely achieves midtempo. Still, it's an affecting album that uses the space allotted to it as a strength. The languid "Summer Is Over" is all Ferris wheels and small-town lemonade, while the heartbreaking "Rocky," which follows the correspondence between two weathered and ailing cowboys withering away in separate retirement homes, keeps reality clearly in check. It's a road-trip record in the classic sense, and one that's got a confection for whatever mood you may find yourself in.

- All Music Guide


"Fred Eaglesmith"


Fred Eaglesmith's voice is as battered and creaky as the vehicles he sings about on ''Lipstick Lies and Gasoline'' (Razor and Tie). There's a 1963 Stratochief in ''Pontiac'' that's a getaway car for a messy stickup, and a rattletrap old truck in ''Water in the Fuel'' that the singer is driving away from a failed romance. In Mr. Eaglesmith's songs, things are always breaking down: gearshifts, love affairs, common morality. He writes with the bluntness of classic country: ''Don't ring that bell, don't sound that alarm/There ain't no use, she's already gone.'' And he responds to disappointment in classic American ways, like drinking, getting a gun, thinking about God, hitting the road. At heart, he knows the highway will only take him further from his hopes. Still, he's not giving up; his music clatters and twangs, like the Band with some blown gaskets, and he sounds too cantankerous not to get himself in more trouble.


- The New York Times


"Eaglesmith secret too well kept"


Published: Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Shaunt Parthev is definitely not your typical country music fan.

He's an Armenian immigrant who has never lived on a farm, a Saskatoon lawyer who pilots a Jaguar rather than a tractor.

But for reasons he can't quite explain, Parthev is a "Fredhead," one of a small band of intensely loyal fans who attend every Fred Eaglesmith concert they can and buy all the CDs they can find.

"For some reason, his songs speak to me every time I go to see him," says Parthev, who has seen the Canadian singer-songwriter about 12 times.

"My friend keeps laughing about the songs that I listen to. He says 'you know, when he's singing about foreclosure and the bank and the man, you do realize you are the man, not the guy being foreclosed on.' "

That doesn't matter to Parthev. He keeps a "Fredhead" pin stuck in the headliner of his car, where his six-CD changer is loaded with nothing but Eaglesmith. After a year or so, he considers adding a new one to the mix.

Every time Eaglesmith comes to Saskatoon, Parthev buys eight or 10 tickets and takes a group of friends. Inevitably, the experience won't be for everyone. It will leave a couple of people cold and a few more will thank Parthev politely and move on. But at least a couple of Parthev's guests will be hooked and new Fredheads will be born. They will come under the thrall of the Eaglesmith mystique that attracts people from miles around.

Like the local fellow who struggled to Saturday's show at the Concordia club a day after having his appendix out. (He said it was done laparascopically, so the sacrifice was manageable.) Or the Carnduff teacher at one of Eaglesmith's past shows, who left school at three in the afternoon and arrived a couple of minutes before showtime at eight. As soon as the show was over, he turned around and drove five hours back home, because he had to teach the next day.

They all have their reasons. Each Eaglesmith show is a unique blend of Canadian roots music, road stories and home-brewed political philosophy.

The man is part songwriter, part musician, part raconteur and part comedian. Depending on his mood, he will vary the proportions of those ingredients.

What doesn't change is his willingness to tell you exactly what he thinks. At every show, Eaglesmith offers up his views on a wide variety of topics, including the state of the music world (rap music will make you sterile), national politics and our "Canadian president"), child rearing, gun registration and popular culture, among other things.

His storytelling tends to compete with his singing for air time, but he's so damn funny, no one in the audience seems to care.

However, there's no doubt the real attraction is the songs. Eaglesmith is easily one of Canada's best songwriters, but the country has yet to fully wake up to it.

Other singers have, though. Eaglesmith has been covered by plenty of artists who know a good thing when they see it, such as The Cowboy Junkies, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings and Mary Gauthier, among others. If Bruce Springsteen had been born in the country instead of urban New Jersey, he might have sounded a bit like this.
Eaglesmith can be hopelessly sentimental, such as when he sings about an old cowboy dying of cancer brought on by a lifetime of chewing tobacco, or he can be a real hard-ass (and I mean that in a good way), such as when he sings that "it's time to get a gun."

He writes about snowplows and Indian motorcycles, steel guitars and broken hearts. You can get a feel for his work from song titles like Mighty Big Car, 49 Tons and especially, I Ain't Ever Givin' In.

Eaglesmith shuns the big record companies and plays no part whatever in the commercial music industry. His shows are often sparsely advertised, if at all, but it doesn't seem to hurt him any.

His popularity is driven by word of mouth and the Internet, where he sells his records and keeps his fans informed of his punishing tour schedule. The people who care are plugged in, so much so that they are bugging local promoter Rob Hodgins for tickets even before they go on sale.

Eaglesmith is part of the growing indie music scene, one of hundreds of artists that are making it outside the mainstream. They do it by putting out their own records, and running their own tours, playing in small halls and relying on word of mouth to build a following.

Eaglesmith has added a couple of wrinkles of his own, such as a musical train ride through the Rockies, and a couple of his own "Fredfests" where he hosts a number of other independent artists.

Northwinds Entertainment's Hodgins says there are many artists like Eaglesmith who are making a go of it off the commercial grid.

"These guys can be viable selling 5,000 to 10,000 units, where they could never be viable in the commercial industry unless they sold 100,000 units. There are just so many more mouths to feed there."

Even after 25 years in the business, Eaglesmith says he's perfectly happy if this is as good as it gets.

The other night at the Concordia club, he talked about driving by Credit Union Centre on his way into town, where he noticed all the assorted tour buses and semi-trailers it takes to tour a commercial country act like Brooks and Dunn.

He pays attention to things like that, he deadpans, because "sometimes I see those guys on their way down."

© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2006 - Randy Burton, The StarPhoenix


"Milly's Cafe"


Another masterpiece of Fred Eaglesmith, full of raw songs of heartbreak, hard times and truth.

- Sonic Rendezvous, NL


"Don't beware the Fredheads"


Beware of this: I'm going to talk about creative economy again.
How can I not, when next weekend Bellows Falls will be the scene of
the 7th Annual Roots on the River Festival. I've said before that
Bellows Falls has been a fine example of what one community can do to
enliven its culture through cross-promotion, teamwork and the simple
art of referrals. And the festival is proof-positive of this.
The key to this four-day festival (June 8-10) is the influx of
tourists, AKA Fredheads, that it draws into the village and
surrounding areas. Fans of Fred Eaglesmith, the marquee of the fest
with three headlining performances, come from the UK, Canada,
Holland, France and all over the U.S. to spend the weekend in BF.
Roots on the River organizer Charlie Hunter saw the potential for the
festival as a boost to the village economy after the first one in
1999, when he planned a two-day event set up in a space for 16 people
and 120 people showed up. The Eaglesmith fanbase was surprising and
inspiring for Hunter.
"It seemed natural to build a festival around that," Hunter said.
"Instead of overpaying some big star in the twilight of their
careers, base it on someone essentially unknown whose audience will
go out of their way to see him."
And where are all these out-of-towners going to stay? Well, they'll
start at the Everyday Inn where the mainstage music happens and most
of the diehard Fredheads have a room. From there, there are plenty of
options and Hunter has made sure to refer many of the inns and hotels
in and around BF.
Ronna Gendron, office manager at the Walpole Inn, said the weekend is
as much fun for employees as the guests. But it's also good business.
A lot of the band members and fans stay at the inn, and, Gendron
said, they rebook for the next year while they are checking out. The
inn is also the spot for the last Roots hoorah, the street hockey
tournament on Sunday.
Moore's Inn in Saxtons River is completely booked for the Roots
weekend, according to Innkeeper Carol Perley. Most of whom are repeat
customers.
"They're real nice and usually very happy," Perley said.
So with all of the lodging options booked up, the next thing is to
get all these people downtown and into the various businesses. Not a
problem. In true Bellows Falls style, everything is tied in to the
weekend. Hunter initiated a sticker game for ticketholders, in which
they can pick up stickers in the stores and trade them in for prizes.
Village Square Booksellers, one of the underwriters of the Roots
weekend, is participating in the sticker game, and owner Pat Fowler
said she sees a lot of visitors in her store every year.
"Anytime we have tourists coming in it's good for the community,"
Fowler said. "And it's not like we get rowdy people. They're here to
have a good time."
Then there's the addition of the village farmer's market to the Roots
event schedule, with two bands performing. The market has a local,
live band almost every Friday, but next Friday there will be about
200 more people browsing the booths. This is the third year the
farmer's market has been included in the festival. Organizer Bianca
Fernandez said it is the market's highest-grossing weekend by far.
"It's been a wonderful thing," Fernandez said. "And it gives a sense
of the cultural community."
BF lawyer Ray Massucco, a longtime volunteer for the festival, says
the benefits are widespread. The fans want to be supportive of where
they are, he said.
"These folks have disposable income," Massucco said. " They buy gas,
clothing, music, stay at the local inns, they go the museums."
And by all accounts the Fredheads are nothing to be afraid of.
"This has got to be the happiest group of people I've met in my
life," Massucco said. "They are incredibly outgoing and friendly."
Aside from a little late night music in the Everyday Inn parking lot,
Hunter said, residents get along fine with them,
"They're super people. We've never had one arrest or one complaint," he
said.
All of the above are good reasons to hit the village next weekend to
catch some new bands, hear some old ones and maybe do a little
Fredhead-watching.
- Jana Marx, Features Editor


Discography

* TINDERBOX (2008)

• Milly’s Cafe (2006)
• The Official Fred Eaglesmith Bootleg, Volume 2 (2005)
• Dusty (2004)
• The Official Fred Eaglesmith Bootleg, Volume 1 (2003)
• Balin (2003)
• Falling Stars and Broken Hearts (2002)
• Ralph's Last Show - Live in Santa Cruz (2001)
• 50-Odd Dollars (1999)
• Lipstick Lies and Gasoline (1997)
• Drive-In Movie (1995)
• From the Paradise Motel (1994)
• Things Is Changin' (1993)
• There Ain't No Easy Road (1991)
• Indiana Road (1987)
• The Boy That Just Went Wrong (1983)
• Fred J. Eaglesmith (1980)

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

• Canadian singer/songwriter/comedian/painter with 18 CDs to his credit.
• He has spent the past decade performing (solo and with his band) at more than 250 venues per year.
• He tours Canada, the US, Holland, the UK and Australia.
• He has won both a Juno and a Canadian Independent Music award.
• His songs have been covered by Toby Keith, Kasey Chambers, The Cowboy Junkies, Chris Knight, Mary Gauthier, Dar Williams and Blackie and The Rodeo Kings.
• His songs have appeared in Martin Scorsese, James Caan, and Toby Keith movies.
• He writes about Everyman – truck drivers, snowplough operators, small town boys with authenticity and poignancy.
• He attracts a contingent of ultra-devoted fans, who are known as "Fredheads".
• He owns his own record label and may be one of music's most successful indie acts.
• His paintings have a minimum of 3 showings per year.

You can contact Kori at:
korirocks@yahoo.ca
To have your enquiry directed to the appropriate person.