Ray St.Germain

Life Ain’t Hard: Ray St. Germain sums up an ongoing career that’s already run for 50 years — and it’s as solid as ever

They don’t make ‘em like the legendary Ray St. Germain any more.

Here he is, still writing songs that overflow with heart and truth, still making records, still performing to sell out crowds and receiving standing ovations as Manitoba’s Entertainer of the Year, and still cropping up on television and making your living room a brighter place.

It’s what Ray St. Germain does – and he’s been doing it for a long time. He’s not shy and he’ll tell you he joined his first band when he was 14, and that was back in 1954. When reading the conventional artist’s biography, you will quickly realize how this young Metis Prairie boy blew audiences away with his early hip-swiveling rockabilly — years later he said: “I wanted to be Elvis. So what was I doing in Moose Jaw?”

And what was he doing in Toronto and Montreal and Halifax and Vancouver and every single town in between? Not to mention those overseas trips to Germany and Cyprus and Israel? The answer: becoming a committed, professional artist who delivered the sort of shows that loyal fans by the thousands were seen cheering on their feet.

As a youngster in Winnipeg, Ray learned his trade in the traveling country band led by
Hal Lone Pine, and rooming with a teenaged Lenny Breau (Lone Pine’s son), who later became one of the most remarkable jazz guitarists in history. Ray also learned his trade at a time when building a national reputation in Canada, with limited airplay for Canadian artists, was a great deal harder.

A television career

What made it work for Ray St. Germain was a television career, unlike any other. Hosting over 600 National Television shows on CBC, Global and the Aboriginal People’s Television Network (APTN), Ray began with music specials for the CBC in Toronto, syndicated series back in Winnipeg, Regina and Saskatoon, including Big Sky Country that ran nationally for 13 years and some 200 shows — and, more recently, music series for the Aboriginal Peoples’ Television Network.

It hasn’t always been easy. Tastes change, careers wax and wane, tours, and television series, come and go. Although Ray spent 10 years as the Radio Program Manager for NCIfm, he also produced and hosted the Metis Hour X 2, for the Manitoba Metis Federation, which aired and continues to do so every Saturday on NCIfm and internationally on the web.

Throughout the years and the changes and challenges, there was always Ray’s family to support him — five children, four grandchildren, all in the music business, and his wife, Glory, of more than 30 years. These are the people who remain the rock solid foundation of his life, and the inspiration to keep making music and the music he loves.

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The songs and the music matter most of all

Ray always found his way back to music, and his reward has been acknowledgements of his work by the communities he has always been part of. These honours include the Aboriginal Order of Canada, induction into the Manitoba Aboriginal Hall of Fame, and no less than four awards from the Manitoba Association of Country Arts.

Just as important, his career as a songwriter and recording artist has continued; the first years of the 21st century have seen the release of four CDs (in addition to no less than nine previously released albums) containing everything from Gospel to Country.

Ray’s latest work, Life Ain’t Hard, is the perfect illustration of the oft-repeated maxim, “write what you know.” Most of the tunes on the CD, released on the GR label out of Winnipeg, are written by Ray. They include straight-up rockers like Mother Trucker’s Son and ’Cause I’m a Travellin’ Man (which hearken back to his rockabilly youth), a powerful ballad, We All Make Mistakes Sometimes, and the reflective Blue Melody.

It’s the title track, however, that sums up an honest, decent, hard-working lifetime of entertaining people:

”Some say life ain’t easy,
I say life ain’t hard.
I gotta good woman, I gotta real big car,
I live good livin’, and that’s why LIFE AIN’T HARD.

Ray St. Germain’s philosophy as always continues in the lines of his songs.

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For more information:

www.raystgermainmusic.com

Glory St.Germain
GR Records/Gloryland Promotions
Ph/Fax: (204)832-3800

Partial Funding by Manitoba Film & Sound