The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 35

MJu THE OTTAWA CITIZEN FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1990 63 i NIGHTS 01 M'S. if! 'For me to create the music I want, I need to get 1 BARR HOPPING Greg Barr away from the rigors of the music scene and develop if on, if I hear your song on the radio one more time I think I'm gonna puke. Those words, spoken in jest ideas A JK to Larry Gowan by Ronnie Hawkins in early 1985, foreshadowed the imminent end of Gowan's six-month stint as the piano man in Hawkins's notorious rockabilly review. The song was Criminal Mind, Gowan's big break, which established his solo career. Still, he had mixed feeling about leaving Hawkins's entourage.

"I love those '50s songs Ronnie does. They have fantastic piano parts," said Gowan. "We had done one of those car shows Ronnie plays a lot but a of the younger kids there made the connection with Criminal Mind and wanted to talk to me. So, I had to tell Ronnie that was it." For his new club tour that stops at Barrymore's Saturday ($18 advance) Gowan will still be tinkling the ivories. i He won't be thrashing out the Jerry Lee Lewis chops, but instead, he'll be playing his own intuitive, powerful thinking-man's rock perched behind a 'reVolving electronic keyboard rack.

I wanted to do what we did in 1985. Do some clubs with everybody jammed in. These shows are for the and to generate some excitement for the new record." Gowan's fans expect his album to I Mike Abrams. Citizen tittilate the senses and to paint inti PAUL HYDE Just trying to be true to himself By Evelyn Erskine Citizen correspondent iaul Hyde's current tour has turned into a search for I the lost chord. It all began when he went solo last year.

The Ca nadian singer-songwriter wanted to change how he I Vfr i Hyde: Working on second release mate tales with the dark colors of the epiotional palate. He took almost three years to write the material for his latest album Lost Brotherhood. His previous release was 1987's itcs. Great Dirty World. A "In the first couple of years the record company would say, 'Is it ready, is it But for me to create the music I want I need to get away from the rigors of the music scene and develop ideas.

Unless you're cranking out records like the New Kids on the Block, making an album is something I need as long as possible to do." Gowan has always surrounded himself with stellar musicians. For the latest album he worked with Alex Life-son of Rush, Ken Greer of Red Rider, and bassist Tony Levin, of Peter band. "I didn't want guys who just wanted to copy the sound from my previous records. I wanted people who could perform, sort of a musical brotherhood," he said. I "Alex took the tapes home and knocked off all these amazing parts.

And Ken, well the first thing he did was sit down at a steel guitar and create, all sorts of parts I never would have imagined." No nukes benefit the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade has a benefit concert lined up Saturday at Club SAW at the SAW Gallery to raise funds for operating expenses. The benefit features Seventh Fire, The Purple Martins and The Parliament Hillbillies, a spinoff of the Dol-larbillies who perform at ZBs Tuesdays. Tickets are $7.50 for low-income, $10 for others at the door. Showtime is p.m. Modern traditionalist As traditional and folk music groups such as Fairport Convention and Steel-eye Span made their mark in England, Malicorne forged its territory in France.

Malicorne's founder, Gabriel Yacoub, has continued that tradition by including a blend of medieval and Renaissance musical genres into a haunting solo performance using voice and guitar. Yacoub, who sings mainly in French, typically adds English introductions and explanations about the history of his songs and inspiration. He performs Saturday at Jack Purcell Community Centre at 320 Elgin ($12 cover, $10 for Old Sod Folk Music members). Concert gossip The Northern Pikes play Carleton Porter Hall Nov. 10.

Advance tickets are $12 for Carleton students, $14 others at independent record stores and the university This one's a few months off, but anyone old enough to know these bands need plenty of time for the reality to sink in: The Esquires, Five Man Electrical Band, The Five and Octavian play a benefit show at the Civic Centre Salons March 9. Ottawa funksters FurnaceFace are set for another gruelling North American tour, covering 21 cities between Nov. 2 and Dec. 2. They'll give it a test run tonight at Zaphod Beeblebrox ($5 cover) in which the trio will emerge from the belly of a huge Chinese parade dragon, among other things The Hayloft on Rideau Street begins a free jazz-duo series every Friday at 8 p.m in the lounge through Dec.

7. Tonight's opener features Jim McCreary and Dave Ward. Guitarist Colin Linden, who's been producing records and hanging out with members of The Band these days, plays The Rainbow Dec. 8-10, replacing Little Ed The Imperials. No word on a rescheduled date The New Penguin is expanding its musical offerings yet again: Matt Minglewood performs Nov.

22 and Prairie Oyster is booked Dec. 19. As far as the usual blues-type acts, an interesting one is lined up Dec. 5-6 with harmonica guy Billy Branch, featured on the new Harp Attack album with James Cotton. Haywire, PEI's most noted export since the potato, plays Barrymore's Nov.

9, supporting a new album. Others confirmed at the club in November: The Phantoms Nov. 24 and blues-man John Hammond for two solo shows Nov. 26. Bus-package tickets for the PoisonWarrant double-bill at the Montreal Forum Nov.

27 go on sale Tuesday at TicketMaster for $69 plus surcharges. Concert-only tickets are on sale the same day at the Voyageur Ticketron outlet Mano Negra has dropped off the Iggy Pop tour, including a show Nov. 13 at Porter Hall. saw music, so Turtle Island pared it back to the bone. Now, as Hyde grapples with the writing of his second release, he is trying to figure out just how much to put back on the rack.

"We sometimes joke on stage that we're trying to find that right blend of folk music and heavy metal. That's not so far from the truth," he laughs. Hyde performs with his band tonight at Barrymore's. Hyde had always worked with other people first as a co-founder of The then as a duo with Bob Rock. But something was missing.

"I found that with Bob (Rock), I would write something. He would write something. Then it would turn into this third entity which we both liked but wasn't really true to either of us. Doing the solo album allowed me to do something that was true to me." The music that resulted from those collaborations had always been heavily produced. Rock became increasingly intrigued by the production process and has become a much sought-after producer.

Hyde, for his part, became curious about the song that lay at the bottom of the heap of arrangements. "All those songs were originally written on just acoustic guitar and piano. I decided I wanted to get back to that naked song." Turtle Island was part of that journey. It was a semi-acoustic blend of traditional folk instruments and electric guitars. But Hyde realized he had to take it further.

After an official tour of the album, he picked up an acoustic guitar and went out to perform as a folk musician. Then he formed a basic trio and the one-time rock 'n' roller headed out to the folk festivals. It was through this that Hyde realized that going solo had not been the scary part. It was standing on stage with only an acoustic guitar. "It's quite different doing something bare-faced on acoustic guitar than it is with all the lights, camera, action, keyboards and guitars.

I was a bit nervous about it at first, but I'm used to it now. I've become confident about performing in a naked way." Hyde feels he is working backwards on this tour. It's a semi-acoustic four-piece with a drummer, but no keyboards. A mandolin player occasionally plays electric guitar. This is not the final band, though.

Hyde is considering another electric guitar. "I'm trying to find the next album's music how much instrumentation to use without using too much. A great way of working this out is to just see what happens on tour. The guys I'm working with don't stick to the same format. They pull different things out of the bag each night.

We're getting to see different ways of doing things." The sound Hyde is most happy with so far is something he calls "mud-swamp music." He is not quite sure what that is. The New Orleans connotation baffles him most. He has no idea where that came from. It is like a ghost in the machine. "It's thfurthest influence there is for me.

All I know is that it sounds good when it's done like that." ft Jr. Gone Wild: Edmonton-based band does some growing up By Roch Parisien Citizen correspondent I r. Gone Wild is growing up. The Edmonton-based band, which in the mid-'80s chose a name evoking images of rebellious youth, brings the more mature mi I jr 3 i a 4 ri i 1 mM One element bringing out the country flavor in the new collection of Jr. Gone Wild songs is the use of some tasty pedal steel guitar! a sound that McDonald had "always heard in my head, but was afraid the record company would throw the word 'budget' at me." It turned out that the guitar player's uncle was an accomplished pedal steel guitarist and a veteran road musician.

"He said he'd be proud to play on the record. He was so good that he did it mostly all on first takes." The recently expanded six-piece band has since added a permanent pedal steel player and a keyboardist for its live show. Long-time fans of the group will be relieved that with songs such as Third Most Stupidest Guy You Know and Cliche Song, Jr. Gone Wild has not abandoned its tongue-in-cheek humor. "Bands I hate the most are ones that put out those serious, black-and-white, arty press photos with shadows, where everyone's looking in a different direction, and they've all got perfect haircuts.

I can't get into that sombre kind of attitude to art. It's supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be rock'n'roll. Thankfully, the world is still amusing me to no end." One of the amusing ironies of life that McDonald still savors is that Stony Plains, the record company to which the group is signed, is distributed and promoted by entertainment giant WEA Music. "The funniest thing was holding the WEA rejection letter we'd gotten last year beside the WEA press release from this year saying how great we are." sounds of its latest Too Dumb to Quit album to Zaphod Beeblebrox Saturday night.

One might assume, given the title, that the four years of growing pains between its independent Less Art More Pop release and the new album have not gone that smoothly. "None of us could remember any more what the original idea behind the band was," says leader Mike McDonald about the group's earlier incarnation as a '60s-inspired, jangly-guitar driven band. "We claimed we did everything by democratic decision, which meant that if one person didn't want to do something, we didn't do it. I saw a lot of missed opportunities go zipping by. "We had that jingle-jangle sound, but I wanted to go beyond that and show influences from the later Byrds also.

Get more rough sounding, in a Neil Young-Crazy Horse sort of way." So McDonald took control of the group, inviting members not willing to get serious to leave, and worked hard to cement musical and music industry credibility. Too Dumb To Quit "the title also reflects on the fact that we refused to move from Edmonton when everyone else was" displays a wide range of pop sounds with a strong country influence. McDonald gives due credit for the ex- 11 lit I 1 i I I CI -J r-'t Lrt LL2 2 From left, Ed Dobek, Dove, Mike McDonald, Steve Loree, Ford Pier 5 well, and worked us really hard." While Henderson made the band retake songs over and over again during the recording session, the musicians exacted revenge when their producer added his distinctive guitar sound to Akit's Hill "He wanted to do it over a few times, but we only let him do it once." panded sonic range to producer Bill Henderson, former guitarist-vocalist for '70s Vancouver band Chilliwack. "Chilliwack was a guitaristvocal-oriented band and so are we. Bill understands what it's like to be a musician on the road, and related to what we were all about.

He got into it really.