Doc Walker musicians have seen two decades of country radio trends come and go.
At one time, the Manitoba-based group was considered too hard-driving for many stations. “We were told we were ‘too rock’ with (the songs) This Show is Free and Get Up. They said we didn’t have enough fiddle,” recalled the group’s lead singer and electric guitar player, Chris Thorsteinson.
Now that the group recorded a new tune, complete with violin accompaniment, for its 20th anniversary best-of album, Echo Road, “we’re getting: ‘That’s too traditional.’
“It goes to show that you can never really please everybody,” concluded Thorsteinson, who performs with his band on Friday, Oct. 28, at the International Beer Haus in Red Deer.
Since country music has donned and shed various influences over the years — from pop to rock to disco — and intermittently swung between outlaw country, honky tonk and alt-country, Thorsteinson said, “It’s a good thing that we try to make music that crosses boundaries.”
The band formed by Thorsteinson and his school buddy Dave Wasyliw (acoustic guitarist and backup vocalist) in the mid 1990s has been releasing songs that weren’t quite on trend, yet were still embraced by listeners.
“Rocket Girl was like nothing else on radio,” he recalled. “And That Train and Driving With the Breaks On also dealt with subject matter that didn’t fall into the context of what was being played on radio at the time…”
The 20 tracks selected for the new Echo Road album, which celebrates the band’s two-decade anniversary, include such hits as Rocket Girl and Beautiful Life — but also presents lesser known songs the band is partial to. Thorsteinson said the title track of Echo Road was originally recorded for the Beautiful Life album. It was supposed to get released as single, but didn’t, so Echo Road never got the attention it deserved, “but it’s still one of my favourites.”
The musicians wanted to also give fans a couple of new songs. They wrote an homage to country living, Heaven on Dirt (which contains the fiddle accompaniment), and also finally recorded a unique cover of the Dan Seals song, They Rage On. The tune performed in four-part harmony has long been a favourite of live audiences, said Thorsteinson.
Looking back, he can’t believe it’s been 20 years of touring and recording for Doc Walker. “I’ve got three kids, and when they were babies, people would tell us, ‘You’d better enjoy it because soon they’ll be walking and talking and going to school,’ and the kids are all in school now.”
In the meantime, Doc Walker has collected Canadian Country Music Awards, more than 20 Top 10 hits from nine albums, and has been from one end of the country to another. “Definitely it seems to have happened fast,” said Thorsteinson.
“I still remember the first time we drove to Halifax and played the boardwalk there… we saw all these people singing our lyrics. And, being from Manitoba, I remember thinking: Wow! This is a really cool thing!”
For more information about the show, please contact the venue.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com