HALTON HILLS, Ont. -- Stompin' Tom Connors says the most personal and difficult song he has ever written is the title track from his 50th album, The Ballad of Stompin' Tom, in stores tomorrow.
The tune tells the story of the 72-year-old Canadian country-folk legend's life, beginning with his hardscrabble childhood in Saint John, N.B., then on the road with his unwed teenaged mother, begging and hitch-hiking, until she was arrested for theft. Eventually, at the age of nine, Connors was adopted by a family who had a farm in Skinner's Pond, P.E.I.
It was all documented in his first 1997 autobiography, Before the Fame, but Connors said writing, recording and singing about it was another experience entirely.
"It's the first song that I wrote about myself," said Connors, seated at the kitchen table in his southern Ontario home, where the usually reclusive singer, decked out in his trademark head-to-toe black including a Stetson, recently invited media for an album-listening session.
"It's my own life and when you write about yourself, you're going to relive it. It's like when I wrote my autobiography -- you have to sit down and relive it all over again, and there were more unpleasant times than there were pleasant so when you gotta relive all that, it kind of gets you thinking and you shed the odd tear."
Guests gathered in Connors' wood-panneled bar, complete with a pool table, pool tournament trophies, musical intruments and antlers mounted on the walls, and a juke box full of tunes by himself, Wilf Carter and Hank Williams.
His friendly son, Tom Jr., served drinks and took visitors downstairs for a tour of the awards and memorabilia room in the basement (missing were those six Junos he returned in the '70s to protest the Americanization of the Canadian music industry) while his lovely wife Lena made sure everyone had what they needed.
With a cigarette holder in one hand and a beer in the other, Connors held court, explaining about half of the 16 tracks on the new record, which includes a rerecording of his beloved The Hockey Song, and even broke into a spontaneous performance of Bud the Spud on an acoustic guitar.
He explained he was motivated to write The Ballad of Stompin' Tom after seeing a popular play of the same name, written by David Scott. The play had its debut two years ago in Blyth, Ont., and has since travelled to other playhouses around the country.
"The play stirred me to the point where I laughed and I cried," said Connors. "And I didn't think I would get that emotional about a play about myself. Who knows your life better than yourself? So I had some tears."
Amazingly, despite having penned roughly 250 songs over the last 40-plus years (he's believed to be the most patriotic songwriter in the world in terms of writing about his own country) Connors has never had a song on what he calls "the hit parade" because commercial radio has always rejected his unique sound.
And he doesn't expect any radio play for any of the tunes on the new record.
"I'm not looking for a pat on the back for any of this stuff," said Connors, who doesn't plan to tour until next year. "I'm trying to do something for my country, really, and my songs, the lyrics, relate to the people of the country because that's exactly what I try to do.
"Canada is about the only country that I know of, in all the places that I've been, where you can't hear Canadian music on Canadian radio. That's what bothers me. I mean I have songs for all over the country, hoping that somebody somewhere will play them so that Canadians will know there's somebody singing about Canada.
"It's been frustrating all my life."
