The Weakerthans Stay Strong and Free

Source: By Michael Barclay

Posted: 11/05/07 12:30PM

Filed Under: Music

Only a Canadian band would ever write a punk rock song about curling. But the preferred pastime of small-town retirees, which is the setting for “Tournament of Hearts” off the new Weakerthans album 'Reunion Tour,' is not the only Canadian concern of bandleader John K. Samson.

Elsewhere on the record, he sings about a man who spots a sasquatch. Another is about a bus driver who passes his time reciting names of Canadian provinces. There’s a spoken-word piece about legendary NHL goalie Gump Worsley. “Hymn for a Medical Oddity” is written from the perspective of Winnipeg’s David Reimer, who underwent an involuntary sex change operation at birth. And though Samson denies it, the lyrics to “Sun in an Empty Room” may well be a metaphor for the type of branch plant economy that defines Canada in 2007.

It’s obvious Samson has an eye for some of the more unusual corners of the Canadian psyche. But he’s extremely hesitant to locate these tales inside any sort of national identity—the kind that academics in literature and history are always grasping to define. Samson even goes so far as to say that there was a time when he would deny that he was even a Canadian artist.

“Theoretically, to me, [the idea of a national identity] just doesn’t work,” he says. “I don’t know why that should be true—the evidence is clear that there is, and I fit right in there. Maybe on this record I embraced it a bit more. There are some obvious nods to the Canadian vernacular and society.”

Starting, of course, with the curling. “No one really knows all those curling terms I'm using. But if anyone does, they're going to be Canadian. There are a million curlers in the world, and three-quarters of them are Canadian. It defines us more than hockey does.”

Musically, there is much in the Weakerthans’ aesthetic that also fits a particularly Canadian mould. They began as a prairie punk band with a love of Neil Young guitar tones and lyrics about North Kildonan. As his writing evolved, Samson became the kind of storytelling songwriter that occupied the middle-ground between classic folkies like Gordon Lightfoot and the more abstract poetics of Gordon Downie. (The latter is a big fan and even quoted Samson songs during The Tragically Hip’s performance at the 2005 Juno Awards from Winnipeg.)

No matter how raucous the band behind him can get, Samson’s vocals—imbued with a distinctly hoser accent, one he shares with his wife Christine Fellows—have the ring of a small, modest boy finding the courage of his convictions and asserting himself for the first time: to a lover, to his employer, even to himself.

For a nationalist in such self-denial, it was ironic when Samson found himself in the unlikely position of defining Canada’s reading habits—not once, but twice, as the winning panelist on CBC Radio’s Canada Reads program. His selections—Miriam Toews’ 'A Complicated Kindness,' which takes place in a small Manitoban Amish town; and Heather O’Neill’s Montreal-set 'Lullabies for Little Criminals'—became national bestsellers due in large part to Samson’s on-air advocacy.

Samson becomes instantly sheepish when the subject is raised. “You really called me on that one,” laughs Samson, who—when not touring with the Weakerthans—is part of Arbeiter Ring, a publishing collective in Winnipeg that puts out poetry and non-fiction. “[Canada Reads] is predicated on the idea that there is a national character and a national book and a flagship for the culture. I certainly had some issues with that—it was a big theoretical [headtrip] for me! I’ve loved books and worked with books all my adult life by running a publishing house. Turning that into a reality contest was troubling to me. But it was also fun.”

It’s this regional writing that is a big draw for Samson, and one can see a similar thread in his own work—particularly the way he’s balanced deep affection and self-loathing for his own hometown of Winnipeg in classic Weakerthans songs like “Left and Leaving” and “Wellington’s Wednesdays.” (Both are songs from the band’s first two albums, 'Fallow' and 'Left and Leaving,' which are being re-released by their current label Epitaph on November 6.)

Along with newer Canadian poets like Toronto’s Ken Babstock and Vancouver’s Elizabeth Bachinsky, Samson also cites Michael Ondaatje’s 'In the Skin of a Lion' as a major influence on his own writing—even if only because it overcame one of his key prejudices as a Western Canadian. “That book was huge for me, even though it was about Toronto and we’re bred not to like Toronto here. It was a huge revelation on how one might be able to write about a place with all its histories.”

Perhaps the most Canadian element of the Weakerthans goes back the name itself. The moniker may well speak for Samson’ early characters, many of whom are emotional cripples struggling to articulate their longing and desires. They’re also likely to explain their own depression as a natural bi-product of capitalism, a connection that also leads more historically minded observers to suggest that the name refers to a line in the union anthem “Solidarity Forever”: “What force on Earth can be weaker than the feeble strength of one?”

But what is Canada itself except a nation that is perpetually weaker than not only its elephant of a neighbour, but many others crowding the world stage as well? Canada is defined by uncertainty, of being hesitant to explain to even each other exactly what we are and what our shared history is. Our greatest challenge is to turn our weaknesses into strengths: whether it’s Lloyd Axworthy’s embrace of “soft power” while serving as Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs in the '90s, or John Ralston Saul’s celebration of ambiguity and accommodation as part of our national character in his book 'Reflections on a Siamese Twin'—which was coincidentally released in 1997, the same year the Weakerthans were founded.

“Now that I have some perspective on it, the name is quintessentially, and maybe sadly even, Canadian,” Samson admits, after some reflection. “The idea of a Canadian identity is a bit troubling to me, but it’s certainly there.”

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