Pickle Barrel
TRIBUTE ALBUMS CAN be dubious, even more so when you’re the one being honoured. Appraising Secret Sessions: A Tribute to the Rheostatics, which is my band, I now know how Vic Chesnutt, Victoria Williams and Johnny Cash felt: deeply flattered, embarrassed, wigged out and relieved. And surprised. Rather than critically grade these efforts, let this column celebrate perhaps the greatest reward any band could hope for after two and a half decades: the emotional and artistic affect and influence on bands who followed us. All of what the Rheos learned, we learned from the Ramones, Stompin’ Tom, Max Webster, Neil Young and others. Despite never having a hit record or winning a Juno, our work wasn’t for naught. With that, a few reminiscences on the groups on the record.
The Weakerthans: “Bad Time to Be Poor.” We played the World Next Door Festival in Winnipeg in 1998. I remember three things. One: we never got paid. Two: I saw Tito Peunte play in a tent while the northern lights painted the sky. And Three: The Weakerthans gave us copies of their first record, Fallow. Within a year, they were opening for us. A few years later, their song was featured in Wedding Crashers.
Stephen Stanley and Carla McNeil: “Take Me in Your Hand.” I first met Steve under the seats at Ontario Place where he and his band, Lowest of the Low, were playing with us at an early Canada Day Edgefest. During their show, the Low’s Ron Hawkins shattered his guitar after their last song. I was thrilled and frightened by this act, intimidated, too, because the Rheos had to follow them. What I remember most from the gig was rescuing a kid from security bullies and sitting him down on the drum riser, from where he watched the rest of the show.
Weeping Tile: “Public Square.” A week before this record came out, I was playing hockey on Wolfe Island against Weeping Tile’s singer Sarah Harmer, who skated on a line with my wife. It was terribly awkward bringing myself to check them hard, and now that I’ve heard this song, I’m awfully glad that I didn’t. The Wooden Stars:
“Saskatchewan.” When they were in their late teens, we had the Stars open for us at Ultrasound, a great old Queen Street club. Another night, we were hosting Nerdstock, a showcase event for young bands that included the Wooden Stars. Around nine, the Rolling Stones showed up. I was standing on a chair when I saw Mick Jagger make his way through the room. In a moment of deep uncool, I shouted: “Hey, it’s Mick Jagger!” Old frog mouth promptly left.
The Inbreds: “Dopefiends and Boozehounds.” When we first heard the Inbreds’ music, we sent them three consecutive postcards, unannounced, that described how much we liked the band. It wasn’t any different than what people had said to us in the beginning. They ended up recording in Toronto and doing countless tours with us. When Dave Ulrich, the ’Breds’ drummer, presented us with this tribute record, he told me that it was his answer to the postcards, which, when they fell through the mail slot of his parents’ home, gave him hope that playing pop music in a bass and drums band didn’t mean consigning oneself to obscurity.
Barenaked Ladies: “Legal Age Life at Variety Store.” We first met the Ladies on New Year’s Eve, 1991. Stephen Page wore a sparkling blue blazer, and, already, he could sing as well as Van Morrison. We were humbled, and, like the Low, we were required to follow them. As we were setting up our stuff on stage, the bartender made her way through the yowling New Year’s Eve crowd to tell me that I had a phone call. It was my dad, telling me that my nonna (grandmother) had died. We had the funeral a few days later.
While all of this was going on, we were trying to decide what to call our second album. We’d settled on Melville, but weren’t sure. At the cemetery, the pallbearers lifted the lid of the sarcophagus to reveal a plaque embedded in the earth with the name of the person buried next to my nonna: Melville. 
Post City Magazines’ new music critic, Dave Bidini, has authored books on baseball and rock & roll including On a Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian Rock. He is also the guitarist of the legendary Canadian rock band the Rheostatics.
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