As winter slowly descends upon us here in the Almaguin
Highlands, there is the usual scramble to finish all the outdoor chores that
cannot be done in subzero weather. One of the Murphys Law things that happened
this season, probably as a result of rising water tables from the copious
amounts of rain we’ve had, is that our outside drainage has become blocked.
While I clean out our receivers on a semi-regular basis, of late I’ve noticed
our sump pump has been running more than usual. My jack-of-all-trades friend
Buck was over for some unrelated issue and, when I told him that the sump pump
he’d installed was going full tilt, he immediately inspected our outside perimeter
drainage outlets. Clearly there is some kind of blockage, either above us or
below us, because the water from two different culverts is coming out at a slow
trickle. As the temperature plummets and the snow begins to fly, this is hardly
propitious timing for a drainage problem. Last weekend, when the weather was
somewhat milder, I ran a pump from the lake and reamed out the lower section of
the drain, and while quite a lot of mud and debris came out of the line, the
blockage is still not cleared. I’m hoping the sump will get us through the
winter, because I’m not sure we can unblock the perimeter drains before next
spring arrives. Ya gotta love Country livin’.
On the music front, I am proud to say that a week ago
last Friday, a song I penned, The Deeper I
Go Into Blue, reached the #1 spot in the Hunters Bay Radio Top 20 chart.
Sung by my friend, singer/songwriter Paul Lagendyk, and produced by the well-known
and much-respected Andre Wahl, this song is one of the oldest in my repertoire,
and one that I am proud to have written. I have written quite a lot of songs
over the past 4 decades, and up until a few years ago, it was only I who
performed them. Not until we moved up here to the Almaguin Highlands did my
songwriting receive any attention (thanks in large part to Hunters Bay Radio), and
it has been my extreme pleasure to now hear some of the talented artists in this
community cover them. Local artists like Juan Barbosa, Paul Lagendyke, Jamie
Clarke, and hopefully many others over the next year have translated my songs
beautifully, and better than I’d ever imagined they’d be covered. As I said during
my HBR Live Drive performance last Thursday night with excellent host “Silver
Lake” Joe Thompson, it’s heady stuff to hear one’s songs performed so competently.
While I am diligently working to properly record some
of my older songs, I have also been writing some new songs, and am presently
recording with two local producers. First, I have just laid down bed tracks
with Juan Barbosa for a song entitled New
Constitution. Thematically it is, like many of my new songs, a cautionary
statement about the ship of state. News of the ever-increasing list of sexual
harassment scandals among public figures, along with the ongoing war between
Donald Trump and the rest of the world (with the possible exception of Alabama),
the propensity for history to repeat itself (Myanmar, Egypt, Las Vegas, Iraq, Sutherland
Springs, Texas, etc., etc.), has made it harder and harder to ignore the
troubled state of mankind. Of course, the trick is to write about politics and
morality, while not sounding too preachy, and I often cross the line there. I
think New Constitution is less
preachy and perhaps a little more about the way many of us are feeling lately.
Another new song, entitled Grampy’s House,
which I will be recording with singer/songwriter Sean Cotton, is about looking
back at my innocent youth through the eyes of a jaded adult. From the preliminary
test recordings of the song, I am very excited about this one. As the American Thanksgiving
was celebrated last Thursday, I am thankful for many things, and one of them is
the serendipity that placed me in such a rich musical community.
- Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c 2017 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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