The Oppenheimer Report 2/17/20

Mark Puffer, Bobby Cameron, and me at Peyto Lake circa 2005

If memory serves me correctly, it was 1995, when Shauna and I were walking along the main street of Banff, Alberta, and we heard some excellent live music drifting out of the second floor windows of The Barbary Coast Steak House Bar And Grill. We gave each other that special look which meant “This warrants further investigation".e walked up into the sparsely attended bar and saw two guys up on the stage performing an acoustic set. They were so good that we were gobsmacked. Those two musicians were Bobby Cameron and his friend Laurence Pugh. Not even halfway through their set, Shauna and I decided to return the following night. Bobby's passionate style, extraordinary guitar skills, and rich,  rootsy singing voice were particularly riveting. As planned, we went back to see them again the next night, and therein began our long friendship. Over the next 10 years, when we travelled out to Banff to hike the Canadian Rocky Mountains, we made of point of reuniting with Bobby to spend time together and to attend at least one of his gigs. If he was in Banff, we’d get together at our hotel, in Room #421 of the Douglas Fir Resort & Chalets. Our marathon picking sessions would ensue. Many of his and my songs were written and vetted in that very room. While I cannot speak for Shauna, a skilled pianist, singer, and songwriter in her own right, those sessions, out in the mountains of Banff, are among the happiest memories of my life.

The other day, I posted that a song I wrote back in 1993 entitled, “Strange Holiday”, had just been covered by Bobby Cameron. In fact, we have commissioned him to record and produce 8-10 of my original songs. That has been a pipe dream of mine from the time we first met.  Ever since 2005 in Toronto, when he recorded a very cool, bare bones demo of “Strange Holiday”, I was inspired to work with him. Over the years we’d co-written several songs.  Most notably, he, Shauna, and I co-wrote a song entitled, “Where You Live Where You Die”, which reached #1 on the Hunters Bay Radio Top 20 Countdown chart a few years ago. Never very good at collaboration (just ask Shauna), I checked my ego at the door on that one, and in so doing learned an important lesson about taking notes on a song. Sometimes the primary writer is too close to see the big picture.  Bobby, a good writer in his own right, has that rare ability to take someone else’s song to the next level. Regardless of the elusive brass ring of widespread recognition and financial success, two goals which are becoming harder and harder to achieve in today’s myopic and ever-morphing music industry, we are decidedly growing creatively, and that has finally become enough for me.

Last Saturday night, in a heavy snowstorm, I drove up to a house concert near Sundridge, Ontario with my pal Buck Marshall, and we watched fellow musicians Mark Hockey and Barry Hayward (Bazza) perform a benefit concert for Hunters Bay Radio, hosted by Christy Flynn-Sollman and Jamey Sollman. It was a packed house and the vibe was as good as the music. As I have said many times before, music brings us together in a way that only music and kindness can.

On this sunny Family Day, I walked on the frozen lake, and silently took inventory of my good fortune. February’s grey-sky blues melted into the bright blue sky. Negativity was an impotent, distant foe, and for the moment, I was in the moment. By the way, “For The Moment, I’m In The Moment” is the title of my latest song. I am thankful for my beautiful, creative, and supportive wife, for my talented creative friends, for the fresh air of the Almaguin Highlands, and for the music-loving community in which I live. I hope you all had a Happy Family Day!

Written by Jamie Oppenheimer ©2020
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