Canada has lost a music legend and so has Wellington County.
On March 6 Stompin’ Tom Connors died of natural causes at his home near Erin. He was 77 years old.
Stompin’ Tom’s bandmate and friend Al Widmeyer of Kitchener was on stage performing with another band when the News broke.
He admits it wasn’t unexpected News, but hard to take all the same.
“I was in Stompin’ Tom’s band. I started with him in 2006,” said Widmeyer, who backed up the Canadian icon on banjo, guitar, fiddle and mandolin. “Our last tour together was 2011 and our last town was Kingsville, Ontario.
“He was more than a musical colleague, he was a friend of mine. I saw him at his home for his 77th birthday just a few weeks ago,” said Widmeyer, who said the small party was for close family and friends. “He was a family man.
“Tom was a very generous man. He was a very eccentric person and very smart,” said Widmeyer, noting Connors had a great deal of knowledge about many things and took an interest in people and places.
“He sang about everybody,” said Widmeyer. “He spoke to everybody, from the fishermen to the potato farmer, because he was close to it and he understood what was going on. He understood the things that happened in this country.”
Connors’ life work created more than 61 albums of Canadian-themed songs, of which, according to the artist’s website, 10 albums have yet to be released to the public.
Brian Hewson, owner and engineer of Escarpment Sound Studio, formerly in Erin, now near Belwood, told the Advertiser in an interview last year one of his highlights over the years was working with Stompin’ Tom.
“I call him Captain Canada; he’s just so well known,” Hewson said at the time. “He’s a really hard worker and he’s a great producer. We’ve worked together since 1987.”
Hewson noted last year they had just worked on their tenth project together.
“He loves the atmosphere and is a country kind of guy,” Hewson said.
Born Thomas Charles Connors in Saint John, New Brunswick on Feb. 9, 1936, Connors was separated from his mother at a young age and faced hardships in orphanages and poverty before being housed with foster parents in Skinners Pond, Prince Edward Island.
At a young age, he ran off and took to the road, hitchhiking across Canada, working odd jobs and writing songs that would become an oral history of Canadian culture.
According to his website, Stompin’ Tom’s career began with playing in bars but “would eventually turn into a life of hit songs, national concert tours and fame in spite of a constant uphill battle to be recognized by the music industry in Canada.”
The website notes Connors “quickly became one of the biggest concert draws and sought after performers in the country.”
Widmeyer believed Stompin’ Tom Connors fans were devoted.
“They loved him. The people that came were from nine to 90 years old,” said Widmeyer.
“So we were getting people who came in the early days and came back and brought their kids.”
Recalling many stories that took place on tour, Widmeyer said the band would often stop to pose for photos at landmarks featured in Connors’ songs, including a memorable stop at the statue of Big Joe Mufferaw in Mattawa, Ontario.
One of Widmeyer’s favorite fan encounter stories took place in 2010, when the band was heading out to tour the northern region of the province.
He recalls leaving Erin from Tom’s home early on the Sunday morning and stopping over in Sudbury. There were a few musicians and a security person along.
“Tom was driving. He always had to have his own vehicle. He loved to drive,” Widmeyer said.
The guys were on a tight schedule, but the next morning they stopped in the small northern town of Massey for breakfast.
“We were the only ones in the restaurant except for one man who left while we were eating,” Widmeyer said. “When we got up to pay, the waitress explained that our breakfast was paid for.”
The waitress told Connors the man “was proud to buy you all breakfast.”
Connors appreciated the gesture. After asking around, he learned that the man ran a store on a nearby First Nations Reservation.
“We went about 15 miles out of our way to find that man and thank him. Tom wanted to thank him in person. That’s the kind of man he was,” said Widmeyer. “The look on that man’s face when Stompin’ Tom walked into his store was priceless.”
Widmeyer said when the band had to fly to make a gig, Connors would leave first class (if he was seated there), and send his band up to take his seat and enjoy a beverage. In the meantime, he’d buy rows of passengers drinks.
“We played the Vancouver Performing Arts Centre in 2010 and the whole front row were Goth people, dressed in black,” Widmeyer explained, admitting he wasn’t sure how they would perceive the show.
“As soon as we got the songs going they were clapping and singing along.”
In Sudbury, he said the atmosphere was amazing, including the quiet moments.
“When Tom played Fire in the Mine you could hear a pin drop. The place reverberated with his deep voice,” Widmeyer recalled.
When asked what most Canadians didn’t know about his friend, Widmeyer laughed and said, “He loved croquet. When we were on tour we’d go find a field somewhere and go play on our days off.”
He added, “He always wore a hat; either his baseball cap, if he didn’t want to be noticed, or his cowboy hat.”
Widmeyer, who attended a private memorial early last week, was honoured to be asked to serve as a pallbearer for Connors’ funeral.
Connors is survived by his wife Lena, two sons, two daughters and several grandchildren.
A public funeral was held on March 13 in Peterborough, the town where Stompin’ Tom got his name. The funeral was planned by Connors in the weeks prior to his death.
“It will be emotional,” Widmeyer said a few days before the event. He will attend along with his family.
“If you’ve ever been to his concerts, you understand it. Everybody’s going to have a good time. It will be like an Irish wake. It will be a big party.”
It will be a sentimental moment for Widmeyer, who remembers last playing the Peterborough Memorial Centre with Connors in 2006.
Countless Canadians across the country are hopeful that, with the help of musicians such as Widmeyer, the music of Stompin’ Tom will live on.
