Jim Cuddy has seen it all in a hall of fame worthy career atop the pantheon of Canadian songwriting royalty. What’s now foreign to the frontman of the legendary Blue Rodeo is stillness, an involuntary byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Once it started happening (in 2020), staying still, that’s my first year of staying still in 35 years,” Cuddy shared in a sitdown with The Herald ahead of Blue Rodeo’s return to St. John’s on the Many A Mile Tour. 

“We have a little rural place that’s north of the city, so I was there sitting in this one seat and just playing and writing songs and thinking what I would do with them and how I was going to do this, but not worrying about the final result, just writing songs. And yes, I think that had a very beneficial effect on all of us, because whatever little injuries go along with touring all the time, they cleared up and whatever little complaints you have about, ‘oh, I don’t like this hotel’ or, ‘can’t we stay in Montreal instead of Ottawa?’ All that bulls**t, it doesn’t matter anymore because the essence of what you do is gone, the essence of playing live.”

Blue Rodeo would release their whopping 16th studio album in 2021, Many A Mile, though Cuddy is open to the idea that, pre-pandemic, the reality that the band had released their final record loomed large.

Charge up the lifeblood

“We could never go out and just do the songs that we’d already committed to in the past. I think we’d just feel like a jukebox and so it’s always necessary to charge up the lifeblood a little bit and get everybody playing together,” Cuddy shared. 

“These guys are fantastic players, and just to hear them create is inspiring. But I don’t know. It’s definitely a waveform that two years ago, before this pandemic started, I was pretty sure we were never going to make another record. And then halfway through the pandemic, I was less sure. And of course I was proven wrong. I’m sure we’ll do it again.”

2022 marks milestone anniversaries for seminal Blue Rodeo albums, including 1987’s debut record Outskirts, which marked the shift for the group from applauded bar band to full on national treasure.

“I think that when we made Outskirts, first of all, we were very pleased to be making a record, but that wasn’t the end all, be all. We weren’t going to be super disappointed because we’d already been disappointed. We’d been a band for seven years at that point, and we were a really successful bar band at that point, and we really enjoyed ourselves playing in The Horseshoe, playing the Big Bop. So making the record was a step, and then it kind of failed at the beginning, but being taken out by the record company and being told you’ve sold 5,000 copies, which made us go wow, 5,000 copies! That’s more than you sell off the stage. But then ‘if you don’t sell more we’re going to drop you,’” Cuddy recalled.

Dealing with hits

 “And then Try comes out and it becomes a hit and that changes our lives. But we’re not aware of how it’s changing our lives. But I look back and I realize that all that we had done in the bars and how we formed ourselves as a band, that was the training period and that was over.”

Returning to St. John’s at Mary Brown’s Centre on Sept. 10th (a rescheduled date from earlier this year), and Cuddy laughs when we jokingly thank the consummate gentleman and national treasure for continuing to include ‘The Rock’ in the band’s touring itinerary.

“It’s one of those things you can feel embarrassed being thanked for. Because we’ve always loved coming to Newfoundland,” Cuddy shares with a smile. 

“We used to come and play Memorial University to play the pub there, and you had to go for two nights and Gary Clark would bring us out and it was a thrill. We got treated just like every other band. We were super abused a couple of times at the beginning and then people liked us and then we got invited to parties and we got our education about St. John’s and Newfoundland in those times,” he said.

“I think just generally for us, we started to tour Canada because that’s what we were offered. We toured the States a lot because that’s what we were offered, but it didn’t open our hearts the way touring in Canada has. There’s few exceptions to this – we really loved everywhere we’ve been and everywhere I’ve been on ‘The Rock’ and have really enjoyed it. I have friends now that have places there from Ontario, which is crazy, right. And it’s a way of life. It’s a type of person and it’s a natural beauty there. So we should be thanking you for being there and for also having such enthusiasm for music.”

For all things Blue Rodeo visit bluerodeo.com. For tickets to see the band with special guest Jenn Grant on Sept. 10th at Mary Brown’s Centre visit mbcentre.ca 

Kali Kenny and Noah Perchard are excited to hit the road in the OZFM Staycation Summer Cruiser! 

Perchard, who was part of the team in 2021, says that this year is going to be “incredible,” if summer 2021 was any indication. 

“Last year was fantastic. I learned a lot from Becky (Daley) and just being out on the road and meeting all the nice people and having the experience of being able to go places I hadn’t been before was great. For those reasons right there – the people and the places you get to see and experience – those things are particularly the biggest highlights of this job for sure,” he said.

Kenny is new to the position, but she’s equally excited and offered how  thrilled she’ll be to “pick up 50 copies of The Herald,” for family and friends. 

“That’s a song, right?” she said, to which Perchard quickly quipped, “Don’t worry. You’ll know all the words to that one soon enough!”

Dream Come True

Kenny says she feels like being part of the OZFM family and a member of the Staycation Summer Cruiser Team is a “dream come true.” 

“I feel like I listened to music before I even heard my mother’s voice. I’ve always been really interested in radio and in media ever since I was little. As far back as I can remember, doing something like this has been a dream.”

Touring the province and meeting people only adds to thrill, she added. “I grew up with both of my parents riding motorcycles and I was always just hooked on to the back of one of their bikes and I was told to hold on tight,” she said with a laugh. 

Some of her fondest memories are of sightseeing from that perch. Kenny recently purchased her own motorcycle, and she’s having the time of her life. “I’m hitting the road  on an old 1987 Yamaha Virago. I’m an old-school girl that way,” she said.

Touring the province being part of how she’ll now earn a paycheck is pretty special, she added.  “I am constantly trying to see as much of the island as I can. My grandparents live in Cape Broyle, so I’m out there every Sunday that I can.” 

It doesn’t matter if she’s just out for a cruise, having a picnic, or strolling around a lighthouse – it’s just great to explore the beauty this province has to offer. 

‘What a great gig’

Perchard, who you may have seen on Son of a Critch or on Astrid & Lilly Save the World, shared that he’s excited to bring Kenny onboard and show her the ropes. “It’s nice to show someone how fun this job is and to experience what a great gig this is and to share what I learned. Then knowing I can amplify what I did last year because the concerts and events are back on the go and restrictions are lifted, that makes this an even more special opportunity,” he said.

Perchard also loves the radio side of the job, and being part of the OZFM family is part of the draw. 

“I loved it last year. I loved slowly getting better with my radio voice. It was pretty cool. You hear lots of jokes saying you have the face for radio, but it’s a good thing and it’s just so much fun.”

 OZFM Station Manager Jay Lawrence has a hard time containing his excitement as the new Staycation team get to know one another and pose for the camera. “They are both great young people with loads of personality and lots of energy and they’ll be on the road Saturdays and Sundays from May 24th weekend through Labour Day,” he said.

There will be lots of “free stuff,” to hand out and stay tuned to OZFM and to the Morning Jam for prize draws and more. “Listen to OZFM daily to find out where the Staycation Cruiser Team will be and hang out and meet them and maybe get some great giveaways while they last,” he said.

‘A great place’

For Kenny and Perchard, the fun is just beginning. “Newfoundland is a great place to staycation and we get to highlight all the best spots and attend the best events,”
 Perchard said smiling. 

Kenny, grinning from ear-to-ear, agreed. But there’s something else too, she said. “I love that (NTV/OZFM/The Herald) are locally owned and they’ve always been local. I’ve told so many people since getting this job that it’s exciting to be part of something that’s Newfoundland home grown, because I am too, actually. I’m one-hundred per cent Newfoundland home grown.” 

For more visit ozfm.com 

There’s a Newfoundland and Labrador saying that’s usually tossed around when it’s a brilliantly glorious day filled with sunshine: ‘the sun’s splittin’ the rocks,’ the saying goes. While historically we don’t get many such days living in this often windswept province, Team Canada’s curling dynamos, Team Gushue, have given us two glorious Olympic medal wins to bask in the glow of. 

It might not be February sunshine, but we’ll take the glory of gold and the brilliance of bronze medals brought back home by Brad Gushue and Mark Nichols anytime.

Brad and Mark – who were back on the Olympic podium after 16 years following the bronze medal win at Beijing 2022 alongside teammates Brett Gallant and Geoff Walker, as well as alternate Marc Kennedy – took some time to sit down with The Herald following their latest Olympic adventures. 

The story is now the stuff of legend: Team Gushue defeated Team Shuster of the United States 8-5 in the bronze medal game. The province and country erupted. A familiar feeling. 

Brad Gushue, along with then teammates Russ Howard, Mark Nichols, Jamie Korab and Mike Adam, represented Canada in curling at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Italy, where they won the gold medal by defeating Finland 10–4.

Return to Real Life

While sporting their medals for our cameras, Brad and Mark were all about family on the day we chatted. 

It was a big day for Mark’s family as Emmett, four, had just finished his first day of kinderstart and the proud daddy got to take his son to school.  

“It marked the return to real life right away, which is awesome. I’m just as excited that I got to be home for his first day of kinderstart and to be bringing him to school as I ever am on the ice and to be a part of that for him was awesome,” Mark opened sweetly. 

Seven-year-old Beckett stood proudly beside his father as wife Colette finished adjusting Emmett’s shirt for their Herald photo session.  

Since daddy was at school dropping Beckett off, the two-time Olympic champion took some time to answer a few questions tossed his way by the school kids. Mark laughed.

“They want to know how heavy the metal is, what other sports I got to see while I was in Beijing. Did I meet any other athletes? What was the food like? And then they ask other questions like, how many medals do you own? It’s just  amazing how much the Olympics can captivate such a young audience, and it’s super cool to see how much they watched and cheered us on. That’s the stuff that really motivates you,” he said.

Brad Gushue is dad to two daughters. He understands Mark’s sentiments.  “When we lost that semifinal game, it was actually the thought of, how were my girls going to feel, which made me so emotional after the game. I was pretty good until I came ‘round the corner and saw them on the screen with the families there watching from home. When I saw the girls, it really hit,” he said.

Toughest Game Ever

Sixteen years after Olympic gold, now being a father, priorities have changed, he added. “At the end of the day, they were proud of whatever we did and to come home with a bronze medal, that’s pretty exciting. The first thing they wanted to see before they even saw me was the medal. It’s exciting. They were thrilled and filled with excitement. That meant more to me than winning the bronze.”

When asked if one game stood out, Brad doesn’t hesitate: the one for the win, of course. “The bronze medal game was the toughest. I’ve said that was the toughest game that I’ve ever had to play and I still stand by that. Coming off the loss in the morning and playing for so much … it was hard because you had all the emotions, the disappointment, but also the excitement and nervousness to play for a bronze medal and trying to wrestle all that to come through and play a pretty good game. I was pretty proud of how we did.”

Brad’s wife Krista and daughters Hayley and Marissa all share their pride in  the entire team, in fact Krista says the pride in ‘the b’ys’ comes from everywhere. 

“The girls, they’ve seen how much hard work has gone into getting to the Olympics. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t get there as a family, but seeing them on that podium – seeing the benefits after everything they’ve put into it – it was amazing and couldn’t get any better. 

“Brad’s always talked about how you’ve got to find something you love to do, and just give it your all, and we got to see that. And knowing how much support we had from everyone just made everything that much sweeter,” Krista said.

Mark’s wife Colette, who was born in Saskatchewan, agreed. “It’s nothing but love and support any time I’ve ever gone anywhere, whether it’s following a win or whether it’s following a loss. Our two boys are heavy into hockey, so I’m in hockey rinks all weekend long and I always get a pat on the shoulder saying, ‘Good luck to the boys,’ or ‘Great game last night. Keep it going.’ It’s always love and support anywhere we go as people cheer (Brad, Mark and the rest of Team Gushue) on,” she said. “It’s that kind of love and support that makes this place home,” she added.

‘Back to Newfoundland’ 

“I am from Saskatchewan, and I moved here in 2005 and I love it. We did have that small stint where we moved away for two years, but as soon as I was pregnant with Beckett I knew we had to come back. That was always on my mind, how we needed to get back to Newfoundland so we could have a family here,” she said. 

Speaking of family, both Krista and Colette share that they have become close and that “Uncle Brad” and “Uncle Mark” are both important to each other’s children. 

“My boys don’t know any different. We’re family and we like it that way. My family doesn’t live here and Mark’s sister lives away now, so to have that love and support on the ice and off the ice has meant a lot to me, especially for Beckett. He really looks up to the boys (on Team Gushue) and he actually sees a lot of the hard work, a lot of the determination and the sacrifice. He knows when Dad can’t come to a hockey game it’s because the boys were working hard and that’s actually pushed him a lot harder. He skates harder and he tries harder. He’s actually seeing the big picture now and putting it all together and he knows what it all means,” she said.

We ask the families if they were nervous wrecks while cheering on at home. Krista nodded. “Absolutely. I was nervous. We had a very upsetting loss in the semifinals and curling is a mental game, you have to use your head, so we were very, very upset for them knowing how hard they worked to get there and knowing how close they got. And I know Brad. He was more worried about disappointing us than anything else and when they won, the first thing he said was ‘Were the girls happy? Were the girls proud of me?’ That’s Brad.”

Brad smiled. What’s next? we ask.  “You know what? We’re kind of hitting a point now where we’ve played together, the four of us, for three years. I’ve been with Geoff (Walker) and Brett (Gallant) now for 11 years, and Mark and I, outside of the break we had, 20 plus years.” 

But there’s been changes, he added. “Geoff recently married and moved back to Alberta, so who knows what the future is going to hold for the team, but to go to the Olympics now, come home with a medal? It’s a great moment for this team because we’ve been arguably one of the greatest teams of all time and to get an Olympic medal to go with the World Championships and the Briers and the Grand Slams is pretty cool. So I think we’re all very proud of the run that we had.”

Mark feels the same, he said, adding; “We’ve been through it all together right back to our junior days, 20 years ago. So now, to win bronze and have our families be part of that?”

A Special Moment

“It was a special moment, and we had weird challenges while we were over there so for us to fight through and battle the way we did to come home with the bronze medal, I don’t know that it can get much more special than that. We were able to get through it all together and get the outcome that we got, and that’s worth celebrating.”  

We ask Brad if he has any advice for anyone out there working towards any goal in life.  “Just do something you love,” he said simply. “Winning is not always about Olympic medals. You have to find something you want to do, and I love curling. Anybody that knows me knows how much I care about curling and how much I just enjoy going down and throwing rocks sometimes just by myself,” he said.

“Nobody else is around and no one is watching, but still you are practicing because you love the game. It relaxes me and makes me feel comfortable and I think because of that, I’ve gotten better and gotten to this stage. But it isn’t about the Olympics, it isn’t about the medal, it’s about the journey, it’s about the experience and the work you put in doing something you love.”

What is my question to the members of the so-called “Freedom Convoy” that held Ottawa and some other places hostage recently. 

You said you were a trucker convoy, but you became something else and that was a very dark entity. It started honestly enough when a group wanted government to end restrictions imposed in the middle of the COVID epidemic. That is fair.

The right of people to petition government on various matters is CENTRAL to our democracy. It started out as a group representing truckers, but most major trucking organizations were not part of it. As so often happens in protests the idea morphed into something else. That happens a lot.

A ticket to govern?

In the end the group was overtaken by a radical fringe. One faction wanted the government to resign and have the group from the convoy run the country. Like that was going to happen. The expertise the group had was blowing horns and blocking streets. That isn’t much of a calling card or a ticket to govern.

What the group did ultimately was to alienate people. The uprising lost support almost from day one. Nobody ever won over a population to a way of thinking by blowing horns and keeping people up all night or by blocking streets and disrupting the way of life of those people. That’s not how successful revolutions work. 

The Ottawa protest in particular had no “command and control” and that “command and control” is a virtue in any uprising, getting people on the same page. Instead, some people were out of control as in elements that went urinating on the grave of Canada’s Unknown Soldier; someone else flew a Nazi flag; and another group wanted free food from one of Ottawa’s homeless shelters.

The Smell of Trump

Now to me one of the most disturbing images was that of a Donald Trump supporter on horseback waving a flag. That was disturbing because in the end this wasn’t a protest of truckers. It was a group of people that believed government to be the root of all their troubles.  It was a group that included right-wing extremists and in the air was the unmistakable smell of Donald Trump and that which he stands for.

I think the protesters by and large were manipulated. They were a destabilizing force funded in part at least from afar. 

The good news is that Canada is a great nation. It was discovered early on that this wasn’t a trucker’s protest, it was something else. Their high-water mark was getting coffee and sandwiches for their group. They will go home now and will not have learned anything. Meanwhile we ordinary law-abiding citizens did. We who know that there’s more to defeating a pandemic that blowing your horn all night will carry on. 

Rock Solid Builds, a home-reno show like no other thanks to colourful characters as well as homes, takes viewers to the rocky shores (and inland too!) of Newfoundland so third-generation builder, Randy Spracklin, can do what he does best: create while doing construction! 

With a team made up of his business partner and father Scott, ‘rookie’ loves-a-good-laugh apprentice Nikki, salt-of-the-earth been-there-done-that Paul, the crew battle the elements – and sometimes one another for a laugh – to pull off historic renos and jaw-dropping builds.

That ol’ NL charm

There’s Newfoundland-styled language, joking and pranks along the way as Spracklin and co. build spectacular new homes on the coast or loving renovate centuries-old properties, but no matter the project, the team always showcase the charm of living and working on the extreme eastern edge of North America. 

Nikki and her willingness to try anything has certainly caught attention. As a mom and an apprentice carpenter she’s become a hero to many. Add to that her colourful devil-may-care attitude and her willingness to take – and give – when it comes to jokes and pranks, and you have produced a home-grown fan fav. 

“Funny enough, Nikki wanted to get into the trade and we knew each other way back, say, when we were younger. She used to come to Brigus to hang around, and I guess that’s how she met her husband who’s from here,” Spracklin said.

Nikki wanted in, and she was willing to do the work, and at the time, Spracklin was looking for someone to help their busy Newfound Builders team.

“Because I knew Nickki, I could say she’s definitely got the right attitude and it just worked out well. We clicked and she got no trouble taking on any task,” Spracklin boasted. 

Bit colourful at times          

  There’s lots of work getting done on Rock Solid Builds, but there’s lots of fun being had too. Is all the laughing and joking part of a typical work day, we ask. 

“Oh my god, yes. You know, we Newfoundlanders, we love everything about ourselves because we’re so unique. We love our language and our culture and our sayings. Now, we especially love helping each other out, but you know, sometimes we like to have fun too and that can get a little colourful at times,” he admitted 

Newfoundlanders use words a little differently than other Canadians, for one thing, he added. 

“Nikki can swear and she swore on me a few times, especially if I’m playing tricks on her, but it’s all in good fun.” 

But at the end of the day, it’s about getting the job done and having a laugh while also embracing the opportunity to highlight this beautiful province of ours and its people, he added. 

“It’s just a great feeling to be able to do what we do and especially to do it here in Newfoundland. A lot of times people are looking at the show and are not sure what to think besides the fact that we really are a diamond in the rough.” 

Spracklin is a third generation builder, but he’s tried his hand at a few other things in a few other places over the years. 

“I went out west. I tried that whole Alberta thing and it wasn’t really for me,” he admitted. He just kept coming back to his first loves: woodworking and construction and good ol’ NL.

“I just kept coming back to the things I did with the old man growing up. Building houses was part of that.”

In 2008 Spracklin returned home and never looked back, he shared.

“You know what? This is definitely what I’m meant to do. Little did I know 15/16 years later, we’re going to have a TV show,” he said laughing.

Sitting at the table in Newfound Builders showroom as the crew worked away out in the shop, Spracklin admitted that the show with HGTV Canada started because of an email that went to his ‘junk’ folder. 

“Believe it or not, I got an email in my junk mail, and they were looking for an east coast show because there was nothing this side of Toronto. I emailed them back and here we are. Can’t believe it myself sometimes,” he admitted. 

A little good ‘junk’ mail

Now that they’ve finished taping Season Two, it’s almost like they’ve been “at it forever,” he said. “It’s the people behind the scenes that we are grateful for. We work together well and you don’t even remember they’re shooting a show. A lot of times they’re like, ‘Hey, don’t move yet because they’re shooting’ but other times we just do what we do and they (camera folks) do what they do. We’re just so used to blending together and I guess that’s what makes the show so awesome, because there’s no format. There’s nothing that we’re got to do and nothing we got to say. They’re just running behind us with a camera because you never know what will happen next.”

This is, he adds, real life. It’s construction in Newfoundland where everything needs to come by sea. It’s dealing with older homes and trusses that don’t fit and foundations that are ready to crumble. It’s hurricanes and epic snow storms and windy “some day on clothes” days. It’s being prepared for the unpreparable. 

“We are here on an island. The only two ways to get stuff is by boat and by airplane. When the wind is blowing the boat don’t run and you can’t ship big stuff by airplane. We’re all on one big rock, so people don’t realize that when you’re digging a foundation, sometimes you’re going to hit rock. Sometimes you use that to your advantage, sometimes not.”

And the homes themselves often have a mind of their own too. “These are 100-200 year-old homes you’re dealing with. So you have the weather and you have the house itself that you’re dealing with and sometimes you don’t even know how it’s standing. Some people would tear it down. That’s not our way.” 

‘We had snow in June’

Spracklin offers that Season Two presented one of his biggest challenges. 

“This season, you’re going to see probably one of the biggest head scratchers that I had since I’ve been in this business. We were in St. John’s and it’s supposed to be an easy renovation … and then we found a structural issue. I don’t know how the house stood up. We had to actually bring the excavator inside. We should tear it down, we thought, but you know what? The homeowners loved the history as much as we did, and we put it all back together.” 

That was probably one of the most amazing builds of the year, he added proudly. Besides the challenges the houses offer, working through all seasons is part of what makes what he does for a living fun, Spracklin said. 

“We had snow in June this year. It was great as much as it was tricky. And then we had a hurricane. But we went whitewater rafting in the fall and the production team were looking at us saying, ‘You’re really doing this in this weather?’ But yeah, that’s the thing. Weather just brings another bit of fun to anything you do in Newfoundland.” 

Besides Spracklin and his team, fans of the show get to know his wife and children too. They also get up close and personal with his clients. How are “regular Newfoundlanders” when it comes to being part of a show like Rock Solid Builds, we ask. “A lot of them are pretty open and they just go with it. The love of their home is real so they roll with the punches. A lot of times we have free range on what we get to do and design and build so that’s fun, too.” We ask about balance and home life. Spracklin has an extensive ‘honey-do-list at home, he admitted. 

“Life is pretty busy, but you get up early in the morning and you go to work and then you come home and spend time with the kids … but because I love what we do, I love work, and I love my family, it works out,” he said.

One big family

As a third generation builder, he comes by that passion naturally. 

“I can’t wait to get up every morning, actually can’t wait to go to work. But then on the other side of it, I can’t wait to get home and see the family. But then most of my family also works here and so we’re one big family, and I’m sure if the kids didn’t go to school, they’d be here too.” 

How is it being a home-grown celebrity? He sometimes forgets that part, he laughed. “Actually, we were in St. John’s around Halloween and we were at Lester’s (Farm) and this lady and this little kid came up and was talking and knew my name and I said, ‘how did they know me?’ And my wife’s like, ‘You’re on TV,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh yeah.’” 

The celebrity also attracts  come-from-aways too, he acknowledged. “For me it is still pretty surreal and hard to grasp because we’re just doing what we love to do. And other than having a camera following you it really is just like a normal day, but the rest of Canada is looking at Newfoundland. We get so many calls of people wanting to visit here, and wanting to move here, from watching the show.”

Pack up & Move here

Knowing that people just want to “pack up and move here from watching a show is pretty amazing,” he added. Of course Spracklin can’t blame them. “You drive here from east coast to west coast and look at any coastline or the mountains or the interior, it’s just beautiful. I said many times, there’s no other place in the world you’re going to get a view like this for the price tag. And that’s the other thing that Newfoundland ‘s got to offer.”

For more visit hgtv.ca/shows/rock-solid-builds

“It’s true, it’s really happening. We’re hitting the road this December for some holidays shows with Matt Andersen and Reeny Smith in Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island,” shared Catherine Allan in a video announcing the tour.”

Adds partner in crime Andrew James O’Brien, “It’s been a minute! We can’t wait to see you on the road with Matt and Reeny. We’ll see you soon!”

WE’RE GOING ON TOUR!!

December holiday shows with Matt Andersen & Reeny Smith

Dec 1 – Fredericton, NB – Fredericton Playhouse

Dec 2 – Saint John, NB – Imperial Theatre

Dec 3 – Moncton, NB – The Capitol Theatre

Dec 4 – Pictou, NS – deCoste Performing Arts Centre

Dec 6-7 – Truro, NS – Marigold Cultural Centre

Dec 9 – Glacé Bay, NS – The Savoy Theatre

Dec 10 – Charlottetown, PE – Confederation Centre of the Arts

Dec 11 – Wolfville, NS – Acadia University

Dec 16/17 – Halifax, NS – Dalhousie Arts Centre

Dec 18 – Ottawa, ON – National Arts Centre / Centre national des Arts

It’s easy to fan-girl over Kenny Brain. Famed first for his houseguest skills from season 2 of NTV’s Big Brother Canada, Brain has that genuine ol’ small-town Newfoundland well-raised b’y charm about him that gets attention.

He also has some fierce home renovating skills he picked up the old-fashioned way – from being around hard-working role models while growing up in his central Newfoundland home with everything it had to offer.

Diva of home renovation

Now, Brain is helping the diva of home-renos, Kortney Wilson, in an exciting new season of Making It Home.

When we connected with Brain to chat about being HGTV Canada’s newest host and contractor, he mentioned how teaming up with designer Wilson to transform meh houses into wickedly deadly homes happened almost out of the blue.

When we chatted, Making It Home with Kortney & Kenny was nearing its premiere date in September and Brain was filled with praise for his costar.

“That woman is absolutely incredible. She’s a real light in this world,” he opened genuinely. As to how he wound up swinging a hammer anywhere near Wilson while the television cameras rolled? Brain chuckled and said; “How much time you got here? That’s a long story.”

First of all, being a fan of Wilson and her work ethic and style certainly helped. “Her work has such a diversity to it. It’s not only about having heart, but it has the people – the clients and what they’re going through – and it has the personality. It has the humour. (Making it Home) has the design and construction elements too, so merging all that is a dream come true,” he said.

Answering the call

So … to answer the “how did you get here” question? Brain, who has been doing construction for the last six years, simply answered a telephone call.

“I got a call one day saying, ‘hey, is this something you’d potentially be interested in’ and I had no idea that it would be a show at the time, but I said, ‘sure. This sounds like it could be a lot of fun.’ Three months later I get a call saying ‘we’d love you to be a part of this show.’ And my jaw hit the ground and I realized what I was really getting into. And the rest is history.”

While Brain can’t give too much away, with a few episodes already airing he can speak a little freely. “The range of homes that we do, we go from log cabins to bungalows. From craftsmen on so we do pretty much every type of home that you can imagine. And in terms of the people and the clients and homeowners that we deal with, put it this way. I was in tears every single time I met them. Every single reveal, I just couldn’t hold back.”

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The work was good, but the impact? That’s what lingered, he added.“It was just such a lovely experience to be able to provide a dream to these homeowners. They had so many different reasons why they wanted us to be there.”

” (It) could be a growing family or their parents were moving and they wanted to give them a home. The stories were all so incredibly unique and heartwarming that I can’t wait for viewers to experience that too.”

From Toronto, Ontario to Nashville, Tennessee; the dynamic duo of Wilson and Brain tackled their projects with heart and enthusiasm – and humour.

Skeletons in the closets

The two have a natural chemistry, he added, one which worked well for, well, working well together.
“It’s kind of strange how close we got, how quickly, and our chemistry is very brother/sister. It’s poking fun at each other. On days that were up, we celebrated things. On days that were down and there’s issues, we leaned on each other.”

But overall? It was just fun, he added. “All we did was laugh and cry in the best way possible. I can’t express to you how much fun we really had. Even when cameras started rolling, we were still getting to know each other, getting to know all the skeletons in each other’s closets type thing and now I consider her like a family member.”

We ask if Brain still chatted with fellow Newfoundland-born Big Brother Houseguests Jon Pardy and Allison White.

“Absolutely. All the time. I was talking to Jon yesterday. He’s back home in Newfoundland and he just had a bit of a medical issue so I checked in to make sure everything was good and it is fine.”

“You don’t do a show like Big Brother and not develop some really intense bonds, he added. “Being from the same place as Newfoundlanders, we’re going to have a time together and we’re going to develop a bond. So it’s kind of hard to break something like that and so we keep up with each other’s lives and when you get to see each other, it’s like we never left (the Big Brother house).”

Skills with a skill-saw

It’s been two years since Brain has been home. COVID hasn’t made that easy, for one thing, he shared, but he does long for the place he grew up in. “I feel so blessed to be able to say that I’m from Newfoundland and Grand Falls-Windsor. All the talk (of home) is bringing back all these memories and you hit the nail on the head; it’s picture-perfect, to be honest.”

“The place is beautiful. The people are so lovely. Now, when I finally get home, I’ll get to experience all those things again. It just reminds me how freaking lucky I really am to come from that place.”

Brain’s love of home is seconded only by his love of hard work. We ask if his skills with a skill-saw were handed down.

“You’re exactly right. It was my dad, my grandfather – my mother’s father, Jack. He was just handy at anything and everything. He was a gardener. He was a builder. He could take care of electronics and put anything back together again. He just was good at everything he touched. And seeing that passion that he had obviously got me interested too.”

Over the years growing up, Brain helped his father build sheds and decks, though it wasn’t always fun in the sun back then, he admitted.

Planting the seed

“I was in my early teens and it was a bit of a chore for me at that point in my life, getting a teenager to help you do stuff. I was trying to sneak my Gameboy in with me at times, but it planted the seed. It gave me the breadcrumbs to what I didn’t realize was going to eventually be my passion.”

Brain went to school and studied business. Before long, he realized that wasn’t for him. “Trades were not on the forefront when I was in school. They were presented as an option. It was university; business, or medicine. I actually went behind my dad’s back. I was supposed to go back and do my masters in business and instead I secretly went to trade school.”

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When he finally told his dad the truth, his choice was embraced. “Dad was like, ‘you know, it’s not an easy profession. It’s not easy on your body. But if you think this is what you truly want to do, go ahead.’ And I did. And I can’t tell you how happy I am now to be able to create with my hands. To have this tangible product when you’re done that you created? It is hard to explain, really. It’s just a feeling I never had before.”

Wilson already has a very dedicated following, and now it’s up to Brain to continue the tradition. Any pressure? Not pressure so much, he shared, more like pride.

Creating a dream space

“It’s a shared human experience to want to have a part of your home that you’ve always wanted to renovate done or to see a space transformed into your dream space. Everybody gets it. And now you’re watching somebody else go through it and most can relate to that,” he said.
What makes Making It Home with Kortney & Kenny special is more than just cool home renovation projects, though, he added.

“It’s just really fun to watch and I’m incredibly excited for everyone to see what we went through on each project – the heart, the soul, the sweat, the tears – everything that we poured into these transformations make me so very proud.”

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Founding member of the hall of fame Canadian rockers Barenaked Ladies, Ed Robertson is no stranger to Newfoundland and Labrador.

Returning with the band who has produced globe-topping hits One Week, If I Had $1000000, Pinch Me and It’s All Been Done, BNL returns to St. John’s at the Iceberg Alley Performance Tent on September 16th. And if you think 30-plus years of gigging and the grind of the road has trampled the spirits of Robertson and company, you don’t know BNL.

“It’s a huge part of why I still do this thing. I love to play live, and it is a hallmark of the band,” he shared in a one-on-one with The Newfoundland Herald.

“I love to write songs, I love to make records, but I do those things in order to facilitate playing live. That’s where all the joy is for me, is in entertaining a crowd. We’ve only done maybe four or five shows at this point. And what a joy to get back to a live audience once again. So it’s pretty fantastic.”

Fresh off their 16th studio album Detour de Force, and with over three decades worth of chart-topping albums and crossover hits in the notoriously tough-nut-to-crack U.S. market, Robertson admits there is no secret to the bands’ success, nor to their taming of American audiences. Just good music, good people and more than a pinch of good luck.

“Well, if there was a secret, I would tell it to everyone I know and one thing we tried to do is drag our friends down through America with us as an opening act and try to share any of that audience that we can. I think one thing that has befuddled a lot of our peers over the years is thinking that because of our proximity to the United States, that fame in Canada will immediately translate to fame in the US. And what I’ve told so many people over the years, we get America, like we watch all of their news, we watch all of their television shows. We consume everything they put out. The reverse is not true,” he shares.

“As far as the industry is concerned in America, Canada is Portugal or Germany. It’s just a foreign market. And to say to an American label oh this band is huge in Canada, it just carries no weight with them whatsoever. It’s like telling them, oh, this band is huge in Italy. They just think, oh well, what does that have to do with America? So fame in Canada just gets you no free passes in America, and that’s very discouraging for a band that’s extremely famous in Canada. They go south of the border and they can’t get arrested and they go, well, I’m not going back there. 

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I was lucky to see The Hip in a lot of small clubs in America when they were already, you know, deities in Canada and there was no particular reason it didn’t take off the way it did for us. Added to all the hard work and all the talent and all the great songs there has to be a fourth dice roll, which is just blind luck. All of these crazy coincidences have to line up all at the same time in order for you to transition from a bar band or a large club band to anything beyond that. And you know, as hard as we worked, we were also lucky as hell. And that’s as important as the hard work.”

With 2022 marking the 30th anniversary of BNL’s landmark debut album Gordon, there is no shortage of nostalgia to go around. Set-lists, much like that of the bands’ impending NL return, are proverbial greatest hits of fan favourites.

“For me, I’ve been feeling quite nostalgic lately because a lot of those anniversaries have been coming around and I’m getting asked about them a lot. The 25th anniversary of Gordon is behind us. I think of Maroon as like late into our career and it’s 20 years old now. So I’ve been quite nostalgic about all that stuff lately,” Robertson admits. 

“One Week, it was the number one hit all over the world. And some bands would be like, oh, well, whatever. You know, I’m tired of that song. We just keep reinventing it. We played it as a bluegrass song for a couple of years. You have to find your joy in the things that made you successful. When we sit and write that set-list I go, OK well, here’s what we owe to the audience because they’re coming to see us. So this much of the set is for them, and then that carves out a little piece of the set, maybe 30, 40 percent of the set that I feel like, OK, that’s for us. So as long as we give them If I Had $1000000, One Week, Pinch Me and The Big Bang Theory and The Old Apartment, It’s All Been Done, we give them all of those, then we can do whatever the f**k we want.”

For tickets and more information on the Iceberg Alley Performance Tent visit the official event website. Pick up the upcoming September 12-18 issue of The Newfoundland Herald for the remainder of our one-on-one with Ed Robertson of the Barenaked Ladies!

Let me tell you when government turns over the care of children in need to a religious organization you will find trouble. That trouble stems from the fact that the organization in question thinks it’s doing the work of God.

THE MOST VULNERABLE

Whatever book you look that up in you will find somewhere the name: Mount Cashel. If you are dealing with a group that’s absolutely convinced the members are doing the will of God, it’s a recipe for disaster. There’s lots of blame to go round.

Somewhere in government, they decided that forced assimilation was a good idea and that a religious group could help.

Here in Newfoundland, as we have seen over the years through Mount Cashel and other schools, a religious group is a great place where a criminal can hide convinced by daily prayers and a belief system that everything is alright. What makes the situation particularly sickening is that the people affected, wherever it’s in the country or the world for that matter, are those that are not able to help themselves. They are the most vulnerable; like those in residential schools. There’s nowhere to turn.

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In my own school in Newfoundland, I had parents to turn to. I had not been in the care of government passed on to a religious group like at Mount Cashel. It was not a forced assimilation, but it was a religious group put in a position of near-absolute authority.

There was abuse at my school, but it was not on the scale of other places where young boys were placed in the care of what Ray Guy called “The Merry Monks of Cashel.”

It can be said, however, and perhaps some insight be found in the fact that lots of us were afraid to go to school because of the power that had been passed on from government to a crowd who thought they spoke directly to Jesus and were doing God’s will.

THE DISCOVERY STAGE

There is anger now in Canada. There were calls to not celebrate Canada Day. I understand that completely. Recent events have not exactly put me in the mood for fireworks and sunrise ceremonies. We are still a great country, but with the crimes inflicted on indigenous students, we are still in “the discovery stage” so to speak.

How much more is still to be found? I am not an indigenous person, but I have at least an inkling of from whence this awful problem springs.

NTV’s Jim Furlong can be reached by emailing: jfurlong@ntv.ca