Experience Bob Wiseman’s solo music at Grayson Mills
By: Lisa Chester
Bob Wiseman may be a founding member of Blue Rodeo known for his eccentric keyboard playing, but it is his solo career that has defined the man and his music. Coming to Stratford Oct. 7 to the historic Grayson Mills is Wiseman and his piano, with special guest Brent Jones opening.
This isn’t the first time he has performed in town and hopefully won’t be the last. Fans may have caught him when he played at the Stratford Perth Museum or for the celebration of Richard Manuel when author Stephen Lewis brought his biography on Manuel to town.
Could you imagine a world where there is no Bob Wiseman music? It could have happened as in his youth, while he knew he was a musician, he couldn’t figure out how to be a musician and so resigned himself to make peace with that fact that it just wouldn’t happen for him. That is, until one day, he played a folk festival in his native Winnipeg.
“I ended up playing the Winnipeg Folk Festival and there were some people that were international performing artists on the bill with me at this workshop. They were older than me and they thought I was talented, and they were like, ‘What are you doing here, kid?’ and I asked, ‘Do you think I could do what you’re doing?’ and they said, ‘Oh yes.’ That became the gunpowder that made me move to Toronto and try my luck going to music school,” explained Wiseman.
Toronto can be overwhelming and there were so many talented musicians that again he began to think to himself just how impossible success seemed, so instead he tried social services as he had done some work along those lines as a teenager.
But then one day, his older brother who had been living in New York, called and said his friend Greg was going to come stay on Wiseman’s couch, “like older siblings just have the right to tell you how life is going to be.” This is how Wiseman met Greg Keeler, who heard him play the piano and determined to himself he was going to hire Wiseman for this new band Keeler and buddy Jim Cuddy were starting.
For six years Wiseman played with Blue Rodeo before embarking on his remarkable career as a musician, a writer, a composer and a teacher who has recently received a PhD. His approach to performing was nurtured through performing on open stages where he found “his people.”
“When I found the open stage, it was like a community vibe where anybody could play. There was no music business there, there was no judgement and I made friends right away. It was a licence to experiment with being a performer,” said Wiseman.
This experimental approach became his hallmark playing keyboards with exuberance and enthusiasm for the music. He improvises with heart.
“Part of the draw of being an artist is that you can resolve emotional problems through art, so that’s what happens for me. I think that’s what a lot of people go through with whatever art they are drawn to. Especially what’s going on emotionally, they can have fixed in the universe of the heart itself. In a song, I can fix a certain problem that’s not necessarily fixable,” said Wiseman.
The concert at Grayson Mills will feature songs he has written about a wide spectrum of subjects, from love to pain, from Jian Ghomeshi and improvisational music, improvisational piano music. He will also include live readings of excerpts from his two books.
The opening artist is Brent Jones whose music blends elements of soul, folk, roots and jazz in his songwriting. This concert is a production of Barry James Payne and Stringbone. Tickets are $37.50 (including HST) and can be purchased at stringbone.ca/shows.
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