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Music of the WestBy Hugh McLennanJun-Jul 2005 Caragana WindGary Fjellgaard
The lead off song is a catchy acoustic tribute to Sweet Nellie, a representation of the first horse any of us could have had. Between the captivating lyrics in the verses, you’ll hear an ear-pleasing acoustic interplay of Gary’s light-fingered guitar picking and Nolan Murray’s mandolin. Caragana hedges were common on the prairies during the homestead era, and the title song is a poignant look at life on the Canadian prairie. Gary also includes his show stopping song, Malecon. When Gary does this one live, the audience is laughing so hard that you tend to miss some of the story. The summer of 2003 will be remembered by all of us in the B.C. Interior as the summer of the wild fires. Many of us, including Gary were deeply moved by Mike Puhallo’s poem Raw Courage. Gary created a stirring song from the concept and released it as a single designed for airplay across all radio formats. All the proceeds from the sales went to the North Thompson Fire relief fund. There is a softer, acoustic arrangement of Raw Courage on this CD, more in keeping with the flavour of the rest of the album. The song that really got to me was, If The Cowboy Goes Away. It reflects Gary’s deep respect for today’s working cowboys and is an eloquent tribute to this icon of all that is right with the West. This CD is available at Gary’s concerts and his website at www.jfellgaard.bc.ca. |
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Last summer we camped next to Gary and Lynne Fjellgaard at the O’Keefe Ranch Cowboy Festival in Vernon, and around the campfire, Gary played songs from his latest project, Caragana Wind. As always, this brilliant writer had created a bunch of great new material.