Tuesday 30 November 2021

Steve Worrall - 10 Emotions (1987)


Alright! Back into the 80's rock! Steve Worrall is the brother of Rick Worrall, who put out a single on Doug Wong Music that we posted a few months back


Where brother Rick skews more a bit more folk, Steve is headed for the big rock sound - well, the big 80's rock sound. The title track, "Ten Emotions" is a pretty great track and a good sample of what this is about - yeah, it's rock, but since it's 80's rock it's guitars are swathed in synthesizer tones and rooted by what we suspect is a drum machine. There's lot of really great, classic synth sounds on here, which led to a game of "guess-the-synthesizer" in the CCPS offices. 

If you want to play along, grab the download here!

Monday 29 November 2021

Various - Canada, A Land & Its Songs (1987)


DWMC-60 is today's tape and it's a compilation much like Alberta Dreams -  not surprisingly, it was produced by the same folks. The Canada, A Land & Its Songs compilation sees the folks from Canadian Heritage Songs giving us a song-by-song trip across the country. With some odd choices along the way - likely due to licensing issues. 

Like so many things Canadian, we imagine there was a lot of give and take with putting together this one.

Sunday 28 November 2021

Eun Joo (Esther) Lee and Kyung Chil (Casey) Lee - Have Thine Own Way, Lord (1987)


One of the benefits of having a Gen Z kid nearby in the CCPS offices is that when you're presented with a j-card in Korean, said kid can help you properly transcribe the song titles. So! Today's Doug Wong Music tape is a batch of Korean gospel music - and one which is more in the classical genre than the country/folk that we usually hear here at the CCPS. And - partially because of the nature of this sort of thing - we really can't tell you more about this tape beyond that.

But you can get it here!

Saturday 27 November 2021

20-20 - 20-20 (1987)


Back in the spring when we were working through Rob Bartlett's archives, we featured a cassette and a pair of singles from singer Karen Cunningham, with the singles attributed to her and 20-20. If we'd been paying more attention to the 20-20 part, we probably would have been more prepared for this tape from the Doug Wong archives, which fills in the blank that we missed. 

20-20 (not to be confused with 20/20 or The 20/20s) was a late 80's rock band fronted by singer and songwriter Jeff Rolheiser, with Cunningham sharing vocal duties. We went searching for more for info on the band; it looks like Rolheiser played guitar with Jameson Booker earlier in the 80's. And may have gone on to a career as a realtor, which shows us where the money really is in Calgary.

Sigh

Friday 26 November 2021

Rocky Mountain Auto Tours - Banff to Columbia Icefield (1987), Columbia Icefield to Banff (1987), Jasper to Columbia Ice Field (1987)

 

This is a fun bunch of tapes, closely related to the 1993 Calgary to Banff auto tour that we posted earlier this month. What's odd is that there was no mention of this more extensive series in that article - clearly an error of omission. The run-up to the 1988 Olympics was clearly a bit of a boom time for local tourism, and Dave Callbeck took full advantage of the influx of visitors to produce a series of six tapes that provided guided tours through the mountains. We only found three of the tapes in Doug Wong's archives - and without j-cards (they were delivered to Callbeck without art - if anyone has a pic of the original packaging, we're super curious to know what it looked like).   

Since we don't have the full series, we can't tell for sure what the starting point is (is it Calgary, like the Ron Lorenz tape?), but from Doug's files it looks like this covers at least highway 93 from Banff to Jasper, with a slight detour out to Field along highway 1. Each tapes starts with the disclaimer, "due to forces beyond our control the reference points that are described by our narrator on this cassette are subject to change," and has the same somewhat stilted start/stop routine as the Ron Lorenz tape. But this one is voiced by broadcaster Liz Palmer (in other news, there's a whole website dedicated to Calgary broadcasters, which is an AMAZING trip down the rabbit hole - and, yes, Ed Whalen is on there, but doesn't have the shrine he deserves).

It's not a great time of the year for road trips, but if you're headed into the mountain parks, you can grab these three audio guides here.

Thursday 25 November 2021

Miracles and Masters - Volume One: A Journey Of Remembrance (1984)


Spoken word pieces are under-represented here at the CCPS, so, uh... here's today's tape from Doug Wong Music.

We think this is a sort of guided meditation - the insert in the folder for this release says it is "specifically designed with respect for the unconscious process with the deepest acknowledgement of the inherent dignity of each human being. Through the use of music and the spoken word, it is a call to remember and awaken that part of ourselves that holds limitless wisdom, power, truth and creative possibility."

Guess they can't all be punk tapes, right

Wednesday 24 November 2021

Trail's End Band - Live At The Alberta Hotel (1984)



We've got a 7" from the Trail's End Band kicking around (we'll get back to those singles... probably next year, considering how many tapes we have now), so we were thrilled to get this tape from the Doug Wong Music archives. 

The band play solid country rock, with lots of upbeat two-steppers. For a live recording (from Oyen, Alberta!), this sounds really good - we imagine the Trail's End Band was pretty tight from heavy gigging on the bar circuit.

Get it here!

Tuesday 23 November 2021

Expression - Expression (1984)

 

We're rolling through these Doug Wong Music cassettes in the order of their catalogue numbers. Which is helpful in keeping us moving - especially when there's nothing in the release file that can help us tell you more about the band. 

All we can tell you is that Expression play accordion-driven instrumental party music - as in, polkas and other dance favourites, with a bit of a Latin feel. 

Get it here.

Monday 22 November 2021

Fishnet Players - Barely Saved (1984)


Unlike yesterday's tape, we can tell you a little bit about this one's artists. The Fishnet Players were a local musical theatre troupe with an evangelical bent. 


This tape blends original songs with skits; hence the article above's reference to them as a "Christian Saturday Night Live."


 Get the tape here.

Sunday 21 November 2021

Dave Zan - The Simple Things Of Life (1984)

We're out of the Doug Wong Music dual LP/cassette releases (for a while, at least) - the coming albums were only released on tape. Which, given how vinyl-heavy our posts have been over the past year, is a bit of a relief. Even if it is from a country singer who we don't know anything about, like today's from Dave Zan. Even the contents of Doug Wong's files for this release don't really help us.

Ah, well. At least it's a tape, right?

Saturday 20 November 2021

Lee & Sandy Paley - Sing Me Sun (1982)

We'd featured a couple of singles from Lee and Sandy Paley over the summer, and now here we have their first (we think) full-length album. And it's a double album, at that! While those two singles were more celebratory, this one's a straight-up kids' record - so get ready for songs about squelching in the mud, peanut butter, farm animals, and the importance of smiling.

What's curious about this is that the running order of the songs on the tape is different (markedly so) from that of the LP. That seems like a lot of effort to us - we would have just gone with the same order as the LP, but we are super lazy.

Get the cassette version of the Paley's double album here!

Friday 19 November 2021

Pat Buckna - Roll Me A Dream (1982)

Our next Doug Wong Music cassette comes to us from Pat Buckna, who was based in the Northwest Territories when he released this back in 1982. His bio tells us that he's in BC now, where he's still active playing music and writing. 

The file for this album has Buckna's business card and a sticker for his Jamadam Records label, as well as the info sheet for the recording that would have gone to Quality Records when they pressed this.  

Buckna's folk songwriting is solid, with a nicely political bent. We quite like "Shakin' The Hand (Of The Energy Man)." There's something (sadly) timeless about that one.

Get shakin' here!

Thursday 18 November 2021

Barry & Lyn Luft and Friends - House Concert (1981)

 

One of the fun things about all the files that Doug Wong gave us is the rough artwork for the releases; most of this is his work, done in support of the artists and the final product. Tucked in the folder for this tape and LP from local folkies Barry & Lyn Luft were a bunch of sketches for layouts of both the record and tape labels, which is a fun insight into how things were done in the days before desktop computers (and desktop publishing) were the norm. 


The Lufts were folk scene regulars and this album was recorded in their basement (!) with a packed audience, the names of which grade the cover (one of the reasons why the LP is the superior format in this instance - you can actually read the names). The one that jumps out to us is Robbie Robertson. Yowza! Barry Luft is still active on the folk scene - or at least has been recently. The pandemic hiccup makes it hard to tell.

Get back to the basement here!

Wednesday 17 November 2021

Alvena Beach - ALVENA sings Country Gospel: Creation of Love (1981)

If you were trying to guess how long it would take for us to get to a country OR a religious album in this big stack of Doug Wong Music releases, well... THREE days. We're three days into this, and Alvena Beach is already bringing the country gospel. We've been able to find out very little about Beach, other than the fact that she had enough of a following to warrant pressing 1,000 LPs and 500 cassettes, which is pretty impressive. 


Get your country gospel fix here.

Tuesday 16 November 2021

Wild Colonial Boys - The Wild Colonial Boys' Best Album In Some Time (1980)

Today's Doug Wong Music release comes to us courtesy of the Wild Colonial Boys, the Calgary Folk Club's long-standing house band. 


This one was also released on tape and LP - the notes from the files Doug passed us indicate that this might have been a popular one, with a couple re-presses (it looks like the LP came out in 1980, and the cassette was re-pressed as late as 1988). Oh, and this is another that was recorded by Richard Harrow at his Living Room Studios.  


We shared a single from these folks earlier this year; if that was your fancy you can grab their first full-length here.

Monday 15 November 2021

Jacqueline Dolan - Jacqueline Dolan (1980)


We've been a bit quiet for a bit, partly because we were being lazy and partly because something incredible happened. After thinking about getting in touch with Doug Wong for, well, an embarrassing number of YEARS, HE got in touch with US. And we're thrilled that he did, of course - not just because we finally got to express our appreciation for his work, but also because he gifted us with a carload of tapes, records, and archival notes. 


SO! We're going to start into this giant batch of tapes, starting with the ones that were released by Doug Wong Music. First up is the 1980 album from Irish-born harpist and singer Jacqueline Dolan, which came out on both cassette and LP. 


Get the first of our Doug Wong Music tapes here!

Wednesday 3 November 2021

Ron Lorenz - The Calgary To Banff Auto Tour On The Trans Canada Highway (1993)

Well, this is a weird one. Thanks (?) to Recordland for getting it into our hands. This is the type of tape you would have found on the counter at a gas station on the western edge of the city - on it, former newscaster Ron Lorenz narrates the drive from Calgary to the Banff townsite, starting at Canada Olympic Park. Lorenz relates the history of the region (well, the history of the settlers in the region, at least - as befits the year in which this was made, there's not a lot of attention paid to our Indigenous peoples). 

To accommodate those who either don't drive to Banff with a lead foot, Lorenz asks the listener to pause the tape ad then restart when landmarks are reached, which makes it a bit of a weird thing to listen to without the drive. We wish there was a follow-up to this tape with the drive home, and Lorenz cursing the usual Sunday afternoon traffic jam.

Road trip!

Tuesday 2 November 2021

Johnny Juke and the Fat Cats - Johnny Juke and the Fat Cats (1997)

This is another tape that was passed our way by the good folks at Recordland. Johnny Juke and the Fat Cats played their swinging blues around Calgary in the late 90's - the one big question we have about the band is if Johnny Juke handled vocals, harmonica, AND drums in a live setting. There's a polished, easy flow to these tracks - if he was pulling triple duty, we are impressed.

Get it here!  

Monday 1 November 2021

Math - Sometimes Sweet Susan (1999)


Thanks to the good folks at Recordland for keeping an eye out for weird local stuff coming into the shop and passing them our way. This is the first of a trio of new-to-us tapes and, well, we can't tell you anything about it. This tape sounds like the product of the late 90's that it is - Math play sludgy alt rock riffs spiced up with some interesting electronica touches. Too bad their name is completely google-proof (and their cassette is titled after an adult movie - another tip that this was recorded in the 90's).

Get it here!