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S T O M P I N ’ T O M Whiskey Jack concert celebrates a cultural icon REMEMBERED F ew people who ever heard

an important part of our cultural heritage. They’re timeless remind- ers of the Canadian experience in a world that—to borrow a phrase from former U.S. President Barack Obama—‘needs more Canada.’” And if it’s Canada you need, it’s Canada you’ll get when Fremlin and friends bring their renowned “Stories and Songs of Stompin’ Tom” show to the close of Turtlefest on Sunday, June 18 . Joining Fremlin that night will be- five-time Canadian national fiddle champion Randy Morrison, as well as a band of ace pickers and singers.

(Left) Whiskey Jack will bring “Stories and Songs of Stompin’ Tom” show to venues across Ontario in 2017 to cel- ebrate Canada’s 150th birthday. (Bottom) Press photo of Stompin’ Tom from Columbia Records. “The show is a lot of fun to play,” says Fremlin, one of Canada’s pre- mier banjo players. “We use a lively mixed-media format and audiences love it. The clap their hands, stomp their feet and of course, sing along.” Connors, who died in 2013, played several shows in Tillsonburg during his lifetime—the last in 2006.

Stompin’ Tom Connors sing the song, “Tillsonburg” ever forgot it. One of Tom’s first huge hits, the song catapulted Connors’ music ca- reer to new heights —and made the word Tillsonburg forever synony- mous with tobacco and backbreak- ing labour. “He sold thousands of copies of that song when it was first re- leased,” says Duncan Fremlin, co- founder of the band, Whiskey Jack. “That song and Tom’s other hits— ’Bud the Spud’, ‘Sudbury Saturday Night’ and ‘The Hockey Song’—are

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2017-05-23 10:43 AM

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