Hello and welcome to my tribute to John Allan.
 
First of all I want to send love and thanks to Angela and Stuart Cameron for supporting this project.  
 
It was 2005 and I was returning home from Ontario after being part of a great tribute show for Gordon Lightfoot.  While I was out on that run, I got word that John Allan was sick.  He had been showing signs of his illness for quite some time so it wasn't a total surprise, yet it still hit me hard.  Being fresh off the Lightfoot shows, which Gord himself came out to see, it struck me that too often these tribute shows happen after someone's death and I thought that it was cool to be paying homage to the living.  So on that drive returning to Pictou Co., I phoned home to my good friend John Meir and asked him if we could organize a tribute show for John Allan.  I wanted him to be able to come out and see his own tribute show.  We decided that the Rebecca Cohn in Halifax would be the place and phoned Brookes Diamond who immediately jumped on board.  We also wanted to raise some money for the family to help lighten the financial strain caused from this ordeal.  The three of us got to work and secured a date and programmed the show.  
 
Stuart Cameron kicked off the evening and played his father's 12 string guitar.  Artist after artist followed, hitting the stage to play for the sold out and emotional crowd.  It was a magic night and fortunately John Allan was there.  The footage of him standing up and yelling "Yes!" from that night was later shown repeatedly on several TV channels.
 
This recording is a project that I've wanted to do for quite some time.  It was important to me to try to make this a real tribute to John Allan.  That's why some of these tracks are very close to the original versions and it's also why I chose to interpret some of them quite differently.  I tried to select a cross section of material that reflects his catalog and the variety of music that he touched over the years.  
 
There were several moments throughout the making of this CD where I second-guessed myself.  Much of the process was technically difficult.  I think that John Allan was underrated as a rhythm player.  Obviously he was well known for picking bagpipe tunes on a 12 string guitar using his thumb pick and also for being a great entertainer, but after really studying his recordings I now have a deeper understanding and appreciation for his rhythm guitar style.  He had such a unique and interesting strumming technique.  He would strike accents on the guitar at very interesting moments creating excitement and dynamics in the music. Trying to capture his feel on the 12 string was certainly a challenge.  I used a thumb pick on the 12 string tracks to try to come closer to his unique sound.
 
John Allan is still one of my favourite singers. His voice was unlike anyone else's. There is only one John Allan. Listening to the records today still brings me back to the many times when I saw him live. Mom and Dad would take us to see him, every time that he came to Pictou County. His show at the West Pictou High School in 1981 was the first live concert that I ever saw. We lucked out that night because Stan Rogers was the opening act. Watching that concert from our front row seats changed my life. I would not be playing the style of music that I play today if it wasn't for that night. In fact, I might not be playing music at all. I'd like to mention as an interesting side note that Allie Bennett who worked on this project with me was the bass player for that 1981 cross-Canada tour with Stan and John Allan.
 
Throughout my career I've had the opportunity to work with some of my heroes.  Almost twenty years after seeing him for the first time I had the great pleasure of working with John Allan.  Between 2000 and 2002 I played bass and acoustic guitar for him for many shows throughout the Maritimes and Ontario.  He was an extremely generous artist to work for.  He'd always get me to sing a couple of my songs half way through his show to feature me.  "Folks, I've got a young singer songwriter here with me tonight and I want you to hear him".  Talking with him backstage was always interesting and fun and he truly had a genuine interest in helping young up-and-coming musicians.  I don't know if he ever knew how much he really helped me.  He was my first major music influence and not only was he my hero, he was my friend.
 
I hope that you enjoy the music and please do yourself a favour - if you don't already own the original John Allan recordings, buy them.
 
For some great insight read and enjoy the forward written by my good friend and a close friend of John Allan's, Larry LeBlanc.
 
Thanks so much,
Dave


FOREWORD

John Allan Cameron changed the world that he was born into.

He made an inspirational and, in many respects, a practical difference to thousands of people's lives.

To meet John Allan was to be struck by the power of gentleness, and exuberance that radiated from this legendary Cape Breton figure.

At the same time, John Allan was so full of life, and full of malarkey. His wry observations were often outrageous, clever, and on the mark.

Onstage, he’d make a sharp comment of the purist’s struggle for authenticity. “I learned this from my father,” he’d say as he introduced a song, “who learned it from his grandmother, who learned it from her second cousin who learned it from an old tobacco picker in Virginia, who learned it from an old Connie Francis album.”

As a musician John Allan was the consummate Everyman. He was naturally innovative. He was given to striking out in new directions. With his 11 albums, and trademark concert cry —"Are you with me?”—he was very much a groundbreaking vocalist, and guitarist.

And, he loved to perform more than any other performer I’ve ever met.

In his lifetime, John Allan captured the imagination, and the admiration of Canadians and others with his dedication to the Cape Breton musical style that draws on a Highland Scotland fiddling repertoire of airs, strathspeys, marches, jigs, reels, and hornpipes from the 18th and 19th centuries.

In conversation, John Allan would affirm his love for Cape Breton music, and its pioneers including Winston "Scotty" Fitzgerald (when he was a boy John Allan hiked 20 miles to see Fitzgerald perform), Buddy MacMaster, Angus Chisholm, Donald Angus Beaton, Donald MacLellan, Dan J. Campbell, and, of course, his uncle Dan Rory MacDonald, one of the finest fiddlers in Cape Breton history.

John Allan would put into effect many of the changes that Cape Breton music called for. Cape Breton players, he would say, just didn’t know they had something unique to offer the rest of the world. Much of the music had previously been recorded in the worst circumstances, and presented poorly to the public.

John Allan was thorough in researching his music. He collected songs from traditional informants, listened to recordings of traditional singers and searched through folk collections. He also made annual pilgrimages to Scotland to learn more about the history of the country and its music.

Top-rated Cape Breton players such as John Morris Rankin, Jerry Holland, Sandy MacIntyre, and Dave MacIsaac appeared with John Allan on his tours, TV shows, and recordings.

Today, Cape Breton’s musical aristocracy—the Rankin Family, the Barra MacNeils, Natalie MacMaster, the Cottars, Rita MacNeil, Ashley MacIsaac, Gordie Sampson, Bruce Guthro, and J.P. Cormier—acknowledge John Allan as the leading figure in the revitalization of traditional Cape Breton music.

While best known for his vast Celtic repertoire, John Allan was also quick to pick up songs by emerging contemporary songwriters, including Stan Rogers, John Prine, Eric Bogle, Steve Goodman, Bruce Cockburn, Ron Hynes, Gary Fjellgaard, and Allister MacGillivray.

John Allan was no musical country bumpkin.

In an interview in the ‘70s, he offered up a wide-ranging list of artists he was listening to: Muddy Waters, "Big Mama" Thornton, Pete Seeger, John Hartford, Kris Kristofferson, David Bromberg, and Sleepy John Estes. Soon afterwards, I met him on his way to see shock rocker Alice Cooper perform at Maple Leaf Gardens.

“My intellect and mind is wide open to accept any type of music that strikes the right chord,” John Allan told me in our interview. “There’s so much to be learned from so many people.” John Allan grew up in Glencoe Station, a speck of a place located in Inverness County on Cape Breton Island. The Cameron family was made up of 7 children in all, five boys and two girls (he was the second oldest). Their father Daniel was a CNR engineer for several years, and later he worked as a caretaker at a mental institution.

John Allan was barely 13 when his father went to Port Hawkesbury and bought him a guitar—a F-hole Kamico. John Allan taught himself to play, and developed his own thumbpick, downstroke style. While he soon was performing at community concerts, he never sang. He was too shy.

John Allan’s childhood pointed him toward the priesthood (“The Bobby Orrs in Cape Breton in those days were the priests and the fiddlers,” he later explained). He spent nearly 7 years studying to become a priest. At 22, just six months from ordination, John Allan took his final vows. However, he soon told Father Robert McGrath—the Father Superior at the Oblate Fathers’ Holy Rosary Scholasticate in Ottawa—that he was having doubts. He left the seminary not long after the Christmas of 1963.

John Allan later got his bachelor of arts from St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, then took a year at Dalhousie University in Halifax, and got his bachelor of education. He taught for a year at Central High School in London, Ontario.In the summer of 1968, John Allan returned to performing, appearing at lobster carnivals, strawberry festivals, and fishermen’s parties throughout Atlantic Canada. With the release of two albums, “Here Comes John Allan Cameron” which sold a whopping 35,000 copies, and “The Minstrel of Cranberry Lane” on MCA Canada-owned Apex Records, he was able to perform on such CBC-TV national shows as “Don Messer's Jubilee,” “Singalong Jubilee,” and “The Tommy Hunter Show.”

While he played in those days in such grimy Canadian clubs as J.R.’s Prince Edward Lounge in Charlottetown; the Colonial Inn in Amherst; the Monterey Lounge in Halifax; the Starlight Lounge in Moncton’s Brunswick Hotel; and the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, John Allan also appeared on bigger stages, including at the Newport Folk Festival, the Mariposa Folk Festival, and Expo ’70 in Japan.

When John Allan performed at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville in 1970, he opened with a full minute of bagpipe music on his guitar. Then he went into a country ballad called “Anne.” The Opry audience gave him a two minute standing ovation. In 1974, opening for Anne Murray at Massey Hall in Toronto, he brought out a piper for a duet.

In the ‘70s, John Allan’s reputation was solidly established by working throughout North America with Murray—Canada’s biggest star of the era. This included several tours in the U.S. where John Allan played to crowds in Las Vegas wearing his kilt.

The exposure with Murray, coupled with his own sizable touring, resulted in John Allan, in effect, becoming a national star in Canada. He hosted his own series on CTV 1975-76, and on CBC from 1979-81; hosted the Juno Awards in 1976; and toured extensively as a headliner for the next two decades.

For his efforts in promoting Canadian folk music, John Allan was inducted into the Order of Canada in 2003. He passed away in 2006.

Those of us who knew John Allan recall that he loved sports, both playing them and watching them. He’d also play pickup hockey and baseball with friends. Believe me, he was a ferocious, no-holds barred competitor.

Still afterwards, when he’d leave, and would start to walk away, he was apt to turn back, and say softly, “See you in confession.”

Larry LeBlanc



Produced by Dave Gunning with assistant production work by Allie Bennett and John Meir 

Recorded and mixed by Dave Gunning at Wee House of Music in Pictou County, Nova Scotia
Additional mixing assistance by Miles Gallagher of Fortress Studios and Allie Bennett.  

Stephen Muise's piano and accordion tracks were recorded at Lakewind Sound in Point Aconi, Cape Breton and engineered by Sheppy
Ian McKinnon's highland pipes were recorded at John Parker's studio in Halifax
George Canyon's harmony vocals were recorded at Reiny Dawg Studios in Alberta

Mastering was done by J. LaPointe at Archive Mastering in Halifax

The photography and artwork was done by Mat Dunlap

Dave played his Stonebridge guitars and used Elixir Strings on this recording
Management: Shelley Nordstrom, snordstrom@ns.sympatico.ca


THANKS
John Meir - my first stop for great advice.  Thanks for being a part of this project.
 
Allie Bennett - for your dedication, heart, musicianship, and ears. I would not have done this recording without you being involved. Thanks also for the details and help with the liner notes.
 
A big thanks to all of the musicians who played on this recording and to Mat Dunlap for amazing photos and artwork.
 
A very special thanks to my beautiful wife Sara for your true love and understanding and for raising our little guys when I'm often not around.  And to those little guys - Jud, Will, Gus and our dog, Chester. 
 
Thanks to my manager Shelley Nordstrom for believing in what I do and moving it forward, Jamie Robinson for friendship and unwavering honesty, Julie Gunning, John Parker, Mom and Dad, my brother Matthew, Nanny Gunning, Christine Buiteman, Fred Lavery, Steve Butler at Paquin, Bob Bale, Christopher Coote, Val Steeves,  Wendy Gilmour, Jim Dorie, Al Gunn, Cathy Porter, Scott Long, Larry LeBlanc, Anya Wilson, Joella Foulds, Eric MacEwen, CBC, SOCAN, Fontana North Distribution, Robert Buck, Darlene MacDonald, Brookes Diamond, Hilda MacDonald, Ed Buffett, Suzy Miller, Wayne O’Connor, Sheri Jones, Guido Kerpel, Dr. Dan MacDonald, Dan MacDonald, Troy and Jennie Greencorn.
 
Thanks so much to those who have played my music on radio and internet programs, to those who’ve hired me and last but not least, to all of you who’ve come out to see the shows.