20 April 2010

Bringing the Railway to Life

Kettle Valley Brakemen performer and songwriter
Jack Godwin.

Penticton British Columbia - For more than a decade, the Kettle Valley Brakemen have been entertaining audiences throughout B.C. with their tales and songs about life on the railway. The start of their touring season has even become a signal that summer is on the way.
 
This weekend, they're kicking off the 2010 season with a benefit concert at the Penticton Museum, at 2 p.m. on 24 Apr 2010.
 
"This concert is special and it is in the Penticton Museum, right in the museum itself, not in the auditorium," said Jack Godwin, a guitarist and songwriter with the group.
 
"What makes it so special is that we're going to be performing and there will be at least three of the original Kettle Valley boys in attendance."
 
Godwin, a former history teacher, said this is an incredible chance to experience rail history first hand, likening it to teaching a class about Alexander the Great and then being able to introduce the students to the conquerer firsthand.
 
"Here's an example of people being able to come out and hear about Kettle Valley history and then meet some of the guys who not only worked for the railway, but all have experience on steam as well as diesel," said Godwin.
 
The concert is a benefit for the surviving Kettle Valley workers, who gather each year at Brookmere, one of the major switching points on the Kettle Valley line, where you either went on to Spences Bridge or down through the Coquihalla to Hope.
 
"It's now pretty well a ghost town, but these guys get together every summer with their families and have a cookout weekend," said Godwin. "They're running out of members and they're running out of funds, so this is going to be a benefit where the Brakemen contribute a percentage of what they would normally make and the museum also contributes something to their summer cookout fund."
 
Starting their public touring season at the Penticton Museum has become something of a tradition, said Godwin, explaining that they have done so for the last three or four years.
 
"We really like that, because of course, Penticton was home to the Kettle Valley Railway," he said. The group has been performing since 1997, combining true historical stories with original songs, something Godwin said is unusual for the entertainment culture in B.C.
 
"We've been together for a long time," he said. "Because from one of our concerts, people get a slice of B.C. rail history, they get original folk, bluegrass music and we always finish with a singalong, so they get to be involved."
 
It's proved to be a pretty effective format, Godwin said, adding that the Brakemen are kept busy touring from the coast to the Kootenays all summer long.
 
"And because we go over best with adults, there are no heritage mosh pits," he joked. And even if you've seen the Brakemen before, he continued, this concert will feature a lot of new material, with stories and songs that he's been researching and writing during their off season.
 
"One of the neatest things is that after we finish a show, people come up and they want to tell their stories. Sometimes they turn into pretty neat songs," he said. "There is a fascination with trains that I didn't really understand when I started this, even if it starts with Thomas the Tank Engine."
 
Godwin tells of an encounter with an old CPR worker who wanted him to write a song about how the railway used to push prunes on the workers.
 
"I guess the diet was terrible. So they started calling these things CPR strawberries," said Godwin, who at first didn't think there was much song potential in the story. "Then I started thinking, oh yeah, there are some great lines."
 
They also have a song about Sam Steele, the legendary hero of the North-West Mounted Police.
 
"He's like the John Wayne of the Canadian West. Every time they needed somebody who could go in and solve problems, he was the guy they would send," said Godwin. "There was a railway strike and riot in B.C. in 1885 and Sam Steele was called in, so we've got a song about that."
 
Godwin said he tries to make sure the songs have to have an appeal for a modern audience, not just focusing on the past. A former high school teacher, he said it's hard to encourage 15-year-olds to learn history, when there hormones are raging and it's the last thing they care about.
 
"But we all reach a point in our life where we do want to connect with our past," he said, quoting the Greek philosopher Cicero, who said "to be ignorant of one's heritage is to always remain a child."
 
"It's really part of a very old troubadour tradition," he said. "Before there were schools, that's how people learned about the past was through traveling musicians who told stories and sang songs. That's basically what we do."
 
Steve Kidd.