Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Yeah, it's it's like a isa coolie the right word? I don't
know, I'm not no, okay. This is Melodies and Menus, a
podcast mini series brought to you byEat North that talks about all things food
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and music with an array of interestingCanadians. I am one of your co
host Danclaps and joined as always byMadison Olds. How are you. I
feel like it's been so long sinceI've seen you and heard your lovely voice.
I mean same to you, andthe summer has went by so fast,
and I don't know if it wasjust all the nice weather we got
an Alberta for the most part,but now that we're doing this podcast at
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the tail end of summer, I'mI'm getting a bit chilly, and I've
seen the leaves change on the treesand I'm starting to wear more sweaters and
it doesn't make me sad, butit makes me realize just how fast time
can go by. I think Irealized what time of year it is when
Starbucks releases the Pumpkin Spy Slotte,and I realize I can't afford it,
but I want it. I thinkI think that's when I know my year
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is over. You know what,I am definitely a sucker for that pumpkin
cold brew with like the cream ontop. I love that drink. I
am a sucker for that drink.I just started making it at home.
Obviously, TikTok is fantastic for likedy recipes. I've made the pumpkin sauce
before in the past. There's aguy he like cheat sheets all of Starbucks
recipes. He teaches how to makeit. It goes bad so quickly I
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was like, I'm not doing thatagain. I'm wasting my money. I
already can't afford Starbucks, let alonethe ingredients to make it at home.
So I started making just a coldfoam and it's like two parts whip cream,
one part like homogenized milk, andthen a little bit of the terranny
pumpkins by syrup. I could justeat it with a spoon and it's it's
also it's basically like whip cream thatyou don't whip enough right like it's it's
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it's it's the same thing that you'regonna top your pie with, but it's
it's just not quite whipped to thatextent. So what's not a stiff?
Yeah, it's it's it's like asa coolie the right word, I don't
know, I'm not, no,okay, that's why I believe COOLi I
think of it more as if youthrew some raspberries and sugar and a pot
and cooked it down into a sauce. Like that's that's more of a coolie.
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I would think of that as likea jam. I remember the first
time I had a Starbucks drink thatwas top with that cream. I was
traveling in Taiwan. Actually I wasin Taipei and this is twenty eighteen,
so wait before we got it,yeah, a long time before. And
I went into a Starbucks there andthey had this whole tea menu and all
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the teas I think must have beenfor the time of year, we're topped
with different flavored creams, and Iwas like, this sounds really interesting,
so I'll try one. And eversince then, I was a huge fan.
Like I think for me, it'sthe not that this is not a
Starbucks supported a sponsor podcast, butI think it's that difference. I love
textual elements in a dish or ina drink, and when you get that
like kind of silkiness on top andthe cold drink underneath, and maybe you
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get like a little bit of acrunch of ice. I feel like all
of that together makes for a reallycool drink experience, literally and figuratively,
especially when like the coffee I find, like Starbucks coffee super bitter, and
again like I can't afford Starbucks.I stopped five drinks years ago. But
when their coffee is so bitter onor anything, you've got this really sweet.
It just the contrast is so nice. It is really lovely. Do
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you know what else is lovely?New music? And I know you're released
a song recently with Carda, socongrats on that. Thank you, thank
you. Yeah, we actually startedworking on it this time last year,
and it's just taken this while tocome out, and it's really fun.
I think it's basically all about whenyou fall in love with your best friend.
And I warned all my friends Isaid, your next I'm coming for
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you. I'm coming. I don'tthink they liked it. And that track
with Carta is called just Say Soyou can stream that as well as remix
that was also recently released on Spotifyor Apple Music anywhere you find your tunes.
Yeah, and Dan, I feellike we never talked about you know,
we sometimes talk about me, butwe never talk about you. And
you've had like a pretty crazy summerwith something incredible come out, and I
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would love to know all about it, because this is this is. Everybody
puts up music, everybody puts outa podcast, nobody puts out a book.
Well, some people put out abook. And let me tell you
it is. It is. Itis a wild amount of work. But
you're right. My debut cookbook,which is all that always is crazy to
me to say that debut cookbook.It's called Prairie. It comes out on
August twenty nine, so that istoday if we release on the appropriate days
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let me after recording. But yeah, it's been a two and a half
year journey to get this book out. We have a wonderful publisher, Appetite
by Random House, so that's throughPenguin, Penguin Random House. And it's
I'm biased, obviously, it's abeautiful book. It's it's my love letter
to the Prairies. And I cowrote it with food writer Twilight Campbell,
who's based in Edmonton. So wewere both born and raised in Saskatchewan,
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living Alberta. As you know,I travel a lot of Manitoba, and
I feel like this part of Canadahas always been just so underrated and still
so overlooked. You know. Ijoke that I wrote this book for my
friends in Toronto, so probably Montrealto so yeah, so no, But
I think that other people that livein other parts of Canada maybe aren't aware
of how dynamic this part of thecountry is really And beyond that, I
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think a lot of people that livein this region can also get a bit
disenfranchised with the Prairies or where theylive. But I hope that this book
provides them with some some inspiration andhelps remind them that, yeah, this
is a pretty wonderful place to live. You've always been pretty passionate about Prairie
food, so why why now?Why not earlier? Later? Like what
was the inspiration to do it now? I mean, when I first started
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food writing twelve years ago, Idid. I always wanted a cookbook.
That's actually why I started food writing. I started with a recipe based blog
and then then my foura into restaurantwriting that that happened after that, and
then that really became a focus ofmine and obviously launching eat North dot com
and whatnot. But you know,I always love to cook, I love
to entertain. I'm not a chef, but I've always loved, you know,
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working within the seasons and discovering differentfood product makers and producers all across
the prairie's end beyond. Obviously,it's not like I only cook Prairie ingredients.
But I think had I released abook seven let's say, six or
seven years ago, I actually didhave an opportunity to release a cookbook earlier,
but it wasn't with a publisher thatI wanted, the best publisher I
could get for the book. SoI'm happy that we held out and then
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we got a deal with Penguin RandomHouse because to me, that is it's
the upper echelon of cookbook publishers inNorth America. Everything happens for a reason,
so truly, any manifested it,this is lucky girl said, well,
I'm not a very patient person,so I think maybe the carrot was
dangled in front of me for along time. It kept me inspired in
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my other, my other day today food writing works, so perhaps it
was all for a reason. Butno, the photography is beautiful. I'd
be remissed to not shut out DonKim, who's a photographer based in half
lives in Calgary half Abonton and shootsfor lots of restaurants as well. And
the book is this. I thinkit's so beautiful, you know. I
feel like it is the perfect representationof how I feel, and I think
on my co author, Twilight feelsabout the Prairies. So I want someone
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to walk by the cover in abookstore and just be able to be drawn
to it immediately, you know,I could, like, honestly, I
could give a shit if people goget it because it has my name on
the cover, Like, I wantpeople to see the huge bolded word Prairie
and it's beautiful, striking cover,and I want them to be drawn it
for that reason. So I reallyhope that the book does that. Where
where can we find it? Ithink chapters and a goo literally everywhere,
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which is kind of crazy too.I saw recently it's even for sale online
anyway through Target in the States,so yeah, in the States, that's
amazing. Yeah, so select bookstoresthere as well, and I think it
will be in select bookstores in Europeas well. And you can definitely order
it on Amazon globally, and it'sgetting a release in Australia in bookstores in
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later in the fall. I'm notsure why that is. I'm sure it's
like a shipping thing or something.But the book comes out. I think
it's November in Australia, like gethard copy in bookstores. So well,
that's kind of the perfect time.Well, I mean not for Australia,
they're coming into summer, but perfecttime for cuts down there. Well the
book. I'm happy you mentioned thatbecause the book is seasonal and so yeah,
and it actually does start in summer, so I mean, of course
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it will make a perfect Christmas giftfor anyone in your life and perhaps even
yourself. I feel like presence,find presence for yourself. But oh,
who doesn't. Yeah, I don'tknow anybody who doesn't like it. Yeah,
but it's yeah, I don't wantto talk about it at length,
but the recipe development process and Idid a lot of that as well throughout
my career. Just making sure thatyou feel like you've covered a good spectrum
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of what you think prairie cooking isand contemporary prairie cooking is hard. Oh.
I woke up one night in themiddle of the night. I'm not
even joking. I woke up likeshot out of bed, and I was
like, you don't have a recipewith raspberries in the book, and all
of us be so high in Imean, you can loose sleep over things
for sure. And and we hadto cut some recipes too. We had
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we had wound up actually having toomany recipes, which I think is a
good thing. So if there isever a second book, I can utilize
those, of course. But itwas even hard removing certain cipes, right,
So some chef recipes got cut,and some of our own recipes got
cut. Yeah, it was.It was such a journey. I feel
like cookbook authors never really talk abouthow hard it actually is to do a
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book properly. I'm sure you cando a book quickly and cut some corners,
but I think that again, oureditor and our publisher just really made
sure we were on track with everythingand every thing was looked over with a
fine tooth comb. And I meanat some points you get so exhausted by
the process, but in the end, when you see the end result,
it feels worth it. Yeah.Well, I can't imagine what that process
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was like. It's like picking yourfavorite children's and there's so much love that
goes into food and so yeah,I imagine it was a very painstaking process
and narrowing things down. Well,this is a food in music podcast,
so I feel like it must becomparable to an artist or a band making
an album. I feel like thatwould be a comparable thing, right,
because you don't want to compromise yourselfin it, but you need to be
appealing to a certain crowd and youwant to make sure it's a representation,
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yeah, of you at the end, and you want it all to be
perfect. So it's I'm sure it'sit's similar, very similar, Oh totally.
I've always I've always thought of chefsas artists because it really is.
Not everybody can do it. Everybodycan like cook something, but not everybody
can cook with their heart, andyou can taste the difference. It's just
like music. You're gonna hate me, I can never hate you. I
(10:20):
hate when people ask what's your favoritesong? But if somebody only had the
Oh yeah, I do hate thisquestion. Actually, you know, to
pick one one recipe if they're goingto flip through the you know, the
pages and they only got time forone. What is the quintessy? What
do you hope people you know,turn the page too. I mean,
it's also when people ask me whatmy favorite restaurant is, because it's it's
all like time and place in situation. So, I mean, there are
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some recipes in the book that obviouslyI love, but maybe a really novice
cook might look at them in thebook and it might not be for them
initially, right, But there mightbe a homecook that's more you know,
they go to the farmer's market abit more and they cook a little bit
more, nothing super technical, butsome of those recipes might appeal to them
that might be have a bit toomany steps for really not this cook,
you know. So I do thinkthat our cover image, which is sort
(11:03):
of a split image of prairie landscapewith a red and green cabbage dish,
it sitting on top of a prairieversion of Bernet's sauce, which is essentially
a French kind of like holidaise,basically yea, and it's very delicious,
but we put a little prairie spinon that. It's on a beautiful ceramic
It's on a beautiful ceramic plate madeby my friend Jen McCurry who owns People
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of Ceramics, in Manitoba and mostof are a lot of our plate where
is featured in the book. It'sit's so striking. So this recipe is
yes, very delicious. But weshot one million photos for this book.
We shot so many photos. Butwhen we shot this photo, I remember
thinking, I think this dish willend up on the cover Like this this
to me, like, I thinkthis is the cover shot. And as
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writers for the book, you don't. It's my impression that you don't have
a ton of say with what endsup on the cover. So when we
got and I'm not necessarily in abad way, I think you kind of
put your trust in like a majorpublisher like this, yeah exactly, So
yeah, I'm not being shade atall. But when when we when we
got the design mock up of thecover, that was the dish that was
on it, like that was They'relike they're like, this is the this
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is the option. We might tweaksome colors, but like, what do
you guys think of this? Andthen I saw that dish, I was
like, yes, so I do. Yeah, So I feel like for
me, that is that's that justhas to be my favorite one because it's
it's on the cover. And it'son the cover for a reason. Yeah
yeah, and it speaks volumes aboutthe book. So well, I'm I'm
super excited, you said August twentynine. You can get it everywhere anywhere.
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I know it's going to be firstthing I buy myself for Christmas this
year. So well, I'll tellyou what, Maddie, I will get
you one. No, I feellike, if anything, my co host
deserves a VAP copy. I'm actually, now that we're talking about this,
I'm sort of ashamed I've not sentanyone already. So no, no,
I'm gonna. I'm I want theinaugural experience of going to chapters and purchasing
it and then seeing you and gettingyou to sign it like a total fan
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girl. I want that experience.So well, then I'll send a copy
to your mom. How's that lookperfect? Okay, enough about cook books,
enough about music, well, popmusic, I think it's time to
shift the conversation to country music.And you know, I love Canadian country
music more than anybody, so weare, well, maybe not more than
anybody, but more than lots ofpeople. So I don't know, Dan,
You're a pretty big fan. Soyeah, it's true. We have
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the award winning chart topping Tim Hickson the podcast, and I'm actually surprised
we hadn't talked to him before inthe podcast because he's someone that is so
fun right, obviously really catchy songs. He has some really fun party tunes
and also some heartfelt songs that havemore recently garnered him a CCMA nomination for
Album of the Year for Talk toTime. It's a great album if you
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have not heard it yet, definitelylistened to it, especially the orchestral version
at the end of the album forWhiskey does It's beautiful. Yes, We're
gonna talk to him about everything fromincorporating food and drink mentions into songs,
which I think country does really well. I think they do it better than
I can guarantee pop doesn't do it. So, I mean it's usually just
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a liquor brand drop or something X. Yeah, exactly. We're gonna talk
to him about everything from cooking athome, life on the road, and
what he has coming up in thefall. Well, I'm super excited.
He's so iconic, and you're right, I'm surprised we haven't had him on.
He really does embody Canadian country.You know what medicine. I think
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it's kind of funny that we haven'thad this conversation on melodies and menus before,
because out of all the genres thatcan mention food and songs, I
feel like country does it the most. Oh, I think it does for
sure. I am actually shocked thatwe've never brought this up before because we've
had many country singers on this podcast. But who better to talk to about
that than Tim Hicks. So thanksfor joining us today. Hey, my
(14:54):
pleasure. Guys, thanks for happy. I mean, we don't need to
talk about this song too long,but obviously stronger beer comes to mind.
You know it's you're one of yourbiggest, biggest hits, and I mean
it is. Yeah. Out ofall the songs I mentioned beer again in
the country world, there are somany years definitely stands out. What did
you think of the time when hefirst recorded it? Did you ever think
it would be as iconic as itis now? No? In fact,
so that's song was never meant tobe a song. It was just a
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joke. In fact, we wroteOkay, let me back up. At
the time, my day to daymanager was this guy, Denny Carr,
and he's from West Virginia, andhe had lots of questions about Canada,
and he hung with lots of Canadians, and so you know, this was
an ongoing discussion that we were havingthe differences between America and Canada. And
then when I met Jeff Copeland,who co wrote it with me and produced
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a lot of my stuff, likefrom early on and even now, we're
still good buzzs. We still workedtogether lots. He picked me up at
the office and we started talking aboutit and I said to him, you
mind stopping we're in Nationalist said canwe hit a shoppers and just want to
grab a pack of Smarties before wehit the studio, And he was like,
dude, I have no idea whatyou just said. And so it
started like that, and we thought, wouldn't it be funny, you know,
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if we could write this silly songand we'll send it into the office
because I was kind of new andI wanted to make a good impression.
We'll write two songs. We'll writethe real song and then this silly song
on the side, and we'll sendthe silly one in and have them go
very funny. Boys. You know, time is money, you know,
where's the real song, and youknow, we we were working on this
silly number and we sent it intothe office and they called us. It
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was like a scene out of amovie. They're like, we love it.
It's going on the record, andwe're like what what, No,
no, no, no, wehave another one. They're like, we
don't care about that one. Thisis the greatest song. And so what
the song that became the viral hitwas the demo That was just the demo
that we made and no one wantedto touch it because we thought it has
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such charm and it had its ownthing that we never recorded it with a
band until this year because it's thetenth anniversary and we thought, wow,
it's been ten years, let's goback and do it as if we were
going to do it back then.But we didn't, you know. So
so that song, it was nevermeant to be a song. So it's
kind of funny that that's the onethat everybody waits to hear and it lives
in the encore now and and I'vehad my ups and downs with it.
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Like as an artist, we're alwayslooking forward and we're most proud of at
least I am most proud of whatyou just did, so there was a
time when people would want to talkabout it and be like, oh God,
stronger beer. I wrote it intwenty twelve. But you know,
the longer I do this, themore I realize how lucky I am to
have a song like that in myarsenal, that that that has permeated pop
culture in a way that that israre, you know, even in this
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day and age. So I'm realI'm still really proud of it. I
love that people get a kick outof it, and and and the number
of angry emails from Americans has slowedover time, so which is good.
All right, Well, we willnever talk about this song ever again with
you, so oh no, no, no, that's not why I say
it is to chat about it yet. But we should jump into the future
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though, because you were just nominatedfor two CCMA Awards, which if people
don't know what that is, isthe Kadie Country Music Association, one for
Album of the Year for Talk toTime, and then one Fans Choice.
Congratulations on that, thank you,yeah, and both both very meaningful nominations
to me. I mean, youput your your heart and your soul into
record, and so to get thatrecognition is really cool, and of course
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fans choice is the that's the one, that's the one that everybody wants,
right because it's you know, that'syou. You prove that you're connecting with
with people out there, which iswhy we do it, at least why
I do it. At the endof the day. My favorite song from
the album Sorry Madison, I willlet you ask the question the yeah tell
you you're a first interview back forthe season, so we have I love
it Quarterbacks. I'm stealing all ther time. I like the reimagined version
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of Whiskey Does. It's really cool, Okay, all right, because you've
fundamentally have a really nice vocal,you know. I think you'll agree that
thank You. In all genres,production can hide a lot of things,
and I think that that song islike a great example of It really showcases
your voice and there's nothing really tohide, especially in the beginning, but
it becomes so yeah like orchestra,orchestra, orchestra. Yeah, yeah,
(19:00):
I just love the builds and it'sgiving me, like Robbie Williams energy.
I really like it. I loveRobbie well. In fact, I would
just I just sang angel I usedto sing it in pubs all the time,
and I used it as my warmup song the other night when we're
playing a TWI river. Yeah,I love Rob Williams and I'm glad that
you like that that song. Itwas a little there was a little bit
of drama around that because my team, my team approached me and they said,
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listen, we want to do likea different version. Could you give
us that? And I said,yeah, of course I can. And
I think that the natural thing todo would be because I do these little
campfire EPs where it's like sort ofbroken down acoustic, and we can talk
about that in a bit too,but you know, that would have been
the natural thing. It's like justpick up an acoustic guitar and sing it
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stripped back. But I was tryingto think, like what what could I
do that would turn this on itshead? And piano is my first instrument,
and I don't get I don't playpiano on my records. I get
to play like organ or electric pianoor something like that. But I just
I was racking my brain and Ijust sat down at the piano we have
downstairs and just just wanted to seeif I could work out the chords enough,
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you know, to kind of makeit happen. And it turns out
I sang it all the way through, and I thought, that's the move.
That's impressive. Yeah, I playedwell. We we ended up getting
any Reuter to do it because hecould do it much better in the in
the studio. But when I toldmy team I'm gonna I'm gonna send I
want to do a piano version withstrings, they were like, what what
(20:25):
do you mean? I feel likeit really, it really stands out,
and I mean, yeah, forsure, for sure. Yeah, they
asked me for a demo, SoI played piano on the demo when I
worked out a little string arrangement andstuff like that, and then and then
everybody got excited about it. Butat first I could see it was like,
you want to do the guy thatsings loud and hell raising good time
wants to do a piano ballad.I'm like, yeah, let's do this,
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you know, if it's reimagined,let's take it to a place that
we haven't imagined before. And Iwas waiting for that mode because I was
kind of hoping it was going tobecome a huge hit and I could bring
a piano out on tour with meand I sit down and sing it.
Hey Jude's style at the end,you know that that Yeah, yeah,
it's never too late to do that. Added in we never Know. I
actually really wanted to talk about thecampfire tubadour because I mean, obviously this
(21:07):
is food and every time I thinkof camp fire, I think of s'mores.
So when I listened to it,it really does just embody that cozy,
you know, that feeling of beingaround your friends and family. So
what was sort of the inspiration ofthat? Well, mostly because we're campers,
so we still go. Yeah,we go camping every year, my
wife and not. Part of ourstory is that we camped as children in
(21:27):
the same provincial parks at different timesand sometimes around the same time. So
we didn't know this until we startedto camp as adults when we were dating.
Oh let's go here. Oh yeah, I used to camp here when
I was a kid. Well sodid I? Oh would you be here?
Well, i'd be here end ofJuly. Will we be here in
July too? You know what?It's like kind of funny, So we've
we've kept up that tradition in ourfamily. In fact, we're going next
(21:48):
week and you'll love this part.So until recently, we would all when
we go camping. It's a hugegroup, a lot of my wife's family
and they her cousins, and theyall have kids, and we do a
We were doing a pie iron cookoff for the longest time. So I
don't even think I could do that. That's that's it was so wild.
(22:11):
So the idea was that everybody wouldbring, uh, like make a pie
iron. You guys know what pieirons. You're gonna have to describe it
for me. I do not knowwhat iron is. Okay, so you
can buy these contraptions called pie irons. They're too like cast iron, almost
like sandwich molds. Makes like abuttered like a pop tart kind of okay,
(22:32):
like you buttered the bread on theoutside, like you're making a grown
cheese, and you can put anythingin them. So that was a challenge,
like it could it could be dessertylike cream cheese and blueberry pie filling,
or it could be like one timesomebody made like a buttered chicken pie
iron and everything in between. Andso so we would have the and you
had to pare it with a cocktail. That sounds like my kind of camping.
(22:56):
I feel like I've been missing outmy entire childhood. Oh my god.
And so that you know, thisis where the inspiration for Triubadour came
from us, because you know,we're huge campers, love the camp fire,
and of course the guitars come out. And we've been talking for years
about doing an acoustic EP, butwe wanted to make it thematic like,
so that wasn't just here's an acousticEP. We wanted to do something.
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And during COVID, one of ourlife hacks was to have camp fires in
the backyard where a couple of neighborscould come over and we were outdoors and
we were distanced and we could havea beer and interact and guitars would come
out and I could sing and itwas safe. And so I called my
buddy up and Jeff Copeland in Nashville, and said, I think it's time
(23:40):
we got let you know, wecan't I can't go to Nashville, but
I've got a studio here as youcan see, and we can send tracks
back and forth on the Internet andit'd be something that we could do just
between the two of us. Andso that's how we did it, and
we wound up with a Juno nominationfor the first one. So the team
came to me and said, yeah, we'd like to do another one if
you've got songs, And I said, do I have songs? Of course
(24:00):
I have songs, uh and uhyeah, And so here we are camp
for a Trooper of Volume two cameout and we're getting ready to go on
the road with that. I sawthat, and that was my next question,
because you have you're singing or Idon't know if I'm not sure if
they're opening for you, but youhave teak In Gaye and Haley Bendick,
both a very wonderfully talented female countryartists, and I find that it's quite
rare for a male country artist tohave more than one female artist openers.
(24:25):
I think that's really good because youknow, there's there's constantly conversations in the
country industry about quality and yes,siple airplane or not. Of course,
was that a conscious choice on yourpart to support Yeah? Yeah, I
mean, you know, I'm I'mon the team, you know, and
I have a daughter, and andyou know, I just think, regardless
(24:45):
of gender, you should be givenyour your shot. And so I love
to showcase up and coming artists,and when those guys were available to do
the gig with us, I thoughtit it's perfect. We've also got Dana
Reid in Ontario, so she'll dothose dates and in Ontario, so it's
you know, it's it's kind ofnice. Also too, gives us an
opportunity to bring them out on stageand do a little duet, right,
(25:07):
So uh, it kind of justmakes sense and uh and I'm excited to
do it. Absolutely. That's happeningin October though, so probably no camp
fires, well maybe I hate you. I'm depending on where we go fires
all year around. I don't mine, but yeah, I mean it's we
were talking about that. Somebody said, oh, you should get like a
fake camp fire for the stage,and I thought, well, we don't
need to take it that far,but oh, I think you do.
(25:29):
I feel like I take it asfar as you can. Kaylor Swift takes
it pretty far, so I mean, like there's a there's room. She
does take it far. Yeah.Yeah, see that's the first See my
dad was a firefighter, so that'sthe fire safety and me going, I
don't know, we've got to makesure that it's where are the exits,
But Yeah, who knows what we'lldo production wise for it, but it's
gonna be a fun little run.And what I love about those runs is
(25:52):
we got to do like tour thefirst volume a little bit. It was
still Covidy in Ontario and so wecould have like a hundred people or something.
And what was super fun was that, Like when I perform with the
band, our set list is verycalculated and we've worked out, you know,
musical transitions and spots and even theparts that you know come off as
(26:15):
ad lib are calculated, you know, within a time frame. And with
the true camp fire true at ourshows, setlist changes every night. You
know, I can look at Ican look at the guys and go,
what Todd Petty do you know?Okay, let's do that one, you
know, and just or just callout in the moment, like if someone
yells something, it's like I knowa Paul McCartney song, you know.
(26:36):
So it's a it's very freeing asas an artist to do those kinds of
shows. So I'm really looking forwardto doing it again. I take out
a banjo, doro player Chris Saltman, and my guitar player Jeff Willingham comes
with me and we sing in threepart harmony and it's a lot of fun.
I actually really love talking to artistsabout going on to her because I
feel like there's two sides of thecoin. It's they love to have their
(26:56):
meals super planed out, super health, the super conscious, wake up at
six workout, and then the otherside of the coin is hitting every single
greasy spoon, you know, stayingup super late, chug in the beers.
I would like to know, TimHicks, what does your tour look
like as far as food. Yeah, so it's oftentimes that depends on who's
(27:17):
tour managing, and so we welearned because early on they said, you
know, you can have a rider, and I'm like, what's a rider?
They're like, well, all thosethings that you have in your dressing
room that are there for you.I'm like, really, and can we
have twicks on the rider? Andthey're like, yeah, you can have
twicks on the of all these things. So, you know, we keep
(27:38):
it kind of we try to keepit healthy anyway with our trail mix and
a veggie tray and things like that. But the aftershow food is where it
gets fun because that's kind of likeit's dictated by what's local as well.
So for instance, if we're inWinnipeg, we always get perogies afterwards because
they've got great oh my god,they've got great probes. Or if there's
(28:00):
like, you know, if we'resomeplace and they're like, there's a really
great pizza place, like a flatyou know, a thin crust pizza place
that you guys need to do,Okay, well, then we'll order from
there, and then some nights it'slike forty chubby chicken sandwiches. So it
really just depends what's around and whatwe're feeling like. And you know,
I try my best to keep ithealthy, but it's really hard. It's
(28:21):
hard, yeah, when you're traveling. And yeah, I mean the big
breakfast thing is definitely a road thing, Like I don't it's rare, like
maybe once a month we'll cook abig breakfast here, eggs, bacon,
toast, the whole nine effect.We just did one yesterday. But when
we're on the road, that's like, that's standard. Yeah, And there's
a few of us that get upearlier than the others, and we call
ourselves at Breakfast Club, mostly becausewe've got kids and we're just up early.
(28:44):
You know. So the guitar playerstend to sleep till four, but
the rest of us are up upand at them. So yeah, it's
to find eggs and bacon within walkingdistance from the tour bus is always very
important. I really really love Yeto the Hawk. I am I'm blown
away. I love a good,just feel good country song. And I
(29:06):
feel like you embodied everything behind that. What was that writing room like I
have to okay, must have beenhave There is a great story behind this
all. I'll try to give youthe I tend to tell long stories,
but I'll try and make this oneconcise. So we actually wrote it in
twenty nineteen and Copeland produced. Hepitched that title to me every time we
(29:26):
wrote for like five years, andevery time I said, dude, I'm
not writing Ye to the Haw withyou. I cannot go back up to
Canada singing Ye to the Hot Sorry, we'll goal write it with you.
Know. He was in Black checkBilly at the time. I said,
writing in Black chack Billy. Sowe get together when I'm down there for
a week or two weeks writing.We try and do these things called wildcard
nights. Because in Nashville songwriting isa day job, but I like working
(29:51):
at nighttime. I'm a musician.So we get a few of our buddies
together, a couple of beers,order some pizzas, and we work after
hours. And the idea is thatwe're just writing to write. We're writing
to write hit songs. It's justpure creativity for the fun of creativity,
and if we get something awesome,and so he pitched it and I'm just
like rolling my eyes, and oneof our other co writers, Bruce Wallace,
(30:11):
he's like, no, I thinkit could be really good. We
could make it. We could makea thing out of it, like hell
to the Yeah, Ye to theHawk, Me to the truck, Truck
to the road, Road to theparty, you know, like crowd to
the thing. He said, like, we could really make it a thing.
And I was like, you whatever, guys, where no one's cutting
this song? And it didn't Itdidn't matter. So this year we're looking
(30:33):
for material for Talk to Time andCopeland sends this email. It just said
ye to the Hawk, and wemust have cut a demo on it because
he had my vocal. I don'tever remember singing it and he doesn't either.
But we did this song and soyou know, I'm like, Okay,
I guess I gotta play this songbecause he put the effort into making
the demo and I wanted to hateit. But when I press play and
(30:55):
I'm sitting right where I'm talking toyou now, it's like and I turned
it up, I couldn't stop smiling, like it was just too much fun.
And you know, then I saidit, so then I'm like,
Okay, all right, I seewhat you're doing here. This is a
lot of fun. We sent itto the team. They're like, we
think it should be a single,and I'm like, not only is this
a song that I never wanted towrite, but now it's going to be
(31:17):
a single on the radio, youknow. And the funny part is is
like even my wife was like Itold her. She's like, ye to
the ha huh. And I'm likeyeah, She's like, oh okay,
I'm like, sit down and listento it and like with it. By
the second chorus, she's singing along, she's dancing. So it's kind of
one of those ones that's it's justpure fun and that's all it is.
It's proof to me that, youknow, we're not taking ourselves too seriously.
(31:41):
And I know that my fans knowthey know this of me because I've
got silly songs. In fact,in my quote that I gave my pr
girl, I think it said somethingto the effect of, like, you
know, from the same knuckleheads thatbrought you Stronger beer and no truck song,
here comes, he comes, becauseit's the same guys, and it's
just having fun. And you know, there's even like a little nod to
(32:02):
the Beatles in there at the twistand show with h oh yeah. It's
just it's a great line dancing number. And we've been performing it live and
I kind of set it up becauseI typically don't play songs that aren't released,
and so this is an instance wherethe song is just too much fun.
So I'll say to them, hey, guys, I don't normally do
this, but this one's a lotof fun to dance too. And it's
(32:24):
just, you know, I hopethat you have as much fun as we
do play it and here we go, you know, and and it's been
going over huge, so I'm glad. I'm glad that you dig it,
because oh, there was a partof me, Yeah, there's a part
of me that was like, ohno, here we go. You know,
it's so it's so great because,like I, I didn't grow up
listening to country music. Country musicis just one of those things where I
(32:45):
you don't, you don't listen toit. There's like an aversion to it.
It is. It is so feelgood, It is so catchy that
anybody who listens to anything would automaticallylove it. And I think that's what's
great about it. So yeah,I hope that it does, like you
know, we're there. Radio playsit or not is a different story because
there's a whole other set of factorsthere. But my fans seem to really
(33:07):
like it, and yeah that's allthat matters. It makes for a fun
T shirt, you know, soyeah, hey awesome. You know,
I feel like some of the bestcountry songs, like country party songs that
will say they really revel in ridiculousnessa little bit like why do you think
that is? I feel like thatis really the only genre that does that,
like they just I mean, aunchof people like that have a fun
(33:27):
time. I think maybe that's whyfundamentally, but I think so too,
And there are some some big artiststhat have kind of made a career of
that, Like I would say BradPaisley is one, like for sure,
you know, he's got some greatstuff that's funny, you know, and
he's a funny guy. And andyou know, I grew up listening to
guys like John Frying that that youknow, would write a song to make
you chuckle. And I kind ofhave a little bit of that dichotomy happening
(33:49):
in my career, and that wecan release a song like no Truck Song
and then the next song that comesout is loud, you know. So
you know, there is the rockand you know, let's raise, let's
pump our fists and and haven't timekind of side to me, but also
the side that's like, all right, this one's kind of fun, you
know, and just sing a songthat's sort of clever enough to give you
a little chuckle. You know.That That to me is uh, you
(34:10):
know, one of the one ofthe fun parts about country music. And
I don't know why why it is. I think it's just because you know,
you're trying to whether you're trying tomake somebody smile with a sad song
or a funny song, it's allthe same at the end of the day.
So I know a lot of acountry artists when they when they write,
sometimes these funny songs are high energysongs actually come from writing situation that's
(34:32):
almost like negative or depressed, ifsomeone needs to get out of a funk.
Do you have any songs like that, like where you've turned take a
bad mood into a good song?I mean all of them? Yeah,
you know it's uh, it's yougot. You kind of have to be
in somewhat of a good place tohave enough organizational skills to sit down and
(34:54):
be creative. But oftentimes, forme, like the best stuff comes out
of those moments where you're like reallydown and out. You know. There's
a song on Talk to Time calledNumb that was like that for me,
and it was it was Jeff's ideaand as we flushed it out, and
this has happened to us a coupleof times, like you wind up in
the room like I couldn't cut thevocal I was, I was like welling
(35:17):
up, you know, because eventhough the song was like really based on
what was happening with him, Iyou know, he's one of one of
my best friends, so it's hardnot to feel it when I was singing
those words and then you start reflectingon it and you go, this is
about me too, you know,especially around that time with COVID happening and
the impact that had had on ourlives and relationships, and so yeah,
(35:42):
I mean there's there's a lot ofthat. And I think that part of
why I do music is that it'scathartic and and it's it's like built in
therapy, you know when you pickup your guitar, and I love expensive
therapy, super expensive therapy. Yeahexactly, and you know you get out
on stage and like just to likeget it all out, just feel so
(36:02):
good, you know. I thinkthat's why I love performing too. Well.
It's always it's always so hard tocome to the end. But Tim,
this is a food podcast, andwe've very clearly talked about food on
this one. I am on ahunt to find out everybody's picnic basket hit
this summer. What is the onething that has to be in your snack
(36:23):
basket, whether whether it's you know, your chicouterie board, you're camping basket,
but what is the one thing youcan't leave the house without if you're
going to have a little little fooddate. Okay, well, for sure,
there's a few things. So forsure, you need a bottle of
wine. Okay, you need notbeer, no, no, no,
this is picnic time. This isabout romance. Oh okay, So so
(36:45):
yeah, you need a bottle ofwine. You need because this reminds me
my wife and I had our honeymoonin Paris and the last day we just
went and got a bag at andsome cheese and a bottle of wine and
sat underneath the Eiffel Tower, mostlybecause we had burned through all of our
money, but it was one ofthe best picnics I ever had, you
know. And so if you canfind like a little olive tray and a
(37:07):
fresh bag at and some cheese andsome wine, that is the perfect picnic
basket for me. I love that. I'm gonna have to give it a
try. Bread, cheese, olivein wine. You can't go any simpler
than that either. Yeah, it'sperfect, perfect, okay, Madison.
Right after this, we're gonna goto the park. All right. We
are in two separate cities. Yeah, we could face time in different parks
(37:28):
and still eat bread infects works forme. I love it all right,
Tim, thanks so much. Iappreciate you taking the time and all you're
busy. Plus you guys, thanksso much. Man. All I want
is a Smore and a hot dogand a nice crispsider and a flannel one
(37:52):
piece suit with a lumber jacket.Something about Tim makes me just want the
Canadian dream. Well, no,I think all we want, all we
should want his front road. Itgets to the Campfire Tributor concert series,
so I think that that would justembody all of that feelings. We just
bring the smores and stuff with usperfect Instead of asking for peanuts and hot
dogs, I just want smores andbeer. Yes, exactly. As mentioned,
(38:15):
The CCMAs take place in Hamilton,televised on September sixteenth. They moved
to a new media partner now,so they're going to air on CTV for
the first time in a ever ora really long time. Don't quote me
on that, but should be anexciting night and I shall be there also
celebrating. Well, I expect tosee you in a bolo tie and a
cowboy hat with a pearl button down. Dan. You know what, in
(38:36):
my current age, I've really leanedinto that cowboy aesthetic for sure. I
mean stampede. You can't not drinkthe kool aid when you live in Calgary.
So I have many bolos, andI have many vintage Cowboy shirts and
I love to I love a reasonto wear them. Yeah. Well,
actually I think the last time Isaw you, you were wearing a pearl
button down, So yeah, itsounds like me. Thank you for listening
(38:59):
to Melodies and Men News, apodcast mini series brought to you by Eat
North. For more information on today'sguest, Tim Hicks, co host Madison
Olds, and myself Dan Klapson mynew cookbook, Prairie Head, to eat
north dot com and we'll see younext week.