Lori Yates

In this episode, Eric speaks with two-time Juno nominee and prolific songwriter, Lori Yates. She is sometimes remembered as "the cowgirl who was singing her heart out in the punk clubs with Rang Tango".  She is still singing her heart out, both as a solo artist and member of the super-group Hey Stella. Lori has been long recognized by her peers and respected as one of Canada's top talents.  Lori was called Alt Country long before the phrase existed.  A true pioneer of a genre in the making. 

Transcript

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In this episode, Eric speaks with to time Juno nominee and prolific songwriter Laurie as

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she is sometimes remembered as the cowgirl singing her heart out in the punk clubs, which rang tango, she's still singing her heart out, both as a solo artist, and member of supergroup pay stellar.

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Long recognized by her peers and respected as one of Canada's top talents. Laurie was called all country long before the phrase existing pioneer of a genre in the make.

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Up in Downsview, born in Oshawa, do you remember writing your first song?

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What kind of remember or was that later? Well, informally, I can remember sitting on the curb, forever house on in Oshawa and singing to the crows making up little, you know, little songs and singing to them. So yeah, it's like you remember to totally remember that early influence in your singing style, your

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performance style. Anybody in particular

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you know, I grew up in you know, hard rock city of downs you

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you know, Telford and Wilson you either you know, it was either the rockers or or the disco you're into disco was crazy. Why there was a divine and then there there was weirdo me who I was in the rocker camp. I definitely looked like a rocker. But I secretly and not so secretly loved Tanya Tucker. And I love Dolly Parton because I could I love the melodies right? And then I lovely story songs like Jamestown fairy that and would you lay with me and Phil, the song by Tony Stark just rocked my world was 13. At the same time, I was listening to Pink Floyd, dark, dark side of the moon.

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But I had two friends that had moved into these apartments that are kind of a bit of ways from where I lived. And they were from the East Coast. And it was it was Johnny and Dickey and there's their older sister, Brenda. Now you got to understand everybody was 12 to 14 year old can export these with no filter. And Johnny and Dickies was just it was Johnny Dickey or, I don't know one of their parents, their parents. Brenda's mom still had a beehive and her dad had a duck tail they were right out in the 50s and

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they drove some kind of old Cadillac like vehicle that had fins in the homeowners. And I remember being in the backseat and I don't know if we were drunk or high but we were definitely smoking cigarettes with their mom and dad in the front and on came

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roll Haggard's lonesome fugitive and I thought this is the coolest shit around this circle

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down every round there's always one more city

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I'm on the run the highway is my home

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I re a lot of came back in my younger day

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why while mama used to pray my crops would pay

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a hunted fugitive with just to Way

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Out Run the law or spend my life in jail.

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I like to set down the day let me

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have fugitive must be a rolling stone

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down every row there's always one more city

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I am on the run the highway is my home.

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Why I thought that I don't know but I just did. I thought the sound of it what he's talking about. And you know that? I love Janis Joplin. She was a huge influence Brenda Lee later on of course heart I loved heart. I loved Bad Company. I loved the way he sang.

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You know? So there anybody that can really sing? Yeah. So there is a lot of beautiful melodies and stuff in there but also an edge to the mall in their own distinct ways, you know? Yeah, absolutely.

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The other I think the one that rocked my world big time was Patti Smith's first record when I was 13. Because here was yeah, here was a voice that I which still continues is that let's she lets herself sound ugly and guttural.

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Right? And this was something that I was like, Wow. You know, some kid in her room Daljit. Amazingly, worlds apart.

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So 1987 was a big year for you. That's fine rang Tango

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forehand, and

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somewhere around there, that's what I read on your bio.

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You know, that bio is just outrageous. So crazy. I've given up. Every time I look at it, I get so I hate. I'm like, yeah, why am I writing? Third person? I really don't know. I know. Well, mine is like, so stupidly big. And I don't know how to condense it in a way. So I think Ray tangle formed in like, 86 and, yeah, 8687 Yeah, we were only around for

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a little over a year and a half. Yeah, a lot was accomplished. Yeah, that was accomplished. And a lot of people saw us. And it was a great fun band, ton of energy. You know, you walk up queens. Yeah, go live. Every night Queen Street was rocking. Like every, you know, every bar was roots, rock country, rockabilly. That was the popular music. Everybody was sporting, you know, blue fonts and DuckTales and bolo ties and cowboy shirts and cowboy boots and right and Crennel. It's like it was a fun, fun, fun time. Dancing. Everybody was dancing. Like we used to have the whole place dancing. I used to walk off the stage soaking wet. Because I would the way that I sang was I would sing like it was my last night on Earth. I would I would sing my guts out. I did not know how to pace myself. So that's all fine and dandy. That's great. But if you have to go on tour, you're dead and I

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I was starting to I had some voice problems at one point where you know the big shots were coming around to take a look at me and I I was hoarse a lot I could sing but I couldn't talk I couldn't I had no voice when I talked.

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I still continue to speak from that time

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I guess.

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See

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it's

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Like he said, Cal Punk in California, in Toronto, there's a whole other thing happening. Oh, it was huge, like, roots music was the popular music on the street. Right? That's what it was. And there were there were guys. There were Cowboy Junkies, there were Cowboy Junkies before the band even formed. I remember them. I remember dating this guy, he phoned me up, and he's like, Hey, you want to go drinking somehow I thought that was classy. I'm like, Sure. And we went to the camera.

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And there were these young, gorgeous guys all wearing black eyeliner, all stoned out of their heads on heroin. And that's what but they were all playing.

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rockabilly, kind of rockabilly punk like psychobilly. And, but that was the popular music. Everybody was dressing like, everybody's wearing cowboy boots, everybody had, you know, silver buckles, the Bolero ties and the cowboy shirts. And that was a popular music. So it was a really fantastic time to be in a band, and then to be in a popular band. And to be in a band that went from like, zero to, you know, the height of it all in a year and a half was really, really something was quite quite a ride. It was quite terrific. You know, it was it's exciting. And then after that, like blue rodeo were always a couple

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steps ahead of us in terms of they had been around a bit longer. So they had graduated to

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I think they'd put their first record out. Ned passed away

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you know, the Razorbacks got signed, and they put a record out. So then the scene started to dissipate. It's just started to change a bit and it wasn't the popular music but for a good

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two or three, four years there. Definitely.

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Yeah, at least. Yeah. So and let's see you

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do to do Sorry.

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Need a swig of coffee?

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You want to place up

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can you play lonesome desert? No, you don't want to play? No, no, you know what? No, that's one that is got so many as I was looking at it again today and I thought

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I about 10 times in my life. I've gone okay. relearn the song. It's so it's got all simple sore chords, but they changed so much and it's a matter of memorization for me. I've never been able to memorize it. I'm like, I'm like come on somebody cover this damn song. But the thing about it is that it's Sony has buried that record you can't find that record.

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We have it here in song town courtesy of Laurie hates here she is with lonesome.

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Lonely wins the globe.

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A girl who look like me had gone to Tennessee. You know, making some

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big man

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Annie

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was not

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she

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burning

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desire

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dreams. My mama live behind her mama

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She

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she wants

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to chat

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with you and your

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you want me to go home with you

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make me smile and give me

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any

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goods

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time ago so I'm

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not saying no she found out that night was not

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bad

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dreams Mama Mama

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Mama she

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she

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fire

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fire

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the chat

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room design

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so you aren't writing songs about pickup trucks and beer and short shorts and you know, maybe that's

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back then nobody was nobody was

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no. Oh, well occasionally I drift into like, Hey, let's go see what country music's doing like the real country. And I I can't listen for very long. And you know, and lately I've been thinking, I don't think you would call what I do country music anymore at all. At all because it's nothing. Topic wise melody, there's nothing. You know.

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There's some good songwriters out there like, I'm the first one to say like I absolutely love

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Miranda Lambert's bluebird like, I love that song. I fangirl all over it, I love it. But I it's more that there's a whole

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thing that goes with it all. And occasionally I think I can write like that. I'm gonna write like that. And I can't I can't seem to do

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definitely song Town USA. Nashville is there's so many great songwriters there and they don't all break the top 40 kind of thing. But they are producing amazing music. Still. So Nashville is kind of a double edged sword, isn't it? I mean, when I was there, when I got there, I was a bit of an anomaly because I was a writer and a singer. And so usually it was that you weren't if you were the singer, and I was Yeah, would have been a redhead. Who was the

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Delete? Billy Cheryl?

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You know, I look back on that now. Oh, my God. Meeting Billy Cheryl being taken to meet Billy Cheryl at a meeting with the a&r guy who was intent on introducing me to old Nashville before it disappeared. That's what he never told me. That's what he was doing. But when I look back on it, I realized that that's what he did. And that was his, his gift to me. He was like, I you know, I think he thought he didn't know how long he was going to the job for which you know, often they don't. And, and so he took me to meet Billy Cheryl. But it was a seems to be it was a morning type meeting, which maybe is never good for some people. And

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in we go, and Billy looks at me.

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And you see I my advantage and disadvantage with some of these people. I didn't really know who they were, like, I knew who they were. But it wasn't like now we have Google. We can look them up and find their whole history.

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I would have not been able to walk into the offices I walked into. I was terrified anyways, but had I known all his, you know, history. He I knew he worked with Tamina I knew. Yeah, you know, I would have just been freaking out and he took one look at me and he's like, Larry, who the hell is this? Last week you brought me as a stripper named candy cane.

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Raul is this. And then he looked at me. And always at that time, there were country music Nazis. So they wanted to know, how much did you know about country music? Did you know Every country singer on the face of the earth? And could you identify them? And did you? So there's always these tests, you know? I don't know. That's Ernest Tubb. I'm like, I'm 27 years old. I knew and I knew most of the females but I didn't know the guy singers. So Billy Cheryl was very intimidating and not interested at the at all. So I didn't get a good vibe off of so I didn't I didn't press to work with them.

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If I would have thought he was a cool guy, or if he really liked each other. I would have been like, yeah, man, I could have worked with him. He was there. I was in a meeting with him. Now, a meeting not a meeting that I had but somebody who I ended up knowing down there a little bit was Harlan Howard but great writer Harlan and at the time the record companies and the scene was all about new country and I don't mean the country that's happening now but it was several Dwight Yoakam I love it. Katie Lange that whole thing and they didn't want me to write with Harlan Howard because he was too traditional

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you believe that

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oh that's that is the they wanted me to write with you know

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the new up and coming kids right away from the steer me away from Bob Johnson. I worked with him he produced highway 61 and

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Folsom Prison Blues this they were they're like eyes he's a waste case he's acid case and I was like no I wish it was me now but I I was pretty intimidated

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Hey little garden

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coming over so

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that you never met

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the seven Oh Is love you

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You gonna vote

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when the sun is on start again is

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gone

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Elizabeth is

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better off

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with the memories that you have

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you got a

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lot of peanuts in the sun

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again.

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So after the Sony experience in Nashville, you did an incredible album called breaking.

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Yes, with column Linden, I think producing featuring a veritable slew of great guests like Jim Cuddy, Richard Bell, Rick Danko.

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This was with Virgin Canada. I thought for sure this would break big part.

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Did you and what happened? Well, I am. Interestingly enough, I came back from Nashville looking my well licking my wounds sort of, you know, a little bit of like, okay, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. But I knew I wanted to do a little something a little more routine and Rocky, right. So on that record, I kind of became the sing every singer of every song. So I was like, Hey, I'm going to do a country song.

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I'm going to do an r&b song, you know. So stylistically, it's a little bit all over the map. I also was

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determined to show off my writing chops. Right. And

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I thought it was a very cohesive album, even though you did go in, touch on are in

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any other way. I remember that. Yes. Yeah. And it was very cohesive album wonderfully produced. And yeah, those live shows were.

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Well, it was it was a really great record. I had a great band playing on it. All that stuff was really good. The record company, Doug Chappelle, who signed me to that was very much behind it.

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And just before the record, when the record just came out, my manager died suddenly. And then Doug Chappelle left the label. So you get new people in, they look at you and they're like,

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I don't get it. And that's what happened to them.

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It's, it's brutal, well happens. Well, it's a classic. No, it is. It's happened to me quite a few times.

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But, um, you know, I toured it, and I quite loved it. And I felt like I got back on my feet with that record, you know, a little bit. Yeah. So was it was it around this time that you

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met and started collaborating with Baxter? David back? I think so. Right around

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the early 90s Yeah, early 90s.

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I was a huge sharks fan. Huge love Cherie Huffman. You know, shrieking love like love them. In fact, I found

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there was some footage recently that somebody posted on Facebook and it's the sharks playing at the concert hall or something and they span the audience and there I am, I'm in the audience and I'm like this like I have this like this look of worship because I love them. So to be playing with basil and Baxter and to get to know cleave like you don't even have to click on my record and play with please like that was a real it was a dream come true. Right so yeah, so we started to

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Baxter started play with me we wrote a ton he became my musical director which is super important for any buddy starting out to have a right hand to have a wing wing person right that that helps with the band just on your side helping yeah yeah, I can't imagine a better fit

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you're in Baxter are really

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cool when blowing down the street

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and it's

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to us Oh,

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they just fat

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nights

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so

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as fans

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love birds

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of the

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day they just

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the

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body

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so

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this man is

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in the

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good sets the tempo

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they just

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Whoa

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just how influential was he? Oh, then I'm going

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well, he was he was kind of the king of Queen Street. Right? He very charming. He had a matinee, every Saturday afternoon, I believe that the backroom of the Cameron

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and he was a great singer. And he was the epitome of old country. Right. So, if you listen to the melodies and the music is playing, it was, you know, it was country, no doubt about it. But his ethos, everything else was very positive. So, right. And, and.

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And he was, you know, I only met him once before he, he died. And it was by those those guys wearing the mascara that took me to the Cameron, as he introduced me, you know, they said, he said, This is Laurie. This is what rang Tango was just starting. And he said, I said, she's like, the Bali Johnson.

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Johnson of country, and he's like, Oh, nice to meet you. You know, and then I think the next week or other he had passed away, and then so yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Molly Johnson is the she's the queen, jet. The the Laurie eights. Yeah, she's the queen mother of Queen Street. Yeah, yes. For sure. Absolutely. And you could see her she was everywhere.

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Backing the scene and also performing or ASOF. Yes.

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Yeah, those were great years.

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And then the Yeah. Then the alternative supergroup, they call it Hey, still.

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Well, he's he's stellar. So

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I don't even remember how we came about. So he still is Michelle Joseph on drums. David Baxter on guitar, and basil Donovan on bass. So no, all of us

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have been friends, friends and lovers.

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For many years, many years, very old friends and have played in different configurations of bands together. I I don't remember how we decided that we were going to play together. But it was in that band that they forced me to play acoustic guitar. They said it's a three piece band. If we're going to play you need to play for them. And I was like, oh, because you know, at that point, but I got whoops, I

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usually just would sing on stage. I wasn't too comfortable playing guitar. I wrote on guitar rows. comfortable playing it, but But in that band, they forced me to. Yes.

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We've we've been together.

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I got to say close to 30 years maybe? Sure. It's been an ongoing project through. Wow. 30 years. I'd have to look it up like you know, we're very we're a dysfunctional family like no doubt.

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Good?

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Well I just did some new recording

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with them backing me up on a couple of tunes. So

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that's exciting, really exciting and new songs, right? Yep.

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Awesome. I can't wait to hear that.

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Yeah, so I think it was 2017. I took your songwriters. Yeah. And I enjoyed it immensely. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Well, the it's a songwriting workshop that I put on called creative genius songwriting workshop. And Eric. Ed, was what was one of the great songwriters who wrote he wrote a couple of great songs I remember.

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Oh, thank you. Any, you know, I was kind of looking for an idea to

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I don't know, I like, you know, pass on my knowledge. I don't know. I always think it's bullshitting people like, I'm a mentor. Oh, is that well, no, no. I think other people say that you're a mentor. I don't think you really loves to call yourself.

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Weird, anyways, but it was more that a lot of people were asking me about how to do things. And I realized, I've been in the business and I've been for a long time. And, and I wanted to just find a different facet of,

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you know, working with people and doing Besides singing bands, and playing bars, and touring all that stuff. So

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and I thought back to when I first started singing and writing, and being like 18 years old, and walking into, you know, the big music store downtown and being so intimidated and what, what do you ask, what do you do? Well, where do you get a gig? Like, how do you record like, there's so many questions. It's so intimidating. And I thought, What if we put all of that kind of took all that out? So put this thing together? Where you'd write the songs, record the songs and perform the songs all in six weeks? And you know, that was sort of based on remember those little match boxes that were so successful, they'll call it six weeks if you

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write if you can draw this turtle or better

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turtlehead

Transcribed by https://otter.ai