Their music reflects a social awareness and a social conscience. Many of their songs come from the workplace, shades of the Weavers in the thirties and forties, while others tell the tales of other times and places. Other songs are contemporary with just enough bite to make the listener sit up and think.
Fraser Union has been described as a folk group, but when one listens to the content of the songs, hears the social conscience echoing through the harmony, the historical references singing through the melody, there can be no doubt that Fraser Union is deeply entrenched among the heritage artists so vital to the survival of Canadian culture and heritage.
Many of their songs come from the workplace: “Bank Trollers” (about West Coast fishing), “Snap the Line Tight” (log salvaging), “Canning Salmon,” “Coal Town Road,” “Chemical Worker’s Song,” “Woman of Labrador,” “Empty Nets” (woes of fishing), “Ships of the Deep” (merchant shipping), “Everything Possible” (child-rearing), “Their Way” (post-secondary teaching), and “The Ghost Program” (computer programming).
But some tell stories from other times and places: “The Last Battle,” about the Métis uprising and the last stand of Louis Riel, “The Goodnight-Loving Trail,” about the most valuable member on the cattle drive–the cook, “Augustus and Catherine,” about the Overlanders and moving West, and “Lady Franklin’s Lament,” about the ill-fated Franklin expedition. Fraser Union also sings contemporary songs with a bite (”Canaries in the Mine” is about environmental hazards in an aircraft factory; “One Big Highway” is about globalization). As has been said, whether on recording or in concert, Fraser Union’s repertoire contains no throw-aways.
Their version of Bill Gallaher’s The Last Battle(from the CD Hello!Stranger) has to be one of the most dynamic and moving pieces of music I have heard in a long time.
Fraser Union has been described as a folk group, but when one listens to the content of the songs, hears the social conscience echoing through the harmony, the historical references singing through the melody, there can be no doubt that Fraser Union is deeply entrenched among the heritage artists so vital to the survival of Canadian culture and heritage.
Many of their songs come from the workplace: “Bank Trollers” (about West Coast fishing), “Snap the Line Tight” (log salvaging), “Canning Salmon,” “Coal Town Road,” “Chemical Worker’s Song,” “Woman of Labrador,” “Empty Nets” (woes of fishing), “Ships of the Deep” (merchant shipping), “Everything Possible” (child-rearing), “Their Way” (post-secondary teaching), and “The Ghost Program” (computer programming).
But some tell stories from other times and places: “The Last Battle,” about the Métis uprising and the last stand of Louis Riel, “The Goodnight-Loving Trail,” about the most valuable member on the cattle drive–the cook, “Augustus and Catherine,” about the Overlanders and moving West, and “Lady Franklin’s Lament,” about the ill-fated Franklin expedition. Fraser Union also sings contemporary songs with a bite (”Canaries in the Mine” is about environmental hazards in an aircraft factory; “One Big Highway” is about globalization). As has been said, whether on recording or in concert, Fraser Union’s repertoire contains no throw-aways.
Their version of Bill Gallaher’s The Last Battle(from the CD Hello!Stranger) has to be one of the most dynamic and moving pieces of music I have heard in a long time.
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HELLO, STRANGER is the opening line of the opening song of this album, but, according to Fraser Union, it represents a return. Originally recorded in 1991 and released as a cassette tape, HELLO, STRANGER was digitally re-mastered and released as a CD with far better sound quality in 2003. Canadian history is represented in the opening track, Are You From Bevan(Vancouver Island’s Coal Strike 1912-14) collected by Phil Thomas, and in Bill Gallaher’s The Last Battle, about the Northwest Rebellion of 1885. Nowhere will you hear a more powerful and evocative rendition of The Last Battle. Allister MacGillivray’s Coal Town Road tells of the lives of Cape Breton coal miners, while Vic Bell’s “Snap the Line Tight takes us to the West Coast for log salvaging.
FROM THERE TO HERE refers to geography and time, as the songs span three centuries, moving from the Scottish Highlands to Vancouver Island, tracing the movement of peoples and events from the highland clearances to computer programming and globalization.
THIS OLD WORLD Fraser Union’s latest CD takes its title from a recent song written by Barry, one paired with a song dating from the 17th century. There can be no question that this s an old world, and “The World Turned Upside Down” reminds us that our concerns today are not all that new.
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For more information or to order CDs, visit their website at
http://www.fraserunion.com
(tell them kerri sent you)
http://www.fraserunion.com
(tell them kerri sent you)
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With its strong and meaningful repertoire of Canadian material that reflects the history and the people that helped this country grow, Fraser Union is well known in the British Columbia folk music scene.
Roger Holdstock, Dan Kenning, Henk Piket, and Barry Truter bring strong vocals, stunning harmony, accompanied with guitars, mandolins, banjo, and dobro.
Roger Holdstock, Dan Kenning, Henk Piket, and Barry Truter bring strong vocals, stunning harmony, accompanied with guitars, mandolins, banjo, and dobro.