Retrospective Reviews: Stompin' Tom Connor's 'To It And At It'

In 1973, Stompin’ Tom Connors was nearing the peak of his commercial success. “The Hockey Song,” “Sudbury Saturday Night,” “Bud the Spud,” “The Ketchup Song” and other Stompin’ Tom classics were gaining popularity across the Great White North, and Tom had a packed touring schedule with regular TV and radio appearances. He would release two LPs that year on his own independent imprint Boot Records, Northlands Zone and To It and At It. The latter would go on to win the Juno for Country Album of the Year in 1974 (an honour Tom would go on to rebuke in 1978 when he returned it and his other five Junos in protest), and prove to be one of his most solid recordings.

It’s easy (for some) to dismiss Stompin’ Tom today as a hokey provincial old feller with a tired rural shtick. But his contribution to Canadian culture, and his steadfast belief in supporting homegrown Canadian talent, is undeniable. The Neil Youngs, Bryan Adamses, and Arcade Fires of Canadian music are more likely to be celebrated by the media and institutions acting as cultural gatekeepers here in Canada, receiving accolades by the truck load. But Stompin’ Tom was too busy working the honky tonks, dance halls, hockey rinks and rodeos, smoking cigarettes, drinking beer and singing songs about and for Canadians in the backwoods and the big city to ever give a damn about that noise, telling the CRTC, the CBC, and anyone else who crossed his path to “stuff it up their ass.”

To It and At It is a great example of Connors’ songwriting. The rousing title track, which is still a staple of any self-respecting hoser bar band today, implores Canucks of all stripes to buckle down and get’er done when the times get tough. The “Martin Hartwell Story” was pulled right from the headlines, detailing a heroic story of survival north of 60, and “Don Messer Story” sheds a little light on Canada’s musical history. “Keepin’ Nora Waiting” has since proved a classic in the “workin’ man’s blues” genre, while “Alcan Run” is a trucker tune that ranks up there with the best of Red Sovine or Alabama (and gets bonus points for shouting out my hometown of Dawson Creek, BC).

There are a couple missteps along the way, though they are buried deep on the b-side of the LP. “Pizza Pie” is cringeworthy at best, with a groan inducing mock-Italian accent, and “Cornflakes” is hokey anyway you look at it. And of course, the songs are written, as was Connors’ intention as a poet of the working Canadian, in the plain-as-can-be language of the time, some of which doesn’t quite jive in the 21st century. But if you can accept the awkward -- if well-intentioned -- “Eskimo boy,” “Newfie,” and “frog” references as artifacts of our less enlightened collective history, then you’ll no problem enjoying these otherwise harmless little ditties.

Stompin’ Tom hung up his iconic black Stetson hat in 1977, and returned his Junos the following year, in protest of how the CRTC, the feds, and the media ignored artists working in Canada in favour of “border jumpers” who went south to find their fortunes. He didn’t perform or record again until 1986, after Dave Bidini famously crashed his 50th birthday party and wrote about it, sparking a re-interest in the curmudgeony troubadour.

Today, when independent artists are some of the most well recognized in Canadian music and the honours like Polaris Prize exist to champion artistic integrity over record sales, it is difficult to really grasp just how big of a maverick Stompin’ Tom Connors really was. Old Tom was releasing his own records, booking own tours, doing his own promotions, and supporting and recording other Canadian talent at a time when that was far from the norm. If it weren’t for the trailblazing independent and unabashedly Canadian spirit that Connors pioneered, it’s difficult to see how Canrock institutions like the Rheostatics, the Tragically Hip or Constantines could possibly have succeeded, much less thrived.

When Canadian poet-musicians like Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot, Gord Downie or John K Samson are toasted, they ought to be toasted alongside Skinner’s Pond’s own Stompin’ Tom Connors. As such, on the 40th anniversary of To It and At It, why not raise a cold, Canadian beer and tip your hat to old Stompin’ Tom, “tune your attitude in,” and give this record a spin or two.

Sheldon Birnie is writing in the Winnipeg rain. @badguybirnie