About a month and a half ago, I did a post where I wrote about some of the fun times that I’ve had busking with some of my musician friends. One of the friends that I have played with on a number of occasions is guitarist and singer-songwriter Dale Manason. I first met Dale in the fall of 1997 at the Mustard Seed Street Church, where he’d been doing some volunteer work. Not long after that, he got into the coffee business and did a ten year stint as a barista at a cart at Capital Iron and then at his own shop on Oak Bay Avenue. It was at these two locations, that I would often spend my between sets time hanging out and “philosophising” with Dale and a few other regulars.
Dale, 56, is a versatile musician who as well as playing acoustic and electric guitar, is working on blues slide, and has been known to fiddle around with the banjo. Over the years he has played several genres of music including rhythm & blues, country, bluegrass and gospel. In the last decade he has performed as a solo act, and in his own band that featured his daughter Melissa (vocals/flute). At the turn of the century, Dale and I did a handful of pub, coffee shop, and church event gigs together, and last year he did some guitar picking and vocals on a couple of songs on my recent CD. He currently juggles being a handyman carpenter with singing and playing lead guitar in a 7-piece R&B/Blues combo called the Boulevard Blues Band. And, as if that wasn’t keeping him busy enough, Dale still occasionally finds the time to come out and join me busking on the harbour.
In mid-September, we got together on the causeway, and over coffee, talked about his music, busking and a favorite music experience.
CD – So, you had done some busking before we met?
Dale – In ’97, I left my full-time job and for the next four or five months, April ‘til the end of the summer I think, I was down here almost every day. Sometimes I was down here by myself, sometimes I came down with my friend Greg Vaughan, and whenever I had the duo it was always better money, of course. But it was basically groceries, ‘cause I left a fulltime job and just had to kinda get my head straightened out.
CD – And you did some busking in the library courtyard, didn’t you?
Dale – Yeah, I did that one too. And down in front of Torrefazzione (now Starbucks next to Eddie Bauer).
CD – How did you decide to get into busking?
Dale – Actually I saw Marty (Field), when I first moved here, I would notice Marty down on Government Street, usually in front of Murchies, and on Sundays, I’d always come down with my family and have a wander around downtown. It was cheap or free for little kids, and we would usually stop at Murchies and get hot chocolate for the kids and coffee and sit there and watch Marty, and you probably were there for all I know, at that time. And I thought “Hey, I’ve always wanted to try something like that,” and being a musician, and adventurous, I wasn’t working anymore, I thought I’d go give it a whirl, and my wife said “Yeah, go ahead, whatever”. So I grabbed the bus, came downtown in a few minutes. It was cheap because I didn’t have to park a vehicle, and I would usually go home with thirty, forty bucks maybe. It helped to buy groceries at the time, ‘cause I wasn’t working full-time and my wife was. I figured for a $10 investment, I couldn’t go wrong.
CD – Did you have a favorite spot out of the spots that you did play?
Dale – Actually, I never did work the Murchies spot, but I always did quite well on the causeway, I think it was either down by Milestone’s or over here by the Wax Museum. The spot right below the statue wasn’t too bad. I always watched where the successful guys were doing their stuff, like Marty always worked at the bottom of Milestone’s, Dave Harris was always down there too, although Dave did do the center spot and managed it quite well. I always found we did okay until the jugglers came out, and then it seemed like nobody wanted to hear music anymore.
CD – (laughs) Yeah, we know all about that.
CD – What did you enjoy most about busking?
Dale – I suppose it was the freedom to just get out and bellow out the songs as best I could. It was limiting as a solo artist, which you probably know, you’re limited to what you can do, but there was that sense of freedom of just doing whatever you like, and if people stopped and listened, that was great, if they didn’t, well I’d sing anyway.
The downside to it though was that I got the impression that some people walking by considered busking as just a slightly elevated form of panhandling, so there were days where I’d go home feeling like I needed a shower, ‘cause people were giving me the evil eye. The ones that stopped to listen, I think they were pleasantly surprised, but there were others that I think just sort of thought “Oh, you know, there’s another dirty bum,” kinda thing. I tried to look better and present myself better than the average panhandler, but I think you still get smeared with that same brush. That was kind of discouraging.
CD – What would you call the style of music that you play?
Dale – I’m very eclectic, I think probably as time has gone on and I’m getting older, I find I like blues a lot more. I’ve always liked blues and I think most of my music has been blues influenced even from way back at the beginning, because even old ‘50s and ‘60s rock ’n’ roll was bluesy, coming out of the rockabilly stuff, so it’s always been blues influenced. But I did a stint in sort of country, country-rock, I play a lot of bluegrass, I’ve done acoustic music, you know America style, Neil Young and people like that, so I think I’ve dabbled in a lot of styles and I’ve never mastered any one particular one. I just like a little bit of everything.
CD – Who are your musical influences?
Dale – Carlos Santana, I think you probably would tell, Eric Clapton, Chet Atkins, although I’ve never been able to figure out the finger-style, but I love his music. Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits, and then of course B.B.King, Albert King and Robert Cray, and some of those guys. But I guess the biggest influences have been Santana and Clapton.
CD – And I know you write your own stuff?
Dale – I do, I have and I haven’t recently. Okay, so there’s sort of a threefold thing. I’ve written, I wrote a lot of stuff when I was younger, by myself or with my brother. My younger brother and I played together professionally for five years and traveled all over southern Alberta and into BC, and at the time we recorded an album of original material called “Money”, and of course it didn’t make any of that aforementioned money, we basically paid off the recording costs and broke up the act, but it served a purpose at its time. I’ve been seriously thinking of re-recording some of it different from the way it was originally done, it’s very ‘80s in its sound. It’s dated, but it has a smattering of everything from pop to country on it. One of the tunes that I wrote, “Boxcar Blues” that’s probably my favorite song off the entire album.
CD – I really like that one too.
Dale – I’d like to redo that one in its original form which was a whole lot slower and a lot bluesier, not as poppy or pop-country as it turned out. I don’t know how it transformed but it happens.
I’ve also written with my wife, who is an excellent lyricist. The gospel album that I did in ’96 is all original material, and she co-wrote probably about half that album. Two or three for sure, there was “Psalm 61’. Then there’s one that I’ve just recently recorded at home, that was written about the same time, Sharon wrote half the lyric on that one, it’s called “Midnight.” So, I finally got down to recording that, it needs to be tweaked a little bit, but it sounds pretty decent. The most recent thing I wrote, maybe about 5, 6 years ago, was a song called “A Hundred Dollars Closer To Mexico,” you’ve heard that one.
CD – Oh yeah! That’s another great song. You wrote that when you were working the coffee cart at Capital Iron. That was the sign on your tip jar. (laughs)
Dale – That’s right. Yeah, so that’s probably the most recent thing I’ve written. So either I’m too happy or too contented with my life or I’m just running out of ideas.
CD – What’s your most memorable busking experience?
Dale – During the period of time that I’d sort of been on the fringes you know, coming out with you or some of the other guys, I think out of it all, I’ve met a lot of really nice people, like yourself, Larry Stevens and Eric Adams, Mike Kraft.
CD – So, the friendships.
Dale – Oh, there’s been a lot of friendships that were musical, or the music was the common ground, that have gone beyond that. I think probably one of the most memorable things that have come out of busking, in kind of a convoluted way, was that through you, I met Larry Stevens, and through Larry, I met Mike Kraft and I met Mike Brooks, and because of Greg Vaughan, we ended up in the Patsy Cline tribute band doing the thing for Lesley Baker, the gal from Courtenay. So the most memorable thing as we come around through the whole convoluted thing, was the trip to play at the first ever rockabilly festival held in Jackson Tennessee, where they did the groundbreaking for the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. That whole thing, April 2000, was probably the highlight of my musical career. We did eleven theatres on the mainland and the island, and that trip to Tennessee just blew my mind.
And to be able to like namedrop, for instance having breakfast every morning for three days with Elvis Presley’s old drummer D.J.Fontana, and have the line-up, you’re talking about Johnny Cash’s drummer and bass player (W.S.Holland & Marshall Grant) who were with the Tennessee Three. And I met Carl Perkins’ son Stan, and Marty Stuart, Wanda Jackson and Brenda Lee that weekend. And I met Rocky and Billy Burnette, and Paul Burlison who was with the Rock and Roll Trio with the Burnette Brothers, that was Rocky’s dad (Johnny) and Billy’s dad (Dorsey).
So it was amazing, to be able to get up and do the stuff we did, and have that old guard of groundbreaking musicians in the backstage area listening to us. It was nerve wracking at the best of times, when we looked over and they’re giving us the thumbs up, and they came up to us afterwards and said “We remember Patsy”. One of the Jordanaires came up to Lesley after we did our first set on the Saturday and he was in tears. So that was the high point of my entire musical life, I think. I could beat that one to death.
CD – Yeah, no doubt.
CD – So, just in closing, I mentioned in a recent post, that occasionally I’ll get a phone call from you, asking if I wanted some company busking, so, obviously you must still enjoy it?
Dale – Yeah, it’s fun, I like to get down and keep my hand in it. One of the things I’ve found about music as I am getting older, and so are you…
CD – Thanks for reminding me. (laughs)
Dale – And a lot of us are, (laughs) it keeps me young thinking, and I can sort of forget the aches and pains and stuff for that period of time. So, it never hurts, as I said, ‘cause it keeps my hand in it and keeps my voice in good shape. And I don’t know, I like performing at the best of times.
Dale, 56, is a versatile musician who as well as playing acoustic and electric guitar, is working on blues slide, and has been known to fiddle around with the banjo. Over the years he has played several genres of music including rhythm & blues, country, bluegrass and gospel. In the last decade he has performed as a solo act, and in his own band that featured his daughter Melissa (vocals/flute). At the turn of the century, Dale and I did a handful of pub, coffee shop, and church event gigs together, and last year he did some guitar picking and vocals on a couple of songs on my recent CD. He currently juggles being a handyman carpenter with singing and playing lead guitar in a 7-piece R&B/Blues combo called the Boulevard Blues Band. And, as if that wasn’t keeping him busy enough, Dale still occasionally finds the time to come out and join me busking on the harbour.
In mid-September, we got together on the causeway, and over coffee, talked about his music, busking and a favorite music experience.
CD – So, you had done some busking before we met?
Dale – In ’97, I left my full-time job and for the next four or five months, April ‘til the end of the summer I think, I was down here almost every day. Sometimes I was down here by myself, sometimes I came down with my friend Greg Vaughan, and whenever I had the duo it was always better money, of course. But it was basically groceries, ‘cause I left a fulltime job and just had to kinda get my head straightened out.
CD – And you did some busking in the library courtyard, didn’t you?
Dale – Yeah, I did that one too. And down in front of Torrefazzione (now Starbucks next to Eddie Bauer).
CD – How did you decide to get into busking?
Dale – Actually I saw Marty (Field), when I first moved here, I would notice Marty down on Government Street, usually in front of Murchies, and on Sundays, I’d always come down with my family and have a wander around downtown. It was cheap or free for little kids, and we would usually stop at Murchies and get hot chocolate for the kids and coffee and sit there and watch Marty, and you probably were there for all I know, at that time. And I thought “Hey, I’ve always wanted to try something like that,” and being a musician, and adventurous, I wasn’t working anymore, I thought I’d go give it a whirl, and my wife said “Yeah, go ahead, whatever”. So I grabbed the bus, came downtown in a few minutes. It was cheap because I didn’t have to park a vehicle, and I would usually go home with thirty, forty bucks maybe. It helped to buy groceries at the time, ‘cause I wasn’t working full-time and my wife was. I figured for a $10 investment, I couldn’t go wrong.
CD – Did you have a favorite spot out of the spots that you did play?
Dale – Actually, I never did work the Murchies spot, but I always did quite well on the causeway, I think it was either down by Milestone’s or over here by the Wax Museum. The spot right below the statue wasn’t too bad. I always watched where the successful guys were doing their stuff, like Marty always worked at the bottom of Milestone’s, Dave Harris was always down there too, although Dave did do the center spot and managed it quite well. I always found we did okay until the jugglers came out, and then it seemed like nobody wanted to hear music anymore.
CD – (laughs) Yeah, we know all about that.
CD – What did you enjoy most about busking?
Dale – I suppose it was the freedom to just get out and bellow out the songs as best I could. It was limiting as a solo artist, which you probably know, you’re limited to what you can do, but there was that sense of freedom of just doing whatever you like, and if people stopped and listened, that was great, if they didn’t, well I’d sing anyway.
The downside to it though was that I got the impression that some people walking by considered busking as just a slightly elevated form of panhandling, so there were days where I’d go home feeling like I needed a shower, ‘cause people were giving me the evil eye. The ones that stopped to listen, I think they were pleasantly surprised, but there were others that I think just sort of thought “Oh, you know, there’s another dirty bum,” kinda thing. I tried to look better and present myself better than the average panhandler, but I think you still get smeared with that same brush. That was kind of discouraging.
CD – What would you call the style of music that you play?
Dale – I’m very eclectic, I think probably as time has gone on and I’m getting older, I find I like blues a lot more. I’ve always liked blues and I think most of my music has been blues influenced even from way back at the beginning, because even old ‘50s and ‘60s rock ’n’ roll was bluesy, coming out of the rockabilly stuff, so it’s always been blues influenced. But I did a stint in sort of country, country-rock, I play a lot of bluegrass, I’ve done acoustic music, you know America style, Neil Young and people like that, so I think I’ve dabbled in a lot of styles and I’ve never mastered any one particular one. I just like a little bit of everything.
CD – Who are your musical influences?
Dale – Carlos Santana, I think you probably would tell, Eric Clapton, Chet Atkins, although I’ve never been able to figure out the finger-style, but I love his music. Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits, and then of course B.B.King, Albert King and Robert Cray, and some of those guys. But I guess the biggest influences have been Santana and Clapton.
CD – And I know you write your own stuff?
Dale – I do, I have and I haven’t recently. Okay, so there’s sort of a threefold thing. I’ve written, I wrote a lot of stuff when I was younger, by myself or with my brother. My younger brother and I played together professionally for five years and traveled all over southern Alberta and into BC, and at the time we recorded an album of original material called “Money”, and of course it didn’t make any of that aforementioned money, we basically paid off the recording costs and broke up the act, but it served a purpose at its time. I’ve been seriously thinking of re-recording some of it different from the way it was originally done, it’s very ‘80s in its sound. It’s dated, but it has a smattering of everything from pop to country on it. One of the tunes that I wrote, “Boxcar Blues” that’s probably my favorite song off the entire album.
CD – I really like that one too.
Dale – I’d like to redo that one in its original form which was a whole lot slower and a lot bluesier, not as poppy or pop-country as it turned out. I don’t know how it transformed but it happens.
I’ve also written with my wife, who is an excellent lyricist. The gospel album that I did in ’96 is all original material, and she co-wrote probably about half that album. Two or three for sure, there was “Psalm 61’. Then there’s one that I’ve just recently recorded at home, that was written about the same time, Sharon wrote half the lyric on that one, it’s called “Midnight.” So, I finally got down to recording that, it needs to be tweaked a little bit, but it sounds pretty decent. The most recent thing I wrote, maybe about 5, 6 years ago, was a song called “A Hundred Dollars Closer To Mexico,” you’ve heard that one.
CD – Oh yeah! That’s another great song. You wrote that when you were working the coffee cart at Capital Iron. That was the sign on your tip jar. (laughs)
Dale – That’s right. Yeah, so that’s probably the most recent thing I’ve written. So either I’m too happy or too contented with my life or I’m just running out of ideas.
CD – What’s your most memorable busking experience?
Dale – During the period of time that I’d sort of been on the fringes you know, coming out with you or some of the other guys, I think out of it all, I’ve met a lot of really nice people, like yourself, Larry Stevens and Eric Adams, Mike Kraft.
CD – So, the friendships.
Dale – Oh, there’s been a lot of friendships that were musical, or the music was the common ground, that have gone beyond that. I think probably one of the most memorable things that have come out of busking, in kind of a convoluted way, was that through you, I met Larry Stevens, and through Larry, I met Mike Kraft and I met Mike Brooks, and because of Greg Vaughan, we ended up in the Patsy Cline tribute band doing the thing for Lesley Baker, the gal from Courtenay. So the most memorable thing as we come around through the whole convoluted thing, was the trip to play at the first ever rockabilly festival held in Jackson Tennessee, where they did the groundbreaking for the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. That whole thing, April 2000, was probably the highlight of my musical career. We did eleven theatres on the mainland and the island, and that trip to Tennessee just blew my mind.
And to be able to like namedrop, for instance having breakfast every morning for three days with Elvis Presley’s old drummer D.J.Fontana, and have the line-up, you’re talking about Johnny Cash’s drummer and bass player (W.S.Holland & Marshall Grant) who were with the Tennessee Three. And I met Carl Perkins’ son Stan, and Marty Stuart, Wanda Jackson and Brenda Lee that weekend. And I met Rocky and Billy Burnette, and Paul Burlison who was with the Rock and Roll Trio with the Burnette Brothers, that was Rocky’s dad (Johnny) and Billy’s dad (Dorsey).
So it was amazing, to be able to get up and do the stuff we did, and have that old guard of groundbreaking musicians in the backstage area listening to us. It was nerve wracking at the best of times, when we looked over and they’re giving us the thumbs up, and they came up to us afterwards and said “We remember Patsy”. One of the Jordanaires came up to Lesley after we did our first set on the Saturday and he was in tears. So that was the high point of my entire musical life, I think. I could beat that one to death.
CD – Yeah, no doubt.
CD – So, just in closing, I mentioned in a recent post, that occasionally I’ll get a phone call from you, asking if I wanted some company busking, so, obviously you must still enjoy it?
Dale – Yeah, it’s fun, I like to get down and keep my hand in it. One of the things I’ve found about music as I am getting older, and so are you…
CD – Thanks for reminding me. (laughs)
Dale – And a lot of us are, (laughs) it keeps me young thinking, and I can sort of forget the aches and pains and stuff for that period of time. So, it never hurts, as I said, ‘cause it keeps my hand in it and keeps my voice in good shape. And I don’t know, I like performing at the best of times.
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