01.01.08
COUNTRY MUSIC ICON HALIFAX -- Tommy Hunter is stuck in the past -- but that's exactly where he wants to be. The iconic country musician, who hosted ``The Tommy Hunter Show'' on CBC for nearly three decades, says he can't pluck songs from the music charts to add to his repertoire, nor can he reinvent himself every time he takes to the stage. Instead, the 70-year-old singer says his job is about ``triggering memories.'' ``I can't be up to date,'' Hunter says in a telephone interview from his home in London, Ont. ``The people who watched my television show, I've got to do the things that they remember, tell them stories about the show and weave a thread all the way through memory lane.'' Hunter, who has been dubbed ``Canada's country gentleman'' for his squeaky-clean image and polite stage presence, is preparing for a 14-date cross-Canada tour beginning in London on Jan. 11. He's never actually stopped performing in the 16 years since ``The Tommy Hunter Show'' was cancelled, he says, still playing between 30 and 40 shows a year. Each performance still features Hunter's hallmark collection of country gems by the likes of Hank Williams, Roy Acuff and Hank Snow. And he always appears in familiar form, dressed in his usual three-piece suit, all the while focusing on recreating the Tommy Hunter audiences remember from his old TV show. ``The show to me was like an old slipper with our audience -- they knew what they were going to get week after week,'' he says. ``And did we make changes? We sure did. I changed drastically, but we didn't do it from one week to the next, so that old slipper still felt like that old slipper.'' Even when younger crowds show up at his performances, Hunter says, they're still drawn there by the same sense of nostalgia that would also bring their parents or grandparents. ``A lot of times for the young people, they come to the show because it's a memory for them when they were a little girl curled up on the sofa watching the show,'' says Hunter. ``And sometimes, mom and dad have passed on, and the young girl will bring her husband, and the kids.'' Hunter picked up a guitar when he was just nine years old, and was soon playing churches and the local veterans hospital. He made his radio debut when he was just 15. He first appeared on the television program ``Country Hoedown'' in 1956 and started ``The Tommy Hunter Show'' in 1965. It became the longest-running show of its kind until CBC cancelled it in 1992. The program often featured performances by country music giants like Johnny Cash, Alan Jackson and Reba McEntire, and helped launch the careers of musicians including Shania Twain. Hunter says he always tried to mix popular acts with lesser-known talent, giving upstart musicians a chance to share the spotlight. ``We always introduced Canadian performers, every single solitary week, plus we'd bring in an established Canadian, somebody who was selling records and had a pretty good name here in Canada,'' he says. ``There was always a variety -- that's what I wanted.'' Hunter was named to the Order of Canada in 1986, and the Order of Ontario in 1996. In 2003, he returned to television for the CBC special ``Talk About The Good Times,'' which drew one million viewers. Some 60 years since his first church-hall concerts, Hunter says he plans to keep playing as long as he can -- but he says he won't hesitate to walk away when it's clear his musical career has started to fade. ``I think I'm probably my biggest critic,'' he says. ``If I ever catch myself not performing to a very high standard, and the performance isn't coming off or my voice isn't doing what it should do, believe me, I will say: `Goodbye, that is it, I've had a wonderful time.''' |