Bucking the classical tradition by Chris Cobb
Source : Ottawa Citizen
September 6, 2008
If anyone symbolizes the musical revolution that hit CBC's Radio 2 this week it is veteran hip-hop musician Rich Terfry, the network's new afternoon drive-home guy.
While a slice of Radio Two's formerly loyal classical music audience is not taking kindly to Beethoven being rolled over, 36-year-old Terfry is politely -- very politely -- unapologetic and trying not to be troubled by images of apoplectic seniors burning their transistor radios in protest.
"We haven't talked about it," he says cautiously, "because we've been focused on the positive. But I am mindful of it."
As a musician who has plied his trade in Canada for almost 20 years, he says there's another side to the musical story.
"There are many people out there," he says, "who have long been dissatisfied that so much great Canadian music has never been played on the radio at all. We are a public broadcaster funded by the Canadian taxpayer and we should be reflecting what's happening with music in the country and not just one narrow sliver."
Who is this Rich Terfry guy anyway?
Hip-hop fans know him as Buck 65, vendor of a softer, more versatile style of hip-hop than the unrelentingly negative, self-pitying, profanity-laced U.S. product loved by white middle-class boys everywhere. As Buck 65, Terfry was remarkably prolific, releasing 17 albums since 1991.
Born in Halifax and raised a short distance away in small town Mount Uniake with an older brother and two younger sisters, Terfry looked set for a career in professional baseball. As a hot 16-year-old shortstop, he was scouted by the New York Yankees. Injuries intervened, so he went to study biology at Dalhousie University where, in his spare time, he hosted a campus radio show for 11 years.
"I've always loved radio," he says. "I loved listening to radio plays and baseball on the radio even when I had the option of watching TV."
The Radio 2 gig is a dream come true, adds Terfry.
"I wasn't looking for a job or expecting this," he says. "But almost as long as I can remember, I have daydreamed about a career in radio. It came along a little sooner than I expected, but I had just wrapped up a year's touring around the world, so the timing was good."
His three-hour Radio 2 Drive is heavy on music and light on announcer patter, but Terfry struggles to define what, if any, common thread ties the musical selections. What, for example, does a bluegrass song have in common with Cuban hip-hop or what connects Kathleen Edwards and Manu Chao?
"I know when I hear it," he says. "I listen to all kinds of music and I have this automatic thing I do where I ask myself, 'Is that something we would play on our show?' It's very rare that any debate takes place in my head. I know right away. Our core music is the likes of Kathleen Edwards and Ron Sexsmith -- your prototype Canadian singer-songwriters."
Roughly three quarters of the music during Terfry's three hours will be Canadian and all of it relatively recent -- five or six years old.
"I admit that in my ignorance I wondered whether there was enough music within those parameters to program a show every day," he adds. "I am amazed at the level of quality music I have never heard before. It's great stuff that, to all intents and purposes, has never seen the light of day.
This week, Terfry has had about 11 turns at the microphone each hour with each turn running less than 60 seconds.
"People don't want to hear tons of preamble and context," he says. "So it's shut up and just play the song. I've been an active participant in the music scene so I know a lot of the people we are playing, but I wouldn't want it to be too knowy and drop a lot of names. I'm not Randy Bachman. If I tried to do it the way he does, it would be a complete turn-off. Anyway, in the first several weeks, we have to remind people where they can hear Jurgen Gothe and so on."
Terfry already had 50 hours of dry runs under his belt when the show launched Tuesday but he's also been finding time to work on his own music.
"I've never been one for lying around on the couch," he says. "Even if you sleep for eight hours and work for six hours that still leaves 10 hours of the day to work with. It's a lot of time to be a good boyfriend and spend time working on music. I have a regular paycheque coming in now, so the pressure is off for me as a musician. Some of the music I have been writing is way out there."
Which might be the way some former Radio 2 stalwarts would describe the unfamiliar musical strains emanating from their speakers this week.
Terfry, clearly thoughtful and articulate, hopes the core Radio 2 audience gives him a chance to make his musical case.
And while he might not be able to find one all-encompassing word to describe his show's content, none of it, he insists, is remotely experimental or edgy.
"That," he says, "belongs on another show."
© Ottawa Citizen
While a slice of Radio Two's formerly loyal classical music audience is not taking kindly to Beethoven being rolled over, 36-year-old Terfry is politely -- very politely -- unapologetic and trying not to be troubled by images of apoplectic seniors burning their transistor radios in protest.
"We haven't talked about it," he says cautiously, "because we've been focused on the positive. But I am mindful of it."
As a musician who has plied his trade in Canada for almost 20 years, he says there's another side to the musical story.
"There are many people out there," he says, "who have long been dissatisfied that so much great Canadian music has never been played on the radio at all. We are a public broadcaster funded by the Canadian taxpayer and we should be reflecting what's happening with music in the country and not just one narrow sliver."
Who is this Rich Terfry guy anyway?
Hip-hop fans know him as Buck 65, vendor of a softer, more versatile style of hip-hop than the unrelentingly negative, self-pitying, profanity-laced U.S. product loved by white middle-class boys everywhere. As Buck 65, Terfry was remarkably prolific, releasing 17 albums since 1991.
Born in Halifax and raised a short distance away in small town Mount Uniake with an older brother and two younger sisters, Terfry looked set for a career in professional baseball. As a hot 16-year-old shortstop, he was scouted by the New York Yankees. Injuries intervened, so he went to study biology at Dalhousie University where, in his spare time, he hosted a campus radio show for 11 years.
"I've always loved radio," he says. "I loved listening to radio plays and baseball on the radio even when I had the option of watching TV."
The Radio 2 gig is a dream come true, adds Terfry.
"I wasn't looking for a job or expecting this," he says. "But almost as long as I can remember, I have daydreamed about a career in radio. It came along a little sooner than I expected, but I had just wrapped up a year's touring around the world, so the timing was good."
His three-hour Radio 2 Drive is heavy on music and light on announcer patter, but Terfry struggles to define what, if any, common thread ties the musical selections. What, for example, does a bluegrass song have in common with Cuban hip-hop or what connects Kathleen Edwards and Manu Chao?
"I know when I hear it," he says. "I listen to all kinds of music and I have this automatic thing I do where I ask myself, 'Is that something we would play on our show?' It's very rare that any debate takes place in my head. I know right away. Our core music is the likes of Kathleen Edwards and Ron Sexsmith -- your prototype Canadian singer-songwriters."
Roughly three quarters of the music during Terfry's three hours will be Canadian and all of it relatively recent -- five or six years old.
"I admit that in my ignorance I wondered whether there was enough music within those parameters to program a show every day," he adds. "I am amazed at the level of quality music I have never heard before. It's great stuff that, to all intents and purposes, has never seen the light of day.
This week, Terfry has had about 11 turns at the microphone each hour with each turn running less than 60 seconds.
"People don't want to hear tons of preamble and context," he says. "So it's shut up and just play the song. I've been an active participant in the music scene so I know a lot of the people we are playing, but I wouldn't want it to be too knowy and drop a lot of names. I'm not Randy Bachman. If I tried to do it the way he does, it would be a complete turn-off. Anyway, in the first several weeks, we have to remind people where they can hear Jurgen Gothe and so on."
Terfry already had 50 hours of dry runs under his belt when the show launched Tuesday but he's also been finding time to work on his own music.
"I've never been one for lying around on the couch," he says. "Even if you sleep for eight hours and work for six hours that still leaves 10 hours of the day to work with. It's a lot of time to be a good boyfriend and spend time working on music. I have a regular paycheque coming in now, so the pressure is off for me as a musician. Some of the music I have been writing is way out there."
Which might be the way some former Radio 2 stalwarts would describe the unfamiliar musical strains emanating from their speakers this week.
Terfry, clearly thoughtful and articulate, hopes the core Radio 2 audience gives him a chance to make his musical case.
And while he might not be able to find one all-encompassing word to describe his show's content, none of it, he insists, is remotely experimental or edgy.
"That," he says, "belongs on another show."
© Ottawa Citizen
