Petersen takes readers on a musical journey

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Petersen takes readers on a musical journey
November 15, 2011
By Mike Bell
Calgary Herald

He’s almost Brodeuresque. The deftness and the skill with which Holger Petersen deflects praise, compliments or attention or any kind really is, in itself, impressive. Although that, too, he’d certainly downplay, just as he does most of the accomplishments that he, as a veteran broadcaster, musicologist, promoter, artistic champion and, now, author, has racked up in a life so full of giving.

Which is why rather than make a discussion about his new book, Talking Music: Blues Radio and Roots Music, about him and his rich experiences, Petersen kicks out his pad, turns it back over to the artists whose interviews are collected in the tome, wanting it, instead, to be all about them.

“You’re right about wanting to be behind the scenes,” Petersen acknowledges from his office at Alberta-based Stony Plain Records, which he founded 35 years ago.

“I’d much rather be on the side of the stage watching a show than onstage, in a sense.

“But my overview would be that it does really reflect the artists and that was the goal. Especially when I think about some of the people that I got to know, like Long John Baldry and Jeff Healey and Jay McShann and people like that. I think it’s a good tribute to them and it helps their memory and helps maybe direct people to their great music.

“That was the motivating factor, pointing the finger at those people to have people recognize their brilliance.”

In doing so, it’s pretty easy to get a sense of Petersen’s own brilliance as someone who’s been able to get the most out of his subjects, many whom he now calls friends, in his capacity as journalist and radio host. His CBC show Saturday Night Blues just celebrated its 25th anniversary and Natch’l Blues has been a staple on CKUA for more than 40.

The book collects some of the more notable tete a tete’s he’s had over the years with those who’ve shaped roots and blues music, including Mick Fleetwood, Sam Phillips, Ike Turner, Lucinda Williams, Mavis Staples, Ry Cooder and Bill Wyman. They’re divided four chapters: British Blues Revival, Delta and Memphis Blues, Artists Who Helped Build Stony Plain Records, and Bonus Tracks.

It’s a pretty remarkable history lesson that, not coincidentally, mirrors Petersen’s own discovery and love of the music and the artists.

“It just made the whole thing clear. . . the point where I started to really love blues was during those old Rolling Stones songs and finding out it was the Stones and the Animals and the Yardbirds and Manfred Mann and the Zombies, the Spencer Davis Group all these great bands — the list goes on and on,” he says.

“And they were listening to Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters and Otis Rush. So, for me, it was a great place to start. . . . Once I got the form together, I started filling in the holes.”

Those holes are filled with some pretty impressive conversations with an incredibly prepared Petersen pulling out some great insight, as well as great stories and moments. There’s Fleetwood talking about his love of Long John Baldry; Honeyboy Edwards discussing in great detail the last days of Robert Johnson, which he was witness to; Bonnie Raitt and Maria Muldaur interviewed together for the very first time; Wyman’s reasons for leaving the Rolling Stones; and even iconic Alberta artist Ian Tyson putting his songwriting and that of Dave Brubeck’s in terms of horse cadences.

That latter interview is the most recent one in the book, done in 2010 after Petersen realized he’d never really done an in-depth sit-down with Tyson, and realizing the book and Petersen’s own story would not be complete without it.

“Stony Plain wouldn’t exist without Ian Tyson,” he says, “and the fact that Ian allowed us to be his record label 25 years ago and continues to do that.”

That doesn’t do justice to the role Petersen has played in music in North America, as a broadcaster, as the founder of the Edmonton Folk Festival and, especially, as the head of a label that has put out significant work by everyone from Aaron Neville, Pinetop Perkins and Muddy Waters to Corb Lund and Jr. Gone Wild.

But, again, any talk of that, of realizing his own significance to the telling of Talking Music, and the Order of Canada recipient once again deftly waffleboards it into the corner.

“It just reminded me of all of how many wonderful people that I’ve had a chance to get to know and who have been generous with their time and their sharing of information. For me it was a great reminder,” he says predictably.

“But I don’t think it was as much about me as about them. Obviously.”Preview