The new Bertrand Russell Archives and Research Centre is officially open.
This state-of-the-art facility is located across from McMaster’s Sterling Street entrance in a former home, which has been retrofitted in recognition of the 50th anniversary of McMaster’s acquisition of the Bertrand Russell archives.
The project, led by McMaster University Libraries, in partnership with McMaster’s Facilities Services and mcCallum Sather Architects houses the University’s largest and most heavily researched collection and is in place to help support activities related to Russell scholarship.
Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, logician, essayist, and renowned peace advocate. His archives came to McMaster Library in 1968, where his library in addition to his correspondence, manuscripts, tapes, films, photographs, medals and writing desk have been on display since.
The 4300 sq. ft. facility sees a reading room, a sophisticated library surrounded by Russell’s works, a compact shelving unit to host the archives and will feature Russell’s personal writing desk and armchair. It also sees McMaster’s Bertrand Russell Research Centre upstairs.
The Russell Archives are the largest collection of Russell’s materials available anywhere, containing over 250,000 original documents written by Russell, 3400 books from his personal library, 3900 volumes of his published works and other scholarly materials, in addition to photos and artifacts.
Andrew Bone, Senior Research Associate at the facility, notes that Russell’s interests ranged over a variety of topics and groups
“It makes it enduringly fascinating that he had so many interests and had so many things on the go at the same time, so it’s never a dull moment,” said Bone. “It’s not all about a focus on one individual, it’s [about] who will be touched or reached, the organizations that he was involved with, the philosophical ideas that he influenced in others or was influenced by, and we continue to learn and discover new things, and to reconsider things as well.”
Among the many projects taking place at the facility, the Bertrand Russell Research Centre will be publishing all the letters that Russell wrote during his imprisonment in Brixton Prison in 1918. Each letter is to be released exactly 100 years after the letter was written.
Bone says that these letters shed light on Russell’s personal life and notes that in terms of the integrity of the centre’s research, both public and private works are equally vital parts of the puzzle.
“[The Brixton letters] is almost unique amongst things that Russell wrote because of the constraints that he was under. He wanted to get a little bit of everything into many of these letters,” said Bone.
“In these letters, you’ve got politics, personal relationships and philosophical ideas that he was developing. So the personal, the political and the philosophical, which is more frequently compartmentalized in the Brixton project, is all together.”
The collection previously housed in Mills Memorial Library, but now sees a dedicated space in a formerly private residence on Forsyth Avenue. The residence has been fully renovated and converted over the past nine months and is now open to the public.
On 77 James Street North lies the entrance to a peculiar building.
Vintage lettering reading “City Centre” greet those who pass by from the top of a glass canopy supported by teal blue columns. Brick walls pose an ominous presence to anyone looking at it from the outside and the obsessively symmetrical architecture follows a strict pastel colour palette on the inside.
The building is known as the Hamilton City Centre, but I did not know that as I ran through its doors for the first time last September in an attempt to seek refuge from a sudden thunderstorm. As I passed white pillars, peach-coloured patio umbrellas and blue-stained glass, it felt more like walking through a Wes Anderson film than a shopping mall.
Tired faces resided behind vendors in the food court and many of the shops were either closed or boarded up. Yellow tape and caution signs signalled ongoing renovations on the lower level, but for how long? I couldn’t tell.
I left the building feeling a mix of astonishment and confusion.
Months later, I still think about the building that’s often forgotten. The three-story building spans several blocks along the busiest street in Hamilton, yet not many people know much about it.
A more deliberate look into the City Centre unveils stories of exciting beginnings, difficult times burdened by bankruptcies and new possibilities for a building shy of 30 years old.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Canada’s largest department store at the time, Eaton’s, had joint ventures with development companies in an ambitious effort that would ensure new shopping centres would contain or were within close proximity to an Eaton’s store.
During the same time, the provincial government launched a multi-million dollar Ontario Downtown Renewal Program in partnership with Eaton’s Retail Company to revive downtown retail areas, like Hamilton’s downtown core. In 1990, the Hamilton Eaton Centre, which we know today as the City Centre, officially opened.
At face value, the ODRP seemed to be the perfect opportunity for small cities. There were optimistic market projections and low vacancies across the province. While some malls benefited from funding, there was little to no consumer analysis done for the program.
Not to mention that boutiques and small businesses along the streets suffered from the development projects and many of the shopping centres themselves were inaccessible due to lack of free parking.
Soon enough, shopping centres became unstable all over the province as consumers continued to take their business to the suburbs and the economy entered the worst of the recession.
As the Hamilton Eaton Centre neared its 10-year anniversary, leasing contracts came to an end and most were not renewed. The Eaton Company was annexed by the Bay and they filed for bankruptcy in 1997, while most of their stores were liquidated by 1999.
The Hamilton Eaton Centre was sold for five per cent of its construction cost in 2000.
It’s important to note that other Eaton Centres around the province didn’t fail as badly as Hamilton’s. Whether it’s due to fierce competition from Limeridge Mall, the Bay’s refusal to take over the vacant space or the increased gang activity in the area, the City Centre’s demise is still a mystery waiting to be unravelled.
To this day, the City Centre has not fully recovered. It’s mostly used for offices and some discount retailing, but it’s undeniable that the space holds great potential.
The lower level is now home to Thunder Alley, a 40,000 square feet entertainment complex that currently has a few bowling lanes open. The $3.5 million project was originally proposed in 2014, but has been on a standstill until a new developer decided to take over last year.
Even though the project is still in the midst of figuring out licensing, the City Centre will hopefully soon see 20 bowling lanes, an arcade, restaurant, bar and stage for live music.
In many ways the City Centre is a metaphor for Hamilton’s struggle to revitalize downtown. Despite the bankruptcies, recession, a few notable crimes and rumours of shady developers, the City Centre is still standing.
And so is Hamilton. The city is changing at a remarkable rate every day.
What the future holds for the City Centre is unknown, yet I can’t help but feel that it’s on the brink of something exciting. Just like the future of Hamilton, I’m looking forward to embracing it.
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We currently associate Hamilton with urban coffee shops, a growing music scene, craft beer and steel mills, but did you know that Hamilton has a rich history of notable people and Canadian claims to fame that have gone forgotten with time. Let's take a walk back through history and see what sorts of things and people happened in Hamilton back in the day.
The sole Hamiltonian to ride on the disastrous Titanic in 1912, Dr. Alfred Pain was a doctor who studied in Hamilton before working at Hamilton City Hospital. He was visiting London to continue his studies before coming back to Canada. He booked a ticket on the Titanic as a second class passenger, and quickly befriended Marion Wright, a passenger from Yoevil who was sailing back to New York to meet her fiance. When the boat started sinking, Alfred aided in bringing Marion to the lifeboats. He died in the sinking.
The John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport was originally a Royal Canadian Air Force base called the Mount Hope Airport. After the war, the base wasn't used as much so in 1963 the Department of National Defence declared it surplus to its needs and the Department of Transportation assumed ownership.
Today, the airport is considered Canada’s largest dedicated courier/cargo airport.
Currently an outdoor shopping centre on Barton Street East in Lower City Hamilton, The Centre on Barton used to be home to one of North America's first malls, Centre Mall. In 1955, the mall was built on the former land of the Jockey Club racetrack. The tenants occupying the space today are TD Canada Trust, Shoppers Drug Mart, Canadian Tire, Walmart and Metro.
John Ryckman, a citizen of the Barton township, described Hamilton in 1803:
"The city in 1803 was all forest. The shores of the bay were difficult to reach or see because they were hidden by a thick, almost impenetrable mass of trees and undergrowth...Bears ate pigs, so settlers warred on bears. Wolves gobbled sheep and geese, so they hunted and trapped wolves. They also held organized raids on rattlesnakes on the mountainside. There was plenty of game. Many a time have I seen a deer jump the fence into my back yard, and there were millions of pigeons which we clubbed as they flew low."
It's hard to image current Hamilton full of trees and animals!
Humiliations and Public ExecutionsThe first public execution was the hanging of a woman who committed the first official murder. The victim's name was Bartholomew London.
1930 was the last recorded year a pillory device was used. A pillory is a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands. The device was formerly used for punishment by public humiliation and often further physical abuse.
In 1859, Hamilton had it's last public execution, which still causes controversy. The man hung, Harry Lee, was convicted of killing his girlfriend, although many think that the conviction was a racist decision. Lee was black and spanish, and people believe that he was set up for the murder of his Jewish girlfriend, Mary Rosenblatt.
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In December of 2016, Westdale’s iconic movie theatre was put on the market. Opening in 1935, the 495 seat, 6630-square-foot, single-screen avenue was a staple of the Hamilton community.
At the time, Ward 1 councillor and longtime theatregoer Aidan Johnson had been working for over a year to designate the theatre as property of Cultural Heritage to help protect it under the Ontario Heritage Act.
“The cinema is an integral part of the original heritage landscape of Westdale Village. It is inseparable from Westdale itself. It needs to be protected,” said Johnson
The Westdale Cinema Group, a non-profit, was formed to purchase the theatre shortly after, and their offer was accepted in February. A group of individuals and organizations alike, they are continuing to find the donations needed to restore the theatre.
The planned renovations promise new washrooms, an expanded snack bar, new theatre seats, state-of-the-art projection and sound equipment, and an expanded stage to host theatre, music and lecture series.
Films remain a priority, but it is apparent that they wish to expand the functions of the area to make a multi-purpose venue.
“Through our Board of Directors, our goal is to create Hamilton’s premier cinema screening experience for art and independent films and a state-of-the-art exhibition space for music, readings, lecture, video streaming and public meetings,” said the group.
Despite these additions and changes, they also promise that the heritage and historic atmosphere of the theatre will remain intact with a restored 1935 façade, restored architectural detailing, a restored auditorium and the consistency of the front lobby snack bar and back lobby lounge.
While restoration of the theatre begins this month, the group still needs $1.5 million. They are accepting grants from all levels of government, but they need additional funds. Their method is a public fundraising campaign called, “Building Magic,” with reward levels similar to a Kickstarter with products and services from local companies and people featured.
The lowest starts at $19.35 with a custom designed pin by local designer Rachelle Letain. The mid levels include a special screening of Bram Stoker’s Dracula with the film’s producer, multiple options for limited-edition prints, the ability to name a seat and the ability to have your message on the marquee for a week. The maximum level is
$10 000, which offers the full theatre for the night with unlimited popcorn and soft drinks for all attendees.
They are also accepting volunteers if you would like to contribute with time instead of money.
“As we build the new Westdale, we want the tradition of presenting magic to continue — whether visiting the Westdale, for film, music, theatre, or to hear an author.”
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Every aspect of our world is designed in one way or another. From the appliances in our kitchens to the clothes on our backs, every switch and button has been meticulously considered and executed. Design — whether it be in buildings, laptops or can openers — weave through the fabric of our lives.
But things have changed. Today, we live in a throwaway society. We create and consume in abundance, forgoing detail for convenience. The mass production of virtually every product we use has fuelled a capitalist society that cares little for how things are made, only for how much revenue they garner. We gravitate towards products that give us more. The bigger, the better. The more functions, the better. The more we can afford to buy, the better. Gone are the days where good design, rather than cheap design, took centre stage in blueprints and on drawing boards.
In the world of design, there are few who have created as lasting an impact as Dieter Rams. Widely considered as one of the most influential designers of all time, and one of my personal idols, Rams is a visionary like no other. Nearly every product design created by him continues to be considered a classic today. In a society that is in a perpetual state of flux as a result of cultural and technological developments, that’s staying power.
From an early age, Rams was strongly influenced by his grandfather’s role as a carpenter. After training as an architect in Germany in the early 1950s, Rams was recruited by the German electrical products company, Braun, in 1955. Follow the death of Erwin and Artur Braun’s father, Rams was tasked with modernizing the interiors of a company that continued to launch revolutionary products for households across the globe.
Soon, Rams became a star student of the Ulm School of Design and quickly became involved in product design at Braun. Due to his incomparable talent and eye for innovation, he was appointed as the head of design of Braun from 1961 to 1995. Along with the rest of his design team, Dieter Rams became the man responsible for many of the greatest domestic electrical products of the twentieth century.
Braun asserted itself as a leading consumer products company under the expert guidance of Rams. However, in the late 1970s, the designer became increasingly perturbed by the state of the world around him. He began to see his surroundings as “an impenetrable confusion of forms, colours and noises.” Conscious that he was a prominent contributor to that world, he asked himself: is my design good design? He did not want to thoughtlessly feed into a world that was turning design into nothing more than dollar signs. To him, that was dishonest and irresponsible.
Rams wanted to advocate for a purist, almost imperceptible design; products that fit seamlessly into the lives of those who use it. As such, he came up with ten principles for good design. Often referred to as the “ten commandments of good design,” these principles remain as timeless fundaments of design theory and practice today: Good design is innovative. Good design makes a product useful. Good design is aesthetic. Good design makes a product understandable. Good design is unobtrusive. Good design is honest. Good design is durable. Good design is consistent to the last detail. Good design is environmentally friendly. Good design is as little design as possible.
If you have used one of Rams’ products, you would have likely been able to check off the boxes beside each of the aforementioned principles. Each and every one of his creations are aesthetically pleasing, user-friendly and exceptionally practical. They are beautiful without being fashionable, and therefore never appear antiquated. There is no use of big buttons or bold colours or abstract lines; nothing detracts from the product’s function, which is clear and self-explanatory. The inherent simplicity of the design makes the product smart as it is able to express its function by making use of the user’s intuition. Perhaps one of the most important principles of the ten is the one that considers the preservation of the environment. Rams made it his primary goal to offer products to consumers that conserved resources and minimized physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product. All ten principles boil down to one thing: less but better. Simplicity allows for products to be elegant, supremely versatile and free of the burden of non-essentials.
Although the current reality is that most companies do not consider good design when pushing out products to the public, there are some that do. Apple is a prime example. Both Steve Jobs, the late Apple co-founder, and Jony Ive, the company’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, were outspoken admirers of Rams’ work. If you compare some of Rams’ creations with Apple’s products, the similarities are astounding. It is fascinating to see the parallel between Braun’s speaker and Apple’s iMac. Thankfully, many newer start-ups and up-and-coming companies are now returning to the seeds that Rams had sowed. Unlike big, corporate giants, these new businesses recognize a gap in the market for carefully considered and expertly crafted products that reduce everything to the basics. Some examples that come to mind include Cereal Magazine, a store in Los Angeles called Formerly Yes and Vitsoe, a shelving company that Rams himself designed for. For these owners, Rams’ tenth principle — less but better — is their motto, and simplicity is their aim. They’ve adopted a new kind of social responsibility: to reduce products to their simplest form, thereby providing consumers with the best product possible.
Dieter Rams’ design ethos extends far beyond design — it is a philosophy that also applies to life. With so many new products being offered to us, it has become almost second nature to want more and to buy more. Abundance has become a sign of wealth; new versions of appliances, phones and clothes are readily available at a moment’s notice. We feed into this mindless cycle of producing more, buying more and, as a result, throwing away more. This produces both environmental noise and visual noise, exerting very real and tangible effects on our lives. Rarely does anything in our lives remain permanent anymore.
Consumers have been programmed to jump at the sight of a sale sign, and to scope out deals in order to buy as much as they can. It is therefore unsurprising to me that friends of mine would widen their eyes or even chastise me when I purchase an item of clothing that is more than what they would consider as “a steal.” Buying less clothes but buying better clothes is a way in which I’ve adopted Rams’ principles into my life. Instead of spending a certain amount of money on many articles of clothing, consider spending the same amount (or perhaps saving even more) to invest in one high-quality piece. This will not only ensure that you will love whatever it is you buy, it will also lead to less clutter in your closet and save you time in the mornings when getting ready, reducing the burden of choice.
Buying less and buying better should extend into every part of our lives as consumers. The next time you buy a top, cooking knives or perhaps even a couch, remember Dieter Rams’ ten principles. Good design should be so simple, fluid and considered that they almost camouflage into your surroundings. They should make you feel a deep, lasting satisfaction at the mere thought of owning them. It is not only our responsibility to ourselves, but also our responsibility to society to refrain from perpetuating a harmful consumer mindset that focuses on abundance. In truth, simplicity is something we should adopt into every facet of our busy lives. Less is more, and less is always better.
Photo Credit: Abisag Tüllman
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By: Rafik El Werfalli
For over 60 years, the Indigenous population of Canada has been denied the freedom of choosing where to live. Under a government-run “pass system,” Indigenous peoples were forced to live on reserves. Any who wanted to leave required written documentation — a pass — issued by their reserve’s government-appointed “Indian agent,” that outlined the reasons for and duration of the leave.
First introduced by Sir John A. Macdonald in the 1880s, the pass system restricted the rights of the Indigenous people of Canada and was implemented without going through Parliament.
Alex Williams’ new documentary film, The Pass System, explores the history of the government effort to further segregate and limit the freedoms of Indigenous communities. Williams highlights the different perspectives on the discriminatory system and includes stories of First Nation Elders from these Indigenous communities that illustrate the impact of the system on their lives.
Williams was raised in Treaty 6 territory, Saskatchewan, and grew up in a society that he saw as racist. Growing up in a low-income neighbourhood, he witnessed many people that were pushed out economically. According to Williams, “social and structural racism” was common in his hometown.
“[The pass system] was intended to keep people of colour out and control the indigenous population, restraining and confining them to reserves as much as possible,” he explained.
Ian Mosby, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the L.R. Wilson Institute for Canadian History at McMaster University added, “Canada has a problem with their attitudes towards indigenous people, not just the government, but also Canadians themselves. We need to really look deep down at dealing with this issue and dealing with the structural racism that Indigenous people faced and are currently facing.”
“Canadians in general have been taught a very selective version of their history and many historians have been working to change that.“
Williams agrees with Mosby. “Canadians in general have been taught a very selective version of their history and many historians have been working to change that,” said Williams. “I am hoping that it can be some help in understanding the roots of this very Canadian kind of racism, colonization and genocide.”
Mosby added that many Canadian aren’t aware of their past and don’t realize the true scale of racial segregation and discrimination that Indigenous people have and continue to experience.
The film has received wide coverage, including from the Toronto Star and CBC. The film has screened at numerous locations including the Toronto International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival and at least 20 more screenings across Canada.
“This is a story that I think is really important for people to know, and hopefully come to this documentary, and hearing from the director, people will start to get a sense of how much they don’t know about Indigenous people” said Mosby.
The Pass System will be screened at McMaster University on Mar. 4 at 2:30 p.m. at the Michael DeGroote Centre for Learning and Discovery (MDCL) in room 1105.
Photo Credit: Toronto International Film Festival
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I’m doing an independent study this semester, and if you have come within 50 feet of me this past month I’ve probably already told you all about it (whether you wanted to hear about it or not). It is on “memory,” which may seem a little odd to anyone not studying history. Memory is usually rather straightforward — things happened, we know about them, we remember them. Luckily for my research project, it is much more complicated than that.
My choice of thesis resulted in a conversation with an unwitting acquaintance. While I had my captive audience — literally captive, they were forced to wait at a bus stop with me — the conversation took an interesting twist. “How can we judge Birth of a Nation?” they asked. “It was a product of its time.” For those who haven’t heard of Birth of a Nation, it is the first feature film ever. While movies preceding it were around 15 minutes long, Birth of a Nation is an astonishing two hours. It pioneered cinematic techniques that we now take entirely for granted. It was the highest grossing film until Gone with the Wind in 1939. It also facilitated the refounding of the Ku Klux Klan. The film is racist in the extreme. Using blackface to depict the rape of white women and the takeover of the “civilized” South by its Black population is undoubtedly repulsive, but did my unwitting companion have a point? How can we with modern hindsight judge the past with our modern standards?
Dismissing something as the work of yesterday’s racists ignores the impact that it still has on us today.
One month into my independent study, I’m here to tell you it is not as complicated as you might think. Firstly, we have to do away with the assumption that we can ever look back at history objectively. No matter what we do, we are never going to be able to use some sort of magical machine that will instantaneously remove all of our modern biases and experiences. We are human and thus inherently biased; the best we can do is to recognize that. If we can never be fully objective, then defending historical documents or figures as a product “of their time” is a position in and of itself and it is not necessarily one to be proud of. The argument is almost exclusively used as a way of justifying past behavior instead of understanding it. It is also a way of steering a conversation away from exploring impact. For example, Birth of a Nation was not a negligible piece of cinema. Claiming to be historical documentation, it sparked huge amounts of deadly racist violence and developed prejudices that still haunt us today.
Dismissing something as the work of yesterday’s racists ignores the impact that it still has on us today. It portrays modern times as all around “better” than the past, but history is not so simple. Progress is not linear; we go through periods of backlash all the time, sometimes due to media just like Birth of a Nation. To say that oppression was acceptable in the past is to claim that we have somehow transcended it in order to look back and judge it.
To assume something is “of its time” is to also disregard the hard work of people in that period who were trying to enact change. There is never global consensus on anything. In a sample of 20 you are going to find dramatically different answers to the benign question of best pizza topic, let alone something as contentious as racism. Claiming something is the product of its environment is to paint that entire period with one racist brush, and completely ignore activism and diversity.
I am not claiming that we should do away with historical context (and I would be a very bad history student if I did), but we need to accept the fact that we can appreciate things from the past without endorsing them. Call it whatever you want, maybe your “problematic fave”, but at least admit that there is — and was — a very real problem. Sure, D.W. Griffith was handy with a camera, but I am not going to praise his cinematography without recognizing the impact that it had. We should be using historical context as a means of understanding past actions, not excusing them.
Photo Credit: Indiana U News
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McMaster researcher Hendrick Poinar and an international team of researchers have uncovered telling secrets from the grave. The research focuses on the recovery of DNA from fossil remains such as teeth from individuals who died from the bubonic plague in Marseille, France. DNA sequences can be used to trace the past and answer questions about the evolution of infectious disease.
“We are very interested in how diseases emerge and then continually re-emerge. We want to know if reservoirs are local or more distant. Are these epidemics repeatedly stemming from trade routes like the Silk Road from China and the Golden Horn from Kazakhstan or are they a localized epidemic?” Poinar explained.
This involves tracing back to Europe in 1346, during the time of the Black Death, when the bacteria Yersinia pestis wiped out a third of the European population.
“That was an epidemic like we have never seen before and hopefully will never see again,” said Poinar.
After an initial flare, the plague seemed to disappear in Europe. What followed its supposed demise is a series of little outbreaks that Poinar labeled as the “shouldering effect.”
“We are very interested in how diseases emerge and the continually re-emerge. We want to know if resevoirs are local or more distant.
“If you look over the course of decades, you see relatively nasty outbreaks. You have basically 400 years of repeated epidemics in Europe, until it disappears. The question has been if these are repeated epidemics that occur every 30 to 100 years, is the source of these epidemics a migration of pathogen from the East to the West.”
By analyzing the global phylogeny, a method of relating disease sequences and strains to each other, researchers observed that rodents are at the start of many diseases that reach human populations. The aforementioned rodents seem to have these basal strains or ancestral strains appear in the highlands of Mongolia and China and Kazakhstan. These sources are farther east from the European outbreaks, supporting research that the initial flare of Black Death was brought from the East along trade routes.
At least in the case of the plague that overtook Marseille, the pathogen was found to be a descendant of the Yersinia pestis strain. Contrary to the constant dribble of plague down trade routes, the pathogen must have remained in a reservoir closer to home. What these reservoirs are thought to be is the next big question. Rats could be to blame, or soil, however no answer is currently known.
“We have had major outbreaks in Eastern Europe up until the 1800s. In mainland Europe, it hasn’t [popped up] since 1720. We have about 400 years that were clear of outbreaks.” This could be as a result of attenuation in the variance of the bug, or a rise in resistance among humans. One of Poinar’s students is working on just that, looking for signs of selection within the human genome. This involves searching for resistance to the epidemic in the genes of those of European descent whose ancestors survived to pass on their protective genes.
Interestingly, having resistance to the Black Death can also give someone resistance to various other pathogens. A genomic mutation known to give people resistance to the HIV virus by blocking the virus from entering the cell has been found in higher frequency in Europe, despite the virus’ origin in Africa. You would expect the exact opposite, where populations exposed to the virus in greater amounts would undergo greater selection and therefore greater resistance.
“When you try to date the [onset of resistance], most of those dates show up around the time of the Black Death. So there is the issue that those that underwent a selection against plague and survived because of this genomic deletion, they were protected from the bacteria of the plague and now protected from the virus of HIV,” explained Poinar.
Rising concerns about antibiotic resistance has shifted a focus towards what causes the reappearance of bacterial infections. By attempting to dig up the roots of infectious diseases, researchers like Poinar are looking to uncover more about pathogens and their fluctuating attacks.
Photo Credit: Jason Lau
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By: Sebastian Johnston-Lindsay
You need to be careful of who is within earshot when you admit to being to being a country music fan. Common reactions range from a disheartened eye roll to wild shrieks of enthusiasm and (often vague) accounts of last year’s Boots and Hearts.
I do consider myself a country music fan, but I am perpetually ill at ease with the label. I think that it’s important to be able to trace differences between vintage country music and the country music of our time, which is largely characterized by pre-packaged formulaic production and blatant promotion of light beer consumption and truck-balls.
This article is for those people who think they might want to like country music but just don’t know what might constitute country, or indeed even where country music came from. I have selected artists that I feel represent the early formation of the sound we might call country.
The first major figure in the history of country music for our sake is Waylon Jennings. Jennings was an outlaw countryman by any stretch of the imagination who is characterized as much by his larger-than-life baritone voice and hard driving country originals as by his image: he often donned black leather vests and hats in performance.
He bridged the gap between the rock music of the 1950s and the discernable country sounds we recognize today. He got his start playing in Buddy Holly’s touring band until the Holly’s infamous death on Feb. 3, 1959 in a plane crash. Waylon avoided the accident by giving his seat up to a sick band mate and opting to take a bus to the next show. In the sixties Jennings continued to work as a solo artist releasing 11 albums between 1964-1969. His initial release Waylon at JD’s (1964) contains versions of Roy Orbison’s “Crying” and Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright.”
As his career progressed, he adopted a harder edge in his music. His 1976 album Are you Ready for the Country?, named after Neil Young’s song by the same name off the album Harvest (1972), typifies Jennings’ signature sound. It includes a cover of Young’s song with a straight forward mingling of twanging guitars and heavy drums with powerful hooks.
Jennings had a close working relationship with fellow well-known “outlaws” Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash. The four men formed The Highwaymen, a supergroup that recorded and toured from the mid-1980s through until Jennings’ death in 2002.
The individual discographies of these four artists in particular represent the foundation of the genre we now recognize as country from the 1970s onward. Their willingness toward collaboration and tendency to cover and adapt each other’s songs became an important aspect of the genre.
Kris Kristofferson, is an especially interesting figure, having written numerous songs that were later made famous by other artists. Examples include “Sunday Morning Coming Down” which became an integral part of Johnny Cash’s concert performances. In addition to this, his song “Me and Bobby McGee” was covered and made popular by Janis Joplin and The Grateful Dead.
Finally we come to Townes Van Zandt. Born in Fort Worth Texas in 1944, his life was spotted with bouts of bipolar disorder aggravated by addictions to both alcohol and heroin for his entire adult life until his death at age 52. Despite this, his was prolific and vastly influential singer-songwriter. He came into the spotlight in the early 1970s along with fellow Texas singer Guy Clark, with whom he lived for a few drug-addled months in the early part of the decade.
While he is not as widely recognized as some of his peers, including those listed above, his influence on artists like Steve Earle and Bob Dylan is well documented. Throughout his life, he was notorious for shunning the spotlight and was uncomfortable with the idea of celebrity.
His debut album For the Sake of the Song (1968) contains the original recording of his most well known song “Waiting ‘Round to Die,” a burning chronicle of a life spent wandering and stealing, all the while looking for the next fix. The song ends with the revealing and prophetic lines: “I got me a friend at last, he don’t steal or cheat or drink or lie. His name’s codeine, he’s the nicest thing I’ve seen. Together we’re gonna wait around and die.”
Fans of Breaking Bad will recall Canadian folk-country band The Be Good Tanyas’ cover of “Waiting ‘Round to Die” in the episode “Bit By a Dead Bee” from the second season of the series, which brings this often covered classic to a new audience. Other key songs by Van Zandt include “Columbine” off of his self-titled 1969 album and the narrative tune “Pancho and Lefty” off The Late Great Townes Van Zandt (1972).
Townes Van Zandt is for music fans that appreciate high-poetics and simplistic production techniques. He is the Nick Drake of country music; his specter looms large in the underground folk and country scene.
I want to stress that if you find yourself in despair at the state of country music, having given the above artists a try, there is hope. Many manifestations of the original aesthetic have survived and are alive today. I urge every reader to seek out The Dinner Belles, a Hamilton outfit who released The River and the Willow this past year.
Country music is not a singular genre. It is a combination of many different styles of music that incorporate geographic, social and economic realities. This article represents nothing more than the jumping off point into a large pool of musical discovery, and maybe some Bud Light.
Header Photo Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
In-article Credits: Henry Diltz, GAB Archive/Redferns
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