Dark Sentiments Season 11 — Day 5: Fred Eaglesmith
Posted By Randy on October 5, 2020
“Frederick John Elgersma (born July 9, 1957), known by the stage name Fred Eaglesmith, is a Canadian alternative country singer-songwriter. He is known for writing songs about vehicles, rural life, down-and-out characters, lost love and quirky rural folk. His songwriting uses techniques of short story writing, including unreliable narrators, surprise endings, and plot twists.” ~ Wikipedia
I don’t recall the year Fred Eaglesmith first came to my ken, but I have never forgotten the song that introduced us. Interestingly, mere weeks after this toe tapper first entered the cab of my trusty and long suffering Ford Explorer by way of CBC Radio, a woman of my acquaintance told me of a sporadically recurring dream she’d had for years, and that had just returned the previous night. The dream always ended the same way — she awoke to a freight train crashing through her bedroom wall. I acquainted her with this in case she was the woman he was singing about.
Not long after, I encountered this next gem, and have been a fan of Fred Eaglesmith ever since.
Eaglesmith writes and performs songs about the kind of gritty realities that burn life, potential, love, and happiness as fuel. With that introduction, Goode Reader, here is a hand picked Dark Sentiments playlist to season your evening. Pour yourself something nasty.
The one about the good dog, and the pistols and rifles, got me. When I say “got me”, referring to that feeling of the real, makes you feel both the happiness and sadness. Two sides of the coin which we call emotion.
Ol’ Fred’s visceral, and no mistake.
Some salt of the earth.
Indeed, at times saltier than others.