PLAIN FOLK

by Les Pearson
Part Two
John Wort Hannam's Roots Are Country and Old Country

John Wort Hannam was the featured artist at a recent Arts Touring Alliance of Alberta regional meeting in his hometown, Fort Macleod. I am drawn to songs from his 2001 CD, pocket full of holes. His lyrics speak to the stubble jumper's heart and soul. Folk music, after all, is about folks. Sometimes the folks are us. John fully understands country influences on his music. Here are his words on the subject.

LES:  For a former Calgary city boy, you capture rural Alberta convincingly. What are your ties to rural life?

JOHN: My Grandfather had a farm in England. The old kind, with a couple horses, a few pigs, some geese, and a chicken coop. It was close to the small village of Milford-On-Sea near Portsmouth. It wasn’t until later in life, however, that I really began to enjoy rural living over the urban areas.

I specifically moved to Fort Macleod to be around the small town-rural atmosphere. I'm drawn to the simplicity of it. I love the fact there are no traffic lights in this small town and that I can get anywhere by bicycle or foot. I am also drawn to the idea of the past and the desire for the way things used to be. This seems to exist far more in rural small-town Alberta than in the big cities. In Macleod you see it in the historic buildings, and in the fact there is one lumber store in town, one theatre, and an outside swimming pool open only in the summer. All of this reminds me of the small towns you read about in old stories. The ones that had a butcher, baker, green grocer, post master, and so on.

LES:  When and how did these interests begin?

JOHN: I was born in the parish of St. Helier on the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands, UK. It is, or at least was, an island of small villages, with country sides full of diary cows and potato farmers. I'm sure my interests for small town rural areas is somewhere in my blood.

LES:  You live in Fort Macleod today. Is agriculture a continuing part of this experience?

JOHN: Only in the sense of hearing the stories of ranchers and farmers that live around here. I'm really glad you asked this question because one thing that is very important to me is to get across to the people who hear my music that I do not for one second pretend to know what it is like to be a farmer/rancher. I have never worked a day in the agricultural business. My songs are simply reflections of things I read in the papers, or hear around town. For example I wrote "Sons of the Soil" after listening to a couple of farmers talk in the IGA.

This is John Wort Hannam, the man. He is an observer with a keen ear and sharp eye for stark prairie detail. His songs are a poet's diary. Even with these gifts he is,by choice,one of us. Next week: his music.