Hi everyone, welcome to Sudbury Interviews.

Today we have Tommy Fife and Tommy is a Blues guitar player and also the front man of the Whiskey River Blues Band.

They've been playing around for many years now, very well known and very talented.

Just before we begin, you can find us on Suds Town and join the conversation.

If you would like to be a guest on the show, please reach out.

Tommy Fife, how you doing?

I'm well, thanks.

How are you?

I'm doing great and thanks for for doing this.

You said you were building a fence there.

Yeah, my daughter wanted to get a fence up between her and the neighbor.

Nice.

My mother-in-law used to say fences make good neighbors.

Perfect.

I don't want to see your face.

So how long has your band been together for?

I used to watch you guys 20 years ago at Northern Light.

Was it Northern Lights here, Summerfest and all those big festivals?

Right.

Well, the band started, the first show was April 9th, 1986, so it's going to be 40 years this April.

Wow.

Yeah.

So who was in the line up there?

It started with myself and Joe Cappuzzelli, who was a harmonic player and and Mike Holler on bass.

And I think he just turned 19.

And that night of that first show, and I know I don't remember the name of the drummer, he was only there for one show.

Yeah, he wasn't very experienced in and he what, didn't feel comfortable with it.

So Joe and I started off each set with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee tunes.

So I played acoustics and he blue harp.

And then we did those tunes for about 15 minutes at the beginning of a set and then and then we do electric, electric Blues after that.

And it was at the Whistle Stop on Elm Street and Sudbury, owned by Rod Ellis and where I met Linda, my wife.

Which building is that?

Whistle stop.

Well, it's right across from Comics North and I think Legal Aid or somebody is in there.

It's a it's been really bricked and it's now like a sandy sort of copper colored.

Is that where we're about from, like the train tracks?

Well, there's the train tracks and there's another building and then there's the driveway and then there's the whistle top and it's a whole like series of buildings attached to each other.

It goes all the way down in the back there.

Oh nice.

Yeah, so I had a big, big picture windows in the front.

And there was a little restaurant that Rod read.

And he was, he was in the food business and he loved the Blues.

And he and Tony and Selma were good friends and other mutual friends started, you know, thinking it would be a good place to play.

And then, I don't know, only hold maybe 30 or 40 people.

But it was hopping every time the band played there, any band played there.

And there were four or five Blues bands in town at the time.

So.

So it was it was a show every Friday and Saturday night.

What do you think's changed in the music scene in Sudbury since then?

Well, I mean, there's been a, a number of changes, a number of venues changing hands and disappearing and being reinvented.

Then no one's popping up.

I think the biggest change happened after COVID because whereas our band 20 years ago we used to play every week, every weekend pretty much all year long, now we're lucky if you can find a gig for a band once a month and the rest of the gigs are all solos and duos.

The bars just don't don't seem to hire bands as much anymore.

The townhouse gets banned, but I mean, you play for the door.

So like, it's not like there they're making that happen for, for music and they never have.

It was always a, it was always a play for the door thing, you know.

So other bars that did support musicians financially too.

I mean, there were a lot of bars and there were a lot of bars with these stages.

And, and I've been played in the beginning, like in the 1st 15 or 20 years we played, we played a lot of country bars in the beginning.

So we played six nighters 6 nights ago, Saturday night, May.

And there were, let me see you, 1/2, probably 7 or 8 bars in town that had 6 nighters.

And so we played 9:00 to 1:00 every night.

And pretty well everybody had a job.

So everybody was working day and night and we had great fun.

And then usually the fourth weekend of the month we'd play in a rock'n'roll or a Blues bar, so it kept us pretty busy in those days.

How How old were you when you started learning music?

Well, that's a a difficult one.

We we inherited my grandmother's piano when I was a little kid.

I don't know, maybe, maybe in grade 3 or so.

And so I took piano lesson through grade school and I went as far as grade 6 and piano and definitely wanted to quit it because it was Royal Conservatory only.

They wouldn't even let me learn modern tunes on the side, you know, sitting on my piano teacher was a strictly oral conservative program.

So, you know, that's that, that could be pretty boring for a little kid.

And so I, I kind of got out as soon as I was allowed to get out.

And then another important factor was grade four or five ahead Sonya Dunn for a teacher and and she was extremely influential in growing music in the schools and Sudbury.

And she taught us all to sing folk songs, you know, like Michael would the body show her and come by and all those things.

And so everybody in our class had to learn to sing.

And her son Paul was was an eager musician and he and I went to NYCHA Columbus Boys Camp together out on Lang Lake at least 2 summers and possibly three in a row.

And Sonia would drive us out there in her bright red Pontiac convertible with the white top and a white interior.

It's quite the car.

And Paul and I, while we were there and he played acoustic guitar and and we started a folk Mass.

And so I played Oregon and he played guitar.

And Brian actually showed me a write up from a Diocesan newsletter a while I know a number of years ago describing the new folk Mass at the Knights of Columbus Boys.

It was run by my father, McGee McKee, McKee who was just a great person and did so much for the community in so many ways.

And he ran his boys cap and his right hand man was Billy Ball, who was had been a former Pro Football player.

And there was nonstop activities there and, and Paul taught me how to play about, I don't know, a number of campfire kind of open, open guitar chords.

And so I kind of, that was kind of my start to guitar between his mother and himself.

I learned a bunch of campfire chords and, and played along.

I'd, I'd stay at home in my bedroom, you know, try to figure out songs.

That's my first time I ever played in front of people was had a talent show at Saint Charles College and I think I was in grade 12 and I went out and did Johnny Winter 2 and and I think I did Johnny be good and and good morning little school girl from Johnny Winter and and then I never played in front of people again until like I just played in my bedroom and I went to university at luncheon and took his AD and became involved in gymnastics and gymnastics became my life for 12 years.

I coached pretty much seven days a week and had part time jobs keeping going And later like in the, I guess the late 70s or early 80s maybe I would go to the matinees at the Colson there or the Kingsway or the park.

I mean, I see all that matinees and like player tuner too.

Like, so I had an apartment that would have been in the early 80s and some people came over after the bar and then Bernard was one of them.

And you know, you saw my big collection of Blues records and said, oh, wow, you all have the Blues.

And they do play and I so I think around a little bit.

And then he said, well, Luna Tuna, we'll catch you up.

So here's playing with Peter Nelson.

And I can't remember the original drummers name in their band, but there were students that came here in College in the music program and they started getting me up to the retunity every once in a while when they were playing and kind of got my first legs at at playing a little bit in the part.

And my old mentor, Floyd Gibson got me up for a bunch of matinees and we sat and talked to music a lot.

And, and then I, I quit coaching in 1985 and moved back to Sedbury.

I was coaching in Mississauga that year.

I moved back to Sudbury and just started hounding all my guitar player friends to teach me stuff when everybody was extremely generous.

And, and so that was July of 85, I moved back to Sudbury and April of 86 we started the Whiskey River.

That was then which we started out of going to matinees at the Colson and Joe was a doorman there and I had been a doorman there in 1982.

And, and Work Pass would always be there in the afternoon.

And, and so he would play drums and usually JoJo Rick would JoJo White would play bass or somebody would play bass.

And we do 2 or 4 Blues things every Saturday.

And then Johnny Scapazi offered us a free jam space.

So we started jamming and putting the band together and and Georgia was already playing in another band and so was Rick.

So we had to find a new bass player and find a drummer.

And we named the band the Whiskey River Blues Band because the the lounge at the Colson where where we played music was, was called Johnny's Whiskey River at the time.

So we figured since Johnny had helped us get a start, that we named the bar after or the band after the bar and just kind of took off from there.

Wow.

Is that too much information?

No, I love that that's you were a gymnastics teacher.

Yeah, I know, Coach.

Yeah, Yeah, for many years.

So I had a kid.

I, I, I worked in Oakville and then I came back to sundry because the one of the props of Lawrence and, and wanted to start a gym club here because he had been a competitive gymnast and it just didn't, just wasn't happening.

So I started my own club and got the use of the C gym at 70 secondary, the old little gym downstairs at Tech.

And I kept the fees really low because I always believed in, in the talent inside me.

There's so much talent inside me.

And so I worked odd jobs like at the at the Coulson and other places, worked as an early at the general and the psych ward.

I did all kinds of things to keep me going so that it would be affordable for kids to to do gymnastics.

And I had a really good group of boys, one of whom actually caught a a move on floor that he was the first one in Canada, the land.

And he learned it in that two gym and every secondary with progressions and spotting and just regular little crash mats, whereas everybody else had foam pits and carnoses and everything else to to learn things.

And and his name was Walter Quigley or is Walter Quigley.

And we competed in Saskatoon at the national championships, anyone floor and vaulting and made the national team.

And so and I made the national team on the men's elite planning committee and, and it was a really rewarding experience.

And Walter had a lot of talent and went on to win.

I think he won a bronze at all.

The boys wind up going away to university, like in Toronto and stuff.

Yeah.

And so I had closed the club and moved to coaching in Mississauga when they did that.

But he wound up winning a bronze and and games, I think, for rings.

And.

Yeah.

So then I just couldn't stand the way the kids fought a bunch of all the politics and the fact that I had to live somewhere like the GTA to make a living.

So I just had enough.

And so I came back to Subway and became a musician.

What were the rent?

What was the rent like back then?

How much do you remember?

Like 50 bucks, 100 bucks.

No like just a one bedroom a part where it's probably, I don't remember exactly but I'm guessing somewhere between 1 and 200 bucks a month like 140 or 150 depending on the apartment.

Wow I know when I moved I started down in 86 and I was selling cars at Empire motors at the time, 87 and I felt like I knew he was also started selling cars.

Stand by his knee.

He lived in Gatcho and his mother had an apartment upstairs for rent, so I rented that for because they hadn't been using it.

He got me like a deal, like 125 bucks a month.

Everything included this little one bedroom upstairs and I stayed there for years.

I think I wound up going as high as 175 by the time I moved out, which is when I bought the house in Gatcho in 1994.

It.

Was the same house.

No, it was on the next block.

OK.

And now, and it was around that same time that Linda and I really got together.

We had dated a little bit in the mid 80s, but she thought I was a little too crazy.

So and then 94 we met again and we just, we were together like almost every day from that moment.

And I was just acting like that.

Allison got to and we moved in.

She moved in about, I don't know, six or eight months later and, and I asked her to marry me The and we kind of lived here as a family until we got married in 98.

We were still living in Gottschal and now and then we bought the house in cobbler clips and kept the house in Gottschal.

And now Stephanie and Jared live in it.

Perfect.

So they're my tenants.

And that's where you're building a fence.

Yeah.

Right on.

So you said something about being allowed to quit piano when you're in grade 6.

What does that mean?

Allowed to quit?

Well, it.

Means like when I took piano lessons, I wasn't allowed to quit.

Like I would complain about it and they, they would, my parents would just say, no, you're, you're doing this like this is good for you.

That's the way it was.

Then, if your parents decided something was good for you, you did it.

And then when I was in, when I was in grade 9, I was just like, it was like the most uncool thing, you know, to be like working on classical piano.

And, and then, so I was in grade 9 that I managed to convince him that I didn't need to do piano anymore.

And then as soon as I, I, when I graduated St.

Charles, I went immediately to Saint, to Saint Mike's at UFT.

So I was at UFT and every there's halls all over the place and everyone had a piano in it.

And by then I hadn't touched the piano in five or six years.

And I just felt like, man, I really blew it.

I said.

I kept taking, taking lessons.

Yeah.

How'd you feel about the piano as an instrument?

Like dude.

Well, I love it.

Yeah.

200 points I I, I have run at home and I, I play it for myself.

Oh yeah.

Wow.

Yeah, I tell them, tell them.

Do that in public.

When Steph and I used to play together a lot, we would switch and I would play piano and to play guitar when we did, like swinging shuffles and stuff like Shake, rattle and somebody play piano for that, play guitar.

So I see here that you have you have some merch, some T-shirts for your band now.

Yeah, I was at 2 search last week and stickers and buttons and we put out a record a month ago, a month and a half ago.

Really.

And it's got 13 original tunes on it.

And it's called the Blues Ain't Bad is the name of the record.

Where is this on online?

You can get it, it's on 25 streaming sites and and we have CDs and I just ordered vinyl.

Wow.

Congratulations, Tommy.

Oh, thanks.

I I heard one of your previous albums somewhere and I liked some of the songs on there.

They were really, really catchy and really well done.

Thanks.

Yeah, I think I had ACD or I don't remember now exactly what happened, but I I don't have any stuff left.

Yeah, really.

This is, this was my fifth record.

So wow.

Yeah.

So we, it took us about a year to do this and Steph's husband Jared, Jared Quinlan did pretty well all the recording for us.

We did just spent one day at Matt.

Matt, we were all studio, which kind of we played live off the floor and kind of gave us the basic bass and drums and, and all the rest we did in my music room at home with Jared.

Jared has a really good program and all files together and send it to a guy named Two Young in Toronto who's kind of a renowned, an award-winning producer and he put the final, final thing together for us.

He's just a great guy.

OK, hang on one SEC, just one SEC.

OK, sorry.

No problem.

So this question, Tommy, is what I call the daily segment, and it's a question that I ask every guest.

You would be now the 25th person that I asked this to, OK.

And it's exactly the same words every time.

What is one thing that you feel would make Sudbury greater?

Well, the the the biggest thing that I played with that I feel it should be could improve.

And it's not just every lots of towns are like this, but they need to support their own more than they do they they don't tend to be supportive of their own talent.

Yeah.

That's one place that the town could really improve.

Like when Walter went floor involving and made the national team in Saskatoon, though the Sudbury Star gave it 2 lines and you know, it's, it's a pretty big deal.

He's the only person that's ever made the national team from Siberia in gymnastics.

And, and he did it with, with Flash, you know, he, he threw some big stuff and then nailed it.

And, and that's actually spawned a friendship that that developed with Peter Desolates and myself.

He was a reporter at the star.

And I had called after the paper came out and kind of ranted a little bit at the receptionist about, you know, how they, how much they dropped the ball.

And so, and, and Peter called me and, and asked me a lot of questions about, you know, so he could learn more about the situation.

And then he put an article in and he covered all our competitions well after that.

But you know, it's just like the first instinct seems to be that if you're from somewhere else, you're better, you know?

Yeah, yeah.

And then I've I've quite, quite a number of places.

I've never lived anywhere that has more talent than suddenly for top.

Like, there's so many good musicians here, there's so many good artists and there's such an abundance of talent in athletics and the city is really a hotbed for talent and it should get behind it a little more than it does.

That's my feeling about it.

So more venues for everybody that does stuff like more venues for artists and more venues for for musicians.

And well, I mean, there's quite a bit of support for for sports, but parts of music could use a lot of help from that.

Like, of course, I wouldn't want to say from the city because they, they can't even bother fixing the roads.

But I want to talk about the city.

I'm not very impressed with our local municipality in terms of governance and managing, but the people themselves could, could get behind their local, their local artists more, you know, they could go out and support.

And that's just the biggest thing that I've noticed about here.

Like I play down South and know people come out, people come out and then they find out about you and then they follow you and then they come and see you next time.

And and that doesn't happen as much in in separate.

Hey, what are you?

What are your feelings on that?

Oh, well, I was episode 19, so I'll have to listen to it.

Yeah, I I came on the show as a guest myself and I answered the question, but I just said, let's just put a roller coaster over top of downtown.

You know, you're walking down the street and people are screaming.

You know.

So last, last thing, Tommy, you said something about an interview with with the CBC or CTV that you did the other.

Day Marcus Marcus Schwabi last week.

I think it's going to air this Thursday.

Oh, it hasn't aired yet.

It hasn't aired yet, no.

Well, congratulations on everything and.

Thanks very much.

You're, you're quite the staple in these parts as far as I'm concerned.

I've known you a long time and you're a great player, very well respected and you always bring people out with you when you play.

And so thank you for your time coming on to Sudbury interviews.

Well, thanks very much for having me, Dad.

It's my pleasure.

Yeah, have a good night, man.

Take.

Care you too.

You got my other intensive work.

You gotta get back to work now, right?

Nice.

OK.

Bye.

Bye.