Behind every good song there is usually a good story and/or source of inspiration. Upon listening to my song “Excuse Me” it’s pretty obvious on the surface what it’s about, but there was a real particular, focused source of inspiration for this that lays quietly behind the song. First off if you have not heard it then follow this direct link:

http://soundcloud.com/luke-isaac/excuse-me

I had witnessed the travesty this is East Hastings a few times and of course found it disturbing each time. I certainly had my opinions and thoughts on what should be done but they never went further than that. It wasn’t until I watched an excellent documentary called “Through A Blue Lens” that I began to stir those thoughts and emotions to the surface of the pot. This is where the song was born.

I will confess that before I saw this film I had a lot of the same default idealisms about the homeless people on the streets. The Old: Drank and has lost their family, too bad. They’ve survived this long, I’m sure they’ve got it all down, they don’t need my help. The Young: They’re young, capable and there’s no excuse why they can’t operate a shovel or bag groceries, they’re lazy, no free rides. etc… But everyone of the people on the streets has a story. There is nobody on the streets that aspired to be there, they all have a damn good reason why they are there. There’s a lot of “normal” people who are one pay check away from being there and you better believe that. I always try to keep these thing in mind. I had help learning how to do this from a man named Randy Miller, one of the central figures in the documentary and whom my song is loosely based upon.

A brief bio about Randy:

Randy Miller was a star athlete in his teens. He had a strong talent for hockey and he was thought by many to be destined for the NHL. He had a difficult relationship with his Father and after one particular heated argument, Randy left home and things fell to the wayside. Randy started smoking pot as a youngster and eventually moved on to harder drugs. By the age of 17 he was living on the streets, followed by two years in prison for drug trafficking. After a clean period in his twenties, he took painkillers for an injured knee and got back into doing drugs. He eventually became a heroin addict, securing his drug supply by acting as a ‘middler’ – a bird dog – for a drug dealer. “I didn’t want to look in the mirror,” Randy remembers, “but the drugs meant I had no problems and no emotions. I didn’t have to deal with those things.”

He was well-known to police in the downtown east side but was not considered a threat to anyone, so he managed to stay out of jail. He appeared in the documentaryThrough a Blue Lens, filmed by a group of police officers called The Odd Squad, chronicling the lives of drug addicts. On the show, Randy saw himself writhing and screaming on the ground and “it scared the hell out of me,” he says.

Later, confined to hospital with pneumonia, he met members of his long-lost family and discovered, despite all odds, that he was not HIV-positive. “That was the turning point,” he says. Being given the opportunity to meet his young nephews for the first time motivated him to enter a recovery program, where he spent three years being weaned off methadone.

Shortly afterward, Randy reactivated his longshoreman’s ticket, started working, and met his current girlfriend. He also started speaking to teenagers in schools about his drug addiction, “not preaching, but educating,” he says. The students are genuinely interested in learning from Randy’s experiences as, “many times during my talk you can hear a pin drop.” As a reward for six clean, drug free years, Randy recently bought himself a Ford Mustang.

This doesn’t come close to describing exactly how horribly low and desperate Randy’s existence became. You’ve heard of rock bottom, but you’ve never seen exactly what that can manifest into until you see the scene in which Randy is in the throws of a cocaine induced fit on the sidewalk, shockingly similar to someone who is possessed. Of course there’s others in the film who are living and dealing with unfathomable odds but the police officers on the beat who were responsible for the primary filming of the doc all agree that it’s Randy who is the worst they’ve seen. this is way it’s all the more amazing after peering into his life and seeing how horrible it turned out that he managed to turn it all around in a big way. The documentary that exposed the streets he lived in had managed to help him got off those streets in the end. This is where his story became such an awe-inspiring source for this song. Watch the film free here: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwFRsfATaag

Please put aside a quite hour to watch this film.

After I watched this film I just couldn’t stop thinking about it, especially Randy. Some people might have been able to but I was disturbed, upset and not willing to just put it out of my mind like another tv episode. I saw the truth about something that I sort of lied to myself about, so really if I just perpetuated that lie I would just be continuing to lie to myself, isn’t that finite stupidity? So one day after letting it fester long enough I just had to write a song about it. It just kind of fell onto the paper, it wasn’t a real task to write it, it was almost like I knew the song already, it was strange. 

Every time I perform this song I can hear sniffling in the crowd. It’s not an easy song to hear I know, it’s even been a bit tough for me to get through singing sometimes. It’s touched a lot of people and I’m always floored when people come up to me and express how it touches them. 

There it is, my story, or rather Randy’s, it was my journey. All songs are a journey, they should take you away from your existence into someone else’s. I for a moment, tried to see things through the eyes of Randy Miller. I often wonder how he is doing and if he realizes how incredibly important his journey is to us, the ones still writing the homeless off as lazy, or drunks who choose to be on the streets. He helped changed my point of view and I guess as a songwriter I just tried to “pay it forward”

Thanks Randy.

…literally! (fact: winds reached 85km)

This was my first time experiencing the legendary country music hoe down in Merritt B.C. I had read about previous years and the recent absence of 2010′s offering due to various financial reasons. I like to think that I am an open minded person with a pretty good attitude towards life in general. Upon first impression I was struck by the very friendly front of house staff who greeted us with smiles and enthusiasm. We drove in and passed several volunteers who were huddled in parkas, toques and mittens that still mustered a friendly smile for us. There was a bit of confusion when we were trying to figure out where exactly we were designated to camp. We stood in the middle of the field peppered with tents and RV’s and in the vicious wind we tried to find a spot where we could nestle in between a couple big wind blocking RV’s. I was scheduled to perform in a showcase shortly after we arrived so we opted to hold off pitching our tent until after the show in hopes the wind would settle a bit.

The showcase had a nice gathering even though the wicked winds were kicking up dust and hay. I actually had to hold onto my hat and slightly lean forward to become aero dynamic or risk becoming a sail. This was the only performance I was scheduled to give so to my knowledge at that time I was free to begin diggin’ into the cold beers and chill (pun intended) for the remainder of the fest…but this is when the weekend got a super upgrade for me, my wife and my sister in-law.

My publisher approached me and in a whisper said: “I think we need you to play the main stage on Saturday, Montgomery Gentry’s plane is broken down” At that point there was a split personality moment, the exterior me calmly responded: “oh ok, sure no problem” while my interior began to plummet down a massive roller coaster. I nonchalantly walked over to my wife and whispered: “Lukie’s playing the mainstage tomorrow” My wife gave me her stealthy smiling eyes and we waited to talk about it any further until after we moved away form the crowd. So needless to say our weekend got a whole lot better. I won’t go into the whole days events because frankly it all seems a bit of a blur, autographs, media tent, kissing babies, I even made The Province Newspaper! The group of singer/songwriters I got to perform along side were inspiring! I know I did my job, nailed it in fact! This all happened entirely because of our friends and publishers Ron & Sue Irving at SueCo Publishing. We owe so much to those two, they work miracles and I always just hope that I can rise to the occasion, that day I did.

All in all, if we had not had the whole main stage upgrade experience, we still would have had an enjoyable time, we had extra clothes, good beer and good company, what else do you possibly need to have a good time!? As I like to say: “It doesn’t matter where you are, it’s who you’re with” and although Merritt has seen higher caliber acts and larger turnouts, I can’t complain. Merritt, you can count on seeing us next year…just try not to blow me away so much!

In these last two short, quick years I’ve gone from inactive ex-weekend bar rock star geetar wanker to someone who took a chance and decided to write his own songs, and it’s going better than I ever thought it would or could in this amount of time. But there’s nothing lucky about it…I have the most amazing and supportive life partner who told me to “go for it” She knew I was just going through the motions of life but without music being a focus or the centre and it was leaving me a wandering empty vessel at sea. I’m incredibly blessed for the miracle of my wife Erja. Second, I have my publisher SueCo Publishing. Ron and Sue Irving are another incredible blessing. They were pointed my way by Barry Stecyk of HevyD Music. Since then we’ve grown from forming a partnership to a working/co-writing relationship to great friends. There’s no end to the support and cheering from them. We can’t ever thank them enough!

I’m very happy with the songs that I’ve written and the ones still yet to be completed. I made a conscious decision when I began that I would write songs that were real, stories that need to be heard, my stories, others stories. Songs that say the things that we want and should say. Songs that peel back the layers and shine light into the dark corners. I believe I am doing that and I’m pleased that others are affected by them. I get some pretty amazing comments sometimes, folks say some of the most surprising things about how they’re reminded of times in their lives or people they know or experiences they’ve had that my song makes them reconnect with, it’s such a great validation.

So onward I will continue…stay tuned, I do.

Luke Isaac

Ghost of Tennessee
Music & Words by Luke Isaac © 2011 SueCo Music Publishing

In ’32 a man was born
In a dry n’ hellish dust bowl
Where hearts and souls were torn
Sang music of the gospel
And tried to understand how poverty
Could possibly be

He stood up for his fellow man
Chose to fight for justice
With a guitar in his hands
Said, “I won’t wear a rainbow
Until every man can rise up from his knees
In black you’ll see me”

And if you listen to the wind
Blow through the trees
Well you just might hear the Ghost of Tennessee

 Well there were times he lost his way
And he danced before the devil
In the shadows of a cave
Then upon his darkest hour
His lonesome prayers echoed thru the night
‘Till he saw the morning light

And if you listen to the wind
Blow through the trees
Well you just might hear the Ghost of Tennessee
(INSTRUMENTAL BRIDGE)

Well if you hear that whistlin’ train
See a bird upon the prison wall
Or feel a single drop of rain
Remember that his battle
Is a job he left for all humanity
For you and me

Even though he’s not a man
That you can see
If you listen very close
You will hear the Ghost of Tennessee

Hey all! I thought I would post some recent happenings from my musical journey. I have performed quite a lot lately. Below are a few pictures from my performance at the 2nd annual “Journey On” Cancer Benefit at Gabby’ Country Cabaret. A great night of music and generosity. I believe they raised just under $8000, that’s fantastic! (photos courtesy of Bal Dosanj)