Gord downie 1989 professional#

He had a terminal illness that was obviously very present in his life all the time. 'It was a good way to spend time with Gord,' Finlayson says of their preliminary process. In accompanying liner notes, the guitarist explains how, in early 2017 following those shows, Downie had begun work on what was 'loosely a book,' and told Finlayson that it led to 'too much time with himself.' Recognizing that his friend's work ethic remained fierce in spite of the circumstances surrounding his health, the guitarist proposed some simple writing and recording instead, and the two soon began trading music and lyrics back and forth. But Away Is Mine was borne from the live stage, following Finlayson's turn in Downie's Secret Path backing band in late 2016, for what would be the songwriter's final live performances. 'I think that's such an apt expression for Gord, and his life as an artist, and his life once his diagnosis was given to him and what he chose to do with it.'ДЄfter Coke Machine Glow, Finlayson would appear on 2003's Battle of the Nudes and 2010's The Grand Bounce as a member of Downie's backing band, the Country of Miracles. ' brother Patrick had this great phrase for this record: 'When the artist becomes the art,'' Finlayson notes. The album's soft, pastel-coloured cover comes courtesy of Gord's daughters, Willo and Clare Downie. Finlayson and Downie were joined in-studio by Travis Good, Gord's son Lou Downie, longtime Hip associate Dave 'Billy Ray' Koster and engineer Nyles Spencer. Here, the 10-song set is presented in both 'electric' and 'acoustic' versions the former affixing Downie and Finlayson's guitar-and-vocal sketches with drum loops, synthesizers, fiddle, mandolin and vocal effects, while the latter does away with the studio magic to leave a much more unvarnished view of the pair's artistic process. With that in mind, it is fitting that Away Is Mine holds collaboration and distinct sonic palettes as its defining characteristics in bookending Downie's solo catalogue. But I think it cultivated a different audience for him altogether, who maybe weren't Hip fans but were drawn to this because of the way it sounded.' 'He didn't want to do something like a Hip record, so it was totally a left turn.

' Coke Machine Glow was such a left turn from what people knew as through the Tragically Hip, but that was intentional,' Finlayson explains. Reflecting on that time period, Finlayson speaks warmly of his late friend in sharing how he has always thought of Downie as 'a natural collaborator' who encouraged fellow players to be themselves when it came time to create and share ideas. 'That was a little more than 10 years into his career with the Hip, and he had been living in Toronto, and I think he wanted to expand his rootsвЂ¦meeting people and working with people and recording here,' Finlayson recalls of the sessions, pointing to contributions from Julie Doiron, the Sadies' Travis Good, By Divine Right's JosГ© Contreras, Barenaked Ladies' Kevin Hearn and his Skydiggers bandmate Andy Maize, among others. It arrives nearly 20 years after the pair first came together for Downie's 2001 solo debut, Coke Machine Glow, an album that Finlayson feels not only helped the late songwriter plant deeper roots in Toronto, but also opened new avenues of artistic expression outside their respective groups. We were both big hockey fans.'ДЇinlayson and his six strings have remained a near constant in Downie's solo output, culminating with this year's Away Is Mine, a posthumous record that marks the final 10 songs the Hip frontman recorded before his 2017 passing following a battle with terminal brain cancer. Not that they knew each other, but there were a lot of those connections: family, music, humour. I grew up in Toronto, but both his folks were from here, and my mom grew up not far away from the area his mom grew up in. 'He grew up in Amherstview, so I think he always felt like sort of a small town guy. 'He would often refer to me as 'his oldest Toronto friend,' so I carry that with me,' Finlayson tells Exclaim!, recalling how they grew even closer upon Downie making a move to the provincial capital.

Gord downie 1989 professional#

The performances would lay the foundation for a personal and professional relationship of nearly three decades, throughout which Finlayson became one of Downie's closest collaborators outside of his beloved band. Years later, he would meet the frontman as a co-founder of Skydiggers, supporting the Hip at shows in Ottawa and Montreal behind their 1989 debut, Up to Here. Josh Finlayson's earliest exposure to Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip came via his Kingston-based friends buzzing about the young outfit, and through catching them himself at Toronto's Hotel Isabella in the late 1980s.