Suppliedīourne was a restless musical soul. He had his little rudimentary book, flamenco guitar style, and from that point on he just kept working and working at it.”įrom left, Lester Quitzau, Madagascar Slim and Bill Bourne comprise Tri-Continental. I remember seeing him practise in the parking lot, waiting for us to show up. He started playing flamenco right at the beginning of Tri-Continental. “Right to the end he worked on new ideas,” he says. Quitzau also notes Bourne’s adaptability and taste for new sounds. He played for everyone, his RV buffering some of the huge blares of surrounding sound systems where we camped, Miguel Ferrer joining him with his cajón.” “But while we waited he set into magic music in front of his RV, matching his foot and stomp box and guitar arpeggios to background beats and orchestral DJ musings. “To me, Bill was an old country, blues and folk guy,” he admits. By the time he was contacted by Bourne, MacLeod was raring to go.īourne’s occasional musical foil Tippy Agogo speaks glowingly of his friend’s ability to adapt to any situation, even at an electronic music festival like Shambala. MacLeod was turning his head towards rock sounds, a shift that had him eventually playing off and on with Celtic punks The Real McKenzies, and was ready for something new. It actually took a few years before the two made plans to collaborate, as Bourne returned home to be with his wife Dorothy, as well as children Patrick and Emily. Bill and Alan came up with a truly unique style of music that went on to great success, which they richly deserved.” It was the right decision for both parties at the time. “We were content to maintain the band’s original, more traditional sound, but Bill and our piper Alan MacLeod decided to follow a different musical direction. “With Bill, the Tannahill’s sound was heading into a more folk rock direction, which was easier to record than to perform live,” says long time Tannahill Weavers vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Phil Smillie. It was also around this time that Jim MacLauchlan came a-knocking. By the time 1978 rolled around he’d opted out of playing as a solo act and formed an old-timey band named Sweetgrass with his second cousin Jim Morison and multi-instrumentalist Dave Richards. He didn’t stop performing, however, taking on solo gigs where he could. Photo by Rick MacWilliam / Edmonton Journal Juno-nominated folksinger Bill Bourne at home in 2002. Bourne stayed for six months and only played a couple of shows before he decided to head back home and get a job. He ran away from home at 16 in 1970 to check out the scene that gave us such musical legends as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. In deference to his worried father, he became a mechanic, but he knew that this wasn’t his destiny.įate also decreed that he wasn’t meant to make it in Toronto, but Bourne gamely tried. Born March 28, 1954, in Red Deer, Bourne was earmarked as a musician almost from the beginning, not surprising given that both of his parents played.
That would have been one of the few times in his life that Bourne, who died of cancer on April 16, wasn’t participating with a guitar of his own. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.