Guitarist, Songwriter, Performer and Producer Randy Bachman Treats Fans To An Evening Of Music And Stories

I first heard of Randy Bachman when he was with the Canadian rock group Bachman-Turner Overdrive, better  know as BTO back in 1974. With hits such as “Takin’ Care of Business”, “Roll on Down the Highway”, and “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”, the group and Randy, would be forever remembered by the kids of that generation as one of Canada’a musical legends.

Fast forward 37 years and I find myself in the company of Randy Bachman and about 100 other fans at the Southminster United Church in downtown Ottawa. For the past few years, Randy has hosted a radio show called “Vinyl Tap” on CBC Radio to play his favourite songs and tell stories from his life on the road and in the studio.

He now has a book containing all of these stories and as part of the Ottawa International Writers Festival, shared with us last night, many of these fascinating stories. Randy seems to have an endless pool of material and the man is a fantastic story teller! Tales of his travels, how his songs came to be, dropping names of some of the greatest rock and roll stars of the world, all told in full colour and humor to spare, kept us all wide eyed and hanging on every word.

He is the type of person that you could imagine yourself sitting in the pub with over a few cold ones and just be mesmerized for hours on end by his stories. One interesting fact that I did not know was that Randy has never smoked, drank alcohol or taken drugs of any sort, definitively not the picture you may have of your typical rock and roll star. So Randy, if we ever do end up in that pub one day, I’ll buy you endless glasses of Ginger Ale or Cola!

Of course Randy had his guitar with him and he demonstrated how some of his greatest hits came to be by showing us the initial chord progressions and even a song that came to be by simply tuning his guitar.

It was a great night and I enjoyed myself immensely as I’m sure everyone else did.

You can catch Randy on the CBC here:

http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/program/randy_bachmans_vinyl_tap

And be sure to be on the lookout for his book:

“Randy Bachman’s Vinyl Tap Stories”