00:00:00:16 [Music]
00:00:02:17 I think that most people are like a lineage
00:00:04:12 as far as what they listen to the music.
00:00:06:06 Like something
00:00:08:06 sparked their interest in music in young age.
00:00:10:01 And then eventually there is a point where someone like gets
00:00:13:09 into a type of music that brings them where they are today.
00:00:17:14 Notes from the front line of a stringing culture,
00:00:19:19 this is Strange Notes.
00:00:21:18 [Music]
00:00:32:16 Right now we are in a taxi cab on our way to go see
00:00:35:06 Jon-Rae, Jon-Rae Fletcher formally of The River,
00:00:38:10 now moved onto a solo project.
00:00:40:26 Fletcher sung with a fantastic tale
00:00:43:22 of leaving home, coming to the big city,
00:00:46:24 then going home and connecting with your roots.
00:00:49:19 He is a really interesting character.
00:00:51:24 First, I met Jon-Rae at St. Catharines,
00:00:53:10 he was opening up for Attack in Black.
00:00:55:13 He come through back when he was with The River.
00:00:58:10 But, half of The River didn't show up to the show.
00:01:01:08 So it was just him and he has got Paul Mortimer
00:01:03:20 who was playing lap steel and who is playing guitar.
00:01:06:18 And it was...
00:01:09:03 I don't know it was just like a very honest performance,
00:01:12:03 is this really kind of like distinct voice
00:01:14:10 that kind of cuts through.
00:01:16:17 [Music]
00:05:02:18 Excellent, that's good. Awesome.
00:05:04:28 It's great.
00:05:06:09 Actually, we start the Jon-Rae story with where are you from?
00:05:09:04 My parents met in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
00:05:11:28 And then moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan,
00:05:15:28 and then Edmonton Alberta where I grew up.
00:05:19:13 I know that your father was a Preacher and your grandfather...
00:05:22:05 Yeah, right.
00:05:23:14 Both grandparents.
00:05:24:28 -Both grandparents. -Yeah.
00:05:26:01 Was there any pressure to kind of like
00:05:27:19 follow in the footsteps kind of thing,
00:05:29:25 become a man of the cloth, you really like considered it?
00:05:32:04 -No, never any pressure. -Okay.
00:05:34:20 My dad is actually really, a really liberal minister.
00:05:39:05 He actually bought me well at underground and stuff like that.
00:05:43:23 Where other people were completely against fantasy
00:05:47:03 because of the implications of dungeons and dragons
00:05:49:06 or stuff like that.
00:05:50:15 He would give me, by comic books for me,
00:05:54:03 possession of evil spirits or whatever like murdering a family
00:05:57:28 and Christians being like...
00:05:59:08 Oh! That's the devil. -Yeah.
00:06:01:16 He would almost encouraged that sort of stuff, that imagination
00:06:04:07 and thinking for yourself sort of stuff.
00:06:06:13 Yeah, that seems a little bit more true to life.
00:06:08:18 Atheist tend to have this like feeling about Christians as
00:06:10:28 though they are all like these people who want to change the
00:06:12:28 way you think about everything you do in your life.
00:06:15:13 I don't know, I have never seen it like that.
00:06:17:16 All the Christians have been really closed to my life
00:06:19:27 and have always been like these really great people.
00:06:21:18 [Music]
00:06:24:06 Stay tuned for the more tales of bizarre