My old pal Fred Eaglesmith is coming back to town, once again on the same night that the Winnipeg Folk Festival opens. That seems like an odd coincidence that he would just happen to be in town on that particular night, two years in a row. Call me a conspiracy theorist (I’ve been called worse), but it seems like a pretty clear F.U. to the Folk Fest, even though he’s been welcomed there a number of times over the years and likely wouldn’t turn down the opportunity to play there again. But giving people the finger is a specialty of Fred’s, as I found out after last year’s show.

Now, I wasn’t there, but I did get the reports from reliable folks. Apparently, before playing “Careless” off of his Cha Cha Cha record, Fred dedicated the song to me. Why? I’m not entirely sure, but my “old pal” Stu decided to ask him about it later on, when Fred was on his radio show, The Twang Trust.

As an aside, for years, I’ve had something on my show called “The Fred Eaglesmith Clause,” which states that even though I do my best to line up interviews and ensure that they go off smoothly, there will be times when an artist doesn’t phone or show up as planned. This came after several missed attempts at connecting with Fred (I was pretty amused when Stu had similar troubles). He dodged more interviews with me over the years than anyone else (Matt Mays is second on the list, but not even close). I’ve had interview after interview not go off as planned when Fred “forgot” or had his phone die or have him “out of range” or various other reasons. I once had his ex-wife Mary on the line and thought about chatting with her, because Fred wasn’t around (why I was calling him at his ex-wife’s house, I’m still not sure). In 2004 we even had the “Fred Eaglesmith Will He or Won’t He, Show” where Fred was literally driving right past the station on his way to a gig in Winnipeg, so I arranged DIRECTLY WITH HIM to have him drop by. I went all the way to Clearwater Manitoba to see him and make arrangements for him to be at the station for the show. Naturally, he didn’t show (but luckily, Josh Ritter did. A fair trade.) Needless to say, I think the Clause is justified.

But Fred just thinks it’s nasty, as he told Stu, last year: [download id=”162″]

This, despite the fact that Fred is the most played artist in the almost 10 years this show has been on the air. Pretty nasty of me!

Well, just to prove that I’m not as nasty as he says, I even made up a commercial to promote his show in July. I think that was pretty nice of me.

Check it out: [download id=”163″]

By the way: I do understand that many people find Fred to be beyond reproach and that someone will surely be offended by my post (again). I remind you that I’m just some loud-mouthed dude with an opinion and a sense of humour. Kind of sounds like Fred, don’t it? Perhaps we should be BFFs instead. Call me.

I did make a more straightforward promo, as well: [download id=”164″]