NEWS RELEASE
JUST MET
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Even before he moved to Orillia two years ago, Geoff Booth wondered what the story was behind the old camper van, sitting derelict at the back of a driveway on Nottawasaga Street.
“I’d be on my way for coffee at Mark IV, and see it there, swaddled in garbage and weeds and think about how it got there, where it had been, and why it had landed in the west ward, of all places,” said Booth.
The vehicle’s unceremonious removal by a tow truck last spring became the creative catalyst behind his latest song, The Mariposa Canon Bawl.
Employing the melody from a traditional American tune called Wabash Cannonball, Booth weaves a narrative that draws upon the legacy of Canada’s folk music icons (led by none other than Gordon Lightfoot himself), as he leads a tour of local hangouts like Top Hat Billiards, the Shang, and the Pow Wow Room, finding musical friends wherever they touch down.
“The stories people told me about Orillia in the ’60s and ’70s and the local characters they all knew and loved lend a unique dimension to the unfolding tale,” Booth observes.
Notable among some of these personalities are Max Schacter, whose scrap metal business was once a fixture along Orillia’s waterfront, and Herbie Gibson, a ‘magical’ mechanic on Memorial Avenue.”
“Everyone who was there at that time seems to have a story involving these two guys,” says Booth. “Never mind the musicians I’ve named; these men were local heroes to a whole generation of young people back then.”
Booth is hopeful that the song will resonate with other people in Orillia and will be performing it as a member of the band Just Met, which plays regularly at local venues. As he has noted himself, “you can tell there’s real hometown heart in the audience when we sing this one together, especially the chorus!”
A video of Booth performing The Mariposa Canon Bawl can be seen here.
Just Met’s next performance takes place April 27, at the Hog N’ Penny pub, 9 Matchedash St. N. in Orillia, as part of the Roots North Music Festival.
For more information, email [email protected].
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