Canadian musician Fred Eaglesmith likes people who help themselves.
That is why he and his band are doing a benefit concert July 27 in Saskatoon to pay legal bills for five Saskatchewan activists arrested while protesting the Free Trade of the Americas talks in Quebec City this spring.
In an interview, Eaglesmith said he is doing the benefit because he’s an anti-free trader and he didn’t like the way the police handled the protesters.
“You just have to give something back. We musicians tend to treat our communities like hotels. We come in, shower and leave.”
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Other Canadian musicians including the Tragically Hip, the Barenaked Ladies and Sarah Harmer are contributing to a CD to raise money for the protesters.
Eaglesmith has a history of giving back. He was a farm activist for 10 years in the 1980s.
“I just gave it up because the farmers didn’t want me. Let’s just say it’s not my life’s work, although I still sing about farmers.”
Until farmers get militant, nothing is going to happen to change their situation, said Eaglesmith. He said he did many benefit concerts for them but farmers need to “show their pitchforks” with less talk and more action.
“Usually farmers don’t like to hear what I’ve got to say. You can’t sit around singing This Land is Your Land and be all happy. … They’ll go back and lose their farm.”
But there are plenty of others who do listen to Eaglesmith, who has won a Juno award. The band is on the road for more than 200 days a year in Canada and the United States.
His music has been described as if Hank Williams was a member of the Rolling Stones. Eaglesmith himself says his music is hard to describe because it crosses all genres and demographics.
The $20 tickets for the Saskatoon concert are available from Oxfam at 306-242-4097 or 229-2230.
