1999 Brier
SLAM! Sports
SLAM! Curling
1999 BRIER
ON THE ROCKS
INTERACTIVE
ALSO ON SLAM!
They can hack it!
Pearls of wisdom from Prairie Oyster
But that is neither here nor there. DeCarle cares about two things during our phone conversation from an anonymous locale east of here: music and sleep.
Books, taking pictures, phone conversations, all that is for people with regular jobs. Right now deCarle is in a whirlwind of touring, interviews and promotion of his band's latest album, What Is This Country?, a pun on being labelled pointlessly, among other things.
And, after a year sitting in the shade, Prairie Oyster's on the highway again.
"Tell you the truth, Fish, I'm just looking for my next nap,'' he laughs, though there's energy in his voice.
There always is. DeCarle's manner is as friendly and honest as his band's - on display, incidentally, at the Brier Patch Monday night.
NO FAN OF LABELS
He defies in advance any effort to label his Oyster - labels kill, after all - instead explaining, "It's time to let the people into the loop again, which of course requires a certain amount of work.
"We hope they're getting it as music, never mind talk of retro or whatever. It's just music and we've always stressed that.
"There's so much good music out there that gets missed because it doesn't fit into the right category. The radio is so narrow, but at least we've had a hole in country radio. In the States it's Americana stations that play us and it's a shame there's no Canadianaâ as it were, because good music, folk music, things like that, have no support."
Blame the bottom line. DeCarle knows it and lives with it, just like everyone has had to learn to do in this wobbling, fat industry.
Nonetheless Oyster's already looked to the Net, where their volume of sales online generally increases every month.
"Joan (Beson) is the one who's really into all that, but it's obviously the future. We have a really good Web page (www.interlog.com/~prairie/) and it's done us proud.''
DRUNKEN MADNESS
But this is a curling supplement, isn't it? As such, the tall singer recalls a couple of Briers he's been to, remembering Brier Patches full of cheering partiers and drunken madness in the dark.
"So many people come from all over so we're all tourists. It's really cool. These guys came up to us recently from Saskatoon in '90-whatever, and we were in Ontario. The memories might be hazy, but they're good."
Old Russ has never slid a rock down the ice but is open to it.
"I'd actually like to play. There's an appeal to curling that seems contagious."
That would be the rumour that our own Con Griwkowsky stakes his career on.
How about it, curlers, up for an Oyster as your lead?
Think of the aphrodisiac powers alone ...