Sep 2009
Debut Novel “clever, quirky and sharply written”
21/09/09
Except My Love For You
By: John Hodgert
Reviewed by Sharon Chisvin
Winnipegger John Hodgert is a retired financier, aging rocker and
life-long poet. He also is a very fine writer of fiction.
Hodgert’s debut novel, Except My Love For You, is a tender, captivating and thought-provoking coming of middle age story that astutely explores the bounds of love, friendship and success. Clever, quirky and sharply written, it abounds with wry observations, witty turns of phrases, sharp dialogue and multi-dimensional characters that appear both familiar and genuine. The central character in the novel is Gord Strachan, a highly successful 45-year-old Winnipeg financier who has given up everything he has in order to live a simpler and more meaningful life.
With this goal in mind, he has traded his seat of power in boardrooms across the country for a minimum wage job in a furniture factory, and the comforts of his suburban mansion for a small apartment in a working class area of town. He also has transferred all of his considerable wealth over to his ex-wife Liz.
While he tries to adjust to his new way of life, without a cell phone, tailor-made clothing, a car or an expense account, Gord alternately reflects on the carefree days of his youth and more recent interactions with business associates and friends.
His attempts to distance himself from the excesses and successes of his life, however, are continually tested by his ongoing entanglements with Liz and their mutual group of friends, most of whom they have known since high school.
One of these friends is Muriel who, to Gord’s great admiration, had years before deliberately chosen to live an unconventional, non-materialistic, back to basics rural life. ironically, it is because of Muriel that Gord ultimately reexamines his recent choices and rethinks his decision to give everything up. Money, he comes to appreciate, can be used for purposes other than making more of it.
Gord’s connection to Muriel, like his connection to most of the other characters in the novel, is deeply rooted in their shared history. This shared history, nurtured by community club concerts, river walks and school dances, is the glue that binds this aging group of friends together.
Although Gord and his friends, as imagined by John Hodgert, live and work in Winnipeg, they could be any group of lifelong friends in any urban centre.
This is the beauty of this novel. While very specifically set in contemporary Canada, it remains a universal story – a story about not taking anything for granted, especially success, wealth, health, love and friendship.
Sharon Chisvin’s work has been published in numerous magazines, newspapers and anthologies across North America. She is the author of three non-fiction books and has worked as a magazine editor, communications officer, and currently is a regular contributor to the faith and book review sections of the Winnipeg Free Press.
cited in bannatynebanter.wordpress.com
By: John Hodgert
Reviewed by Sharon Chisvin
Winnipegger John Hodgert is a retired financier, aging rocker and
life-long poet. He also is a very fine writer of fiction.
Hodgert’s debut novel, Except My Love For You, is a tender, captivating and thought-provoking coming of middle age story that astutely explores the bounds of love, friendship and success. Clever, quirky and sharply written, it abounds with wry observations, witty turns of phrases, sharp dialogue and multi-dimensional characters that appear both familiar and genuine. The central character in the novel is Gord Strachan, a highly successful 45-year-old Winnipeg financier who has given up everything he has in order to live a simpler and more meaningful life.
With this goal in mind, he has traded his seat of power in boardrooms across the country for a minimum wage job in a furniture factory, and the comforts of his suburban mansion for a small apartment in a working class area of town. He also has transferred all of his considerable wealth over to his ex-wife Liz.
While he tries to adjust to his new way of life, without a cell phone, tailor-made clothing, a car or an expense account, Gord alternately reflects on the carefree days of his youth and more recent interactions with business associates and friends.
His attempts to distance himself from the excesses and successes of his life, however, are continually tested by his ongoing entanglements with Liz and their mutual group of friends, most of whom they have known since high school.
One of these friends is Muriel who, to Gord’s great admiration, had years before deliberately chosen to live an unconventional, non-materialistic, back to basics rural life. ironically, it is because of Muriel that Gord ultimately reexamines his recent choices and rethinks his decision to give everything up. Money, he comes to appreciate, can be used for purposes other than making more of it.
Gord’s connection to Muriel, like his connection to most of the other characters in the novel, is deeply rooted in their shared history. This shared history, nurtured by community club concerts, river walks and school dances, is the glue that binds this aging group of friends together.
Although Gord and his friends, as imagined by John Hodgert, live and work in Winnipeg, they could be any group of lifelong friends in any urban centre.
This is the beauty of this novel. While very specifically set in contemporary Canada, it remains a universal story – a story about not taking anything for granted, especially success, wealth, health, love and friendship.
Sharon Chisvin’s work has been published in numerous magazines, newspapers and anthologies across North America. She is the author of three non-fiction books and has worked as a magazine editor, communications officer, and currently is a regular contributor to the faith and book review sections of the Winnipeg Free Press.
cited in bannatynebanter.wordpress.com
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Summer Reign
17/09/09
I just got back from the gig at the Millenium Library. It went well. Fifteen minutes before the scheduled start, I shamelessly dragged Doug Anderson out into the hallway, where we jammed - ostensibly to draw a crowd, but really to warm-up - and show off! We did the numbers that Doug had been expecting, being Your Eyes and Where Did My Baby Go? (originals) and our ‘money’ medley of Set Me Free, Summer Rain, and Forsaking All Others (an original). But I also threw Mercy Mild and Maggie Mae at him. He handled it well. We stopped before we burned up all our mojo.
Inside, the host, Kathy Grover of the Library, gave us a nice introduction. We did the standard set of Readings/Songs. The whole thing was un-amplified, but the volume was fine. Doug did a great job - to nice applause. Afterwards, I answered a couple of questions, then mingled with the people as they left. Kathy tells me that the turnout was good, especially for the first show of the year, and fighting a great weather day. My thanks yet again to Ray, Carol, Alan, and Krista for being there, as ever. Also thanks to the ‘old reliables’; Pat, Sherilyn, Dianne, and Ross. And to ‘new reliable’; Carol Anderson...........and Alison Caldwell!
Big final thanks to Doug Anderson who stepped in on short notice to take the accompanist reigns. He put his own special spin on the songs, while remaining faithful to the original intent. “A punch on the chest was ample praise.”
On to a new challenge, the book club solo appearances. Wish me luck.
Inside, the host, Kathy Grover of the Library, gave us a nice introduction. We did the standard set of Readings/Songs. The whole thing was un-amplified, but the volume was fine. Doug did a great job - to nice applause. Afterwards, I answered a couple of questions, then mingled with the people as they left. Kathy tells me that the turnout was good, especially for the first show of the year, and fighting a great weather day. My thanks yet again to Ray, Carol, Alan, and Krista for being there, as ever. Also thanks to the ‘old reliables’; Pat, Sherilyn, Dianne, and Ross. And to ‘new reliable’; Carol Anderson...........and Alison Caldwell!
Big final thanks to Doug Anderson who stepped in on short notice to take the accompanist reigns. He put his own special spin on the songs, while remaining faithful to the original intent. “A punch on the chest was ample praise.”
On to a new challenge, the book club solo appearances. Wish me luck.
One More To Go
13/09/09
I just posted the mp3 file for Mercy Mild. You can hear it by clicking the song title on the ‘Hear the Songs’ page of this website. In the near future I will install Flash Player controls, so that you can hear it, and Hopelessly Lost in Love directly from the lyrics pages - like you can now for the other songs. The last song in this series, The Boat Song, will be mixed and mastered in a few weeks. I hope you enjoy all the songs.
On the performance front, Doug Anderson and I have two more practices to go - before we are unleashed on an unsuspecting world! See you at 12:10PM in the Carol Shields Auditorium on the second floor (off the skywalk) of the Millenium Library, at the corner of Graham and Donald. Doontoon, as my grandfather would say.
On the performance front, Doug Anderson and I have two more practices to go - before we are unleashed on an unsuspecting world! See you at 12:10PM in the Carol Shields Auditorium on the second floor (off the skywalk) of the Millenium Library, at the corner of Graham and Donald. Doontoon, as my grandfather would say.
Mercy Me!
08/09/09
Yesterday, we tracked the vocals for Mercy MIld, and for the last song in this series, The Boat Song. We did the latter first, and it was a a bit of a struggle for me to do the lead vocal. Not a recording horror story, but maybe a dozen or so takes and a number of ‘punches’ (spot edits) on the best tracks, of certain sections where I was having particular difficulty. Paul added the few harmony bits at the end of the session. I’ll talk about The Boat Song in a near future blog.
Anyway, after a lunch break we set up to do the lead vocal for Mercy Mild. Paul set up three tracks for the vocals, as a start. I told him that I would sing the first take laid back, and the next more energized. We’d talk before the third take, and see what next. Paul called me out of the singing room to listen to the first track. The review revealed very minor warbles and micro timing issues, but no wrong notes or obviously screwed up intervals. And we really liked the feel. Paul adjusted the levels here and there, and fiddled with some normal added effects (reverb mostly) - then we declared it ‘the’ track. We did no more takes. If this sounds like bragging, that’s because it is! My advice for amateurs like me is - just relax and sing the song the way you feel it. It helps if you wrote the song, if it’s an easy sing, and if you’ve already sung it a thousand times - but why quibble! So, if you note how thin my voice is, or how less than absolutely perfect the execution is, don’t blame Paul. It’s a straight up performance by me, for good or ill.
Feeling quite positive, I asked Paul if we could re-record the Intro. Having a non-repeated Intro that is quite different from the rest of the song is old-fashiond and long out of favour (see Mercy Mild - 3, 03/09/09). For that reason, I wanted to re-do it in a more stylized way, and make it obvious to the listener that it is ‘different’. Paul set up to record the vocal and single guitar simultaneously, as a ‘live’ take so to speak. We banged that off, and sat down to listen. It worked, especially after Paul made it sound like I was doing it over the telephone. He also created a small gap between the Intro and the song proper, at the end of which his voice counts in the song proper. Alright, it’s a gimmick. But it’s fun.
Altogether, It was a big music day. That evening Doug Anderson and I rehearsed for the 12:10PM Millenium Library show on September 17. Doug nailed the feel of Except My Love For You and Hopelessly Lost in Love. We hope to nail Angel of Truth on Wednesday. Doug’s a home handyman, amongst many other things, so lets consider that the planning phase of the rehearsals. The next nine days will see us filing, sanding, and finishing the songs. Doug, paint or stain? : > )
Anyway, after a lunch break we set up to do the lead vocal for Mercy Mild. Paul set up three tracks for the vocals, as a start. I told him that I would sing the first take laid back, and the next more energized. We’d talk before the third take, and see what next. Paul called me out of the singing room to listen to the first track. The review revealed very minor warbles and micro timing issues, but no wrong notes or obviously screwed up intervals. And we really liked the feel. Paul adjusted the levels here and there, and fiddled with some normal added effects (reverb mostly) - then we declared it ‘the’ track. We did no more takes. If this sounds like bragging, that’s because it is! My advice for amateurs like me is - just relax and sing the song the way you feel it. It helps if you wrote the song, if it’s an easy sing, and if you’ve already sung it a thousand times - but why quibble! So, if you note how thin my voice is, or how less than absolutely perfect the execution is, don’t blame Paul. It’s a straight up performance by me, for good or ill.
Feeling quite positive, I asked Paul if we could re-record the Intro. Having a non-repeated Intro that is quite different from the rest of the song is old-fashiond and long out of favour (see Mercy Mild - 3, 03/09/09). For that reason, I wanted to re-do it in a more stylized way, and make it obvious to the listener that it is ‘different’. Paul set up to record the vocal and single guitar simultaneously, as a ‘live’ take so to speak. We banged that off, and sat down to listen. It worked, especially after Paul made it sound like I was doing it over the telephone. He also created a small gap between the Intro and the song proper, at the end of which his voice counts in the song proper. Alright, it’s a gimmick. But it’s fun.
Altogether, It was a big music day. That evening Doug Anderson and I rehearsed for the 12:10PM Millenium Library show on September 17. Doug nailed the feel of Except My Love For You and Hopelessly Lost in Love. We hope to nail Angel of Truth on Wednesday. Doug’s a home handyman, amongst many other things, so lets consider that the planning phase of the rehearsals. The next nine days will see us filing, sanding, and finishing the songs. Doug, paint or stain? : > )
Mercy Mild - 3
03/09/09
I’m back at the world headquarters of the Meadowlark Artistic Collective, the St. Vital A & W. To finish up on Mercy Mild - it was composed by me some time in the early 2000’s, making it easily the newest song featured in the novel. It originally was played slower than the recent recorded version, more as a slow country blues or even a gospel number. I left plenty of room for solos, at the time mostly by Paul, featuring slide guitar sometimes, or deep overdrive electric guitar. Because it was more an excuse for riffing than a proper song, the lyrics never got beyond one verse and one chorus. The changes were deliberately and militantly cliche: G Bm C D for the verse, and C G C D for the chorus. The influences are almost comically diverse, ranging from the Rolling Stones (See ‘Shine a Light’ from Exile on Main Street) for changes and feel, to Smokey Robinson (see ‘Baby Baby’) for vocal high notes and Bing Crosby (see, well, anything) for crooned deep vocal notes.
At the time I was considering songs for the novel, I tried to write more words. But everything seemed to subtract from, not add to the song. Paul and Tony were convinced that the words already written said everything the song wanted to say. So we left it as is lyrically, and used two guitar solos to make it run longer. There was lots of debate about the tempo. I was reluctant to leave the slow tempo feel behind, but, in the event, we moved it to a more normal 120-ish bpm speed. The alternatives were a three minute, boring, slow version, or a much longer, solo filled version - one which ran a different risk of boring the listener. Most of the tracking is done. All that’s left is tracking the vocals and mixing and mastering. I say ‘all’ casually, because I don’t have to do that tough slog - Paul does!
Oh, I forgot to mention, the song has one feature that distinguishes it from a typical modern pop song. It has an ‘Intro’. That is, there is a preliminary section, with words and music that is markedly different form the main song in tempo and structure. My inspiration for this was very old pop hits from the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s. These songs often had what they called the ‘Verse’ at the beginning. The Verse was only done once, with the ‘Chorus’ (i. e. what you and I would call the actual song) following. Very often these verses have been lost to time - never preformed, or very infrequently. Sometimes they lasted. The classic example is Stardust, with its verse of, “And now the purple dust of twilight time...”, followed by its famous verse melody behind, “Sometimes I wonder why I spend....” This practice had fallen so far out of favour that I thought it would be a kick to use it on one of my songs. So, a few years after I had written the main part of Mercy MIld, I came up with a separate verse (or ‘Intro’, as I style it). Using an Intro allowed me to set up the song, both melodically and in terms of the ‘story’ of the song. You can be the judge of whether it works when we post the song on this site - on September 11 or thereabouts.
On the performance side, I’m working with Doug Anderson on the set for the September 17 readings/songs gig at the Millenium Library. I hope Doug knows what he’s getting into! I’m just happy he agreed when I asked him to take over for the departed Tony Buchner. Even If you’ve already seen any of the shows, it will be worthwhile to come out and see what spin Doug puts on things. He’s a much different player than Tony, and very talented.
Au revoir for now, mes enfants.
P.S. Check out the blogs for April, May, June, July, and August for the histories of the novel and the songs.
At the time I was considering songs for the novel, I tried to write more words. But everything seemed to subtract from, not add to the song. Paul and Tony were convinced that the words already written said everything the song wanted to say. So we left it as is lyrically, and used two guitar solos to make it run longer. There was lots of debate about the tempo. I was reluctant to leave the slow tempo feel behind, but, in the event, we moved it to a more normal 120-ish bpm speed. The alternatives were a three minute, boring, slow version, or a much longer, solo filled version - one which ran a different risk of boring the listener. Most of the tracking is done. All that’s left is tracking the vocals and mixing and mastering. I say ‘all’ casually, because I don’t have to do that tough slog - Paul does!
Oh, I forgot to mention, the song has one feature that distinguishes it from a typical modern pop song. It has an ‘Intro’. That is, there is a preliminary section, with words and music that is markedly different form the main song in tempo and structure. My inspiration for this was very old pop hits from the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s. These songs often had what they called the ‘Verse’ at the beginning. The Verse was only done once, with the ‘Chorus’ (i. e. what you and I would call the actual song) following. Very often these verses have been lost to time - never preformed, or very infrequently. Sometimes they lasted. The classic example is Stardust, with its verse of, “And now the purple dust of twilight time...”, followed by its famous verse melody behind, “Sometimes I wonder why I spend....” This practice had fallen so far out of favour that I thought it would be a kick to use it on one of my songs. So, a few years after I had written the main part of Mercy MIld, I came up with a separate verse (or ‘Intro’, as I style it). Using an Intro allowed me to set up the song, both melodically and in terms of the ‘story’ of the song. You can be the judge of whether it works when we post the song on this site - on September 11 or thereabouts.
On the performance side, I’m working with Doug Anderson on the set for the September 17 readings/songs gig at the Millenium Library. I hope Doug knows what he’s getting into! I’m just happy he agreed when I asked him to take over for the departed Tony Buchner. Even If you’ve already seen any of the shows, it will be worthwhile to come out and see what spin Doug puts on things. He’s a much different player than Tony, and very talented.
Au revoir for now, mes enfants.
P.S. Check out the blogs for April, May, June, July, and August for the histories of the novel and the songs.