The Nation (1986-2001)

The story of The Nation is truly a rather bland fable. A cyclical plot of writing some songs while sitting around in my taxi; raising some serious money driving my taxi; spending a good portion of that money in the studio; making some cassette copies of my recordings; giving the cassettes away to people in my taxi; writing some more songs in my taxi and so on and so. Here's a few more paragraphs of dry history...

After the demise of Bamboo, I continued to write songs when I returned to Peterborough. I took the little bit of money I received out of the legal settlement with Capitol/EMI Records and decided I would try and record again, though this time I wanted to take a crack at singing lead vocals myself. I named the new project The Nation. So in April of 1986, I rehearsed with a group of musician friends for a week before entering into Andy Thompson's Studio 29 in Warkwarth, Ontario. In May of 1986, we recorded the album Groovy People.

In July and August of 1988, I again entered Studio 29 with John Crown and JC Smith and recorded another collection of songs. Recorded in only two sessions, the album was initially titled Acoustic Campfire when I released it on cassette, though later I changed the name to Atmosphere when I transfered it to CD. One of the songs from the album, Take Me Back, was included on the CKPT 1989 Homegrown Album. The showcase for that homegrown album was one of only 3 times I played live between 1985 and 2004. John Crown and I performed two songs together; Take Me Back and Do The Things You Want. The only time I performed without a music stand with lyric sheets...I have a terrible memory that way.

From November of 1988 to August 1989 I recorded another album at Studio 29. The musicians in on that session were John Crown, who took on double duty, playing drums, as well as lead guitar. Dan Washburn played bass and Andy Thompson offered his keyboard skills. We recorded 18 songs rather quickly, although only 11 songs made it to the album. The album was originally titled Trillium Poetry when I initially released it on cassette and was later renamed Get Me Out Of Peterborough when I transfered it to CD. The 7" 45 RPM single from the album was the song Inside My Head b/w Alone On Christmas Day, an non-album track. The single did receive some airplay on college radio across Canada.

It was difficult keeping up with all my musical dreams and ambitions. I was working 7 days a week in the taxi to raise money to continue recording. On May 6, 1990, I again entered Studio 29 and recorded 2 songs which I planned to release as a 7" 45 RPM single. The single That's You b/w It's The Times was released in the fall of 1990. The musicians in on that session were JC Smith/keyboard, Marie Bodine/backing vocals, Dan Washburn/bass and Greg Heard/drums. I put a lot of effort into promoting the single to college radio across Canada, and even sent it out to several stations in the USA. The single did receive a considerable amount of airplay and even managed to chart on several stations. I had quite a bit of momentum going, but alas, my manic-depressive illness kicked into an acute phase and I was out of the game...this time for 5 years.

In January of 1995, JC Smith invited me to Santa Barbara, California, where he was then living with his family. Suddenly my muse returned after a 5 year silence and I began to write one song after another. In April of 1995 I arrived in California and JC and I recorded 10 songs at his Airhead Studio which became the Summerland album. It was the first time I had ever recorded using a computer. JC engineered the entire session. I just watched and tried to learn. The album had a very soul-searching vibe and was, in my mind, a collection of the best songs I had written up to that point in my life. JC sang lead vocals on one of the songs, Smaller, and we also recorded one of his songs, This Moment, which I sang.

Again I went through several periods of illness between 1995 and 2000. JC loaded me up with Cubase so that I could record on my computer. I went on a bit of a writing spree in 2000 and recorded over a dozen CDs which I gave out to friends under The Nation monicker. But for the most part a good piece of my life was lost again. In the fall of 1999, I entered Studio 29 with Greg Heard on drums and Andrew Affleck on bass and recorded 10 songs. The intended album was never completed, though I did travel to San Diego, California, where JC was living at the time, and we finished off 3 of the songs. They can be found on the CD Also Besides, a collection of "rarities" recorded through the years by The Nation.

At the end of 2001 I felt it was time to end the musical chapter of The Nation and did so quietly, without fanfare.