Who is Bob Burchill and why should you care?

There must be something in the water, up there in Ontario. Stumbling upon Canadian artists while wading through the lesser known music of my predilection of the 1970s and early 1980s, I realized that a bunch of them, and a number of the stranger ones seem to hail from the rural corners of Ontario. Naturally, the plains and forests of three quarters of the province lend themselves to motivate these folks to indulge in my beloved Americana (would it now be Canadana?). But maybe the great outdoors are also specifically important for people to 'do their own thing', far away from prying eyes?

Take Bob Burchill, for example, another musician I stumbled on by pure accident. Burchill first came upon the music scene as part of the Perth County Conspiracy, seemingly a mix between a hippie commune and a loosely-formed band, from the very same Perth County, and headquartered in Stratford. With the help of this merry band of musicians he finally delivered a solo album in 1975, the very One Buck Records album of the day your digital device of choice will soon be able to hold in its virtual..uh..grasp. Burchill might sound slightly familiar if perchance for the grand total sum of zero dollars, Euros, bath or yen you have purchased volume one of All Pearls, No Swine, and as promised in that album's post, I will slowly get around to present some of its artists in greater detail. 

Cabin Fever, Burchill's first, is a very fine singer/songwriter album, halfway between folk and country. Its sepia-toned album cover with a horse-drawn plough gives you a pretty good indicator of what the muic inside might sound like. Rustic, yes, and a bit out of time, its and any other. The title song is a great driving opener, while "Pilgrim Of The Wind" (the song featured on APNS 1) is a fine folk song with country flourishes over an unintrusive but intriguing percussion backing on congas. "Bend Your Back", another beauty, has some tasteful banjo playing. "Be Together" features some equally tasty fiddle. Cabin Fever is generally speaking mid- to low tempo, nothing here  - apart from maybe the hoedown of "Black Creek" as album closer - will get your pulse throbbing, but it's a perfect album for a slow, lazy sunday morning, or any slow, lazy morning. Or afternoon. Or evening. 

Perfectly cromulent music, further boosted by a bunch of bonus tracks from the album's follow-ups that are in the same style and mood of Cabin Fever for an hour of Canadian country dreaming. 

PS: Considering the obscure status of the artists to appear, a little teaser from the 'Tube might be useful to see if this is might be your jam or not. 

PPS: Intermittently working on the Perth County Conspiracy, so this will probably not the last time you'll hear of these fine folks on these here pages...