STAN ROGERS' SONG HARRIS AND THE MARE

RADIO 33

INSPIRES NIGHTFALL GOOD FRIDAY DRAMA

March 11, 1982.

       Books and plays often inspire songs, but the reverse seldom occurs. Which is why the Nightfall production for Good Friday, April 9 at 7.30 p.m. 8 Nfld., is so unusual. On that date is scheduled Harris and the Mare, a drama which evolved from Stan Rogers' song of the same name from his "Between The Breaks...Live!" album.

       Like most songs by the folksinger from Dundas, Ont., it tells a story. Harris and the Mare is about a conscientious objector, a First World War "Conshie", forced to face up to his beliefs and ultimately betray them when confronted with a highly personal situation. Rogers heard the tale in a bar and in his song and the play the crucial action takes place on a barroom floor. The setting is a small Ontario mill town on the eve of Good Friday, about 1930.

       CBC Radio Nightfall executive producer Bill Howell and Stan Rogers had worked together in Nova Scotia. Rogers had written two scores for Howell, for Famous Inside, a drama of the RCMP schooner St. Roch traversing the Northwest Passage, and for The Sisters by Silver Donald Cameron, based on a Nova Scotia legend. The two were tossing around story ideas for Nightfall when they lit upon Harris and the Mare as the basis for a play. John Douglas wrote the script and the result is equally divided into song and story, a noticeable departure from the regular Nightfall horror fare, but still a grabber.

       Musicians and actors were assembled in the studio and both music and dialogue were integrated in sequence. Playing Bart Neilson, the "Conshie" who discovers that his faith in his neighbors is far from reciprocal, is Frank Perry. Elva Mal Hoover is his wife Jennie; Hugh Webster, Luke Harris; Arch McDonell, Ken Dockitt; Ken James, Gord Masson; Marian Waldman, Nellie Masson; Richard Donat, Pat Cleary.

       Rogers' band featured Stan on guitar; his brother Garnet, flute; Grit Laskin, Northumbrian smallpipes; David Eadie, pennywhistle; Bill Garrett, guitar, and Jim Morison, bass.

       Howell says of their friendship: "We've known each other for 10 years now, and the seeds of our collaboration grew out of experiments with poem-song cycles for CBC's Music Maritimes, back in Halifax in the early '70s. During that period we'd brainstorm themes such as salvaging and privateering, and we spent a lot of time working on how to handle period folk material, with its inherent value systems and archaic language communities, in an accessible contemporary way. Neither of us guessed that we'd be doing radio plays together some day.

       "Stan's a rare animal - a literate songwriter. He has a solid story sense and is a consummate song craftsman, but best of all he has a poet's focus on language. His greatest talent is melding the spoken phrase to the musical phrase, and at this he's unique, a real original."

       Stan Rogers is a narrative songwriter who describes himself as a "sociohistoriographer." Although born in Hamilton, his parents come from Nova Scotia and he is basically considered a Maritime folk musician. Last year he represented Nova Scotia at the International Gathering of the Clans in Scotland. He's recorded four albums and has his own label, Fogarty's Cove. Northwest Passage came out last year and his next album, based on a Canada Council grant to research and write songs about the Great Lakes region, will be a co-production with CBC Enterprises. All his albums are produced by longtime friend Paul Mills, former executive producer of Touch the Earth, and now area executive producer for CBC Radio Drama.

       Rogers has been composing and performing since he was 19; he's now 32, married with four children. He's earned himself a sizeable reputation with his concerts and recordings and chalks up thousands of miles a year in his van and in the air. Coming up in March: appearances at Mariposa Mainland, Toronto, the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium, Halifax, Ottawa; in April: Minnesota, Morden, Man., Regina, Saskatoon, Lethbridge, Calgary's Jubilee Auditorium, the University of Alberta, Edmonton, after which he'll come home to record the Great Lakes Project album. In May: Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and San Francisco; in June: Mariposa, Yellowknife; in July: the Calgary, Winnipeg and Vancouver folk festivals; in August; a tour of the northeastern States.

       Finally, in September, fishing in Nova Scotia, and a well-earned vacation!

       Another song, Mary Ellen Carter, may also grow into a play, and this time he's going to write the script himself. "I'd like to write more for radio, and then try something for the stage, maybe a musical. A novel, even, "says Rogers. As a wordsmith of substance, Rogers may well stretch his considerable talents into these unexplored avenues. Meanwhile, there are audiences out there and songs to sing to them.