Burchill, Bob - Cabin Fever

Tracks

Side 1

		Track Name	Length
	1	Cabin Fever	04:28
	2	Pilgrim of the Wind	02:42
	3	Bend Your Back	06:24
	4	Silver Strings	03:11
	5	Be Together	02:54
	6	Fishers Hornpipe	01:23

Side 2

		Track Name	Length
	1	Near My Beginnings	03:53
	2	Welcome Song	04:17
	3	Charade	03:45
	4	Nothing to Lose	04:03
	5	Black Creek	03:15

Photos

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Information/Write-up

Bob Burchill was a quietly influential figure in Ontario’s folk and rock scenes, a musician whose path wound from a farm in Dublin, Ontario to the heart of Stratford’s countercultural movement in the 1970s. Music was woven into his life from childhood, when he played piano alongside his father’s fiddle in the old Don Messer style, but his true awakening came as a young man when he heard Bob Dylan for the first time. The “chimes of freedom” set him on a new course—he sold his Mustang, grew a beard, left his job, and committed himself wholly to music. Travels through Europe deepened that commitment, and on his return to Canada he immersed himself in the Black Swan Coffeehouse in Stratford, pouring coffee by day and building musical connections by night.

By 1973 he had joined the Perth County Conspiracy (does not exist), the celebrated Stratford collective that fused folk, psychedelia, and political theatre. His guitar, mandolin, and songwriting fit seamlessly into the band’s free-spirited blend of music and message, and his years with the Conspiracy carried him across Canada in a blur of tours, communes, and concerts that defined an era of Canadian folk. In 1975, still in the orbit of the Conspiracy, he released his first solo album, Cabin Fever, on the Rumour label. The record gathered many of his Perth County compatriots—Richard Keelan, John Jackson, David Woodhead, Michael Butler, Jerome Jarvis, Paul Gellman, and others—and reflected the cooperative ethos of the scene. Side one was recorded at the Schoolhouse Sound Studio Co-Op in Perth County, while side two captured the group live in Calgary during the Spiral Band tour, a split that gave the album both the intimacy of the studio and the immediacy of the road.

Burchill continued to write and record long after the Conspiracy’s heyday, releasing albums such as Hugs, Two Blue, It’s a Grand Garden, and When I Was a Kid, each one rooted in the same blend of honesty, craft, and rural lyricism that had marked his debut. Beyond his own music, he poured his energy into teaching and mentorship. From 1989 to 2001 he ran R.B. Music Studio and the Stonetown Music Centre in St. Marys, Ontario, where he taught guitar, fiddle, mandolin, and piano to hundreds of students, passed on instruments, and offered a gathering place for young players to discover their voices.

Looking back on his life, Burchill described it as “a path less travelled,” and it was true. He never chased commercial trends or big-city success. Instead, he chose to remain close to the soil, to the community, and to the spirit of music as a way of life.
-Robert Williston

Bob Burchill: lead vocals, guitar, mandolin
Richard Keelan: acoustic guitar, mandolin, vocals
Michael Butler: bass
David Woodhead: bass, banjo, vocals
Jerome Jarvis: drums
John Jackson: electric guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals
Jeremy Balser: percussion
Paul Gellman: violin
Doug McNaughton: fiddle
Zeke Prelosnjak: harp
Koumantaros: piano, congas, vocals
Terry Jones: acoustic guitar
Dorit Learned: vocals

Produced by Bob Burchill and Gary McKeehan
Engineered and mixed by Gary McKeehan
Recorded and mixed at Schoolhouse Sound Studio Co-Op, Carlingford, Perth County, Ontario (Side 1)
Recorded live in Calgary by Schoolhouse Sound Studio Co-Op in co-operation with Stoneage Sound during the "Spiral Band" tour (Side 2)

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