Information/Write-up
Wiseman's first solo effort (prior to leaving Blue Rodeo) features fourteen of the more than two hundred collaborations between the keyboardist and "poet, traveller, activist, and philosopher" Wrench Tuttle. Wiseman's quirky music accompanying Tuttle's oddball poetry works mostly as an experiment, and one that wears unfortunately thin after the novelty has worn off. When it works best ("Airplane on the Highway", "Cockroach", "all the trees"), the loosely jazzy tunes underscore the unstable tension throughout the lyrics. A very interesting precursor to Wiseman's later collaboration with Bruce McCulloch.
According to Chart Magazine, is one of the top 100 Canadian albums of all time (#88)
The 2006 re-release from Bob Wiseman, originally released in 1989. Bob Wiseman steps out from the shadow of Blue Rodeo and makes one of the most unique statements in Canadian music history.
Bob Wiseman -- producer, folk songwriter, guitar-pop singer, and improvisational jazz pianist -- is as difficult to pin down as he is prolific. Having played keyboards for Canadian country blues-tinged rock band Blue Rodeo, Wiseman has dallied in everything from avant-garde to political pop since he left for a solo career. Wiseman's first solo release, Hits of the 60's and 70's, (independent) is a spirited showcase for "prepared piano" (a term referring to altering the piano's sound by slipping paper, coins or vegetables between the strings). His subsequent record, Bob Wiseman Sings Wrench Tuttle: In Her Dreams (1989, Risque Disque/ Atlantic) is a more accessible work, featuring mostly simple blues/ pop melodies sparsely laid down by piano or guitar, and accompanied by Wiseman's trademark yowl.
-All Music
Even as keyboardist with the hugely popular Blue Rodeo, the multi-talented Bob Wiseman must have felt restless early on, releasing his first solo LP In Her Dream around the time the Rodeo's best-selling Diamond Mine hit the shops. As Wiseman recalls, "I didn't enjoy being in the studio with Blue Rodeo. I wanted to be the judge of my own work."
The ex-Winnipegger's roots pedigree was never in question here. The mingling of country, blues, folk, honky-tonk, and even acid rock on In Her Dream (all the songs were put to words sent to Wiseman by one Wrench Tuttle, later revealed to be Bob himself) was just the first notch on what would become a very hefty resume. The prickly 'Bhopal (Driftnet Plan)' sounds like the Violent Femmes as undergrad pamphleteers, while 'Blind Horse', with its crusty guitar-organ mix, is a southern psychedelic corker. And in a perfect world, the Latin-tinged 'All the Trees' would have sold millions.
Lyrically, Wiseman is scathing, pulling no punches with multinationals and their lackey governments. 'No Commotion' unwraps the mysterious bombing of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior ("Somebody planted a bomb / I wonder who it could be / I wonder who would profit from / Greenpeace not getting out to sea"), while 'Bhopal (Driftnet Plan)' baldly bludgeons Union Carbide for its negligence in the 1984 chemical disaster in Bhopal, India ("Oh the mighty buck...Oh the doctors work for the company / They told the peasants 'It's fine. It's safe'").
Not all of Wiseman's songs escaped the legal tentacles of corporate America, though. One such song, 'Rock and Tree', raised the ire of the suits at Pepsi for linking the company to the 1973 CIA-led overthrow of Chilean President Salvador Allende. "At first I thought the reason they wanted to talk to me (Warner, that is) was because of me saying "Nixon" or "Kissinger"", he says. "I was amazed that it was Pepsi. I thought after I had provided Dave Tollington and Stan Kulin (the VP and pres of Warner) with the books from public libraries about the Pepsi reference that that would be the end of it. Sue the writers of these books, guys, but I'm not saying anything untrue...is what I thought." Alas, all 2000 copies of the first pressing of In Her Dream were ordered destroyed, and it was subsequently reissued with the offending song conveniently excised from the album.
Though long out of print and largely forgotten - this despite once making Chart magazine's list of the top 100 Canadian albums of all time - In Her Dream was finally given a limited vinyl repressing in the summer of 2009, with the culpable 'Rock and Tree' restored, by Blocks Recording Club, a label that Wiseman himself co-manages.
-Michael Panontin
Hugh Betcha: banjo (track B7)
Bazil Donovan: bass (track B3)
Hugh Phillips: bass (tracks A2, A6, B1, B2)
Marvin Green: bass
Mendelson Joe: bass (track A4)
Richie Maslove: bass (tracks A3, B5, B4, B6)
Ernie Tollar: bombarde (track A5)
Graeme Kirkland: drums (tracks B3, A5),
Mark French: drums (tracks A3, B5, B6),
Mark Hundevad: drums (track A2, A7)
Kurt Schefter: electric guitar (tracks B5, A3)
Wayne Cass: electric guitar (track B4)
Michael Pickett: harmonica (tracks: B5)
Dennis Delorme: pedal steel guitar (tracks B3, A5)
Richard Underhill: saxophone (track A3)
Tom Walsh: trombone (tracks A3, B6)
Sarah McEleran: trumpet (track B6)
Ben Mink: violin (tracks B3, A5)
Curtis Driedger: violin (track B3)
Mary Margaret O'Hara: vocals (tracks A4, B3, B4)
Andy Stochansky: voice (tracks A1, A2, B1, B7)
Hugh Manoid: voice (tracks A1, A2, A6, B1, B2, B7)
Jack Nicholsen: voice (track B3)
Laura Hubert: voice (tracks A2, B3)
Pat Langer: voice (tracks A2, B3)
Recorded at The Music Gallery and Jay's Space Station
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