Last night at about 8pm, I saw a headline flash across my computer screen relaying the news that Canadian Country Folk music legend Stompin’ Tom Connors had passed away from natural causes at the age of 77. I immediately scrapped the blog post I had just finished writing and thought I’d write a bit about a real Canadian patriot.
Stompin’ Tom Connors sings “The Hockey Song”
It would not surprise me one bit if American readers are puzzled a bit and asking themselves “who in the heck is Stompin’ Tom Connors, we’ve never heard of him?” However, if you’ve ever been to a hockey game in Canada, or watched a game being televised from the Great White North, you know Stompin’ Tom Connors and his work. Every Canadian reading this post will know exactly who I’m talking about and will no doubt be humming “The Hockey Song” all day long.
Stompin’ Tom is to Canadian country music what Willie Nelson is to the U.S.A. Of course, Tom is a little less flamboyant than “Old Willie”. Connors is survived by his wife Lena, two sons, two daughters and several grandchildren. Stompin' Tom 
He was dubbed Stompin' Tom for his habit of pounding the floor with his left foot during performances. Although wide commercial appeal escaped Connors for much of his four-decade career, his heritage-soaked songs like Canada Day, Up Canada Way, The Hockey Song, Bud The Spud and Sudbury Saturday Night, have come to be regarded as veritable national anthems thanks to their unabashed embrace of all things Canadiana.
Stompin’ Tom even has his own Canadian Postage Stamp
He was born in Saint John, N.B., on Feb. 9, 1936 to an unwed teenage mother. According to his autobiography, Before the Fame, he often lived hand-to-mouth as a youngster, hitchhiking with his mother from the age of three, begging on the street by the age of four. At age eight, he was placed in the care of Children's Aid and adopted a year later by a family in Skinner's Pond, P.E.I.
He bought his first guitar at age 14, and left home picking up odd jobs as he wandered from town to town, at times working on fishing boats, as a grave digger, tobacco picker and fry cook. Legend has it that Connors began his musical career when he found himself a nickel short of a beer at the Maple Leaf Hotel in Timmins, Ont., in 1964 at age 28.
The bartender agreed to give him a drink if he would play a few songs but that turned into a 14-month contract to play at the hotel. Three years later, Connors made his first album and garnered his first hit in 1970 with Bud The Spud. Hundreds more songs followed, many based on actual events, people, and towns he had visited - "I'm a man of the land, I go out into the country and I talk to people and I know the jobs they do and how they feel about their jobs."
The NHL will honour Connors at games in both Canada & the USA
A “celebration of Tom’s life” is being planned for March 13 in Peterborough, Ont., at the Peterborough Memorial Centre. The event will be open to the public.
Have a great Thursday, and thanks again for visiting!
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