Ted Wesley (Singer/Songwriter)
For those of you who might be interested in other Canadian musicians that sing about “the land” you may want to check out the obscure guitarist and composer Ted Wesley.
Ted put out three fine vinyl albums in the 70’s then promptly disappeared into oblivion. My searches gave no returns until I found Bob Stewart’s minimal webpage (above) last week. Bob too has been frustrated in finding anything further on Ted’s whereabouts.
If I recall correctly, Ted was born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) but his parents moved back to England shortly after his birth. Some time thereafter they emigrated to Canada where Ted soon fell in love with the ‘north country’ and settled in the North West Territories. He record three albums
* of songs about life in the north and although not as “deep” as Gord, has many fine tunes. One note of interest is that
Red Shea played second guitar on his albums.
(
*on the now defunct
Boot Records, Mississauga ON)
As web page author Bob Stewart notes;
“An Internet search reveals nothing at the moment, other than the fact that Ted was nominated for a Juno Award one year and lost out to Gordon Lightfoot - but that is indicative of the calibre of talent that Ted had.”
I was delighted to find Bob’s tribute site as I had yet to digitize my vinyl albums. All of Ted’s albums/songs can be found on this page with the
.wma extension - playable on Window’s media player. For a sample tune, check out
‘Bush Plane’ on his second album entitled
‘Straight North’. A nice tune about a prospector who has finished his work and laments the fact that the bush plane sent to get him out probably won't make it because he's "socked in" by fog. In the end he hears the plane's engines as it breaks through.
Ted’s songs can range from humorous to moving - always documenting the joys and frustrations of living in the north. Hoping some of you find his compositions as enjoyable as I did.
Yuri
Ted Wesley (Singer/Songwriter)
