Alan MacRae
Alan McRae, Ont.: Born in the British Isles, the son of a highland piper, Alan was a gold miner and with ... was instrumental in organizing Canada's first folk club in Vancouver, BC. He moved to Toronto and became the resident singer at Toronto's first "folk bar" the Steeles' Tavern. he played the Horseshoe Tavern most of the summer of 1975. He was a mentor and friend to many Toronto folk musicians through the 60s and 70s before he passed away. T.C. played the Horseshoe the summer of 75 and hung out at my bar. I admire his drive a real folkstar in spite of lack of natural talent.
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I remember persuading Basil Steele to book Gordon Lightfoot, give him a try for a week. Gordon was at home their for a long time. Hard to be precise about the year in the 1960s but Brita, Gord's first wife brought their first child to Steeles one night, the first night the child was out of the house. During this period Alan's professional home was The Mousehole on Yorkville. I have no memory of Alan singing at Steele's but we lost contact. His personal home was a coach house in the back of a house at the bottom of Poplar Plains where much fun was had. "Leaping, and ballooning and steaming" was Alan's prediction of a good time there. We took him at his word without having any clear sense of his words' meaning. Everybody knew Alan's place. A couple of songs that everybody knows today were at least partially written there but those are not my tales to tell. I would love to know more about what happened to him after my path made a sharp turn in an altogether different direction.
I remember when my wife and I used to go to Steele’s Tavern in the later 60’s and listen to Alan MacRae. One song I remember was the Ski Song of what happened to a hapless skier as he hit everything on the way down the slope. It was done to the hymn Glory glory hallelujah.
Don
Alan called the song "Super Skier". The words glory hallelujah were replaced with " gory gory, what a hell of a way to die". I sang it for years. Probably still remember the lyrics.
I knew him only at the Mousehole. Yes, that coach house! A lot of hanging out there after the Mousehole closed, intobthe wee hours. ΔΉ
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