Burton Cummings is proud to be surviving the Taylor Swift era
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With some turbulence facing the country these days, the Canadian music environment remains strong. It's an outlet to help carry the load.
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Enter musician and walking music encyclopedia, Burton Cummings, on the phone line. With decades filled with hit songs and historical Canadian firsts, Cummings, 77, has seen it all.
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In the midst of another leg of his A Few Good Moments tour, the proud Winnipeg native has a brief break after recently headlining the all-Canadian lineup for Line Spike Frontenac, north of Kingston, Ont. Keeping Canadiana spirit in full force, performing Runnin' Back To Saskatoon (co-written with Kurt Winter), was a perfect inclusion.
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Off the stage, one of his biggest achievements is his ever-growing MP3 collection, staggering in scope.
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'The minute CDs were invented, I was a happy guy and I went and got a whole half a dozen iPods and loaded them with all my favourite stuff because I fly all the time … so I've worked on my library now for 40 years and I can say this very honestly, I have way more documented music than any radio station in the world — anywhere.
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'I was never a vinyl fan because back in the hippie days we would party for days — and drink beers and play the records and they got scratched all the time — and then I would go and buy another copy of the white Beatles album … I never liked vinyl because there was always so much noise.'
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But he remains faithful to his era.
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'I don't listen to that much modern stuff anymore, but I have to take my hat off to Taylor Swift. She broke all the records that I ever knew about in the industry. I kind of joke on stage now that I've survived into the Taylor Swift era and it makes me very proud.'
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'To have a new album out at this age in my life and have the tremendous reviews that I've gotten — it's like people, and the critics, have been very kind to this album. I'm very happy about this at my age.'
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A Few Good Moments also reveals a bookend to his life. Cummings shot the cover photo.
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'It was 1970. The big clock you see I bought on tour in the Maritimes, I think Halifax. The small clock was my mother's alarm clock through her whole entire adult life. The watch in the middle — I got for being on The Dating Game and not getting picked — so there you go.'
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