519

JOHNNY REID
4
Vol. 1 - Issue 1
April 2018
Staff
SHADOWBOX THEATRE8
Dan Savoie
Publisher / Acting Editor
April Savoie
Director of Sales
Kim Cushington
Art Director
Contributing Writers and Photographers
Kim Cushington
Jose Ed Ramirez
Jen Gurniak
Dan Savoie
April Savoie
341 Parent Ave. Winsdor, ON N9A 2B7
519magazine.com / YQGrocks.com
Office: 226-674-4451
Award of Excellence 2018
Canadian Web Awards
BRETT KISSEL
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CAPTURED LIVE IN THE 519
519 Magazine is the official publication of YQG Rocks
and is published mothly with print issues
available in June, August, October, December,
February and April. 25,000 copies of the print version
are available at various locations in Windsor-Essex,
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KORDA’S COMPANY
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CAPTURED LIVE IN THE 519
GLASS TIGER 14

By Dan & April Savoie

Canadian singer Johnny Reid is going
through a bit of a musical revival and
is working at rebranding his image a
little. On his latest CD “Revival”, the
Scottish-born-Canadian hitmaker is
diving back into the soul and rhythm
and blues sounds that he grew up
on. It’s a strong departure from
the mainstream country
image of his first couple
albums.
“Through the
years I’ve
been
called a folk singer, I’ve been called
country singer and I’ve been called
a rock and roll singer, but at the end
of the day, I’m just trying my best to
be me,” he told 519 Magazine in an
interview during rehearsals for the
current tour that brings him to The
Colosseum at Caesars Windsor on
April 6. “My biggest goal on the new
album was to be myself. I just want
to be Johnny Reid and for me that
means writing and recording music
the way that I want to. On this album
we have a folk song like Soul Train on
it of course it’s going to be a folk song
that’s how I wrote it and then there’s
a song call Whiskey Kisses, which is an
old country tune, that’s actually an old
school country tune. I think you
have to be truthful and honest
to yourself first, before you
can listen to anyone else.”
With an illustrious career spanning
more than two decades, the Juno
Award winning singer has captured
the hearts of fans and audiences
around the world. A critically acclaimed
vocalist, the blue-collared,
soulful singer-songwriter Reid is widely
known for his lyrical honesty and
musical ability, as demonstrated by
his extensive catalogue of hit songs,
album sales totaling over 1.5 million
units, countless awards and multiple
sold out arena tours.
With the release of “Revival”, co-produced
by Reid and the legendary Bob
Ezrin (KISS Alice Cooper), the highly
praised and top-ranked Canadian star
will add to his remarkable catalogue.
“Bob Ezrin and I have worked
together before and I got the
biggest compliment when we
were recording the album,”
Reid says. “Bob and I are I the
studio and this guy walks up
to him and says ‘Hey, Bob
what are you up to?’ and
Bob goes ‘I’m working
on a record man.’ The
guy then asks him
what kind of record
‘is it a country record or a soul or R&B
type of thing?’ and Bob just looks
right at the guy and goes ‘No man, it’s
a Johnny Reid record.” (laughs). Of all
these years, that had to be the best
answer that anyone could give – It’s a
Johnny Reid record. I think that I’m a
reflection of the people that buy my
record; I think that if you ask anybody
what they are listening to, the general
answer is a little bit of everything. And
that’s what I listen to at the house - a
wee bit of this and a wee bit of that,
and that’s what my album reflects.”
Along with his cleverly crafted original
songs, Reid also chose to record a
couple of carefully chosen cover songs
for Revival.
“There are some covers on the
album,” Reid adds. Z “’Everytime I Roll
The Dice’ is one of those songs I’ve
always loved. The first time I heard
that song it was performed by Delbert
McClinton, who also wrote it. When I
heard it, I said to myself, one of these
days I’m going to record that song and
there it is. ‘Don’t Let the Green Grass
Fool You” was an old Wilson Pickett
tune and the last cover on the record
is actually a Keb Mo song called ‘She
Just Wants to Dance’. Obviously when
Keb wrote it and recorded it, it was
more like the swampy blues. I just
wanted to add a bit of tempo and sorta’
take a more aggressive approach
to the song. I’m really happy with how
the songs translates.”
As per the usual Johnny Reid album,
some of the songs can get very
emotional. ‘Cry No More” for example
was a song he was a little too afraid to
record earlier in his career:
“Cry No More was a song that I’ve
had for years and to be honest, I
wasn’t brave enough to record it. It
never seemed to fit on any album, but
I felt Revival was a great album to put
it on. It’s a deep and personal song.
It’s about a secret relationship between
a woman and a bottle. Nobody
knew she was broken and nobody
knew until it was almost too late.”

Another song that didn’t seem to
work on previous albums is I Don’t
Want To Cry No More. Reid says the
heavy content of the song was almost
too much.
“Some of the songs on this album
are true,” Reid explains. “They tell a
story and the lyrics really mean something.
‘I don’t want to cry no more.
I don’t want to be the only one who
knows you’re killing me. I don’t want
to cry no more.’ It’s a very, very heavyhearted
song and I never thought
I’d ever record it. Somehow it just
seemed to fit on this record.”
To reproduce the sound of Revival in
concert, Reid is touring with an entourage
of singers and musicians, including
Juno Award winning pop group
Glass Tiger, who will join the singer on
stage during part of the show.
“I wanted to be able to recreate what
you hear on the record, so I’ll have
three backup singers, three horns,
two guitars, keyboards, drums and
percussion,” Reid reveals. “The idea is
to keep Revival on stage, but when it
comes
to the
older songs like
Women Like You, Dance
with Me and Change the World,
I’ve rearranged them so they kinda’
fit the vibe of the record. It’s going to
come as a surprise to some, because
they’re going to hear these song in a
way they’ve never heard them before.”
Reid met Glass Tiger in the recording
studio and the two of them hit it
off. He produced the band’s current
album 31, a revisiting of the band’s
biggest hits:
“I just finished producing the new
Glass Tigers album and it just sorta’
made sense for me. I was as easy as
‘Hey guys do you want to come on
tour with me and sing a few of these
songs’. So, they’re going to tour across
the country with me
from Vancouver Island
to St. Johns and they’re
going to sing a few songs
that we recorded together
in the studio.”
Whether it’s folk, rock,
country or R&B, he’s clearly becoming
a singer with only one clear definition
– it’s 100% Johnny Reid. Unless of
course, you’re joking around:
“I always make the joke that as long
as they don’t call me what they used
to call my grandfather, I’ll be fine. He
was a folk singer, because every time
he started singing, they would say
“Uh-oh, we’re folked.”
Reid performs at The Colosseum
at Caesars Windsor on April 6 with
special guests Glass Tiger. Tickets are
available at Ticketmaster or the Box
Office.

SHADOWBOXING WITH
William Shakespeare once wrote “All
the world’s a stage, and all the men
and women merely players”. But what
would happen should those players
decide to create their own stage? In
the case of the three actors behind
Windsor’s new Shadowbox Theatre,
it’s a whole new world of business,
art and creativity cranked all the way
up to 10.
Fay Lynn, Michael O”Reilly and Michael
K. Potter, the team behind
Windsor’s newest theatre company
Post Productions, recently opened
The Shadowbox Theatre with a brilliant
staging of John Patrick Shanley’s
Doubt in February. The production
gave audiences a taste of a Post Productions
offering in an entirely selfcontained
environment. The trio
says the new theatre is filling a
void, not only for their own Post
Productions plays, but also for
the community.
“We wanted to contribute toward
the theatre community
by creating a venue for smaller,
intimate performance
art that would
be affordable
Story by Dan Savoie
Photos by Jose Ed Ramirez

and useful for as many people as possible,”
Potter reveals in an interview
with 519 Magazine. “Over time, we
hope that The Shadowbox Theatre
becomes a hub of activity, hosting a
wide array of theatrical experiences
by all sorts of companies. We want to
build long-term, joyous, productive
relationships with artists and audiences.”
The trio decided to create The Shadowbox
Theatre out of a need to be
creative and professional, while keeping
it affordable and comfortable.
“We’re organizers who like to plan
ahead and that was getting
difficult because
we didn’t really know
whether we could
find space to rent
when we needed
it, which meant
we couldn’t promote
our shows
and sell tickets
as far in advance
as we would
have liked,” Potter
continues. “Having our own theatre
made it easier for us to schedule rehearsals,
get sets built on a schedule
that wouldn’t drive our poor set designer
(Matt Burgess) to the brink of
madness, and arrange collaborations
with other local artists.”
The Shadowbox Theatre’s location on
Howard Avenue was carefully chosen
from a list of potential sites and renovated
into a performance space over
the winter. With a little care and attention
to design, the Post
gang crafted a theatre
built not only
for performers
and producers,
but also
for audiences
who can
still retain
a close and
intimate
view of the
action.
“We were
looking for
an affordable
space that could provide a comfortable
home for our casts and crews
and audiences, which could also be
welcoming to other companies and
performers,” Potter says. “A place that
could feel like home to a lot of people,
that could be used to create a lot
of great memories through live storytelling.
So, it had to be centrally located
- and we got lucky there. We’re located
between Ottawa Street Village,
Downtown, Via Italia and Tecumseh
Street, but also close to Walkerville. It
couldn’t be any better.”
The attention to those details really
shines for audiences giving clear
lines of sight, an intimate proximity
to the stage, adequate
parking, multiple washrooms
and even comfortable seating
at every show. The cast and
crew also get a few benefits,
like a solid stage that doesn’t
squeak and can quickly be
adapted to suit for diverse
productions, a dressing room,
adequate backstage space,
storage and a box office.

“We honestly didn’t expect Post to
take off so quickly,” Potter notes. “I can
tell you, when Michael O’Reilly and I
started production on our first play,
Oleanna, we knew it was something
we would want to see; a play that we
loved, that was totally in line with our
vision for the company. But we were
a little nervous about whether other
people wanted to see it. It was nerveracking,
yet we persevered and people
actually bought tickets. And they
liked it!”
The Post vision grew by one-third
when they added Creative Director
Fay Lynn to the company in September
last year. Once Lynn became
more involved with the company,
they wrote their own production for
the Windsor-Walkerville Fringe Festival
(The Worst Thing I Ever Did), and
things started taking on a whole new
level.
“When we wrote The Worst Thing I
Ever Did together - our first time writing
together, and Post’s first comedy
- all three of us were shocked by how
much people enjoyed it. Then True
West ended the season on a high
note in terms of audience response,
critical response, and sales. We’re
pinching ourselves. But so far we’ve
managed to avoid complacency because
we’re all anxious risk-takers at
Post. We worry endlessly about what
we’re doing - and we do it anyway.”
Lynn says Post Productions has found
its own unique niche in the Windsor
theatre community and gives an already
rich and vibrant community
another voice, a different voice.
“Every theatre company has its own
individuality,” she says. “Korda has
this bohemian kinda’ vibe; Ghost
Light, is doing all Canadian plays
now; Windsor Light Music Theatre
has big name musicals; and Cardinal
Music Productions contributes a lot
to the community with their productions
- I just watched Heathers the
other day, which was amazing by the
way. What makes us different is the
same thing that makes everyone different.
I hope that something about
us stands out that people are excited
to see and support, in the same way
that I feel excited to be in support
of other people and their different
things.”
Post Productions was started to provide
intense, intimately-staged entertaining
theatrical experiences that
arise the heart and fuel the mind,
Michael O”Reilly
drawing patrons into lives quite unlike
their own to help them understand
the world, other people, and
themselves with fresh insight. As a
unique brand of theatre, Post Productions
complements the Windsor-
Essex scene by staging uniquely provocative
productions for audiences
that want more.
The 2018 season began in February
with Doubt and continues until
December with four additional programs
scheduled. They will be presenting
Stop Kiss in May, Shelter In
Place in July, Equus in October and
close with the all-original show Another
Fucking Christmas Play in December.
For more information on Post Productions
or the Shadowbox Theatre,
visit postproductionswindsor.ca.
Michael K. Potter
Fay Lynn

By Dan Savoie
Celebrating 31 Years of
LASS TIGER
with Al Connelly
519: This is your 31st year and you
have a new album 31.
AC: Ya, it’s an odd number to pick but
we were sort of forced to take 31 because
our singer threw a curve ball at
us. Going into our 30th, he had a mild
stroke and the band obviously decided
to let him recover. When he started to
feel better, we said to Hell with it, let’s
call it 31 and get back out there.
519: That would have been a really big
traumatic event. I remember when I
saw it on Facebook , I was like Oh wow
– it defies words.
AC: It’s definitely a wake-up call, especially
for Alan, but for all of us, you know
as we get a little bit older and with 30-
plus years in the business together, it hit
us hard. We are very close friends and
we’re really tied into everything that’s
going on in our lives, so it currently put
us all on alert - we’re thankful that he’s
feeling better and singing great. He basically
dodged a little bullet on that, and
now that’s he’s feeling more like himself,
the band is back on the road.
519: With 31 you re-recorded all the
greats, with some new stuff. What was
the idea behind re-recording them?
AC: Well, I can’t take credit for that,
it’s actually Johnny Reid the producer.
During Alan’s recovery, he was doing a
charity event somewhere and Johnny

and him were together and Johnny said
to Alan, “you know you need to celebrate
these 30 years. You know, 30 years
of friendship and brotherhood and
family and things like that. We were in
the works and are still in the works with
new original material and it was Johnny
that said ‘Thin Red Line was such a big
record. When I came over from Scotland
and moved to Canada I wore out my
copy out. I really think what you should
do, and I would love to do this with you,
is to re-imagine the songs that are already
familiar and invite them back
into your home. People will know these
songs. You can do your new stuff and
release that, but I would like to be involved
in remaking these classic songs
and release them in a fresh way.’
So that’s where the idea came from. It
was more out of Johnny’s influence and
it certainly needed to have someone
on the outside involved. We’ve played
these songs for years one way, so it’s
just wonderful to have a fresh approach
that came from another point of view.
519: Is there more to the story on how
you guys met Johnny?
AC: As a band we met him a few years
back at an industry function. There was
a tribute to a guy named Dean Cameron
who was the president of Capital/
EMI Records and there was a bit of a
party for him in Toronto, and Johnny
was there. We got to meet him there
and do a live performance of My Town
at the party. Alan and him have been
pals for a while - I think it that Scottish
connection - so that just kinda stayed
on the sidelines and we have always
been in-touch with him. After Johnny
and Alan had talked about making this
record, we went down to Nashville to
see how we would feel about working
together and we hit it off right away, so
it was perfect.
519: And now you’re going to be on
the road with him too.
AC: This project is one of those projects
that just has a natural evolution that
we didn’t plan. We didn’t even know
what we were going to do. We just decided
that we wanted to just start doing
songs, so we did that. Then it became a
full album. It was Johnny’s suggestion
to come out as his guests and at the
show we’ll do a little sampling of the
new album.
Photo by Nick Hirshmann

519: I was really surprised when I saw
the bill, because Johnny was originally
typecast as a country singer and
he’s beyond that definition. But when
you first see the name, you kinda’
think country.
AC: That’s a normal reaction at first to.
Glass Tiger with a Country artist how
does that work? But honestly, I think it’s
a testament to just songs and when we
sat around Johnny’s kitchen table with
acoustic guitars and a piano. We did
these songs with more of an acoustic
side and added some Celtic instruments
to them. The whole mashing of sounds
is just amazing - the genre of music
doesn’t seem to matter anymore. It’s just
good melodies, great lyrics and a great
feel, that’s how we built the record.
I’ve learned from working with Johnny
that he’s a man with many, many talents
and our record and his new record
have a little old style R&B feel, with the
horns. For Johnny Reid fans, that’s going
to be an interesting turn of events.
So yeah, he’s a very talented guy and it
didn’t seem strange as you many think
it might be - it felt like a perfect fit.
519: I was really surprised at looking at
your website this morning and there
was a piece on there that said you’re
doing your first ever show at Massey
Hall. It’s an iconic place not only for
Toronto, but for Canada and around
the world.
AC: If you mention Canada and venues,
Massey Hall stands out as a leader - it’s
just a classic venue. It’s iconic, but back
in the day, in the mid 80’s, when we
were playing in Toronto it was places
like Ontario Place or Kingswood Music
Theatre - large venues where it would
be like a festival atmosphere. We didn’t
play any soft seat theaters, so we missed
the chance when we were younger. We
never got a chance in our entire 31 years
as a band to play Massey Hall. We can’t
wait to play it and of course it’s closing
next July for some major renovations,
which I’m sure will be terrific, but we really
wanted to say that we played it in
its current classic state. We will finally
get our wish, on June 23 rd , when we host
a full Glass Tiger show at Massey Hall.
519: That’s really cool after 31 years,
there’s still that goal.
AC: Well it’s a big deal, I was nervous because
there’s so many people trying to
get in and perform at Massey leading
up to when it gets shutdown. At the time
we asked, the booking agent said there
were five different acts trying to secure
the same night and we’re just thankful
that they picked us and gave us the
ability to make this happen. It’s terrific
and we have a lot of friends, family, and
fans coming to that show. It’s going to
be such a great night.
519: I look back, I always considered
you guys Canadian Rock Stars, when
you came out everything was so big
at the beginning, so Massey would
have been a smaller venue.
AC: That’s the 80’s right? The songs
were big, the hair was big and everything
in general was big. We had some
great times touring Canada and we had
three nights at Ontario Place that holds
10,000 people a night sitting on the
lawn, so it was terrific. We would never
trade that experience, but there’s something
special about doing these venues
like Massy Hall - theatres that hold
about 3,000 people. We’re about to go
into these smaller theatres with Johnny
on this tour and then in November we’re
going to circle back and headline. Some
of these venues hold 300-400 people -
it’s very up close and personal and we
love that just as much as a big venue.
It’s a different vibe, but it’s a lot of fun to
play the more intimate places as well.
519: You guys were lucky enough to
be able to sing some duets with some
pretty famous people, and here you
are doing it again on 31.
AC: Yeah you know it’s funny we never
started out thinking that every album
should have a duet, but over the course
of our history we have been really fortunate
to have people Rod Stewart,
The Chieftains and Bryan Adams come
out. It was such a compliment to have
Alan Doyle do Our Song and turn it into
a Newfoundland kitchen party. Julian
Lennon, who you don’t hear a lot of
musically anymore, but he’s been such
a friend over the years, we toured with
him in the mid-80’s and we played some
stuff for him and he said ‘Guys I love
Thin Red Line, let’s do this’. We did a First
Nations version of Diamond Sun with
Susan Aglukark where we translated
some of the lyrics into First Nations language
(Inuktitut I think it’s called) and it
as like wow, this is really really cool.
519: Since we’re celebrating your 31 st
anniversary, let’s briefly step back all
the way to the early days - the Tokyo
days and how the band morphed
from Tokyo days to Glass Tiger.
AC: You have to understand Tokyo was
only just a name in the early days. Tokyo
became Glass Tiger and it wasn’t
people joined or left after whatever, it’s
the same group of guys, but we went
from a bar band that was playing clubs
to a signed act to Capitol Records at
the time and the only reason that the
name change really was that the fact
that Tokyo was a name we grabbed really
quickly when we first started out
because we had our own concert coming
up on a Friday night and we needed
something to put on a ticket.
We weren’t really overly attached to the
name; we just said that we have to put
something on this ticket. It was literally
done that casually, but then when we
got signed we started thinking about
this, do we want to be under the name
Tokyo, because once you go with it, it
sticks.
I remember when I first about The Po-

lice. A friend of mine kept telling me
about this great band called The Police
and I thought it was hilarious. What’s
next, The Firemen? Band names can
be really silly, but now when you hear
the name The Police, it’s synonymous
with the music. It doesn’t sound odd at
all. So you grow into your name. Glass
Tiger was something that came from a
couple of different names: We tried Paper
Tiger, but paper didn’t have a great
quality to it, so we toyed with the word
glass because Alan liked the word and it
quickly became Glass Tiger.
We never had an attachment to Tokyo,
so it wasn’t like we put records out as Tokyo.
I think we had some fans, but at the
time we were only playing local clubs so
it would be a small group of fans that
would know us as Tokyo so the rest of
the world doesn’t actually have a reference
point as Tokyo. As soon as we became
Glass Tiger we knew that was it.
519: Classic and iconic logos are what
make bands cool. You kept your logo
since the beginning, so it’s become
synonymous with the name Glass Tiger.
AC: It was a company in England that
designed the logo. I remember their
name because it stood out to me - Shoot
that Tiger! They did the David Bowie
Let’s Dance album cover. They were
graphic designers in the music business
and did all of the really cool stuff. I don’t
even know how we got connected with
them, but our manager was English
and he knew about them. They’re the
ones that did the logo for us all those
years ago - we struck gold with the logo
right from the start.
519: You’re going to be here in Windsor
on April 6 with Johnny Reid and
that’s actually why we’re talking. Do
you have any memories of performing
in Windsor?
AC: Yeah certainly, it’s been a long time
since we’ve done a concert in Windsor
and I’m trying to think. It has to go more
than a decade, so I know that we’re way
overdue. We’re excited about getting
back to Windsor. I remember doing rehearsals
out there in a restaurant or
something like that. We took it over preparing
for one of our bigger tours, so it
was pretty exciting at the time. Caesars
is a great venue. We’ve never played
there before, so we’re looking forward
to it and getting a chance to share the
stage with Johnny on that giant stage
will be pretty special.
Glass Tiger performs at The Colosseum
at Caesars Windsor on April 6.
Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.
Photo by Nick Hirshmann

Brett Kissel
Chrysler Theatre
February 11, 2018
Live in the 519
Photo by Jose Ed Ramirez

Heather Hausmann in Company
Kordazone Theatre
March 23, 2018
Live in the 519
Photo by Jen Gurniak