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Rainshadow Media Gallery

  Is Proud to Present

 View
Photo
Album

from Dragon Mountain Farm

in BC's Cariboo

MURRAY BOAL

and the cultivators

plus the complete early CDs of Murray Boal

This most recent CD,
 bud's sawmill features original folk/country songs
 about rural living in the
 Cariboo region of British
 Columbia. All songs by
  Canadian singer-
songwriter Murray Boal.

murray boal & the cultivators

bud's sawmill

Item # WL87-0374

Cover art by Cathie Allen.

Bud's Sawmill

I have been playing with the band The Cultivators for almost ten years. When I decided to self-produce this third album I wanted to try and capture the folk/country rock sound that we have been performing throughout the Cariboo all these years.  We recorded this album of songs, written over the past eight, here in Quesnel BC at Outer Rim Records in the fall of 2002 and the winter of 2003.

Notes on the Songs

1. Good Rain

Inspired by the smell of a much needed summer rain.

2. Sugarcane Hall

I lived a year in the 1970s at Sugarcane, home to the Shuswap people of the Williams Lake Indian Band. I spent that year growing vegetables, cutting firewood, and playing a ton of music.

3. Chilcotin Moon

A song for BC's vast and beautiful Chilcotin plateau.

4. Frank's Stories

My father in-law drove semi truck the 500 miles between Vancouver and Prince George, BC, in the 1950s, '60s and '70s and "there's one of Franks stories around every bend".

5. Steady and Strong

For Janet, my partner for 22 years.

6. Traveling On

Looking back at my teen years in North Vancouver.

7. River on the Rise

We live on the banks of the Quesnel River, which has an incredible fluctuation in water level throughout the year. There is serious flooding about every 25 years. 1972 was the last big flood.

8. Bud's Sawmill

Bud Merz has run his small sawmill west of Quesnel BC for fifty years. I used to take the occasional small load of logs there and help him mill them up. There are only a handful of these one-man sawmills left in the Cariboo.

9. Finally Ran

The helpless feeling of seeing someone ruin there life with drinking.

10. Train Song

A mood-swinging railway song.

11. Four Walls

Watching someone losing their battle with mental illness is a scary thing.

12. Paddle Away

In 2000 I suffered a serious hand injury. This is the first song I wrote after the injury (one year later), wishing I was canoeing on the Bowron Chain of Lakes up in the Cariboo Mountains.

 

Song List

Good Rain (3:29)

Sugarcane Hall (4:09)

Chilcotin Moon (4:25)

Franks Stories (4:30)

Steady and Strong (4:02)

Travelling On (4:40)

River on the Rise (3:17)

Buds Sawmill (4:53)

Finally Ran (3:51)

Train Song (3:49)

Four Walls (4:04)

Paddle Away (4:22)

 

Song arrangements by Murray Boal & The Cultivators

Mix: Murray Boal & Barry McKillican 2002-2003

        Perry Barrett, Tom Neville & Murray Boal 2003

Mastering: Perry Barrett

Murray Boal: acoustic guitar and vocals

photos by Bob Blaue, Clint Gray, U Young Lee, Ross Mitchell

The Cultivators

Chris Hartridge: drums

Barry McKillican: bass, background vocals

Tom Neville: violin, mandolin

Heath Onstine: electric guitar, background vocals

Dragon Mountain Farm

photo by Jitka Pechancova

Murray Boal joined hundreds of other young people in the cultural odyssey in the early '70s. He brought idealism and enthusiasm, but little in the way of skills or experience. "I had never been anywhere", Murray said. "But it was an exciting time. Everyone was going back to the land."

Ending up on a hobby farm in the Williams Lake area, Murray learned the skills he would need to survive, animal husbandry, farming and basic carpentry and construction skills.

Scouting for a piece of land of his own, Murray, along with a devoted group of friends, bought land in the Quesnel area and he began to develop his dream of market gardening with integrity.

After picking rocks for several years, the group redefined itself, some choosing other paths and Murray, Janet Allen and Paddy Doherty relocated to their present farm on the banks of the Quesnel River: Dragon Mountain Farm.


 photo by Leif Grandell

We were serious about farming," he said. Diversifying their operation, the three owners initiated sheep ranching as well as seasonal work off the farm.

From the very beginning, Murray has been very appreciative of the support Quesnel has shown to their business. When Dragon Mountain Farm brought their produce to town, the community patronized them. In order to better service this growing demand for fresh, local produce Murray, Janet and Paddy were instrumental in launching the Quesnel Old Time Farmers' Market.

Community Futures and the Ministry of Agriculture provided much needed expertise and soon other local producers joined them. Murray was the first president of the organization and has stayed fully committed to the Market, which now boasts, on average, 20 vendors per Saturday.

With tremendous community support and a ever-increasing demand for their produce, Dragon Mountain Farm, in partnership with Mackin Creek Farm began offering home delivery, once a week, of a box of in-season vegetables.

With 120 customers between Williams Lake and Quesnel, Box-A-Week is at capacity, given the two farms' current production levels. Customers are even buying the boxes Murray builds for this program, creating yet another independent, but interrelated business.

Staying true to their dream of producing fresh, wholesome produce, Dragon Mountain Farm, due in large part to the efforts of Paddy Doherty, received organic certification early in their market-garden development. They have stayed involved in the certification program, and organically certified farms in the north now number 75 and the organization has spread province wide.

Murray and Janet are raising their two sons on the farm and hope they will look to joining the business some day. The family is very involved in the community and considers many of the customers their friends.

"The bank manager is also one of our customers," Murray said. "We are, in turn, very devoted to the local businesses that have been supportive from the very beginning."

Murray is also an accomplished musician. He considers his music a great release from the hard work of farming.

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We gratefully acknowledge Quesnel Community and Economic Development Corporation, a subsidiary of the City of Quesnel for use of this article.http://www.quesnelinfo.com

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sometimes it's easier

Item # WL87-0372

Sometimes its Easier

After the good response I got from my first album, I assembled mostly the same crew of musicians and engineers and recorded this album (digitally this time) at Phantom Studio in Vancouver, BC, over a series of weekends in May and June of 1995. The album is once again a collection of songs mostly about people and places here in this colourful Cariboo region.

Notes on the Songs

1. Call the Place a Farm

Inspired by the enthusiasm of going back to the land in the early 1970s.

2. Dancing Away

This is another sort of true story...why spoil a good story with the truth?

3. Big Knife

So many people living lives they are not happy with. I originally played this song with the band Binder Twine in the late 1970s.

4. Sometimes it's Easier

Changing times for British Columbia's West Coast fishing towns.

5. I Don't Remember You

For my father.

6. Andy's Boat

A true story from my teenage years on the west coast.

7. Passionate Kind

A Cariboo Mountains wilderness love song.

8. Jack of Clubs Hotel

The Cariboo Mountains company town of Wells, BC, was built in the 1930s for the workers of the Cariboo Gold Quartz Mine. Wells is now the home of a handful of miners, loggers, and artists. The infamous Jack of Clubs Hotel burned down in the 1980s.

9. Hard Working Horses

Ode to the work horse.

10. Taking it While You Can

Environmental country/rock, and another Binder Twine dance tune from the late 1970s.

 

Song List

Call the Place a Farm (4:21)

Dancing Away (2:43)

Big Knife (2:43)

Sometimes it's Easier (4:53)

I Don't Remember You (4:29)

Andy's Boat (4:40)

Passionate Kind (5:05)

Jack of Clubs Hotel (3:27)

Hard Working Horses (3:25)

Taking it While You Can (4:17)

 

Murray Boal - vocals, acoustic guitar, banjo
Tom Neville - violin, mandolin, percussion
Charlie Knowles - bass, cello, percussion
Chris Hartridge - drums, bongos
Dan Smith - electric guitar
Reid Campbell - accordion
Colleen Eccleston - background vocals
Kieth Bennett - harmonica
J. Douglas Dodd - keyboards

 

Recorded at Phantom Studio, Vancouver, BC Canada

Producer: Charlie Knowles
Engineer: Charlie Knowles
Cover Design: Studio Grandell
Mixed by: Perry Barrett

Murray's first Album

Murray Boal

Item # WL87-0373

Murray Boal

In 1990 my old friend, fiddler/violinist Tom Neville, suggested we record some of my old songs that we had played ten years earlier with our folk/country band Binder Twine. We received a FACTOR demo recording grant and eventually recorded this album of old and new tunes in a three-day marathon session at Blue Wave Studio, Vancouver, BC, in April 1993. I re-released it on CD in 1997.

Notes on the Songs

1. Two Hands

My grandfather built his own house, my father was an architect and woodworker, I'm a carpenter of sorts and my son is learning to be a woodworker.

2. Company Town

The story of many a town in northern British Columbia.

3. Big Sky

I went on a sheep buying trip to southern Alberta where the drought was so severe that even the big trees were dying. Came home with this song.

4. Ticket for the Big Smoke

I wrote this song after one of my many overnight bus rides from the Cariboo to Vancouver.

5. Bamfield

Bamfield is a beautiful small community on the west coast of Vancouver Island. In the late 1970s I went there a couple of times to play with my band Binder Twine.

6. Lights of the Laketown

This song was inspired by my first visit, thirty years ago, to the famous Williams Lake Stampede.

7. As Far as He Could See

A sort of true Cariboo cowboy song.

8. The Farmer is the One

I learned this song from an old Pete Seeger album. It was originally written in 1860, called The Farmer is the Man.

9. They'll be Back

The huge sockeye salmon run in the Quesnel River was virtually wiped out, mostly by hydraulic gold mining, in the early 1900s. One hundred years later the salmon are returning.

10. Horselogger's Waltz

I wrote this for my hard working eco-forestry, horselogging friend.

 

Song List

Two Hands (M.Boal) 3:41

Company Town (M.Boal) 3:29

Big Sky (M.Boal) 4:16

Ticket for the Big Smoke (M.Boal) 3:03

Bamfield (M.Boal) 2:46

Lights of the Laketown (M.Boal) 3:54

As Far as He Could See (M.Boal) 4:17

The Farmer is the One (Public Domain) 2:48

They'll be Back (M.Boal) 3:13

Horselogger's Waltz (M.Boal) 3:24

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