Singer-songwriter James Keelaghan is a historian in the oral tradition.
“The great thing about singing about history is that you don’t need to know all the dates. A song can illustrate a point about the human condition but it doesn’t come loaded with all the academic stuff,” Keelaghan said.
“It’s generally in rhyming form, and easy to remember. It owes more of itself to the Iliad. History is more accessible when in a song, when it’s poetry. We can still go into places in Turkey and walk into a bar and a guy will be singing or reciting “The Odyssey.”
Keelaghan performs Tuesday in Seattle.
He’s won a Juno Award (Canada’s equivalent of a Grammy), earned three nominations, released eight albums, twice won the USA Songwriting Competition’s folk category, and is best-known in the states for “Cold Missouri Waters,” “Hillcrest Mine,” and “Message to the Future.”
Keelaghan’s current project is researching traditional Irish-English songs for a CD.
“I’ve had a terrible time writing, quite frankly. A little journey might grease the wheels. Every writer gets to the point where you say, if I can’t find something new to say or a new way to say it, I have to stop.
“I had exhausted my stock of historical stories. I just need to find a new bunch to inspire me. Historical songs are the sourdough for an album.”
Acting and singing battled for Keelaghan’s attention when he was younger.
“Music eventually won out. It was where my heart was. I wanted to say more than you could say given your lines in a given play for six weeks.”
“It pokes you in the chest and goes, ‘Hey, I want you!’ and you embrace it or walk away from it. I always had low expectations about living standards so I could be a musician. It doesn’t take much to make me happy,” he said.
Keelaghan majored in history in college.
“History is the repository of a bunch of great stories and it’s a field that gets bigger every day.
“History is the great instructor. The more we make contact with our own past, the more we understand the world we’re in now. … One thing that reading history does is challenge your preconceptions.”
Think history songs and Canadian writers come first to mind: Keelaghan, Garnet Rogers, Gordon Lightfoot.
“There’s something in the Canadian psyche in general, not just songwriters. We’re a nation that really broods about history, that really delves into history.
“We’ve got this funny thing here that there’s no untarnished Canadian heroes. Canadians refuse to have the portrait of their historical figures be one-sided.
“We have a tendency to treasure history because it brings everybody to the same level. Yes, we can have a great prime minister like McKenzie King during World War II, who was an insightful, outstanding political operator.
“He was an incredible guy but he had seances for his dead dog and he talked to his mother in seances. … But everybody in Canada knows this about McKenzie King. We like our historical figures to be full-fledged human beings.”
Keelaghan wrote a song called “October 70” that involved an extreme Canadian government reaction to a crisis reminiscent of the U.S. government’s Patriot Act.
“At the time it might seem like a good idea to throw innocent people in jail or arrest anybody you suspect might have something to do with (a crime).
“Invariably there are innocent people who remain in jail without trial or charge. That ultimately becomes a stain on our honor. The principles of freedom and principles of justice and presumption of innocence are the most important when they are the most fragile.
“It’s easy to talk about freedom and rights when things are easy. It’s tougher to support them when things are hard, but that’s the most important time of all.”
James Keelaghan performs Tuesday in Seattle.
James Keelaghan
8 p.m. Tuesday, Tractor Tavern, 5213 Ballard Ave., Seattle; $12; 800-965-4827.
James Keelaghan
8 p.m. Tuesday, Tractor Tavern, 5213 Ballard Ave., Seattle; $12; 800-965-4827.
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