Get your motor runnin’ Can-rock supergroup embraces K-tel spirit By: Alan Small Posted: 5:15 PM CDT Thursday, Mar. 21, 2024 Last Modified: 10:33 AM CDT Friday, Mar. 22, 2024 Updates

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None of the Trans-Canada Highwaymen are from Winnipeg, but Friday’s concert holds special meaning for the newly created Canadian supergroup.

Not only do Steven Page (Barenaked Ladies), Moe Berg (The Pursuit of Happiness), Chris Murphy (Sloan) and Craig Northey (Odds) perform Undun by the Guess Who on their new album, Explosive Hits Vol. 1, the way they present the recording owes a debt of gratitude to one of Winnipeg’s musical and business touchstones.

The audacious album cover might as well be torn from an old business plan by K-tel International, whose hit-filled compilation albums and loud television commercials from the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s — remember “$5,99 for LP, $7.99 for 8-track or cassette!” — became almost as memorable as the songs themselves.

“We all grew up with the K-tel records,” says Page, who will sing Undun and several other CanCon classics from the record, as well as songs from his time with the Barenaked Ladies and his subsequent solo career.

“For Moe, he says that Pretty Lady by Lighthouse was one of his first absolutely favourite songs and still is the template for all of his own songs that he writes.”

There are 14 not-so-original hits by the four original stars on Explosive Hits; like those old K-tel discs, some are instantly recognizable tunes, such as Undun, Rock Me Gently by Andy Kim and the band’s rendition of Joni Mitchell’s Raised on Robbery.

And just as with K-tel releases, there are discoveries, or in the case of the 1973 bubblegum hit Heartbeat, It’s a Lovebeat by the DeFranco Family, a long-forgotten rediscovery.

“When you were buying a K-tel record in the ’70s in Canada, you didn’t know who’s an international star and who’s not. As far as you’re concerned, they’re all stars,” says Page, 53.

The band began as a songwriters’ circle concept in 2017 before morphing into an homage to the Highwaymen, the country supergroup that brought together Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson in 1985.

The Highwaymen performed for a decade, switching from their own songs to collaborations that brought the foursome together; their younger Canadian counterparts plan on doing the same at the Club Regent Event Centre.

“We’ve all been friends for 30-plus years and when you’re in bands and travel all the time, you never get a chance to hang out with other musicians,” Page says.

That means Berg will likely sing I’m an Adult Now, TPOH’s hit from the late ’80s, and Murphy could perform Sloan’s Underwhelmed, when he’s not behind the drum kit. Northey, who does the heavy lifting on guitar, might play Odds’ 1996 track Someone Who’s Cool, which hit No. 2 in Canada.

“We’re all trading instruments all the time, and there’s lots of banter, and all these classics, whether these CanCon hits of the ’60s and ‘70s or our hits from the ’90s.”

Page isn’t sure which of the Highwaymen legends, and legendary reputations, he might pattern himself after.

“Everybody wants to think of themselves as Johnny Cash, and after watching Waylon Jennings walk out of the We Are the World (recording session), none of us wants to be Waylon Jennings any more,” Page says with a chuckle, referring to the moment revealed in the recent Netflix documentary The Greatest Night in Pop.

“No matter who you choose, you’re putting yourself into a position where you are self-aggrandizing. If you’re Johnny Cash, then you’re coolest person on earth. If you’re Kris Kristofferson, then you’re both a sex symbol and an intellectual. I don’t know what I am.”

While a Paul Anka song — (I Believe) There’s Nothing Stronger Than Our Love — appears on Explosive Hits, one you won’t hear Page sing in concert or future Trans-Canada Highwaymen projects is (You’re) Having My Baby, voted the worst song of all time in a CNN poll in 2006.

“I have a real soft spot for that ’70s Paul Anka stuff, but just couldn’t bring myself to do that one, for obvious reasons,” he says.

It was a natural choice to release Explosive Hits on vinyl, but the band also got into the K-tel spirit by creating some cassettes too, as younger generations explore older technology and their parents’ dusty tape collections.

As for 8-tracks…

“We have one 8-track that we use just as a gag. Chris found one and we put our label on it and it looks awesome,” Page says, adding the cost of making real ones made no sense.

“I think the one 8-track is actually Jesus Christ Superstar.”

Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com

X: @AlanDSmall