By Will McGuirk
The Lovetrain known as the Arkells will be rolling into Oshawa carrying a message of celebration.
That which is the Arkells comes all wrapped into the melodic beats of Hamilton by way of Detroit - Max Kerman’s pops was a DJ in the Motorcity spinning Hitsville so the sounds of the Arkells are the soundtrack of mornings in the household and evenings checking grades. Honest music from an honest band doing their honest best to connect and build connections with music.
The Hammertown heroes are a soulful bunch in deeds but there’s an argument to be made the band are a folk outfit; they are a people’s band, telling people’s stories, championing the regular folk. In an interview with slowcity.ca frontman Max mentions his wife, his mom, his dad, his folks, his folk, the folk who keep him grounded, “That modesty comes from my mom's side.” These folk doing the work. He has work to do, but they do the work which needs to be done, work of some import he says although there are those who would argue in favour of the value of a well written track as a good day’s work, myself included.
Still it is this humility of one of this country’s biggest stars which makes the Arkells so endearing to their fans. Who else can sing “Ain’t no shame in some hand-me-down” or “we’re all kids from a neighbourhood” without a hint of irony or detachment. Who else can seek the ‘People’s Champ’ all the while championing the people. And who can sing “went to school in Oshawa” and it’s not just for the rhyme and who can sing “don’t be a stranger,” and mean it, you just know they mean it. It’s a plea and it’s a bargain, it’s a cry to rally.
They are not that far away from them fans, these music stars. The stage is not a barrier but a bridge. If the band were to call out to meet them on the barricade, the barricade would be the glittery line between act and audience. That’s the rallying point, right there in the slightest of differences, balancing on the thinnest of skins which serve to carve us away from each other, that’s the edge the Arkells dance on.
It is in the dance where the rally cry begins but the cry is carried to and then by the audience and the message is celebrate yourself, your work, your community and the rally cry is ‘Relentless’, “It's time to get to work, now let's get goin' Woo!”
But the band is no Ya Ya fists in the air Us Only Us! No its honest in its messaging of we are great but not greater than. It is an important point that centres the civic pride on the right side of this modern tendency to wrap oneself in geography. There is pride in the miles walked but awareness of the miles to go.
There is pride in the work but acknowledgement there is work to do still, much work.
It’s the music at work, the art has a role, from Lightfoot’s “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” and “Working Man” from Rush, there is a narrative of celebrating labour in art in this country and the Arkells are of that narrative, the narrative which gave us Tragically Hip and Al Purdy and Alice Munro, and the rally cry is to be relentless but seek respite in the moment, in a back seat hand touch or a karaoke stumble. Don’t be a stranger, reach out darling reach out.