Articles on Tom Cochrane and Red Rider

TORONTO–Internationally lauded Bryan Adams led the pack of Juno Award nominees at Canada’s 21st annual Juno Awards, held March 29 at the O’Keefe Centre here. But he was soundly beaten by local favorite singer/songwriter Tom Cochrane.

TORONTO–Ending recent rumors that Bryan Adams would not be appearing on the televised Juno Awards show, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has announced he will perform at the upcoming 21st annual ceremony March 29 here.

Tom Cochrane Cruises to Fame.The song is a bout life on the road and the sometimes rocky road of life. In many ways, it is also a metaphor of Tom Cochrane’s own roundabout journey to the brink of big-time success.

There is no distance at a Tom Cochrane concert. Perhaps, it’s because there is something quintessentially but unidentifiably Canadian about Cochrane’s music, although the man himself might dispute that. Maybe it’s lack of pretense, the universal sentiments, the broad, intelligent scope of the songs.

The seat between Bruce Cockburn and Bruce Springsteen in rock ‘n’ roll’s hall of integrity has Tom Cochrane emblazones on it. Brainy and poetic, sincere and energetic, chord, hook for hook, the Toronto singer-guitarist makes music that invigorates thoughtful people who still wanna rock.

A year ago this month Tom Cochrane visited an African village where the average death rate is 35 people a day. He saw a woman minutes away from dying of malnutrition. He plays with children ravaged by pneumonia.

Tommy can you hear me? You were all right man. Heroic even. Who knows what the kid with the Atomic Dustbin God Fodder T-shirt made of all this. But ultimately it didn’t matter. This was a gig won in the trenches – a sweat-stained-sleeves-rolled-up-head-down and-shoot-for-the-moon kind of night.

Pure-bred singer? Nope. Inspiring musician? Not yet. Pin-up boy? Maybe on another planet. The only attributes left for Tom Cochrane are heartfelt songwriter and joyous performer. Yes, he fits those bills with perfection.

He’s A Serious, thoughtful kinda guy who usually makes serious, thoughtful kinda music. But Tom Cochrane, who plays Red Deer on Wednesday, is adamant that his latest album is rather cheerful stuff.

Elder Statesman of Canadian rock, or new solo artist? Both tags are being applied to Tom Cochrane as he prepares for his first tour without Red Rider, the Juno-award winning band he piloted throughout the ’80s. “People tend to lump Kim (Mitchell, another veteran rock success story and I with Lightfoot.

The Canadian Experience, he called it. A song about each and every one of us. As story-tellers of song go, Tom Cochrane is among the best for Canadian pop rock musicians and lyricists. He bought his unique style and singing voice to Kamloops Sagebrush Theatre.

If there is such a thing as an overnight success, it would be a good idea to keep it out of the path of Tom Cochrane. Cochrane who played to 5,000 people over two nights at the Orpheum and who is in Victoria tonight and tomorrow.

“We’re gonna play a lot of love songs… but we’re gonna play ’em loud!” Either it’s a strange coincidence, or Tom Cochrane is carrying out a secret love affair with Ottawa. For a second time in as many years, Cochrane and his band Red Rider have been booked into the Congress Centre for a Valentine’s night concert.

Tom Cochrane and Red Rider have prided themselves in being part of the Lunatic Fringe. The Canadian band has never occupied the left field inhabited by lads in skirts and braids and rings through their noses.

Call It the risk of the year in Canadian Pop – Tom Cochrane and Red Rider recording their greatest hits live in concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. It’s a big gamble for the steely hero of Canadian heartland rock.

“The people in Edmonton should be very proud of their orchestra,” says rock musician Tom Cochrane, on the phone from his home in Toronto. “I think we really served a blow against cultural snobbery”.

Tom Cochrane didn’t anticipate the reaction to his latest project. In fact, he didn’t even believe it would be released commercially. The project, Tom Cochrane and Red Rider, The Symphony Sessions, originally was recorded for a syndicated radio program.

There may be overnight success stories in the music business, but Tom Cochrane hasn’t been one of them. It’s taken Toronto-based rocker nearly a decade to make it as a headliner in Calgary’s major concert venue.

It isn’t easy being the mother of a rock star, but Violet Cochrane wouldn’t have it any other way. Groupies phone at 3 am and kids show up at the door asking for concert tickets and autographs, but she is proud of her son Tom Cochrane.

There’s a real-life story behind Tom Cochrane’s hit song Big Leagues. “We were touring through Northern Ontario,” he told the Vancouver Sun. “We had finished the sound-check, and this gentleman came up.

The “victory” in Victory Day isn’t really so much one big win, says Tom Cochrane. “The ‘victory’ is almost an afterthought,” says Cochrane who fronts Tom Cochrane and Red Rider. “It’s actually sort of scrawled on the cover of the record.”