Changing Times
Catalina man reflects on past and present in music
LAURA BUTTON
The Packet
Tony Johnson is from the old school. He has both feet
Planted firmly in a time before high speed Internet, oil
dollars and anti-seal hunt activism. But his mind's eye
looks ahead to a future full of fish and family.
Johnson is about to release his first CD - a full-length
album entitled Changing Times. The cover artwork
features a schooner under full sail, an offshore oil rig
and a tarnished pocket watch. "I'm sure when people
listen to the CD, they'll say 'he's against the oil.' That's
not true. I'm glad it's here, but it seems the fishery isn't
getting the attention it deserves."
Johnson, who makes his home in Catalina, sings odes to
the sea, hymns on the natural beauty of the island and homages to fishermen drowned. But they are not your
typical jigs and reels - these are traditional beats with lyrics reflecting the modern realities of outport Newfoundland. The photo on the back cover is one he snapped last summer during the food fishery. "It was a beautiful, civil morning with the sunrise. I took that picture, and the day went from there." By the time the fish were cleaned, Johnson had a melody in his head. Cod Jigging in the Fall was written that evening. "Some songs just come like that," he shrugs. Won't be Home Again is another tune written one evening after hearing about a fisherman lost at sea. "I wondered, what does a person go through in his last moments, knowing he won't see home again?" Despite his affection for the water, Johnson has never made a living on the sea. He fished a few summers - the first at 11 years old, and a few trips on long liners when he got older. At 17 he spent a summer on Mifflen's collector boat on the Labrador coast, gathering salt fish from fishermen in bays and coves - some nooks so small the fishermen would row their catch out to the larger vessel.
He started a family with wife, Kathy, and the security of a job on terra firma was appealing. He started at the fish plant in Port Union and stayed until the cod moratorium drove him out of work.
Marking a time
Last year's dismal shrimp and seal fishery, and the state of the industry as a whole, are eroding the salt water life Johnson loves and respects. He hopes these changing times don't end the fishery altogether. "Our industry is fishing. For 500 years it supported us - let's not turn our backs on it. Let's get our youth back home. "Long after that oil is gone, we're going to need something."
It's one of the reasons he recorded a CD - to rouse pride among neighbours for rural Newfoundland. He describes his song Seal Hunt Time Again as a song of protest - encouraging people to fight back against animal rights activists and celebrities who protest the hunt.
Today, Johnson works his day job as production manager at the Nu Tan Furs plant in Port Union. "I couldn't have ended up at a better place," he says. "Dealing with seals, and our heritage like that." He notes that a lot of people still play the traditional tunes of Ireland and Newfoundland. While these are part of the culture he holds dear, he believes the present day must be commemorated in song as well. "I'd like to see more people writing songs. Times have changed so much. "Every song on [my CD] came from the heart - stories people told me about the good, bad and ugly of the rural Newfoundland fishery." Music is a way to capture a culture that's changing so quickly.
Evolution of a songwriter
Johnson first picked up a guitar about 10 years ago. "You'd always be to kitchen parties, and somebody would be playing. They'd have to go to the washroom or something and hand the guitar around, saying 'anyone want to play a song?' I said to myself, one of these days I'm going to take the guitar." He picked away at it over the years, sitting at the kitchen table in the house he built himself. "It's not finding the time - it's making it. When I get to the table, it's a total escape from pressures of life, of work. There's nothing on my mind but music, and the past and present."
Johnson is a young man himself - just 47 years old. Still, he's seen times change in his own lifetime. He built his family's home with lumber he culled from the woods. "My two sons wouldn't know how to catch up a hammer," he jokes. "Our desires and needs are gone too much to the monetary side of things." "I'm very worried for rural Newfoundland. Without rural Newfoundland, there is no Newfoundland. If you take all that away, Newfoundland will never be the same."
Changing Times was recorded in 2009 and 2010 at CATTA Productions, Bonavista.
