AMP Festival, Wolfville, NS

On Friday Night singer/songwriter Bob Ardern will perform. He will be accompanied by bass player Chip Veinotte. Bob Ardern was born in England and emigrated to Canada at the tender age of 13. Since his arrival Bob has moved around Ontario and after a holiday in the maritimes in 2006 made an uncharacteristically impulsive decision to move to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.

Bob Ardern on the Internet: www.bobardern.ca, MySpace.

Live Video of Bob at Night Kitchen in Wolfville

Bob’s musical background started with piano lessons at age 7 but when the family moved to Canada, the piano lessons ended and there was a musical interlude for three years. On holiday back to England at age 16, Bob ran into an old school friend who was a fingerstyle guitar player. After watching his friend, Bob asked Santa for a guitar for Christmas.

“My first guitar was a Japanese-built Kent 6-string acoustic. Looking back at it now, it was an entry-level instrument but it opened a fabulous vista for me. It was just like the Bryan Adams song: “played it till my fingers bled, was the summer of ’69.”

The late 60′s and early 70′s were the golden age of folk music and Bob quickly found his niche. His cousin Will introduced Bob to the English folk scene – musicians such as Wizz Jones, John Martyn, Gordon Giltrap, Al Stewart and a host of others who have influenced Bob’s playing style.

“We spent the summer of 1970 playing guitars,” says Bob. “I wasn’t very good and I spent a lot of time just watching what other guitar players were doing and trying to copy them. We played mostly covers although I was starting to write my own material. I remember from learning to play that you need to do three things to get better: practise, practise, practise. We’d spend four or five hours a day playing and by the end of the summer, I had come a long way. I still wasn’t very good but I was improving and my fingertips didn’t hurt anymore. I played guitar every opportunity for a couple of years with the result that I became a fingerstyle guitar player. A friend of mine had a 12-string and I loved the sound so I saved up and bought myself one too.”

By 1972, Bob was living out in the country where the cable tv didn’t go. Living alone without a TV, there was always lots of time to practise, practise, practise. From his early efforts to simply copy what others were doing, eventually, Bob started putting his own stamp on his music.

“At the time, I was writing songs for myself. Some of them were memory aids – stories about places I’d visited and people I’d met. With others I was dealing with emotional issues by writing a song about them, all rather personal and not really for sharing. Most of the songs are best forgotten but some of them survive. Others have been the inspiration for new songs that I have written recently so they live on in a new form. I wasn’t much of a performer. I’d tried playing at open stages and realised I was never going to make a living as a musician. I couldn’t sing all that well and although my guitar playing was improving, I still had a long way to go.”

Although Bob hates to admit it, life eventually got in the way of guitar playing. Along the way, he finished his degree in Computer Science and a career and a wife and home ownership intruded into playing time. The guitar sat unused in the basement. Bob was living in Central Ontario, not thinking much about guitars until his old friend from England came for a visit and brought his guitar with him. Inspired, Bob dug out the 12-string, scraped the dust off and played for the first time in about 10 years.

“It was pretty scary,” recalls Bob. “The strings were so old, I almost needed a tetanus shot before starting to play. My fingertips were soft and it was like 1969 all over again. I ran into town and bought a new set of strings, which served to remind me what a pain in the bum it is to change the strings on a 12. However, I perservered and did get the calluses back on my fingertips.”

Shortly after, Bob’s marriage fell apart. He moved his own place and living alone with no TV again gave him lots of time to practise, practise, practise. At the same time, a folkie friend introduced him to some Canadian and American folk musicians like Greg Brown, Lynn Miles, Susan Werner and others The North American music also had an influence on Bob’s playing and the memories of the English musicians remains. The two differing styles added to each other to change the style of music Bob played and wrote.

Just off Highway 400 north of Barrie, Ontario is a hamlet called Hillsdale. There’s not much in Hillsdale except a gas station, a convenience store and an elementary school. The one other feature of Hillsdale that would have a major effect on Bob’s musical direction was Don’s Coffee House. Wednesday and Thursday nights Don’s rang to the sounds of an open stage where folk music continued to flourish.

“I popped in one night to see what it was all about. It was a neat little spot – very reminiscent of a 60′s coffee house where you could sign up for 15 minutes of fame on the open stage. The first night, I just watched but I thought if all these other people are willing to get up there and try, I should too. So I went home and practised three or four songs until I felt confident about playing then went back a couple of weeks later and signed up. I was incredibly nervous because I hadn’t played in front of people for more than 20 years but it wasn’t too bad for my first time out.”

While Bob was playing, one of the interested audience was Jennifer Ives. Over the next few weeks, Jives and Bob got to know each other through regular visits to Don’s. One night apropos of something said on stage, Jives sang “Is it peace or is it prozac?” Bob followed with “Is this mellow? Am I a maniac?” without missing a beat. Jives did a double take and asked, “You know Cheryl Wheeler?” Bob and Jennifer started identifying favourite musicians and from that point on, a musical collaboration seemed inevitable.

Over the next couple of years, Bob started composing again and performing, sometimes alone, sometime with Jennifer. Bob picked up the stage name “Homeless Bob” – a sad story related to divorce and custody battles over e-mail addresses. On several occasions, people suggested he should record some of his instrumental pieces, and an idea was born. With little experience, even less money, and almost no time, Bob laid down a set of guitar instrumentals and released his first solo CD, Not Really Homeless.

At the same time, Bob’s collaboration with Jives had taken off. DON’T PANIC! was conceived, inspired by a mutual love of music and Douglas Adams’s The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. DON’T PANIC! took off on a tour of folk festivals and coffee houses in Ontario and has been together since 2002.

In 2006, Bob embarked on his most ambitious project to date – a solo CD called “Returning Home” – which has several meanings. The title song is about the aftermath of divorce, wandering the world looking for answers and eventually going back to your roots. At the same time, Bob wanted to appear under his own name rather than the Homeless Bob stage name. The cover of the CD shows Bob walking up the walkway to the front door with a backpack and a guitar over his shoulder and a towel tied to his guitar case strap as a reference to the Hitch Hiker’s Guide.

In the last several years. Bob has played Brampton Folk Festival, Barrie Roots Music Festival, Live From the Rock Music Festival, Trout Forest Music Festival, Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival and more. He has also played at Folk Society concert series and coffee houses in Ontario. Recent Nova Scotia dates include Harbour Folk’s Kitchen Party, Wolfville’s Night Kitchen, Halfnotes Songwriters Circle, Rose and Kettle Songwriter Sessions and Lunenburg Sessions.