Cam Penner was 19 when he struck out for Chicago.
For a boy from Canada's prairie country in Southern Manitoba, where the highest buildings were grain elevators, it was a culture shock to suddenly be among skyscrapers. Other aspects of the windy city were less ostentatious, though, and in the soup kitchen where he found work Penner met the kind of characters who would inhabit his early songs.
They're inhabiting his songs still. On his splendid new album, Trouble & Mercy, Penner adopts the persona of a man down on his luck. "There's a bank around the corner, don't even think I haven't thought it," he sings in Roam.
"That's not based on any one specific character," says Penner down the line from his home in Calgary. "But in the society and sub-culture that I was around for 13 or 14 years, there was so much to draw on and there probably wasn't one of the characters I met in that time who didn't have one eye on that bank. I mean, half of the population these days, people who've lost the family business, lost their jobs, probably have one eye on the bank - or at least one eye on the bankers."
Penner knows what it means to lose the family business. His parents ran a restaurant in the small town where he grew up. When the bank foreclosed, they lost the restaurant and their house. So they opened up another establishment, an illegal roadhouse that at weekends would fill up with revellers who'd dance and forget their troubles with the help of some potent raspberry hooch, supplied by the local bootlegger, who just happened to be Penner's grandfather.
"What I want to present to people is honesty"
"It was a born-again Christian Mennonite community," says Penner. "So the town was dry and there were about 150 churches serving a population of 7,000 who were given a list of dos and don'ts on pain of eternal fire and damnation. I'm sure my parents brought more salvation to that town than all the churches combined, not just through the roadhouse as a means of escape. They were always helping others, taking in runaways, putting hampers of food and essentials together. The code was simple: be kind."
It was in his parents' roadhouse that Penner (the Cam is short for Cameron but his bloodlines are mostly Eastern European) began to take an interest in music. One day, when the young Cam was about 11, his father brought him home a guitar that he'd bought for $25. Music wouldn't become a potential career move for many years yet, though, and when some friends announced that they were heading off to live in a "weird Jesus hippy commune" in Chicago, Penner tagged along and wound up living in the commune for a year, worked initially in the aforementioned soup kitchen, then a women's shelter and when he moved back to Canada he continued working with the homeless into his thirties.
"I'd come home at night and pick up the guitar and start writing stuff," he says. "I suppose that was my release. But I'd find that I'd taken in so many other people's stories and because I felt comfortable with these people and was prepared to listen, they'd tell me all sorts of things. So I was getting all this raw material and it started coming together in songs."
A circle of local gigs around Calgary grew and audience response developed to the stage where Penner could turn to music full-time, spending up to six months at a stretch on the road. Two EPs and two full-length albums recorded with his band, The Gravel Road, helped to spread the word further and now, with producer and accompanist Jon Wood adding just the right sounds - be they a frailing banjo, pedal steel guitar or knee slaps - to complement Penner's compelling storytelling, Trouble & Mercy is reaching a receptive audience in the UK.
"What I want to present to people is honesty," says Penner. "These songs come from flashes of memories that I've worked into short stories or mini movies, you could say. They may not be my memories but I've heard them first hand and they're certainly real."
Cam Penner plays Laurie's Bar, Glasgow on Sunday, May 23; Argyll Hotel, Ullapool on Tuesday, May 25; and Old Brewery, Cromarty on Friday, May 28.
Herald Scotland
Rob Adams
20 May 2010
"I have listened to hundreds of artists so far this year, so when I say Trouble and Mercy is the best album I've heard so far, I really mean that. I'm a firm believer that to write songs that move people and their emotions you need to have lived a bit and seen and experienced the suffering that life can dish up and throw at you in dusty handfuls.
"There are no fancy thrills on this album...the tracks are stripped down to allow focus on guitar and voice. The songs come across in an honest and intrinsically beautiful way that allows the sentiment in each to strike you right in the chest. I heard every word of sorrow, weariness, love, truth and tale of everday life. Cam Penner is a storyteller from the Steinbeck / Jack London mould and if he had been around in the dustbowl era, he would have been singin' alongside the likes of Woody Guthrie.
"....I can't recommend this man enough, if you get a chance, go and see him and get Trouble and Mercy."
Folk Radio UK
"When Canadian troubadour Cam Penner blew into London for a handful of solo shows earlier in the year, those lucky enough to see him agreed that here was something special. His rough-hewn Americana combined with heartfelt melodies brought to mind a youthful Steve Earle, yet at the same time Penner was ploughing his own furrow."
mulefreedom.com
London, UK
"On the new album, he's Cam Penner all the way, an undeniable new star on the country side of Americana... However, stellar arrangements would mean little if the songs, and Penner's delivery of them, weren't so distinctive and powerful."
Third Coast Music
Texas, USA
"This album is already one of my favorites for the year. Soulful, innovative, and insightful songs throughout."
Larry Hillberg KVMR-FM
Nevada City CA USA
9 Stars out of 10
"Cam Penner, then, is quite a find. From what I can gather, 'Trouble & Mercy' is rather sparser
and more acoustic than his usual fare, but as heart-melting introductions to unknown artists go,
it rarely gets more resonant and graceful than this. If this is what he's capable of in future,
you're safe putting your trust in this guy."
Trouble & Mercy Review
Whisperin & Hollerin
UK
"If You Love Somebody may just edge it for me as the standout track but with an album of this quality it is liable to change with every listen. This record has caught me completely by surprise and has touched me in ways that music rarely does. This is 46 minutes of honesty and beauty that is quite simply wonderful."
Trouble & Mercy Review
The Music Critic
UK
Cam's new record, Trouble & Mercy is devastating. The songs were written on a six month tour across North America and explore the differences between rich and poor, life on the road, love, lust and loss. These songs are the type born in in hotel rooms and grubby couches when the heartache and home sickness of being on the road for months finally wins out over wanderlust. The type of songs when emotions and thoughts float to the surface and surge through your body uncontrollably.
Remarkably even as he delves into these heartfelt emotions, Cam keeps a steady hand on Trouble & Mercy and when you think he might have hit rock bottom, you still get the impression that he knows life will get better. You can hear his heart break countless times on this record, but his need to keep fighting challenges any regret or pity you might feel and really pushes this record along and keeps you listening.
The album opener, All Of, showcases Penner's determined nature. Without shame, he admits he's willing to do whatever it takes to get back to his lover. The beautiful banjo and harmonies thicken the song, but make no mistake, All Of is one man's painful journey. Penner follows with the powerful 13, a tale of a convicted man that uses electric guitar and ominous steel to haunt your thoughts. The echoes of his picked notes and steel the band throws in on If You Love Somebody does the same.
Throughout this 11-song gem, Penner proves he's a fantastic song writer, formidable story teller (Once as a Soldier) and does all of this without trying to spin clever phrases or relying on pretentious word play. Penner speaks to the people as one of us. At one point, that's what we expected from folk artists, but somehow lately it's changed. Today, coffee shop strummers sing about their own life, unconcerned whether or not you can relate. For Cam, each and every lyric comes from the bottom of his heart, but it could be about any of us. If you can't relate to a song like Tired of this Town you've either lived a charmed life or you haven't lived at all
Trouble & Mercy Review
Hero Hill blog
Halifax, Canada
This record has caught me completely by surprise and has touched me in ways that music rarely does. This is 46 minutes of honesty and beauty that is quite simply wonderful."
The Music Critic
UK
"Americana doesn't have to come from America, and Canadians Cam Penner and The Gravel Road prove it beyond doubt."
Clint Weathers
FreightTrainBoogie.com
"There's a freshness here outside comparisons that grabs me and demands attention."
David Obermann, Folkways KUT
Austin, Texas, USA
"Further proof that the best Americana comes from Canada. ....the album hangs together remarkably well as a collection of spare, intense Americana, every bit as powerful as some of the big names in the genre. It deserves to bring Penner much greater recognition."
Americana UK
Kai Roberts
This stripped-down presentation serves the new batch of tunes perfectly. For the most part, the songs are left to stand strong and steady on their own... Throughout the disc, little washes of pedal steel, long drawn out accordion chords and a smattering of piano or cello add subtext to Penner's songs and complement his soothing voice.
FFWD Magazine
Calgary, Canada
Always a songwriter who strives for depth, Cam Penner makes some of the deepest cuts of his career on Trouble & Mercy, a rich acoustic record that finds him working minus his usual backup band... While some of that gravelly grit may be missed, Penner brings a tenderness on this one that's hard to deny.
Calgary Sun
Calgary, Canada
"Penner stoeit soms wat met bluesinvloeden en klinkt in het titelnummer als Bruce Springsteen ten tijde van Nebraska. Zeker als hij een mondharmonica aan zijn lippen zet, is duidelijk wie zijn inspirators zijn. Toch gaat het ook hier om iemand die ondertussen vanuit zijn blokhut een geheel eigen stijl heeft weten te ontwikkelen en niet zomaar aan de aandacht zou mogen ontsnappen."
Maurice Dielemans
KindaMuzik NL
Dakloos worden kan een hele uitdaging zijn. Vraag maar aan Cam Penner, een Canadese singer-songwriter die jarenlang daklozen opving, eerst in Chicago, later thuis in Canada. Op een dag, zo vertelde hij Sinterklaasavond aan een stuk of tachtig luisterende oren in Venlo, besloot hij zelf om dakloos te worden. Sindsdien trekt hij als singer-songwriter door Canada en nog meer door Noord-Amerika. Het was een van de vele anekdotes die Penner vertelde. Dan heb je geluk als bezoeker. Want niet iedere liedjeszanger kan goed vertellen. ...
Cam bezingt zijn wereld vanuit zijn perspectief, maar op een voor ons Europeanen aantrekkelijke wijze, en gelukkig met de nodige afstand. Bij associaties aan ander artiesten moest ik denken aan types als Richard Stooksbury en Kreg Viesselman, maar dan veel meer basaal. Blaze Foley's stijl komt waarschijnlijk het meest dichtbij. Verwacht geen luxe toevoegingen, maar bereidt je voor op de instrumentale beperktheden die "Trouble & Mercy" biedt. Veel van de mede-muzikanten limiteren zich tot foot stomps of een knee slaps, maar daarnaast is er ruimte voor gitaar, lap steel, banjo, viool, banjo en bas. Het is daarnaast wel een eerlijk product, een plaat die mensen aanspreekt, doet huiveren, en beseffen dat de wereld met een vast dak boven je hoofd nog niet zo'n gekke plaats is om te zijn. Mensen gewoon beluisteren deze muziek, en wanneer je geen jeuk krijgt dan koop je gewoon die plaat, beschouw het maar als een collecte, want voor iets meer dan 10 Euro krijg je vanzelf een heerlijk gevoel.
Rein van den Berg
altcountryforum.nl
Casbeers at the Church on Thursday will feature Cam Penner. Penner, from Southern Manitoba, Canada,
has one of the coolest backstories in music. His grandfather was a bootlegger. His parents ran a
roadhouse. At the age of 19, Penner left Canada and moved to Chicago, where he worked in a soup kitchen
and at a women's shelter. Suffice it to say, he knows a little something about real life.
Penner also has tremendous talent as a writer and knows well how to turn that living into songs that
grip. He's working with a new CD, "Trouble & Mercy."
Jim Beal Jr
Music that's sure to grab you
My San Antonio
Er zijn tegenwoordig vele singer-songwriters maar niet zoveel waarvan je meteen bij de eerste beluistering zegt: "potverdorie, wat is dit mooi!" Liedjes die ergens over gaan, die soms door merg en been gaan en waar je jezelf aan over wilt geven. Je ogen dicht wilt doen om er nog intenser van te genieten. Canadees Cam Penner is zo'n artiest wiens liedjes op zijn nieuwe album Trouble & Mercy direct onder je huid kruipen. Je vraagt je af: waar komt deze man toch vandaan? Het antwoord: uit een Mennonieten gemeente in Manitoba waar de mensen warm probeerden te blijven in de illegale kroeg van zijn ouders met de zelfgebrouwde likeurtjes van zijn opa, want veel hadden ze niet op het conservatieve platteland. Toch werd alles wat er was, gedeeld met de rest. In die geest deelde Penner ook jarenlang zijn kennis, tijd en ervaring met de minder bedeelde van deze aarde en werkte hij in gaarkeukens, blijf-van-mijn-lijf huizen en in de daklozen opvang waar hij altijd een luisterend oor had voor de medemens die zijn verhaal kwijt wilde. En die verhalen, sober en puur opgenomen met technicus en snarenvirtuoos Jon Wood deelt hij nu met ons op Trouble & Mercy. Met recht een wereldplaat die naar zich laat luisteren als een beklemmend goed boek. In de afgelopen jaren deelde hij het podium met artiesten als John Prine, Lyle Lovett, Chip Taylor, Richard Thompson, Slaid Cleaves, Fred Eaglesmith en nog vele anderen die waarschijnlijk ook gewoon inzagen dat Cam Penner een artiest is van onbeschrijfelijke klasse. Eentje die zich nog niet qua bekendheid, maar zeker qua talent mag meten met de beste artiesten uit het Americanagenre!"
Sandra Zuidema
Lucky Dice Music mailorder nieuwsbrief
12 Reasons To Love Cam Penner
1. He's tells it likes he sees it.
The prairie boy's most contemplative work can be heard on his new solo album Trouble & Mercy. "I needed to do this album," he says. "These songs were for me." On standouts like "Peace of Mind," he sings about the human condition, which he knows all too well: "You won't hear 'em on the radio, won't see 'em on no television show/The greatest heroes they remain unknown, they live a life all on their own."
2. He's a good listener.
In his early 20s, Penner worked at a women's shelter in Chicago. Then, over the course of 12 years in Calgary, he worked at the Mustard Seed, group homes and the Calgary Drop-In & Rehab Centre. "The art of listening to stories comes before the art of storytelling," Penner says. "Everybody needs to be heard, especially when they're down and out. They want you to understand. Listening is part of understanding."
3. He's on a journey.
Penner has played more than 300 shows over the last two years, touring across five countries, six provinces and 12 states. "I like change. I want everyday to be different," he says. "Different regions, different geographies, different environments. I wanna know what's happening out there."
4. He lives by a code. Penner was raised in a small, rural Mennonite community. In this "mixed bag," his parents ran an illegal roadhouse and his grandpa made raspberry hooch. "We grew up poor, lost the family business [a Mennonite restaurant] and our house," he says. "But during the worst part of their lives, my mom and dad helped others — taking in runaways, putting out hampers with food, diapers, whatever essentials. It always comes down to the essentials. It's a simple code: be kind."
5. He gives credit where credit's due.
Working from Penner's desire to use vintage gear and recording techniques, and to strip the album of traditional bass and drums, recording engineer/co-producer Jon Wood created the gorgeous banjo and orchestral coda to "Peace of Mind," and peppered the album with rhythmic kneeslaps, foot stomps and kick-pedal on suitcase. Penner says, "a good producer like Jon understands the message, and draws the best out of the artist. It's all about serving the song. As a musician, he has a feeling - something you don't go to school for."
Chris Bowerman
Avenue Magazine
Calgary, Canada
MAZZMUSIKAS HATS OFF: ALL HITS, NO MISSES !!! Cam Penner sloeg mij enkele jaren terug met verstomming met zijn prachtige cd Felt Like A Saturday Night. Hierop prachtige songs, doorleeft (de man heeft al wat meegemaakt) en met scherpe teksten. Terecht in de eindejaarlijstjes van dat jaar (2006 denk ik). Rond de jaarwisseling was er de kerstsingle Balsam Fir die weer voor rechtstaande nekharen zorgde. Hierop al 2 songs van de nieuwe plaat. Deze nieuwe plaat lijkt op het eerste zicht een nogal kale plaat. Veelal akoestisch, met de stem en tekst centraal en een eenvoudige inkleuring. Laat je niet misleiden en luister meerdere keren. Je zal horen dat die inkleuring top is ondanks de beperking tot allerlei snaren, viool, bas en een occasioneel orgel of accordeon. Bij de credits ook 4 ‘muzikanten' wiens bijdrage bestaat uit ‘foot stomps'. En ze zijn dan een bonus op wat je al krijgt: topklasse songs opgenomen in een paar dagen tijd na een toer. Zoals altijd bij Cam krijg je een relaas van wat hij op die trip tegenkwam. Maar niet de uiterlijke schijn. Daarvoor is zijn blik veel te scherp. Ik was de laatste tijd wat uitgekeken op de akoestische songwriters die zelden een hele cd lang kunnen boeien, maar het zijn platen als deze die mijn argwaan wegnemen en mij waarschijnlijk weer zullen verleiden tot het kopen van enkele ontgoochelende plaatjes. Dit omdat Cam en producer en medegitarist Jon Wood er in slagen 11 nummers lang de luisteraar in de ban te houden. Luister maar eens naar die prachtige titelsong. Puur kippenvel. Laat de pracht van Tired This Town op de radio spelen en de telefoon van de zender staat roodgloeiend. Dit is voor mij zeker weer een eindejaarsplaat. Koop ze, kopieer ze, steel ze, het blijft me eens, maar zorg dat je ze in huis hebt. En voor ik het vergeet: beste programmatoren, in de loop van december toert hij door de lage landen. Wil iemand zo goed zijn om hem naar ook België te halen. Cam in het Toogenblik zou een ultiem eindejaarscadeau zijn. Weer een superieur Canadees product dat niet in je collectie mag ontbreken. (LD)
MazzMuzikaS Review