How did you get involved with music in the first place?
Growing up Mennonite and on a farm, it was probably not too likely that I would get into music, but I guess it was just a part of my rebellion. I thought I was going to be an architect, but when I went to school at the University of Manitoba, I saw Simon and Garfunkel there. I got to meet Paul Simon at Memorial Park in the 60s, back when Memorial Park was a hippie hang out. Paul was just sitting there, so I spoke to him and played him some of my songs, and he encouraged me to chase that dream, so I quit university the next Monday and considered myself someone who was going to be making music for a living.
So then you stuck with that and started out playing guitar?
Yeah, that’s all I ever played. I don’t think I ever really got good at it, but from early on, I knew that I wanted to collaborate. I would play at coffee houses and stuff while I was saving up to travel to Europe. After a year of that, I went to Europe. A lot of things happened in sequence while I was there. I had never left Manitoba, and all of a sudden, I was over there with another fellow. We traveled around, and I bought a guitar in Madrid with whatever was left of my money, and that’s when I really started to play every day.
Aside from getting that guitar was there anything else about that trip that motivated you to keep playing?
When Leonard Cohen came out with his album, I related to it because he wasn’t a great singer or guitar player, but he had the most amazing way with words. I wasn’t at any level of being able to do that yet, but I learned every song on that record.
When we were in Rome I was playing that guitar on some Spanish steps, and somebody came up and started singing one of Leonard Cohen’s songs, and it ended up being him! He had been spending a lot of time in Greece and would come to Rome sometimes, and that’s the first time I met him, and that inspired me like crazy.
Further on in that Europe trip, I met a guy who had a car, and we decided to travel with him. He was going to law school in London and was studying music law. His dad was a publisher from Saskatchewan and wrote jingles. When he finally got back to Canada, we went to his place in Montreal. He was very successful as a jingle writer, and I played him some of my songs, and he liked them. He said, ‘we’re going to make a record someday, but right now I’m producing somebody called The Bells. Write me a song, and I’ll get it on their album.’ When I got back to Manitoba I wrote ‘Moody Manitoba Morning,’ and they recorded it. That’s sort of how I broke through.
After a while, I started having anxiety about performing, and I was starting to get really interested in buses. I had been driving the bus for my band then, and Bruce Cockburn decided he wanted to use my bus. He got tired of flying, so I started driving him around and decided the tours were much more fulfilling than me having to go on stage on these little gigs I was doing. I kept writing songs but for the next 35 years and drove buses and worked with just about everybody.
Yeah I was playing one of his songs when he happened to be there, and then I saw him again in Montreal, and when he was doing one of his tours. I had enough seniority so I could bid on [driving for] it, and there he was sitting by a dumpster in London, Ontario. He looked up and saw me and remembered me immediately from both of our encounters with each other.
You mentioned you were starting to get anxious about playing on stage.
Yeah, some people have a lot of trouble believing it because once I get up there, I don’t show it, but I had so much anxiety in preparation for concerts that it almost didn’t seem worth it. I mean I had some anxiety in the performance of driving famous people around too, but again once it got going, I always knew what I was doing.
You’re a seasoned performer at Harvest Sun, so how would you describe it for anyone who hasn’t been to it yet?
I’d say pretty much anyone who’s ever gone there, returns the next year and year after that. That’s how it’s grown. They tell somebody, and they tell somebody else so every year it gets a little bit bigger, but it’s not too big, and it’s still quite intimate. As for the music, Nadia, for the most part, promotes local music. It’s not designed to be a huge festival. She’s never booked a Blue Rodeo or anybody that would draw people who may not go to the festival because of the spirit of the festival. It’s really Manitoba music and crafts and farmers. It’s just a quiet, little intimate festival where everybody’s smiling.
Catch Rick Neufeld when he performs with Noof & Zueff at The Harvest Sun Music Festival in Kelwood, MB - August 16 - 18th. Early Bird Tickets are on sale now!
Tune into the Harvest Sun Instagram on August 3rd, as Rick takes over our feed and take you through some behind-the-scenes action.
Janet Adamana is the Founder/Editor-In-Chief of Sound, Phrase & Fury Magazine - a Winnipeg-based digital publication dedicated to promoting independent artists and industry professionals from all over the world. More than just about inciting hype, she interviews/writes to capture an artists’ essence and their greatest passions to ignite meaningful connections between fans and really great bands.