Inspect On A Cold Road: Tales Of Adventure In Canadian Rock Presented By Dave Bidini Released As Ebook

idea for Dave Bidinis book On a Cold Road: Adventure in Canadian Rock first came about when excerpts from his tour journal were published in the Toronto Star.
The dairies depicted the experiences of Bidini and his band The Rheostatics when they opened for the Tragically Hip on a crosscountry tour.
The Rheostatics are not new faces in the Canadian rock scene, Since, rhythm guitarist Bidini, drummer Dave Clark later replaced by Don Kerr, lead guitarist Martin Tielli, and bassist Tim Veseley have been playing their quirky art rock for a steady and dedicated fan base.
Before their separation in early, the band had released a total of fourteen albums, including Whale Music and Melville, both of which have made it onto numerous “Best of Canadian Albums” lists.


Bidinis intention with this book, it seems, is to provide a comprehensive and fascinating look into what it means to be a rock musician in Canada.
His own tour dairies are the backbone of the book, which is interspersed with tales from wellknown Canadian artists.
His interviews with various famous players in the Canadian rock scene throughout the lastyears include Triumph, Trooper, Crowbar, BTO, The Guess Who, Bruce Cockburn, Gale Garnett, Goddo, The Stampeders, Max Webster, The Collecters/Chilliwack, and April Wine.
Bidini gathers these varied players and presents their stories to show the common ground upon which these experiences are founded.
These stories are always entertaining, full of the expected sprinklings of sex, drugs, and rockandroll, but the book deals heavily with some other common themes in a musicians world as well: the emotional rollercoaster of touring, meeting your idols, the complex relationships between band members, and first musical experiences.


Bidini, being the writer of the band, is fluid with words, He writes with a kind of honesty and openness that makes the reader genuinely like and relate to him.
Even when describing his own ego and eggheadedness, Bidini still comes off as a very affable guy the kind of everyman with whom you can picture yourself sitting down in your parents basement and have long chats about life and music.
His prose is effectual and has the ability to bring us directly to the places he writes about, evoking the same emotions.
The moments feel real and immediate when we read about them, but only a secondary kind of reality, fogged by the dreaminess of memory and nostalgia.


Before picking up the book, I had only a brief introduction to the Rheostatics, specifically through the CBC Radioprogram hosted by Grant Lawrence.
Their music had never struck a chord in me or laid a fairly heavy imprint on my musical memory, so I went into the book with limited expectations but a willingness to learn.
What I experienced was something quite rare and interesting, getting to know the band, not through their “obscure, cultish art rock”, but through the literary voice of their rhythm guitarist.
Throughout my progress, I would occasionally look up a referenced personality or song on the internet, which helped me to develop a better visual landscape ofs ands Canadian rock.


For a debut, Bidini certainly proved himself to not only be one of Canadas most distinctive musicians, but a fine writer as well.
On a Cold Road accomplishes what it sought to do in the beginning: it brings readers onto the road with the bands and the musicians who made up the Canadian rock scene for the last fifty years.
Not only is this an insightful read for the seasoned music fan, but it is also an entertaining and poignant story of realizing your aspirations.

I really didn't know what to expect from "On a Cold Road", I thought the book was a tour recap by Dave Bidini, a member of the Rheostatics,

What I got was an overview of Canadian rock from thes to thes, Bidini's stories of his tour with the Tragically Hip is interspersed with stories from Canadian rock greats such as Ronnie Hawkins and Kim Mitchell.
I am not a Rock afficiando, but I had heard of the Rheostatics before I took a writing course recently at U of T taught by none other than Dave Bidini.
He hasbooks to his name all on music or sports, neither of which particularly interest me in a book format or so I thought.
Dave was an outstanding teacher and very regular for a rock star so I set forth to explore what he has written.
I could not put this book down, I am familiar with a lot of the names and some of the music but it was rather Dave's down to earth, having a conversation over a drink with me style, telling me about his experiences and deftly weaving in the experiences of countless musicians he has interviewed.
He has no pretentions and sometimes shares with a raw honesty that always rings true something he kept telling us in class.
You can bullshit your way in a lot of art but not in writing, your readers always know when you are not being honest.
The truth is always the hardest to write about, He knows whereof he speaks, Thsi book is great if you love Canadian music!!! Esp, if you like the Rheos! : Great stories about rock bands touring in Canada, Many legendary artists provide insights and anecdotes, Bidini writes very well the shinny hockey game story is great! So, I didn't actually mean to read this book last night, because I started it at midnight, but then I didn't put it down until I was finished.
It's basically the tour diary of the Rheostatics' Dave Bidini from when they opened for the Hip, interspersed with hilarious vignettes from earlier pioneering Canadian artists.
I wish there had been a bit more information about who they were I had to google all of them even if I recognized their names, I wasn't sure which band they'd been in, except that dude from BachmanTurner Overdrive, because his name is Bachman.
ANYWAY. I enjoyed reading about awful early shows and terrible conditions and buses catching on fire in the middle of nowhere and almost freezing to death in Quebec and how driving across the prairies is great for thinking and playing the Maple Leaf Gardens and basically, although I have complaints, they were not enough to make me stop reading and go to bed.
I did enjoy this book, but it took me a while to find and feel comfortable with the rhythm of the writing anecdotes from dates of the Rheostatics cross Canada tour with the Tragically Hip, interspersed with related and relevant anecdotes from a large group of Canadian musicians.
Some of the musicians I recognized, some I had to be reminded of, some were unknown to me.
I was continually going back to the list of names/groups to try to place the speaker and the era to which they were referring.
That was annoying!

Bidini is a very, very good writer, his descriptions were so sharp and beautiful.
You feel the cold, smell that bus, If you are/were a fan of this band, this is a must read, If you ever wondered what it would be like to tour, not with private jets or luxury buses, but oldschool rock touring, this will give you the full picture.
If you have a kid who wants this life, this book might change their mind, . .

On a Cold Road is the first book on my list for Canada Reads.
The point of Canada Reads is to find the most quintessentially Canadian book for the year to recommend to all Canadians to read.


On a Cold Road delivers what the subtitle says: tales of adventure in Canadian rock by documenting the Rheostatics as they open for the Tragically Hip on a cross Canada tour.
Interspersed with Bidinis poetic expressions of band life, are interviews with the founders of Canadian rock, The book begins quietly dealing with the troubles of the music business, travelling on desolate country roads and playing in high school auditoriums, before building up to the debauchery of groupies and of Yonge Street, playing the hallowed ground of Maple Leaf Gardens, and detailing the end: band implosions.
The book takes the reader on quite a tour,

As well, Bidinis prose is exquisite, In a blizzard, wind “knuckles the roof” of their touring van, and Vancouver is described as a “kiss from a ponytailed girl”.
The book is also a love letter to Canada, From experiencing “skinpeeling” prairie cold in playing small towns, to wild nights in Hamilton, the band “got to know Canada way more than they ever wanted to”.
Through the music, Canada becomes a place “waiting to be explored”,

This book gave me a chance to relive my youth: These were the bands and songs that were playing on the radio when I was in high school and university.


I also felt a different sense of nostalgia while reading the book: The book describes a Canada that used to exist: a country where we citizens had much more in common.
All the kids of a certain age listened to the same music, I dont know if thats true anymore,

Or at least it felt that way, This was the Canada I knew when I left in the mids to live in Europe, Canada was not the same place when I returned, Canadians had suddenly become diverse without a common sense of self, I didnt know what Canadians shared anymore,

Also, I initially found the transfer from Bidinis narrative to the interviews jarring, I needed to YouTube videos of the singers and bands mentioned to remind me of who they were.
Certainly they created great songs, Unfortunately, I havent remembered their names, Also, until now, I never knew some of these guys/gals were Canadian,

So a combination of the book being set in a Canada Past, and the fact that the musicians are no longer household names made this book feel dated.


Would On A Cold Road then be the ideal book for all Canadians to read this year
At times rambling, especially with the interspersed interviews from figures I wasn't familiar with, but still an incredibly moving and profound account of music and our country.
Do not call yourself a Canadian music fan till you've bought and read this book, For any Canadian music fan! Will probably borrow from my dad, assuming I can get that copy away from my brother this is one of his favourite books While fans of the Rheostatics will particularly enjoy this memoir of the band's time on the road, it has a wider appeal for readers interested in Canada's rock music history.
Bidini has included some of his rock and roll friends' tour memories on a variety of related themes, creating a multifaceted view of the road, its charms and its perils.
This was a fun read, Dave Bidini has a way with words, He is lyrical and real and I feel like I am right there in the bars and arenas absorbing the music.
Not what I thought it was going to be, I expected

Dave Bidini's adventures with The Rheostatics, not a short sample from him followed by a bunch of other takes from mostly people I'd never heard of.


Abandoned in chapter, originally posted on sitelinkwww, christinavasilevski. com

About the book: In the mids, Bidinis band, The Rheostatics, was the opening act for The Tragically Hip on their “Trouble at the Henhouse” tour.
On a Cold Road is Bidinis memoir of the tour, compiled from the journal entries he wrote during it.
However, the book also aims to serve as a collective history of touring across Canada, and includes anecdotes and recollections from Canadian musicians from thes,s, ands.


What I liked: In this book, Bidini captured the allure of travelling and performing on the road, and made it comprehensible to us nonmusicians.
He made me feel the urge to pack up, get in a van, and drive across the country to visit all of the little holeinthewall places that I could despite the fact that I still dont have a drivers license.


His emotions became my own, I felt the frustration he did when The Rheostatics kept on encountering the rising popularity of The Tragically Hip in unexpected places and comparing it to their own lower level of success.
I felt the sadness and alienation he did when he thought he became friends with Joey Ramone, only to meet Ramone at an autograph signing and find out that the other musician looked worn out and didnt remember him at all.
His realization made a cold wave of sadness wash over my stomach: “He had no idea who I was.
I left the store. Outside, the rain felt like spiders, ” Is there anything else one can say after that

What I disliked: The books structure was disjointed, and the anecdotes provided by other Canadian musicians about the growth of the Canadian music scene in thes,s, ands didnt mesh with the framework provided by Bidinis own writing.
The stories that the other rockers provided were grouped together by theme, but I often found it hard to detect a throughline between what everyone else was talking about compared to Bidinis narrative frame.


More egregious, though, was the huge gender imbalance between the number of male musicians that were quoted compared to female musicians.
Given the context Canadian rock in the midth Century I understand that there probably werent a lot of women in the industry.
But the number of times that women musicians were quoted or mentioned absolutely pales in comparison to the number of men.
I bet that Greg Godovitz had more space in the book devoted to him than all of the women in it combined.


On top of that, most of the men who did mention women in music in any sort of context talked about the wonderfulness of having groupies.
I didnt need to know about how some musician in thes got a tongue bath from a willing groupie, or how some lovely angel of a young woman rehabilitated some hapless rocker by taking him in and doing his laundry.
Women as sex objects Rock on! Women as maternal caregivers bringing hope and cleanliness Great! Women as equals and musicians in their own right Meh.


The verdict: Bidini is obviously skilled with words, and some stories he captures, like the experience of performing at Maple Leaf Gardens, are imbued with magic.
It also helps that Im a huge Tragically Hip fan, and that I have a copy of “Live Between Us,” their live album made from the same tour that Bidini was part of.
However, On a Cold Road still didnt “spark” to me very much, While I was reading this book, I had some money in my iTunes account, and it never occurred to me to buy a Rheostatics album with it instead, I spent the money on some Neko Case music.
I think thats pretty representative of my stance towards the book interesting enough, but not so interesting as to encourage further investigation.
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