Wyatt Easterling, Terry Penney & Chet O'Keefe at the outdoor chapel at Quiet Valley Ranch.

festival ranch where I was met by thousands of music lovers there for the sole purpose of discovering and supporting songwriters!  On the second day, as a part of the New Folk Songwriters competition I played to a sold out crowd at the Threadgill Theatre.  The crowd was phenomenal!  Met so many great people who Ican now call my friends, such as Nashville songwriters Wyatt Easterling and Chet O’Keefe.  Thanks to everyone at Kerrville including the hundreds of volunteers for making my experience in Texas unforgettable.

Also a big thanks to Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council and Music Newfoundland and Labrador who made the trip possible!

What a great week in St. John’s with the 2010 JUNOs and all the great events organized by the Ruckus on the Edge crew. Had such a great time at the Ruckus in the Round on Tuesday at the Delta.  Eight singer/songwriters including Mike MacDonald, Karla Pilgram, Harry Martin & I (Round 1) and Ron Hynes, Maureen Ennis, Amelia Curran & Sherman Downey (Round 2).  There was a wonderfully responsive audience of 600 seated in a circle around us. Met some great folks after the show.  Hope to see you all again soon. Keep in touch!

The Canadian’s brought the snow with them. . . 15cm of snow on this night!  Schools were closed the next day.  The weather made the location all the more intimate.

Surrounded by family and friends on Feb. 13, Mr. Penney shared the music from his fourth CD release Town That Time Forgot.

The setting for the event – in his old schoolhouse at the newly renovated By The Bay Museum – was the perfect backdrop for the CD release event as many of Mr. Penney’s songs reflect his nostalgia for days gone by.

“This is very much a local record,” said Mr. Penney.

From the songs, to the recording process at Dean Stairs’ Bulldog Records in Lewisporte, to the local photography on the CD booklet featuring among other things the Porterville United Church and H. Day General Store, Town That Time Forgot is all about home.

Mr. Penney wore his heart on his sleeve for the songs he performed at the event. Each one was a trip through something special in Mr. Penney’s life.

“I wrote this record with a concept,” he said. “I wanted songs that worked together.

“I wanted something rootsy, raw and simple and I think myself and Dean (Stairs) accomplished that. There’s simple arrangements with simple tunes.”

He chose to present Buddy Holly Blues first at the CD release. Mr. Penney said his mother always tells him he was born 50 years too late. In his words, Mr. Penney is “obsessed with the ’50s”. Buddy Holly Blues is about Mr. Penney’s favourite artist of all time who died tragically in 1959.

The title song for the CD Town That Time Forgot for Mr. Penney holds a special place in his heart.
“When you die and go to your happiest place, well for me this song is about this place,” he said.

The first verse from the song shows the connection Mr. Penney feels:

“There’s a dream I’ve been having since I was a child
About a place out there somewhere where innocence lies
Life there is still simple, and the doors never locked
In the town that time forgot, in the town that time forgot”

Mr. Penney is known for his reverence for fallen soldiers and Benny Brown was another song writing example of this deep respect. He shared a story from almost 30 years ago when he was 12-years-old and a member of the Dambusters Air Cadet Squadron. One year he went to Laurenceton with cadets selling apples. He was paired with another cadet for the fundraiser. He remembers his fellow cadet stopping at a headstone and saying they needed to salute in respect of the soldier the memorial was erected for.

“I’ll never forgot that,” said Mr. Penney. “Last year I saw the headstone again and remembered saluting that day.”

“The headstone was for Bertram Brown, a soldier for the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, WWI, who was killed at Beaumont Hamel.

Mr. Penney felt it was a fitting story for a song.

“Laurenceton at that time had to be a small population,” he said. “Here was this person who left the community, got on a boat to sail to France and was killed. He was listed as missing and the monument in the cemetery is there to remember him. Anyone who ever goes there, stop and give your regards.

“I went to The Rooms in St. John’s and researched Bertram Brown. I assume his mother was distraught over the news. I read the letter to his parents telling them he was missing and then actually dead. A couple of lines from the song are from those letters.”

Mr. Penney said the more research he did, the more it seemed to him that Bertram Brown represented all the Newfoundlanders who went overseas.

My Best Friend + Me was one of the songs Mr. Penney performed where his emotions welled up. The song is about he and his best friend, Paul Dalley, growing up and into adulthood. While the friends in the song lose touch over the years, Mr. Penney and Mr. Dalley have remained close and both were clearly touched by the impact of their friendship coming through in song at the Feb. 13 performance.

Mr. Penney noted he doesn’t write many relationship songs. Thanks For Everything is a song about one that just didn’t work out.

Another emotional song for Mr. Penney was about a gentlemen who enriched his life, Les Ginn of the Canadian Army WW2. Mr. Ginn passed away a few years ago but F13327 was written while Mr. Ginn was still alive. Mr. Penney presented the lyrics to Mr. Ginn who approved of what it had to say about his journey overseas. It was also noted by Mr. Ginn’s wife that Feb. 13 was his birthday and that the date for the CD release was very fitting.

From deep emotion to the lighter side of life, Mr. Penney switched things up then to perform Plan B, a “country song to the extreme.”

“This is hurtin’,” said Mr. Penney. “George Jones would love this.”

Mr. Penney finished off the performances from Town that time forgot with the “most honest song I ever wrote” and the most difficult emotionally to perform that evening Be a Better Man.

“I think from the response I’ve gotten to the song a lot of people feel this way but don’t admit it,” he said. “It’s not always easy to admit your shortcomings – this is a song about that.”

Song writing is something Mr. Penney takes very seriously and feels it is conveyed through his music. While he does have some lighter music on the CD, he feels the music business is full of all kinds of frivolous, silly music. Keeping true to emotions that hit to the core, Mr. Penney gives listeners something more than just everyday music.

“The longer I’ve been at this the more I’m about writing songs that convey some kind of emotion,” he said. “Whether people like it or not is one thing, but I can’t say what I write is not honest and I hope you see it that way.”

To hear the title track from Terry Penney’s Town that time forgot visit The Pilot website at www.lportepilot.ca