So here’s our group’s best song, I think, we can play anywhere in the town of Tillsonburg, the county of Oxford, OR in Norfolk County: Tillsonburg by Stompin’ Tom Connors. This is a real easy song, only 3 chords. However, it was surprisingly long, with the “Tillsonburg” chorus after each verse, which have to be sung in order because they tell a story. This affords plenty of opportunity for the audience to sing along with the chorus, so it remains popular.

Here are a couple of misunderstandings I had about Stompin’ Tom Connors;

• I believed he was born and raised in Ontario
• I thought he made the town of Tillsonburg famous
• I had no idea that he sang so many songs about Canadian towns, places and famous people
• I never knew where Leamington was until I heard the Ketchup Song (I was born and raised in Long Point….)
• I thought he was from Toronto

Boy! Was I wrong! You can Google the answers to all of those points. Jeff gave me a book out of his dad’s garage about 5 years ago, “Stompin’ Tom Before the Fame” and wow, what a dramatic writing. I followed it up with “Stompin’ Tom and the Connors Tone: the Legend Continues”. They were both page-turners! What I got out his autobiographies was, he was ahead of his time. And it took a long time for big music execs to accept him. But the number one thing that brought his songs into our hearts was that they were so Canadian. About our country, our towns, our railroad, myths, legends, roadways, cultures, etc and so on. Two or three years after I read his books my husband and I were touring PEI in the summer of 2017, taking in as many historical sites for free as we could for Canada’s 150th birthday. Any where we went in PEI there was a sign somewhere referencing the life of Stompin’ Tom Connors. What a cool claim to fame!

And all we got’s Tillsonburg!!