The record, 15 mai 1981, Supplément 1

#1___tel iœcora Friday, May 15 r-% fi i IMP * : >^î ¦’W * Sr /*•.> * 2-TOWNSHIPS WEEK, FRIDAY, MAY 15,1981 The Gatlins: It’s harmony on stage Larry, Steve and Rudy, the Gatlii Brothers, are relaxing on a couch in their dressing room between shows at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.Three, boxed, chicken dinners are presented to them by their road manager "What do you want to know, Dave?’’ Larry asks, as he attacks a drumstick.In some ways, without asking a question, I think I already know w hat I want to know .Moments earlier the Gatlins and their four-piece band received a standing ovation from the NAC crowd There was no fancy footwork in the act.It was straight- mm - y The Gatlin Brothers — Rudy, Larry and Steve.They are for real.ahead music, with the brothers' soaring harmonies - the best in contemporary I country - spreading an emotional high throughout the audience.The wide-open, honest expression of their thoughts and feelings, which came across strongly from the stage, is now coming from the dressing room couch.There's no hint of a calculated answer to a question.That’s what I wanted to know: Are the Gatlins for real?The answer is yes."I’m not going to give you an answer to one of your questions just because I think that’s what you or your readers want to hear," says 33-year-old Larry."If I don’t want to answer a question, I’ll just tell you to (bleep) off.But if I do give an answer, it’s going to be honest.” Although he now shares equal billing with his brothers, Larry is still the focal point of the trio.On stage his friendly arrogance turns into charm, charisma, that quality which makes stars.Off stage he’s exactly the same, expressing a refreshing, confident cockiness.“I believe our careers are exactly where they're supposed to be,” Larry says.“I believe we’re supposed to be in Ottawa tonight performing for these people.We’ve placed our lives in much bigger hands, and we feel blessed that we’re able to do what we do.” What the Gatlins have done so far is turn out a string of top-selling singles including Broken Lady, Sweet Becky Walker, Statues Without Hearts, Penny Annie, All the Gold in California, We’re Number One and Take Me To Your Lovin’ Place.Larry says the group naturally tries to make each performance better on stage and record, but "we want our progress to be a natural maturing, rather than hype.If we’ve reached our limit, we’re not going to get better by overproducing the music.But we will get better the more we mature.” Larry writes the trio's songs His lyrics Country music à By DAVE 7l|MULH0LLAND and melodies convey much more than onedimensional love.Their message and mood of romantic reality embraces the spectrum of the human condition, integrating all expressions of love from prayer to passion."The world at large is the inspiration for my writing," Larry says."I try to listen and watch things happening around me, and I won't turn a deaf ear to anything.I’m not afraid to write a song about anything, if it moves me.” The brothers grew up in Odessa, Texas, where they began singing publicly at a very early age; mostly gospel music at family and church events.After majoring in English literature at the University of Houston, Larry made it to Nashville with the help of Dottie West.He recorded and performed on his own for a number of years before bringing Steve and Rudy into the group.The close vocal harmonies on stage don’t necessarily translate into personal harmony off stage.Near the end of the interview Larry and Rudy have a mild argument about whether or not they’re performing all the songs they should.Larry says they are.Rudy says they aren't.Larry leaves the room to get a soft drink and doesn't return.But an hour later the Gatlins are back on stage for the second show.It's all harmony out there.Magnate profiles the changing face of Canada "The Northern Magus" by Richard Gwyn (McClelland & stewart): $17.95,399 pp.As with most good books (several months on the bestsellers list attest to a commercial success), “The Northern Magus" manages to do more than author Richard Gwyn intended it to do.Gwyn wished "to describe and to analyze Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and to catalogue and assess his record".The title chosen allowed the author to expand on his theory that Trudeau is a modern Houdini, holding his audience in thrall as he weaves a magical spell that has lasted for most of thirteen years.In the process, Gwyn’s outspoken, honest, and always interesting narrative is as much a profile of the changing face of Canada, as it is of the leader with whom the Canadian voter has had a love-hate relationship that defies comprehension.Although "The Northern Magus ’, as its author admits, is in no sense a definitive biography of Trudeau, nevertheless it does skim over the principal events of his life -his arrival in Ottawa as one of the "Three Wise Men” ( Pelletier and Marchand completing the trio) ; movement through the parliamentary process until he became Minister of Justice in April of 1967 , his first campaign in 1968, through to his most recent stunning victory in 1980 ; his celebrated marriage to Margaret Sinclair and its subsequent fall-out of shame, embarrassment, and the overtones of a tainted Camelot ; the dazzling, and at times puzzling effect Trudeau has had on international affairs, and to a lesser extent, because of the subject’s deliberate demand for isolation, an attempt to assess the importance and effect that Trudeau's closest advisors have had in shaping Canadian policy.Because of the enigmatic nature of his magician figure, often Gwyn is reduced to statements made by “one of Trudeau's closest friends", who assured the author that P E.T.feels strongly about such and such, or is absolutely revolted by some such action, or favours something else.Opinions of observers are as close as most writers about Trudeau get, but luckily Gwyn’s book relies on his own incisive opinions about Trudeau’s lives, political and Kaleidoscope By RICHARD LONEY private."The Northern Magus" provides excellent background reading as Trudeau has brought Canadians to the brink of bankruptcy, while his fixation on the constitution threatens to splinter the country into separate regions, with Lougheed and the western populace feeling alienated by.and disenchanted with, Ottawa.In reading Gwyn’s book, the reader becomes aware of the compact and" controversial history that the past decade has created, and the reasons for the outrageous dilemma that now faces Canadians - more than 6 out of 10 of us are about to be awarded a constitution in a manner that they find reprehensible.As well, a craftily worded clause ensures that all of Canada will become bilingual in perpetuity, as Trudeau, and even as he condemns him for many of his actions, appears to regard him with a grudging admiration for his style and panache.To prove how elusive this northern magus is to pin down in print, Gwyn’s parting shot about Trudeau’s intentions on the constitution is interesting in light of the Supreme Court’s current deliberations on Trudeau’s package - “the premiers either will give Trudeau what he wants, or he will get it directly from the people, through the national referendum he has said he is ready to hold, ‘so the people themselves (can) put an end to the quarrels of politicians'.” + + + RECORD REVIEWS J.J.Cale ROM SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE Although his song, "Cocaine” recently made him a small fortune in radio and juke box rights, J.J.Cale’s reputation and discography is a whole lot closer to experimental forms than to the hard rocking anthem to the white goddess popularized by Eric Clapton.For all of his being identified with Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, Cale was born in Wales and had a classical musical education at London University’s Goldsmith College, and at the U.S.’s Tanglewood Academy, where he received a Leonard Bernstein Fellowship.At the hub of New York's avant-garde in the late 60's, Cale in ’71 shifted to California to work as a Warner-Reprise A&R man.Since then he has worked as a bassist on Patti Smith's tour, and performed, or arranged for such artists as Kate & Anna McGarrigle, U K.Squeeze, Menace and David Kubinec.The recent album, titled after the motto of the Order of the Garter, British Knighthood’s highest order (“Evil to him who thinks evil”), is just another aspect of one of rock’s most eclectic, constantly-shifting talents.This heavy-trip album is crowded with cryptic lyrics and shocking sights conjured up by Cale’s fertile imagination.The moods are startlingly modernistic, and those tuning in for in for more of the Southern blues sound of one of Cale’s periods will be disappointed.Brenda Russell LOVE LIFE (A&M) In a very short time span Brenda Russell has established herself as a performer with that individual style that denotes a star property - as with Joan Armatrading, it will take a few albums before the ultimate talent of Brenda comes shining through, but for now albums like LOVE LIFE are enough.With a voice that is crystal clear and penetrating in its pure intensity, she sings eight of her own compositions to the svelte pro backings from such California studio impressarios as the Porcaros.Steve Lukather, Dean Parks, and a host of supporting vocalists and sidemen.The result is a hybrid form that leans closer to the rock-pop territory of a Carly Simon, than to the usual Motown niche that would have awaited Brenda Russell five years ago.Her own piano and clavinet playing on LOVE LIFE is notable, as are the blends between her own vocals and those of back-ups.as on "Deep Dark and Mysterious”, or the title track. 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