I grew up a Doukhobor in the Kootenay-Columbia area of British Columbia, Canada. As a retired academic (PhD) now active as a singer/songwriter, I recorded my first album called 'What Golden Years' which was released in 2012. I've now written new songs for my second album, songs which explore aspects of Doukhobor history and cultural heritage. To the best of my knowledge, a musical project of this scope has not been done in English.
The Doukhobors are pacifists who came to Canada in 1898/99 to escape military and religious persecution in Russia. They were true Canadian pioneers who helped settle and develop the Canadian West. They have a real story to tell.
The themes for my songs are drawn from Doukhobor experience and beliefs: burning of their guns in 1895 and surviving violent punishment at the hand of the czar's soldiers.
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Sailing to Canada on old cattle ships though powerful Atlantic storms. Women pulling plows to break hard Saskatchewan soil. Watching villages burn to the ground in British Columbia, victims of arsonists' torches. Innocent children incarcerated because their parents would not send them to school.
There are many stories in the Doukhobor experience.
I started writing songs and performing after retirement as an 'old guy having fun.' This project, however, has taken me far beyond fun deep into my own Doukhobor roots.
I hope that presenting Doukhobor history through story songs in English will make their unique story more accessible to young Doukhobors as well non-Doukhobors on my upcoming CD, Places: Songs of Toil and Peaceful Life. I hope too that you enjoy this album as I do love to share my experience with others through story and song.
