Many Dreams From Here
This is an old song that I have rarely played live. I wrote it around the end of 2007 after a wonderful visit to Kelowna and gig with my dear friend Calvin Cairns. When we moved to Canada in 2004, my first musical friendship was with Calvin. He’s an exceptional performer and friend, and we played hundreds of shows together. In 2008 we joined up with the force of nature that is called Boris Sichon from the Ukraine.
We formed a band called Triska and made an album. Sadly, due to distance, we never stayed together after the album was made.
The song is based upon a true story told to me by a distant cousin of Calvin. He told me of his ancestor who left the Ukraine around 1900 to claim 25 acres of land in Saskatchewan that the Canadian government was offering for free as long as you farmed. This land of course had to be dug and cleared, and that ancestor was only 14 years old when he left the Ukraine on his own.The story is that he met another 14-year-old boy from Scotland called McCloud who also had the same idea. They met in Montreal and decided to travel together to North Battleford, Saskatchewan. They took 25 acres each, next door to each other, and stayed friends and neighbours for the rest of their lives. You can’t make this stuff up.
By the way, after 12 years, Boris, Calvin and I have decided we are going to get back together
and play some shows, hopefully in the summer of 2021.
I’ve no reason left to stay but plenty more for leaving
Take a last look at this face that you’ll never see again
I’m barely yet a man but no childish ways will keep me
I’ll work to tame the land that’s many dreams from here
It’s in the tears the mothers cried for sons they’d never see again
Leave and live or stay and die many dreams from here
It’s in the songs the fathers sang, it’s in the soil of native land
It’s in the blood of all who left many dreams from here
In McCloud I had a friend who worked the soil beside me
I shook his Caledonian hand 60 years ago, 60 years ago
Just two boys who turned away from all the hopelessness and hunger
So generations now can say your dreams are real today
