Cam Penner talks about his motivation for writing songs when he was younger, his roadtrip across North America, getting stopped by the police, his time with Jesus People USA, and how he set up the recording of his latest CD, Gypsy Summer.

TPR#69 Cam Penner – Interview and Music (MP3)

 

Show Notes

• Cam Penner on iTunes
• Cam Penner web site

Recap of Interview with Cam Penner

Cam Penner talks about how his latest CD, Gypsy Summer, came together. He says they came together over the past spring an summer. His sweetheart was playing a lot of Al Green and MoTown. Between that and lots of tequila and 8 hours a day in the studio he came up with the music. Back and forth between listening to the music and making his own.

Cam Penner introduces “Driftwood.” This is the first track he wrote for the CD.
Cam Penner talks about growing up in a small Mennonite town in Manitoba. It was a very religious environment. No music except family singing gospel songs.

Cam Penner talks about how he got into writing songs. He wrote songs playing acoustic guitar, writing songs, to be interesting to women when he was around 16 or 17

Cam Penner spent a year traveling North America. He and is girlfriend took a road trip in a van. Left in January in Canada. Traveled from Calgary To Quebec, to New Orleans, To San Diego. The cold was a challenge but they loved it. They learned how to be self-sufficient. He says they stayed at Opryland’s parking lot. They went down to the lower 9th ward in New Orleans. They went to Chicago and many other places.

Cam Penner says his music comes across as “I, I”, but really he sees his music as an expression of the people he’s meant.

Cam Penner introduces “Ghost Car”. He talks about how they got stopped by the cops and were afraid they’d get searched. After that he immeidately wrote Ghost Car.

Cam Penner joined a commune called Jesus People USA.  Worked at homeless shelters there to help the commune. He imersed himself in helping the homeless. While he was there, he heard lots of raw stories. Cam says you can hang out with the ultra rich or ultra poor. Cam Penner did that from 18-31 and then took all that knowledge from working with the homeless when he chose to spend a year on the road. Gypsy Summer CD speaks to that simple life.

Cam Penner introduces, “Hey My My My,” he likes the lush background strings

Cam Penner talks about self-producing the CD. He discusses how he does his own tour bookings. Cam talks about renting a ranch house in southern Alberta so far out  there was no cell phone reception. He hired some musicians and had just a one day rehearsal before they started recording. Cam talks about this being a cohesive album.

Cam Penner talks about his recent tour to Ireland, UK, Netherlands, and Germany. He enjoys the fact that audiences are quieter and pay more attention to his music and what he has to say.

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Legal

The Taproot Radio Podcast is copyright 2011 by Taproot Media. The music and interviews in this episode are used with permission of the artists. The Taproot Theme music is called “Meltdown Man” by Derek K. Miller of Penmachine.com. The episode as a whole is copyright 2011 by Taproot Media.

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