Friday, August 20, 1999 — North Shore News — 13

NORTH SHORE NEWS ENTERTAINMENT & STYLE GUIDE

Danny Mack

Michael Becker

News Editor
michael@nsnews.com

“.. firme was addicting and fortunes were jew, booked on obsessions that tear you i
nwo. uew was it all so clusive and net what it seemed, spending balf of vour life in your
rock “nn? roll dream?” — Rock And Roll Dreams, trom Alriqht Now.

DANNY Mack is alright.

He's been called a cosmic cowboy and a Canadian orginal. There's some room
to move benveen the accolades. It's just cnough space to define the remarkable
musical journey the Vancouver singer-songwriter has taken during the past 37 years,

In June, Mack quietly released a small gem ofa CD called Adriabt Naw.

It’s a stripped down, bare-boned production, rife with honest songs and shor
through with humour and the confessions of one brave enough to live fife wide
awake.

Mack's rough vocal warmth is framed with intuitive guitar interplay by Dan
Tapanila and Mack.

The owo musicians are old buddies. They've played together in various bands
and for the sheer heck of it since 1966. Alriqht Now lives outside the commercial
crowd thanks co the motivation that fired its creation, Irs greatly responsible for the
resulting coherent integrity of the project.

Says Mack, “Over the years we would sit in kitchens and we would play with just
a couple of acoustic guitars. That was never presented to the public and it was never
recorded.

“TF always thought that it was a unique music that just him and J created. We'd
sit for hours and just laugh and sing crazy songs — make up just the most ridicu-
fous songs and just have fun.”

Mack booked some weekend studio time after he proposed the CD project to
Tapanila.

“I said Dan we'll go in and we'll record a CD. [in the end you and [ike it and
nor another person on the planet does, so be it. It's OR. Wwe record a CD and
print up a thousand copies and stand on the corner of Georgia and Granville and
give them away, after we're long dead and gone those CDs will still have a life of
their own. They’re out there somewhere in the history of Canadian music. Those
were the two motivations.”

Nevertheless, the CD has assumed a life of its own already. It’s being distributed
in Canada by Festival Distribution. It’s generated kind mentions in the press. And
in September, Mack travels to Alberta ro play solo in Edmonton and Calgary tor
some radio TV and club exposure.

There was a time when Mack wasn’t so alright. It apparently came with the ter-
ritory. ;

He grew up on the mean streets near Main Street in Vancouver. During the late
1950s and carly 1960s he was involved in street gang stuff. “Twas one of the boys,”
says Mack.

By 1962 he traded the street for the stage as a member of The Van-Dels, a
Vancouver R&B group. Many more music incarnations followed: Danny Soul and
the Banff Playboys; the psvchedelic treak-out rock of Hydro Elvetric Streetcar;
country rock with Fireweed; country and western swing with “he Cement City
Cowboys; Danny Mack and Alberta Crude.

He’s made a lot of worthwhile music.

A rare platter erying out for re-issue is In Circle, a Fireweed album recorded
with Chief Dan George in 1973. The cise includes the chiefs famous Canadian
centennial speech as well as him singing the standard My Bine Heaven.

Mack has passed through the crucible.

Says Mack, “I certainly had developed some serious alcohol and drug problems.
1 now live completely clean and sober. It (substance abuse) kind of went along with
the deal.

“The soul searching part is something that P've been interested in for years. 1
was a fidle bit nervous about this recording in the sense that maybe [ shouldn't say
anything. In hindsight it sound a bit like there’s jadedness about relationships, but I
hope it’s humorous. I certainly have done the footwork, the process being, as far as I
know, is to almost reach a point of ego deflation at depth and admit that you really
didn’t know much about living.

Photo Dakoiamack ine.
DANNY Mack's musical travels take him inside for set of a personal dispatches on the
independently released Alright Now.

“The belief systems that | created right from a child on, and acted out of, were not necessarily ative experience.

true. They were built on false foundations trom the beginning. The process for me has been to

“Some pesple in the film business heard it. Now Dan and I are doing the soundtrack for a little

break down my belief systems and recreate them. It makes fite a whole for more enjoyable and a feature that’s being shat here. {t's called We AM Fall Down, V'm acting in thar as well. It’s written

whole fort better.” 7 . . ;
Since 1995 Mack has shifted his carcer to film and TV as an actor aitd stand-in.

and produced by Martin Cummins and Richard Burton. It’s a real street movie, about these young,
artists and actors who ger all strung out on crack and booze and stuff. Some of them make it, and

Alright Now has since opened the door to a film project and is giving Mack a shot ata new cre- some of them don’t.”

CALENDAR:14 DOROTHY MISSING COMEDY:15 CAN-AM WOMEN CINEMA:17 SHOWTIMES
ARTS:17 OUR SALMON OUR CHILDREN ONE EARTH HOLLYWOOD:18 VISITING ELVIS ON SET
DINING:20 CASUAL GOURMET - CHARLOTTE WOOQLEY-BERRY MAGAZINES:21 TINA BROWN’S TALK
DEBUTS - BIOGRAPHY - CHANNEL - SOUTHWEST ART BOOKS:21 PAUL AUSTER’S TIMBUKTU
BEING THERE:24 ABERRATION - NEW BIG SHOES - TRICKY WOO - SLOT 9 - STOLTMANN FESTIVAL
CD REVIEWS:25 TROMBONE SHOUT BANDS - BLUES ROUTES - MACY GRAY - JOHNNY COPELAND