Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Newburgh singer-songwriter David Archibald will share stories of Ontario’s military history through song during a special presentation at the L&A County Museum and Archives on Nov. 12 at 7 p.m.
Farmsteads to Front Lines will feature 10 original songs as well as some war time favourites that were popular ways to keep spirits up doing dark times. The song collection covers the era of the War of 1812 to WWII.
“A number of years ago I got asked to do a few songs for the Bruce County Museum and Archives in South Hampton, On.,” Archibald said of the inspiration for the songs. “They were opening up a new military gallery and so I had access to a lot of their archival material which was terrific, so a number of songs came from that.”
Some of that material included letters written from the home front to spouses back home, which inspired War Without End, a duet with Georgette Fry. Archibald sings the part of a solider on the front lines while Fry’s vocals tell the tale of a wife back home trying to keep the homestead going while always wondering of the fate of the solider.
“After that I got talking to Bruce McPherson at Gibbard’s and he got me in touch with various women who had worked at the Gibbard factory during the war,” said Archibald. “Out of that came a song called the Gibbard’s Rockettes, which is what the guys at the factory nicknamed these girls just out of high school who were taking over jobs left vacant by fellas that had enlisted.”
Another more sombre tale is told in the song title A Cheque And A Cross.
“It was a young Ontario lad, he enlisted in 1941and he went to North Bay to train and was expecting to go over to Europe but instead got sent right across the continent and onto Hong Kong,” said Archibald. “That was a disaster defence of Hong Kong at Christmas time in 1941 and he was killed and his mother on Christmas Eve got a telegram and a cheque for $112 of his back pay a little silver cross. His death changed the entire trajectory of that family because he was going to take over the farm and so they had to sell the farm and nothing was the same after that.”
Along with his performance the presentation will include images of some of the war time artifacts he’s had access to during the writing of the songs. Together the songs and visuals will provide a unique insight to the impact a global war had on the rural communities not unlike Lennox and Addington County.
Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and the cost is $3 per person.