My girlfriend and I are currently amidst a little hobby project reading the five titles nominated for the 2012 CBC Canada Reads competition. The actual contest ended a few months ago, with Carmen Aguirre’s Something Fierce taking the title, but better late than never. We’re planning on reading them all and then “joining in” on the debates that were presented during the competition.

One of those five titles, this year’s theme being non-fiction, was Dave Bidini’s On A Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian Rock. The book chronicles Dave’s memories from The Rheostatics (his band)’s 1996 tour across Canada opening for The Tragically Hip, then the biggest rock band in the country.

The prose relays Dave’s insightful, often funny, sometimes heartbreaking experiences – from that tour and some before it – while also sharing carefully-curated anecdotes from those that came before him in the game – Randy Bachman, Kim Mitchell, and others among them. It’s a great read, particularly for the avid music fan or, better yet, a musician familiar with what being “on the road” really means here in Canada.

I’m not sure yet if it’ll be my favourite of the five titles, but at this point, having only completed one other (and one that outlasted Bidini’s in the competition), it just might be, and in either case is definitely worth the read if you made your way to this particular blog…

This entry was posted on Monday, April 23rd, 2012 at 7:57 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.