Bob Bossin

Bob Bossin (born 1946) is a Canadian folk singer, writer and activist who co-founded the Canadian folk group Stringband with Marie-Lynn Hammond. Bossin is the writer of the songs "Dief Will Be the Chief Again", "Show Us the Length", "Tugboats", "The Maple Leaf Dog" and "Sulphur Passage (No pasaran)". As well, Bossin wrote and performed two solo musicals, Bossin's Home Remedy for Nuclear War and Davy the Punk. The latter is based on the book Davy the Punk (The Porcupine's Quill, 2014), His mother, Marcia Bossin (née Marcella Louise Levitt, 1912–2006) was a painter. His father, David Bossin (1905–1963), was a booking agent for nightclubs. Two of Bob's uncles were writers: Hye Bossin was a columnist and editor, and Art Arthur (né Bossin) was a screenwriter. Arthur wrote the 1946 Academy Award-winning documentary, Seeds of Destiny.

As a boy, Bossin fell in love with the early rock 'n rollers – Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent – but by 1958 he had turned his ear to folk music. The variety, earthiness and politics of folk songs so captivated Bossin that the genre became his musical home for the next half century. His university years coincided with the zenith of student and youth activism in Canada: the civil rights movement, opposition to the war in Vietnam, anti-nuclear and disarmament campaigns, and the nascent environment and feminist movements all engaged young people, Bossin among them. He became, and remained, a lifelong activist and social critic.

Those same years saw a revamping of CBC Radio by young, engaged journalists recruited from the student press, among them Doug Ward, Volkmar Richter, Mark Starowitz, and Peter Gzowski. When Gzowski became editor of Maclean's Magazine in 1971, he assigned 25-year-old Bossin a regular column. Bossin would continue to write essays and articles, and produce radio documentaries, for many years. But his main focus was music.

Stringband 1971–1986 A detailed history of Stringband can be found through the links section below.

Stringband recorded nine albums, toured Canada for 15 years, and performed in the U.S., the U.K, the U.S.S.R, France, Mexico and Japan. They gained a loyal, almost fanatical, following. The group disbanded in 1986, but in 2001, former fans donated $25,000 to fund The Indispensable Stringband, a retrospective CD-box set released in 2002.

Historian of Canadian folk music, Gary Cristall, summed up Stringband's influence: As they toured, they picked up regional images, stories and songs…. They had a repertoire that combined modernity and tradition, both official languages, family and history, politics and sex, geography and poetry, work and play.For Canadian musicians, Stringband's most significant influence came not from their music, but from how they purveyed it. Bob… realized that if you sold your own records, you made a lot more money than if a record company sold them. Others soon realized it too, partly as a result of watching Stringband. Bob perfected things that are now standard in independent music far beyond folk circles.…Stringband's core audience was the broad political and cultural left, the folks who built the anti-war movements, the environmental movement, and the women's movement… Stringband played their benefits and articulated their vision of the world. The band, and Bob and Marie-Lynn as individual artists, have never broken faith with these people or their beliefs.

Other singers, including Pete Seeger, Peggy Seeger, Ian Tyson and Valdy covered Bossin's songs. Despite little air play because of its explicit language, "Show Us the Length" became a favourite folk song among feminists and was performed by both professional and amateur singers as far away from Canada as New Zealand and Japan. In the U.S., Pete Seeger sang the song for years.

After Stringband disbanded in 1986, Bossin released several solo albums including Gabriola V0R1X0 (1994) and The Roses on Annie's Table (2005), the latter produced by Vancouver art-rock diva, Veda Hille. Bossin's songs included "The Secret of Life According to Satchel Paige" (1982), "Sulphur Passage (No pasaran)" (1989), "Ya Wanna Marry Me?" (1991), "Bill Miner" (1993) "Nanaimo" (2001), and "The Roses on Annie's Table" (2005).

"Bossin's songs were humane, evocative and literate," Gary Cristall writes in Some played harder... "He would give each song its own singer: an old camp cook reminiscing about the Wobbly who tried to organize cowboys; a tugboat man who, after 35 years on the Strait of Georgia, knew to 'wait and let it come to you.' Bob created Newfoundlanders who were not Canadian by a damn sight; Yukoners who brought lawn chairs and thermoses while the Casca and the Whitehorse burned down; and the guy from Saskatchewan hopefully awaiting the second coming of John Diefenbaker. Bob welded together sentiment, history and landscape as few songwriters have done." One song, Sulphur Passage (No pasaran) was made into a music video by documentary director, Nettie Wild. Sung by a Who's Who of British Columbia folk artists – Bossin, Stephen Fearing, Roy Forbes, Veda Hille, Ann Mortifee, Raffi, Rick Scott, Valdy, and Jennifer West – Sulphur Passage won a half-dozen awards. The video can be seen through the links section below. Sulphur Passage became the anthem of the Clayoquot protesters and played a significant role in the preservation of the Clayoquot forest.

Davy the Punk In the 1930s, Dave Bossin, Bob's father, was a notable figure in Toronto's gambling underworld. Intrigued by his father's history, Bob collected stories about "Davy the Punk" (Dave Bossin's underworld nickname) and the race-track milieu he inhabited. In 2014, The Porcupine's Quill published Davy the Punk: A Story of Bookies, Toronto the Good, the Mob and my Dad to glowing reviews. Subsequently, the book won the Pinsky-Givon prize for non-fiction and was short-listed for the Vine Prize. It also received a citation from Heritage Toronto. Bossin then based a one-person musical, also called Davy the Punk, on the book. The show toured Canada for several years. A film version is planned.

Only one bear in a hundred bites but they don't come in order

In 2017 Bossin released Only one bear in a hundred bites but they don't come in order, a video on the danger of a catastrophic fire at the terminus of the controversial Kinder Morgan pipeline. The proposed pipeline would carry tar-sands oil from Northern Alberta to the Port of Vancouver. The project faced vehement opposition by coastal citizens and First Nations. This opposition contributed to the defeat of the British Columbia Provincial Government in 2017. Released during the election campaign, Only one bear... received 13,000 views on YouTube and over 100,000 views on Facebook. The video was edited and designed by Paul Grignon.

Family life Bossin lives on Gabriola Island, British Columbia with his wife, fabric artist and illustrator, Sima Elizabeth Shefrin. Shefrin's graphic novella, Embroidered Cancer Comic (Singing Dragon, London, 2016) is based on their life together after Bossin's 2011 diagnosis with prostate cancer. Shefrin also illustrated Bossin's chap book, Latkes (Nick Books, 2005). Bossin has two children, Madelyn ("Gee"), born in 1993 and Davy, born in 1999.

Recordings Stringband, Canadian Sunset, 1973 Stringband, National Melodies, 1975 Stringband, Thanks to the Following, 1977 Stringband, The Maple Leaf Dog, 1978 Stringband Revisited, 1978 Stringband Live!, 1980 Stringband, Across Russia by Stage, 1983 Bossin's West Coast, 1986 Bossin's Home Remedy for Nuclear War, 1987 The Way We Was, 1990 Stringband, The Old Masters, 1991 Sulphur Passage (video), 1994 What happened at Clayoquot, (recording of CBC Ideas radio documentary), 2000 The Indispensable Stringband, 2002 The Roses on Annie's Table, 2005

Books Settling Clayoquot, 1981 Latkes, 2007 Davy the Punk, 2014

Awards

Davy the Punk Pinsky Given Prize for Non-Fiction, Western Canada Jewish Book Awards, 2016 Shortlisted for Vine Prize for Non-Fiction, Canadian Jewish Book Awards, 2016 Honourable Mention, Heritage Toronto Awards, 2015

Sulphur Passage Special Merit Award and Best Music Video, World Wildlife Film Festival, Missoula, USA, 1995 Special Merit Award, International Environmental Film Festival, Pretoria, South Africa, 1995 Special Recognition Award, NAAEE Film Festival, Cancun, Mexico, 1995 Call to Action Award, Mountain Film Festival, Telluride, USA, 1996

Latkes Sheldon Currie Prize for Fiction (2nd prize), Antigonish Review, 2007

Misc. Best feature article (nominee), National Magazine Awards, 2007