The Paranormal Adventures of Uncle Mike
MIKE RUD
BRR-202501LP
BRR-202501CD
Track Listing
- The Lonely Sea Monster of Pigeon Lake, Alberta (3:59)
- Edna and Maurice (4:36)
- Jitterbug Waltz (2:56)
- Radio Interlude #1
- The UFO Crash at CFB Southport, Manitoba, 1973 (6:54)
- Your Neighbourhood Witch (Edmonton, Alberta, 1971) (4:45)
- The Manor House (Streetsville, Ontario, 1979) (7:26)
- None of You Will Leave This Song Alive (3:21)
- Radio Interlude #2
- The Tennessee Waltz (4:56)
- Radio Interlude #3
A warning to the listener: once heard, this music will forever whisper its furtive truth to your innocent soul. I, Uncle Mike, on this thirty-first day of October, in the year of our Lord 2024, do swear that the following events all happened to me, at various times.
… sort of.
I refuse to admit which parts do, or do not, map onto ‘reality,’ to use that squalid little term.
What follows is a grim and fantastical travelogue of Canada; the Canada in which I grew up. This account, shaped though it is by fanciful and fevered imagination, nonetheless grasps toward a truth. It is a truth shaped by innumerable Sunday afternoons at the cinema, and in front of television screens, where human shortcomings were re-portrayed as mad scientists, vampires, space aliens, great stalking monsters, and other splendid synecdoche of our greatest hopes and horrors.
It is the heart’s truth of an eleven-year-old Canadian boy from the prairies in the 1970s. It is therefore a truth about a place within the self, surpassing what can be accommodated with mere adherence to ‘facts.’
Album Credits
Mike Rud – Guitar, Guitar Synth, Vocals
Karl Januska – Drums
Yoni Zelnik – Acoustic Bass
Chris Andrew – Piano, Upright Piano, Accordion, Electronic Keyboards, Theremin
Paul Johnston – Additional Upright Bass (on Edna and Maurice)
Cynthia Hamar, Annaletha Boateng – Backing Vocals
Stu Jeffries – Radio announcer interludes
All music and lyrics copyright Mike Rud (SOCAN) 2022,
Except Jitterbug Waltz, by Fats Waller (Alfred Publishing)
And Tennessee Waltz, by Redd Stewart and music by Pee Wee King (Rose Music)
Recorded at
Studio Prado, Paris, France, May 2022
James Johnston Studio, Montreal, Quebec, June 2023
MacEwan University Studio, Edmonton, Alberta, February and December 2024
Recorded by
Pierre Dachary, Paris, France
Paul Johnston, Edmonton, Alberta, Montreal, Quebec
Thanks to Havelock John Tucker, Nelson, British Columbia
Produced by Paul Johnston
Mixed by Paul Johnston
Assistant Engineers: Kaleb Favell, James Johnston, Leili Rastad, Joshua Bauer
Mastered by Guy Hebert
Executive Producer Craig Monk
Bent River Records Team: Kristjan Buckingham, Padraig Buttner-Schnirer, Russell Comrie, Riley Dickinson, Will Drake, Rose Ginther, Ijaz Janmohamed, Paul Johnston, John McMillan, Jussi Pitkanen, Leili Rastad, Xavier Svekla.
Special thanks to MacEwan University’s Provost, Dr. Craig Monk, for his ongoing support of Bent River Records.
Special Thanks also to Selkirk College SCFA Professional Development Fund.
Album Design by Deki Smiljkovic, DESN 231, Typography II, Design, MacEwan University
Design Management by Alex Keays, Assistant Professor
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