Cam Penner

Calgary troubadour walks this road alone

By Scott Chomistek

With his startling honesty and empathy for the plight of the working poor and disenfranchised, Cam Penner has, at the young age of 34, established himself as a key figure in the Calgary folk and roots scene. His latest album, Trouble and Mercy, is a spare, stark album that stands out in contrast to his roots-rock recordings of the past. It is a truly inspired effort from an artist who is coming into his own. The instruments are stripped down, but there is a soulfulness in this recording that more than makes up for the subdued tempos. As opposed to the loosely connected collections of songs that had made up his previous albums, there is more of a concept associated with his new album, as Penner attests to.

“It’s an album this time,” says Penner. “I write about the pull between what’s right and wrong, you know? Maybe that comes from growing up in a religious family and working with homeless people. I believe this is my first album. Most of these songs reflect living in a boomtown. You know, this is a funny city. You’ve seen the financial classes divide, the poor middle class and the rich class. One got smaller and one got bigger. Every time I go on the road and come back two months later, it’s different, there’s so much machismo.”

Penner’s latest project is a solo album, as he has parted ways with his backing band of many years, the Gravel Road. Out on his own now, Penner speaks with a contagious excitement of the new direction his career is taking and how a change of scenery has impacted his music in a very positive, meaningful way.
“Sometimes, you have to start with a clean slate. You have to change things to be inspired,” says Penner. “This album is about the last three and a half years changing for me. I threw everything in a sack, cashed in on everything I had left, and threw caution to the wind with a little bit of a plan in mind. You do change and people don’t always know who you are. I allow myself to be affected when I go out on the road because you want that to happen. It changes you as a person for the better — I’m always aware of that. People tell you their philosophies on life, people tell you what they’ve experienced, and you go away from everybody who knows you.

“When you go away, you bring back souvenirs, but mine aren’t t-shirts.”
The recordings on the new album are deceptively simple, haunted by restless, lonely souls coinciding with Penner’s relative disdain for what is becoming an increasingly materialistic world. Penner has an interesting view of what most people think of as alienation — another recurring theme on the album — in that sometimes alienation to the rest of society is often self-imposed.

“Everyone’s different. Some of the bottle-pickers, for example, don’t want to be part of our society. I don’t like being part of our society sometimes either. Why does it always have to be go-go-go? They’re happy working six hours a day, making 25 bucks, getting a little bit of food and a bottle and hanging out with their friends. They’re doing the same thing that most of us do — working 40 to 60 hours a week to buy a bottle and hang out with their friends. They just don’t worry about having a wood structure around them.

“The thing with these first world countries is that we think we should have more and I think we need to live with less. I think this whole concept went into this album: less words, less instruments. I don’t mind having a smaller place, I don’t mind walking somewhere if I have to. I don’t mind having less stress in my life.”
Not unlike the protagonists in his songs, Penner continues to work independently, doing much of the promotion and legwork for getting his music out to the public. Penner makes the difficult and risky nature of self-promotion seem like an opportunity, which is consistent with his unfailingly optimistic demeanour.

“Every time I put an album out, I send it out to about 400 radio stations around the world and people play my music,” explains Penner. “When you go overseas, even if you only break even, that’s a great thing to have. It’s such a slow build, building up your fan base. And the industry is losing steam. Until you can make your booking agent or label money, you can’t get them. So, I started up my label and the work is non-stop.”

Far from this being a complaint, Penner speaks like a man energized and a songwriter who truly understands his vision. His philosophy is infectious — Penner makes one think that by standing up for what we believe in, we can make the biggest difference in an often ambivalent world. 
“You should serve your convictions. If not, you’re not serving yourself. That’s not selfish, that’s positive.”

Cam Penner will play a host of shows in Alberta this month. He’ll appear at Calgary’s Ironwood (May 8-9), Calgary’s Ship and Anchor (May 10), Lethbridge’s the Slice (May 11), and Coleman’s Rumrunner (May 12).