Here’s Tiller’s Folly bassist and producer Laurence Knight with a quick shout out to our friends and fans!
Since the early 1960s, humans have been capturing cetaceans for display and entertainment.
August 8, 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of a horrific event;
Penn Cove, WA, August 8th,1970 – More than 90 orcas were stalked and herded into a three-acre net by deafening explosives, speedboats and airplane. Young calves were torn from their mothers inside the pens using speedboats and nets. The helpless mothers could do nothing but watch their children be taken away. They would never see them again. As many as five Orcas died trying to rescue the young.
Seven juvenile Orcas in all were kidnapped that day and delivered to marine parks around the world. By 1987, all but one had died in captivity.
Lolita (AKA Tokitae) is the lone survivor of the Penn Cove capture. She has languished under abominable conditions for a half-century, inhabiting the smallest Orca enclosure in North America.
Cetaceans (orcas in particular) are extremely intelligent beings. More so than could have been imagined 50 years ago. Orcas thrive in very close-knit families. They are sentient (ie: aware) beings whose ability to convey complex thoughts and emotions (among their own kind) rivals that of humans. In so many ways Orcas are humans of the sea.
“I never dreamed when I wrote this song 5 years ago, that we would still be singing it today” – Bruce Coughlan
The idea was simple; use music to raise awareness.
About this video:
In early 2016 Laurence Knight, Nolan Murray & Bruce Coughlan of Tiller’s Folly got together with Holly Arntzen & Kevin Wright from The Wilds. A mutual friend and bandmate, Shawn Soucy invited us to his Spirit Studio where, along with friend Ted Tosoff, we recorded this version of Bring Lolita Home, a song that Bruce had written.
Nolan reached out to his friends Howard Garrett of the Orca Network and Ken Balcomb at the Centre for Whale Research on San Juan Island. Through those connections we were able to obtain this stunning footage.
The initial attention that Bring Lolita Home gained with Orca advocates both regionally and internationally brought us in touch with a number of organizations and First Nations communities who share our passion for the amazing place we call the Salish Sea.
Holly Arntzen: piano/vocals
Bruce Coughlan: vocalist/guitarist
Laurence Knight: vocals & electric bass
Nolan Murray: electric mandolin
Kevin Wright: vocals & cajon
Music & lyrics by Bruce Coughlan (SOCAN)
Shawn Soucy/Spirit Media: videographer/recordist/editor
Produced by Laurence Knight
What do Gord Downey, Simon & Garfunkle, Bread, Roy Forbes, Ferron, One Horse Blue, Angela Harris, John Cowan and New Grass Revival have to do with Tiller’s Folly’s “A River So Wide” CD and this Spotify Playlist?
All of these tunes feature musicians who performed on our A River So Wide CD:
Larry Knechtel (keyboards): Of LA Wrecking Crew fame featured on Wurlitzer piano and Hammond organ. Here are his Grammy Winning arrangement and piano on “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” and inspired guitar part in Bread’s “Guitar Man” of which he was an original member.
Steven Drake (co-producer): Here are the tunes “Black Flies” and “Trick Rider” from Steven’s production of Gord Downey’s “Coke Machine Glow” He also played bass on these 2 tracks.
John Cowan (vocals): Here are 2 tunes featuring John’s amazing vocals “Callin’ Baton Rouge” from the legendary New Grass Revival and John’s version of “Things I haven’t Done” that John from his “ Sixty” Cd which hit the top 20 US Americana charts
Gord Maxwell (vocals): Here is a great track “Starting All Over Again” featuring Gord’s lead vocals with One Horse Blue. One Horse Blue was a great Canadian band who deserved much more success.
Chris Nordquist (drums) & Laurence Knight (bass): Rhythm Section Chris and Laurence have been playing together for over 40 years now. Here are a couple of tracks featuring Chris and Laurence from Folk Icons Ferron “Up The Misty Mountain” and Roy Forbes “Not Tonight”
Eric Reed (mandolin & slide guitar): Here is a track from alt country artist Angela Harris that features Eric. Eric was a member of Tiller’s Folly for 2 years and also engineered and mixed our Buchan Bluegrass CD. Eric also performed on our 20th anniversary DVD.
Jack Myers was an outlaw. Small but wiry, he had a short temper and was tough as nails. He had been a member of an outlaw gang in Wyoming and boasted of having killed four men. 1893 found Myers in jail in Port Blackely, Washington for stealing logs, then, while being held in an Everett, Washington jail on forgery charges, he escaped. With a $100 bounty on his head, Jack Myers made his way to Tumbo Island in the Canadian Gulf Islands where he bought an 18 ft. sloop.
He set sail for Burrard Inlet and the town of Vancouver, British Columbia, where he acquired ten cases of stolen Gaelic whiskey. Using the alias Ben Kennedy, he set about bootlegging up the inside passage towards the Discovery Islands.
June 24, 1893 – Myers arrived at the Taylor Logging Camp on Read Island (between Quadra & Cortez Islands) with a boatload of stolen Gaelic whiskey. After a weekend of heavy drinking, Myers became irate over a lost bet. When one logger, a gentle giant named Jack O’Conner, tried to subdue him Myers pulled his pistol.
An investigation was made by Michael Manson and Frederick Hussey. A dramatic chase and eventual capture followed, and Myers charged on July 12, 1893. He was tried at New Westminster in November of 1893. Found guilty of manslaughter, he was sentenced by Justice Norman Boles to life imprisonment at the Provincial Penitentiary.
The following fall Myers, while on a work gang, made a break for freedom and was fatally shot by a prison guard.
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