Country trio The Rhythm Pals, whose career spanned six decades, came together in New Westminster, British Columbia, in 1946. Although accordionist and baritone Marc Wald (born in Bismark, North Dakota, and raised in Wilkie, Saskatchewan), bassist and tenor Mike Ferbey (of Saskatoon) and guitarist and tenor Jack Jensen (of Prince Rupert) got their start on the CKNW radio show "Bill Rea's Roundup", Wald and Ferbey had already toured western Canada during the late '30's with Sleepy and Swede and the Tumbleweeds. The Rea show led to regular gigs on CBC Radio and, in 1948, a performance on American television with Spade Cooley, making them one of the first Canadian acts to appear on TV south of the border. Throughout the '50's, '60's and '70's they had their own CBC Radio shows, "Swing Easy" and "The Burns Chuckwagon Show", were regulars on Tommy Hunter's radio and television programs, continually toured North America with acts like Hunter and Wilf Carter and made occasional trips overseas (Marc Wald's site claims they even played the North Pole), and won Juno Awards for best country group in 1965, '67 and '68. Wald retired from the group in 1987, but Ferby and Jensen kept the act going until 1991, a full 45 years after The Rhythm Pals' first performance. Most recently, Jensen was awarded The Order Of British Columbia in 2005.

While The Rhythm Pals' music is definitely on the smoother, more urbane side of the country tradition, Canadian Town & Country Songs surprised me with its jazzy touches. These guys could definitely play, and they were one of the few old-time television country vocal groups who also provided their own musical accompaniment. The back cover mentions Wald is a jazz buff, and tunes like "What Do You Know" and "The Only Thing That Age Improves Is Wine" (a chilling meditation on the inexorable ravages of age disguised as a carefree love song) benefit from his arrangements, which include very jazz-like piano licks and guitar solos. "Big Lazy Old River," which sounds kinda like a Buck Owens tune, and "The Game Was Love" are more conventional country numbers, with close vocal harmonizing and honky-tonk solos. The album was recorded by Al Allbutt of Leeds Music Canada at Columbia Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.

What Do You Know
The Only Thing That Age Improves Is Wine
Big Lazy Old River
The Game Was Love

This record, a Canadian Talent Library (CTL) release, has the same musical line-up as the Al Harris LP, with Wally Traugott on violin and Harris on guitar supporting the Pals.

"The Stranger" is a swirling, melodramatic country tune written by Johnny Burt, a composer, arranger and pianist who acted as the musical director of the CTL between 1962 and 1972. "Western Avenue" is an up-tempo, good-natured instrumental by Wald and Ferbey, and "Steamboat Bill" is a really old (1910) and very entertaining song by Frank and Bill Leighton about a riverboat which explodes while attempting to beat a speed record on the Mississippi. "In A Little Spanish Town" is a jazzy instrumental version of a Mabel Wayne song that was covered by everyone from Ray Charles to Dean Martin to Gene Autry. And "Mama Don't Allow," my favourite track on the album, is another old tune (by Cow Cow Davenport) given a countrified treatment by the Pals, with each member of the band (including Harris and Traucott) getting a chance to cut loose with a solo.

The Stranger
Western Avenue
Steamboat Bill
In A Little Spanish Town
Mama Don't Allow

This Arc Records release by the Pals was recorded in the late 1950s, once they had moved from Vancouver to Toronto. At this point their career, they had a daily broadcast on CBC Radio, and were regular guests on the Tommy Hunter Show. On this album, the invited "Big John" McManaman, to join them with his 5-string banjo. Gotta Travel On is an oft-covered Bob Dylan track about having to get out of wherever it is you are. Lonely River has a pleasant gospel vibe, and They Call The Wind Maria really displays their vocal harmonies. Lastly, Marianne is all about a beautiful woman on the beach!

Gotta Travel On
On The Banks of That Lonely River
They Call The Wind Maria
Marianne

This LP, entitled Home Country was recorded at Toronto Sound Studios by engineer Peter Houston and producer Johnny Burt, with musical direction by Bert Niosi and arrangements by Art Snider, Jim Pirie and Bob McMullin. The album cover pictures the trio rocking some mildly psychedelic outfits on the set of the CBC's Tommy Hunter Show, a program they performed on quite often. "Saskatchewan" (not to be confused with The Rheostatics' tune) and "Isle Of St. Jean" - the album's best song - are epic, sweeping numbers with that wide-open Canadian sound. "St. Jean" was written by Gene MacLellan, a singer/songwriter whose work I really enjoy (he's best known for penning the Anne Murray hit "Snowbird"). As for "Chic A Rack A Chee Chan"...well, it's a good song, but the lyrics appear to be adapted from a 19th-century tune that made fun of Chinese immigrants to the U.S. Most of the song's overt racism has been scrubbed out, making it more confusing than truly offensive, but it's still a little, shall we say, retrograde.

Saskatchewan
Isle Of St. Jean
Chic A Rack A Chee Chan

We keep finding more Rhythm Pals albums, and here's yet another Canadian Talent Library release, called Tennessee Birdwalk. It's a collection intended for distribution to radio, and features a Gordon Lightfoot track (Bitter Green), along with a series of other cover tunes including the novelty title track, which was wirtten by J. Blanchard.

The Mess I'm In (written by Canadian Ross Allen, and very much a country track, though the chorus is as close to acid rock as the Pals would ever get)
Over You (written by Dave Martins, )
Tennessee Birdwalk (a fun track, no matter who does it)