Proceeds from new country song featuring Stampede legend to help the homeless

CALGARY (660 NEWS) — “There’s the horn and they’re off!” A simple but iconic phrase that started off over four thousand chuckwagon races at the Calgary Stampede is the opening to a new song about the sport.

The Backroad Traveler Band (BTB) released “A Day in the Country” this week; the single is unique in multiple ways as it not only features audio from the late Joe Carbury, but all the proceeds from the song will be donated to the Calgary Homeless Foundation.

BTB frontman Harold Fast said that work on the song started back in the fall of 2018.

“We had a cowboy at one of the rodeo/chuck events we were performing at ask us why don’t you write a Chuckwagon song,” Fast said, adding that the band had previously written a song called “Rodeo Time” that was specifically about the rodeo. “So we decided that we would venture down the trail of writing a song specifically for chuckwagon racing and the idea was born.”

Fast along with bandmates Pamela Fast, Bartek Chlebowski, and Sandy McCrae explain that they wanted to paint a picture with the song so there

are multiple references threw out the song like “Roll out the barrels, steady at the front” and “stove man throws, thoroughbreds role” to name a couple that can be heard throughout the four-minute piece.

The group said that as they were heading into the studio to record the song they started talking about having an announcer’s voice on the track, and with most of the band growing up and spending time around the Calgary Stampede one name came to mind, Joe Carbury.

McRae told 660 NEWS that he reached out to the late Stampede legends family and from there, things just started to fall into place.

“We approached the family and asked for permission to use his audio, which they were honoured to give us, ” McRae said. The band was able to get audio from the last races Carbury called in 2007. “Being able to include Joe Carbury and his family, it just made the song.”

Carbury’s daughter Coleen Hutton said that her dad would have been honoured to be a part of this project.

“We got to hear the song earlier this week, and it brought back a lot of memories of being at the chuckwagon races, — and then to hear my dad’s voice in the soundtrack of the song in several different clips it was almost as if he was coming back to life,” Hutton said.

In the past the Calgary band has worked with different not for profit groups and organizations, donating proceeds from the sale of their music along with helping build awareness.

McRae and Fast explain that in making this connection with Hutton, they learned she is the Director of Human Resources at the Calgary Homeless Foundation (CHF).

“In our conversations with the family and Coleen we got to learn more about the Calgary Homeless Foundation and the wonderful job that they do as an umbrella organization that supports 57 programs and 23 programs in the Calgary Area it made sense that we needed to partner with them,” McRae said.

The partnership sees all the proceeds from the song going towards the CHF, and the bands’ release party Saturday is also a benefit for the organization.

Vice President of Homeless Serving System of Care (HSSC), which is a part of CHF Matt Nomura said that the money raised by this song will help the foundation respond to homelessness in the city in effective, compassionate and cost effective ways.

So excited for this partnership!! https://t.co/SrmtGNifBA

— BackRoadTravelerBand (@BrTravelerBand) May 7, 2019

He adds that this collaboration is unique because looking at chuckwagon racing it is about teamwork, collaboration, trailblazing and achieving a common goal; which in a sense is what this partnership is doing.

“When you think about the essence of who we are as Calgarians, how do we embody that in our day to day actions,” Nomura said that it could be through a song or trailblazing innovation, there are so many examples of that taking place on a daily basis. “As individuals who can help we do what we can when we can, and that is what it means to be a Calgarian and having that can do spirit.”

A spirit Hutton remembers her dad having, telling a story about the CEO of the CHF Diana Krecsy who visited one of the buildings funded by the foundation shortly after Carbury’s death in 2017.

She said that one of the tenants had read the obituary in one of the papers and told Krecsy how sorry he was about Carbury’s passing.

“He said he remembered sitting around with friends of his, listening to my dads’ voice broadcasting the races,” Hutton said that these were people who were formerly homeless but what that told her and the CEO is this was a voice that reached people from all walks of life. “This makes this even more meaningful, with my dad now having an opportunity to be connected to the homeless foundation.”

The song can be found on different music apps like iTunes, Spotify, and Deezer.