Stompin' Tom Connors, Canadian Icon

 Stompin' Tom Connors was born Charles Thomas Connors in New Brunswick in 1936 to a single Protestant mother who was not allowed to marry his Catholic father. The first part of his life was lived in abject poverty and he left home at age 13, bought a guitar at age 14 and hitchhiked around Canada singing for his next meal.

At his last stop in Timmins Ontario, he found himself a nickel short of a 35-cent beer at the city's Maple Leaf Hotel. Tom told the bartender to put the cap back on the bottle and he'd head for the Sally Ann, but the bartender, Gaëtan Lepine, accepted the 30 cents and offered him a second beer if he would open his guitar case and play a few songs. These few songs turned into a 14-month run at the hotel, a weekly spot on CKGB in Timmins, eight 45-RPM recordings, and the end of the beginning for Tom Connors.

Connors was never part of the Canadian musical establishment like Gordon Lightfoot or Leonard Cohen. He wrote and sang of a nation without politics, to its proud history, and to its better angels. His songs remind us that Canada matters—that we've built something amazing here, and must not take it for granted.

 Stompin' Tom smoked about 100 cigarettes per day and consumed an equivalent amount of beer. He died of kidney failure in 2013 and it seemed all Canada turned out for his funeral.