Forget the steel horse or the loaded six-string of Bon Jovi’s outlaw on Wanted Dead or Alive, that guy’s a wuss compared to B.C.-badass Joey Only.
For years, the anti-folk artist and full-on rebel rocker has stuck his guitar up the annals of corporate greed as a social outlaw and political radical (he’s been arrested on that count a few times).
These days you can find the former punk rocker living an arguably quieter life in Wells, B.C., fronting the Joey Only Outlaw Band (actually a pretty loud country band), which has so far played more than 1,000 folk/outlaw shows in 11 provinces and territories and is destined to place Only in the classic Canadiana country music archives.
Also a mountain man, prospector, and former indie radio producer, Only is on a tour that brings him to Vernon’s Gallery Vertigo Saturday, where he will play an acoustic set and song exchange with folk artist Dave Soroka, who is from Grand Forks and has been writing songs since the late-‘60s.
“I put out the word I was coming down there and the song-off was his suggestion,” said Only. “I’m not opening for him, we are playing together. As he gets into a song, I’ll see where I’ll go with it. We have similar ideals in songwriting and structure.”
Only is also widely recognized for his ability to impersonate the late, great Stompin’ Tom Connors right down to his dusty, old boots, as he will prove when he performs his tribute to Stompin’ Tom in Nelson before arriving in Vernon.
“I don’t think Stompin’ Tom would have liked it - he would had said ‘sing your own damn songs,’” said Only, who instead plans to perform some of his original material with Soroka in Vernon.
The two road warriors met up while on the B.C. festival circuit and developed a friendship over the years.
“We were always talking in the background at the festivals and there were some musicians in my band who were playing with him around eight-to-nine years ago,” said Only. “He came up to Wells in 2011 for a quiet gig and I asked him if I could bring my bass.”
It’s been more than 12 years since Only originally left the bridge-lock of Vancouver to visit the Cariboo community of Wells, nestled near historic Barkerville and home of the famous ArtsWells festival.
“I went up there to hike and someone had heard my song Smells like Quesnel, which I wrote back in the day. They asked me to perform it at ArtsWells,” said Only.
He not only played the festival, he decided to relocate to Wells permanently and he and his wife have since turned an old abandoned sawmill-turned lumber depot-turned hotel, which they paid cash for, into their home.
“We thought, let’s find the most dilapidated building we could sink all of our money into,” said Only. “We’ve changed everything and have had to knock a few things off.”
Besides performing, fishing and renovating, Only hasn’t completely left his protesting days behind him. His upcoming album, No Trouble In The Peace, which he is raising money for through a GoFund Me page, is about trouble and redemption with explicitly Canadian content.
“My band, we’re a pretty obnoxious country band with a big double bass but my songwriting comes from a basic folk-rock-blues place... I try not to sing Nashville stuff and stick to Canadiana,” he said. “I used to run in the left-wing and I still like to perform those old union folk songs - the roots of Canadiana and Americana and working person songs.”
He calls this upcoming tour with Soroka a rare exchange of that music and storytelling.
“It’s strange to be 37 and considered a veteran. It’s like being a hockey player or a curler,” laughed Only. “I’ll be up there and hopefully they will be listening and paying attention... It will be a personable exchange between us.”
Only and Soroka take the stage at Gallery Vertigo (located upstairs at #1-3001 31st St.) Saturday, April 30 at 8 p.m. Opening is Sunny Daye. Suggested donation is $20 at the door. Limited seating.