DESCRIPTION:
This song of mine, Saskatchewan 1939, was inspired by a letter written to me by my uncle, Joe Scott, a letter from which I quote at the beginning of the video. After my family had moved west, I wrote to Joe to ask him what he could remember about the Dirty Thirties. In return I received a 19-page handwritten letter. I count that letter among the treasures of my life. Prairie people, during the Great Depression, pulled together in ways those of us born at a later time could never imagine. My uncle Vern was a farmer who had a farm outside of Caron, where, as a boy, I spent a lot of time in the summers.

The musicians on the recording are from the Norwegian psychedelic country band, Poisoned Red Berries. Harald Vaernor is featured on lead guitar, and Tone Stojke plays dobro. Harald Vaernor and Magne Hellesjo produced the recording, recorded at Harald's Bunker in Hegedal, outside of Oslo.

Many of the photographs used in the video are from the amazing collection of Dorothea Lange. Bless her for documenting the times. A few photographs are from my own family's albums. DL

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