Daniel Cainer and Bob Bossin are performing together in several cities in the province Oct. 18-25. Cainer is a British singer-songwriter, described as “the Comic Bard of Anglo-Jewry,” and Bossin is the founder of Canada’s renowned 1970s and ’80s folk group Stringband. They each offer songs that are both funny and deeply meaningful.
Bossin and Cainer met in London in 2016 and they immediately liked each other. They kept in touch over the next few years and spent time with each other in 2019, when Cainer opened the Chutzpah! Festival in Vancouver. Seven years later, with Bossin now 80 years old, they are finally touring together.
Many of Cainer’s songs are Jewish stories, often humorous and entertaining but moving as well. A personal crisis at the beginning of the century led him to a therapist (who he described as the only non-Jewish therapist in London) who suggested he explore his cultural origins. As he did, songs poured out of him, drawn from family, history and identity and the everyday humour of Jewish life. “I didn’t choose to write the stuff,” said Cainer. “It somehow wrote itself through a strange sort of guidance from the Almighty, but it certainly wasn’t my career plan.”
Cainer has composed music for documentaries and dramas for all major UK networks, and has produced and played with top artists at major studios including Abbey Road. But his “Jewish song craft is immaculate and his skill is unmatched,” said American Jewish rock musician Dan Nichols.
Bossin also has a long musical history, having written such Canadian folk classics as “The Maple Leaf Dog,” “Tugboats” and “Dief Will Be the Chief Again.” In addition, Bossin’s book, Davy the Punk, the story of his father’s career in the horse-race gambling business, won the Pinsky-Givon Prize for non-fiction at the Western Canada Jewish Book awards and was one of three finalists for the Vine Award for Canadian Jewish literature.
These shows this month are a rare chance to see two master songwriters at work. Canada’s late, great storyteller Stuart Maclean said of Bossin: “Only a handful of songwriters have created a body of work that constitutes a portrait of our country. Stan Rogers did that. So did Gordon Lightfoot. And so does Bob Bossin.”
The current tour includes concerts in Victoria on Oct. 18, Nanaimo on Oct. 21, Gabriola Island on Oct. 22-23 and at the Notional Space in Vancouver on Oct. 25. Cainer will present his solo show, What Am I, Chopped Liver?, at Burquest on Oct. 24 and Temple Sholom on Oct. 25.
For tickets to any of the shows, more information about each of the performances and to hear examples of their music, visit bossin-cainer.com.
Sima Elizabeth Shefrin is a visual artist. She lives on Gabriola Island.
