Folk veteran Valdy returning to Brandon

Canadian folk musician Paul Valdemar Horsdal — known by his fans as Valdy — is scheduled to perform a free concert at Brandon’s Riverbank Discovery Centre Aug. 21.

Valdy said he’s bringing some new music as well as the hits everybody knows, including the tune “Rock And Roll Song” that made him famous after he was booed off the stage at a B.C. rock festival in the late 1960s.

“I was out of place,” Valdy said in a recent phone interview from his Salt Spring Island home. “A folk singer booked at the Aldergrove Rock Festival in 1969, and it was raucous. They were having a great day digging rock and roll, when suddenly a folk singer was put on stage. A lot of them were a bit shocked at it and preferred that they get back to the programming they wanted, yelling ‘rock, rock,’ and ‘get off the stage.’

“So, I played until someone clapped and then I ran, and I’ve been singing about it ever since,” he said as he chuckled.

Valdy, at 79, has won two Juno Awards for folk singer of the year and folk entertainer of the year, with seven other nominations. He has more than a dozen albums — four that had sales of nearly half a million copies.

Some of his well-known songs include “Simple Life” and “A Good Song.” With the Hometown Band he scored hits with “Yes I Can” and “Peter and Lou.”

Valdy is booked for two Manitoba gigs this summer — in Portage la Prairie and Brandon, two days apart.

When asked, Valdy couldn’t say how many times he has played in the Wheat City, but said his August concert will be his third in three years at the Fusion Credit Union Stage, counting himself “lucky to have played in Brandon and area a fair bit” over his career.

Last September, he drew a crowd of more than 1,500.

“I’ll keep coming as long as the crowds do, and I generally do a lot of songs that people know me by. That’s the reason I’m being hired. My job is to be good. I get up there for the people,” he said.

“They know the music, they expect it, and I deliver. And then there’s the other factor of being a folk singer. People like to sing, so I do all of that in the show.”

Valdy’s free concert is being presented by the City of Brandon’s Parks and Recreation Services as part of its Music in the Park series offered each Tuesday evening at Princess Park.

This summer there are three additional concerts booked on the outdoor stage at the Riverbank Discovery Centre.

Valdy’s August appearance is sandwiched between Kates Outlaw performance in July and the Royal Canadian Air Force Band in September.

Valdy is always a big hit and brings an element of “Canadiana,” said the city’s recreation co-ordinator, Brady Dane.

“I was so impressed with Valdy the first time we had him,” Dane said. “The music he plays, the way he works the crowd and his stage presence — it’s a really wonderful show and is what our audience responds to.

“It was just dripping in Canada. He has a lot of love for Canada and a lot of nostalgia, which is great.”

On the day Valdy spoke with the Sun from his home in B.C., he was about to get rid of an invasive plant called Scotch broom.

He calls himself an environmentalist and a steward of “15 acres of Douglas fir, making sure the woods are healthy.”

When he is not on tour, Valdy said he is constantly writing and will play a “gig or two” at the Tree House Café not far from his and his wife’s home.

“I have a collection of new tunes that I just put down in the studio, so I will present those in Brandon as well,” he said.

Valdy said he can’t think of a day in the future when he won’t be playing.

“Oh no, we don’t retire in show business, people just stop coming. And music is my therapy. Music and performing keep me balanced,” he said.

“We have to find out what feeds our soul, because we need it. Our souls need good nutrition. Nutrition for the soul,” he exclaimed.

When the Sun pointed out that his last phrase would make a great song lyric, he laughed and said, “I see a headline.”

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

» enviromichele.bsky.social