(The following story by Anna Krejci appeared on the Wisconsin Dells Events website on December 12.)
WISCONSIN DELLS, Wisc. — Award-winning Canadian musicians performed tunes of the season almost within arm’s reach of the audience once the lighted Canadian Pacific Railway’s Holiday Train crept to a halt at the Amtrak Depot in the Dells Sunday.
It was the second year the train has stopped in Wisconsin Dells with its mission of raising hunger awareness. It stops at some 40 U.S. communities, transporting big-name performers delivering free, hour-long concerts in hopes that spectators make food or monetary donations to local food pantries. The train has been operating for nine years.
Lisa Williams, supervisor of the Central Wisconsin Community Action Council Food Pantry that benefited from Sunday’s performance, said more than $6,300 was raised and more than 1,650 pounds of food collected. The numbers were less than what was collected last year when 2,000 pounds of food were donated as well as $7,400 raised.
“CWCAC is very thankful to the Canadian Pacific Railroad for stopping their Holiday Train in Wisconsin Dells and helping bring awareness to the needs of the hungry in our community,” Williams said. “Although it was very cold out, spirits were warm,” she added.
Thirteen businesses in downtown Wisconsin Dells held containers for food donations. Mark Sweet, member of Downtown Dells Committee, said the effort yielded 10 large boxes of food items, though they haven’t weighed them.
“I’m certainly pleased with the result, given the number of businesses that were involved,” he said.
This year the CP Holiday Train originated on Dec. 1 in Scranton, Pa. and will end its journey Dec. 17 in a Canadian town northwest of the Montana-North Dakota border, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
This year the train brought country music artist Tracey Brown, blues guitarist and songwriter Colin Linden, and family duo Ennis to town.
An interview with each of the performers while they traveled on the train from Portage to Wisconsin Dells revealed the inspirations in their careers, a sense of what life is like for the traveling performer and a glimpse into where they will be spending the holidays.
Brown is the youngest member of Canada’s country music group, The Family Brown. The group from Ottawa was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 1997, according to the Canadian Country Music Association’s Web site.
In recent years Brown was nominated for Canada’s Juno Award for Country Female Vocalist and a CCMA title of Independent Female Vocalist for a 1998 solo release “Woman’s Work.”
Her inspiration comes from her family.
“My father was in the business and that’s how I got into it,” she said.
And she continues to be inspired by the musical careers of her two children.
Brown has been motivated as well by seeing other performers in action.
“I’ve always been inspired by people who put on a good show, who respect the audience, the people that come out and support them. And this whole tour is quite inspirational as an artist,” she said.
Brown spends time getting to know the fellow performers. On board the train she said she has played games like Balderdash and Cranium with Karen and Maureen Ennis, the sister duo from St. John’s Newfoundland that incorporates Celtic music into their songs. In 1999 Maclean’s magazine named Ennis Sisters one of the top 100 Canadians to follow and in 2002 Ennis won a Juno Award for Best New Country Artist/Group, according to the Ennis Web site.
The three musical groups, although they have different styles, have the mission of the train in common, Linden noted.
“One of the greatest aspects of the train . . . is there’s a spirit of collaboration and a spirit of community that exists when we go out and play to people, but also exists when we’re sitting in the back room having dinner or playing board games or doing whatever we end up doing together. And that’s something that in spite of the fact that musically Tracey, Ennis and me are all from different worlds that’s a kind of a commonality that we have,” he said.
Linden is from Canada , although he spent part of his childhood in White Plains, New York and has been living in Nashville, Tenn. for 10 years. He finds beauty in his traveling gig on the CP Holiday Train.
“It’s real stimulating going from town to town. I think there’s a great tradition, be it carnivals or vaudeville or something with traveling shows, there’s some romance involved with that. You feel that for sure on the train, especially in some ways playing in smaller towns, communities that are off the beaten trail,” he said.
Linden made his first stop ever to Wisconsin Dells on Sunday, although it wasn’t his first visit to Wisconsin. In 1994 he performed in Madison and in 2004 he played in Milwaukee with Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, a group which in 2007 released a fifth album called “Let’s Frolic Again.”
His impression of Wisconsin Dells before landing at the tiny Amtrak Depot on La Crosse Street is that it was naturally beautiful and known for its waterparks. At the start of his performance Sunday he dropped a line into the microphone, noting the irony of playing in a town where one can stand within site of both a torture museum and a wedding chapel.
Linden estimates he has written 500 songs over 30 years; he can’t quite pinpoint a song-writing process.
“It’s still a mystery. Something strikes you and compels you to write something down or sing something into the tape recorder or to close your eyes and imagine how something’s going to go and it comes from beyond you I think,” he said.
But lyrics for Linden seems to be a platform to address subjects that aren’t talked about.
“Sometimes you write songs because all the stuff that you feel but is ungraceful to talk about you find a little more grace in discussing it in a song,” he said.
Karen Ennis, who sings and plays the tin whistle and flute said the inspiration for the songs her sister, Maureen writes comes from their home, St. John’s Newfoundland.
Even though the Ennis sisters just recently moved to Nashville in September, it is evident Karen holds St. John’s Newfoundland dear to her heart.
She described the island of St. John’s Newfoundland as the most easterly point in Canada, which has its own time zone.
Karen said its enduring winters where music was a leading source of entertainment and her upbringing facilitated her career.
“I remember so many times as a child growing up, a teenager and even now when you get together with friends there was always music. Someone brought a guitar or a fiddle or whistle,” she said.
As the performers pass the weeks on the train Christmas grows closer. Brown and Ennis will spend the holidays at home, in Ottawa and St. John’s Newfoundland, respectively.
“We have a really laid back Christmas after this tour. . .,” Brown said. “I’m so filled with Christmas spirit here because of the audiences and then I get home and I’m like, ‘Okay, I don’t know if I can do another Christmas song.'”
But after cutting down a tree and surrounding herself with family Brown said she settles back into the Christmas spirit.
Although Karen looks forward to Christmas it will be bittersweet because the Holiday Train tour will have concluded by then. It is Ennis’ fourth year performing on the train. “Every show you know you’re getting closer to the end. It’s one of those things that you just want to never end. You don’t take any moment for granted, and you just enjoy it,” she said.
(Reporter Trevor Kupfer contributed to this story.)