Liverpool’s Joe Wood inducted into Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame
Joe Wood of Liverpool has been inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame. (Photo courtesy of Joe Wood)
Joe Wood serves up a little music history every week from a Tim Horton’s in Liverpool.
The veteran of the Canadian country music scene is now part of history himself. He is this year’s inductee in the Stan Klees builder category in the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame.
For the past 35 years, Wood’s RDR Music Group, which he co-founded with his ex-wife Trudy Wood, has been helping independent country artists and others in Canada and elsewhere get their music onto radio stations.
“At this point, we’ve sent over 10,000 songs and albums and videos to radio stations across Canada and the United States.”
Wood’s wife Lauren Tutty is also involved in the music business. Lauren Tutty Promotions tracks the music for artists once it gets to radio.
QCCR spoke to Wood recently on the phone from Toronto, where he was visiting family.
Originally a singer-songwriter in the late 1970s and ’80s, he started out in Toronto pressing vinyl, cassettes and CDs for other artists.
And when things got less physical, he pioneered digital delivery for independent artists. His was the first company in Canada to send music to radio stations over the internet. His office is anywhere he can get a connection.
“Sometimes I’ll go to MacDonald’s or Tim Horton’s or sometimes, I’ll tether my computer to my phone and I’ll go out and sit in Western Head or I’ll go out and sit in Milton and work in the car for an hour especially if it’s a beautiful day. And that’s the wonderful thing about this job. I can work anywhere that there’s internet.”
Wood says music lovers likely wouldn’t have heard of Yangaroo/DMDS, the service he uses to push music to radio, but they’d be familiar with the artists.
“They’ll hear Lennie Gallant, Jimmy Rankin, they’ll hear Valdy, they’ll hear Gord Bamford, they’ll hear Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, all those clients have come through my hands and actually, the majority of those clients came through Liverpool.”
He was among the first to create a compilation CD of independent artists for radio, called Country Pak. And he launched one of the first toll-free services for artists to market their music.
About five years ago, from his home in Liverpool, Wood helped a Garth Brooks song debut at No. 1 on the Billboard country charts.
“So I was part of the team in Canada and there were three others in the United States. … We all got on the phone at the same time. Literally from Mersey Avenue, we counted down the time and it was like 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, click, we all pushed go at the same time, said goodbye to everybody, hung the phone up, and the next day, Garth Brooks debuted at No. 1 on Billboard.”
Wood’s involvement with the Canadian Country Music Association goes back to 1991. He served on its board of directors from 1992-96 and helped establish the CCMA Independent Awards in 1997.
As part of the induction, Wood’s name will be displayed on a wall at the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame at the National Music Centre in Calgary. And he says he’ll likely donate an original copy of that first compilation CD as his piece of memorabilia.
Wood isn’t the first Queens County resident to be named to the hall. He’ll join Brooklyn’s Hank Snow and Port Medway’s Carroll Baker.
He said being honoured by his peers with an award named for his friend, Canadian music pioneer Stan Klees, is pretty special.
“When you work in the sector of the industry I do, the independent sector which is massive now, it just means that they acknowledge it, they understand that that sector, that the people that are the up-and-coming artists have a voice. And for me to be recognized in that area means everything.”
After almost five decades in the music business, the 71-year-old says he’s still passionate about it.
“I love the music. It’s not work. It’s certainly not work. I get to sit down every day and there’s fresh stuff on my laptop that I get to hear. And you get to help people too. That’s the great fun. I help people go to radio. And I make sure people don’t make mistakes, the mistakes I made.”
Wood says someone asked him recently when he plans to retire.
“You know what, I’m getting the kids of the parents I put out many, many years ago, 20 years ago. And now I get to work with them. And they’ll tell me at the end, “Oh, you worked with my Dad or you worked with my Mom.’ And I’ll say, ‘Oh my you tell them I said hi.’
“It’s fun. I think I’m gonna hang in there till I get the grandkids, then I’ll retire.”
Wood will be formally inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame with artist Lisa Brokop in a ceremony during Country Music Week from Sept. 10 to 13 in Kelowna, British Columbia.
Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com
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